Driver for riveting fasteners to a belt

Abstract

A novel apparatus is provided for riveting belt fasteners to belts wherein a plurality of rivet assemblies are driven simultaneously while aligned and guided by elongated bores of a guide block assembly. An impact distributing driver is employed to transmit impact force from a single hammer simultaneously to a plurality of rivet assemblies held in a guide block above a belt fastener. In the preferred embodiment, all of the rivet assemblies for a particular belt fastener may be driven simultaneously. The preferred driver comprises a metal cap with a plurality of elongated metal drive rods extending downwardly therefrom to be received within the bores of the guide block assembly. The drive rods are cushioned against fracturing at their upper connections to the cap by an elastomeric cushioning material, which is preferably a polymeric plug secured in a recess in the cap. Preferably, the drive rods have upper ends force fitted into bores in the metal cap with the plug surrounding all of the drive rods and allowing the upper ends of the drive rods to flex without fracturing when non-coaxial loads are applied to the driver. The plug is precast and is force-fitted into the recess and into tight engagement with the upper ends of the drive rods.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.