US3357761A

US3357761A - Nail cartridge for driving tool magazines and flexible nail strip therefor

Info

Publication number: US3357761A
Application number: US494476A
Authority: US
Inventors: Langas Arthur; Frank C Howard
Original assignee: Signode Corp
Current assignee: Signode Corp
Priority date: 1965-10-11
Filing date: 1965-10-11
Publication date: 1967-12-12
Anticipated expiration: 1984-12-12
Also published as: DK123853B; DE1603964A1; GB1100369A; NL6613792A; SE301777B

Description

Dec-7 1967 A. LANGAS ETAL 3,357,761

NAIL CARTRIDGE FOR DRIVING TOOL MAGAZINES AND FLEXIBLE NAIL STRIP THEREFOR 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 11, 1965 INVENTORS ARTHUR LANGAS FRANK C. HOWARD Dec. 12, 1967 A. LANGAS ETAL 3,3 7,

NAIL CARTRIDGE FOR DRIVING TOOL MAGAZINES AND FLEXIBLE NAIL STRIP THEREFOR Filed 001;. 11, 1965 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS ARTHUR LANGAS FRANK C. HOWARD Dec. 12, 1967 A. LANGAS ETAL 3,357,761

NAIL CARTRIDGE FOR DRIVING TOOL MAGAZINES AND FLEXIBLE NAIL STRIP THEREFOR Filed Oct. 11, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 40 I I J10 I EL LZnlll: In Iii INVENTORS ARTHUR LANGAS FRANK C. HOWARD B Q- Now-"Aw,

United States a Patent Office.

3,357,761 Patented Dec. 12, 1967 3,357,761 1 NAIL CARTRIDGE FOR DRIVING TOOL MAGA- ZINES AND FLEXIBLE NAIL STRJP THEREFOR Arthur Langas, Chicago, and Frank C. Howard, Wheel:

ing,,IIl., assignors to Signode Corporation, Chicago, 111.,

a corporation of Delaware Filed Oct. 11, 1965, Ser. No. 494,476 Claims. (Ci. 3121-73) The present invention relates to a nail package and has particular reference to, a novelnail cartridge designed for insertion into the magazine of a power actuated nail driving tool, and it also has reference to a flexible nail assembly or strip of interconnected nails capable of use in connection with, and as a component part of, such nail cartridge but which also, under certain circumstances, is useable independently thereof.

Heretofore, in the magazine feeding of nails to the driving element of a power actuated tool, where only a relatively small number of nails is required for a given operation, individual lengths of serially arranged interconnected nails, properly oriented for cooperation with a driver, are loaded in the tool magazine, reloading operations being resorted to as each length becomes exhausted. Usually, such lengths consist of contiguous or closely spaced nails which are interconnected by one or more continuous narrow webs of a flexible adhesive tape. Due to the close spacing of the nails, as well as the manner in which the tape is applied to the nails, the resultant structure is relatively inflexible or rigid and is comprised of, a row of aligned nails the overall length of which is a function of the number of nails involved. Such nail packages are commonly referred to as sticks and the maximum length of any given stick is, of course, a function of the tolerable length of the magazine which is employed to receive it. Where portable power tools are concerned, a rigid stick containing on the order of seventy-five nails creates a problem in tool handling. Where a lesser number of nails is involved, frequent magazine loading must be resorted to.

Where a relatively large number of nails is required for a given operation, a continuous magazine feed has been employed in which a large multiplicity of serially arranged oriented nails are taped or wired together so that they may be coiled or otherwise grouped together and then serially fed through a magazine where they become aligned before ultimately arriving at the driving station. This latter method of magazine feeding is suitable for stationary nailing machines and the like but it is impractical for portable tools where weight and space limitations are at a premium and where facilities for storing the grouped or coiled nails are not conveniently available. Where the elongated nail strip is not sufliciently flexible, difliculty is encountered in pulling the nails through the magazine. Where the strip is extremely flexible, tilting or tumbling of the nails, particularly as the main nail package becomes depleted, results in tangling of the nail strip and jamming thereof at the region of entry into the nail magazine. This condition is especially prevalent where portable tools which are operated at varying angles are concerned.

