US3151329A - High speed stapler - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 6, 1964 J. J. OUSSANI 3,151,329

' HIGH SPEED STAPLER Filed Oct. 4, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

JANA! .7. owzs/r/w BY 2 5W Ku ATTORNEY III! i 6 3 7/// ///////////A V United States Patent Office 3,151,329 Patented Get. 6, 1964 3,151,329 HIGH SPEED STAPLER James J. Oussani, 777 th Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. Filed Oct. 4, 1961, Ser. No. 142,917 1 Claim. (Cl. 13)

This invention relates to a stapling device, and more particularly to a motorized high speed stapling device.

This invention relates to an improvement to my inventions as described in Patents No. 2,205,861 and No. 2,403,947 and, to a certain extent, to improvements over my invention described in my copending application Serial No. 47,296, filed August 3, 1960, now Patent No. 3,022,- 512 of Feb. 27, 1962.

In the aforesaid patents and application, I have pro vided a powerized stapler in which powerizing means comprising a solenoid is activated by a switch assembly under the control of the work in relation to a depth guide which includes means first to close the circuit for energizing the solenoid to activate the driving component, and then to have the driving influence of the solenoid deactivate the switch so that the circuit energizing the solenoid is immediately broken, to open the circuit in preparation for the next stapling operation.

In my patents and application aforesaid, the cycle of closing the circuit to bring circuit closing contacts into engagement is effected by a latching pawl or catch which draws a contact carried on a strip or leaf into engagement with another contact, and includes a tail-piece extending into the path of a tripping component, to disengage the tail-piece. Such tail-piece in my prior inventions constituted a resilient element, resiliently to respond to repetitive blows it received to disconnect the latching bolt from the strip or leaf spring and break the circuit for the solenoid.

It has been discovered in the course of use of my patented inventions that in repetitive, high speed operation of the stapler, such as in book binding, the inertia of the armature struck or driven parts required a manual reduction in the speed of feeding the work, in that the modification of the circuit, such as breaking and making, was not timed at a speed equal to the speed with which work could be removed and refed after completion of the prior stapling operation.

While some phases of these shortcomings were cured by the invention of my pending application aforesaid, there still existed in these assemblies a requirement to delay the manual change in position for the repetitive operations because the contact components had not been restored to break the circuit and re-establish the solenoid to a driving position at a sufiiciently high rate of speed or in properly timed relation. This delay, I have discovered, is occasioned by the uncontrolled recoil in the movable component comprising the latching pawl which, in the aforesaid patents, although designed resiliently to take up the blow of the solenoid, failed to break the circuit motivating the solenoid sufliciently promptly, leaving the armature of the solenoid in its previously thrusted position for an unduly long period. Also, as the resistance in penetration changed due to varying thickness of the work, recoil of the latching pawl component of the switch would change the timing required between cycles, to result in having the switch contacts incorrectly positioned in manually shifting the work from one stapling position to another.

I have found that by a counter-balancing of the contact actuating latching pawl to minimize what I believe to be recoil, or to dampen its movement or other independent and untimely movement, that a great many of the shortcomings heretofore experienced in high speed repetitive stapling cycles may be cured or minimized.

Specifically, it is an object of my invention to combine in a powerized stapler, switch control means under the influence of the depth guide which is relatively free from extraneous influence due to momentum or recoil in operating the stapling device at high speeds, and which, independently of the bulk of the work, will assure a correct re-establishment of the coordinating parts to minimize interruption.

To attain these objects and such further objects as may appear herein or be hereinafter pointed out, I make reference to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof, in which FIGURE 1 is a side elevation of a stapler in accordance with my invention, parts being broken away to show the details;

FIGURE 2 is a magnified broken section taken on the line 22 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a view similar to FIGURE 2, with the stapler in the staple driving position;

FIGURE 4 is a detail of the switch in the initial position of feeding the work in relation to the depth guide switch;

FIGURE 5 is a detail of the switch at the end of the staple driving operation;

FIGURE 6 shows another embodiment of my invention.

