GB2287426A

GB2287426A - Tool for aiding application of fasteners

Info

Publication number: GB2287426A
Application number: GB9504727A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Geoffrey Michael Burlington
Original assignee: Glynwed Engineering Ltd
Current assignee: Glynwed Engineering Ltd
Priority date: 1994-03-11
Filing date: 1995-03-09
Publication date: 1995-09-20
Anticipated expiration: 2015-03-09
Also published as: GB2287426B; WO1995024296A1; GB9504727D0; GB9404693D0

Abstract

A tool comprises a body 1 which has a handle 4 and receives and holds a fastener 20 having an anchorage part 22, and a fastener striker 3 which is guided in the body and is to be struck by a hammer for movement between an inoperative position and an operative position to drive the anchorage part for application of the fastener to a support. The body preferably is elongate to provide a shaft-like handle 4 and has a head 2 at one end in which the striker, of plunger-like form with anvil and punch portions, is housed. A spring 17 normally urges the striker to the inoperative position. Fasteners can be fed in a row into a magazine 5 in the handle and are spring-urged to a sole 9 at the head where a leading fastener of the row is presented to be applied to a support, its anchorage part being arranged to be aligned with the striker. Fasteners such as staples, tacks, pins and clips may be used. <IMAGE>

Description

TOOL FOR AIDING APPLICATION OF FASTENERS This invention relates to a tool for aiding the application of fasteners, for example staples, tacks, pins, clips and the like, which require an anchorage part thereof to be driven into a support to secure the fasteners in position for use.

Hand-operated applicators are known into which fasteners are loaded in a magazine and which have a built-in mechanism controlled by the user for firing the anchorage parts of the fasteners into supports.

Fasteners, such as tacks, pins and cable clips are more commonly applied by holding them directly by hand on the supports to which they are to be secured and using a hammer to drive their anchorage parts into the supports. When fasteners are applied in this way they usually have to be handled individually and it can take time and effort to pick up and position each fastener in turn to be secured. Also, particularly when the fasteners are quite small it is not always easy to hold them properly while hitting them with a hammer. In consequence the fasteners may not be hit correctly, the user may hit his fingers and, furthermore, the cable or other item to which the fasteners are being applied may be damaged by the fasteners and/or the hammer.

The present invention provides a tool which is intended to aid application of fasteners by means of a hammer.

According to the present invention a tool is provided for aiding application of fasteners, comprising a body which is adapted to receive and hold a fastener having an anchorage part and has handle means for holding the body relative to a support for applying the fastener to the support, and a fastener striker guided in the body for movement between an inoperative and an operative position and adapted to be struck by a hammer to be driven thereby from the inoperative position to the operative position to engage with and drive the anchorage part of the fastener for application of the fastener to the support.

A person using the tool has the handle means to hold when driving the anchorage part of the fastener; he does not have to hold the fastener itself. This can appreciably facilitate the positioning on, and application of the fastener to, a support. The possibility of the anchorage part being mis-hit, and of the cable or other item which the fastener is to secure being damaged by the fastener or driving hammer, is thereby considerably reduced. Preferably the handle means is spaced well away from the fastener striker and therefor from where a hammer will be engaged with the tool, so that there is a considerably reduced risk of the person hitting the hand by which he holds the tool.The handle means is preferably designed to enable the person using the tool to have a substantial area of hand contact with it in order that he can have a good firm hold on the tool while positioning and holding the fastener on a support to which it is to be applied as a hammer is used to hit the fastener striker.

It is preferred that the fastener striker is normally urged, conveniently by spring loading, to its inoperative position. The fastener striker may be a plunger-like member having an anvil portion or part to be struck by a hammer, and a punch portion or part which engages with the anchorage part of the fastener to be driven. There may be a complementary passage, bore or tubular part of the body in which the fastener striker is retained and guided in its movement between the inoperative and operative positions.

