Information
-
Patent Grant
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6722547
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Patent Number
6,722,547
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Date Filed
Friday, March 21, 200321 years ago
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Date Issued
Tuesday, April 20, 200420 years ago
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Inventors
-
Original Assignees
-
Examiners
Agents
-
CPC
-
US Classifications
Field of Search
US
- 227 8
- 227 130
- 227 131
- 227 156
- 227 2
- 173 170
- 173 1
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International Classifications
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Abstract
The present invention discloses a method and an apparatus for controlling an electronic nail gun, comprising a trigger link rod and a trigger. If a user triggers a fine-tune switch, the controller will control a three-outlet pneumatic valve to switch the three-outlet airflow according to the shooting mode set by the user, so that the valve rod of a cylinder will generate a predetermined number of times of the back and forth movements in a predetermined time to drive the trigger link rod, and the trigger will be pulled for a predetermined number of times in a predetermined time.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nail gain, more particularly to a method and apparatus for controlling the triggering of an electronic nail gun.
2. Description of the Related Art
The general structure and function of a nail gun is briefly introduced as follows. A nail gun comprises a gun body, said gun body has a gun handle and a gun head; a cylinder disposed in said gun head; a high-pressure gas pipe coupled to one end of said gun handle, and a high-pressure gas being input and introduced into said cylinder; a piston disposed in the cylinder, said piston connected to a nail shooting mechanism at the external end of said gun head, and said nail shooting mechanism coupled to a nail magazine; a safety device disposed at the external end of said gun head of said gun body, preventing the nail gun from being triggered under unsafe conditions. When the safety device is pressed down, the gun body can be triggered under a safe condition, and the piston is pushed outward by the gas pressure such that the nail shooting mechanism can shoot out the nail at the nailing position.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The primary objective of the present invention is to change the way of controlling a nail gun into manual control or electronic control, and the user can switch the control to either manual control or electronic control. In electronic control mode, the shooting mode and speed can be adjusted. Users may choose the appropriate mode as required to finish their nailing job.
The technical measures taken by this invention to solve the problem as listed below. A controlling device of an electronic nail gun built on the body of a traditional nail gun, comprises:
a controller for a user to set a shooting mode;
a power supply for supplying electric power to said controller;
a three-outlet pneumatic valve for controlling the movement according to the shooting mode set by said controller;
a cylinder having a valve rod, said valve rod moving back and forth and controlled by an airflow direction set by said three-outlet pneumatic valve;
a fine-tune switch being pressed and controlled by a user to turn on said three-outlet pneumatic valve; and
a trigger link rod, having one end coupled to the valve rod of said cylinder, and the other end producing a clutch relationship with the trigger of the nail gun; thereby the trigger of the nail gun being indirectly controlled by the valve rod of said cylinder when the trigger link rod being engaged with the trigger.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
is an illustrative diagram of the electronic controlling device being built into the body of the nail gun according to the present invention.
FIG. 2A
is an illustrative diagram of the connection of cylinder valve rod, trigger link rod, and trigger according to the present invention.
FIG. 2B
is another illustrative diagram of the connection of cylinder valve rod, trigger link rod, and trigger according to the present invention.
FIG. 2C
is a further illustrative diagram of the connection of cylinder valve rod, trigger link rod, and trigger according to the present invention.
FIG. 3
is a flow chart of the control of the present invention.
FIG. 4
is a functional block diagram of the controller according to the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The electronic control method and apparatus according to the present invention are built in the body of a traditional nail gun. The body of a traditional nail gun adopted by this embodiment (as shown in
FIG. 1
) comprises a gun handle
10
, a gun head
11
, a high-pressure pneumatic pipe connector
12
, a nail shooting mechanism
13
, a safety link rod
14
of a safety device, a nail magazine
15
, and a trigger
16
. The mechanical shooting movement of the nail gun is the same as that of a related prior art.