Reference will now be made to the drawings wherein, as disclosed in the latter of my prior mentioned patents, the powerized stapler consists of a casing 10, having a base 11 arranged removably to hold a stapling assembly 12, which has an anvil 13 in relation to a magazine or track 14 for staples, over which is pivotally mounted a driver 15. A bracket 16 supports a solenoid 17 having a spring returned plunger armature 18, to drive the driver 15 in a manner more specifically described and illustrated in my patents and application aforesaid.

The casing 10 has its wall 19 provided with a guide slot 20, along which a switch assembly carrier 21 is mounted on a bracket 22. The switch assembly carrier 21 is preferably slidably held in position along the guide slot 20 by the screw threaded bolt 23 under the control of the knob 24 to adjust the stapling operation, where desired, at varying spacing from the edge of the work W.

As in my prior devices of the patents and application aforesaid, the switch assembly carrier 21 has mounted on the bracket 22, an angle plate 25 from which are supported conductor strips or spring leaves 26, 27 whose upper ends are held in insulated relationship to each other, by providing to each side of the strips or leaves, insulating blocks 28 and extending bolts 29, from one side of the plate 25 to unite the assembly. The conductor strips or leaves 26, 2'7 terminate in contacts 30, 31 and are held thereby in normally spaced-apart relationship by the preformed bending of the resilient strip 26.

To one side of the strips 26, 27, on another branch of the angle plate 25, there is mounted a downwardly depending lever 32, pivoted on the pin 33 at its upper end 34. This lever extends adjacent its lower end 35 between abutment stop pins 36, 37, anchored on the plate 25 to limit the movement of the lever 32 between these stop pins. A tension spring 35, anchored at its opposite ends to the plate 25 and lever 32, respectively, maintains the lever 32 biased against the forward stop pin 36. The terminal end of the lever 32 is provided with a pivoted shoe 38 engageable by the work W which, when fed and pressed against the shoe over the anvil 13, may move the lever 32 to a rearward limiting position against the stop pin 37.

Intermediate the upper and lower ends 34 and 35, respectively, of the lever 32, there is mounted a latching pawl or catch 39 by a pivot pin 40 extending from the lever 32. The latching pawl or catch 39 has its forward end 41 directed through the contact strip or leaf 27 and leaf 26 in cutouts 42 and 43 formed in the strips 27 and 26, respectively. A clearance slot 44 .on the plate permits the end 48 to project therethrough. The strip 26 has a shoulder 45 in the path of the tooth 46 of the latching pawl 39. The pawl 39 has its tail 47 of a weight to counter-balance the forward end 41 of the latching pawl 39 in favor of a position normally tending to maintain the tooth 46 in engagement with the shoulder 45.

The pawl 39, rearwardly of the tooth 46, is provided with a flat 48 which rides on the shoulder 45 when the pawl 39 moves from the extreme forward position to the rearwardrnost position (shown in FIGURES 4 and 6).

The pawl 39, in addition to the counter-balance of the tail and head in relation to the pivot, is made of nonspringy material, such as fibre reinforced rubber or nylon which, while relatively hard, has no bounce to a blow. This serves to dampen a blow, to preclude any recoil or independent vibration or bending blow on the tail extension 47.

The tail 47 of the pawl 39 extends into the path of the tripping slide 49. The tripping slide 49 has a vertical branch 59 provided With guide slots 51, vertically to guide the slide 49 on guide pins 52, 52 anchored on the side flange 25a of the plate 25. A finger 53, extending from the flange 25a, has anchored to it one end of the spring 54. The other end of the spring 54 is anchored to the offset portion 55 of the tripping slide 49 to maintain the slide 49 in a raised positioned in relation to the plate 25 of the switch assembly. The lower terminal of slide 49 has a finger 56 integrally formed on the slide 49 in the path of the angle plate 57 attached along the length of the driver section 15 of the stapling assembly.

