Wmh Tool Group, Inc.

Charles A Poremba

Joseph A Sorensen

Howard F Jelinek

Rick De Francesco

Socket wrench with handle-housed drive sockets

A tool-carrying assembly to be secured by a waist-encircling belt, and, additionally, by straps encircling the legs of a workman using the belt assembly. The assembly is thus stabilized, and enhanced weight distribution is achieved. Elements of the belt assembly include a waist-encircling band supporting a pair of laterally spaced, depending panels each carrying tool-accepting pockets. The pockets preferably carry visual markings and coding as well as other indicia identifying clearly the specific tools to be &ldquo;housed&rdquo; or carried in and to be returned to each pocket after use. Inventory control of the tools is thereby significantly enhanced. Pivotal flaps depending from the band-carried panels serve to cover the tools when not in use, and to prevent the tools from scratching or otherwise marring any article, or fixture, or &ldquo;workpiece&rdquo; requiring the workman's attention. The panels and the tools carried thereby are disposed in lateral, spaced zones at the wearer's sides (and not directly in the front of one's body) thus further to reduce any likelihood of the tools coming into damaging physical contact with an article being worked upon. That is, both frontal and rearwardly located zones about the wearer of the tool belt assembly are rendered essentially free and clear of all tools and other mechanical impediments. While wearing the tool assembly of the invention, a worker can, without any discomfort, lie upon and use a &ldquo;creeper&rdquo;. Significantly, a frontal sector of the belt itself is covered with a relatively soft, non-marring protective pad, composition, or surface material effective to prevent possible damage from a workman's belt buckle. An additional feature of the invention is that the panels may be structured to constitute a core sandwiched between a pair of encasing sheet-like webs. The resulting composite is readily formable to provide selectable visual patterns, designs or indicia, for example, to identify product name or sources and/or to constitute decorations.

Belt assembly for storage and inventory of tools

Disclosed is a ratchet wrench having a drive head and a handle, the latter defining an elongate body. The body of the wrench is formed with a series of through cavities which are sized in steps for releasibly holding a series of correspondingly sized sockets. The sockets are retained in place frictionally by means of elastomeric inserts carried by and positioned to project inwardly of exposed annular side walls which define the cavities. Conveniently, the stored sockets may be forcibly expelled from the cavities in either of two opposed axial directions. For ready visual identification, markings are provided on the body of the wrench indicating the specific size of each socket-receiving cavity. The described features of the ratchet wrench also enable one quickly to verify the socket size, and allow socket placement over a fastener without requiring that the socket itself be first removed from the tool handle.

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Bozeman, MT, United States of America

Charles A Poremba