Patent ID: 8819908

Claim:
A crimping assembly for securing a cover part to a structural member, said crimping assembly comprising: a housing; a drive shaft disposed within said housing and rotatable in a first direction; a first roller fixedly secured to said drive shaft and rotatable therewith; a slide shaft disposed within said housing and rotatable in a second direction; a second roller fixedly secured to said slide shaft and rotatable therewith; a drive mechanism operably coupled to said drive and slide shafts for rotation of said first and second rollers to secure the cover part to the structural member; and a drive gear operably coupled to said drive mechanism and fixedly secured to said drive shaft for rotation therewith in the first direction; a slider fixedly secured to said slide shaft and movable therewith relative to said drive shaft to set the distance between said first and second rollers; at least one biasing member biasing said slider and said slide shaft toward said drive shaft by applying pressure to said slider in an amount that allows said slide shaft to move relative to said drive shaft; a coupling mechanism operably connected between said drive shaft and said slide shaft to allow movement of said slide shaft relative to said drive shaft for movement of said second roller towards and away from said first roller in order to accommodate variations in structural member thickness; and wherein said coupling mechanism includes a driven gear engageable with said drive gear and operably coupled to said slide shaft, an output rotary gear fixedly secured to said slide shaft and operably coupled to said driven gear, an intermediate rotary gear operably coupled between said driven gear and said output rotary gear, and a first set of link members each having one end rotatably coupled to said driven gear and an opposing end rotatably coupled to said intermediate rotary gear to rotate said intermediate rotary gear in response to rotation of said driven gear.