Apparatus for dispensing fasteners

Claim 1

In an apparatus for dispensing fastener attachment members one at a time, said fastener attachment members being coupled to a carrier by a coupling member and which includes a body, a hollow needle having an elongated slot along one side supported by said body and extending therefrom, an ejector supported by the body for driving a head of the fastener attachment member through said needle with a filament of the fastener attachment member coupled to the head projecting through said slot, and an indexing wheel having a plurality of teeth for engaging the coupling members to feed one fastener member at a time into position to be fed through said needle, the improvement comprising an indexing pawl for engaging the teeth of the wheel, one at a time, to advance the wheel to position fastener attachment members into position to be fed through said needle, said pawl having a slotted pivot hole and a tip for engaging the teeth of the wheel, first means supported by the body and passing through the slotted pivot hole to permit the pawl to rock back and forth thereon, and drive means coupled to the pawl for rocking the pawl back and forth to cause said tip to engage said teeth one at a time to advance the indexing wheel, in which said first means comprises a shaft coupled to said indexing wheel which supports it for rotation, in which said pawl is provided with a bend so that a portion of the pawl lies next to the indexing wheel and another portion of the pawl extends above said indexing wheel in order to engage the teeth of said wheel, in which first resilient biasing means is provided to bias said pawl against a cover, said resilient biasing means supported by said body, and in which the pawl includes a projecting retainer portion for engaging the resilient biasing means when the pawl is in one of its possible positions.