Patent ID: 7530483

Claim:
A manually swingable hammer-type stapling tool for discharging a staple through a cap into a substrate, comprising: an elongate housing having a striker movably mounted thereon; a staple driving blade mounted on the housing and movable relative to the striker along a staple discharge path when the striker impacts against a surface of the substrate; a staple magazine carried on said housing and containing a clip of staples urged toward the staple discharge path so that a leading staple of the clip is disposed in said staple discharge path below said driving blade; a cap supply and feeding arrangement mounted on the housing for positioning a cap in a discharge position disposed below the leading staple and transversely intersecting the staple discharge path, including a cap magazine for containing a large number of individual caps disposed in adjacent and joined edge-to-edge relationship to define a connected strip of caps; said cap supply and feeding arrangement including a feeding mechanism automatically advancing a leading cap of said strip into said discharge position responsive to but after said striker impacts against said surface so that said tool is ready to carry out a subsequent impact-activated staple/cap discharge operation, said feeding mechanism including an inertia energy moved activator to automatically initiate a cap advancing cycle in response to impacting of the striker and tool against said surface.