With an assembly thus described, the stapling operation may be briefly described as, in the main, following the operation of the prior inventions in the patents and pending application for relatively slow, timed, repetitive cycles of operation so that when the work W is: inserted over the anvil 13 and pressed against the shoe 38, the lever 32 will be pushed toward the top pin 36 to draw the pawl 39 with it. This brings the tooth 46 into engagement with the shoulder 45 and, in turn, brings the contacts and 31 into engagement, to close the circuit through the leads 58a, 58a to the solenoid 17 and drive the armature plunger 18 into stapling operation against the driver section 15 of the stapling device.

The impact movement of the driver section 15 also serves to engage the flange 57 carried on one side thereof along its length against the finger 56, to drive the slide 49 down against the upward bias of spring 54 and engage the offset shoulder 58, as shown in FIGURE 5, permitting the leaf or strip 26 to reassume its normal position, spacing the contacts 30 and 31 from each other and de-energizing the electrical power to the solenoid by reason of opening the circuit.

By reason of the dampened construction of the pawl 39 resulting from the balance and non-bounce material of this component, the work may be quickly repeated. Thus, the impelled parts are not recoiled or bounced incorrectly and the work may be manually removed and moved to a new position. This occurs as rapidly as can be performed by the operator and as rapidly as gravity returns the pawl 39 to its proper position and the spring for the armature plunger withdraws this member from its driven position. This repetitive operation may be erformed with great assurance in that the counter-balanced and dampened, vibrationless pawl has no independent recoil or reaction to rnisplace the pawl. Thus,

the circuit control-contacts in the small interval of time between the driving or stapling operation, the manual removal of the work and its placement to a new position in relation to the movement of the shoe 38 and the lever 32 controlled by the movement of the work W and return movement of spring 35a finds these parts correctly positioned. This rapid movement in turn gives to the lever 32 a return position with assurance that the latching pawl 39 has dropped, likewise to drop the tooth 46 into engag ing position with the shoulder 45, without chance of its misplacement due to recoil, vibration bounce, avoiding the chance of not being in readiness to break contacts as fast as work has been stapled and manually moved to a new position.

While I have shown and described in FIGURES 1 to 5, one form of improved assembly for more effectively preventing the undesirable effect of recoil or independent operation which retards the time cycle of stapling because of insufiiciently rapid restoration of the parts with manual feed, I have shown in FIGURE 6 another embodiment for still further assuring rapid repetitive cycles.

Referring now to FIGURE 6, wherein all identical parts have identical reference numerals, there is shown a switch assembly 21a. In this form, the terminal 41 of the latching pawl or catch 39 is further dampened against independent bounce or recoil by providing positive biasing means consisting of a tension spring. A finger 61, extending from the lever 32a, serves as the opposed anchor for one end of the spring. A pin or eye 62 aflixed to the latching pawl or catch 39 at its terminal end 41 forms the anchor for the other end of the spring 60.

In other respects, the switch assembly operates identically with the embodiment of FIGURES 1 to 5 and is similarly installable. The use of material for the catch or latching pawl 39 so that the tail-piece 47 is of nonbounce material is augmented by dampening means in the form of the spring 60 to the extent that the operation of the stapler does not rely upon a gravitational return of the pawl to engagement with the shoulder 45. The stapler may be held erect or laterally, as conditions may make expedient for carrying out the feed of the work to the stapler.

By the construction described, high speed repetitive stapling operations may be effected as rapidly as manual changes of work can be made.

Having thus described my invention and illustrated its use, what is claimed as new and is desired to be covered by Letters Patent is:

In an electrically operated fastener driving machine comprising a housing, a fastener driving device mounted in the housing, a solenoid, a plunger operated by the solenoid to operate said device, a switch carrier mounted in the housing, a switch on said carrier comprising a pair of conductors carrying contacts, one of said conductors being resilient normally to maintain the contacts separated, a lever catch pivotally mounted on the carrier having a tooth to engage the resilient conductor to shift it, a movable abutment carried by the lever and adapted to be shifted by the work when it is inserted to fastening position to shift the latch and the movable contact into circuit closing position for the solenoid, means movable by the plunger to release the latch, the combination wherein such latch is counter-balanced by spring means biasing said catch into engaging position to minimize recoil.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,975,424 Oussani Mar. 21, 1961

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