Abstract: An apparatus (1) for frame fabrication includes at least one nail gun (15) adapted to fire nails substantially in a selected plane of the frame (2). The nail gun (15) translates vertically and is configured with a control input device (19) activated by an operator which extends substantially across the width of the frame fabrication apparatus.

Abstract: A device for dispensing a plastic staple from fastener stock includes a housing, an ejection mechanism for dispensing the staple, a severing mechanism for separating the staple from the fastener stock and an indexing mechanism for advancing the fastener stock into the housing. The ejection mechanism includes a pair of needles, a pair of movable slides, a pair of ejector rods and an actuator pin extending perpendicularly between the slides. The severing mechanism includes a pivotally mounted cam having a non-linear slot which receives the actuator pin and a knife blade coupled to the cam. The indexing mechanism includes a feed slide and a rotatable feed dog for displacing the feed slide. The feed slide includes a pair of inwardly compressible spring arms which sequentially engage the fastener stock. During the ejection process, the actuator pin travels horizontally within the housing and selectively pivots the cam and the feed dog.

Abstract: It is provided with a longitudinal bearing (2) mounted on a frame (1) and framed by two side, vertical and parallel guides (9) and (10), the position of the latter being adjustable in order for the spacing thereof to match the thickness of the spring carcass, which is hauled by a thruster (4) driven by a motor reducer (5) intermittently towards the working area of two stapling heads (12-12) where a retractable ram (15) receives the spring action directly and adjusts, in accordance with the latter's diameter, the position of the balance lever acting on the proximity detector that in turn controls the movement of the motor reducer (5) in order for each spring to duly face the stapling heads (12).

Abstract: Double "T" bar fasteners are dispensed through spaced needles which extend from different portions of the attacher housing. To attach a button, the needles are inserted through the thread holes of the button as it is held adjacent to the material to which it is to be attached. The housing portions are resiliently connected so that the portions can be moved relative to each other to vary the needle spacing and thus accommodate buttons with different hole spacing. The portions are biased to return to the original position. The portions may be halves of the housing connected by a living hinge. Internal compartments within each housing half enclose portions of fastener feed mechanism. The compartments are accessible when the housing is open to permit insertion of the parts and close when the housing halves snap-fit together. Each feed mechanism portion includes a spring loaded pawl with a tooth which normally engages an index wheel.

Abstract: The present invention comprises a nail driving device with a magazine for nails held together in nail strips, with a nail transport device, wherein the nail strips are pressed in the direction of a fixed stop surface by means of a spring element, and moved in the direction of the exit channel of the device mouthpiece.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided for fabricating frame walls from end plates and studs. The apparatus includes a mechanism for the length-wise feeding of the end plates into registration position. An additional mechanism is provided for feeding a stud into registration position between the end plates. A nailer tacks the end plates and stud together in proper registration while maintaining clearance between the end plates for subsequent positioning of another stud in registration. After the positioning and tacking of an additional stud or studs, a staking and anchoring mechanism presses the plates and first stud fully together so as to rigidify the frame walls. As an additional feature of the present invention, the operations of the apparatus are controlled by a microprocessor controller. This controller is programmed to produce wall frames corresponding to each individual wall to be constructed throughout a building.

Abstract: An insert installation machine is provided which features a power operated reciprocating quill mounted on a frame and an insert guide tube fixed to a carriage. The carriage is supported on the frame for reciprocation, toward and away from a workpiece, with the guide tube coaxially aligned with the quill. A shuttle is mounted on the carriage for transferring an insert from a stacking tube in the carriage to the guide tube in timed relation and in response to quill movements.

Abstract: An apparatus for loading food for alignment with food sticks is provided. A food bin stores the food to be processed. The bin is filled with food which is gravity fed into J-shaped sections of a food conveyor belt. Concurrently, a stick conveyor system carries and aligns food sticks with the food. When the correct number of food items is aligned with the food sticks, the sticks are automatically inserted into the food items.

