Back to results
US 4,047,611 AGranted
Air-powered, self-feeding screw driving tool
AssigneeTriad Fastner Corporation
InventorHarold E. Damratowski
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
AssigneeTriad Fastner Corporation
InventorHarold E. Damratowski
Estimating the term…
An air-powered, self-feeding screw driving tool and screw-containing pods capable of being assembled into a continuous belt of screw-containing pods for use with the tool. The belt of screw-containing pods are coiled within a canister for selective feeding therefrom by an air-powered pawl operated star wheel. The pods are sequentially positioned forward of the bit of a carriage mounted air-powered screwdriver which is selectively operated in coordinated relationship with the orientation of the screw-containing pods by a common air source utilizing a single trigger control. Each of the screw-containing pods has means therein to retain a screw and to guide the screw as it is being driven into the workpiece. When formed into a belt, the individual pods are so joined that the belt may be coiled to be received in the tool canister and the belt may be twisted so that the axes of the pods of that part of the belt being fed by the star wheel lie at substantially right angles to the pods of that portion of the belt coiled within the tool canister.
A belt of pods for use with an automatic fastener driving tool, each pod being adapted to contain a fastener of the type having a head and a shank, each of said pods comprising an upper portion and a lower portion joined together so as to be rotatable with respect to each other about a common pod axis such that said belt may be coiled and means enabling said belt to be twisted such that the axis of adjacent pods may be oriented non-parallel with respect to each other.
The structure claimed in claim 20 wherein said fastener maintaining and centering means within each pod comprises a plurality of radially inwardly extending fingers, said fingers normally assuming a position wherein the free ends of said fingers define a perforation coaxial with the axis of said pod and of a diameter slightly less than the diameter of the shank of the fastener to be contained within said pod, whereby to engage the shank of the fastener to maintain the fastener within the pod and to center the shank of the fastener within the pod during a fastener driving operation, said fingers being resilient whereby to permit passage of the head of the fastener therebeyond during a fastener driving operation.
The structure claimed in claim 20 wherein said fastener maintaining and centering means within each pod comprises a washer-like element having a perforation therethrough coaxial with the axis of said pod and of a diameter slightly less than the diameter of the shank of a fastener to be contained within said pod whereby to receive and engage the shank of the fastener to maintain the fastener within the pod and to center the shank of the fastener within the pod during a fastener driving operation, said washer-like element being removable from said pod by the head of the fastener during a fastener driving operation whereby to serve as a washer for the fastener.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.