Fastener driving apparatus and method

Abstract

A fastener driving apparatus having a carriage supporting a fastener driver and adapted for translation across a flooring member being fastened by fasteners from the fastener driver. The fastener driver is preferably supported in a carriage at an angle with respect to a fully vertical position for driving fasteners at an angle with respect to the flooring member and more preferably into the side of the flooring member and into the underlying structure. More preferably, the angle of the fastener driver is adjustable. Carriage motion elements permit translation of the fastener driving apparatus across the flooring and are preferably arranged so that they exert a lateral force upon the apparatus when the apparatus is pushed. This lateral force preferably causes one or more carriage guide elements running alongside the flooring member to remain in contact with the flooring member, thereby maintaining a constant positional relationship between the fastener driving apparatus and the flooring member for accurate fastener placement. A pneumatic, hydraulic, electrical, or other such circuit is employed to transmit signals from at least one trigger to a valve, an actuator, or the fastener driver, in each case resulting in actuation of the fastener driver to drive a fastener into the flooring member at a desired time. The trigger can be a manually-operated trigger, a cam-operated trigger on a carriage motion element for periodically triggering the fastener driver, a follower trigger for physically sensing structure underlying the flooring member, and/or a sensor trigger for detecting density underlying the flooring member.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.