A portable automatic bundle-tying tool for wrapping flexible plastic tape around a bundle of wires or similar elongated objects, drawing the tape taut to compress the bundle, bonding the overlapped tape and then severing the bonded tape to release the wrapped bundle, comprising
- A. a pistol-grip housing having a hollow cental enclosure, and a movable trigger resiliently depressible from a forward position to a depressed latched position,
- B. a tape-guiding fixed jaw protruding from the forward end of the housing,
- C. a tape-guiding movable jaw pivoted at the forward end of the housing for movement between an open position spaced away from the fixed jaw and a closed position abutting the fixed jaw in which means forming inward-facing, tape-guiding grooves in both jaws are aligned to encircle a bundle-tying zone,
- D. a resiliently biased tape-rewinding tape storage spool rotatably mounted on the rear of the housing,
- E. an arming linkage inside the hollow housing operatively connecting the trigger to close the movable jaw and incorporating an arming kicker strut moved rearwardly when the trigger is depressed to its latched position,
- F. drive means in the housing having a forward mode tractively drawing flexible plastic tape from the tape storage spool and feeding it endwise via the tape guiding grooves to encircle the tying zone with at least one layer of tape whose leading end is thence returned to overlap itself in a tape bonding zone, and a reverse mode retracting the tape to draw the tape around the bundle,
- G. an ultrasonic transducer anchored in the housing and having a bonding tip protruding into the bonding zone,
- H. a tape cutter mounted near the bonding tip for movement between a forward position protruding into the bonding zone and a rearward retracted position,
- I. a pair of tape-clamping anvil blades having thin beveled tips flanking the transducer's bonding tip and movable between an unclamped position wherein the anvil tips are moved forward and retracted laterally and a clamped position wherein the anvil tips are moved inward and rearward into juxtaposition directly in front of the bonding tip for sandwiching and clamping the overlapped tying tape in the bonding zone between anvil blade tips and bonding tip,
- J. a forwardly resiliently biased retracting arm pivotally mounted in the housing provided with means connecting its free end to the anvil blades and with a kicker plate engageable with the kicker strut, the arm being movable between a forward position wherein the anvil blade tips are laterally retracted forward, and a rear latched position wherein the anvil blade tips are drawn back into their clamped position, with the kicker plate moved rearward past the kicker strut which is resiliently biased into the path of the kicker plate and thereby holds the retracting arm depressed and the anvil blade tips closed,
- K. means operatively connecting the cutter to the arming linkage and positioning the cutter in its retracted position when the movable jaw is closed and in its forward position when the movable jaw is open,
- L. control means responsive to the completion of the tape feeding forward drive mode operation and thereafter propelling the retracting arm to its rear latched position clamping the anvil blade tips against the overlapped tape to actuate timing means initiating reverse mode tape tautening, and then energizing the transducer to bond the overlapped tape,
- M. and trigger release means responsive to completion of the tape-bonding operation of the transducer and connected to unlatch the depressed trigger, releasing the retracting arm from its latched engagement latched rear position with the kicker strut which then moves the cutter forward to sever the rearmost layer of tape while opening the anvil tips and the movable jaw to release the wrapped and tied bundle.