Hog ring fastener, tool and methods
AssigneeDuo-Fast Corporation
InventorsJames E. Kerrigan, John E. McMenamin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A hog ring fastener has a straight line base and legs each perpendicular to the base but offset at an angle to each other permitting the use of relatively inexpensive "C" points. A stick of the fasteners is generally channel shaped, with the legs and bases all angularly inclined to the longitudinal axis of the stick. The assembly of fasteners is made in a multiwire process by severing blanks and forming the legs at a bias to a line perpendicular to the wire direction. A tool and method for applying the fastener carries out two different deformation stages, one being a predeformation stage to incline the legs of the fastener inward to a preferred application position.
Claims9
A method for making an assembly of hog ring fasteners and for applying a fastener of the assembly to a workpiece, said method comprising the steps of:
- advancing numerous wires in parallel side by side relation in a flat planar array;
- adhering said wires to one another in said array;
- severing blanks from an end of said array, each blank including numerous side by side wire segments of equal length extending parallel to one another in a first direction;
- and
- bending said blank to form substantially 90 degree corners along two bending lines to form a U-shaped stick of adhered hog ring fasteners each having a base and two legs;
- said severing step including cutting the wires along a cutting line inclined by a bias angle to a perpendicular to said first direction;
- said bending lines being parallel to said cutting line and said legs of each hog ring fasteners being offset from one another;
- removing a fastener from the stick of fasteners;
- and
- deforming the base of the removed fastener to form the fastener into a loop around a workpiece by moving the legs of the fastener into proximity with one another.
A method of making and applying a hog ring fastener to a workpiece comprising the steps of:
- bending a length of straight wire at two spaced apart regions to form a fastener base and a pair of fastener legs lying in planes generally parallel to one another and extending from opposite ends of the base at about 90 degrees to the base;
- said bending step including maintaining the wire straight except at corners where the legs join the base and offsetting the legs at an offset angle relative to one another;
- positioning the fastener partly around a workpiece;
- and
- deforming the base of the fastener to loop the fastener around the workpiece by moving the legs of the fastener into proximity with one another.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.