Help with new vise grip clamp ideas for senior design project

[ct85k10]

I know there are some professional welders and fabricators on here and many of you weld and fabricate on your rigs so I figure I throw this out there so see if any of you had ideas that might help with my project.

I’m a senior Mechanical Engineering Technology student at UNC Charlotte working on my senior design project. My senior design team is working with Irwin tools the maker of vice grips. We are trying to come up with a new locking clamp to meet some need of welders and fabricators. Right now we are in the research part of the project and trying to come up with some ideas for new clamps.

What I am looking for is an idea of some problems that could be solved or a task that could be simplified by some sort of vice grip style locking clamp. I’m not necessarily looking for the solution as much as the problem to solve but all the information I can get will help.

Thanks in advanced for the help
Colby

 

[thorguy57]

Vice grip has a pretty extensive line but there has been more then one occansion I could have used a pair of vice grips with either an indexing head or an offset head on them. Thats about all I can think of right now.