Device for dispensing plastic fasteners

A device for dispensing an individual fastener from a supply of fastener stock, the fastener stock being shaped to include a continuous side rail to which are coupled a plurality of equidistantly spaced cross links, the individual fastener including a filament coupled at one end to a cross-bar, the device comprising:

• (a) a hollowed needle shaped to define a longitudinal bore,
• (b) a feed mechanism for advancing the continuous side rail of the fastener stock into direct axial alignment behind the longitudinal bore of the hollowed needle, the feed mechanism comprising,
• (i) a rotatably mounted feed shaft,
• (ii) a feed wheel fixedly mounted on the feed shaft, the feed wheel comprising a plurality of sprockets which are sized and shaped to engage the supply of fastener stock, and
• (iii) first and second clutch wheels which are releasably matingly engageable with one another, the first clutch wheel being fixedly mounted on the feed shaft and the second clutch wheel being rotatably mounted on the feed shaft, each of the first and second clutch wheels including a plurality of ratchets,
• (iv) wherein the number of ratchets on each of the first and second clutch wheels is at most equal to the number of sprockets on the feed wheel,
• (c) a severing mechanism adapted to cut the continuous side rail of the supply of ladder stock to yield the individual fastener, and
• (d) an ejection mechanism for ejecting the cross-bar of the individual fastener axially through the longitudinal bore defined by the hollowed needle.