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I'm trying to design something involving what is essentially a chuck, such as is found in a drill, but the force applied would be in an outward direction rather than an inward one. In order to make the design safe, I would need to limit the amount of force that the jaws could apply...but I'm having trouble getting my head around how to incorporate this into the design of the chuck.

Is anyone aware of any existing resources out there that explain the design of a chuck that has a limitation to how much force it can apply?

I have had no luck searching online...it doesn't help that search engines give me tons of results that only match because some guy named "Chuck" is mentioned somewhere on the page.