Claims
- 1. A hand-held tag attacher for attaching tags to merchandise using fasteners, each fastener having a bar section and a button section joined by a filament section, the tag attacher comprising: an attacher body having a hopper for holding a stack of tags and having a handle, a needle mounted to the body and having an elongate needle bore and an elongate side opening communicating with the needle bore, the needle having a pointed front end, means for feeding bar sections of fastener one-at-a-time into alignment with the needle bore, the body having a hopper for receiving a stack of tags, means for feeding one tag at a time from the hopper to a position behind the needle, a push rod engageable with a bar section of a fastener for driving the bar section through the tag and into and through the needle bore to attach the tag to merchandise, and means including a manually engageable actuator disposed at the handle, for moving the tag feeding means, the fastener feeding means and the push rod.
- 2. A hand-held tag attacher as defined in claim 1, wherein the bar section feeding means included a toothed wheel, a pawl cooperable with the toothed wheel, and gearing for moving the pawl.
- 3. A hand-held tag attacher as defined in claim 1, wherein the tag feeding means including a tag feeder cooperable with an endmost tag in the hopper and movable between retracted and advanced position, means for holding the tag feeder in its retracted position, means including a spring for moving the tag feeder to the advanced position to separate a tag from the stack in the hopper, and means for releasing the holding means during the sequence.
- 4. A hand-held tag attacher for attaching tags to merchandise using fasteners, with each fastener having a bar section and a button section joined by a filament section, comprising: an attacher body having hopper adapted to receive a stack of tags and having a handle, a needle on the body and having an elongate needle bore and an elongate side opening communicating the the needle bore, means engageable with an endmost tag in the stack for feeding a tag into alignment with the needle, means for feeding one bar section at a time into alignment with the needle bore, a push rod in alignment with the needle bore for driving the bar section along and through the needle bore while the related filament section extends through the side opening, gearing for moving the tag feeding means, a manually engageable actuator disposed at the handle, and means responsive to actuation of the actuator for moving the bar section feeding means, for moving the gearing to move the tag feeder to move a tag into alignment with the needle bore, and for moving the push rod to attach a tag to merchandise.
- 5. A hand-held tag attacher for attaching tags to merchandise using fasteners, with each fastener having a bar section and a button section joined by a filament section, the tag attacher comprising: an attacher body having a handle, the body having a hopper for holding a stack of tags, the hopper having a front wall, a rear wall, first and second side walls, and a floor for supporting the stack, a needle on the body and having an elongate needle bore and an elongate side opening communicating with the needle bore, a push rod aligned with the needle bore, means for feeding one bar section at a time into alignment with the needle bore, means engageable with a front-most tag in the stack for feeding one tag at a time into alignment with the needle bore, the feeding means being mounted for movement along the front wall, means for resiliently urging the rear wall into contact with the rear-most tag in the stack, and means for resiliently urging the first side wall against one side of the stack and toward the second side wall.
- 6. A hand-held tag attacher as defined in claim 5, wherein the rear wall urging means includes a flat spring wound into a roll and coupled to the rear wall.
- 7. A hand-held tag attacher as defined in claim 5, wherein the first side wall urging means includes a flat spring wound into a roll and coupled to the first side wall.
- 8. A hand-held tag attacher as defined in claim 5, wherein the rear wall urging means includes a flat spring wound into a roll and coupled to the rear wall, and wherein the first side wall urging means includes a flat spring wound into a roll and coupled to the first side wall.
- 9. A hand-held tag attacher for attaching tags to merchandise using fasteners, with each fastener having a bar section and a button section joined by a filament section, the tag attacher comprising: an attacher body having a handle, a needle on the body and having an elongate needle bore and an elongate side opening communicating with the needle bore, a push rod engageable with a bar section of a fastener for driving the bar section through the needle bore while its filament section extends through the side opening, the body including a hopper adapted to receive a stack of tags, means engageable with an endmost tag of the stack in the hopper for feeding the endmost tag to a waiting position, means for latching the feeding means in a latched position, means for releasing the latching means to effect movement of the feeding means to the advanced position, a manually operable actuator movable between an unactuated position and a fully actuated position through a partially actuated position, means responsive to movement of the actuator from the unactivated position to the fully actuated position for moving the push rod to drive a bar section through the needle, for feeding a bar section into alignment with the needle bore, and for moving the feeding member from the advanced position to the latched position, and means responsive to movement of the actuator from the unactuated position to the partially actuated position for releasing the latching means to feed the endmost tag from the hopper to the waiting position.
