Staple forming
AssigneeThe Gillette Company
InventorNicolae Neamtu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A flat clip or staple is manufactured from a continuous strip of flat sheet material in coil form by first stamping out intermediate portions of material between each of the blanks to be formed into a discrete staple while retaining the blanks in the continuous strip. The strip is then subjected to a second stamping process where each discrete staple is severed from the strip, formed into the required shape and the excess waste material removed from the continuous strip. The second stamping process is located immediately adjacent the final stapling assembly operation, such that the staples never need to be transported to the final stapling operation site in separated form.
Claims10
A method of manufacturing a staple comprising the steps of
- providing a strip of flat material having opposite edges, said strip being in coiled condition;
- unwinding a length of said coil and removing portions of said strip from between said opposite edges of said unwound length to produce an array of at opposite ends staples in planar form interconnected one to the other at opposite edges of said coil;
- and
- rewinding said strip of staples while still in planar form to produce a second coil.
A method of assembling articles, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing a strip of flat material having opposite edges and having an array of staples in planar form disposed along the length of the strip and interconnected at opposite ends one to the other at opposite edges of said strip;
- severing at least one staple from between said opposite edges of said strip;
- bending said staple to form a substantially U-shaped staple;
- and
- operatively engaging said staple with said articles.
Apparatus for producing staples comprising
- means for feeding a strip of flat material having opposite outer edges into said apparatus;
- first stamping means for removing portions of material from between the outer edges of said strip to produce an array of staples in planar form along the length of said strip interconnected at opposite ends at the outer edges of said strip;
- and
- second stamping means for severing at least one of said staples from between said opposite edges of said strip and forming said staple about a die to produce a U-shaped staple.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.