GB2330764A - Safety device for hand tools - Google Patents

Abstract

A safety device for hand tools comprising a cuff for fitting around part of an upper limb of the user provided with a quick release closure means, and a safety strap with one end provided with an engagement means for attaching the strap to the cuff and the other end provided with releasable securing means for releasably securing the strap to the tool. The quick release closure means on the cuff may be press-stud fasteners or hook and loop fasteners. The cuff may comprise one or two D-rings for attachment to the strap. The attachment means for attaching the strap to the tool may be a snap link such as a karabiner or a pull tight clasp means such as a releasable ratchet fastener. The engagement means may have a predetermined breaking strain for emergency release of the strap from the cuff.

Description

TOOL SAVER The present invention relates to safety apparatus for use with hand tools. More particularly the invention relates to safety cuff formed and arranged to prevent inadvertent dropping of hand tools in hazardous environments.

For workers operating in hazardous environments such as offshore drill platforms, or working at height e.g. scaffolding, telephone poles and the like, dropping a hand tool such as a hammer or spanner can be dangerous for people underneath the worker if the falling tool were to strike them and this is of course thoroughly undesirable. Even if the falling tool does not injure any person then the tool may be damaged by striking the ground or lost in the sea/ocean, if dropped from an offshore drill platform. Recovery of the tool can also be time-consuming for the worker recovering the dropped tool. Furthermore, for workers working in an environment with moving machine parts in the immediate vacinity, a dropped tool may damage the machine parts which would have obvious cost and time-loss consequences.

At present many workers utilise a tool belt for holding their tools while working. The tool belts, which generally fasten around the waist may also be provided with a safety strap which can be releasably attached at one end to a tool thus securing the tool to the belt. This arrangement allows a worker to recover a dropped tool attached to the safety strap simply by lifting the safety strap.

This arrangement of a tool belt provided with a safety strap has a number of disadvantages and can, in some working environments, represent an additional danger to a worker wearing tool belt. The length of the safety strap limits the reach of the worker using the hand tool attached to the strap.

If the safety strap were to be made longer to provide greater reach, then when the tool attached to the safety strap is not in use, the safety strap hangs down about the legs of the worker and may become entangled with the worker's legs. This is obviously undesirable and is potentially very dangerous for the worker especially if he/she is working at height or on scaffolding. A further disadvantage and potential danger for a worker wearing the tool belt with fitted a safety strap is where the worker is working in vicinity of moving machine parts, if the tool (or safety strap) is dropped into, or is caught by the moving machine parts, then the worker may be injured by being pulled into the moving machinery.

It is an object of the present invention to obviate or minimise one or more of the foregoing disadvantages.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for use as a safety device with hand held tools, which apparatus comprises: a a cuff for fitting around part of an upper limb of a user, and provided with quick release closure means for securing the cuff to said upper limb, in use of the device, said cuff having engagement means and at least one safety strap having first and second end portions, the first end portion being provided with attachment means for interengagement with said engagement means for attaching the safety strap to the cuff, and, the second end portion being provided with releasable securing means for releasably securing the safety strap to a hand held tool.

The cuff is generally fabricated from a wearable material which is strong and durable enough for manual working conditions. Suitable materials include leather, certain woven fabrics such as canvas and other similar materials.

The cuff is generally substantially rectangular (when viewed flat) in shape with typical dimensions of from 20cm to S0cm in length and from 4cm to 10cm in width although preferable dimensions are from 25cm to 40cm in length and 5cm to 8cm in width. These dimensions may be altered to suit the individual user and according to whether or not the cuff is to be fitted over or under the user's clothing.

The quick releasable closure means of the cuff may be one or more of a hook and loop type fastener such as that available under the Velcro Trade Mark and/or press-stud fasteners.

Preferably the quick releasable closure means extend along opposed surfaces of the cuff in a generally circumferential direction to provide a range of fittings of the cuff.

The quick releasable closure means are intended to allow the cuff to be fitted and/or released quickly by one hand. It may be necessary for the user to remove the cuff quickly i.e. during an emergency, and the user should desirably be able to remove the cuff with only one hand.

The engagement means on the cuff are conveniently in the form of a D-ring or other suitable arrangement and may be attached ) to the cuff by for example stitching, stapling or riveting.

Alternatively, the engagement means may be attached to the cuff indirectly via a tab or loop on the cuff material.

Preferably at least two such engagement means are provided on the cuff.

The attachment means of the safety strap are most conveniently in the form of a snap link means such as a karabiner (alternative spelling carabiner) which may be of the screwgate type for added security, or a quick tightening clasp.

Where snap-link means are used for the attachment means and/or securing means (see below), these desirably include a ring portion or the like at the end remote from the opening end of the snap-link for captively connecting the snap-link to the respective end of the safety strap so that the snap-link cannot be inadvertently disengaged from the safety strap upon opening of snap-link.

The releasable securing means to secure the safety strap to a hand held tool in use of the device, may also comprise a snap link means such as a karabiner or a quick tightening clasp.

The choice and arrangement of securing means will be dependent upon the hand held tool to be attached to the strap. Some tools such as spanners are generally provided with an eyelet at the base of the handle which would allow for convenient attachment to the safety strap using a karabiner or the like.

Other tools, such as hammers generally are not provided with a suitable eyelet and it is convenient to use a quick tightening clasp to secure the hammer to the safety strap. Conveniently the apparatus includes two safety straps, each provided with a respective one of these two-types of securing means, though it will be understood that in use of the apparatus, normally only one safety strap would be connected to the cuff.

The safety strap is preferably at least 20cm and no more than 70cm, in length, more preferably the safety strap is from 30cm to 60cm in length. Most preferably the safety strap is from 45cm to 55cm in length.

