Nail collator and welder

Apparatus for forming nails into a nailing strip for use with nails having nail heads, each having a registering formation for registering with the shank of an adjacent nail, in which such nails are welded to at least one wire, said nails extending diagonally to said strip with the registering formation of each said nail head registering with the shank of an adjacent nail, said apparatus comprising:

• a nail feed mechanism for feeding said nails with their nail heads arranged in a random orientation;
• a nail indexing and transfer wheel receiving said nails from said nail feed mechanism and indexing them into predetermined nail spacings;
• a nail handling slide mechanism for receiving said nails from said indexing and transfer wheel;
• rotation means associated with said nail indexing and transfer wheel and comprising friction means for engaging said nails to rotate said nails as said indexing and transfer wheel moves them from said nail feed mechanism to said nail handling slide to bring said heads into a predetermined orientation and holder means for holding said nails in said predetermined orientation once their heads have been rotated into said predetermined orientation;
• pusher means operable to push said nails from said nail indexing and transfer wheel and into and along said slide mechanism in strip disposition therein with the shank of each said nail registering with the registering formation of the head of an adjacent nail, and with said shanks of said nails lying on parallel axes which extend diagonally to the axis of said strip;
• at least one wire feed means for feeding said at least one wire to one side of said nails in said nail handling slide, said at least one wire extending along an axis parallel to the axis of said strip and diagonally to said shanks of said nails;
• electrical welding contact means for contacting said at least one wire and pressing the same sequentially against each said nail and passing a welding current therethrough sufficient to weld said at least one wire to said nail;
• and
• movement means for moving said welding contact means towards and away from said nails in said nail handling slide, said pusher means being operable to move said nails along said nail handling slide in timed relation to the operation of said welding contact means whereby to sequentially weld said at least one wire to each said nail so to from said nailing strip.