Elongated-member-driving apparatus – With means to shape work or cut product – Means to form opening in work for member
Reexamination Certificate
1997-05-20
2001-07-31
Dexter, Clark F. (Department: 3724)
Elongated-member-driving apparatus
With means to shape work or cut product
Means to form opening in work for member
C227S067000, C227S076000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06267286
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a new and novel fastener attaching tool particularly suited for use in consumer applications such as to recouple detached buttons to clothing, etc.
The conventional method of coupling or recoupling buttons to garments or fabrics, either by machine or by hand, is with thread. The button is held in place and a needle containing thread is inserted through each of two, three or more holes in the button and into the material several times until sufficient strands of thread exist to securely hold the button to the material. The thread must then be tied or otherwise fastened so that it will not unravel. In some instances, where it is desired to elevate the button from the material, a pedestal effect is achieved by laterally wrapping the strands with additional thread. The disadvantages to this method of securing buttons to fabric or garments are several. First of all, it is a slow and tedious job and the button can soon become detached if only one of the threads is severed or if the ends of the thread are not secured properly.
In the commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,399,432, 3,470,834, and 3,494,004, all of which are incorporated herein by reference, there is described a plastic fastener which may be used instead of thread to couple or to recouple a button to an article of clothing. The fastener typically comprises a flexible filament having a head at one end and a transverse bar at the opposite end. A plurality of such fasteners are typically manufactured as part of a clip in which the fasteners are interconnected in a row to a stringer or runner bar connected to the transverse bars of the fasteners by corresponding necks or connector posts. To sever an individual fastener from the fastener clip and to attach the severed fastener to a desired article (e.g., through a button hole and into an article of clothing), a fastener attaching device is typically used. Such a device typically comprises a casing, a needle projecting from the casing, the needle and the casing having longitudinal bores in alignment with each other, a plunger slidable back and forth within said bores, a handle telescoping over the rear of the casing for sliding said plunger within said bores, and means comprising an indexing wheel for feeding fasteners into the device successively with the transverse bars in alignment with said bores ahead of the plunger so that they may be projected through the needle by reciprocating the plunger. Typically, the rear end of the needle is shaped to define a knife edge so that insertion of the transverse bar into the longitudinal bore of the needle using the plunger causes the knife edge of the needle to sever the connector post connecting the fastener to the remainder of the fastener clip.
While the above-described fasteners have been found to be generally satisfactory for attaching buttons to certain articles of clothing, they have not found universal application for the following reasons: First, when placed in direct contact with a person's skin, the transverse bar of the fastener has a tendency to be irritating. This is in part because the above-described severing of the connector post often leaves a burr on the bottom of the transverse bar and is in part because of the somewhat sharp ends and large size of the transverse bar. Second, the fasteners are often too big to be used with many buttons and, therefore, require the use of specially designed buttons having large holes. Third, the fasteners tend to be conspicuous in appearance due to the fact that a separate fastener is used for every button hole, as opposed to being looped between two or more button holes in the same way that thread typically is.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and novel fastener attaching tool particularly suited for use in consumer applications such as to recouple detached buttons to clothing, etc.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a fastener attaching tool as described above which is adapted for use with a new and novel fastener clip, the fastener clip preferably comprising a pair of generally parallel runner bars and one or more fasteners, each fastener comprising a U-shaped filament and a pair of generally parallel transverse bars disposed at opposite ends thereof, the U-shaped filament being disposed in the plane of the pair of generally parallel runner bars and aligned with the longitudinal axes thereof, each of the pair of transverse bars being connected to a corresponding runner bar by a connector post, the connector posts being severably connected to the outer sides of their respective transverse bars.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a fastener attaching tool as described above which lends itself to construction using moldable parts and thus may be mass-produced relatively inexpensively.
Additional objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects, features and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the fastener attaching tool comprises a body, a needle block, a pair of needles, a spring, and an ejector mechanism.
Each of the pair of needles includes a longitudinally extending slotted bore adapted to receive one of the transverse bars of the fastener, with the adjacent end of the filament extending through the slot in the bore. The needles are mounted in a parallel arrangement in the needle block which, in turn, is removably mounted in a cavity formed in the front end of the body. Each needle has a knife edge formed on its outer side which is adapted to sever a connector post from its associated transverse bar as the transverse bar is pushed by it.
The body is also shaped to include a transverse feed slot disposed just to the rear of the needles down through which the above-described fastener clip is manually inserted. To assist in properly aligning the fastener clip within the feed slot so that the transverse bars of a desired fastener are aligned with the longitudinal bores of the needles, the inner walls of the slot are shaped to include a pair of feed bars which engage corresponding indentations formed on the outer sides of the fastener clip.
The ejector mechanism, which is slidably mounted back and forth within the body and is rearwardly biased by the spring, is manually operable from the rear of the body. Actuation of the ejector mechanism is preferably achieved using one's thumb, and the body is provided with a pair of finger openings so that the device may be held and used like a syringe. The ejector mechanism includes a pair of ejector rods which are slidable back and forth within the longitudinal bores of the needles and are used both to load the transverse bars of the aligned fastener into the longitudinal bores of the needles and to push the transverse bars therethrough into a desired article.
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Cooper William J.
Deschenes Charles L.
Jones Terence J.
Avery Dennison Corporation
Dexter Clark F.
Kriegsman & Kriegsman
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