US 12,330,208 B2
Blind rivet fastening apparatus
Daisuke Mori, Toyohashi (JP)
Assigned to NEWFREY LLC, New Britain, CT (US)
Filed by NEWFREY LLC, New Britain, CT (US)
Filed on Nov. 2, 2017, as Appl. No. 15/801,463.
Claims priority of application No. 2016-217049 (JP), filed on Nov. 7, 2016.
Prior Publication US 2018/0126446 A1, May 10, 2018
Int. Cl. B21J 15/26 (2006.01); B21J 15/04 (2006.01); B21J 15/10 (2006.01); B21J 15/28 (2006.01); B21J 15/32 (2006.01); F16H 25/20 (2006.01)
CPC B21J 15/26 (2013.01) [B21J 15/043 (2013.01); B21J 15/105 (2013.01); B21J 15/28 (2013.01); B21J 15/326 (2013.01); F16H 25/2021 (2013.01); F16H 2025/2071 (2013.01)] 9 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A blind rivet fastening device for fastening a blind rivet including a mandrel and a rivet main body to a member to be attached, the blind rivet fastening device comprising:
a device housing;
an electric motor disposed at a rear end of the device housing;
a spindle disposed in front of the electric motor;
a power transmission unit that transmits torque between the electric motor and the spindle;
a ball screw nut which is adjacent to the spindle and to which torque can be selectively transmitted from the spindle;
a ball screw shaft provided at a central portion of the ball screw nut that moves in an axial direction by rotation of the ball screw nut;
a retracting unit connected to the ball screw shaft and configured to grasp and retract a shaft unit of the mandrel between a home position and a rear end position;
a position detector for detecting an axial position of the retracting unit,
a trigger provided in a handle portion of the blind rivet fastening device for selectively energizing the electric motor;
a control unit that controls forward rotation, reverse rotation, start, and stop of the electric motor according to a pulling operation of the trigger and the position of the retracting unit detected by the position detector;
a clutch including a spindle clutch portion disposed on the spindle and a nut clutch portion disposed on the ball screw nut, the clutch for selectively transferring torque between the spindle clutch portion and the nut clutch portion when the retracting unit is in the rear end position or the home position;
the spindle clutch portion having a cylindrical unit and a flange unit at one end of the cylindrical unit, wherein a plurality of first segment units are formed on a front plane of the flange unit, the spindle clutch portion rotating integrally with the spindle; and
the nut clutch portion including a plurality of second segment units complementary in shape to the plurality of first segment units of the spindle clutch, the second segment units integrally formed on a rear plane of the ball screw nut,
wherein the spindle clutch portion has a protruding unit extending radially outward of the plurality of first segment units, the protruding unit being accommodated in an axially extending slot formed in a cylinder of the spindle, and the spindle clutch portion is held so that it is movable in the axial direction with respect to the spindle but not respectively rotated.