Power tool

#The invention described and claimed hereinbelow is also described in DE 10 2004 037899.1, filed Aug. 5, 2004. This German Patent Application, whose subject matter is incorporated here by reference, provides the basis for a claim of priority of invention under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d).

#The present invention relates to a power tool.

#From German Patent Disclosure DE 102 27 782 A2, a power tool is known that has an electric motor and a rotatable brush plate, by whose rotation a switchover can be made between clockwise operation and counterclockwise operation of the electric motor. For actuation of the brush plate, the brush plate has an actuating element, located on the radially outer face of the brush plate, that is extended to the outside through a housing of the kc and can be actuated by a user.

#FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a drill hammer;

#FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section through a detail II of FIG. 1 of the power tool in accordance with the present invention;

#FIG. 3 shows a brush element with a switch means in an exploded view of the power tool in accordance with the present invention; and

#FIG. 1 shows a power tool 2, embodied as a drill hammer, with an electric motor 6, mounted in a housing 4, whose direction of rotation 8 of a tool 12, fastened in a tool holder 10, can be selected via an actuating element 14. The direction of rotation 8 in this way includes a first direction of rotation 8 for clockwise operation and a second direction of rotation 8, opposite the first direction of rotation 8, for counterclockwise operation. The actuating element 14 is located in the vicinity of a pushbutton switch 16, so that a user of the power tool 2 can operate both the pushbutton switch 16 and the actuating element 14 with one hand.

#FIG. 2 shows a detail 11 of the power tool 2 of FIG. 1 in a longitudinal section. The electric motor 6, which is not shown in FIG. 2 for the sake of simplicity, is located in a front part 18 of the housing 4. A rotor of the electric motor 6 protrudes with a commutator through a housing opening 20 into a rear part 22 of the housing 4. There, it is surrounded by a brush element 24, which includes two diametrically opposed brush holders 26 embodied as carbon quivers. One carbon brush 28 is inserted into each of the brush holders 26, and these carbon brushes are pressed radially inward against the commutator, not shown, by spring elements 30—one of the two spring elements 30 is shown in FIG. 3. The brush element 24 is urged from a neutral, unstable, middle position in the circumferential direction, each in the direction of one end position, via two leg springs 32 that have a bistable position. Depending on the end position, the commutator is supplied with current for clockwise operation or counterclockwise operation.

#A switch means 36 is slipped onto the brush element 24, located on the electric motor not shown in FIG. 2, in the axial direction 34, or in other words parallel to the tool 12 and toward the tool 12 or the electric motor 6. The actuating element 14 is an integral component of this switch means 36.