Fastening tool and system to lift concrete blocks for placement

Abstract

A fastening tool to releasably engage a peripheral or internal wall of a concrete block defining an internal channel for lifting and placement provides a “U” shaped body with spaced depending legs to fit over the wall of the block. The body supports an “L” shaped external tong arm bracket pivotally carrying a similarly “L” shaped tong arm, with an engaging hook at a depending end and attachment means for a lifting line carried by a lifting mechanism at an opposed horizontal end, to frictionally engage the block wall between the body legs when the tool is lifted by the tong arm attachment means. The body back carries an upstanding “U” shaped handle for manually lifting the body for tool placement and release. A system provides plural fastening tools carried in lateral adjacency on a supporting beam attachable to a lifting mechanism.

1 . A fastening tool for fastenably engaging and releasing a concrete block to be lifted, said concrete block defining at least one medial channel to create at least one substantially vertical wall for engagement with the fastening tool, comprising in combination: 
 a body having first and second depending legs interconnected by a back to define a channel between the first and second legs to receive at least the upper portion of the at least one substantially vertical wall of the concrete block to be lifted, said first depending leg defining a medial vertically elongate slot,    an external tong bracket extending over and structurally carried by at least a portion of the back of the body and at least a portion of the first leg of the body adjacent the back, said tong bracket defining a medial channel to moveably receive a tong arm;    a tong arm having a first upper lifting arm carried in the tong bracket channel adjacent the body back and an angulated depending fastening arm carried in the tong channel adjacent the first depending body leg, said angulated depending fastening arm of the tong arm    pivotally mounted on the tong bracket portion adjacent the first depending leg of the body, having an outer end portion distal from the upper lifting arm defining a hook-like protuberance extending through the slot defined in the first depending leg to allow pivotal motion of the hook-like protuberance through the slot and toward the second depending leg and    the upper lifting arm defining at least one fastening hole in its outer portion to fastenably interconnect a lifting element; and    handle means carried by the body to aid manual manipulation of the fastening tool for placement upon and removal from the at least one wall of the concrete block to be lifted.    
   
   
       2 . The fastening tool of  claim 1  wherein the distance between adjacent surfaces of the first leg and second leg of the “U” shaped body is greater than the thickness of the peripheral wall portion of the block to be lifted, but not so great that the block surface adjacent the hook-like protuberance of the depending fastening arm of the tong arm is not contacted when the fastening arm is pivoted toward the block, to allow the peripheral wall portion of the block to cant within limits relative to the first and second depending legs.  
   
   
       3 . The lifting tool of  claim 1  wherein the outer end portion of the lifting arm of the “L” shaped tong arm defines a plurality of lineally spaced fastening holes extending elongately therein.  
   
   
       4 . The fastening tool of  claim 1  wherein the handle means comprise a rigid “U” shaped handle structurally carried by the top of the body to extend thereabove and over the lifting arm of the tong arm so as not to interfere with lifting motion of the tong arm.  
   
   
       5 . A system to lift a plurality of concrete blocks in adjacent lateral alignment for placement in lateral array, comprising in combination: 
 an elongate support beam releasably attachable to a lifting mechanism, said support beam carrying a plurality of depending fastening brackets, lineally spaced at a distance at least as great as the maximum lateral dimension of the concrete blocks to be lifted;    flexible lifting elements carried by each fastening bracket to depending spacedly below the support beam with lower end portions of each flexible lifting element in substantially horizontally coplanar relationship;    yoke type fastening elements carried by the lower end portions of each lifting element; and    fastening tools defined in  claim 1  releasably interconnected by the lifting arm to each yoke type fastening element-for lifting by motion of the elongate support beam.