Abstract:
A self-clinching fastener that when pressed into a thin sheet panel provides for a strong attachment point for a cable tie. The inventive fastener relies on the self-clinching process to carry external loads and thus carries larger loads when compared to adhesive backed cable tie mounts. When installed, the self-clinching fastener becomes flush with the far side of the sheet panel.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to self-clinching fasteners that provide for a secure mounting location for common cable ties. 
     2. Background-Description of Related Art 
     Manufacturers of industrial machines quite often make use of wire harnesses to distribute electrical power to various locations within a machine. It is common to run bundles of wire along a sheet metal panel in order to distribute the bundles of wires. These bundles are often anchored to a sheet panel in discrete locations to prevent the wires from coming in contact with harmful elements. 
     A common approach to anchoring these wire bundles to a panel makes use of a plastic molded cable mount with an adhesive backing. Examples of an adhesive backed cable tie mount are manufactured by the Panduit Corporation, catalogue E-CC-10, page 8 1996. The Panduit adhesive mount series are simply applied to a sheet panel via the adhesive backing on the cable tie mount itself. This provides for an anchor point for a cable tie. 
     Another common approach to anchoring these wire bundles to a panel makes use of a cable mount that is screwed to a panel. Examples of a screwed mount are also manufactured by the Panduit Corporation, catalogue E-CC-10, page 8. The Panduit screw mount is simply fastened to a panel with the use of a common screw. Upon fastening the mount to a panel, a cable tie is then used to secure the wire bundle to the sheet panel. 
     A self-clinching approach could make use of U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,175 issued to G R Winton, III. The Winton patent makes use of a right-angle attachment point that provides a round through hole. This hole, having a round cross section, could be used to receive a cable tie and thus anchor a wire bundle along a sheet panel. 
     Another self-clinching right-angle bracket was disclosed by Penn Engineering and Manufacturing Corporation in Bulletin No. RA997. The Penn fastener can also be used as an anchor and thus provide an anchor point for a cable tie by allowing a cable tie to pass through the fastener&#39;s hole; the hole having a round cross section. 
     The disadvantage of the Panduit adhesive mount is its tendency to dislodge itself over time from the sheet panel. The adhesive backing quite often fails when too much load is placed on the adhesive mount. Also, the final placement of the adhesive backed mount on a panel is quite often inconsistent due to the installation process of simply laying the adhesive mount on a sheet panel. 
     The disadvantage of the Panduit screw mount is the excess labor required to provide for a threaded hole in a sheet panel in preparation for a screw that is needed for holding the screw mount in position. 
     The disadvantage of the Winton patent is the round through hole itself. The round through hole is intended to receive a screw and thus is not designed to accept a cable tie with a mostly rectangular cross section. Furthermore, because of the round hole, the Winton patent results in a taller overall profile than that needed for a cable tie with a rectangular cross section. 
     The disadvantage of the Penn Engineering &amp; Manufacturing fastener RA997 is also the mostly round through hole itself. It is intended to receive a screw and thus is not designed to accept a rectangular cable tie with a mostly rectangular cross section. Furthermore, the round hole on the Penn fastener results in a taller overall profile than that needed for a cable tie with a rectangular cross section. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, several objects and advantages of my invention are: 
     (a) to improve the load bearing capability of a cable tie mount without the use of a screw; 
     (b) to reduce the assembly time for installing a cable tie mount for a high load application; 
     (c) to improve the positional accuracy of locating a cable tie mount; and 
     (d) to provide a self-clinching fastener used as a cable tie mount that has a low profile. 
     Still further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG.1 shows an isometric view of the first embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 shows a front view of FIG. 1 clearly depicting the substantially rectangular cross section of the cavity; 
     FIG. 3 shows a section view of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 4 shows an assembly view of the first embodiment in relation to a sheet panel and a cable tie; 
     FIG. 5 shows an isometric view of the second embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 6 shows an isometric view of the third embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 7 shows an isometric view of the forth embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 8 shows an isometric view of the fifth embodiment of the present invention; and 
     FIG. 9 shows a front view of FIG.  8 . 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     With initial reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, a self-clinching cable tie mount  10  is shown. Mount  10  has a body  15 . Protruding outward and adjacent to body  15  are two extended lands  11  and  12 . Extended land  11  and extended land  12  are set apart from one another. Both extended lands  11  and  12  are parallel to one another. Formed into body  15  are two undercut grooves  13  and  14 . Undercut groove  11  and extended land  13  are adjacent and parallel to one another. Undercut groove  12  and extended land  14  are adjacent and parallel to one another. Body  15  joins extended lands  11  and  12  with undercut grooves  13  and  14 . 
     From FIGS. 2 and 3, body  15  has an external guide wall  16  that is adjacent to undercut groove  13 . An external guide wall  17  is located on body  15  and opposite in side to external guide wall  16 . External guide wall  17  is adjacent to undercut groove  14 . Both external guide walls  16  and  17  slope inward and away from undercut grooves  13  and  14 . 
     From FIGS. 1 through 3, a cavity  23  whose length extends through body  15  perpendicular to an axis joining both extended lands  11  and  12 . The width of cavity  23  is measured perpendicular to the length of cavity  23 . The height of cavity  23  is measured perpendicular to a plane joining extended land  11  to extended land  12  and perpendicular to the width of cavity  23 . The height and width of cavity  23  are both measured in a plane that is parallel to the cross section of cavity  23 . For fastener  10  shown in FIG. 1, the cross section of cavity  23  is substantially rectangular in shape. However, the corners of the substantially rectangular cavity  23  may not be sharp and thus the overall cross section of cavity  23  could then be considered obround, trapezoidal, or any general shape where the width is greater than the height. 
