Communication
Design Study for a New Spanner
Ming-Che Lin
1,
* and Tsung-Han Ho
2,
*
Citation: Lin, M.-C.; Ho, T.-H.
Design Study for a New Spanner.
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 8878. https://
doi.org/10.3390/app11198878
Academic Editor: João Carlos de
Oliveira Matias
Received: 10 August 2021
Accepted: 21 September 2021
Published: 24 September 2021
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral
with regard to jurisdictional claims in
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Copyright: © 2021 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
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Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/).
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering (Jiangong Campus), National Kaohsiung University of Science and
Technology, Kaohsiung 80778, Taiwan
2
Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering (Jiangong Campus), National Kaohsiung University of
Science and Technology, Kaohsiung 80778, Taiwan
* Correspondence: limit168@nkust.edu.tw (M.-C.L.); thho@nkust.edu.tw (T.-H.H.)
Abstract:
A replacement for the original F-spanner is designed using computer-aided engineering
(CAE) and the Taguchi method. In the design process, the L
9
(3
4
) orthogonal table was used for
parameter design. Four control factors are used: outer diameter, bend radius, angle, and connected
fillet. Each factor is set to three levels with numerical analysis using ANSYS software. After
performing an optimization analysis for the combination parameters, the prototype is created by
rapid-prototyping (RP) and is found to improve operational safety in a piping system.
Keywords: spanner; stop valve; CAE
1. Introduction
Stop valve designs often integrate a hand wheel to increase torque, thus improving
fluid flow control. Fluids in piping systems are often viscous due to a lack of service
maintenance, causing stop valve resistance that can be difficult to overcome using a
conventional F-type spanner. During operation, the front paws straddle the two rods of
the hand wheel, and the rear paws are placed outside the hand wheel and rotate to apply
torque, as shown in Figure 1.
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, x. https://doi.org/10.3390/xxxxx www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci
Communication
Design Study for a New Spanner
Ming-Che Lin
1,
* and Tsung-Han Ho
2,
*
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering (Jiangong Campus), National Kaohsiung University of Science and
Technology, Kaohsiung 80778, Taiwan
2
Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering (Jiangong Campus), National Kaohsiung University of
Science and Technology, Kaohsiung 80778, Taiwan
* Correspondence: limit168@nkust.edu.tw (M.-C.L.); thho@nkust.edu.tw (T.-H.H.)
Abstract: A replacement for the original F-spanner is designed using computer-aided engineering
(CAE) and the Taguchi method. In the design process, the 𝐿
(3
) orthogonal table was used for
parameter design. Four control factors are used: outer diameter, bend radius, angle, and connected
fillet. Each factor is set to three levels with numerical analysis using ANSYS software. After per-
forming an optimization analysis for the combination parameters, the prototype is created by rapid-
prototyping (RP) and is found to improve operational safety in a piping system.
Keywords: spanner; stop valve; CAE
1. Introduction
Stop valve designs often integrate a hand wheel to increase torque, thus improving
fluid flow control. Fluids in piping systems are often viscous due to a lack of service
maintenance, causing stop valve resistance that can be difficult to overcome using a con-
ventional F-type spanner. During operation, the front paws straddle the two rods of the
hand wheel, and the rear paws are placed outside the hand wheel and rotate to apply
torque, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. F-spanner concept.
The force arm of this structure does not pass through the torque center, and there is
a deviation of the angle a, which causes loss of power. Angle a increases with the distance
between the two points AB. The larger the angle a, the more serious the loss of power. To
improve the inconvenience of the traditional F-spanner and to meet the needs of engi-
neers, we present a new spanner concept (ROC patent no. M474597 [1]), providing a brief
design overview, numerical analysis, and experimental results.
Citation: Lin, M.-C.; Ho, T.-H.
Lastname, F. Design Study for a
New Spanner. Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, x.
https://doi.org/10.3390/xxxxx
Academic Editor: João Carlos de
Oliveira Matias
Received: 10 August 2021
Accepted: 21 September 2021
Published: date
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neu-
tral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institu-
tional affiliations.
Copyright: © 2021 by the authors.
Submitted for possible open access
publication under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license
(https://creativecommons.org/license
s/by/4.0/).
Figure 1. F-spanner concept.
The force arm of this structure does not pass through the torque center, and there is a
deviation of the angle a, which causes loss of power. Angle a increases with the distance
between the two points AB. The larger the angle a, the more serious the loss of power. To
improve the inconvenience of the traditional F-spanner and to meet the needs of engineers,
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 8878. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11198878 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci
