Patent Abstract:
A method for making a wire package for use as staples or brads is recited as forming a plurality of round wires, forming a plurality of flattened bonding sides on each wire to prepare even bonding surfaces on each wire and bonding each wire to an adjacent wire by adhering the surfaces of each wire. Each staple includes two or more flat surfaces to improve the bonding strength of each staple. A package of diverging staples or brads are formed using the flat bonding surfaces

Full Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   Staples and brads for manual, pneumatic and electrical tools are all made by drawing wires and forming two flat sides on each wire. The force that flattens the wire is applied to opposite sides of the wire simultaneously to form two flat surfaces and two round surfaces opposite each other. 
   Each round side is used to attach each wire to the next wire to form a package by adhesively bonding the round sides. The flat sides are not used as the bonding surfaces. The bonding is performed by adhesives well known in the art. 
   As a result of this manufactured process, the bonding strength between each wire in a package is weak. The line of contact between each round side of each wire is at the apex point on the curve created by each round side. The inherent failure causes a weak glue line and eventually causes the package of brads or staples to fall apart in the hands of the consumer during installation, Moreover, the user must then force the separated staples or wires into a feeder eventually leading to jamming or misfeed. Sometimes these jams result in destruction of the feeding unit. 
   A further problem inherent in producing round wires for brads or staples is width control. Width control is critical in producing wires because any discrepancies in width will produce unusable wire to form staples or brads. The tolerances are critical for size or width of a wire which fits in a fastener gun and the drawing process now required to meet these limitations is expensive and time consuming. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   A method for making a wire package for use as staples or brads is recited as forming a plurality of round wires, forming a plurality of flattened sides in each wire to prepare even bonding surfaces on each wire and bonding each wire to an adjacent wire by mating the surfaces of each wire. 
   It is an object of the present invention to form a package of brads having flattened bonding surfaces. 
   It is an object of the present invention to form a package of divergent staples having flattened bonding surfaces. 
   Another object of the present invention is to form a plurality of wires with a controlled width. 
   Yet another object of the present invention is to form wires having three or more sides which are bonded at each side to produce a wire package. 
   Still another object of the present invention is to control the width of each wire used in making a wire package by deforming each and making a plurality of flat sides. 
   A method of making a novel brad or staple packaging is disclosed and presented to illustrate wire having 3 or more flat sides and preferably 6 or more. The method controls the width of each wire and to make the package. 

   
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is a wire package of the prior art. 
       FIG. 2  is an illustrated block diagram of a process of making a wire package of the present invention. 
       FIG. 3  is an exploded view of the circled portion of FIG.  4 . 
       FIG. 4  is a plain view of a wire package of the present invention. 
       FIG. 5  is a wire package of the prior art. 
       FIG. 6  is an exploded view of the circled portion of FIG.  4 . of the prior art. 
       FIG. 7  is an exploded view of the circled portion of FIG.  4 . 
       FIG. 8  is a plain view of a wire package of the present invention. 
       FIG. 9  is a plain view of a brad package of the present invention. 
       FIG. 10  is a plain view of an alternative embodiment wire package of the present invention. 
       FIG. 11  is a plain view of an alternative embodiment wire package of the present invention. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
   A novel method of making a package of wire brads or divergent staples is disclosed and illustrated in  FIGS. 2-10  and described in the present application.  FIG. 1  illustrates a prior art wire package  1  drawn and formed into a brad or a staple package. A round wire is drawn and deformed to produce two flat sides  2 ,  3  and two round sides  4 ,  5 . The round sides  6  and  7  are bonded to round sides  8 ,  9  of adjacent wires  10 ,  11  to form the package  1 . The bonding at the center of the curve of the wire fails to provide adequate contact area. 
   A method of making a wire package is schematically shown in  FIG. 2. A  plurality of round wires  12  are drawn from a well known drawing apparatus  13  for producing round wires  14 . Each wire  20  is formed of metal such as copper, steel, stainless steel, or titanium. As many as 2-200 wires at a time could be drawn from the wire drawing apparatus. In order to form the size of the wire  20  to the selected width, the techniques used in the drawing process must be precise to control the tolerances allowed in making the wire an exact width. The wires  12  as a group are drawn from the drawing apparatus  13  by conventional means where the wires  12  next enter a station  22  used to form a plurality of flat sides on each individual wire. 
   In order for the drawing apparatus  21  and the forming station  22  to handle anywhere from 5-200 or more wires simultaneously during the process, each station is made up of multiple modular substations. The number of substations used depends on the size of the package in production. Each substation may be added or subtracted depending on the need of the production line. Likewise, the drawing apparatus may include more substations depending on production requirements. 
   As shown in  FIG. 2 , the production of a wire package requires an in line wire handling conveyor  23 , for handling a plurality of undetermined length wires  12  as they move along the line to each station. Draw station  21  produces and conveys the wires  12  to the flat side forming station  22 . The flat side forming station  22  receives each wire  20  in a flat side modular substation  24  where multiple sides are formed on each wire by a deforming press  25 . The deforming press  25  includes 3 or more flat side forming presses  26 - 31 . Each flat sided forming station is modular in design and in use in that the substations and or the presses may be interchanged or added or eliminated through a quick disconnect attachment system. Since all of the stations, substations, deforming presses and flat side forming presses are identical only one will be described in order to simplify the explanation. 
   After the wires are bonded to form a unit, each unit is cut to a predetermined length by a severing and forming station  39  to form a wire piercing projections on one or both ends of each wire in the package. The wire package is then transferred to a deforming station  40  to make a staple package or wire package. 
   As shown in  FIGS. 3 and 4 , each flat side  32 - 35  of each wire provides a bonding surface and the process controls the width of each wire. The wires as a group  36 , are then conveyed through a bonding station  37  where the wires  36  are bonded together to form a wire unit or package  38 . The wires are bonded by conventional means side by side and side by side to form the package as shown in FIG.  4 . The flat surfaces formed on each wire provide a large smooth bonding surface. The bonding technique prevents the unit from coming apart during the installation process. 
     FIGS. 5 and 6  illustrates examples of prior art packages made of wires having rounded sides for bonding having a different number of sides.  FIGS. 7-9  illustrate a brad wire packages of the present invention having wires with flat bonding sides and formed into packages. 
   The present method of forming a package of staples permits the formation of 4-12 flat bonding sides on each round wire. 
   In order to form a brad wire package, the wire unit is passed to a brad forming unit where heads are formed on one end of each wire. On the opposite the end, a piecing point is formed using the process previously process. The package of brads is now complete and moved to a station for packing. 
   In order to form a divergent staple, the wire unit is conveyed to a staple forming station where each wire unit is deformed into a u-shaped configuration. An end of the wire unit opposite of the piercing point is then cut to form a second piercing point on each wire. The bond areas created by the flat sides further prevent breaking of the bond during the deforming process. 
     FIGS. 5 and 6  disclose prior art brads  50  having round sides  51  which are bonded at each side.  FIGS. 7 ,  6  and  9  disclose brads  60  having flat sides  61  which form the bonding surfaces to assemble a package  62  of brads. 
     FIG. 10  illustrates a wire package  70  having wires  71 , each wire having at least 5 sides. Each side is flat to provide a flat bonding surface  72 .  FIG. 11  illustrates a wire package  80  having wires  81 , each wire having a flat bonding surface  82 .

Technology Classification (CPC): 1