Alpine Engineered Products, Inc.

William F Lees

Robert N Emerson

A blade punch for forming teeth in a connector plate, the blade punch comprising an elongated blade having a metal working tip at one end and a shank at the other end. The blade has an elongated cross-section defined by opposing parallel spaced planar side walls and opposing ends. Each end comprises a major end wall and a minor end wall which converge to end wall intersections, where the end wall intersections are eccentric to a plane parallel to and midway between said side walls. Each end wall intersects a side wall at an obtuse angle. The metal working tip has opposed air cut faces abutting one another along an air cut edge and opposed first and second forming faces, each of the forming faces abutting one of the air cut faces along an exterior edge. Each of the air cut faces is bordered by a portion of one of the minor end walls, a portion of one of the side walls, the air cut edge, and one of the exterior edges. Each of the forming faces is bordered by a portion of one of the major end walls, a portion of one of the minor end walls, a portion of one of the side walls, and one of the exterior edges. A forming angle between 50.degree. and 60.degree. is formed between the first forming face and the exterior edge bordering the second forming face in a plane normal to the first forming face.

Punch and die for producing connector plates

The connector plate has a rigid, planar base, and a plurality of adjacent elongated slots defined in said metal plate. The slots are offset in a sinusoidal pattern having at least one cycle with a maximum amplitude slot position, minimum amplitude slot position and at least two zero-point slot position. Each slot has first and second reverse-oriented mirror-image teeth extending from the plate at opposing ends of each slot.

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Bedford, TX, United States of America

William F Lees