Snap-on Technologies, Inc.

Snap-on Tools Company

Dennis A Nowak, Jr

Joshua M Beer

James R Brehm

Thomas P Becker

Gordon A Putney

John A Pierman

John E Fuhreck

Robert L Hartman

Jose R Bachman

A housing for a pneumatic tool includes a head portion, a middle portion, and a handle portion. A sleeve is disposed over the middle portion of a pneumatic tool with a rear portion of the sleeve spaced from the outer surface of the housing. A grip made of pliant material, preferably rubber or a synthetic rubber compound encloses the handle portion. The grip includes a front lip, and a rear flange. Once fully inserted on the handle, the sleeve and the external surface of the housing cooperate to retain the front lip therebetween, preventing the front lip from peeling off the handle portion. An adaptor engages an air inlet at a distal end of the handle portion. The adaptor can include a washer engageable with the air inlet for limiting the depth of insertion of the adaptor in the air inlet and for inhibiting rearward movement of the grip.

Elongated pneumatic tool with replaceable soft grip

A pneumatic tool has a housing with an external surface and defining a plurality of cavities therein to hold components of the pneumatic tool. The housing defines a motor cavity wherein a pneumatic motor is disposed. Two spaced-apart vents extend from the motor cavity to the external surface of the housing, and a muffler is mounted adjacent to one vent. A tubular sleeve, which includes a radially extended discharge portion from which exhaust may escape, is mounted on the external surface of the housing and cooperates with it to define an annular exhaust passageway. The sleeve is rotatable between muffled and unmuffled positions wherein the discharge portion is respectively adjacent to the one vent or the other.

Pneumatic tool with muffler bypass mechanism

Air ratchet

A power tool is provided which includes a motor assembly having a rotatable motor shaft mechanism, and a motor control coupled to the motor assembly and operable between a normal off condition de-energizing the motor and an on condition energizing the motor. The tool includes a rotatable tool shaft mechanism, and a clutch shiftable between a normal disengaged condition decoupling the motor shaft mechanism from the tool shaft mechanism and an engaged condition coupling the motor shaft mechanism to the tool shaft mechanism. A trigger member is engageable with both the motor control and the clutch and is moveable between a first position, wherein the motor control is in its off condition and the clutch is in its disengaged condition, and a second position holding the motor control in its on condition and the clutch in its engaged condition for driving the tool shaft mechanism. The trigger member is designed to prevent premature energization of the motor assembly.

Trigger and clutch arrangement for power tools

A reversible ratcheting electric power tool has a reversible DC electric motor having an output coupled to drive a drive shaft through a reversible ratchet assembly. The tool housing has a reversing mechanism which includes a manually operable reversing cap rotatable about the axis of the drive shaft for controlling the ratcheting direction of the ratchet assembly, the cap having a pair of projections which respectively engage the actuator buttons of two direction control microswitches coupled through an on-off switch to a battery. When the ratchet assembly is in a neutral or non-ratcheting condition, both microswitches are in a normal deactuated condition connecting both of the motor terminals to the battery negative terminal. When the selector cap shifts the ratchet assembly to a forward ratcheting condition, one microswitch is actuated to connect one of the motor terminals to the battery positive terminal, and when the selector is moved to a reverse ratcheting direction, it actuates the other microswitch to connect the other motor terminal to the battery positive terminal.

Reversible ratcheting power tool with synchronized motor and ratchet control

A battery-powered driver tool has a tool housing with a socket-type coupler which receives a plug-type coupler of a battery pack in any of four different rotational orientations. Four keys on the battery pack are received in four keyways on the tool housing for non-rotatable engagement, the parts being retained by a split snap ring on the battery pack which cams past four cam shoulders on the tool housing, so that the parts automatically snap-engage and disengage in response to a simple push-pull motion. The battery pack includes a plurality of battery cells connected in series between positive and negative terminals which are designed to respectively engage positive and negative terminals on the tool housing in any of the four rotational orientations of the battery pack. The battery pack has a flat base surface, the parts being designed so that the tool/battery pack combination can be stood on the base surface in one rotational orientation of the battery pack.

Growing community of inventors

Greendale, WI, United States of America

Dennis A Nowak, Jr