Abstract: A method and apparatus wherein individual plastic articles are sheared from a cartridge of such articles and conveyed pneumatically through a pneumatic conduit to a desired position.

Abstract: A method of and apparatus for manufacturing panels for forming walls, roofs, or floors of a timber-framed residence constructed by a two-by-four construction method and of setting these panels on a pallet. A panel formed on a frame manufacturing table is supported and floated over the table by free-roller conveyors. The panel is thereafter slid by being light pushed over the free-roller conveyors of the frame manufacturing table and over free-roller conveyors which are disposed on a fixture work and which are also moved upward to the same level as that of the conveyors of the frame manufacturing table, thereby transferring the panel to the frame manufacturing table to the fixture work table. The panel finished by fixture work on the fixture work table is supported by free-roller conveyors which are perpendicular to the transferring free-roller conveyors, thereby floating the panel over the table.

Abstract: Apparatus for installing rivet-type electrical connectors onto flat conductor cables wherein the connectors are fed to the machine from a magazine, transferred to a press and then pressed onto and through the cable over an anvil which holds the rivet-type connector to form a secure connection with the cable. The resulting profile of the connector is such that it extends through the conductor of the cable and is held thereon by a flange on one side of the cable and an eyelet-type crimp on the opposite side of the cable.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for the dispensing of attachments. The attachments are fed from a continuous roll of stock into position where an individual attachment is separated from the stock. Thereafter the stock and the separated attachment are advanced so that the attachment enters a movable slide and the stock occupies the prior position of the severed attachment. The slide is then moved with respect to one or more output needles so that a plunger may force the attachment from the slide through the needle or needles and dispense it into the material with which the attachment is being used. When the dispenser has dual needles, the attachments severed from the stock can be used as plastic staples for securing objects and items.

Abstract: An accumulator is used with a duplicating device such as a duplicating machine having an upper level conveyor for transporting single sheets of paper and a lower level working area for processing the sheets and includes a frame positioned at an angle to the horizontal which receives single sheets from the upper level conveyor, a gate bracket communicating with the frame, a gate extending across the gate bracket and rotatably mounted thereto, upper and lower front pinch rollers positioned in front of the gate, and upper and lower rearward rollers. The upper front and rearward rollers are connected by a linkage so that they are maintained at the same distance above their respective lower rollers when the front pinch rollers engage a set of sheets. Single sheets accumulate in a set against the gate and are held together by the upper and lower front pinch rollers. The gate opens and the front pinch rollers propel the set of sheets between the rearward rollers to the working area.

Abstract: Apparatus for placing steps in a concrete pipe or riser immediately after the pipe has been cast but before it is cured. A movable carriage is mounted upon a support column that is arranged to move a step driving mechanism vertically along the inner wall of the riser before the riser is removed from the casting jacket. The position of the carriage is automatically indexed to sequentially place the driving mechanism at the desired vertically spaced step locations. The drive mechanism is actuated at each location to drive a bifurcated member horizontally into the wall of the riser. In one embodiment of the invention the bifurcated member is a step that is automatically gravity loaded into the mechanism from an overhead supply magazine. In this embodiment of the invention the step is embedded in the riser and is set in place during curing.

Abstract: Disclosed is a deck board feeder which is adapted to be mounted over a conveyor conveying stringer boards to a nailing head of a pallet making machine. The deck board feeder includes a plurality of elongated spaced hoppers arranged in parallel and in a direction perpendicular to the conveyed stringers. Each hopper is adapted to receive a respective stack of deck boards and includes a board restraining device at one end thereof defining an adjustable area permitting passage of one deck board from the stack endwise out of the hopper. Each hopper also includes a driving member for pushing a deck board from the stack a predetermined distance endwise out of the hopper to a position where the end of the deck board may be nailed to an underlying stringer by the nailing head. The driving member is adjustable in position along the length of the hopper to thus accommodate boards of different lengths and the spacing of the hoppers is likewise adjustable.