The present invention is designed to overcome the above-noted limitations that are attendant upon the construction and use of conventional nail packages or assemblies, particularly those which are employed in connection with, portable power actuated nail-driving tools and, toward this end, the invention contemplates the provision of a novel nail cartridge in the form of a package type unit, capable of being loaded bodily into the magazine of such a tool and which, when loaded therein, is completely enclosed within the magazine. According to the present invention, the nail cartridge includes an outer shell or container defining an internal compartmented space within which there is. disposed a singleelongatedw flexible strip of serially arranged interconnected nails or bunched so that they are substantially equally dis-= tributed in the various compartments and the leading compartment is provided with a narrow slot for egress of the nails successively and one at a time for passage thereof to the driving :station of the tool. The driving tool is provided with intermittently operable means.

whereby the nailsare advanced toward the driving, station, suchadvancing thereof serving to pull the flexible nail strip endwise. from the leading. compartment until such time as the main bulk of. nails in the compartment,

has been exhausted. Thereafter, the strip will be drawn in linear straight-line fashion through this compartment from the next adjacent compartment until such time as this second compartment also has been substantially exi hausted of nails and the portion of the nail strip remaining therein is drawn in straight-line fashion through this latter. compartment from the third compartment. Depending upon the number of aligned compartments employed, withdrawal of nails from the successive compartments will take place until all of the nails in the trailing compartment have been exhausted, after which the row of nails extending to the exit slot in the leading compartment will be pulled from the shell or container and conducted successively to the driving station.

The provision of a compartmented shell with substantial equal distribution of nails within the various compartments results in a high-walled enclosure for each group of nails, the enclosure having small transverse dimensions so that the nails of the group cannot tilt appreciably and thus cause snarling or tangling of the nail strip. In order to further confine the nails of each group against lateral shifting, particularly as the associated compartment becomes depleted of nails, the side walls of the shell are inclined inwardly and downwardly so that a tapered effect is given the over-all shell, the wider upper regions of the various compartments serving to accommodate the larger diameter nail heads while the narrower lower regions thereof serve to accommodate the smaller diameter nail shanks. The aforementioned narrow spaces which establish communication between adjacent compartments are so designed that only one nail at a time may traverse each space, thereby precluding any tendency for jamming of plural nails within such spaces. A flexible closure flap in the vicinity of the exit slot associated with the leading compartment serves to prevent inadvertent loss of nails from the shell during handling of the cartridge before installation thereof in the tool magazine but allows for flow of the nails from the shell without appreciable effort during operation of the driving tool.

An important feature of the present invention, apart from the provision of the compartmented cartridge shell, resides in the manner in which the various nails which cooperate to make up the flexible strip are secured together in their serially arranged relationship. To insure extreme flexibilty of the strip, the nails are arranged in spaced parallelism and are connected together by a flexible narrow web of adhesive tape which make tangential contact with all of the nail shanks on the same side thereof and which extends in a direction transversely of the axes of the nails. To completelycapture the nails and prevent pulling thereof away from their lines of adhesive contact with the tape, a second web of adhesive tape encompasses a major portion of the circumference of each nail shank and makes face-to-face contact with the first web in between each pair of adjacent nails in the series. Thus each nail shank is, in effect, completely encompassed by an individual ring or band of adhesive tape so that dislodgement of the nails from the composite web is virtually impossible except under the impact of the nail driver associated with the impact tool. Such an arrangement possesses at least one marked advantage over conventional adhesive webconnected nail strips in that when tension is applied to the composite web it is entirely assimilated by the first adhesive Web which only makes tangential contact with the nail shanks and therefore has no tendency to dislodge the nails as is the case in connection with conventional nail strips where the nails are sandwiched between two webs, each of which partially encompasses the nail shanks.

