The present invention relates to a nail band consisting of nails made from different band material such a plastic, metal strip, aluminium, sheet-metal plate and drawn or rolled wire. The nail in the material from which it is produced is formed in such a way that a recess between one nail tip partly separates the head of the adjacent nail, which is bent diagonally or in line with the shaft of the nail.

In industrial operations, where components of timber houses, packaging containers etc. are nailed together with the aid of nailing machines or other nailing arrangements for knocking in nails, it is necessary for the nails to be fed to the knocking-in stage of the nailing machine or knocking-in arrangement from a magazine or chamber for the banded nails, so that nailing takes place at high speed and subject to as few stoppages as possible.

The method, which experience has shown to be most reliable, consists in continuously feeding nails to the nailing machine, which is brought about by the feeding arrangement feeding forward nails, one of said nails being in the knocking-in position, with the knocking-in arrangement knocking in the nail, whereby it is separated from the other nails in the nail band and the components, which are to be nailed together, are nailed together.

The banding methods in current use are so designed that the nails are connected sideways, which means that in the case of sheet-metal nails the connection between the nails in the nail banc is in the longitudinal direction of the nail. If use is made of this banding method it is very difficult to achieve the right force of cohesion between the nails. If the force of cohesion is too small, the nail band is divided into several parts during transportation and ether forms of handling associated with the nailing process. If the force of adhesion is too large, there are considerable difficulties in separating the nail, which is in the knock-in position, from the other nails, without causing a stoppage in the nailing- machine.

Banding ox wire nails in the transverse direction necessitates the use of other material than that from which the nails are made. With the method of first producing nails and then joining, with the aid of special banding arrangements the nails with e.g. plastic, tape, glue and paper jointly and glue alone, the said materials do not, irrespective of which banding material is used, withstand the strains to which the nail bands are subject in the course of transportation and storage at very low temperatures. The handling to which the nail bands are subject while the nails are being knocked in often leads to the nail bands being divided into smaller units, since the nailing arrangements are frequently knocked hard against the material to be nailed together, with the result that the knocking-in arrangements do not operate in a satisfactory manner.

The banding method described herein is such that the nails are connected at both end parts by a connecting ^* bridge at the bent end of one nail head and the tip of the adjacent- nail, partial separation between these parts being brought about by a recess, whereby the angle, design and depth of the recess depend on the penetration resistance and requirements as regards the stability of the nail bands. The head bent at an angle is alternately in line with the shaft of the nail or diagonal thereto. The degree to which the head is bent varies between 10-130°, the advantages of producing banded nails with a variable bending angle of e.g. 70° being, if the nails are driven in by means of pneumatic nailing guns, that, as experience has shown, the driving-in force, when the last part of the nail is driven in by the driving-in part, is higher than necessary for driving in, the excess driving-in force being used to bend the head to 90°.

As the head is bent, the surface of the head can be increased as a result of flattening. The nail band is rolled up in many different forms depending on the different angles to which the head can be bent and the degree to which the connecting bridge is bent, it being e.g. possible for the rolled up nail band to be a polygon or round in shape. In principle nails of any type of cross-section can be banded together since the nails are joined In the longitudinal direction, with the head of one nail being joined to the tip of the adjacent nail.

Fig. 1 shows a nail band lό of polygonal form and consisting cf neils adjoining one another in the longitudinal direction, the nail head . C of which is bent at 70", whereas the bending angle \ ^~~ varies between 1C and 130°. nail head 10 being bent alternately in line with cr diagonally to nail shaft 11, the last part of which consists of a tip 12, wr.ich, togethei* with the end of the nail head, is formed by stamping out or in some other way producing recess 13, whereby the position and angle l 5 o the recess vary and connecting bridge 14 between nail head 10 and nail tip 12 varies in thickness, depending on the requirement of stability throughout the entire length of the nail. In the course of rolling up the nail band, the connecting bridges have been subjected to bending so that the nails in the nail band form a spiral, as a rec lt cf which, when one nail εt a time is driven in, the ether nails in the nail band produce a feed movemen , feeding forward one nail at a time, the feed movement actuates the unwinding of the nail band and this occurs subject to minim ." disturbance to the operation cf the nailing arrangement.