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Pliers

 
(′plī·ərz)

(design engineering) A small instrument with two handles and two grasping jaws, usually long and roughened, working on a pivot; used for holding small objects and cutting, bending, and shaping wire.


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Dental Dictionary: pliers
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n

A tool of pincer design with jaws of varying shapes; used for holding, bending, stretching, contouring, and cutting.

Architecture: pliers
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A hand tool, pincer-like, with scissors action, usually with serrated jaws; used for gripping, holding, bending, and cutting.


WordNet: pliers
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a gripping hand tool with two hinged arms and (usually) serrated jaws
  Synonyms: pair of pliers, plyers


Wikipedia: Pliers
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Pliers are a hand tool used to hold objects firmly, or for cutting and bending tough materials such as wire. Generally, pliers consist of a pair of metal first class levers joined at a fulcrum positioned closer to one end of the levers, creating short jaws on one side of the fulcrum, and longer handles on the other side. This arrangement creates a mechanical advantage, allowing the force of the hand's grip to be amplified and focused on an object with precision. The jaws can also be used to manipulate objects too small or unwieldy to be manipulated with the fingers.

There are many kinds of pliers made for various general and specific purposes.

Contents

History

Pliers in the general sense are an ancient and simple invention, no singular point in history or singular inventor can be credited. Early metal working processes from several millennia BCE would have required plier-like devices to handle hot materials in the process of smithing or casting. Development from wooden to bronze pliers would have probably happened sometime prior to 3000 BCE[1]. Among the oldest illustrations of pliers are those showing the Greek god Hephaestus in his forge. Today, pliers intended principally to be used for safely handling hot objects are usually called tongs. The number of different designs of pliers grew with the invention of the different objects which they were used to handle: horseshoes, fasteners, wire, pipes, electrical and electronic components.

Design

The basic design of pliers has changed little since their origins, with the pair of handles, the pivot (often formed by a rivet), and the head section with the gripping jaws or cutting edges forming the three elements. In distinction to a pair of scissors or shears, the plier's jaws always meet each other at one pivot angle.

The materials used to make pliers consist mainly of steel alloys with additives such as vanadium or chromium, to improve strength and prevent corrosion. Often pliers have insulated grips to ensure better handling and prevent electrical conductivity. In some lines of fine work (such as jewelery or musical instrument repair), some specialized pliers feature a layer of comparatively soft metal (such as brass) over the two plates of the head of the pliers to reduce pressure placed on some fine tools or materials. Making entire pliers out of softer metals would be impractical, reducing the force required to bend or break them.

Common types

Gripping pliers

  • Lineman's pliers (combination pliers)
  • Flat-nose pliers (duckbill pliers) With long, narrow, flat jaws, they are stronger than needle-nose pliers, but less able to reach into really confined spaces
  • Round-nose pliers (snub-nosed pliers)
  • Needle-nose pliers (long-nose pliers, snipe-nose pliers) which have long, narrow jaws for gripping in confined spaces
  • Locking pliers (vise grips, mole grips)
  • Tongue and groove pliers (Channellock pliers)
  • Parallel pliers which have jaws (usually smooth) which come together in a completely parallel motion, as opposed to regular pliers which rotate until contact. This design is intended to increase the surface area on materials the pliers are used on, decreasing pressure and potential for causing indentations.

Special purpose pliers

  • Wire-stripping pliers - cuts and removes insulation on electrical wire while leaving the wire intact
  • Fencing tools - include a hammer, wire cutter and nail puller on one tool
  • Circlip pliers (retaining-ring pliers) - used for fixing or loosening retaining rings
  • Nail-pulling pliers - an adaptation of the end nipper used for cutting wire; the jaws may be asymmetric, allowing the nail to be pulled out with a rocking motion on the surface in which it is embedded.
  • Breaker-grozier pliers (Glass-breaking pliers, grozz pliers)

Adjustable pliers

  • Slip joint pliers, which are similar to combination pliers but whose pivot can be slipped between two holes when the jaws are fully open to change their sizecalled
  • Groove-joint pliers (tongue-and-groove pliers, water-pump pliers, Channellock pliers) (see Slip joint pliers) with adjustable jaw sizes, that are designed to grip various sizes of round, hexagon, flat or similarly shaped objects

Cutting pliers

Crimping pliers

Rotational pliers

Gallery

References

  1. ^ Bellis, Mary. 'The History of Hardware Tools'. [1] Accessed 12/16/2008.

External links


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Copyrights:

Sci-Tech Dictionary. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Copyright © 2003, 1994, 1989, 1984, 1978, 1976, 1974 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Dental Dictionary. Mosby's Dental Dictionary. Copyright © 2004 by Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Pliers" Read more