Epic Solutions (ES), an engineering team of students from The Pennsylvania State University, was contracted by Ingersoll-Rand (IR) to develop an innovative socket attachment design for a new power-fastening tool. The tool utilizes a new technology to produce high torque output. A highly desirable side effect of this application is that the tool is nearly reactionless to the user. A prototype of the tool has been designed, built and laboratory tested, with excellent results. While extremely promising, this cutting edge technology presents a major technical problem: the socket-tool interface must offer a tight-fitting connection while still allowing for quick changing of sockets. The standard commercial type ratchet-socket connection interface is unacceptable for use with

this tool, due to the large amount of clearance in the design. Prior to the involvement of ES, IR had implemented a durable and energy-efficient connection design, but it required a time-consuming procedure to change sockets. The marketing team at IR determined that a design which resulted in long socket-change times would prevent widespread acceptance in the quick-paced industrial market.

Based on the comments from the marketing team, ES was contracted to produce an inexpensive and easy to use design that decreases the time required to change sockets.