Tracor Aerospace, Inc.

Tracor, Inc.

Mark J Kelley

Phil McDuffie

David J Schorr

Les H Richards

Philip L McDuffie

Edward R Coleman

A staple and stapler for injecting the staple in a manner so that the staple maintains a near constant width upon penetration of material to be joined and during staple closure/forming such that material perturbation and staple to staple spacing may be minimized. The staple has a rectilinear bridge part from which depend oppositely positioned side parts and from the side parts a pair of straight legs. In a preferred embodiment, the oppositely positioned side parts consist of a proximal arcuate section attached to the bridge part and an oppositely directed distal arcuate section attached to the legs. The legs may have sharpened points. Also disclosed is a stapler adapted to force the oppositely directed distal arcuate sections outward, in one embodiment, thereby forcing a reaction of the legs of the staple to face each other in linear alignment and form a closed staple. The unpreloaded fully-formed staple may be deformed in situ by means of a preload part on a cam slide so as to create a U-shaped central portion for the compression of captured material. Alternatively, a preformed staple with the U-shaped central portion may also be used.

Constant width, adjustable grip, staple apparatus and method

An integrated spacing and orientation control system is provided for carrying an array of objects and maintaining a predetermined orientation of the objects and a predetermined spacing between objects. In a presently preferred application, the spacing and orientation system carries an array of anti-mine munitions for clearing a path through a minefield. The invention deploys the anti-mine munitions in a downwardly pointed orientation with proper spacing between munitions, even when the array of munitions is deployed using rocket motors.

Integrated spacing and orientation control system

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Dripping Springs, TX, United States of America

Mark J Kelley