Preferably the fastener striker is at an end of the tool and the or each fastener, in its position in the body for its anchorage part to be struck by the fastener striker, is visible at that end for positioning, as the person using the tool requires, on the support to which the fastener is to be applied. It is desirable that the handle means enables the tool to be held such that the hand of the user on the handle means will normally be free of contact with the support to which the fastener to be driven is to be applied.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the body is elongate to provide a shaft-like handle and has a head at one end in which the fastener striker is located in a tubular guide member. The fastener striker is guided for movement at an acute angle to the handle and the head has a surface normal to the axis of movement of the fastener striker forming a sole at which the fastener is presented for application of the fastener to a support. The fastener striker is slidably located in a tubular guide member held in the head spring loaded to a position in which an end of the guide member projects from the sole, the guide member being movable in the head against the spring loading for said end to be retracted into the sole.

The arrangement is such that a user of the tool holding the tool with the projecting end of the guide member engaging a bearing at the support to which the fastener is to be applied, can bear the tool on the bearing and cause the projecting end to be retracted into the sole for the sole to be in juxtaposition with the bearing and the fastener to be set for fixing the support.

The tool is preferably arranged to hold several of the fasteners at once. It may be provided with a magazine to contain the fasteners in the body. Means is preferably provided to feed each fastener in turn automatically to a position for its anchorage part to be engaged by the fastener striker. In a preferred embodiment the fasteners are inserted into the body by way of the handle means.

Fasteners held together in a row may be received into the body of the tool in the preferred embodiment referred to above, each of the fasteners being taken in turn to a position for the anchorage part of the fastener to be engaged by the fastener striker. The anchorage part of the respective fastener at that position enters into the guide member and the fastener is located in the guide member adjacent to the projecting end of the guide member such that it projects from the body, away from the sole.Initially the anchorage part is at an angle to the fastener striker, but when the guide member is retracted into the sole, by the user of the tool causing the tool to bear on a bearing at the support to which the fastener is to be applied, as described, the fastener is caused to be deflected relative to the sole to a position in which the anchorage part is aligned with the fastener striker to be driven.

In one embodiment of the invention the tool is adapted to receive and hold fasteners which are cable clips for fixing electric cables to supports. Each clip is a plastics moulding of generally U-shape to straddle a cable and has an anchorage pin held in one of its limbs for securing the clip on a support . The tool may be designed for use with other forms of fasteners.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawing which is a simplified longitudinal section through a tool for aiding the application of cable clip fasteners.

As shown in the drawing, the tool comprises an elongate body 1 having an enlarged head 2 at one end in which a fastener striker 3 is housed. The head 2 enlarges to an upper side of the body, as the tool is viewed in the drawing. Except for the head 2 the body 1 is of a uniform cross-section to provide a shaft-like handle 4 which a user of the tool can grasp comfortably in one hand. The body may be made of metal, for example as a die casting, or of plastics by moulding. Conveniently the body is formed in two halves as mirror image shells which join together on a central longitudinal plane through the body. The two halves may, for example, be bolted, riveted or bonded together. Extending through the handle 4 from its free, rear, end into the head 2 is a straight passage of T-shaped cross-section which forms a magazine 5 in the body. A leg portion 5' of the T-shape opens to the lower side of the body. The magazine 5 is for holding cable clip fasteners, not shown, which are loaded into the magazine at the free end of the handle 4 and are urged along the magazine towards the head 2 by a feeder 6. The feeder 6 is spring-loaded in the direction of the head by a tensator spring 7 which is anchored at a forward end of the magazine 5 in the head.

A tubular front end section 8 of the head 2 opens to the upper and under sides of the body 1. The central longitudinal axis of the tubular front end section 8 is inclined at a large acute angle, typically 750 as shown, to the longitudinal axis of the handle.

At the bottom of the tubular front end section 8 of the under side the body is locally inclined to present a surface normal to the longitudinal axis of that section which forms a sole 9 of the body. Held co-axially in the tubular front end section 8 is a tubular guide member 10 in which the fastener striker 3 is slidably received. A bottom end 11 of the guide member 10 normally projects a short distance from the sole 9 and has a forwardly tapering, transverse undercut groove 12 across it which communicates through the side of the guide member with the forward end of the magazine 5 at the leg portion 5'.

