# US 12,759,060 B2 · Drilling tool > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 12,759,060 B2 - Document ID: US12759060B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 17/619,814 - Filed: 2020-06-15 - Published: 2022-11-03 - Granted: 2026-10-13 - Earliest claimed: 2019-06-17 - Assignees: Advanced Electrical Tools - Applicants: Advanced Electrical Tools - Inventors: Sylvain Guerin - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12759060B2 ## CPC - B23B 49/023: {Bushings and their connection to the template} - B23B 2215/04: Aircraft components - Y10T 408/56245: including tool-guide [or bushing] - B23B: TURNING; BORING (arrangements for copying or controlling B23Q) - Y10T: TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER US CLASSIFICATION ## Abstract Disclosed is a drilling tool intended to cooperate with a tooling including at least one guide orifice, including: a hollow nose part, through which a drilling member is intended to pass; and a gripping clamp, slidingly mounted on the hollow nose part, the sliding of the gripping clamp rearward along the hollow nose part leading to its radial expansion towards the outside. The distal end of the gripping clamp includes a bead protruding radially towards the outside, configured to ensure the stopping in translation of the drilling tool with respect to the tooling, by bearing against a wall of the tooling surrounding the guide orifice, when the gripping clamp is expanded radially towards the outside. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A drilling tool configured to cooperate with a tooling including a guide orifice extending between a first wall of the tooling and a second wall of the tooling, the second wall being closer to a part to be drilled than the first wall, the drilling tool comprising: a hollow nose part having an outer guide surface, the hollow nose part being configured to allow a drill bit to pass therethrough in a drilling direction from the first wall to the second wall of the tooling; and a clamp including an elastic front part slidingly mounted on the outer guide surface of the hollow nose part via an inner guide surface, the elastic front part having a first end and an opposing second end, said elastic front part being rigidly connected to a rear movement part, a mechanism being connected to the rear movement part in order to move the clamp rearward along the hollow nose part in such a way that the elastic front part is expanded radially outward in an elastic manner, wherein the first end of the elastic front part comprises an outside bead protruding radially outward, configured to prevent translation of the drilling tool with respect to the tooling by bearing against the second wall of the tooling surrounding said guide orifice, wherein the clamp is configured to move, relative to the hollow nose part, from a retracted position to a deployed position, wherein the clamp is configured to be inserted through the guide orifice in the retracted position, wherein, in the deployed position, the elastic front part, including the outside bead protruding radially outward, is expanded radially, and the outside bead is configured such that, in the deployed position, the outside bead is expanded radially such that an outer extent of the bead is larger than said guide orifice, thereby allowing the outside bead to bear against the second wall of the tooling surrounding the guide orifice, preventing the sliding of the clamp and of the drilling tool with respect to the guide orifice in a direction opposite to the drilling direction, wherein during movement of the clamp rearward, in the direction opposite to the drilling direction, along the hollow nose part on a first section of length of the outer guide surface of the hollow nose part, the outer guide surface of the hollow nose part is configured so as to cause the clamp to transition from the retracted position of the clamp to the deployed position of the clamp, wherein the outer guide surface of the hollow nose part further comprises a second section of length, adjacent to the first section of length, configured to maintain the clamp in the deployed position, without increasing the diameter of the elastic front part by radial expansion, in such a way as to allow forward, in the drilling direction, movement of the hollow nose part towards a surface of the part to be drilled, wherein the hollow nose part includes an end surface, which is configured to bear against the surface of the part to be drilled in order to exert a desired stress, the outer guide surface of the hollow nose part including: a first guide surface extending from the end surface of the hollow nose part to an intermediate surface, a second guide surface, rearward, in the direction opposite to the drilling direction, of said first guide surface, the second guide surface defining the second section of length, and the intermediate surface having a flared shape connecting the first guide surface to the second guide surface, the intermediate surface defining said first section of length, wherein the elastic front part of the clamp comprises an inner bead protruding radially inward comprising said inner guide surface bearing against the outer guide surface of the hollow nose part, wherein the outer guide surface of the hollow nose part is configured so that: the retracted position of the clamp corresponds to the position of the clamp with respect to the hollow nose part in which the inner guide surface is in contact with the first guide surface of the outer guide surface of the hollow nose part, and a passage from the retracted position to the deployed position of the clamp corresponds to a position of the clamp with respect to the hollow nose part in which the inner guide surface slides on the first section of length of the intermediate surface, said inner guide surface cooperating with the second guide surface in such a way as to guarantee the maintaining in the deployed position of the clamp, without increasing the diameter of the elastic front part by radial expansion, to allow forward movement of the hollow nose part towards the surface of the part to be drilled to compensate for a relative movement between the guide orifice of the tooling and the surface of the part to be drilled during the drilling, and to compensate for deformation of the surface of the part to be drilled, and thus allow control of the stress exerted by the hollow nose part on the surface of the part to be drilled. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The drilling tool according to claim 1, wherein: the first guide surface is cylindrical, having a first diameter, the second guide surface is cylindrical having a second diameter greater than the first diameter, the intermediate surface is conical. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The drilling tool according to claim 2, wherein the inner guide surface of the elastic front part includes a cylindrical wall configured to bear against said first guide surface in the retracted position of the clamp and against said second guide surface in the deployed position of the clamp. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The drilling tool according to claim 3, wherein the inner guide surface includes a conical wall rearward, in the direction opposite to the drilling direction, of said cylindrical wall, the conical wall having a conicity substantially equal to the conicity of the intermediate surface of the hollow nose part. