Fishline connector device
United States Patent 1 1 Richards Apr. 1975 FISHLINE CONNECTOR DEVICE [76] Inventor: Joseph E. Richards, PO. Box 492,  
 Antioch, Calif. 94509 [22] Filed: May 23, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 363,309  
 [52] U.S. Cl. 72/410; 29/243.56; 72/415;  
  72/475; 81/5.l R; 81/425 A; 140/93 D [51] Int. Cl B21d 9/08 [58] Field of Search 72/409, 410, 412, 415,  
  72/416, 475; 81/418, 419, 420, 425 R, 425 A, 5.1 R; 29/200 H, 203 H, 203 HM, 243.56;  
 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,359,083 9/1944 Carlson 72/410 X 2,679,775 6/1954 Fleming 81/5.1 R 3,590,140 6/1971 Robb et a1, 29/628 X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 9,587 6/1916 United Kingdom 72/410 Primary ExaminerCarl E. Hall Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Robert R. Tipton [57] ABSTRACT A crimping tool is provided with two matching crimping heads with a plurality of parallel matching grooves therein and which may have an additional groove in each head that is perpendicular to the parallel mating grooves and adapted to receive a ductile crimping sleeve that is open along one side.  
 3 Claims, 10 Drawing Figures Miami-imam 3.879.981  
  I l gzzg FISHLINE CONNECTOR DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to devices for fastening lines together and in particular tocrimping tools and their sleeves or ferrules.  
  The crimping tools of the prior art generally consisted of devices that indented a ductile closed cylindrical sleeve with a pattern that compressed the sleeve at several places against the wire or line contained therein in order to compress and fuse the wire or line together and, in some instances, produce a joint comparable to a compression weld. Such devices were generally used for electrical connections and required very heavy compression to assure a low resistance electrical connection. Except in the case ofoverhead electrical transmission lines, the tensile strength of such connections was not of great importance. In the case of overhead electrical transmission lines, such joints were made under extremely high pressure using sleeves made from the same metal as the conductor with the resulting connection being a solidly fused joint.  
  In all of the above cases, the sleeves used to join the wires or lines were all cylindrical, i.e., continuous rectangles of revolution, and had to be inserted over one end of the wire or line and adjusted to the point of connection by sliding the sleeve along the wire or line.  
  In certain instances where plastic monofilament or braided lines are used, the pressure applied to the line by a crimping too] must not be so great as to materially weaken the line at the point of attachment of the crimping sleeve. Whereas an electrical connector for a transmission line or other line used under tension is usually designed with a safety factor in mind, for a fishing line, the stresses often approach the ultimate strength of the line and it is therefore important that any connectors do not create any point of weakness in the line.  
  It is also desirable that the crimping sleeve be adapted to be attached to the line without having to cut the line or slide the sleeve along the line from one end, a tedious feat when many yards of line are in the water during fishing. I  
  It must also be noted that plastic monofilament fishing line is very slippery and is not easily retained either by knotting with itself or other monofilament line or by simple pressure in a straight metal clamp.  
 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The device of the present invention permits the crimping of a ductile metal crimping sleeve on a plastic monofilament or braided line without materially weakening the line and comprises a pair of crimping heads having engaging and mating grooves in combination with a part spiral wound ductile crimping sleeve adapted to engage and be deformed by said grooves or adapted to be partially received by a single groove in each crimping head disposed across said plurality of engaging and mating grooves that engage and deform the outer edge part of said spiral wound sleeve.  
  It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a crimping tool and sleeve for use in fastening a plastic or fiber line.  
  It is another object of the present invention to provide a crimping tool with a crimping sleeve that can be easily inserted at any place along a line.  
  It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a crimping tool and sleeve for use on a plastic or fiber line that does not materially weaken the line.  
  These and other objects of the present invention will be manifest upon carefull study of the following specification when taken together with the drawing.  
 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an isometric, partial cut-away view of the crimping tool of the present invention with the crimping heads in the closed position.  