The fastener striker 3 is slidable in the guide member 10 and is a toughened metal plunger-like member having an upper anvil portion 13 and a lower punch portion 14. The fastener striker 3 is slightly longer than the guide member 10. Its punch portion 14 is of reduced diameter and is engaged in a complementary reduced portion of the interior of the guide member opening at the side of the guide member to the magazine 5. An annular shoulder 15 is defined in the guide member at the upper end of the reduced diameter portion of the interior of the guide member. A first limb 16 of a sear spring 17 located in the head 2 of the body 1 extends through a longitudinal slot 18 in the guide member 10 and acts on the fastener striker 3, near the lower end of the anvil portion 13. The action is normally to urge the fastener striker to a raised, inoperative, position, as shown in the drawing.In this inoperative position the anvil portion 13 is projected well out of the guide member 10, at the top of the head 2. The first limb 16 of the spring 17 normally bears against an upper end of the slot 18 and a second limb 19 of the spring, which projects just into the slot, bears against a lower end of the slot.

In this way the limbs 16,19 of the spring 17 normally hold the guide member 10 in the position relative to the tubular front end section 8 of the head in which its bottom end 11 projects from the sole 9.

The fastener striker 3 can be driven downwards in the guide member 10 against the action of the spring 17 by a hammer blow on the top of the anvil portion 13.

The limit of the downward movement of the fastener striker is determined by the lower end of the anvil portion 13 bearing on the shoulder 15 in the guide member. At the downward limit the bottom end of the punch portion 14 is at the bottom end of the guide member 10.

Some resilient upward sliding movement of the guide member in the tubular front end section 8 is allowed by the action of the spring 17 on the guide member sufficient for the bottom end of the guide member to be retracted virtually into the sole 9.

Cable clip fasteners, of which one is shown in phantom at 20, to be used in the tool are of the kind having a plastics body 21 of inverted U-shape with a headed anchorage pin 22 frictionally held in one limb of the U-shaped body. The fasteners 20 may be individual elements discretely loaded into the tool, or they may be connected in a row or string, for example by being joined directly together at their plastics bodies or being attached to an interconnecting strip or other associated means, for loading into the tool.

Merely by way of example, the fasteners 20 are taken in this embodiment as being held one behind the other in a row by a plastics supporting strip 23 through which the anchorage pins 22 extend above the bodies of the fasteners. As provided ready for use the anchorage pins are raised, their heads protruding from the tops of the fastener bodies, well above the supporting strip 23, and their pointed ends withdrawn into the said limbs of the fastener bodies. The row of fasteners on the supporting strip is loaded into the magazine 5 of the tool; the bodies of the fasteners run along and depend from the leg portion 5' of the magazine, the supporting strip 23 extends above the bodies and the upper ends of the anchorage pins 22 project into the cross portion of the T-shaped section of the magazine.The feeder 6 is tiltable to allow the row of fasteners 20 to be entered into the magazine without removing the feeder from the magazine. The feeder 6 urges the row of fasteners along the magazine 5 positioning the leading fastener at the front of the tool with its anchorage pin entering into the reduced portion of the interior of the guide member 10 directly below the fastener striker. The supporting strip 23 passes through the undercut part of the groove 12 of the guide member 10 and is thus located in the groove. The body of the leading fastener projects down from the supporting strip 20 through the mouth of the groove 12 and below the bottom end 11 of the guide member where it can be easily seen. In the normal position of the guide member 10 the supporting strip extends through the groove parallel to the under side generally of the body and so at an angle to the sole 9.The anchorage pin of the leading fastener will therefore be at an angle to the longitudinal axis of the fastener striker, as shown, while the guide member 10 is in this position.

In order to use the tool to apply a fastener to an electric cable, to secure the cable on, for example, the surface of a wall, the tool, held in one hand of the user, is positioned on the cable for the U-shaped body of the leading fastener in the tool to straddle the cable with the anchorage pin of the fastener at one side of the cable. The user tilts the tool so that the sole 9 is substantially parallel to the surface of the wall. The tilting inclines the handle 4 away from the surface, leaving the user's hand on the handle clear of the surface. By bearing the tool down on the cable the guide member is retracted into the front end section 8 of the head 2 against the loading of the spring 17.

