Spring loaded bushed wedgelock

Abstract

The wedgelock of the present invention prevents the separation of structural members during drilling or other fabrication operations on structural assemblies with curved surfaces or thickness variations and precludes the formation of burrs and delaminations which might result from such separation. The wedgelock also permits more precise and repeatable hole and other feature fabrication by more precisely locating an alignment fixture, such as a drill plate, relative to a structural assembly upon which fabrication operations are to be performed. The bushed spring loaded wedgelock comprises a standard, commercially-available wedgelock modified by attaching a bushing within which a spring loaded spacer is telescopically mounted. Like a standard wedgelock, the bushed spring loaded wedgelock is inserted through collinear holes in a drill plate or other alignment fixture and a structural assembly to clamp the assembly to the fixture. Even when used with a structural assembly with curved surfaces or thickness variations, the bushed spring loaded wedgelock clamps structural members together by forcing a spring loaded spacer against the front surface of the structural assembly while the shoulders of the wedgelock arms engage the rear surface of the structural assembly. A variety of wedgelock sizes and designs can be constructed to accommodate a range of alignment fixture, tooling hole and structural assembly geometries.