Patent Application
20190366528
The invention pertains to hand tools. More specifically, the invention pertains to a stapling device for hanging a strand of wired lights.
During holiday seasons, holiday lights are often hung on the exterior of residential dwellings. More specifically the holiday lights are often secured to the underside of the eaves or soffits of the dwelling. The holiday lights are often secured to the soffit by means of a stapling device such as a staple gun. As soffits of most dwellings are at an elevated position, the installer must often use some person elevating device, such as a ladder. This can present several problems.
First the ground near the side of residential dwellings is often uneven or lined with shrubbery. This makes placement of a ladder difficult and often times unsafe for the installer. Second, holiday lights are often installed during holiday seasons which occur during the cold winter months. Using a ladder on uneven ground during icy or snowing conditions can prove unsafe and dangerous to the installer as well. Third, for multiple story residential dwellings, often times a free-standing ladder will not reach the soffit and an extension ladder must be used. An extension ladder is rested against the exterior finish of the dwelling and can often damage softer exterior finishes such as stucco. Extension ladders are often both unsafe and damaging when placed on false exterior accents such as stucco coated foam entry pillars. Finally, a ladder provides a limited span for which the installer can secure the holiday lights to the soffit before he or she needs to reposition the ladder. Over extension on a ladder to achieve a greater span to install the holiday lights is dangerous and unsafe.
For these reasons listed above falls from ladders are often common occurrences for installers. While ladder falls can be dangerous for any population, injuries resulting from ladder falls are often more severe for the elderly population. These injuries can lead residential dwelling owners to forgo installing holiday lights or hire expensive contractors to install the holiday lights. This invention is a device which allows for the installation of holiday lights by an installer without the use of a person elevating device. The installer can safely and quickly walk around the exterior of the residential dwelling and install the holiday lights without the use of a ladder or the need of an expensive contractor.
The present invention allows an installer to use the device to hold and pull tension on a string of holiday lights and secure them to the underside of a soffit on a dwelling. The activation of the stapling device is achieved by a pushing motion against the surface to be stapled to rather than the squeezing motion of current stapling devices. The staple device also provides greater mobility to the installer as opposed to the current method of positioning and repositioning a ladder around the base of the dwelling. The present invention allows the installer to quickly traverse the base of the dwelling and install the holiday lights in a more efficient manor than with the use of a ladder and squeeze-type staple gun
To assist in the understanding of the present disclosure the following list of components and associated numbering found in the drawings is provided herein:
Referring now to
The external components of the shown in
Step 1 shows the tension and activation component 14 making contact with the surface 17. Notice the tension and activation component 14 is in the fully extended position, the rotation gear 10 is at the start location, and anvil activation arm 3 and the staple anvil 2 are in the start position as well.
In step 2 the installer pushes the extension rod 18 further towards the surface 17. This causes the tension and activation component 14 to retract, which rotates the rotational gear 10. The rotation gear 10 with rotation gear teeth 12 engaging with rack gear 13 causes the anvil activation arm 3 to rotate about rotation axle 4 and starts to raise the staple anvil 2 and compress the anvil spring 1. As the staple anvil 2 raises the staple tension spring 7 pushes a staple 6 under the staple anvil 2.
In Step 3 the installer continues to push the extension rod 18 further towards the surface 17. This continues the actions of step 2 until the anvil activation arm 3 rotates around rotation axle 4 completely and the staple anvil 2 slips off the anvil activation arm 3. Once this occurs, the stored energy in the now fully compressed anvil spring 1 drives the staple anvil 2 down onto the top of the staple 6 and drives the staple 6 out the bottom of the staple device 9, over a portion of the wired lights 19 and into the surface 17. As the staple device 9 is then moved away from the surface 17 the system will reset and is ready for another full operational cycle. The reset is accomplished with a torsion spring (not shown) on the rotation axle 4, or, alternatively, with a coil spring (not shown) attached to the anvil activator arm 3. Either of those two components will create a force pulling the anvil activator arm 3 back down to its starting point.
Having described the present invention, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that many and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest themselves without departing from the scope of the present invention.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/679,813 filed on Jun. 2, 2018 titled “STAPLE FASTENING DEVICE WITH EXTENSION ROD” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all that is taught and disclosed therein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62679813 | Jun 2018 | US |