Please refer to
FIG. 1
for the electronic controlling device of this invention, comprising:
a controller
20
, disposed on one side of the end of a gun handle
10
, for letting a user set a shooting mode for the nail gun; the controller
20
having a displaying screen and two press buttons
202
, and the displaying screen being used for showing the set mode, and the press button for selecting and setting the mode; the shooting mode will be described in details in the following section;
a power supply
22
, being a battery (adopted by this embodiment) for supplying electric power to said controller
20
;
a cylinder
24
disposed on one side of a gun head
11
proximate a trigger
16
;
a three-outlet pneumatic valve
26
for controlling the movement according to the shooting mode set by said controller; said three-outlet pneumatic valve in this embodiment being disposed on the outer side of the gun head
11
, having a connector
261
connected to a cylinder in the gun head (not shown in the diagram), and two connectors
262
,
263
respectively connected to the front and rear ends of the cylinder
24
; the three-outlet pneumatic valve
26
utilizing a small quantity of gas in the cylinder of the nail gun; the power supply
22
supplies electric power to an electromagnetic switch in the three-outlet pneumatic valve
26
to switch the gas flow direction of the three outlets, and further driving the valve rod
241
to produce a back and forth movement;
a fine-tune switch
28
, producing a startup control signal to a controller
30
to control the startup of said three-outlet pneumatic valve
26
, and said fine-tune switch
28
in this embodiment being disposed on a movable handle rod
101
at the inner side of the gun handle
10
for letting the user to hold the handle while pressing said movable handle rod
101
to trigger the fine-tune switch
28
;
a trigger link rod
30
as shown in
FIGS. 1
,
2
A,
2
B, and
2
C, having one end coupled to a valve rod
241
of the cylinder
24
, and the other end producing a clutch relationship with the trigger
16
; thereby the trigger of the nail gun being indirectly controlled by the valve rod of said cylinder when the trigger link rod being engaged with the trigger; the trigger link rod
30
in this embodiment having a long hole
301
at an end coupled to the valve rod for letting the threaded section at one end of the valve rod
241
pass through, and fixed by two screw nuts
242
, and the two nuts
242
being tightly secured so that the trigger link rod
30
being fixed on the valve rod
241
; on the contrary, the two nuts
242
being loosened to loose the trigger link rod
30
and positioned at one end of the valve rod for the user's control for its movement. The trigger link rod
20
has a protruded latch
302
disposed at position in a direction facing the trigger
16
, and the protruded latch
302
can be latched into a L-shape hole on the trigger
16
, such that when the user shifts the trigger link rod
30
to a position separated from the trigger
16
, the trigger link rod
30
and the trigger
16
no longer have the linking relationship. Then, the user has to pull the trigger
16
to control the shooting of nails from the nail gun. On the other hand, if the user shifts the trigger link rod
30
to the opening of the L-shape hole
161
corresponsive to the protruded latch
302
, then the trigger link rod
30
attaches to a fixed position in front of the trigger
16
constituting a linking relation with the trigger
16
. In order words, if the trigger link rod
30
is driven by valve rod
241
of the cylinder
24
to move back and forth, it will produce a repeated action of pulling the trigger
16
.
In
FIG. 3
, the above device separates the trigger link rod
30
and the trigger
16
; the electronic control device is off; and the nail gun is manually controlled for a single shot or successive shots as described in the prior art. If the trigger link rod
30
and the trigger
16
have the linking relationship and the electronic controlling device is on, the trigger
16
of the nail gun is controlled by the electronic controlling device; in other words, the user presses the movable handle rod
101
to trigger the fine-tune switch
28
, and then the controller
20
will follow the user's set shooting mode to control the three-outlet pneumatic valve
26
to switch the thee outlets of the air flow, such that the valve rod
241
of the cylinder
24
produces a predetermined number of times of the back and forth movements in a predetermined time to drive the trigger link rod
30
, so that the trigger
16
also triggers a predetermined number of times in a predetermined time. Therefore, the nail gun shots according to the shooting mode.
The electronic control method of this invention is described as follows, said method comprising the steps of:
(a) setting a shooting mode;
(b) letting a back-and-forth mechanism move back and forth according to the set shooting mode; and
(c) letting a trigger of said nail gun trigger synchronously with said back and forth movement.
The controller
20
described in this method enables a user to set the shooting mode. The back-and-forth mechanism comprises a three-outlet pneumatic valve
26
, a cylinder
24
, and a valve rod
241
. The back-and-forth mechanism is controlled by the controller
20
; the trigger
16
of the nail gun is coupled by said trigger link rod
30
and said back-and-forth mechanism to generate the synchronous movement. The above method also comprises a switch for the user's control (which is the aforementioned fine-tune switch
28
to generate a shooting signal and drive the back-and-forth mechanism to start moving or stopping.
