TORQUE WRENCH

摘要

A torque wrench (10) and monitoring system (82, 100, 112, 114, 180, etc.), for measuring and displaying torque applied and angle of rotation of a part being torqued. In one embodiment, the invention comprises a torque wrench (10) with a central rotating ratchet mechanism (20) linked to a plurality of hydraulic cylinders (22) by clevises (26). The cylinders (22) are arranged to provide at least two pairs of diametrically-opposed forces acting on the ratchet mechanism (20). Torque is measured by strain gauges (82) mounted on reaction pins (80) of the torque wrench (10). Angle of rotation is measured by optical encoder (100) cooperating with the ratchet mechanism (20). In a preferred embodiment, a processing system (112) including a memory (114) is mounted integrally within the wrench housing (14, 16), thus, insuring that key information with respect to the wrench remains with the wrench. A second processing system (150), memory (174) and display unit (110) is provided to manipulate information monitored from the wrench. In an alternative embodiment, an adapter (212) for a wrench is provided. The adapter (212) includes an optical encoder (222) and strain gauges (82) mounted on reaction pins (220). The adapter (212) also includes a first processor (112) and memory unit (114) as described above. In a further feature of the invention, a rapid traverse adapter assembly (230) is provided to rapidly pretorque or pretighten the part to be torqued without utilizing the hydraulic system of the wrench.