GB1269903A - Improvements in or relating to timber connectors and machines for making the same - Google Patents

Abstract

1,269,903. Making timber connectors; bending; roller feeds. AUTOMATVE BUILDING COMPONENTS NEW ZEALAND Ltd. 13 March, 1970 [14 March, 1969; 2 Feb., 1970], No. 12162/70. Headings B3A, B3E and B3W. [Also in Division F2] A machine, Fig. 2, for making a wire timber connector, Fig. 1, having end spikes 2 and 3 at an angle between 8 and 15 degrees, preferably 10 degrees, less than a right angle to a central portion 1 and lying in mutually perpendicular planes, comprises an intermittent wire feed 12, a shear 22 for pointing the ends 4 of the wire as it cuts it to length, a cylinder 27 carrying forming dies 35 which receive lengths of wire in a groove 36, means 44 for straightening the ends of a length of wire, spring loaded rollers 54, for bending the wire into a U shape, on each side of the cylinder 27 and means for twisting the U- shaped wire into the shape shown in Fig. 1. The shear is actuated by a cam 25 on the face 20 of a cam plate 32 which rotates a number of times equal to the number of equispaced dies 35 on the cylinder 27 for one rotation of the cylinder 27. The cylinder 27 is moved by a ratchet 28 driven from a shaft 30 which also drives the cam plate 32. A second drive shaft drives the feed rollers in timed relation to the cam plate. The feed is by a roller 12 having a raised segmental surface (13), Fig. 7 (not shown) which surface pinches the wire 7 between itself and a second roller surface (19) to produce an intermittent feed. The twisting is effected by turning the U- shaped wire workpiece so that both limbs project radially then holding one against one end of the die 35 while a roller (60), Fig. 6 (not shown) engages the other causing it to be twisted through a right angle.