Shackle-tightening Tool Including Means For Deforming An End Of The Shackle

Abstract

A handtool for tightening a shackle upon an article or articles as, for example, the neck of a bag, for closing the latter, includes means for cutting off an excess end portion of a tightened shackle. The novelty resides in providing the tool with knife-spacing means causing the shackle to be so cut as to leave a tab of predetermined size remaining on the end of the tightened shackle, and also in the inclusion in the tool of means for deforming and/or embossing said tab; the latter means including actuating parts serving also in the tightening of the shackle upon an article or articles.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Prior shackle-applying tools have provided for cutting off the entire end portion of the shackle thus leaving no tab; and did not include any tab-deforming or embossing means.

The principal object of this invention is to assure the provision of a tab at the free end of the shackle and to provide a single tool which serves both to tighten the shackle about an article to which it is applied and to so cut off an excess end part of the shackle as to leave such a tab, and also to effect embossing of the tab with any desired letters, numbers or other indicia. This object is accomplished by a tool having the novel features set forth in the foregoing abstract.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a central sectional view of a tool according to a preferred form of this invention, showing, elevationally, the tool's principal operating parts, which are assembled for cooperation within a suitable housing; the tool's parts appearing in full lines as at an initial stage in the application of a shackle seal about the neck of a bag, and in chain lines as in a final stage of tightening of the shackle.

FIG. 2 differs from FIG. 1 only in showing the tool's parts as at the end of the cut off excess end portion of the shackle.

FIG. 3 is a detailed perspective, view, partly phantom in character, showing dies, constituting a part of the tool, as applied to a tab left at the free end of the shackle, for embossing said tab.

DETAILED SPECIFICATION

The subject tool is shown as being used to tighten a seal shackle A about the neck of a bag B. The shackle is a part of a bag seal, which, preferably, is entirely of strong pliant plastic material and accords substantially to the seal disclosed in my copending application, Ser. No. 717,154 filed Mar. 29, 1968.

One end of the shackle A is integral with a hollow head C of the seal through which the shackle's free other end extends to complete a loop about the bag neck. The shackle is formed with a series of integral, lateral protuberances D which pass readily in one direction (rightwardly) through springy fingers E within the head C, but said protuberances, coacting with said fingers, prevent rearward (leftward) movement of the shackle within said head.

The shackle-tightening tool, includes means for tightening and cutting the shackle and also means for deforming a tab thereon, comprises a substantially hollow housing 10 within which most of the tool's operating parts are cooperatively arranged. The housing has a horizontal portion 12 and a rigidly integral, obliquely downwardly extending handle 14 enabling a user to hold and operate the tool conveniently.

The tool's operating mechanism comprises an operating lever 16 pivoted to the housing portion 12 at a single fixed point by a pivot pin 18 at said lever's upper end, and three elements, to wit, a shackle-pulling element 20, a shackle-cutting element 22, and an embossing die 23, all of which elements are indirectly actuated by an actuating assembly 24 which first causes the pulling element 20 to pull the shackle tight about the bag neck B and then causes the cutting element 22 to cut off an excess part of the free end of the shackle. The die 23 is usable to separately and subsequently emboss a tab remaining on the seal's shackle.

The lever 16 is yieldably urged leftwardly to its normal, full-line position of FIG. 1 by a compressed spring 26, pressing against a force-transmitting element 28 which a pivoted at 30 to the handle 16 below the pivot pin 18.

The element 28 is metal and is bent to U-shape in cross section to provide similar, parallel, spaced side flanges 28a (only one being shown) between which other operating elements are accommodated. Some other operating elements are also provided with similar, parallel, spaced sides either by being bent as with element 28 or by consisting of two similar plates suitably spaced apart by spacing bolts. Such spaced side elements are hereinafter referred to for convenience as "dual sided," but only the outlines of one side of each of such elements are shown in the drawing so that the operation of the various elements of the tool may more readily be understood.

