US 2018/0119726 A1Published application

Drive shaft in a handheld work apparatus

AssigneeAndreas Stihl AG & Co. KG

InventorsWolfgang Weissert, Jan Foehrenbach, Andreas Wolf, Christian Bareiss, Andreas Rieger, Simone Pelludat

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Abstract

A telescopic drive shaft in a protective tube of a handheld work apparatus has one end connected to a rotational drive and the other end thereof to a driven tool. The drive shaft includes a rigid shaft segment and a connecting section. The rigid shaft segment has a hollow shaft end portion and an engagement length (E) of the connecting section engages therein. The engagement length (E) and the length of the hollow shaft end portion mutually overlap to form a joining section. The hollow shaft end portion is deformed for connecting the connecting section to the rigid shaft segment. The material of the hollow shaft end portion is compressed over its entire periphery and deformed so that the material of the hollow shaft end portion is radially displaced and is pressed in a rotative manner onto the engagement length (E) to produce a balanced, loadable connection.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A drive shaft in a protective tube of a portable handheld work apparatus wherein a rotational drive is connected to a first end of the drive shaft and a work tool is connected to a second end of the drive shaft so as to be driven thereby, the drive shaft comprising:

at least one rigid shaft segment and at least one connecting section for transmitting torque;
said rigid shaft segment being configured to have at least one hollow shaft end portion;
said connecting section defining an engagement length (E) engaging into said hollow shaft end portion over a length thereof so as to cause said engagement length (E) and said length of said hollow shaft end portion to mutually overlap to conjointly define a joining section;
said joining section being configured by said hollow shaft end portion being deformed;
and,
said hollow shaft end portion being made of a material which is compressed over the entire periphery thereof so as to cause said material to be radially displaced and pressed onto said engagement length (E) to form a rotative connection between said hollow shaft end portion and said engagement length (E).

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.