The control options of the controller
20
of the present invention and the shooting mode are described as follows. In
FIG. 4
, the controller
20
provides four main modes: shooting mode, counting mode, timing mode, and power management mode. The counting mode counts the number of nails shot from the nail gun. The timing mode counts the time of using the nail gun or the extended time initialized by the electronic control device. The power management mode disconnects the power if the nail gun has not been used for a predetermined time.
The shooting mode can be set for a single shot mode or a successive shooting mode. The so-called single shot means that if the user pulls the movable handle rod
101
once, the fine-tune switch
28
is triggered once, and the fine-tune switch
28
generates a shooting signal to the controller
20
, and the controller
20
control the valve rod
241
of the cylinder
24
to produce one time of the back and forth movement. The trigger link rod
30
drives the trigger
16
to produce one pull and shoot out one nail. The so-called successive shooting mode means that if the user pulls the movable handle rod
101
once or continues pulling the movable handle rod
101
, such that the fine-tune switch
28
generates a shooting signal or successive shooting signals to the controller
20
and the controller
20
follows the shooting speed (4˜20 shots per minute) to control the cylinder valve rod
241
to produced the number of successive back and forth movements. The trigger link rod
30
is used for pulling the trigger
16
for successive times, and the number of nails will be shot accordingly. Regardless the single shot mode or the successive shooting mode, the nail can be shot only when the safety device of the nail gun is pressed.
The method of operating and setting the controller is described as follows:
As described above, the controller
20
has an appearance showing a screen display and two pushbuttons
202
, and we called those pushbuttons as F-1 key and F-2 key, The F-1 key can toggle between the four main modes of the controller
20
, and that is the screen display will show the shooting mode, counting mode, timing mode, or power saving management mode in sequence. Press F-2 key to show the mode that the user wants to set, and enable the user to set such desired mode. For example, when the screen shows “Shooting Mode”, press F-2 key can set the shooting mode.
The shooting mode of this invention includes at least 3 more sub-modes for user's setup. Pressing the F-2 key can toggle between the three sub-modes. Until the desired sub-mode is reached, press the F-1 key to enter such sub-mode for the setup. If the sub-mode still has further option, use the F-2 key for the toggle, and F-1 key for the setup. After the setup is completed, follow the instruction to return to the upper level of sub-modes or options. The three sub-modes of this embodiment are successive shooting sub-mode, intermittent shooting sub-mode, single shot sub-mode.
The successive shooting sub-mode can set up the shooting speed, and the maximum shooting speed is about 4˜20 shots per minute. Users may continuously press the movable handle rod
101
and continuously press the fine-tune switch
28
, such that the fine-tune switch
28
continues issuing the shooting message, and the controller
20
follows the predetermined shooting speed (4˜20 shots per minute) to control the cylinder valve rod
241
to produce the successive times of back and forth movements. The trigger link rod
30
is used to successively pull the trigger
16
for several times and shoot the nail at a predetermined speed.
The intermittent shooting sub-mode is set up according to the set shooting speed; when the fine-tune switch
28
issues a shooting message for shooting a number of nails. Assumed that the set number of nails is
10
, the user presses the movable handle rod
101
once, and press the fine-tune switch
28
once, such that the fine-tune switch
28
issues a shooting message, and the controller
20
immediately controls the cylinder valve rod
241
to produce 10 times of the back and forth movements according to the aforementioned shooting speed. The trigger link rod
30
is used to pull the trigger
16
ten times and shoot out 10 nails according to the predetermined speed.
The single shot sub-mode indicates that when the fine-tune switch
28
issues a shooting message for shooting a nail. In other words, when the user pulls the movable handle rod
101
once, the fine-tune switch
28
is triggered once, and the fine-tune switch generates a shooting signal to the controller
20
. The controller controls the cylinder valve rod
241
to produce one back and forth movement. The trigger link rod
30
is used to drive the trigger
16
to pull once and shoot out one nail.
The sub-modes of the shooting mode is not limited to the foregoing three kinds, but modifications to each different shooting mode can be made without exceeding the principle of shooting and the scope of this invention. The three modes are only used to describe this invention, but not limited to the disclosed embodiments.