- 10. A hand-held tag attacher as defined in claim 9, wherein the feeding member includes a slide, an impaling member on the slide for impaling an endmost tag in the stack, a first rack on the slide, a second rack on the body, a first gear meshing with the first and second racks, a gear sector having means for movably mounting the first gear, a second gear meshing with the gear sector, a third gear meshing with the second gear, a latch including a first latch member rotatable with the third gear and a movable second latch member cooperable with the first latch member, a third rack meshing with the third gear, a spring for urging the slide and the impaling member from the latched position to the advanced position, means responsive to the movement of the actuator for loadig the spring and for moving the third rack to move the third gear, the second gear, the gear sector, the first gear and the first rack to move the slide and the impaling member from the actuated position to the latched position, and means responsive to additional movement of the actuator from tripping the latch to enable the spring to move the slide and the impaling member from the latched position to the advanced position.
- 11. A hand-held tag attacher as defined in claim 10, including another latch for controlling the first-mentioned latch.
- 12. A hand-held tag attacher for attaching tags to merchandise using fasteners, with each fastener having a bar section and a button section joined by a filament section, the tag attacher comprising: a body having a handle, a manually engageable actuator disposed at the handle, a needle carried by the body, the needle having an elongate needle bore and an elongate side opening communicating with needle bore, a push rod for pushing a fastener through the needle bore, the body having a hopper adapted to hold a stack of tags, a feeder engageable with an endmost tag in the hopper, the feeder being movable between a latched position and an advanced position, a latch for latching the feeder in the latched position, means responsive to the actuation of the actuator for moving the push rod to drive a bar section through the needle bore, for feeding a bar section into alignment with the needle bore, and for moving the feeder from the advanced position to the latched position, and means responsive to the re-actuation of the actuator for releasing the latching means to cause the feeder to feed the endmost tag from the hopper to the waiting position.
- 13. A hand-held tag attacher for attaching tags to merchandise using a clip of fasteners, each fastener having a bar section and a button section joined by a filament section, the attacher comprising: an attacher body having a handle, a needle mounted to the body and having an elongate needle bore and an elongate side opening communicating with the needle bore, the needle having a pointed front end, means for feeding bar sections of the fasteners one-at-a-time into alignment with the bore, the body having a hopper for holding a stack of tags, means for feeding one tag at a time from the hopper to a position behind the needle, a knife mounted by the body for weakening the tag locally at a location generally aligned with the bore, a push rod engageable with a bar section of a fastener for driving the bar section through the tag at the weakening and into and through the needle bore, and means including a manually engageable actuator disposed at the handle for moving the tag feeding means, the fastener feeding means and the push rod.
- 14. A hand-held tag attacher as defined in claim 13, including means mounting the knife for sliding movement.
- 15. A hand-held tag attacher as defined in claim 13, including a spring for urging the knife rearwardly, the push rod being effective to deflect the clip and the clip being effective to move the knife to pierce the tag.
- 16. A hand-held tag attacher as defined in claim 13, wherein the knife is movably mounted, the push rod being effective to deflect the clip and the clip being effective to move the knife to pierce the tag.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is a division of Ser. No. 654,333, filed Sept. 25, 1984, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,673,120 issued June 16, 1987.
US Referenced Citations (21)
Foreign Referenced Citations (4)
Number |
Date |
Country |
91410 |
Oct 1983 |
EPX |
53-38998 |
Oct 1978 |
JPX |
54-20935 |
Sep 1980 |
JPX |
57-16824 |
Apr 1982 |
JPX |
Divisions (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
654333 |
Sep 1984 |
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