The present invention relates to desktop staplers. More precisely the present invention discloses improvements to a staple feeding system.
For consumer applications staples are used in both staple guns and desktop staplers. Both may be referred to as staplers. Staple guns usually employ a heavier staple and stapling mechanism than desktop staplers, and do not include a separate base and anvil element. However desktop staplers may also be of a heavy-duty format if intended for large stacks of paper. Standard light duty staplers typically fasten a maximum of 20 sheets of paper.
The staples are provided in a rack that includes a line of staples glued together edge-to-edge. The strength of the glue must be sufficient to hold the rack together during handling and use of the staples. The staples are held in or on a track; a front most staple extends past the track to a position under a striker. The striker shears off the front staple so that the staple can be ejected out if the stapler. The glue that holds the rack together must not be too strong or it will require excessive force to separate the front staple by shearing. The consistency of the glue that holds the staples in the rack is an important part of manufacturing staples.
In a direct action stapler, where a handle is directly linked to the striker, a user must directly overcome the staple rack glue shear force needed to separate the front staple. Direct action is typical in desktop staplers. The shear force can be a large part of the apparent effort of such stapling. In a spring-actuated stapler the impact action makes the user unaware of the shearing step of ejecting a staple. The fast moving spring is plenty strong enough to overcome the shear strength of the glue. In any spring actuated stapler the energy of the striker after it released is far more than required for shearing a normal staple.
Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/443,854 shows a light duty spring actuated desktop stapler. The disclosure is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. In a light duty spring actuated desktop stapler the spring may not be strong enough to shear the staple if the handle is not pressed far enough to release the striker. In this case the striker has no momentum, but rather presses the staple with just the static force generated from deflection of the spring. The design of the above referenced application is very efficient. This of course is desirable to make an easy to operate stapler. However it means that the static force of the deflected spring will be particularly low since a less stiff spring is needed in the efficient design. If the spring cannot shear the front staple with static force, then the striker will remain atop the front staple with the spring energized. In this condition the device may be non-functional until the staple is ejected. Further the staple may eject unexpectedly.
It is desirable to reduce the force required to shear the front staple from a rack.
To overcome the strength of a glued bond it is familiar that peeling off portions of the bond until the entire bond is detached is easier than pulling at the entire bond at once. The same approach may be used to reduce the peak force required to shear the front staple of a rack.
According to one embodiment of the invention a staple track is structured with an asymmetric front-end support for the staple rack. This structure allows the front staple to be peeled off from one end to another rather than to be sheared all at once from the second staple. The individual staples lie side-to-side across the width of the track. The front of the track is lowered under one side of the forward most staples. Therefore the forward staples are fully supported by only one side of the track at only one side of each staple.
If the striker presses the front staple the unsupported sides of the forward group of staples will move down slightly while the sides supported by the track cannot move and remain in a higher position. The staple rack can flex slightly at the forward staples because of the resiliency of the glue that holds them together. One edge of the striker will press the higher side of the front staple while it will not press the lower side of the front staple. The higher side will thus begin to peel away from the adjacent second staple while the front and second staple move down slightly together at the unsupported side. At a predetermined position the second staple contacts the lowered side of the track and the remaining portion of the front staple is fully sheared from the second staple.
According to the above structure the force required to separate a front staple from a staple rack is greatly reduced. Therefore a low force spring can cause such a separation even when pressing statically. When used in a direct action stapler the reduced separation force will be provide an easier operation.
Although the action with slow movements causes asymmetric positions of the staples, under normal fast operation the front staple shears off instantly with no ill effects upon the operation of the stapler. The action occurs quickly enough that the staple rack has no time to flex or twist.
Power spring 90 is shown as a double torsion coiled spring in
In
However it is possible that a user will not press the handle down all the way to the release point. The user could release the handle before a staple advances into guide channel 11. This would represent a highest striker position lower than shown in
Another possibility is that handle 30 is pressed down just far enough that striker 100 reaches the position of
The force on staple 401 is limited to the static force created by deflected spring 90; there is no impact force. If spring 90 is of light duty it is possible that staple 401 will not shear off from rack 400. Rather striker 100 will stay in the upper position and spring 90 will remain energized. This is undesirable since staple 401 could eject unexpectedly at some later time as the staple rack glue bond fails.
A second staple is the staple immediately adjacent to and behind front most staple 401. Therefore when staple 401 is described as separating from the rack it more precisely means separating from the second staple of the rack. In the above scenario the glue bond holding staple 401 to the second staple of the rack must be sheared all at once since staple 401 moves straight down. If the glue can be sheared in locally progressing sections in a peeling action the peak force to shear the staple will be significantly reduced. The required force is limited to just the glue section that is being sheared at a given moment. In
In
It is possible that the shear force to separate staple 401 may be low enough that staple 401 may be fully sheared from rack 400 before there is any contact with the front corner of ramp 83. In this case the force to twist rack 400 is by itself sufficient to complete the peeling action that finally detaches staple 401.
In the above discussion handle 30 is being raised slowly, so staple 401 is sheared off by a slow action of spring 90. As handle 30 is fully raised staple 401 is slowly pushed out from guide channel 11 through staple ejection slot 11a.
In
Ramps 83 or 583 may be of different particular shapes. For example they may include a stepped or notched transition, or be of an arcuate profile.
In either design for a track, staples of a rack are supported on a first and a second respective staple side by first and second support surfaces of the track or a track assembly. In track 80 the support surfaces are two rails extending up into rack 400 to contact each side of the undersides of staples. In track 580 the support surfaces are each side of a channel bottom that supports the bottom tips of the legs at each side of the staples. At the location of ramp 83 or 583, the staples are supported by only one of the staple support surfaces.
In a further alternate embodiment,
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20050127129 A1 | Jun 2005 | US |