Patent Application
20080134524
The technical field of this disclosure is the hole punching devices, particularly, the electrically-driven hole punchers for sheet materials.
Punchers are used to punch holes in paper and other sheet materials, such as cardboard, leather, fabric, and plastics, usually in order to be able to bind these sheets in a binder. Most of the punchers are manually activated with a lever or a handle.
Nowadays, some of the punchers are pushbutton activated and electric motor driven. These punchers are commonly called electric punchers. The electric punchers are known for their convenience and ease of operation.
Versatility for use with different binders is an important requirement that the customer puts on punchers. There are several different binder standards. The most popular in the US are the three-hole binders where the distance between two adjacent rings is 4.25″ and the two-hole binders where the distance between binder rings is 2.75″. Numerous adjustable punchers are known to the art where the punching members are readjusted in order to switch from a three-hole punch to two-hole punch, and vice-versa.
In the US Patent Application ##20040244554 (filed on Dec. 9, 2004, allowed on Jun. 3, 2003) I disclose a dual purpose puncher that does not require re-adjustment. In this Application, the two-hole and three-hole punch assemblies are placed on the same platform where the two-hole punch assembly is positioned opposingly to the three-hole stationary punch assembly in such a way that a central arm of the press lever frame of the three-hole punch assembly passes between two arms of the press lever frame of the two-hole punch assembly.
Ease of operation is also an important requirement that the customer puts on punchers. The device of the US Patent Application #20040244554 has the drawback of being a manual puncher having two manually-operated handles. It would be of interest to many consumers to combine the versatility of a dual purpose puncher with the ease of operation of the electrical puncher.
This invention fulfills the need for an electrically-activated, small footprint, combination two-and-three-hole puncher, hereinafter a dual purpose electric puncher. According to the present invention, the dual purpose electric puncher comprises a housing, an activation button depressably disposed on the housing, a motor, a group of three punch assemblies, and a group of two punch assemblies.
The housing encloses the group of three punch assemblies and the group of two punch assemblies. The group of three punch assemblies is aligned along one side of the platform, and the group two punch assemblies is aligned along the opposite side of the platform.
A gap allowing paper access to three punches is from one side of the dual purpose electric puncher, and other gap allowing access to two punches is from the other, opposing side of the puncher. The group of three punch assemblies and the group of two punch assemblies are activated simultaneously by the activation button.
The motor 4 is also driving a group of two punch assemblies 6, also enclosed by the housing 2. The group of two punch assemblies 6 is aligned along the opposite side of the housing 2.
As their names suggests, the group of three punch assemblies 5 and the group of two punch assemblies 6 are comprised of three and two punch assemblies 7 respectively.
The punch assembly 7 is comprised by a punch 8 urged to move up and down by a gear train 9. In-turn, the gear train 9 is urged to move by the motor 4.
The housing 2 is comprised of an upper housing portion 10 and a lower housing portion 11. The upper housing portion 10 fixedly supports the group of three punch assemblies 5 and the group of two punch assemblies 6. The upper housing portion 10 may include a false ceiling 12. The lower housing portion 11 may slidably support a three punch paper stop 13 and a two punch paper stop 14.
The upper housing portion 10 is fixedly disposed on the lower housing portion 11 forming a gap 15 between the upper housing portion and the lower housing portion. The gap 15 allows paper access to the group of three punch assemblies 5 from a side of the dual purpose electric puncher 1.
The upper housing portion 10 and the lower housing portion 11 form other gap 16 on an opposite side of the housing. The other gap 16 allows paper access to the group of two punch assemblies 6 from an opposite side of the dual purpose electric puncher 1.
The group of three punch assemblies 5 and the group of two punch assemblies 6 is activated simultaneously with the activation button 3.
The provided disclosure combines a three-hole electric puncher and a two-hole electric puncher in a single unit while utilizing the desk space in the most efficient manner.
