Staples and brads for manual, pneumatic and electrical tools are all made by drawing wires and forming two flat sides on each wire. The force that flattens the wire is applied to opposite sides of the wire simultaneously to form two flat surfaces and two round surfaces opposite each other.
Each round side is used to attach each wire to the next wire to form a package by adhesively bonding the round sides. The flat sides are not used as the bonding surfaces. The bonding is performed by adhesives well known in the art.
As a result of this manufactured process, the bonding strength between each wire in a package is weak. The line of contact between each round side of each wire is at the apex point on the curve created by each round side. The inherent failure causes a weak glue line and eventually causes the package of brads or staples to fall apart in the hands of the consumer during installation, Moreover, the user must then force the separated staples or wires into a feeder eventually leading to jamming or misfeed. Sometimes these jams result in destruction of the feeding unit.
A further problem inherent in producing round wires for brads or staples is width control. Width control is critical in producing wires because any discrepancies in width will produce unusable wire to form staples or brads. The tolerances are critical for size or width of a wire which fits in a fastener gun and the drawing process now required to meet these limitations is expensive and time consuming.
A method for making a wire package for use as staples or brads is recited as forming a plurality of round wires, forming a plurality of flattened sides in each wire to prepare even bonding surfaces on each wire and bonding each wire to an adjacent wire by mating the surfaces of each wire.
It is an object of the present invention to form a package of brads having flattened bonding surfaces.
It is an object of the present invention to form a package of divergent staples having flattened bonding surfaces.
Another object of the present invention is to form a plurality of wires with a controlled width.
Yet another object of the present invention is to form wires having three or more sides which are bonded at each side to produce a wire package.
Still another object of the present invention is to control the width of each wire used in making a wire package by deforming each and making a plurality of flat sides.
A method of making a novel brad or staple packaging is disclosed and presented to illustrate wire having 3 or more flat sides and preferably 6 or more. The method controls the width of each wire and to make the package.
A novel method of making a package of wire brads or divergent staples is disclosed and illustrated in
A method of making a wire package is schematically shown in
In order for the drawing apparatus 21 and the forming station 22 to handle anywhere from 5-200 or more wires simultaneously during the process, each station is made up of multiple modular substations. The number of substations used depends on the size of the package in production. Each substation may be added or subtracted depending on the need of the production line. Likewise, the drawing apparatus may include more substations depending on production requirements.
As shown in
After the wires are bonded to form a unit, each unit is cut to a predetermined length by a severing and forming station 39 to form a wire piercing projections on one or both ends of each wire in the package. The wire package is then transferred to a deforming station 40 to make a staple package or wire package.
As shown in
The present method of forming a package of staples permits the formation of 4-12 flat bonding sides on each round wire.
In order to form a brad wire package, the wire unit is passed to a brad forming unit where heads are formed on one end of each wire. On the opposite the end, a piecing point is formed using the process previously process. The package of brads is now complete and moved to a station for packing.
In order to form a divergent staple, the wire unit is conveyed to a staple forming station where each wire unit is deformed into a u-shaped configuration. An end of the wire unit opposite of the piercing point is then cut to form a second piercing point on each wire. The bond areas created by the flat sides further prevent breaking of the bond during the deforming process.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20040118100 A1 | Jun 2004 | US |