Tube cutter

A tube cutter for cutting a circular cylindrical tube about a given axis comprising:

• a housing wherein the given axis is in a fixed position relative to the housing;
• first and second jaws defining a tube receiving axis, said jaws including means for supporting and cutting a received tube, said jaws each being slidably secured to the housing for displacing toward and away from each other and from said given axis;
• and
• centering means coupled to said jaws for simultaneously moving and centering said jaws in a first translation mode for positioning said tube receiving axis substantially coaxial with the given axis.

A tube cutter for cutting a circular cylindrical tube comprising:

• a housing;
• first and second jaws including means for supporting and cutting a received tube, at least one of said jaws being axially slidably secured to the housing for displacing toward and away from the other jaw;
• jaw displacement means coupled to said housing and the at least one jaw for axially displacing the at least one jaw with negligible axial load until the jaws engage the received tube in an initial tube cutting position;
• and
• load inducement means coupled to the housing and jaw displacement means for providing a resilient tube cutting load on said jaws upon the engagement of the jaws with the tube in the initial cutting position.

A tube cutter for cutting a circular cylindrical tube comprising:

• handle means;
• reversible power operated drive means secured to the handle means for selectively driving a shaft in opposite directions;
• and
• tube cutter means secured to the handle means for receiving a tube to be cut and coupled to the shaft for rotatably cutting said received tube in response to rotation of the shaft, said drive means including one way clutch means coupled to the shaft and cutter means for driving said cutter means in only one of said opposite directions and permitting the cutter means to freely rotate in the other of said opposite directions with negligible resistance.

A tube cutter having manual and power operated modes wherein in the manual mode the cutter is manually rotated about a tube to be cut and in the power mode the cutter is attached to cutter drive means for rotating the cutter about the tube to be cut, the cutter comprising:

• a housing;
• a pair of jaws coupled to the housing, at least one of the jaws being movable relative to the other jaw for supporting and cutting a tube therebetween;
• adjustment means for causing the at least one jaw to resiliently approach the other jaw in a tube cutting mode;
• and
• means secured to the housing adapted to be coupled to and driven by the drive means.

A tube cutter comprising:

• a housing;
• a pair of tube supporting and cutting jaws secured to the housing for cutting a tube supported thereby, at least one of the jaws being movable relative to the other jaw;
• adjustment means for causing the at least one jaw to resiliently approach the other jaw in a tube cutting mode;
• drive means for rotating the housing, jaws and adjustment means about a first axis;
• and
• socket means coupled to the drive means for releasably receiving a tool, said drive means for rotating the socket means about a second axis spaced from the first axis.

A tube cutter comprising:

• a handle;
• a power operated drive assembly including a cutter drive secured to a first housing fixed to the handle;
• a second housing selectively secured to the first housing to permit the drive and the first housing to be rotated relative to the second housing in one mode and to fix the first housing to the second housing in a second mode;
• and.
• cutter unit means for cutting a tube in response to relative rotation of the cutter unit means to the tube, said cutter unit means being coupled to the cutter drive for rotation relative to the housings in response to power applied to the drive in the second mode and for rotation relative to the housings in the one mode by manual rotation of the handle and first housing relative the second housing.