Compared with the traditional nail gun, the present invention has the following advantages:
A. The ways of controlling the nail gun includes a traditional manual control and an electronic control.
B. The user may switch between the manual control and the electronic control.
C. In the electronic control mode, the shooting mode and shooting speed can be adjusted. The user can select the appropriate mode as needed to assist the nailing job.
While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of a preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope of the appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements and procedures.
Claims
- 1. An apparatus for controlling an electronic nail gun, being built on a traditional nail gun structure, said controlling apparatus comprising:a controller for letting a user set a shooting mode; a power supply for supplying electric power to said controller; a three-outlet pneumatic valve for controlling the movement according to the shooting mode set by said controller; a cylinder having a valve rod, said valve rod moving back and forth and controlled by an airflow direction set by said three-outlet pneumatic valve; a fine-tune switch being pressed by a user to generate a shooting message to said controller to turn on said three-outlet pneumatic valve and cylinder; and a trigger link rod, having one end coupled to the valve rod of said cylinder, and the other end producing a clutch relationship with the trigger of the nail gun; thereby the trigger of the nail gun being indirectly controlled by the valve rod of said cylinder when the trigger link rod being engaged with the trigger.
- 2. The apparatus for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 1, wherein said shooting mode is a single shot mode.
- 3. The apparatus for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 2, wherein said shooting mode refers to the process of said fine-tune switch generating a shooting message to said controller; said controller controlling said three-outlet pneumatic valve, such that the valve rod of said cylinder producing a back and forth movement once; and said trigger link rod coupling to said trigger, such that said trigger being pulled once; and said shooting gun shooting out one nail.
- 4. The apparatus for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 1, wherein said shooting mode is a successive shooting mode.
- 5. The apparatus for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 4, wherein said shooting mode refers to the process of said fine-tune switch generating a plurality of successive shooting messages to said controller; said controller controlling said three-outlet pneumatic valve and the valve rod of said cylinder to produce a predetermined number of times for successive back and forth movements; and said trigger link rod coupling to said trigger, such that said trigger being pulled for a predetermined number of times; and said shooting gun shooting out a predetermined number of nails.
- 6. The apparatus for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 4, wherein said shooting mode refers to the process of said fine-tune switch generating a shooting message to said controller; said controller controlling said three-outlet pneumatic valve and the valve rod of said cylinder to produce a predetermined number of times for successive back and forth movements; and said trigger link rod coupling to said trigger, such that said trigger being pulled for a predetermined number of times; and said shooting gun shooting out a predetermined number of nails.
- 7. The apparatus for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 4, wherein said shooting mode has a nail shooting speed of 4˜20 shots per minute.
- 8. The apparatus for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 1, wherein said controller provides a counting mode.
- 9. The apparatus for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 1, wherein said controller provides a timing mode.
- 10. The apparatus for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 1, wherein said controller provides a power management mode.
- 11. The apparatus for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 1, wherein said power supply is a battery.
- 12. The apparatus for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 1, wherein said controller is disposed at one end side of a handle of the nail gun.
- 13. The apparatus for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 1, wherein said three-outlet pneumatic valve having a connector coupled to said cylinder in the nail gun, and another two connectors respectively coupled to the front and rear ends of said cylinder to switch the airflow in the three outlets such that the valve rod of said cylinder producing a back and forth movement.
- 14. The apparatus for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 13, wherein said trigger link rod coupled to the valve rod of said cylinder has a long hole at one end of the coupling, and a threaded section on one end of the valve rod passing through said hole and being secured by two screw nuts.
- 15. The apparatus for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 1, wherein said cylinder is disposed proximate the side of said trigger of the nail gun.
- 16. A method for controlling an electronic nail gun, comprising the steps of:(a) setting a shooting mode; (b) generating a shooting signal by the control of a user; (c) said shooting signal driving a back-and-forth mechanism to produce a back and forth movement according to said shooting mode; and (d) a trigger of the nail gun being pulled synchronously with said back and forth movement.
- 17. The method for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 16, wherein said shooting mode is a single shot mode.
- 18. The method for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 16, wherein said shooting mode refers to one shooting signal driving said back-and-forth movement to produce one back and forth movement.
- 19. The method for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 16, wherein said shooting mode is a successive shooting mode.
- 20. The method for controlling an electronic nail gun of claim 19, wherein said back and forth mechanism moves back and forth at speed of 4˜20 times per minute when successive shooting mode is set.
US Referenced Citations (8)