1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a roll staple cartridge on which a roll staple is loaded.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known that a motor operated stapler utilizing a roll staple in which large number of straight staples are joined in side by side and wound in a roll shape. This roll staple is loaded in a staple cartridge. It is generally performed that whole staple cartridge is exchanged when all the staples in a roll have all been consumed, however, in view of a labor and costs for disposal of the waste, a resource saving and prevention of destruction of the environment, a staple cartridge that can be used repeatedly because it is made to be capable of reloading a roll staple into a loading room, has been already proposed.
In the roll staple for this purpose, for example as shown in
Thus, as shown in
The roll staple 20 which is composed as described above, is loaded onto a cartridge 1 as hereinafter described. Firstly, a lid 2 which is provided on a front surface of the cartridge 1 is opened as shown in
Then the lid 2 is shut and the tab portion 22 is pulled out, as a result, the binding band 21 has been partly pulled out. With this pulling out action, the roll staple 20 is gradually rotated in the loading room 6 in a direction which is designated by an arrow as shown in FIG. 10. When the roll staple 20 is rotated in nearly one round, the leading end portion 20a of roll staple 20 is come to position of a guide hole 12a as shown in FIG. 9. When the binding band 21 is pulled out further, the leading end portion 20a of roll staple is led from the guide hole 12a into a guide path 12 along a guide table 7 as shown in FIG. 11.
When staples are still remaining at the guide path 12, the leading end portion 20a is directed to a trailing end portion of the remaining staples, and by strong pulling action of the tab portion 22, the adhesive tape 23 is peeled off from the leading end portion 20a of roll staple, then the binding band 21 is removed with the adhesive tape from the roll staple. As a result, loading of the roll staple 20 has been completed.
The staples which are guided into the guide path 12, are carried one by one toward a punching portion 13 at a front end of the guide path 12 by a sending means 30 being provided with sending claw and so on which are not shown in drawings in detail. The carried staples are formed in U shape one by one and the U shaped staple is punched out by a driver which is not shown in the drawings, at the punching portion 13.
However, because the adhesive surface 23A of adhesive tape 23 is set as the outer surface as shown in
For example, when the adhesive tape 23 fixedly adheres onto an inner surface of the loading room 6, a strong pulling out force is required to peel off this adhesion, it may cause a case that the tab portion 22 which is made of paper is broken by the strong force, and the pulling out could not be completed.
Further, when a strong force is required for this pulling out, in many cases the pulling out is usually done with much prepared impetus, because of this, the leading end portion 20a of roll staple 20 strongly collides against the guide hole 12a or a portion near by an entrance of the guide path 12, the impact of it may cause an alignment of staples made uneven. In such case, there may be that the leading end portion 20a of roll staple 20 could not be carried through the guide path to the punching portion 13 which is arranged adjoining to a top end of the guide path 12 because the guide path 12 is narrow.
The purpose of the invention is to provide a roll staple cartridge in which the binding band can be pulled out with small force.
The present invention has a feature that a roll staple cartridge comprising: a cartridge body having a loading room to load a roll staple which is formed of sheet staple wound in roll shape; and a lid openably and closably arranged at an opening hole which is made to load said roll staple in said cartridge body; wherein said roll staple is bound by a binding band which has narrower width than said roll staple and whose trailing end portion is adhered peelably at the leading end portion of said roll staple and which is wound around said roll staple and adhered peelably at the leading end portion onto an adhesive surface made at an outer surface of the trailing end portion thereof; said cartridge body is provided with a punching out portion from which a staple is punched out, and a guide path through which said staple is carried to said punching out portion; a leading end portion of said binding band is made capable of being pulled out in a state that said lid is closed; and said roll staple is made to be turned in said loading room by pulling out operation of the leading end portion of said binding band, and thereby to be guided so as to guide the leading end portion of said roll staple into said guide path; characterized in that: roll abutment portions are formed in an inner surface of said loading room so as to hold rotatably said roll staple with striding said binding band which are wound around the outer surface of said roll staple to prevent a contact of the adhesive surface of said binding band with the inner surface of said loading room.
Hereinafter an embodiment of the roll staple cartridge according to the present invention will be described with reference to drawings. The portions and members which are equal or equivalent to those in prior art are designated with the same symbols and explanation for those parts will be omitted.
