Patent Application
20150336254
The Automatic Hammer is a combination of the common use hammer and pneumatic nail gun. A nail gun, nailgun, or nailer is a type of tool used to drive nails into wood or some other kind of material. The first nail gun used air pressure and was introduced to the market in 1950 to speed the construction of housing (Unknown, Nail Gun, n.d.).
A nail gun uses the most popular sort of nail-loading mechanism. The nails are connected together in a long strip. This nail strip loads into the gun's magazine, which feeds into the “barrel” of the gun. Springs in the base of the magazine push the nail strip into the barrel. When the hammer comes down, it separates the first nail from the strip, driving it out of the gun and into the wood. When the hammer is cocked back, the springs push the next nail into position (Harris, 2001).
Framing hammers, used for framing wooden houses, are heavy duty rip hammers with a straight claw. The hammer heads typically weigh from 20 to 32 ounces (567 to 907 grams) for steel heads, and 12 to 16 ounces (340 to 454 grams) for titanium heads. Heavy heads, longer handles, and milled faces allow for driving large nails quickly into dimensional lumber.
Framing hammers have increasingly been replaced by nail guns for the majority of nails driven on a wood framed house. A hammer is a tool meant to deliver an impact to an object. The most common uses are for driving nails, fitting parts, forging metal and breaking up objects. Hammers are often designed for a specific purpose, and vary widely in their shape and structure. The usual features are a handle and a head, with most of the weight in the head. The basic design is hand-operated, but there are also many mechanically operated models for heavier uses, such as steam hammers.
The hammer may be the oldest tool for which definite evidence exists. Stone hammers are known to be dated to 2,600,000 BCE. The hammer is a basic tool of many professions. By analogy, the name hammer has also been used for devices that are designed to deliver blows. The essential part of a hammer is the head, a compact solid mass that is able to deliver the blow to the intended target without itself deforming.
In recent years the handles have been made of durable plastic or rubber. The hammer varies at the top; some are larger than others giving a larger surface area to hit different sized nails and such (Unknown, n.d.).
This is the next generation of the hammer. This is an auto-feed system of installing nails or modern fasteners used in any common facet in general construction ranging from but not limited to from rough carpentry, finish carpentry, and all other practical uses where a fastener is utilized. The system is designed to have an interchangeable magazine and nail driver to accommodate any nail size lending itself to the diversity of this product. This system will eliminate the need to manually hold a fastener during the act of installing said fastener as the entire operation can be done with one hand as opposed to modern techniques which includes the use of employing two hands; one hand to hold the fastener and the other hand to operate the hammer. This entire single operation is accomplished through the act of manually swinging the hammer system with enough force to actuate the magazines' lateral movement upon impact with the work surface, thereby driving the fastener into the intended position. Upon impact and installation of said fastener into the work surface, the subsequent nail from contained clip of nails will lift to position from a spring pressured spring follower resulting in a fully prepared ready for actuated impact of the Automatic Hammer.
Upon installation of fasteners into the work surface, the advantage and intended use of the device is rotated 180° within the workhand. Once the hammer is rotated, the Automatic Hammer system is used to complete the installation of fastener through manual swinging and impact of the hammer head to fastener. The resulting installation of fastener does not release an additional nail on the opposite side of the hammer, due to the inertia device system. The inertia device system restrains all lateral movement of the nail magazine. The prevention of the nail magazine from lateral movement upon impact is due to the inertia device plunger extending into the inertia device notch contained within the hammer body. Once impact is complete, the inertia device plunger is reset to its natural position by the force of the inertia device spring into the inertia device housing.
This Automatic Hammer solves the inherent problem of utilizing two hands as opposed to the one-handed operation with this device. Secondly, the safety implications of one handed use resolves the issue of impact to user; from holding fastener with one hand and possible injury with hammer from other hand.
The object of this invention is to more efficiently install a fastener into a work surface with minimal effort as compared to currently used techniques due to the limited technologies of the basic hammer.