Abstract: A board nailing machine, herein disclosed in the form of a pallet maker, in which the stringer or inner boards are automatically fed in spaced apart relation into a nailing station and the deck boards or outer boards are automatically fed into nailing position at said nailing station on opposite sides of the stringers and thereafter the deck boards are nailed to the stringers at said nailing station. In the specific embodiment disclosed the stringers are automatically fed from supply magazines into a nailing station wherein they are disposed in horizontal parallel spaced apart relation and the deck boards are automatically fed from supply magazine into said nailing station on opposite sides of the stringers and are disposed in upstanding substantially vertical nailing position at said nailing station, and the nailing mechanism is specifically designed to drive the nails horizontally through the deck boards into the stringers at said nailing station.

Abstract: Three adjacent continuously running chain link assemblies having two contiguous common paths, respectively in those paths (1) form staples from lengths of wire and (2) insert and clench the staples while creasing a signature passing through the linear path defined by the contiguous chain links. This produces simplified equipment operable at high speeds synchronously on line with signatures from a rotary printing press, or the like.The wire lengths are handled and formed into staples by very simple non-critical mechanical means constituting a magnetic male die member and female shaping die member carried by respective contiguously traveling chain link assemblies to mate as they move about sprockets into an arcuate path leading into their contiguous mated linear travel path.

Abstract: Portable apparatus for automatically constructing prefabricated stud walls or other frame structures from standard materials. Elongate studs are placed transversely at spaced intervals between a pair of elongate wall plate members by a reciprocatingly rotating stud-selecting mechanism and a linearly reciprocating spacer mechanism. As each stud is placed between the plate members, it is automatically nailed thereto, forming a portion of the wall frame, after which the completed portion of the frame is advanced an incremental distance along an assembly structure by the spacer mechanism, which pushes on the newly nailed stud to advance the frame to a position for nailing the next succeeding stud, and so forth in automatic cyclic fashion. A semi-automatic sheathing fastener mechanism includes a plurality of fastener guns and an automatically controlled actuation mechanism for placing fasteners at predetermined locations.

Abstract: An integrated system for fabricating the wall section for a building. The wall section includes a framework composed of plural studs disposed in a parallel array between an opposed pair of plates and has sheathing secured over the framework. The system comprises a first workstation including a frame for supporting the studs and a frame for supporting the plates in abutment with the ends of the studs. Automatic nailing means are supported on a carriage which is movable along the frame and is operative to nail the abutting stud and plate portions together. Portions of the frame means are retractable to enable a conveyor to move the framework, once assembled, to a second workstation. The first workstation also includes cutting means mounted on a carriage for cutting off excess end portions from the opposed plates extending beyond the most upstream stud of the wall section. The second workstation includes a conveyor for receipt of the assembled framework.

Abstract: The apparatus includes slat and rail conveyors which pick up slats and rails from respective hoppers on the input side of the machine and convey the slats and rails into joint forming positions between vertically opposed pressheads mounted on opposite sides of the machine. Coils of connector plate stock, having prepunched integrally extending teeth, feed each of the upper and lower press platens and which platens are movable toward one another to substantially simultaneously cut the connector stock to predetermined lengths to form connector plates and embed the teeth of the connector plates into opposite sides of the joints formed by the rails and slats disposed between the pressheads.

Abstract: Double "T" bar fasteners are dispensed through spaced needles which extend from different portions of the attacher housing. To attach a button, the needles are inserted through the thread holes of the button as it is held adjacent to the material to which it is to be attached. The housing portions are resiliently connected so that the portions can be moved relative to each other to vary the needle spacing and thus accommodate buttons with different hole spacing. The portions are biased to return to the original position. The portions may be halves of the housing connected by a living hinge. Internal compartments within each housing half enclose portions of fastener feed mechanism. The compartments are accessible when the housing is open to permit insertion of the parts and close when the housing halves snap-fit together. Each feed mechanism portion includes a spring loaded pawl with a tooth which normally engages an index wheel.