Tube expander
AssigneeJ & S Hydraulics Inc.
InventorsJerome R. Lowe, Frank P. Russo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A tube expander for expanding or flaring the ends of automobile exhaust pipes and the like includes a segmented expander die having an arbor slidably received within the expander die segments for expanding the die upon movement of the arbor in a first predetermined direction. A manually operated device initially moves the die relative to the arbor to establish the amount of expansion to be permitted in the die and a separate independent hydraulic mechanism is then operated to move the arbor in the first direction in order to flare the end of a tube placed on the die to increase its diameter by a predetermined dimension. The compact structure provided enables the tool to be manually operated to flare tubes in situ on an automobile.
Claims6
A tube expander comprising a segmented expander, an arbor slidably received in said expander for expanding the expander upon movement of the arbor in a first predetermined direction, first means for moving said segmented expander relative to the arbor to establish the amount of expansion of the expander to be permitted, and second means, independent of said first means, for moving said arbor in said first direction to flare a tube end inserted on said segmented expander;
- said first means comprising a housing having a threaded outer surface and a collar threadedly engaged with said housing and having an outer end engaged with said segmented expander, said arbor being slidably mounted in said housing and extending through said collar;
- said collar having an inner end including a radially extending flange;
- at least one marked rod slidably receiving said flange to permit rotation of said flange relative to the rod while moving the rod axially therewith;
- said rod extending parallel to said arbor and adjacent to a predetermined marker on the housing;
- said rod having indicia thereon for providing a visual indication of the amount of expansion of the arbor at a given position of the collar on the housing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.