This staple cartridge 1 comprises a cartridge body 40 in which a loading room 6 is provided to load a roll staple 20 as shown in
The cartridge body 40 comprises a back wall 4 which is formed circularly, a pair of side walls 42, 42 which are formed in one body with the both sides of the back wall 4 and same time arranged to get longer along a direction of a guide path 12 as going downward, another pair of side walls 3, 3 which are formed in one body with inside of the both side walls 42, 42, the front edges 3a, 3a of them are formed in half circular and protruding frontward from slanted surfaces 42a, 42a of the side walls 42, 42, a guide table 7 provided in one body at an under portion of the side walls 42, 42 and a guide wall 14 which is provided in front and upper portion of the guide table 7 in one body with and between the side walls 42, 42.
And the loading room 6 is formed with the back wall 4, side walls 3, 3, and the guide table 7 and an opening hole 43 to load the roll staple 20 is formed in front side of this loading room 6. The guide path 12 is formed with the guide wall 14 and the guide table 7 to guide the staple. At a front end of this guide path 12, a punching portion 13 (See
At a back portion of the guide wall 14 a slanted surface 14a is formed so that it is climbing up toward its front side (left side in FIG. 2). Further, in the both sides of the guide wall 14, a pair of holding portions 8, 8 are arranged which protrudes toward backside. A spacing distance between these holding portions 8, 8 is arranged larger than the width of binding band 21 of the roll staple 20 (See FIG. 6). As shown in
A predetermined spacing is formed between these holding portion 8, 8 and the guide table 7, and this spacing is a guide carrying path 12b to guide a staple to the guide path 12. A back portion and an under portion of the holding portions 8, 8 become guide surfaces 8b, 8b which are gently curved. And a guide hole 12a is formed between the back portion of holding portions 8, 8 and under portion of the back wall 4 and the guide hole 12a becomes an entrance of a guide carrying path 12c.
Moreover in both side end portions of inner surface of the back wall 4, roll abutment portions 10, 10 are formed, which are made of thicker portions with their thickness of about 0.2 mm (the thickness depicted in the drawings is exaggerated, and surfaces of these roll abutment portions 10, 10 are arranged to become circular abutment surfaces 10a, 10a. A spacing width between the roll abutment portions 10, 10 is set wider than a width of the binding band 21 of roll staple 20. The thickness of roll abutment portion 10 is set in order not for the adhesive tape 23 of roll staple 20 to contact with an inner surface of the back wall 4, and it may be larger than 0.2 mm.
The lid 2 is formed in circular shape, and the back portions of the lid 2 are supported by supporting shafts 5, 5 which are provided on an upper portion of the side walls 42, 42 of cartridge body 40, the lid 2 is arranged in order to open and close the opening hole 43 of cartridge body 40 with a rotation around the supporting shafts 5, 5.
An inner surface of the lid 2 is formed in circular shape, and in both side end portions of the inner surface of the lid 2, roll abutment portions 2A, 2A are formed along an inner surface 2a, which are made of thicker portions with their thickness of about 0.2 mm, and surfaces of these roll abutment portions 2A, 2A are arranged to become circular abutment surfaces 2b, 2b. Again the spacing width between the roll abutment portions 2A, 2A is set wider than the width of the binding band 21 of roll staple 20.
In a central portion of front end of the lid 2, a protruding portion 11 which is protruding along a circumferential direction of the lid 2, is formed. As shown in
An entering hole of the lower portion of this spacing 15 is arranged to adjoin the guide path 12, and the spacing 15 is used as an exit hole in order to pass the binding band 12.
Hereinafter an operation of the staple cartridge 1 which is composed as described above, will be explained.
First, the lid 2 is opened as shown in FIG. 1 and
In this state the leading end of binding band 21 is peeled off from the adhesive surface 23A of the adhesive tape 23, and the adhesive surface 23A is exposed and located between the holding portions 8 and 8, or between the roll abutment portions 2A and 2A.
On the other hand the roll abutment surfaces 10a, 10a of the roll abutment portions 10, 10, the holding surface 8a of the holding portions 8, 8, and the abutment surfaces 2b, 2b of the roll abutment portions 2A, 2A hold cooperatively the roll staple 20 so as to be rotatable striding the binding band 21 of the roll staple 20. By the arrangement of this, the exposed adhesive surface 23A of the adhesive tape 23 would not contact with the inner surface 2a of the lid 2 or other surfaces as shown in FIG. 5.
