Locking chuck

A chuck for use with a driver having a housing and a rotatable drive shaft extending therefrom, the chuck comprising:

• a generally cylindrical body member having a nose section with an axial bore formed therein, a plurality of angularly disposed passageways formed therethrough intersecting the axial bore;
• a plurality of jaws, each jaw being slidably positioned in a respective one of the angularly disposed passageways and having a jaw face and threads formed thereon;
• a nut rotatably mounted adjacent to the body in engagement with the threads on the jaws so that rotation of the nut moves the jaws axially within the passageways;
• a generally cylindrical rear sleeve member having a nose and a tail section, the tail section rotationally locked to the body member and axially reciprocal between a first position in which the rear sleeve is rotationally locked to the housing and a second position in which the rear sleeve is rotatable with respect to the housing;
• a locking ring mounted to the rear sleeve and selectively engagable to the body member to axially retain the rear sleeve in the first position and the second position
• a spindle ring having a threaded axial bore to receive the drive shaft and a first end and a second end wherein
• the first end has teeth which interlock with mating teeth on the nut and may disengage to allow the spindle ring to rotate freely with respect to the nut,
• the second end has teeth which interlock with mating teeth on the rear sleeve rotationally locking the rear sleeve to the spindle ring;
• and
• a clutch spring operatively located on the spindle ring and biasing the nut and spindle ring together so that when the nut disengages from the spindle ring moving the body in the axial direction, the clutch spring returns the nut and body to their original axial position.

A tool driver, said driver comprising:

• a housing;
• a rotatable drive shaft;
• a chuck including
• a generally cylindrical body member having a nose section with an axial bore formed therein and a plurality of angularly disposed passageways formed therethrough and intersecting the axial bore,
• a plurality of jaws, each jaw being slidably positioned in a respective one of the angularly disposed passageways and having a jaw face and threads formed thereon,
• a nut in operative communication with the drive shaft so that the drive shaft rotationally drives the nut, the nut engaging the threads on the jaws so that rotation of the nut with respect to the body axially moves the jaws within the passageways;
• and
• a locking mechanism mounted to at least one of the housing and the body member and selectively actuatable to
• a first operative position in which the locking mechanism rotationally locks the housing and the body member with respect to each other, and
• a second operative position in which the locking mechanism permits relative rotation between the body member and the housing.