The Nail Magazine will be manufactured though the process of bending and welding to the specifications and tolerances which are to be determined during the initial prototype phase. The process of bending which is typically performed on a machine called a press brake, which can be manually or automatically operated. For this reason, the bending process is sometimes referred to as press brake forming. A press brake contains an upper tool called the punch and a lower tool called the die, between which the sheet metal is located. The sheet is carefully positioned over the die and held in place by the back gauge while the punch lowers and forces the sheet to bend. In an automatic machine, the punch is forced into the sheet under the power of a hydraulic ram. The bend angle achieved is determined by the depth to which the punch forces the sheet into the die. This depth is precisely controlled to achieve the desired bend (Sheet Metal Forming, n.d.).
The handle will be made of a composite or fiberglass material at specifications to be determined during the research and development phase. The handle will be approximately nine inches long with an oblong shape to be best suited for gripping.
Certain parts will be outsourced once they have been determined in size and strength. Such as springs (7A, 5C, 6C, 3D, and 3E), roll pins (5A and 4C), and the rubber magazine head (6B).
FIG. 1—Side view of Automatic Hammer
FIG. 2—Front view of Automatic Hammer
FIG. 3—Top view of Automatic Hammer
FIG. 4—Side view of Automatic Hammer Body
FIG. 5—Side view of Automatic Hammer Magazine
FIG. 6—Cross section Automatic Hammer Magazine
FIG. 7—Side view cross section Automatic Hammer
FIG. 8—Side view with cut in hammer body and upper magazine only
FIG. 9—Individual views of small parts of Automatic Hammer
The illustrated integrated magazine in
Through the set of a nail use of the Automatic Hammer, this entire single operation is accomplished through the act of manually swinging the component with enough force to actuate the nail magazines' (1B) lateral movement upon impact with the work surface, there by driving the fastener into the intended position. This entire sequence starts with the impact of the rubber magazine head (6B), which is connected to the face of the nail magazine (1B), with the intended work surface through the manual use of this device. Upon impact with said work surface the nail magazine (1B) moves laterally through the divided hammer handle (4A) while being supported by the guide rails (2B) within the guide rail channels (6A) and guided through the divided hammer handle (4A) to prevent side to side movement.
While this is occurring during impact with the device to the work surface, the guide rail channel spring (7A) contained within the guide rail channel (6A) is compressed. As can be seen in
After impact and removal of the Automatic Hammer from the surface, the springs move into action. The guide rail channel springs (7A) and nail driver spring (3E), which is retained by the nail driver spring stop (2E), decompress and subsequently force the nail magazine (1B) to its original resting position. The nail magazine (1B) is prevented from exiting the hammer body (1A) through the retention of a roll pin (5A) and stop tab (5B). Upon the nail magazine (1B) reaching its natural resting position, the collated nails contained in the nail magazine (1B) are forced upward along the nail guide rail (3B) by the contained spring follower (1C) which is forced by the decompression of the magazine spring (6C) which allows the top most collated nail to be guided into position by the top collated nail guide (4B) contained within the nail magazine (1B) to a loaded position against the nail driver (1E).
Once all intended nails have been set into the work surface detailed in the sequence of operations above, the Automatic Hammer is rotated 180° in the workhand. The user will then proceed to drive set nails completely into the work surface through impact of the hammer head (3A) supported by the neck (2A). The prevention of the nail magazine (1B) from lateral movement upon impact is due to the inertia device plunger (2D) extending into the inertia device notch (4D) contained within the hammer body (1A). Once impact is complete, the inertia device plunger (2D) is reset to its natural position by the force of inertia device spring (3D) into the inertia device housing (1D).
Once the Automatic Hammer is out of nails, the user must insert a fresh set of collated nails. This is done by holding the Automatic Hammer within the workhand and using off-hand to compress the magazine spring (6C) by manually pulling the spring follower (1C) until it is retained by the stop lever (3C). The stop lever (3C) is contained within the stop lever mechanism (2C) and retained in place by the stop lever roll pin (4C) which effectively compresses the stopper spring (5C). This allows for the manual insertion of a fresh set of collated nails within the nail guide rail (3B) track. Once complete the spring follower (1C) is released by disengaging the stop lever (3C).
The Automatic Hammer tool is designed to be hung from a carpenter's tool belt upside-down. This is done by a hook on the tool belt and a hammer hanger (9A) which is installed at the base of the hammer handle (8A).
