Anchor
OwnerJoel Duane HERMANinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An anchor for a cable or rod includes a ferrule or other spring stop, to which one or more springs or arms are coupled. The spring stop may be attached to an end or other region of the cable to enable the cable to be tensioned against a support structure. The one or more springs or arms may be, for example, one or more coil springs, one or more conical coil springs, two or more cantilever springs, or one more arms. The anchor is twisted or pushed through a hole in the support structure from a first side to a second side and contacts the surface of the second side. A ferrule spring stop may be swaged to the cable or rod.
Claims18
An anchor comprising:
- a spring element sized to receive a portion of a component, the spring element comprising a first region, a second region and a third region, where
- the second region comprising a coil spring having a plurality of coils for which adjacent coils are spaced apart, where the coil spring of the second region is coupled to the first region and the third region of the spring element;
- and
- the third region comprises a coil spring having a plurality of coils for which adjacent coils are in contact with one another, where the coil spring of the third region has an external diameter less than an exterior diameter of the coil spring of the second region;
- and
- a spring stop, configured to couple to the component and to contact the first region of the spring element, thereby preventing motion of the spring element along the component in at least a first direction, the spring stop having an exterior cross dimension smaller than the exterior diameter of the coil spring of the second region;
- whereby the anchor is configured to couple the component through a hole in a support structure for which a cross dimension of the hole is greater than the exterior cross dimension of the spring stop, greater than the external diameter of the coil spring of the third region and less than the first exterior diameter of the coil spring of the second region, and
- where the plurality of coils of the coil spring of the third region are sized to fit within the hole in the support structure to form a grommet when the component is coupled to the support structure via the anchor.
A method for forming an anchor for anchoring a component through a hole in support structure, the hole having a hole diameter and the method comprising:
- providing a wire having first, second and third regions;
- forming a first coil spring in the second region of the wire, the first coil spring having a diameter greater than the hole diameter and having a plurality of coils with adjacent coils spaced apart;
- and
- forming a second coil spring in the third region of the wire, the second coil spring having a diameter less than the hole diameter and having a plurality of coils with adjacent coils in contact with each other;
- where the first region is configured to contact a spring stop coupled to a component.
A method for anchoring a component through a hole in a support structure, the method comprising:
- placing a portion of the component inside a plurality of coils of a spring element, where the spring element comprises a first coil spring having a diameter greater than a diameter of the hole and having a plurality of coils with adjacent coils spaced apart, the first coil spring coupled to a second coil spring having a diameter less than the hole diameter and having a plurality of coils with adjacent coils in contact with each other;
- coupling a spring stop to the component, where the spring stop is configured to contact the first region of the spring element, thereby preventing motion of the spring element along the component in a first direction, the spring stop having an exterior cross dimension smaller than a diameter of the hole in the support structure;
- twisting the first coil spring through the hole in the support structure from a first side of the support structure to second side of the support structure, such that at least a portion of the second coil spring is located within the hole to form a grommet;
- and
- tensioning the component to compress the plurality of coils of the first the coil string between the second side of the support structure and the spring stop.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.