Strap with attached washers and method of making the same

June 11, 1935. _F c. arey 2,004,182

STRAP WITH ATTACHED WASHERS AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Filed Nov. 1, 1933

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Patented June 11, 1935

2,004,182

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE

2,004,182

STRAP WITH ATTACHED WASHERS AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME

Fred C. Arey, Oak Park, HI., assignor to Vulcan Soot Blower Corporation, a corporation of Pennsylvania

Application November 1, 1933, Serial No. 696,175

Claims. (CL 29—150)

Viewed in. another way, the present invention may be said to have for one of its objects to pro: duce a novel clamping device of the strap type and for another object to provide a simple and 5 novel method of making the same.

In the soot blower art it is common to attach a holding block for a rotatable blower tube to a water tube of a boiler, by means of spring steel straps, the free ends of which are bent so as to 10 lie nearly parallel with each other in their final positions of use; thick cast iron washers being placed against the outer faces of these end portions so that, when a bolt is passed through the washers and the end portions of the strap and is 15 tightened, the body portion of the strap will be drawn tightly as though the ends were gripped between rigid jaws. These mountings are frequently so positioned that free access is not had thereto and it becomes very difficult to hold in 20 place the four different elements while a bolt is being inserted. Specifically considered, the present invention has for its object to unite the strap in a device of the kind just described with the washers, so that they will form a single unit at 25 the time of installation, and thus make the installation of the mounting as a whole much simpler and easier.

Since, broadly considered, the clamping device consists of a strap and washers, the present in30 vention may be said to have for its object to unite a strap and a washer in a simple and novel way.

The various features of novelty whereby my invention is characterized will hereinafter be 35 pointed out with particularity in the claims; but, for a full understanding of my invention and of its objects and advantages, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, ⁴⁰ wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a device embodying and constructed in accordance with the present invention; Fig. 2 is a section on line 2—2 of Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a more or less diagram⁴⁵ matic view showing the method by which the attachment of one of the washers to the strap is effected.

Referring to the drawing, I represents a comparatively wide, thick strap of spring steel bent ⁶⁰ into the form of a loop from which straight end portions 2, 2, spaced apart from each other, project. The end sections of the strap approach parallelism to each other but preferably diverge somewhat from their inner toward their outer ⁶⁵ ends when unrestrained. Lying flat against the outer sides or faces of the straight end sections of the strap are thick washers 3, 3 which are usually in the form of rectangular cast iron blocks of about the same length and width as the parts 2, 2. 5

In accordance with the present invention, the material of the strap is punched laterally into the opening 4 in each washer, taking the form of prongs 5 that fit snugly against the surrounding metal of the washer; therefore, at one and the 10 same time, providing the strap with a hole 6 registering with each of the washers and securely uniting the strap and the washers together. The openings in the washers are preferably so shaped as to be somewhat smaller in diameter at the 15 ends next to the straps than they are at a point or points inwardly therefrom into the washers, so that the grip of the prongs on the washers does not depend entirely on friction. This can conveniently be accomplished by making the 20 openings in the washers frusto-conical, as shown, and placing the washers with the smaller ends of the openings next to the straps.

The work of attaching a washer to the strap may be done quickly and at little cost in a 25 punch press, by laying the strap on top of the washer in the press and driving down through the strap and into the opening in the washer a pointed punch that ruptures the metal of the strap and bends the prongs thus created down- 30 wardly into the opening in the washer. The punch must be somewhat smaller in diameter than the opening in the small end of the washer, so as to leave space around the same for the prongs as the punch descends and the prongs ³⁵are bent down. The method just described is illustrated in Fig. 3, which shows a washer with a strap end overlying the same and resting on the bed A of a punch press. The vertical axis of the opening in the washer registers with the ⁴⁰vertical axis of a rupturing punch B. When the punch descends it ruptures the metal of the strap overlying the opening in the washer and drives it down into this opening, in the maimer indicated in dotted lines at 5. 45

While I have illustrated and described with particularity only a single preferred form of my invention, I do not desire to be limited to the exact structural details thus illustrated and described; but intend to cover all forms and ar- ⁵⁰rangements which come within the definitions of my invention constituting the appended claims.