The engagement means may have a pre-determined breaking strain, such that when the breaking strain is exceeded the engagement means breaks or deforms. Such a feature, i.e. the pre-determined breaking strain, is advantageously provided as a safety feature to protect users of the cuff. Preferably, the breaking strain is from 2.5kg to 15kg; more preferably it is not more than 10keg, most preferably about 7.5kg.

It will be appreciated that the optimum breaking strain will depend to some extent on the weight of the hand tool, the breaking strains indicated above generally being suitable for a hand tool with a gross weight not exceeding 2.5kg. The choice of breaking strain is also dependent, in part, upon the length of the safety strap to the extent that this would determine a distance which a tool may fall before the falling tool was arrested by the safety strap from falling further.

If the safety strap is too long, then the tool would drop a relatively large distance under the influence of gravity before being arrested. The tool would have acquired a relatively large momentum as a result of this drop and the forces suddenly produced by the deceleration may exceed the breaking strain of the engagement means.

The invention will now be described with reference to the drawings and the following description: Fig. 1 shows a cuff according to the present invention without a safety strap attached; Fig.2 shows a safety strap fitted with karabiner snap links for use with the cuff of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 shows a safety strap fitted with a locking ratchet type quick tightening clasp; Fig. 4 shows a karabiner snaplink; Fig. 5 shows a cuff of the invention with a safety strap and a hand held tool attached thereto via a karabiner snaplink; and Fig. 6 shows a cuff of the present invention in use.

As shown in Fig. 1 the cuff 1 is provided with a number of press stud fasteners 2a,2b and Velcro hook and loop type fastener patches 3a,3b for quick and easy fitting and removal of the cuff, particularly so with one hand. The Velcro patches 3a,3b facilitate initial engagement of the cuff around a user's arm or wrist (see Fig. 6) and then the stud fasteners 2a,2b are pressed closed further to secure the cuff. The stud fasteners 2a,2b are arranged along the long edges la of the cuff 1 to provide for convenient fastening. Engagement means in the form of D-rings 4 are provided at attachment points 5 on the cuff 1. In a simplified modification the Velcro patches 3a,3b or the stud fasteners 2a,2b could be used by themselves.

A safety strap 6 (Fig. 2) is provided at a first end 6a with a releasable attachment means 7 such as a karabiner snap-link 8a (see Fig. 4) for attachment of the safety strap 6 to the cuff 1 by interengagement with the D-ring 4 at the attachment point 5. At a second end 6b of the safety strap 6 there is provided a releasable securing means in the form of another karabiner snap-link 8b or a quick releasable locking ratchet clasp 9 (see Fig. 3) Fig. 5 shows a cuff 1 of the present invention wherein the Dring 4 is secured to the cuff 1 by a strip of material 10 sewn onto the cuff 1 and looped through the D-ring 4. As shown in figs. 5 and 6 a tool such as a spanner 11 is secured to the strap 6 by means of the karabiner 8b.

In use of the present invention, the D-ring 4 provides a safety feature in that the D-ring 4 has a predetermined breaking strain such that it forms a relatively weak link.

This breaking strain is such that a person wearing the cuff 1 could, if need arises, pull on the safety strap 6 with a force sufficient to snap or, in the case of a D-link formed with two opposed ends in close proximity to each other, pull open the D-ring 4 which would detach or allow detachment of the safety strap 6 from the cuff l. Thus, for example, with a 7.5kg breaking strain, if a user exerted, a force in excess of 7.5kg on the strap 6 attached to the cuff 1, this would detach the safety strap 6 from the cuff 1.

A further safety feature of this present invention is the provision of the quick releasable fastenings such as the stud features 2a,2b and the Velcro patches 3a,3b. The quick releasable fastenings allow a user to remove the cuff 1 very quickly from his/her wrist or forearm 12 (see fig. 6) if the need arises using only one hand.

As can be seen from Figs. 5 and 6, the cuff 1 is provided with two attachment points S for D-rings 4. Desirably a cuff of the invention would be provided with one snap-link type securing means and one pull-tight type (e.g. ratchet or friction grip buckle type) securing means though in practice normally only one of these would be attached to the cuff and used at any given moment. Accordingly as illustrated in Fig.

1, only one D-ring need be provided.

It is intended that the scope of the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments herein, but that the scope of the invention extends to variations and different embodiments apparent to a person skilled in the relevant art.

Claims (10)

1. CLAINS 1. An apparatus for use as a safety device with hand held tools, which apparatus comprises: a cuff for fitting around part of an upper limb of a user, and provided with quick release closure means for securing the cuff to said upper limb, in use of the device, said cuff having engagement means and at least one safety strap having first and second end portions, the first end portion being provided with attachment means for interengagement with said engagement means for attaching the safety strap to the cuff, and, the second end portion being provided with releasable securing means for releasably securing the safety strap to a hand held tool.
2. 2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said quick release closure means comprises at least one of press-stud fasteners and hook and loop fastener means.
3. 3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein said engagement means comprises a D-ring.
4. 4. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein two said engagement means are provided.
5. 5. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein said attachment means is in the form of a snap link means.
6. 6. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 wherein said securing means is in the form of a snap link means.
7. 7. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 wherein said securing means is in the form of a pull tight clasp means.
8. 8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 7 wherein said pull tight clasp means is a releasable ratchet fastener.
9. 9. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8 wherein said engagement means is formed and arranged to have a predetermined breaking strain for forced opening up thereof by pulling thereon by the user for emergency release of the strap from the cuff in use of the apparatus.
10. 10. An apparatus for use as a safety device with hand held tools, which apparatus is substantially as described hereinbefore with particular reference to Figs 1 to 4, or Figs 5 and 6 of the accompanying drawings.