snap-on flank drive challenge

[torknut]

Please overlook and redirect me if this topic if it has already been discussed. But having discovered the wonderful Snap-on flank drive back in the eighties i have always assumed Snappy was the inovator of the concept. Everyone has there own trademarked version now and I assumed Snap on's patent ran out sometime in the 90s, being as their patent dates from the late 60s if memory serves. I use to love to brag and prove, to the uninitiated, Snap-on socket's amazing (and assumed exclusive) ability to remove tough nuts other brands coudn't touch, I miss that. So the challenge is can anyone confirm or debunk my assumptions, or, was snap-on the exclusive inovator and if so who was the first to copy. Wright was the first socket that bursted my bubble.

 

[chadster1]

Snap-on did indeed invent the flank drive. The US Navy approached Snap-on and asked them to develop a tool that would help prevent the rounding off of fasteners. Flank drive is what they came up with. At the Franchisee Conference they had the engineer that came up with Flank drive there in a booth signing autographs pictures like a baseball card. Gene Olson. A quick google search turns up the patent.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3675516.html

 

[torknut]

far out! thanks chadster, I figured you or snapmom would know. Yes i was familiar with the snap-on patent from the wonderful patents page at the Alloy Artifacts site, but I was also aware of how Wright has a slightly different design and description of how their version works, whereas everyone else is an obvious duplicate of Snap on. So does anyone know who was the the first to copy the concept? Isnt it peculiar that in any industry one company almost always stands alone as the inovator and is always a step ahead of the competition.

 

[otis66]

Snap-on did indeed invent the flank drive. The US Navy approached Snap-on and asked them to develop a tool that would help prevent the rounding off of fasteners. Flank drive is what they came up with. At the Franchisee Conference they had the engineer that came up with Flank drive there in a booth signing autographs pictures like a baseball card. Gene Olson. A quick google search turns up the patent.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3675516.html

This is what I always believed. Snap On invented it for the US Navy. This is why I perfer Snap On 12 point chrome sockets over anything else.

 

[torknut]

I still have a preference for six point, since I discovered u can actually can use standard socket on metric fasteners with utter confidence, (although I discoverd the trick using 12 pointers) To this day I don't own a metric socket over 14mm. I trust a standard snappy over any non flank drive metric any day