By the present arrangement, comparatively wide nail spacing in the completed strip allows for flexibility of the strip in either bending direction without nail interference so that flexing of the strip in both bending directions is possible. Because the nail strip is thus universally flexible, initial loading of the strip into the compartmented shell is facilitated due to the fact that the groups of nails may be bunched indiscriminately with no particular through being given as to how the nails may distribute themselves within the compartments. Similiarly, in withdrawing the nails from any given compartment, free outflow of the strip endwise from the compartment will take place without binding or jamming of the strip due to the inability thereof to bend in one direction. Although the flexible nail strip of the present invention is particularly well adapted for use in connection with a compartmented shell in the production of a nail cartridge for magazine loading purposes as set forth above, the strip is not necessarily limited to such use inasmuch as such nail strips may be found useful for direct feeding of nails through an aligning magazine to a nailing station where they are driven into the work by a pneumaticaly operated or other impact driver. In such an instance the nail strip is readily susceptible to a coiling operation wherein the nails are arranged in involute fashion so as to provide a reservoir of nails for magazine feeding purposes, or the strip may be arranged in serpentine fashion in layers and in a noncompartmented receptacle for endwise withdrawal of the strip for magazine feeding purposes.

The provision of a nail package or cartridge such as has been briefly outlined above and the provision of a flexible nail strip as a component part of such as cartridge constituting the principal objects of the invention, it is a further object to provide such a cartridge in which the cartridge container or shell may be formed of inexpensive plastic material so that it may be discarded after the nail contents thereof has been exhausted.

Numerous other objects and advantages of the invention, not at this time enumerated, will readily suggest themselves as the nature of the invention is better understood.

In the accompanying three sheets of drawings forming a part of this specification, one illustrative embodiment of the invention has been shown.

In these drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a nail cartridge constructed according to the principles of the present invention and showing the leading edge region of the contained nail strip emerging from the exit opening associated with the cartridge shell;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the structure shownin FIG. 1 with portions of the cartridge shell broken away to reveal more clearly the nature of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a rear end view of the nail cartridge;

FIG. 4 is a front end view of the nail cartridge;

FIG. 5 is a transverse sectional view taken substantially on the line 5-5 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a modified sectional view taken substantially on the line 6-6 of FIG. 2 and illustrating schematically the manner in which the cartridge is installed in the magazine of a nail driving tool for successive indexing of the nail strip and consequent progressive withdrawal thereof from the cartridge;

FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view of the two-part sectional compartmented cartridge shell;

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary view of a portion of a nail assembly or strip constructed according to the invention;

FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken substantially on the line 9-9 of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a sectional view taken substantially on the line 1010 of FIG. 8, and

FIG. 11 is a top plan view of the nail strip of FIG. 8, showing the same in a coiled condition for magazine feeding purposes.

Referring now to the drawings in detail and in particular to FIGS. 1 to 4 inclusive, briefly, a nail package or cartridge embodying the present invention has been designated in its entirety at 10 and it involves in its general organization an outer container or shell 12 which is compartmented in a novel manner that will be described presently to provide three interconnected internal chambers or

compartments

16, 18 and 20 and within which shell there is disposed an elongated flexible strip 22 of interconnected nails. The nature of the nail strip 22 likewise will be made clear subsequently but for the present it is deemed sufiicient to state that the strip is comprised of a large multiplicity of individual nails 24 (see also FIG. 8) which are connected together and maintained in spaced parallelism by means of one or more composite webs 26 of pressure-adhesive tape, two such webs being employed in the exemplary form of the invention disclosed herein. The nail strip is thus of a flexible nature and it is capable of readily being bunched as clearly shown in FIGS. 2 and 6 so that the nails thereof may be divided into three groups with one group being disposed in each of the three

compartments

16, 18 and 20 but with adjacent groups being connected together by intervening portions of the nail strip which extend through relatively narrow nail passages 28 which exist between adjacent compartments. The compartment 16 constitutes the leading compartment of the shell 10 and it is provided with a narrow nail discharge opening or passage 30 through which the strip 22 may be forcibly pulled during nail-dispensing operations in a manner and for a purpose that also will be made clear subsequently.

From the above brief description it will be readily seen that when tension or pulling force is applied to the leading edge of the nail strip 22 tending to withdraw the same from the shell 12 through the discharge passage 30, the group of nails 24 in the leading compartment 16 will initially be withdrawn from the shell and then, when the compartment has become nearly depleted of nails, pulling force will be applied to the portion of the strip containing the group of nails in the intermediate compartment 18 tending to draw them through the compartment 16 and from thence through the outlet passage 30. Similarly, when the nails in the compartment 18 become nearly depleted, pulling force will be applied to the portion of the strip containing the group of nails in the trailing compartment 20 so that these nails will be drawn through the

compartments

18 and 16 in the order named and from thence through the outlet passage 20.