Because of the engagement of the supporting strip 23 in the groove 12, the retraction of the guide member deflects the portion of the strip at the groove to be parallel to the sole 9 and that brings the anchorage pin of the leading fastener into alignment with the fastener striker. The anvil portion 13 of the fastener striker is then struck a blow, or blows, with a hammer and the punch portion 14 drives the aligned anchorage pin into the surface of the wall to secure the fastener over the cable. At the completion of the driving the anchorage pin becomes detached from the supporting strip.

After each hammer blow the fastener striker is returned to its normal raised position by the spring 17. When the fastener has been secured and detached from the supporting strip the feeder 6 urges the next fastener in the row in the magazine 5 into position below the fastener striker. The portion of the supporting strip from which the secured fastener has been detached projects out of the groove 12 at the front of the tool and may be broken or cut away.

Claims

1. A tool for aiding application of fasteners, comprising a body which is adapted to receive and hold a fastener having an anchorage part and has handle means for holding the body relative to a support for applying the fastener to the support, and a fastener striker guided in the body for movement between an inoperative and an operative position and adapted to be struck by a hammer to be driven thereby from the inoperative position to the operative position to engage with and drive the anchorage part of the fastener for application of the fastener to the support.

2. A tool according to claim 1 wherein the handle means is spaced away from the fastener striker.

3 A tool according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the body is elongate to provide a a shaft-like handle and has a head at one end in which the fastener striker is housed for movement relative thereto between the inoperative and operative positions.

4. A tool according to claim 3 wherein the fastener striker is guided in the head for movement at an acute angle to the handle and the head has a surface normal to the axis of movement of the fastener striker forming a sole at which the fastener is presented for application of the fastener to a support.

5. A tool according to claim 4 wherein the fastener striker is slidably located in a tubular guide member held in a head, the guide member being urged by spring loading to a position in which an end of the guide member projects for the sole and being movable in the head against the spring loading for said end to be retracted into the sole, and the arrangement being such that a user of the tool holding the tool with said end of the guide member engaging a bearing at the support to which the fastener is to be applied, can bear the tool on the bearing and cause said end of the guide member to be retracted into the sole for the sole to be in juxtaposition with the bearing.

6. A tool according to claim 5 wherein the guide member and fastener striker have parts which co-operate to define the operative position of the fastener striker.

7. A tool according to any preceding claim wherein the body is adapted to receive several of the fasteners at once.

8. A tool according to claim 7 wherein the body has a magazine to contain the fasteners in a row.

9. A tool according to claim 8 wherein means is provided which acts on the row of fasteners to feed each of the fasteners in turn automatically to a position for the anchorage part of the fastener to be engaged by the fastener striker.

10. A tool according to claim 9 wherein the means to feed the fasteners comprises a feeder which acts on an end of the row of fasteners remote from said position and is spring loaded to urge the fasteners to said position.

11. A tool according to any of claims 7 to 10 as dependent from claim 5 or claim 6 wherein the fasteners are held together in a row and each of the fasteners is taken in turn to a or the position for the anchorage part of the fastener to be engaged by the fastener striker, the anchorage part of the respective fastener at that position entering into the guide member, the fastener being located in the guide member adjacent to said end of the guide member such that it projects from the body, away from the sole, and the anchorage part is at an angle to the fastener striker, and the fastener being caused to be deflected relative to the sole to a position in which the anchorage part is aligned with the fastener striker to be driven when the guide member is retracted into the sole.

12. A tool according to any preceding claim wherein the body receives the fastener or fasteners by way of the handle means.

13. A tool according to any preceding claim wherein the fastener striker is normally urged to the inoperative position.

14. A tool according to any preceding claim wherein the fastener is a plunge-like member having an axial portion or part to be struck by a hammer, and a punch portion or part which engages with the anchorage part of the or each fastener to be driven.

15. A tool according to claim 14 wherein the body has a complementary passage, bore or tubular part in which the fastener striker is retained and guided in its movement between the inoperative and operative positions.

16. A tool according to claim 14 or claim 15 as dependent from claim 13 wherein a sear spring located in the body has a limb which acts on the fastener striker to urge the fastener striker to the inoperative position.

17. A tool according to claim 5 and claim 16 wherein the sear spring has a second limb which acts on the guide member to provide the spring loading thereon.

18. A tool substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawing.