Elongated-member-driving apparatus – With means to move or guide member into driving position – Including supply magazine for constantly urged members
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-09
2001-11-20
Smith, Scott A. (Department: 3721)
Elongated-member-driving apparatus
With means to move or guide member into driving position
Including supply magazine for constantly urged members
C227S019000, C227S120000, C227S127000, C029S243560
Reexamination Certificate
active
06318619
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic clip driver, and more particularly to an automatic clip driver capable of conveniently and continuously conducting a document binding process by use of a clip at any posture (orientation or position) thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1
illustrated a conventional clip driver for binding sheets of paper such as documents or the like by use of a clip. Referring to
FIG. 1
, a longitudinally-extending guide opening
1
is provided at the top wall of a casing
6
. A pushing knob
5
is mounted to the top wall of the casing
6
in such a fashion that it slides longitudinally along the guide opening
1
. The pushing knob
5
is provided at opposite side surfaces thereof with guide grooves
5
′ respectively engaged with opposite longitudinal edges
1
′ of the guide opening
1
. A clip insertion slot
3
is formed at the rear end of the casing
6
in order to allow clips to be inserted into the interior of the casing
6
. In order to use the clip driver having the above mentioned structure, the pushing knob
5
is first moved to the rear end of the guide opening
1
under the condition in which clips are received in the interior of the casing
6
. Thereafter, the casing
6
is inclined in such a fashion that its rear end is raised, thereby causing the clips to move toward the front end of the casing where a document insertion inlet is formed. A Document is then inserted into the document insertion inlet. In this state, the pushing knob is moved toward the document insertion inlet to force the foremost clip to grasp the document. Thus, the document is bound by the clip.
However, the conventional clip driver having the above mentioned structure is inconvenient in use in that it requires a rearward movement of the pushing knob and a raising of the rear end of the casing for its use. In particular, where a repeated binding task is required, this cannot be easily carried. Furthermore, an increased binding time is involved in this case.
In addition, the conventional clip driver has a degraded appearance in that the clip insertion slot is externally exposed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the above mentioned problems, and an object of the invention is to provide an automatic clip driver in which when an external force applied to a pushing knob is released after the foremost one of clips received in the clip driver is used to bind a document, one of the clips is automatically positioned at the front of the pushing knob, so that the document binding process can be conveniently and continuously conducted at any posture (orientation or position) of the clip driver.
In accordance with the present invention, this object is accomplished by providing an automatic clip driver comprising: an upper case having a downwardly-opened rectangular box shape, the upper case including a cover coupling section formed with a longitudinally-extending spring receiving slot and a clip insertion hole arranged at the rear of the spring receiving slot, and a knob mounting section arranged at the front of the cover coupling section while being integral with the cover coupling section, the knob mounting section having a knob slide slot for receiving a pushing knob while allowing the pushing knob to be longitudinally slidable, and a pair of guide rails respectively arranged at opposite side surfaces of the knob mounting section and adapted to guide the sliding movement of the pushing knob; a lower case coupled to the upper case while being mated with the upper case, the lower case being mounted with a pair of V-shaped plate springs at a front end thereof; an opening/closing cover hingably coupled to a rear end of the upper case to selectively open the cover coupling section of the upper case; the pushing knob received in the knob slide slot of the knob mounting section to be slidable along the knob slide slot; a clip pushing member interposed between the upper and lower cases, the clip pushing member being in contact with the guide rails of the upper case to be longitudinally slidable along the guide rails and serving to forwardly urge clips received in a clip receiving space defined between the upper and lower cases; a first elastic member connected between the opening/closing cover and the clip pushing member and adapted to forwardly or rearwardly urge the clip pushing member in accordance with an opening or closing movement of the opening/closing cover; and a second elastic member connected between the pushing knob and the upper case and adapted to urge the pushing knob to be always positioned at a rear end of the knob slide slot.
Preferably, the first elastic member comprises a tension coil spring connected at one end thereof to a fixing piece formed on an inner surface of the opening/closing cover at a front portion of the opening/closing cover while being connected at the other end thereof to a fixing piece formed on a lower surface of the clip pushing member at a front portion of the clip pushing member. The tension coil spring serves to rearwardly move the clip pushing member when the opening/closing cover is opened while being bent when the opening/closing cover is closed, so that it comes into contact with a rear end of the clip pushing member, thereby urging the clip pushing member to slide forwardly.
Preferably, the automatic clip driver further comprises engagement hooks extending downwardly from opposite side walls of the upper case, respectively, and engagement grooves formed at the lower case and engaged with the engagement hooks, respectively, to couple the upper and lower cases to each other.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4996755 (1991-03-01), Sato
patent: 5119553 (1992-06-01), Sato
patent: 5152423 (1992-10-01), Tseng
patent: 5890642 (1999-04-01), Sato
patent: 6067706 (2000-05-01), Sato
Darby & Darby
Smith Scott A.
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