SPRING-WIRE CLIP APPLICATOR AND METHOD, AND SPRING WIRE CLIPS USEFUL THEREWITH

摘要

An applicator (20) for applying, to a plurality of sheets, spring-wire clips made of bent spring-wire having first and second end sections joined together by an elastically-deformable wire juncture section, the applicator comprises: a holder for holding a plurality of the spring-wire clips in a manner to successively feed them one at a time to a sheet-clipping station, with the wire juncture section facing one side of the sheet-clipping station; a driving member at the one side of the sheet-clipping station for engaging the clip in the sheet-clipping station and for driving the clip towards an other side of the sheet-clipping station; and at least one deflector located to engage at least one of the end sections of the clip in the sheet-clipping station driven by the driving member, and to deflect the engaged end section away from the other end section for spreading the end sections apart in order to receive the sheets at the other side of the sheet-clipping station to be clipped by the driven clip.