Patent ID: 7641754

Claim:
In a combination hole puncher and sheet material reinforcer machine for punching holes in sheets of material while concurrently attaching annular reinforcing rings thereto employing a punching ram including a shank with a pressure plate secured thereto and a punching tip having a greater cross-sectional area than said shank, and a deck beneath said punching ram having an aperture therethrough coaxially aligned with said punching ram wherein said punching ram is movable in a direction perpendicular to said deck between a retracted position remote therefrom and a punching position with said punching tip projecting through said aperture in said deck, the improvement comprising a reinforcer loader support mounted above said deck in spaced separation therefrom and defining a loading hatch therein larger in cross-sectional area than said annular reinforcing rings and surrounding said punching ram and said reinforcer support defines a reinforcer loader receptacle, a reinforcer loader including a body portion that fits into said reinforcer loader receptacle and which has a floor and a reinforcer guide cylinder open at both its top and bottom and projecting up from said reinforcer loader floor, and a reinforcing ring support mounted directly beneath said reinforcer loader floor below said open bottom of said reinforcer guide cylinder and removable from beneath said reinforcer loader floor, and a plurality of reinforcing rings, each having a center opening smaller in cross-sectional area than said punching tip, stacked in vertical alignment atop each other, wherein said stack of reinforcing rings is initially seated atop said reinforcing ring support and laterally confined within said reinforcer guide cylinder.