Patent Grant
7111540
The technical field of this disclosure is the punching devices, particularly, the hole punchers for sheet materials.
Punchers are used to punch holes in paper and other sheet materials, such as cardboard, leather, fabric, plastics, and similar materials, usually in order to be able to bind these sheets in a binder. 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. For example, in the U.S. Pat. No. 2,534,094, J. A. Yerkes discloses an adjustable paper puncher where 11 removable punch members can be inserted into all or any of the available 11 holes. In this puncher, a switching from two to three holes requires a readjustment by pulling and reinserting of the punch members.
In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,734, Park-Son Hse discloses a multipurpose puncher that includes a pair of one-hole stationary puncher assemblies positioned separately on a base, and a movable puncher assembly mounted slidably between these stationary assemblies. This puncher permits to switch from a single-hole punch and a two-hole punch without making any changes to a puncher. But switching from a two-hole to three-hole punch requires a readjustment.
In the U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,334, Alfred J. Evans and Balaji Kandasamy disclose another adjustable paper puncher where the switching from two to three holes requires a readjustment from the bottom of the punch by sliding the punching heads to the required punching positions.
Placing two separate punchers, a two-hole and a three-hole puncher, side-by-side on the same platform has never made any sense because such a dual purpose unit would take as much space on the desk as two separate units.
This invention fulfills the need for a small footprint combination two-and-three-hole puncher where the switch from two to three hole punching and back doesn't require any readjustment.
According to the present invention, a dual purpose puncher comprises a platform, a two-hole punch assembly, and a three-hole punch assembly. Both assemblies are substantially aligned on the platform while facing opposing directions. Thereby, the access to the two-hole puncher is from one side and to the three-hole puncher is from the other, opposing side.
A central arm of a press lever frame of the three-hole punch assembly either passes through, or engages, via an activator rib, a roller bar of the press lever frame of the two-hole punch assembly thus combining both assemblies into one single unit. By engaging both press lever frames in the above-described manner, and aligning feet of both units, a substantial footprint area is saved as compared to simply positioning two punch assemblies on the same platform.
A support for the three-hole punch assembly 11 is comprised of three feet 5 fixedly disposed on the platform 3. A press lever frame of the three-hole punch assembly 12 integrates in one part a long press lever 13, two side arms 14 and a central arm 15, all three arms supporting the long press lever and each of the three arms pivotably disposed on each of the three feet 5. A punch set of the three-hole punch assembly 16 comprises three punch members 10, each of these three punch members pivotably disposed on each of the side arms 14 and the central arm. The punch set of the three-hole punch assembly 16 is drivable by the press lever frame of the three-hole punch assembly 12 urging it to slide up and down.
The central arm 15 of the press lever frame of the three-hole punch assembly 12 passes between two arms 8 of the press lever frame of the two-hole punch assembly 6, whereby visually combining these two punch assemblies and the platform 3 into a single unit while reducing the platform's footprint thereby utilizing the desk space in the most efficient manner.
A modified press lever frame of the three-hole punch assembly 23 integrates into one part the long press lever 13, the side arms 14, and a modified central arm 24. An activator rib 25 stretches along the inner side of the modified central arm 24.
When the modified press lever frame of the three-hole punch assembly 23 is depressed, the activator rib 25 engages the roller 22 pushing downward the modified press lever frame of the two-hole punch assembly 19 urging all five punch members 10 to slide up and down. It should be clear to anyone skilled in the art that a similar arrangement is possible where the short press lever is positioned above the long press lever and hand-activated, and the long press lever is positioned below the short press lever and auto-activated.
This arrangement mechanically combines the modified two-hole punch assembly 17 and the modified three-hole punch assembly 18 into a single unit while reducing the platform's footprint thereby utilizing the desk space in the most efficient manner.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1335932 | Bayles | Apr 1920 | A |
| 2534094 | Yerkes | Dec 1950 | A |
| 3073199 | Yerkes | Jan 1963 | A |
| 3808933 | Buan | May 1974 | A |
| 4466322 | Mori | Aug 1984 | A |
| 4724734 | Hse | Feb 1988 | A |
| 5012712 | Nordquist | May 1991 | A |
| 5342276 | Fujiwara et al. | Aug 1994 | A |
| 5829334 | Evans et al. | Nov 1998 | A |
| 5974929 | Kugel et al. | Nov 1999 | A |
| 6076447 | Damask | Jun 2000 | A |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20040244554 A1 | Dec 2004 | US |
