Patent ID: 8104659

Claim:
An electromagnetic stapler comprising: a housing; a driver within the housing for driving fasteners into a workpiece; a magazine for feeding the fasteners to be driven by the driver; a solenoid for providing power to the driver, the solenoid having a coil, and a core, the core being operatively connected to the driver; a manually adjustable depth adjuster for adjusting a depth of drive of the fasteners, the depth adjuster being movable between a plurality of predefined positions, including a maximum depth of drive position, a minimum depth of drive position, and at least one intermediate depth of drive position, the depth adjuster comprising: a cam having a cam surface that interacts with the core of the solenoid so as to define a selected upper position of the core, wherein the cam is movable between (a) a first position in which the upper position of the core is defined at an uppermost position, (b) at least one second position in which the upper position of the core is defined at at least one middle position, and (c) a third position in which the upper position of the core is defined at a lowermost position; a rotatable adjustment knob operatively connected to the cam such that movement of the adjustment knob causes corresponding movement of the cam, wherein forceable engagement of the core with the cam surface causes the core to apply a camming force on the cam surface that biases the cam for movement in a rotational direction toward the first position; and a detent mechanism operatively connected with the adjustment knob and countering the camming force applied by the core on the cam surface to prevent movement of the cam from the at least one second position toward the first position, the detent mechanism thus locking the cam at the selected position to thereby define the upper position of the core so as to establish the length of an axial stroke of the core and the driver.