  FIG. 2 is an isometric view of a typical crimping sleeve of the present invention prior to its insertion in the tool of FIGS. 1, 4, 5, 9 and 5.  
  FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the crimping sleeve of FIG. 2 taken at lines 3-3.  
  FIG. 4 is a cross-section, elevational view of the crimping head portion of the tool of FIG. 1 showing the crimping heads in the open position preparing to crimp the crimping sleeve.  
  FIG. 5 is a cross-section, elevational view of the crimping head portion of the tool of FIG. 1 showing the crimping heads engaging and deforming the crimping sleeve.  
  FIG. 6 is an isometric view of a typical crimped sleeve.  
  FIG. 7 is a section through the crimped sleeve of FIG. 6 taken at lines 7-7.  
  FIG. 8 is a section through the crimping sleeve of FIG. 6 taken at lines 88.  
  FIG. 9 is a cross-section, elevational view of the crimping head portions of the tool of FIG. 1 showing the crimping heads without the single groove running across the plurality of mating and engaging crimping grooves.  
  FIG. 10 is an isometric view of a typical crimped sleeve as producted by the crimping tool shown in FIG. 9.  
 DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT With reference to FIG. 1, crimping tool 10 comprises, basically, an upper crimping head 11 having a plurality of parallel arranged first grooves 12 disposed parallel to the longitudinal axis 14 of tool 10, a lower crimping head 16 also having a plurality of second grooves 17 disposed parallel to the longitudinal axis 14 of tool 10 and adapted to mate and engage grooves 12 of upper crimping head 11.  
  Upper and lower crimping heads 11 and 16 are, respectively, attached to handles 18 and 19 which are pivoltally connected together by pivot pin 20 about which they rotate in pliers-like fashion.  
  Upper crimping head 11 also comprises a third groove 21 disposed generally perpendicular across first grooves 12 while lower crimping head 16 also comprises a fourth groove that matches groove 21 in location with grooves 21 and 22 adapted to receive and partially engage crimping sleeve 24.  
  The term generally perpendicular as used herein is intended to mean any angle that grooves 21 and 22 make with grooves 12 and 17 that permit corrugation of crimping sleeve 24 in the manner described below.  
  It must also be understood that grooves 21 and 22 may not be needed in all instances and, as shown in FIG. 9, it may be eliminated as a part of the combination of elements of the crimping tool of the present invention as will be described below.  
  FIG. 2 illustrates a typical crimping sleeve 24 in the uncrimped or uncorrugated condition as it is initially applied over lines 25 and 26. Lines 25 and 26 can be typical monofilament plastic fishing lines or braided fiber line.  
  In FIG. 3, there is illustrated an enlarged section of sleeve 24 taken at lines 33 in FIG. 2. Generally, sleeve 24 comprises a rectangular body portion 27, preferably of a ductile material such as copper, lead, tin, aluminum or soft steel, or alloys of these metals, rolled up to define a short spiral having longitudinal edges 28 and 29 overlapping each other and spaced apart to define an opening 30 along the length of sleeve 24. Lines 25 and 26 can thus be inserted or removed from sleeve 24 by sliding them through opening 30 thereby avoiding cutting of lines 25 or 26 or having to slide them along the lines to their point of attachment.  
  After lines 25 and 26 are enclosed in sleeve 24, sleeve 24 is then placed between upper and lower crimping heads 12 and 16, respectively, as shown in FIG. 4, with its longitudinal axis generally perpendicular to grooves 12 and 17 and aligned with grooves 21 and 22 prior to engagement therewith.  
  Sleeve 24 is then compressed between crimping heads 11 and 16 as shown in FIG. 5 by applying pressure to handles 18 and 19 using pivot as a fulcrum in the manner of using a pair of pliers.  
  After sufficient pressure has been applied to deform sleeve 24, the pressure on handles 18 and 19 is released to allow sleeve 24, now in the crimped condition and referred to as crimped sleeve 24&#39; in FIG. 6, to be released.  
