Wrenches of many types have been devised for turning a fastener such as a nut or bolt. One common type of wrench is an open ended wrench having a fixed jaw and an adjustable jaw, sometime referred to as a crescent wrench. To use such a wrench, the jaws are placed around the head of a nut or bolt, the jaws are adjusted to fit as tightly as possible around the nut or bolt and the wrench is then used to turn the nut or bolt by moving the handle, which will turn the jaws and thereby the fastener itself. Normally circumstances dictate that the wrench cannot merely be turned 360.degree. but must be removed from the fastener and repositioned so that several smaller arcs are utilized to achieve the number of revolutions necessary to loosen or tighten the fastener. This requires that, for each of the tightening arcs of the wrench, the jaws must be removed from the nut or bolt and then repositioned for the next stroke thereof. Besides the time-consuming problems associated with this motion, the jaws can become loose to the point where they do not sufficiently grasp the nut or bolt and consequently require frequent tightening during the process of turning a fastener. An advantage, however, of such a wrench is that it can be used in a universal fashion to loosen or tighten nuts or bolts of many sizes through a certain range depending upon the size of the wrench.
Another type of wrench useful for threaded fasteners, such as nuts or bolts, is a socket wrench of a ratchet type. These wrenches work quickly and easily because they can be set to turn a fastener in one direction and, without removing the socket from the fastener, the handle can be moved back to take a new bite without removing the socket from the fastener. These ratchet-type socket wrenches are also reversible. A major disadvantage of ratchet-type socket wrench is that it is not very adjustable, but instead the user needs to have a socket for each size of nut or bolt. Furthermore, there are places where a crescent wrench will fit that a socket wrench will not.
Consequently, there is need for a more universal wrench which will have the advantages of the aforementioned wrenches but not the disadvantages.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds