V-TYPE OR CONCAVE NAIL FASTENER, MAGAZINE & NAIL GUN

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to fasteners which are suitable for fastening adjacent and/or overlapping wooden members together. The fasteners could be used for members of other materials such as for example plastics, fibreboard and the like.

Background to the Invention

In order to fasten abutting wooden members together, various known methods are employed, such as for example, screws, adhesive glues or tapes, nails, staples and the like. However, screws take too long to apply and are expensive. Adhesives require extensive preparation of the abutting surfaces, and nails often need to be skewed so as to maintain a strong grip. Dovetail joints are sometimes employed, but they are expensive to form, and are not always appropriate, especially for mitred joints such as are in use in many picture frames. Glue is also required.

Nails are simple and fast, but often require a special technique such as skewing to apply and they can also split the wood if not selected properly.

The present invention seeks to ameliorate one or more of the abovementioned disadvantages.

Summary of the Invention

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a fastener suitable for connecting adjacent, abutting and/or overlapping timber elements, the fastener including: a nail body including a head or driven end and a piercing end, and a shaft body extending therebetween; the shaft body including a peripheral wall extending along a drive axis between head and piercing ends, the peripheral wall including a major concave, angle or

recess extending along the drive axis, the concave facing a direction normal to the drive axis.

Preferably, one or more secondary retention or grip means are provided in the form of flanges, which extend from side edges of the peripheral wall, so as to provide greater friction and grip of the wood, and greater retention of the wood by the shaft body. The flanges may form returns, may be at any suitable angle, to improve retention.

The piercing end may be sharpened or chamfered so as to facilitate entry of the shaft body into the wood.

Preferably a stop is provided at the head or driven end. The stop may be in the form of a transverse stop flange extending in a direction normal to the drive axis. The peripheral wall may be in the form of two or more adjoining straight or curved shaft body walls, fonned or connected and joined to provide a spine region. The spine region may be ridgeline at an edge join between two adjoining shaft body walls.

In one embodiment, the stop flange extends from the head end towards the spine region. Other embodiments are contemplated where the flange extends into the concave or angle, or the stop involves more of a bulb or includes further returns to pierce the wood for improved grip.

Preferably a plurality of fasteners are arranged into a stack and each fastener attached to an adjacent fastener with adhesive, or other retaining device such as a cardboard box.

In one embodiment the stack is loaded into a magazine of a nail gun so that the fasteners may be fired therefrom in rapid succession. The stop flange makes vertical stacking difficult so that an angled stack must be formed.

In some embodiments, holding means are provided for improving the holding force of the shaft body in the wood. The holding means may be in the form of villi or other surface

roughening or surface-area increasing means such as for example knurling.

In one embodiment strengthening means are provided to improve the pull-apart strength of the fastener. The strengthening means may be in the form of minor bights disposed along the length of the drive axis, such as for example undulations in the profile of the major concave or angle.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a nail gun including: a propulsion means, for propelling nails into a surface; a fastener receiving chamber and a fastener release chamber corresponding in shape to a nail which includes a nail body including a head or driven end and a piercing enc, and a shaft body extending therebetween; the shaft body including a peripheral wall extending along a drive axis between head and piercing ends, the peripheral wall including a major concave or angle or recess extending along the drive axis, the concave facing a direction normal to the drive axis.

The nail gun preferably includes a magazine adapted to receive a stack of fasteners, so that reloading of fasteners into the fastener receiving chamber is fast and repeatable. A biasing means may be provided in order to bias the stack towards the fastener receiving chamber. In one form the biasing means is a spring.

Description of the Drawings

A preferred embodiment of the invention will be hereinafter described with reference to the following drawings, and in those drawings:

Figure 1 is an isometric view of a fastener according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a similar view to that shown in Figure 1 but the fastener is rotated about a drive axis;

Figure 3 is a similar view to that shown in Figure 1 but from underneath with a stop flange shown in phantom lines;

Figure 4 is an isometric view of a nail gun according to a preferred embodiment of a second aspect of the present invention, with a stack of fasteners shown to one side.

Description of a preferred embodiment

Referring to Figures 1-3 there is shown a fastener generally indicated at 10 which includes a nail body 12 which has a piercing end 14 and a driven end 16, disposed at either end of a drive axis 15. The piercing end 14 is adapted to be forced into wood and plastic and other materials, by being chamfered or shaped at a tip or leading edge 18. The driven end 16 includes a stop 20 which is in the form of a head 22, itself in the form of a stop flange 24. The stop flange 24 extends transverse to the drive axis 15, towards a ridge line 42. The stop flange 24, also extends across the whole transverse width of a shaft body 13 which resists pull-apart forces.

The nail body 12 includes shaft body 13 which includes a peripheral wall 26 which extends along drive axis 15. The peripheral wall 26 forms a major concave or recess 28 extending along the drive axis 15 and the recess 28 faces a transverse direction 30 which is normal to the drive axis 15. The peripheral wall 26 includes secondary retention or grip means 32 in the form of transverse flanges 34 which extend from the side edges of the peripheral wall

26 to provide more surface area or grip area. The flanges 34 may include returns (not shown) which would further improve retention.

The peripheral wall 26 may include two or more adjoining walls 36 and 38, or may be simply one curved shaft body wall (U-Shaped not shown). A spine region 40 may be provided, in the embodiment shown, being a ridgeline 42.

As shown in Figure 4, a plurality of fasteners 10 are arranged into a stack 51 which may be

loaded into a magazine 53 or chamber 55 of a nail gun 57. The nail gun 57 includes a fastener release chamber 59 which releases the fasteners 10 from the gun 57. The nails 10 are propelled by propulsion means and/or hammer, and into work piece (not shown). The release chamber 59 is shaped to accommodate the nails 10 so as to efficiently release the nails 10 from a barrel 61.

The reference in this specification to any prior publication (or information derived from it), or to any matter which is known, is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgement or admission or any form of suggestion that that prior publication (or information derived from it) or known matter forms part of the common general knowledge in the field of endeavour to which this specification relates.

Throughout this specification and the claims which follow, unless the context requires otherwise, the word "comprise", and variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or step or group of integers or steps but not the exclusion of any other integer or step or group of integers or steps.

Finally, it is to be understood that various alterations, modifications and/or additions may be incorporated into the various constructions and arrangements of parts without departing from the spirit or ambit of the invention.