Filing Information

Inventor(s)	Peter L. Bakos ·
Assignee(s)	Okabe Co., Ltd. ·  View assignee updates
Attorney/Agent(s)	Mayer Brown LLP ·
Primary Examiner	Katherine Mitchell ·
Application Number	US10794750
Filing date	03/05/2004
Issue date	11/06/2007
Prior Publication Data	US20050196251 - 09/08/2005
Predicted expiration date	03/05/2024
U.S. Classifications	411/304  · 411/970  · 411/999  · 411/352  · 411/174  · 411/383  · 411/353  ·
International Classifications	F16B1900  · F16B2118  · F16B3504  · F16B3934  ·
Kind Code	B2

Patent Family

Abstract

A shippable in-assembly bolt having a head portion, a threaded portion containing threads and a gripper portion, wherein the gripper portion preferably comprises a grooved structure and an o-ring. The o-ring is intended to sit between the inner wall of a clearance hole in an assembly/subassembly and the grooved structure of the gripper portion. When the o-ring is in position between the inner wall of the clearance hole and the grooved structure of the gripper portion, the o-ring is in both compression and tension and acts to retain the bolt in the assembly during shipping operations. The invention can be used with any type of mechanical fastener, such as bolts, screws, pins, rivets, etc.

Independent Claims | See all claims (19)

1. 1. An in-assembly fastener for insertion into a clearance hole in a part with which said fastener is to be shipped, said fastener comprising: a head section located at a first end of said fastener; a first threaded section of preselected diameter formed on said first end of said fastener; a second threaded section of preselected diameter formed on a second end of said fastener; a gripper section, located between first and second threaded sections, said gripper section having a preselected outer diameter less than the diameter of said threaded sections and having a preselected axial length; wherein said gripper section further comprises an irregular surface, said irregular surface structure having a helical groove structure that contains crest portions that are shallower than crest portions of said threaded sections; and an o-ring frictionally mounted on said gripper section, said o-ring having an outer diameter sized for insertion into a clearance hole with a diameter smaller than the outer diameter, wherein said o-ring outer diameter of said o-ring is selected to cause physical distortion of said o-ring in an axial direction along the length of said gripper section when said fastener is moved axially with respect to the clearance hole.
2. 9. An assembly comprising: at least one clearance hole used to connect said assembly to a mating assembly; a fastener partially located within said clearance hole, said fastener comprising: a head section located at a first end of said fastener; a first threaded section of preselected diameter formed on said first end of said fastener; a second threaded section of preselected diameter formed on a second end of said fastener; a gripper section located between first and second threaded sections, said gripper section having a preselected outer diameter less than the diameter of said threaded sections and having a preselected axial length; and an o-ring mounted on said gripper section, said o-ring having an outer diameter larger than the diameter of said clearance hole, wherein the Outer diameter of said o-ring is selected to cause physical distortion of said o-ring in an axial direction along the length of said gripper section when said fastener is moved axially with respect to said clearance hole; wherein said o-ring sits between said gripper section and an internal wall of said clearance hole and wherein said o-ring is in compression and tension.