Adjustable spanner

Last updated
From the bottom: The first BAHCO-improvement adjustable wrench from 1892 (Enkoping Mekaniska Verkstad) Adjustable wrench from 1910 with an improved handle (BAHCO) Adjustable wrench from 1915 with a slightly rounder handle (BAHCO) Adjustable wrench from 1954 with improved handle and new jaw angle of 15 degrees (BAHCO) Adjustable wrench from 1984 and the first with ERGO handle (BAHCO) Today's version of the adjustable wrench from 1992 with ERGO (BAHCO) Adjustablewrenches.jpg
From the bottom:
  1. The first BAHCO-improvement adjustable wrench from 1892 (Enköping Mekaniska Verkstad)
  2. Adjustable wrench from 1910 with an improved handle (BAHCO)
  3. Adjustable wrench from 1915 with a slightly rounder handle (BAHCO)
  4. Adjustable wrench from 1954 with improved handle and new jaw angle of 15 degrees (BAHCO)
  5. Adjustable wrench from 1984 and the first with ERGO handle (BAHCO)
  6. Today's version of the adjustable wrench from 1992 with ERGO (BAHCO)

An adjustable spanner (UK and most other English-speaking countries), also called a shifting spanner (Australia and New Zealand) [1] or adjustable wrench (US and Canada), [a] is any of various styles of spanner (wrench) with a movable jaw, allowing it to be used with different sizes of fastener head (nut, bolt, etc.) rather than just one fastener size, as with a conventional fixed spanner. [3]

Contents

Forms and names

There are many forms of adjustable spanners; many of them are screw-adjusted, whereas others use levers, and some early ones used wedges. The early taper-locking spanners needed a hammer to set the movable jaw to the size of the nut. The modern screw-adjusted spanner and lever types are easily and quickly adjusted. Some adjustable spanners automatically adjust to the size of the nut, using a motor and battery. Simpler models use a serrated edge to lock the movable jaw to size, while more sophisticated versions are digital types that use sheets or feelers to set the size.

Geesin (2015) [4] shows that wrenches with screw adjustment of various kinds were well known in the early 19th century and that one by William Barlow in 1808 was prescient. [4] By the 1830s, many designs with a central screw and a lower jaw moved by a nut were well known. [4] Geesin [4] and others [5] [6] [7] document that English engineers Richard Clyburn and Edwin Beard Budding presented some influential new designs in 1842 and 1843. The one by Clyburn had the form of thumbwheel screw with worm-on-rack arrangement that would later be the most famous via subsequent adaptations. Improvements followed. In 1885 Enoch Harris received US patent 326868 [8] for his spanner that permitted both the jaw width and the angle of the handles to be adjusted and locked.

One of the most widely known forms of adjustable wrench in the 21st century is an improved version of the Clyburn type; it was developed in 1891–1892. The Swedish company Bahco attributes its invention to Johan Petter Johansson, [9] [10] who in 1892 received a Swedish patent for it. [11] [12] In Canada and the United States, this type is often known as a Crescent wrench owing to widespread genericization of the brand name [13] of the company that held the original 1915 U.S. patent for this type ( U.S. patent 1133236A ), the Crescent Tool Company. (The Crescent brand is now owned by the Apex Tool Group). As Geesin 2015 documents, [4] the worm-on-rack type (regardless of which terminology is used to name it) was invented in Britain, [4] and later popularized in Scandinavia via the Bahco/Johansson improvement, before its manufacture in the United States was patented. The Bahco/Johansson/Crescent category (regardless of which terminology is used to name it) became so dominant in the 20th century that in North America, the very term adjustable wrench usually elicits the meaning of this type in general usage today, unless another type is specified. In Australia it is sometimes referred to as a "shifting spanner" or its abbreviated form of "shifter". [14]

Monkey wrenches are another type of adjustable spanner with a long history; the origin of the name is not entirely clear, but Geesin reports that it originated in Britain with a fancied resemblance of the wrench's jaws to that of a monkey's face, and that the many convoluted folk etymologies that later developed were baseless. [4] Before the Bahco/Johansson/Crescent type became widespread in the United States, during the industrial era of the 1860s to the 1910s, various monkey wrench types were the dominant form of adjustable wrench there.

Another popular type of adjustable spanner has a base and jaws that form four sides of a hexagon, and is therefore particularly suited for hexagonal nuts ("hex nuts") and hexagonal headed ("hex head") cap screws and bolts.