     With reference to FIGS. 1 through 3, a side guide wall  18  and a side guide wall  19  formed into body  15  both lead up to cavity  23 . A top guide wall  24  is formed into body  15  and is adjacent to side guide walls  18  and  19 . Top guide wall  24  is located along cavity  23 . Both side guide walls  18  and  19  slope inward and toward cavity  23 . Opposite to top guide wall  24  and adjacent to side guide walls  18  and  19  is a bottom guide wall  22 . Top guide wall  24  slopes outward and away from bottom guide wall  22  and outward and away from extended lands  11  and  12 . 
     With further reference to FIGS. 1 through 3, by copying and rotating side guide walls  18  and  19  and top guide wall  24  one hundred and eighty degrees about an axis I—I (FIG.  1 ), two more side guide walls  20  and  21  and a top guide wall  25  are formed into body  15 . 
     From FIG. 4, a sheet panel  28  has a cutout  27  that goes through the thickness of sheet panel  28 . A cable tie  29  has a substantially rectangular cross section. 
     While the above description contains many specifications, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention, but rather as an exemplification of the first embodiment thereof. 
     For example, FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment  30  that is derived from first embodiment  10  by removing side guide walls  20  and  21  and top guide wall  25  from embodiment  10  to form a cavity  33  on embodiment  30 . Side guide walls  31  and  32  are the same as side guide walls  18  and  19 . 
     FIG. 6 shows a third embodiment  50  that is derived from first embodiment  10  by removing side guide walls  18 ,  19 ,  20 ,  21 , and top guide walls  24  and  25  from body  15 . Also removed are external guide walls  16  and  17 . Extended lands  51  and  52  set apart from one another. Formed into body  55  are undercut grooves  53  and  54  which are adjacent and parallel to the extended lands  51  and  52 , respectively. The removed walls leave third embodiment  50  with no sloping walls and therefore all walls are either vertical or horizontal with no tapering slope. 
     FIG. 7 shows a fourth embodiment  70  that is derived from first embodiment  10 . Embodiment  70  is formed by removing side guide walls  18 ,  19 ,  20 ,  21 , top guide walls  24  and  25 , external guide walls  16  and  17 , and rotating extended lands  11  and  12  and undercut grooves  13  and  14  ninety degrees about the II—II axis. 
     FIGS. 8 and 9 show a fifth embodiment  90 . Fifth embodiment  90  has two extended lands  93  and  94 . Embodiment  90  has two external guide walls  91  and  92  that are 90° out of phase with extended lands  93  and  94 . 
     All Embodiments are made preferably of steel and are most often plated to resist corrosion. The preferred embodiments can be conveniently made from steel using the powder metal process. Nevertheless, other metals and processes, such as aluminum and the extruding process, can also be used provided they have sufficient strength and other required physical characteristics. 
     In operation self-clinching cable tie mount  10  of the first embodiment is passed into cutout  27  located in sheet panel  28 . External guide walls  16  and  17  assist in guiding fastener  10  through cutout  27 . Fastener  10  is further advanced through cutout  27  until extended lands  11  and  12  first make contact with sheet panel  28 . Using the appropriate tooling, fastener  10  is then pressed into sheet panel  28  by means of the self-clinching process. The self-clinching process requires both extended lands  11  and  12  to displace a portion of sheet panel  28  into undercut grooves  13  and  14 . When displaced material from sheet panel  28  has flowed into undercut grooves  13  and  14 , fastener  10  is clinched into sheet panel  28 . 
     With fastener  10  firmly clinched into sheet panel  28 , cable tie  29  is then inserted through cavity  23 . Side guide walls  18  and  19  along with bottom guide wall  22  and top guide wall  24  help guide cable tie  29  through cavity  23 . Entry into cavity  23  can also be accomplished by cable tie  29  first approaching side guide walls  20  and  21  in addition to top guide wall  25  and bottom guide wall  22 . 
     Second embodiment  30  is operated similar to fastener  10 . However, second embodiment  30  only enables the guided entrance of cable tie  29  from one side of cavity  33 . 
     Third embodiment  50  is operated similar to fastener  10 . However, third embodiment  50  does not provide for a guided entrance from either side of cavity  56 . Also, third embodiment  50  does not have external guide walls  16  and  17  found on embodiment  10 . Third embodiment  50  function as embodiment  10  without the benefit of a guided entrance into sheet panel  28  and the benefit to guide cable tie  29  into cavity  56 . 
     Fourth embodiment  70  is operated similar to third embodiment  50 . However, fourth embodiment  70  differs from third embodiment  50  by rotating extended lands  71  and  72  and undercut grooves  73  and  74  ninety degrees about the II—II axis. The position of extended lands  71  and  72  and undercut grooves  73  and  74  has no effect on the function of fourth embodiment  70 . Moreover, the relative position of the extended lands and undercut grooves with respect to the cavity for all embodiments has no effect on the intended purpose of the inventive fasteners. Therefore, all embodiments will function well with the self-clinching features as shown in FIGS. 1 through 6 or rotated ninety degrees as depicted in FIG.  7 . 
     The cross section of the cavities depicted in FIGS. 1 through 7 is designed to accommodate the cross section of an industry standard cable tie. This explains the substantially rectangular cross section of all cavities shown. However, processes used to manufacture the preferred embodiment may tend to leave a radius in each of the corners of the cross section and thus would result in a more obround looking cross section. This is highly preferred over a substantially round cavity. A round cavity would produce a taller fastener and would not have a low profile as disclosed in the preferred embodiments. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be determined not by the embodiments illustrated, but by the appended claims and their legal equivalents.