As a basis for a better and more detailed understanding of the nature and functioning of the cartridge shell 12 during nailing operations, it is necessary that the character of the nail strip 22 be clearly understood. Accordingly, and as best seen in FIGS. 8 to 11 inclusive, each of the two composite webs 26 includes a first elongated web 40 of adhesive tape which makes tangential line contact with the shank portions 42 of the various nails 24 in the series and which, when the longitudinal axes of the nails are disposed in a common plane, lies on one side of such plane. A second elongated web 44 of adhesive tape makes coextensive face-to-face contact with the shank portion 42 of each nail through a major circle sector of the cir cumference thereof and also makes face-to-face contact with the first web 40 at regions in between adjacent nails. Each nail is, in effect, thus encompassed by a ring or band of the adhesive tape material. Various types of adhesive tape are contemplated for use in connection with the attachment of nails thereto and among these are pressure sensitive tape, heat-responsive tape which becomes adhesive upon heating thereof, tape which derives its adhesive qualities by the application thereto of a suitable solvent, and tape to which there has been applied an adhesive substance such as glue. Irrespective of the particular type of adhesive tape employed, the essential features of the invention remain substantially the same.

Neither the width of the composite .webs 26 nor the spacing thereof is critical. Where small nails are concerned, a single web may be sufiicient to maintain the nails properly spaced and to hold them in substantial parallelism. Where larger nails are concerned, two or more webs may be employed. Ordinarily there will be one web 26 adjacent the lower ends of the nails spaced an appreciable distance below the nail heads 46.

In the assembled nail strip, the spacing between adjacent nails is such that wide freedom of swinging movement of each nail about each adjacent nail may take place. Preferably the spacing between adjacent nails is such that each nail may be brought into contiguity with a nail once removed therefrom. Stated in other words, nail spac ing is such that any three consecutive nails in the series may be grouped in a contiguous triangular structure.

A nail strip constructed according to the present invention, and as indicated above, is possessed of numerous advantages when employed in connection with a power actuated nailing tool. When loaded into a cartridge shell such as the shell 12, the various nail groups will readily distribute themselves within the

compartments

16, 18 and 20 and, during operation of the pneumatic or other nail driving tool the nails Will readily pass from one compartment to the next compartment under the pulling influence of the composite webs 26 as previously set forth. When the nail strip is used independently of an enclosing cartridge .shell, the strip may be caused to assume any desired form as for example the form of an involutely .wound coil such as has been indicated at 50in FIG. 11, and from which coil the nails may be successively drawn as the strip is fed endwise through a magazine.

' Referring again to FIGS. 1 to 7 inclusive for a more detailed description of the cartridge shell 12, in its illus-. trated formthis shell is preferably, but not necessarily, formed of a suitable plastic material as for example light gauge polyethylene sheet material of a transparent, translucent or opaque nature. It is comprised of two similar. complementary sections 52 and 54 (FIG. 7) each of which is of generally, rectangular cup-shape design. Considering the shell 12 in the upright position which it as sumes when loaded in a magazine and in which it is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the open rims of the

sections

52 and 54 are provided with laterally turned

rim flanges

56 and 58 respectively which are disposed in face-to-face contact and are suitably secured together as for example by heat sealing or. by an adhesive or solvent. When the sections are thus secured together, a structure is provided having top and

bottom walls

60 and 62,

side walls

64 and 66, an angular rear end wall 68, and a front wall 70 which is interrupted by the provision of the aforemens tioned nail discharge passage 30. The longitudinal extent of the shell section 52 is slightly less than that of the section 54 so that the

rim flanges

56 and 58 at the forward end of the shell are out of register as clearly shown in FIGS. 2 and 6, thus defining the nail outlet passage 3th. A tab or flap 72 is provided on the rim flange 58 and extends medially across the outlet passage 30 and serves to yieldingly restrain movement of the nails outward of the chamber 16 so that the nails will be prevented from spilling from the shell during handling of the latter prior to introduction thereof into the magazine of a power actuated tool. 7

