FASTENER DRIVING APPARATUS AND METHOD

摘要

A fastener driving apparatus (1) having a carriage (10) supporting a fastener driver (18) and adapted for translation across a flooring member (42) being fastened by fasteners from the fastener driver (18). The fastener driver (18) is preferably supported in the carriage (10) at an angle with respect to a fully vertical position in order to drive fasteners at an angle with respect to the flooring member (42) and more preferably into the side of the flooring member (42) and into the underlying structure. More preferably, the angle of the fastener driver (18) is adjustable. Carriage motion elements (36) permit translation of the fastener driving apparatus (1) across the flooring (44) with a support wheel (50) preferably arranged so as to exert a lateral force upon the apparatus (1) when the apparatus (1) is pushed. This lateral force preferably causes one or more carriage guide elements (40) running alongside the flooring member (42) to remain in contact with the flooring member (42), thereby maintaining a constant positional relationship between the fastener driving apparatus (1) and the flooring member (42), for accurate fastener placement. A pneumatic, hydraulic, electrical, or other such circuit is employed to transmit signals from at least one trigger (102, 104, 106, 108) to a valve (82), an actuator (30), or the fastener driver (18), in each case resulting in actuation of the fastener driver (18) to drive a fastener into the flooring member (42) at a desired time. The trigger (102, 104, 106, 108) can be a manually-operated trigger (102), a cam-operated trigger (104) on the wheel (50) for periodically triggering the fastener driver (18), a follower trigger (106) for physically sensing structure underlying the flooring member (42), and/or a sensor trigger (108) for detecting density underlying the flooring member (42) or an optical marking.