Thursday, August 7, 2014

Oh, patents! The Fischer Plug

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Going back a bit to the 2014 European Patent Oscars, held in Berlin on June 17, the 2014 Life Time Achievement award was bestowed upon 94-year old Arthur Fischer, the German inventor of the ubiquitous Fisher Plug, and more than 1,100 additional patented inventions, including the defunct flash cube and Fishertechnik toys!
 
Even if you know nothing about construction or hammering a nail in the wall, you will surely find a discarded Fischer plug in your basement, spot one inserted in your walls, or recognize one that looks just like the picture included here.
 
Disclosed  the United States in 1967, in US3315558 titled Expansion plug, there are about 10 million of these plugs -- called screw anchors, wall plugs or S-plugs – produced each day at the Fisher production plant, in different sizes and for different types of walls,

A Fischer plug is designed to maximize the load bearing capacity of the wall and to expand so as to engage and form a strong bond with the brittle material, such as brick, cement or plaster, on the surface of the anchor hole. When the screw is inserted in the plug, the plug expands to engage with the surface of the bored hole. The tapered tip of the plug was designed for easy insertion of the plug into the drilled hole. The plug is made of plastic, easily manufactured as a single part of any specified length, in contrast to the prevailing prior art, and it was designed for use by both skilled and non-skilled workers.
 

 
In the absence of an abstract, two patent drawings are included for the expansion plug utility patent US3315558.
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More than half a century after the invention of the Fischer expansion plug, there are many different sorts of Fischer expansion plugs depending on different types of walls. The video below shows the animated expansion of various types of Fischer plugs..
 
 
 
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Hope this flies with the paperclips…

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