Importance

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Abstract

A hand held plastic rod gripping tool 25 is especially adapted for forcefully pushing thin cylindrical plastic rods into a resident pivot joint site between two modular links of a conveyor belt. Plastic pivot rods are difficult to insert manually because they are thin, and easily flexed, making them hard to grasp frictionally in the fingers at a stiff short section for forceful axial insertion. Also some conveyor modules require the rods or the modules to be distorted for snapping in over a barrier ridge thus requiring more force for initial entry. The tool 25 has a cylindrical knurled 26 hand grip body, of a diameter that permits a firm grasp, through which extends an axial passageway, typically a slot 27, for entry of the rod. A manually movable gripper assembly 45 is generally laterally movable to frictionally contact a rod 10 held within the tool body. Within an interior channel 49 at an acute converging angle 50 toward a rod 10 the gripper 45 is spring biassed 46 to move toward the rod surface. The angular channel 49, in which the gripper rides, serves to strengthen the grip as the rod is pushed against an opposing force. A one-way clutching action permits a gripped rod alternately to be forcefully pushed into place and to be freely fed through the grip. The gripper has a set of shaped metal plates, each with a notch 50 that partially surrounds the cylindrical rod 10 holding it nested in a mating groove 40 within the tool body. Knife-like edges 51 along notches 50 bite into plastic for a secure grip. A forward end of the tool is flanged 28 to provide at its outer end a planar pushing member 60 for contact with the rod end after it leaves the tool.

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First Claim