Improvements in Corrugated Sheet Metal Fastening Devices and Method of Making the same.
Year: 1889

page_text: Improvements in Corrugated Sheet Metal Fastening Devices and
Method of Making the same.
I, FERDINAND WILLIAM STARR, Machinist, of Springfield, in the county of Clarke,
and State of Ohio, United States of America, do hereby declare the nature of my
invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN CORRUGATED SHEET METAL FASTENING DEVICES AND
METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
The object of this invention is to provide corrugated sheet metal fastening devices
which have a serrated entering edge all the lines of which are sharp, so that the device
may be driven either with or across the grain without splitting the material. Another
object is to produce this device rapidly and cheaply in order that they may be provided
for public use at a minimum cost."
Referring to the drawings:
Figure 1 is a side elevation of certain parts of a typical machine for carrying out
the process of making my improved fastening devices, certain other parts of the
machine being shown in section.
Figure 2 is a vertical longitudinal section of another form and arrangement of such
typical machine, certain portions of said figure being shown in side elevation.
Figure 3 is a side and end elevation of the form of fasteners produced by my
process.
Figure 4 shows two forms of pressure wheels which may be employed in the
carrying out of the process.
Figure 5 is a view of a strip of sheet metal partially completed and as it appears
while undergoing the process of making the fasteners.
Figures 6, 7, 8 and 9, are a side elevation, top, sectional and end view respectively,
of a box strap involving my invention.
Like letters of reference refer to like parts in all the figures of the drawing."
A, represents a table or support of any kind upon which the metal B, is placed to
be passed through the mechanism desired to be used. As the metal is passed from
this table, it is successively subjected to some form of corrugated rollers or rollers in
combination with splitters and pressure rollers, as described hereinafter.
My object is to provide a spike or fastener which shall have a corrugated body for
the purpose of strength and shall be provided with sharpened and draw cut edges as
shown in Figures 3, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
The fastening devices shown in Figure 3, consists of a corrugated sheet of metal
having a knife edgo as shown at the extreme left of Figure 3. In this form there is
no barb recess E2, formed on the corrugations as shown at the right of said figure.
These recesses are to prevent the withdrawal of the fastener after it is once driven.
That on the right of said figure has its edge serrated simply by sharpening the
corrugated plate on opposite sides as clearly shown by the intermediate portion of
Figure 3.
In Figure 6, I have illustrated a strap for fastening the lids of boxes in position,
the ends of the strap being upset to form a driving head of sufficient stiffness to
prevent transverse crimping of the corrugated fastening device proper at which the
strap terminates at each end.
Figure 7 is a plan of one end of the strap; Figure 8, an end view or elevation of
one end showing the corrugated fastening portion cut to a V point to facilitate
driving. Figure 9, is a central vertical section of the fastener shown at the left of
Figure 3.

page_text: In the production of these articles I use in connection with the machinery already
described a pair of corrugated rollers C, through which the sheet is drawn in the
ordinary manner. At D, is shown an emery wheel which is preferred as a means for
putting down the edges of the sheet before corrugating. A roller of this kind may be
advantageously employed upon each side of the sheet where the sheet used is so wide
as to allow of the formation of two spikes end to end on the same.
The edges of the sheet having been thus sharpened and the rollers having
corrugated the same, there are placed a pair of slitting wheels, preferably of emery
as at E, each cutting through the thickness of the sheets, so as to slit the same
longitudinally in such widths as may be desired for the length of the fasteners.
These wheels should run considerably faster than the rollers C, in order that a clean
cut may be made. In order that the edges of the wheels E, will not grind against
one another it is best that they be placed one a little ahead of the other as
shown.
A sheet having been thus sharpened corrugated and ground the next thing is to
cut the sheet cross-wise to determine the width of the fasteners to complete the
same. For this purpose various mechanisms may be employed, one of these forms
being shown in Figure 1, in which there is a roller F, provided with cutting
edges or knives of any kind upon its periphery at suitable points. These cuiters work
in a groove or counter-edges in the roller F1, running in the same direction with
and underneath the roller F. Of course I do not limit this invention to the severance
of the fasteners from the sheet by a grooved roller under the cutter roller as this order
may be inverted or indeed any other form of cutter may be substituted without
departing from the spirit of my invention.
fasteners
All these rollers are connected by appropriate gearing to make them run in such
direction or at such velocities as may be desired. Figure 1 shows one of
my
falling from under the cutters.
It is evident that the order of corrugating and sharpening need not be directly
adhered to in this process but the function of cutting and sharpening may be per-
formed by one set of rollers E, placed behind instead of in front the corrugating
rollers.
G is a pair of pressure rollers designed to sever the metal by pure pressure through
the body of the sheet before it enters the corrugating rollers. These rollers are shown
in two forms in Figure 4.
This form of pressure slitter will tend to produce burrs upon the edges of the metal
and it is best when they are used also to employ sharpening or grinding wheels E, as
shown in Figure 1. By means of this arrangement I have found it possible to make
a razor edge and as the V form is thus imparted with exactitude in a sheet previously
corrugated the effect is evidently to produce a V, visible in side elevation as at E', in
Figure 3. This V, makes it possible to produce a draw-cut edge entirely along the
serrations whereby this form may be driven into wood as easily across the grain as
with it, as above set forth.
It is of course best that the emery wheels should be employed after corrugating, as
otherwise the V cuts would not be likely to register with the corrugations.
The notches E, Figure 3, are produced in all the fasteners at once by means of the
wheels E³, (Figure 2) which are preferably directly over one another and do not come
together thus differing from the rollers or wheels E, in that one of the latter is
forward of the other and they are all intended to pass entirely through the sheet.
In Figure 2, I have shown a different form of cutter from that shown in Figure 1.
This is a reciprocating cutter H, of any well known pattern sliding in a groove H,
directly under the same and operated by gearing in relation to other parts of the
machine so that the width of the fasteners is determined.
These fasteners may be used in all places where nails or screws have heretofore been
employed and are much cheaper and do not in any instance crack the material in
which they are driven.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
1. A fastening device consisting of a corrugated strip of metal having substantially
parallel driving and entering edges, the latter being sharpened, the said corrugations
being substantially parallel with each other.
2. The method herein disclosed of producing the fastening devices described.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.