  FIG. 6 is an isometric view of crimped sleeve 24&#39; with FIG. 7 showing a transverse section of sleeve 24&#39; taken at lines 7-7 in FIG. 6 and FIG. 8 showing a longitudinal partial section taken at lines 8-8 of FIG. 6.  
  As a result of the crimping action of crimping heads 11 and 16, crimped sleeve 24 now comprises a plurality of edge corrugations 32a and 32b which are generally sharply defined with a less sharply curved central corrugated section 33 containing lines and 26.  
  To achieve such a configuration, it has been found that the radius or depth of third and fourth grooves 21 and 22 must be less than the height of first and second parallel grooves 12 and 17. As will be described below, in certain instances, third and fourth grooves 21 and 22 may be eliminated or not used.  
  It has also been found that satisfactory results have been achieved when grooves 12 and 17 are three in number, that is, when there are at least three corrugations in crimped sleeve 24&#39;.  
  It can be seen from FIG. 7 that where corrugated edges 32a and 32b of body portion 27 are sharply deformed with edge 28 tightly compressed to the outer edge of corrugations 32a and 32b, central corrugated portion 33 containing lines 25 and 26 is not so tightly compressed but sufficiently so to grip lines 25 and 26 to prevent their release.  
  Such gripping action is illustrated in FIG. 8 where the cut-away portion shows the undulating manner in which lines 25 and 26 are held in place by less sharply curved central corrugated section 33.  
 It can be seen that as tension is applied to either lines 25 or 26, the tendency for the lines to straighten in sleeve 24 will be resisted by the corrugations of corrugated section 33 and will increase the longitudinal frictional resistance on lines 25 and 26in proportion as they bear against the corrugations, thus holding lines 25 and 26 in crimped sleeve 24.  
  It can also be seen that the more sharply deformed corrugated edges 32a and 32b, since they are permanently deformed, will prevent deformation of central corrugated section 33.  
  It is one characteristic of plastic monofilament lines, as previously noted, to have a low coefficient of surface friction, that is, the surface is quite slippery as it is generally well known that it is difficult to make a knot that will hold. In certain instances where suffient pressure is applied to permanently deform crimping sleeve 24 but not materially deform and weaken lines 25 or 26, crimping sleeve 24 need not be used on conjunction with grooves 21 and 22 as shown in FIG. 8, but may be used as shown in FIG. 9.  
  In FIG. 9, crimping sleeve 24 is placed across grooves 12 and 17 with pressure applied to handles 18 and 19 as before with the resulting crimped sleeve 24&#34; shown in FIG. 10, similar to sleeve 24 of FIG. 6 but without central lesser corrugated section 33.  
  The principle by which the lines are held by crimped sleeve 24&#34; is the same as for FIG. 7, however, a firmer grip is obtained on lines 25 and 26 by virtue of the sharper and more pronounced corrugations.  
 I claim:  
  1. A tool for fastening lines having an upper crimping head, a lower crimping head and means for forcing said upper and lower crimping heads together to deform a crimping sleeve, the improvement comprising means defining a plurality of first parallel grooves in said upper crimping head,  
 means defining a like plurality of grooves in said lower crimping head adapted to mate and engage with said first grooves, means defining a third groove in said upper crimping head disposed generally perpendicular across said first grooves, the depth of said third groove being less than the depth of said first parallel grooves,  
 means defining a fourth groove in said lower crimping head disposed generally perpendicular across said second grooves, the depth of said fourth groove being less than the depth of said second parallel grooves,  
 said third and fourth grooves disposed opposite each other to define a channel through said first and second grooves when said upper and lower crimping heads are engaged,  
 the width of said third and fourth grooves being less than the width of said crimping sleeve,  
 with said first and second grooves adapted to engage and deform the opposite sides of said crimping sleeve when said crimping sleeve is aligned with said third and fourth grooves.  
  2. The tool as claimed in claim 1 wherein said first and second parallel grooves comprise triangular prisms.  
 3. The tool as claimed in claim 1 wherein said third and fourth grooves are semi-cylindrical.