Patent Application
20110068239
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to improvements in attachment mechanisms for attaching objects to hard surfaces, and more particularly pertains to new and improved connectors wherein the connector attaches a fastener to a bracket prior to the fastener being driven into the hard surface by a powder charge setting tool.
2. Description of Related Art
In the field of attachment mechanisms for fasteners driven by powder charged setting tools, it has been the practice to employ a connector member which attaches to a bracket by a leading end interference fit with a hole in the bracket. The trailing end of the connector member is mounted on the piercing end of a nail like fastener. The connector provides an expendable temporary connection between the nail fastener and the bracket to be fastened prior to driving the fastener into the supporting surface and securing the bracket. One example of such a device can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,028,986 granted Jun. 14, 1977 to Richard J. Beton.
Because of stability problems during the drive cycle associated with the kind of connector described in the Beton patent, others have attempted to solve these problems by adding a plastic foot to the connector to increase the surface area of the connector that contacts the hard surface into which the fastening element is driven. An example of this type of attachment member is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,220 granted Apr. 29, 1997 to Janssen et al. The solution described in Janssen et al. adds a separate element to the attachment member, increasing complexity and cost while not solving all problems associated with these devices. All the prior art connector devices have a problem of the constituent part separating during shipment. That is, the nail comes loose from the connector, and the connector comes loose from the bracket. This creates undesired labor time in the field required to assemble the parts. The present application overcomes these problems.
The leading end of frangible connector mates with a frustrum shaped aperture in a bracket. The trailing end of the connector mounts on the pointed end of a fastener. The bracket preferably has a conical frustrum shaped aperture at one end and a hold-down or tie-down means at the other end. The conical frustrum aperture has a larger opening on the leading side and a smaller opening on the trailing side of the bracket foot. The conical frustrum aperture formed to receive a conical frustrum leading end of a connector when the connector, trailing end first, is passed through the conical frustrum aperture at the leading side of the bracket foot. The connector is shaped to grasp the bracket at the small opening trailing side of the bracket foot, after the conical frustrum leading end of the connector is snugged into the conical frustrum-shaped aperture on the leading side of the bracket foot.
The exact nature of this invention, as well as the objects and advantages thereof, will become readily apparent upon consideration of the following specification in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the figures thereof, and wherein:
The connector 19, that is part of the attachment of the present invention, is shown in
The leading end 25 of the connector 19 is shaped as a conical frustrum with the larger opening 29 at the leading edge and the smaller opening 30 at its trailing edge. The smaller opening diameter matches the diameter of the cylindrical body 20 of the connector 19. The trailing edge 26 of the connector 19 is also open.
Although the leading edge of connector 19 is shown as being a conical frustrum, as the preferred embodiment, it may also be a frustrum of other shapes, such as a pyramid, or copula, or any other structure that is shaped similarly.
A ridge 23 is located just below the trailing end of the conical frustrum 25 with a space 27 between the trailing end of the frustrum 25 and the ridge 23 around the diameter of the cylindrical connector 19. The space is about the length of the thickness of a bracket 104. The ridge functions to lock the connector 19 to the bracket 104 in a manner which will be explained hereinafter.
A preferred bracket 104 is illustrated in
The connector 19 is passed through the larger opening on the leading side of bracket foot 115 by inserting the trailing end 26 of the connector so that it passes through the trailing opening 123 of frustrum aperture 120, until frustrum 25 of the connector 19 snugs into frustrum aperture 120 on bracket 104, and the ridge 23 on connector 19 snaps over the trailing opening 123 in the trailing side of bracket foot 115, thereby securely fastening the connector 19 to the bracket 104 at the bracket foot 115.
An full assembly of the attachment of the present invention is shown demonstrated in
The frustrum-shaped aperture 120 in the flat surface of bracket foot 115 creates a stabilizing footprint that provides perpendicular guidance to the fastener 15 during the entire drive cycle. By enabling the fastener 15 to enter the hard surface 13 in this manner, substrate penetration is greatly improved without causing concrete spalling or partial penetration that occurs as the result of an off angle penetration.
