Importance

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Abstract

It is already common in many devices like spanners or pipe wrenches for the pressure between the gripping faces and gripped faces to be related to the torsional load that is applied to turn the gripped object. In these apparatus the grip can be made to relax automatically as the load is removed. The invention relates to improvements in such devices, and to novel designs of mechanical coupling devices that utilise this basic idea. More specifically, the invention firstly proposes a method of improving the performance of an object-gripping tool of the cam-operated gripper-element type, in which method there is applied to the gripper surface a friction-enhancing chemical. And it secondly proposes object-coupling apparatus which includes a body-mounted object-gripper together with a gripper-moving cam device having a cam member that is forced to bear against both the gripper and the body so as to urge the gripper into gripping contact with the object, the resulting friction between the body, cam member and gripper being enhanced by a prior chemical treatment, and so being sufficient to prevent the cam member reversing and the gripper releasing the object so long as force is maintained.

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First Claim