In some parts of Europe, adjustable spanners are often called a Bahco, [10] [15] owing to genericization of the name of the Bahco/Johansson type. In Denmark, this type of spanner is commonly referred to as a "svensknøgle", which basically translates to Swedish key. The Swedes themselves call the key "skiftnyckel", which is translated into adjustable key (shifting key). [16] In Australia, adjustable spanners are also referred to as "shifters". In Spain, this kind of spanner is commonly called "llave inglesa", which means literally English key. Remarking the difference with the pipe wrench, also adjustable, in Spain this one is called "grifa", and it does not have any accurate translation. [14]

Design and use

The fixed jaw can withstand bending stress far better than can the movable jaw, because the latter is supported only by the flat surfaces on either side of the guide slot, not the full thickness of the tool. The tool is therefore usually angled so that the movable jaw's area of contact is closer to the body of the tool, which means less bending stress. Still, one should avoid applying excessive force on tight bolts, since doing so can pry open the mounting of the movable jaw causing the wrench to no longer be able to be snugged to bolt heads, loosen too easily, or mar bolt heads. In some cases the jaws of the tool can break.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ In many non-English speaking countries, it is called an English wrench (e.g., in Turkey [2] ).

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monkey wrench</span> Type of adjustable wrench

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pliers</span> Hand tool

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johan Petter Johansson</span>

Johan Petter Johansson, sometimes known as JP, was a Swedish inventor and industrialist. He invented a modern adjustable spanner. He obtained over 100 patents in total.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fastener</span> Hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pipe wrench</span> A wrench for assembling and disassembling piping made of threaded pipes

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Socket wrench</span> Lever with interchangeable socket heads to grip or turn a bolt or nut

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chuck (engineering)</span> Clamp used to hold an object with radial symmetry, especially a cylinder

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vise</span> Apparatus for securing a workpiece

A vise or vice is a mechanical apparatus used to secure an object to allow work to be performed on it. Vises have two parallel jaws, one fixed and the other movable, threaded in and out by a screw and lever. The jaws are often flat but may have grooves, adapt to the shape of the workpiece or be custom made.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plumber wrench</span> Wrench used to rotate pipes

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Screw</span> Type of fastener characterized by a thread wrapped around a cylinder core

A screw is an externally helical threaded fastener capable of being tightened or released by a twisting force (torque) to the head. The most common uses of screws are to hold objects together and there are many forms for a variety of materials. Screws might be inserted into holes in assembled parts or a screw may form its own thread. The difference between a screw and a bolt is that the latter is designed to be tightened or released by torquing a nut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nut (hardware)</span> Type of fastener with a threaded hole

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tongue-and-groove pliers</span> Adjustable clamping hand tool

Parrot pliers are a type of slip-joint pliers. They are also known as:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bahco</span> Swedish tool brand

Bahco is a Swedish brand within the hand tool industry, which is now part of SNA Europe, part of Snap-on. Its roots go back to the industrial revolution in Sweden in the late eighteen hundreds, starting with innovations such as the pipe wrench and the modern adjustable wrench. Since then, the product range has expanded with a total assortment of products that today includes over 7000 hand tools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bolt (fastener)</span> Threaded fastener with an external male thread requiring a matching female thread

A bolt is an externally helical threaded fastener capable of being tightened or released by a twisting force (torque) to a matching nut. The bolt has an external male thread requiring a matching nut with a pre-formed female thread.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allen (brand)</span> Company behind the name "Allen wrenches"

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hex key</span> Driver for hexagonal socketed bolts or screws

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References

  1. ↑ The Free Dictionary. "shifting spanner". The Free Dictionary. Retrieved 2022-10-18.
  2. ↑ English wrench. "What does English wrench mean?". İngiliz Anahtarı ne demek?. Retrieved 2022-10-18.
  3. ↑ FCS Engineering Technology L2. Pearson South Africa. 2009. pp. 161–. ISBN   978-1-77025-592-0.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Geesin, Ron (2015), The Adjustable Spanner: History, Origins and Development to 1970, Crowood Press, ISBN   9781785000362.
  5. ↑ Murray, John (1845). The Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. pp.  388–.
  6. ↑ John Lloyd; John Mitchinson; James Harkin (30 October 2012). 1,227 QI Facts To Blow Your Socks Off. Faber & Faber. pp. 44–. ISBN   978-0-571-29795-5.
  7. ↑ Lance Day; Ian McNeil (11 September 2002). Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology. Routledge. pp. 206–. ISBN   978-1-134-65019-4.
  8. ↑ U.S. patent 326,868
  9. ↑ "About Us | BAHCO". www.bahco.com. Retrieved 2016-11-04.
  10. 1 2 Swedish Bahco leaflet about the development history of adjustable spanners (including photos) Archived October 15, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ↑ Johansson, Johan Petter (May 11, 1892). "SE Patent: SE-4,066 Stallbar skrufnyckel". Directory of American Tool and Machinery Patents.
  12. ↑ Andreas Bergh (31 July 2014). Sweden and the Revival of the Capitalist Welfare State. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 11–. ISBN   978-1-78347-350-2.
  13. ↑ "Has crescent wrench become a generic trademark?". genericides.org. 12 January 2020. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  14. 1 2 "shifting spanner". CollinsDictionary.com . HarperCollins.
  15. ↑ "Has bahco become a generic trademark?". genericides.org. 12 January 2020. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  16. ↑ Basic Swedish: A Grammar and Workbook ISBN   1-351-16966-1 p. 177
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