Patent ID: 7823654

Claim:
An impact driver for driving an elongate object into a body in any plane from the horizontal to the vertical, said impact driver comprising a) chassis, b) a ram supported by said chassis in a manner allowing rectilinear movement of said ram relative to said chassis, c) a linear induction motor including (i) a stator mounted to said chassis, and (ii) a linear induction motor reaction member composed of at least one plat of an electrically conductive material mounted to said ram, (iii) the stator being positioned to operatively interact with linear induction motor reaction member to accelerate the reaction member substantially along a length of movement of the reaction member to move the reaction member from a retracted position to an impact position, and from the impact position to the retracted position, d) whereby, when the said reaction member is accelerated to move from said retracted position to said impact position, the ram is accelerated at an increasing rate throughout its movement by the reaction member to substantially increase its kinetic energy for causing an impact force to be imparted on said elongate object in the elongate direction thereof.