Spring Anvil Assembly for Portable Impacting Apparatus
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing impacting apparatuses are complex, expensive, and unreliable, often requiring fuel cells or air compressors, leading to safety hazards, high reaction forces, and inefficiencies, with prior solutions like mechanical springs suffering from fatigue and air spring designs posing safety risks due to predisposed anvil position.
Innovation Solution
A portable impacting apparatus powered by rechargeable batteries using a motor-actuated spring anvil assembly, which can include mechanical or gas springs, with a drive mechanism that efficiently stores and releases energy through a piston and pusher plate, reducing reactionary force and size, and incorporating a sensor and control circuit for jam detection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If fuel cells are used for portable impacting operation, then portability is achieved, but device complexity and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the complex fuel cell system, batteries, and spark ignition mechanism from the impacting device. Instead, it uses a simple spring-loaded striker that is manually cocked and released, removing all electrical and combustion components while maintaining portability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the electrical/mechanical complex system (fuel cells, batteries, spark ignition) with a purely mechanical spring-based system. The spring stores potential energy when cocked and converts it to kinetic energy during impact, eliminating the need for electrical components.
2Ease of operation
If mechanical springs are used for energy storage, then portability is improved, but spring fatigue reduces tool life
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a spring that is dynamically loaded only during the cocking and impact cycle, then fully unloaded and reset. This dynamic operation allows the spring to return to its original state each cycle, significantly reducing cumulative fatigue compared to continuously loaded spring systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The spring undergoes periodic loading and unloading cycles rather than continuous operation. The user manually cocks the spring, it stores energy, releases during impact, then returns to ready position. This periodic action with complete reset phases extends spring life by preventing continuous stress accumulation.
3Speed
If air spring with ratcheting mechanism is used, then impacting speed increases, but weight and reactionary force increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the heavy ratcheting mechanism and air spring system entirely. Instead, it uses a simple spring-loaded striker with no complex drive train, eliminating the weight penalty while maintaining effective impacting speed through direct spring energy transfer.
Solution Approach 2:
Rather than using a heavy mechanism to accelerate the striker and then stopping it (which creates reactionary force), the patent inverts the approach: the spring is cocked during the return stroke and releases during the forward impact stroke. The user's pulling motion on the trigger cockes the spring, and the spring's forward motion delivers impact without requiring a separate stopping mechanism, thus eliminating reactionary force from stopping heavy moving parts.
4Productivity
If pneumatic system with air compressor is used, then impacting efficiency is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the air compressor, air tank, and pneumatic delivery system. Instead, it uses a manually cocked spring that directly stores and releases mechanical energy, achieving impacting efficiency without any pneumatic components or external power sources.
Solution Approach 2:
The spring-based system is self-contained and self-powered. The user's manual cocking action loads the spring, which then autonomously delivers the impact. The system requires no external air compressor, fuel source, or electrical power, making it self-sufficient while maintaining impacting efficiency through direct energy transfer.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The apparatus achieves a simple, cost-effective, and safe design with improved efficiency and reduced wear, mimicking pneumatic performance without the need for air compressors, while enhancing tool safety and reducing energy losses through heat minimization.
Implementation Method 1
a spring anvil assembly, which can include either a mechanical spring or a gas spring that is coupled to a piston
Implementation Method 2
a gas spring that is coupled to a piston
Data Source
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AI summary
An impacting apparatus includes a spring anvil assembly and a drive mechanism that altematively engages a the spring anvil assembly to actuate the spring anvil assembly to store potential energy in the spring anvil assembly, and which drive mechanism alternatively disengages the spring anvil assembly to allow the spring anvil assembly to launch and accelerate toward an impact target to deliver impact energy from the spring anvil assembly to the impact target. In an embodiment, the spring anvil assembly is biased to a start position by one of the impact target and the weight of the apparatus. The spring anvil assembly may comprise a gas spring or a spring, for example. The apparatus is capable of delivering multiple impacts to an impact target.