Abstract: An apparatus for tightening and securing banding material about an article within predetermined tension limits, including a housing for receiving and guiding the banding material, a drive for incrementally advancing the banding material about the article, a first gripper for securing the banding material as it is being incrementally advanced, a slip clutch for precisely determining when the predetermined tension of the banding material about the article is reached, a second gripper for locking and maintaining the banding material about the article, a drive motor, and a ratchet mechanism driven from the drive motor through the slip clutch for reciprocating the first gripper.

Abstract: A manual banding tool is provided with a band tension limit, which can be adjusted while the tool is coupled to a test device, such as a strain gauge. The manual banding tool includes a shuttle mechanism for incrementally advancing the band through the tool during a forward stroke. The shuttle mechanism is mechanically coupled to a pivotally mounted handle by way of an overcenter toggle mechanism. The overcenter toggle mechanism is coupled to a spring tensioning assembly, which includes a plurality of spring members, such as Belleville washers, disposed near the rear of the tool. An adjustment screw on the rear cover portion of the tool allows the spring tension of the spring members to be adjusted. Once the band tension limit is reached, the spring members collapse, allowing the overcenter toggle mechanism to lock the handle in position thereby preventing further movement of the shuttle mechanism. The termination may then be bent by hand such that the band is at approximately a 90.degree.

Abstract: A manual banding tool is provided with a band tension limit, which can be adjusted while the tool is coupled to a test device, such as a strain gauge. The manual banding tool includes a shuttle mechanism for incrementally advancing the band through the tool during a forward stroke. The shuttle mechanism is mechanically coupled to a pivotally mounted handle by way of an overcenter toggle mechanism. The shuttle mechanism includes a tensioning pawl assembly for gripping the band during a forward stroke. A retaining pawl assembly is mounted adjacent the feed track of the band holds the tension in the band while the shuttle mechanism is in its return stroke. The overcenter toggle mechanism is coupled to a spring tensioning assembly, which includes a plurality of spring members, such as Belleville washers, disposed near the rear of the tool. An adjustment screw on the rear cover portion of the tool allows the spring tension of the spring members to be adjusted.

Abstract: A tool for finishing a banding operation with a metal band which includes an integral buckle bends the tip of the free end of the band and then folds such free end back into overlying relation with the band buckle in such manner that no sharp edges of the band or the buckle are exposed.

Abstract: A tool for tightening a band to a predetermined tension about an article by pulling the band through a buckle thereon includes a reciprocable feeder within a housing for gripping the band, incrementally pulling it into the housing, releasing it and then regripping it at another position while it is held by a supplemental grip within the housing. A handle pivotally mounted in the housing operates the reciprocable feeder through an operative connection responsive to the tension of the band in such manner that when a predetermined tension has been reached, the operative connection is disengaged while the band remains gripped by the feeder. The handle which operates the feeder may then be swung in the opposite direction to actuate a member which pushes the wrapped article around the nose of the tool in such manner as to bend the band about its buckle and thus to retain the desired tension therein, after which the band may be cut off at a position within the nose of the housing.