When the tab portion 22 is pulled out further on, the roll staple 20 is made to turn according as the pulling out in the loading room 6 in the direction designated with the arrow shown in FIG. 4. At this moment the roll staple 20 turns around on so that the adhesive surface 23A of the adhesive tape 23 would not contact with the inner surfaces of the loading room 6 because the holding surface 8a, 8a and the abutment surfaces 10a, 10a and 2b, 2b contact with the outer surface of the roll staple 20 striding the binding band 21.
After the roll staple 20 turns in almost one round along the inner surface of the loading room 6, the leading end 20a of the roll staple 20 is lead from guide hole 12a through the guide carrying path 12b to the guide path 12 in accordance with the pulling out of the tab portion 22.
Herein, the leading end portion 20a of the roll staple 20 which has been lead through the guide table 7, collides with a trailing end of the staples remaining in the guide path 12 and the forward movement of it, has been stopped.
At this moment as the tab portion 22 is strongly pulled out, the binding band 21 and the adhesive tape 23 are peeled off from the leading end portion 20a of the roll staple 20 and pulled out, the loading of roll staple 20 has been completed. When in a case that any of staples has not remained in the guide path 12, the leading end portion 20a is carried and set at a predetermined operating point in the guide path 12.
Rotation of the roll staple 20 is not disturbed by the adhesive surface 23A of the adhesive tape 23 during these series of steps for the tab portion 22 to be pulled out. By this arrangement, pulling out of the tab portion 22 does not require much force because a pulling out force, which is required to pull out the tab portion 22, is only a force which is required enough to peel off the adhesive tape 23 from the roll staple 20. Moreover, it never happen that the tab portion 22 is damaged and cannot be pulled out, or that the leading end portion 20a collides against the guide path 12 because of too much pulling out force. By these, troubles that may happen in the loading process of the roll staple 20, are substantially dissolved.
In the above described embodiment, the binding band 21 is peelably adhered by the adhesive tape 23 onto the leading end portion 20a of the roll staple 20, however, it may be utilized that an adhesive material is painted on the outer surface near the trailing end of the binding band 21 to form a adhesive surface, then a part of the adhesive surface is adhered peelably onto the leading end portion 20a of the roll staple 20 and at the same time the binding band 21 is wound one round around the roll staple 20 and a leading end portion of the binding band 21 is adhered peelably onto the remaining portion of the adhesive surface.
The roll staple 120 is loaded onto the staple cartridge 1 in the same manner as described above, in this roll staple the outer surface of the binding band 21 does not contact with the inner surface of the loading room 6 when the binding band 21 is pulled out from the roll staple. By this arrangement the pulling out of the binding band 21 can be smoothly achieved.
[Modification 1 of the Embodiment]
In the above described embodiment, the abutment portions 10, 10 is arranged as a thicker portions which is made in one body with the lid 2 or the back wall 4, however, they are not limited to the thicker portions as far as the step structure has been made.
For example, the abutment portions 10, 10 and 2A, 2A may be formed by strips of film or sheet adhered onto the inner surfaces 2a of the lid 2 and the inner surface of back wall 4 with much wider spacing than the width of the binding band 21. Herein it shows enough effect when the thickness of this film is about 0.2 mm, however, the thickness may be much thicker.
[Modification 2 of the Embodiment]
It is preferable that material which has low frictional resistance is selected as these film or sheet for the modification 1. By this selection the rotation of the roll staple 20 can be smoothly performed even when the outer surface of roll staple 20 gets into contact with such film or sheet because the frictional resistance is low. As an example of this material, a film made of Teflon can be brought up.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2000-225231 | Jul 2000 | JP | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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4733777 | Van Geyte et al. | Mar 1988 | A |
4833495 | Ohmura et al. | May 1989 | A |
5353933 | Takahashi et al. | Oct 1994 | A |
5685058 | Givler | Nov 1997 | A |
6039230 | Yagi et al. | Mar 2000 | A |
Number | Date | Country |
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0 475 436 | Mar 1992 | EP |
0 608 756 | Aug 1994 | EP |
0 917 936 | May 1999 | EP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20020017546 A1 | Feb 2002 | US |