The three

compartments

16, 18 and 20 are established by the provision of two pairs of opposed internal ribs 74 (FIGS. 6 and 7) which project inwardly out of the inclined planes ofthe

side Walls

64 and 66 and which define therebetween the aforementioned nail passages 28. Each pair of opposed ribs, in etfect, establishes a transverse dividing Wall between adjacent compartments with one of the nail passages 28 being centrally disposed in such wall. As best seen in FIGS. 5 and 7, the upper region of each rib 74 is relieved as at 76 so that the width of the various passages 28 between opposed ribs is increased to accommodate movement of the nail heads 46 through the passages. The width of thepassages 28 in the vincinity of the relieved areas 76 is slightly greater than the-diameter of a nail head while the width of the remaining portions of these passages is slightly greater than the-diameter of a nail shank. It has been found that optimum conditions of nail flow from one compartment to the next compartment will obtain when these wider upper portions of the passages are on the order of one and one-half times the diameter of a nail head and the remaining portions of the passages are one and one-half times the diameter of a nail shank.

As shown in FIGS. 2.and 3, the lower pointed ends of the nails 24 in the three

compartments

16, 18 and 20 are supported upon the bottom wall 62. The grouping or bunching of the nails in these compartments establishes three nail groups which are generally of tapered or frusto-conical configuration and, thus the downwardly and inwardly

inclined side Walls

64 and 66 serve to accommodate such a configuration and closely contain the nails within the shell.

' Referring now to FIG. 6 wherein the association of ,one of the nail cartridges With a power actuated nail driving tool has been schematically illustrated, the general outline of a nail magazine associated with a power actuated nail driving tool has been illustrated by dotted lines and designated at 80. The magazine is provided with a relatively wide nail reservoir section 82 and with a front guide section 84 through which the oriented nails successively pass in moving to the driving station 5 Where they are operated upon by an impact. driver 86.. Any suitable means may be provided for advancing the nails intermittently to the driving station, a toothed impeller wheel 88 being suitable for this purpose. The impeller wheel 88 may be operated intermittently by suitable ratchet and pawl mechanism (not shown). The manner in which the nails 24 are drawn or pulled from the cartridge shell has been previously set forth but by way of further ex planation it is pointed out that in the disclosure of FIG. 6, the compartment 16,which originally contained a full quota of nails, is shown as being substantially depleted of nails. The compartment 18 is shown as being practically depleted, while the compartment 20 is shown as containing a full quota of nails. In :the illustration of FIG. 6, the pulling force of the impeller Wheel 88 is being applied through a short section of the nail strip 22 in the compartment .16 to the nails in the intermediate section 18. It ill be understood that upon continued operation of the nail driving tool, after the nails in the compartment 18 have been substantially depleted, a linearly straight section of the nail strip .22 will extend through the two compartments 16 and18 so that the nails in the compartment 20 will then be drawn successively through both

compartments

18 and 16 inthe order named and thus conducted to the driving station S.

It should be observed at this point that the generally rounded or curved corner regions of the shell, as Well as the opposed rounded crest portions of the ribs 74 and also the sloping sections of the interrupted front wall of the shell, all contribute toward facility of nail movement within the shell. At no time are the nails obliged to pass around sharp eorners and thus a minimum of pulling tension is required to withdraw the nails from the various compartments of the shell.

The invention is not to be limited to the exact arrangement of parts shown in the accompanying drawings or described in this specification as various changes in the details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, although the cartridge 10 has been shown and described as being compartmented to provide three individual

internal compartments

16, 18 and 20, it is obvious that a greater or a'lesser number of such compartments may be provided if'desired; Under certain circumstances a single internal chamber within the shell may sufiice for the purposes intended. If desired, the sectional character of the shell 12 may be varied, it being further contemplated that the shell may be of'one-piece construction. The shell 12' is not necessarily limited to use in connection with the packaging ofnails and the same may, with or without modification, as required, be employed for the packaging of various types of interconnected unidirectionally oriented fasteners other than nails. Thus, throughout the specification and claims the term nail is to be construed broadly to include such other fasteners. Therefore, only insofar as the invention has particularly been pointed out in the accompanying claims is the same to be limited.