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The drilling tool according to claim 1, wherein the mechanism includes a first articulation part and a second articulation part, each of the first articulation part and the second articulation part being pivotably articulated onto said rear movement part according to two articulation axes respectively positioned on either side of a longitudinal axis of the clamp, the two articulation axes of the first articulation part being parallel and symmetrical to the two articulation axes of the second articulation part with respect to said longitudinal axis of the clamp, wherein each articulation axis is defined by a bearing configured to slide, in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the clamp, in a respective housing having a shape corresponding to an opening in the rear movement part, wherein each of said first and second articulation parts is pivotably articulated with respect to a fixed plate according to a respective pivoting axis, perpendicular to said longitudinal axis of the clamp, the respective pivoting axes of each of the articulation parts being disposed symmetrically to each other with respect to the longitudinal axis of the clamp, and parallel to said articulation axes of the first and second articulation parts for articulation about the rear movement part, the pivoting axis of each of the first and second articulation parts being farther from the longitudinal axis of the clamp than the articulation axes, and wherein said first and second articulation parts are connected to an actuator configured to drive simultaneous rotational pivoting of each of the first and second articulation parts with respect to the fixed plate about each of their respective pivoting axes in opposite directions, to drive the rotation of each of said articulation parts with respect to the rear movement part of the clamp about their respective articulation axes and the sliding of each of the bearings in their respective housing, generating a sliding of the clamp with respect to the hollow nose part along the longitudinal axis of the clamp. ### Claim 6 (depends on 2) The drilling tool according to claim 2, wherein the mechanism includes a first articulation part and a second articulation part, each of the first articulation part and the second articulation part being pivotably articulated onto said rear movement part according to two articulation axes respectively positioned on either side of a longitudinal axis of the clamp, the two articulation axes of the first articulation part being parallel and symmetrical to the two articulation axes of the second articulation part with respect to said longitudinal axis of the clamp, wherein each articulation axis is defined by a bearing configured to slide, in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the clamp, in a respective housing having a shape corresponding to an opening in the rear movement part, wherein each of said first and second articulation parts is pivotably articulated with respect to a fixed plate according to a respective pivoting axis, perpendicular to said longitudinal axis of the clamp, the respective pivoting axes of each of the articulation parts being disposed symmetrically to each other with respect to the longitudinal axis of the clamp, and parallel to said articulation axes of the first and second articulation parts for articulation about the rear movement part, the pivoting axis of each of the first and second articulation parts being farther from the longitudinal axis of the clamp than the articulation axes, and wherein said first and second articulation parts are connected to an actuator configured to drive simultaneous rotational pivoting of each of the first and second articulation parts with respect to the fixed plate about each of their respective pivoting axes in opposite directions, to drive the rotation of each of said articulation parts with respect to the rear movement part of the clamp about their respective articulation axes and the sliding of each of the bearings in their respective housing, generating a sliding of the clamp with respect to the hollow nose part along the longitudinal axis of the clamp. ### Claim 7 (depends on 3) The drilling tool according to claim 3, wherein the mechanism includes a first articulation part and a second articulation part, each of the first articulation part and the second articulation part being pivotably articulated onto said rear movement part according to two articulation axes respectively positioned on either side of a longitudinal axis of the clamp, the two articulation axes of the first articulation part being parallel and symmetrical to the two articulation axes of the second articulation part with respect to said longitudinal axis of the clamp, wherein each articulation axis is defined by a bearing configured to slide, in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the clamp, in a respective housing having a shape corresponding to an opening in the rear movement part, wherein each of said first and second articulation parts is pivotably articulated with respect to a fixed plate according to a respective pivoting axis, perpendicular to said longitudinal axis of the clamp, the respective pivoting axes of each of the articulation parts being disposed symmetrically to each other with respect to the longitudinal axis of the clamp, and parallel to said articulation axes of the first and second articulation parts for articulation about the rear movement part, the pivoting axis of each of the first and second articulation parts being farther from the longitudinal axis of the clamp than the articulation axes, and wherein said first and second articulation parts are connected to an actuator configured to drive simultaneous rotational pivoting of each of the first and second articulation parts with respect to the fixed plate about each of their respective pivoting axes in opposite directions, to drive the rotation of each of said articulation parts with respect to the rear movement part of the clamp about their respective articulation axes and the sliding of each of the bearings in their respective housing, generating a sliding of the clamp with respect to the hollow nose part along the longitudinal axis of the clamp. ### Claim 8 (depends on 4) The drilling tool according to claim 4, wherein the mechanism includes a first articulation part and a second articulation part, each of the first articulation part and the second articulation part being pivotably articulated onto said rear movement part according to two articulation axes respectively positioned on either side of a longitudinal axis of the clamp, the two articulation axes of the first articulation part being parallel and symmetrical to the two articulation axes of the second articulation part with respect to said longitudinal axis of the clamp, wherein each articulation axis is defined by a bearing configured to slide, in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the clamp, in a respective housing having a shape corresponding to an opening in the rear movement part, wherein each of said first and second articulation parts is pivotably articulated with respect to a fixed plate according to a respective pivoting axis, perpendicular to said longitudinal axis of the clamp, the respective pivoting axes of each of the articulation parts being disposed symmetrically to each other with respect to the longitudinal axis of the clamp, and parallel to said articulation axes of the first and second articulation parts for articulation about the rear movement part, the pivoting axis of each of the first and second articulation parts being farther from the longitudinal axis of the clamp than the articulation axes, and wherein said first and second articulation parts are connected to an actuator configured to drive simultaneous rotational pivoting of each of the first and second articulation parts with respect to the fixed plate about each of their respective pivoting axes in opposite directions, to drive the rotation of each of said articulation parts with respect to the rear movement part of the clamp about their respective articulation axes and the sliding of each of the bearings in their respective housing, generating a sliding of the clamp with respect to the hollow nose part along the longitudinal axis of the clamp.