With the seal's shackle A extending through the seal's head C and manually pulled to somewhat tightened condition about the bag neck, the nose or free end 30 of the tool's horizontal portion 12 is placed against the seal's head C with a substantial free end F of the shackle disposed against and locked by teeth of a pawl 32, located at the outer end of the shackle-pulling element 20. It will be seen that, with the tool thus disposed, rightward movement of the pulling element 20 will tighten the seal's shackle about the bag neck and the coaction of the seal's fingers E and the shackle's protuberances D will prevent loosening of the shackle.

The rightward, shackle-tightening movement of the pulling element 20 is effected by closing movement of the operating lever 16, from its FIG. 1 position to its FIG. 2 position, in coaction with the actuating assembly 24 which comprises a pulling lever 34, intermediately linked by link 35 to the operating lever 16, and pivoted, at its lower end, by a pivot pin 36, to a bellcrank 38 which is pivoted to the housing 10 by the same pivot pin 18 by which the operating lever 16 is connected to said housing. A pin 39, fixed in the pulling element 20, near the latter's inner end, extends through a slot 34a in the upper end of the pulling lever 34.

The bellcrank 38 also has a pin 40, disposed slidably in a slot 42 in the cutting element 22. The latter has an upright, top-edged, knife member 44 fixed to its outer end and is pivotally connected by a pivot pin 46 to the housing 10. The bellcrank 38 is in the nature of a toggle, held in its FIG. 1 position by a compressed spring 48 bearing against an inner part 14a of the handle 14 which part is above a straight line x-x passing through pins 40 and 36.

The spring 48 is sufficiently resistant of compression to hold the bellcrank in its FIG. 1 position during the desired tightening of the seal's shackle A. Hence, during that period of operation of the tool, the pivot pin 36 functions as a fulcrum for the pulling lever 34, as the latter, during one or more closing operations of the operating lever 16, moves the pulling element 20 rightwardly to tighten the seal's shackle.

When the shackle A is as taut as desired, the operating lever 16 can be closed only by application of increased manual force thereto, whereupon spring 48 can no longer hold the bellcrank 38 in it FIG. 1 position so that the closing of the operating lever causes the pulling lever 34 to raise the right end of the bellcrank instantaneously to its FIG. 2 position. In undergoing this shifting, the bellcrank's pin 40 rocks the cutting element 22 clockwisely about its pivot pin 46, thereby pushing knife member 44 upwardly to cut off an excess end portion of the seal's shackle, leaving a protruding tab portion 50 of the shackle.

The inner end of the pulling element 20 is formed with a rigidly integral, upwardly extending arm 52, suitably fixed, as, for example, by a pin 54 to the embossing die 23 which is slidable horizontally in an open-sided guideway 56 into operative association with a fixed embossing die 58.

The dies 23 and 58 are complementally shaped with any desired letters, numbers or other indicia and such indicia may be embossed upon the tab 50 by locating the tab between said two die members (FIG. 3) and then closing the dies forcibly on the tab by manual closing movement of the operating lever 16.

It will be observed that the single operating lever 16 functions, with the actuating assembly 24, (1) to tighten the seal's shackle, (2) to cut off an excess end portion of the shackle, leaving a protruding tab thereon, and (3) to emboss desired indicia upon the tab.

Claims

I claim:

1. In a shackle-tightening tool having a manually actuated mechanism for tightening a shackle upon a bag neck or the like; the improvement comprising a die assembly carried upon and as a part of said tool, said assembly comprising a pair of relatively movable die members, and motion-transmitting means, operatively coacting with said mechanism and with said pair of die members to relatively move the latter from open relationship to closed relationship; said mechanism including a shackle-pulling element and said motion-transmitting means comprising an integral, laterally extending arm of said pulling element, in engagement with a movable one of said die members to cause said one die member to move with said pulling element.

2. A handtool comprising a housing, a shackle-tightening, pulling element carried by said housing for back-and-forth endwise movement, and being provided with shackle-gripping means for gripping a shackle during shackle-tightening movement of said pulling element; a die assembly carried by said housing and comprising two dies movable toward each other for engaging therebetween a portion of a shackle for embossing said portion; an operating lever pivoted to said housing; and motion-transmitting means coacting with said lever, at an intermediate portion thereof, and with both said pulling element and said die assembly to impart shackle-pulling movement to said pulling element and closing, relative movement to said two dies.