Having thus described the invention, What we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A nail cartridge'for use in a nail magazine associated with a nail driving machine and comprising: a cartridge shell of box-like configuration, having a top wall, a bottom wall, side walls and a frontend wall, a'transversely extending vertical partition wall projecting between said side walls and dividing the interior'of the shell into adjacent nail-receiving compartments, and a flexible nail strip disposed within said shell and, when the strip is in itsextended condition, comprising a row of nails arranged in side-by-side spaced parallel relationship, and a flexible web of -a width appreciably less than the length of the nail shanks, having a side'face thereof adhered to each nail shank, said partition wall providing a vertically elongated nail passage establishing communication between the compartments for passage of nails therethrough, said front'end wall being provided with a vertically elongated nail outlet opening, a medial region of said nail strip projecting loosely through said nail passage'with the nails thereof on opposite sides of said medialregion being groupedtogether in substantial contiguous relationship with the nails being disposed in approximate vertical positions and substantially filling said compartments whereby, upon pulling of thestri-p endwise outwardly throughsaid outlet opening the nails in the adjacent compartment will be withdrawn from the nail group contained therein until substantial depletion thereof, after which the nails in the other compartment will be drawn through said" adjacent compartment and. Withdrawn from said outlet opening.

2. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 1, wherein said vertically elongated nail passage conforms generally to the outline of a nail when the latter is disposed vertically.

3. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 1, wherein all of the nails of said nail strip have their lower ends supported upon said bottom wall, and wherein said vertically elongated nail passage is of substantially full shell height in that it extends from said bottom wall to a region adjacent the top wall.

4. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 1, wherein all of the nails in said nail strip have their lower ends supported upon said bottom wall, wherein said vertically elongated nail passage is of substantially full shell height in that it extends from said bottom wall to a region adja cent the top wall, wherein the transverse width of said nail passage at any selected level therealong is at least slightly greater than the width and less than twice the width of a nail at a corresponding level, and wherein said side walls slope downwardly and inwardly toward each other to accommodate the inherent generally frustopyramidal contour of each nail group imparted thereto by reason of its nail grouping.

5. A nail'cartridge as set forth in claim 4, wherein said side walls are formed with a pair of inwardly directed opposed trough-like ribs which define therebetween said nail passage.

6. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 5, wherein said trough-like ribs are relieved in the'extreme upper regions thereof to accommodate movement of the nail heads through said nail passage.

7. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 5, wherein said flexible web is of a composite nature and includes a length of narrow normally flat 'but flexible tape ad-hesively bonded to the nail shanks in tangential relationship and on the same side of the row along respective lines of contact extending lengthwise of the shanks, whereby, when pulling force is applied to said nail strip tending to withdraw nails from the shell through said outlet opening, the tension in said tape will be isolated from the adhesive bond between the tape and said nail shanks.

8. A-nail cartridge as set forth in claim 5, wherein the trough-like ribs are provided with side wall surfaces which are inclined inwardly with respect to each other and wherein said front end wall is provided with wall sections which are inclined inwardly and forwardly with respect to each other and which define therebetween said nail outlet opening, said inclined wall surfaces and sections facilitating nail movement within the shell toward said nail passage and said outlet opening.

9. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 8 and including, additionally, a flexible nail-retaining tab on one of said front end wall sec-tions extending at least partially across the nail outlet opening for yieldably restraining movement of the nails outwardly through said outlet opening.

10. A flexible nail strip for use in the nail magazine of a nail-driving tool and designed for cooperation with a nail-feeding mechanism of the type having a movable feeding element which engagesthe medial regions of successive nails of the strip and feeds the same sidewise and forwardly into a driver slot, thus pulling the strip bodily endwise from the magazine, said nail strip comprising: a row of like nails having enlarged heads and depending shanks and arranged in side-by-side spaced parallel relationship with their heads disposed in a common plane, and two substantially identical vertically spaced composite flexible ribbon-like webs adhesively connected to the nail shanks and serving to hold the nails captured by the webs, one of said webs being disposed a slight distance below the nail heads and the other web being disposed a slight distance above the lower ends of the nail shanks, the medial regions of the nail shanks being devoid of webbing and thus being exposed for engagement by said feeding element, each web including a first length of narrow normally flat but'film-like flexible tape adhesively bonded to the nail shanks in tangential relationship and on the same side of the row and along respective lines of contact extending'lengt'hwise of the shanks, and a second similar length of film-like flexible tape having a cylindrical loop portions in the form of major circle sectors encompassing each nail shank and adhesively bonded thereto and having intervening normally flat portions bonded coextensively to the intervening normally flat portions of the first length of flexible tape in face-toface contact therewith, said enlarged heads being closely spaced edge to edge relation and the spacing between adjacent nail shanks and the consequent extent of said intervening portions being suffi'ciently great to enable each nail to move into contiguity in either direction of nail strip flexion with a nail in the row once removed therefrom, whereby the nail strip as a whole may be indiscriminately gathered in the nail magazine without localized tilting for endwise pulling therefrom under the influence of said nail feeding element.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 6 1/-1871 Fowler 31273 X 2/ 1875 Sturtevant 206-56 6/ 1903 Pope. 7/ 19-21 Miller. 5/1940 Gardner 220-205 X 10 10 Z'workykin et. a1; 2-2020.5 X Seiferth 206--56 X Mellon 220--20.5 X Peterson 20656 Baum et a1. 206-56 JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, Primary Examiner.

THERON E. CONDON, Examiner.

I. M. CASKIE, Assistant Examiner.

Claims

1. A NAIL CARTRIDGE FOR USE IN A NAIL MAGAZINE ASSOCIATED WITH A NAIL DRIVING MACHINE AND COMPRISING: A CARTRIDGE SHELL OF BOX-LIKE CONFIGURATION, HAVING A TOP WALL, A BOTTOM WALL, SIDE WALLS AND A FRONT END WALL, A TRANSVERSELY EXTENDING VERTICAL PARTITION WALL PROJECTING BETWEEN SAID SIDE WALLS AND DIVIDING THE INTERIOR THE SHELL INTO ADJACENT NAIL-RECEIVING COMPARTMENTS, AND A FLEXIBLE NAIL STRIP DISPOSED WITHIN SAID SHELL AND, WHEN THE STRIP IS IN ITS EXTENDED CONDITION, COMPRISING A ROW OF NAILS ARRANGED IN SIDE-BY-SIDE SPACED PARALLEL RELATIONSHIP, AND A FLEXIBLE WEB OF A WIDTH APPRECIABLY LESS THAN THE LENGTH OF THE NAIL SHANKS, HAVING A SIDE FACE THEREOF ADHERED TO EACH NAIL SHANK, SAID PARTITION WALL PROVIDING A VERTICALLY ELONGATED NAIL PASSAGE ESTABLISHING COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE COMPARTMENT FOR PASSAGE OF NAILS THERETHROUGH, SAID FRONT END WALL BEING PROVIDED WITH A VERTICALLY ELONGATED NAIL OUTLET OPENING, A MEDICAL REGION OF SAID NAIL STRIP PROJECTING LOOSELY THROUGH SAID NAIL PASSAGE WITH THE NAILS THEREOF ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF SAID MEDIAL REGION BEING GROUPED TOGETHER IN SUBSTANTIAL CONTIGUOUS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NAILS BEING DISPOSED IN APPROXIMATE VERTICAL POSITIONS AND SUBSTANTIALLY FILLING SAID COMPARTMENTS WHEREBY, UPON PULLING OF THE STRIP ENDWISE OUTWARDLY THROUGH SAID OUTLET OPENING THE NAILS IN THE ADJACENT COMPARTMENT WILL BE WITHDRAWN FROM THE NAIL GROUP CONTAINED THEREIN UNTIL SUBSTANTIAL DEPLETION THEREOF, AFTER WHICH THE NAILS IN THE OTHER COMPARTMENT WILL BE DRAWN THROUGH SAID ADJACENT COMPARTMENT AND WITHDRAWN FROM SAID OUTLET OPENING.