Patent Application
20170321400
No cross reference is made to other applications.
No Federal Government support was received in the development of this Invention.
No sequence listing, table, or computer program is attached or accompanies this Application.
The present Invention relates generally to fasteners, and more particularly to ratcheting fasteners connecting an anchor to a moving part and limiting the displacement of the moving part from a minimum displacement position to a maximum displacement position. A fastener is defined as an object that fixes at least two parts together by a plurality of means. A ratchet is a mechanical device that allows continuous rotary motion in only one direction while preventing motion in the opposite direction. In this Invention, the clicker ratchet developed for the magnetic cabinet door latch forms the core of the fastening device. Said clicker ratchet has been used for decades in a variety of devices, including drain closures for vessels. Said clicker ratchet comprises a generally cylindrical anchor and a top comprising a generally cylindrical sleeve, with a plurality of wire forms and springs to bind the two pieces together. Assembly of said two pieces is done such that the central longitudinal axes of both cylinders are coincident, with the sleeve of the top fitting over the anchor. Said top displaces in said central axis. Said anchor bears a closed circuit track inscribed into a generally planar flat formed into the side of the cylinder, said flat being parallel to the cylindrical axis of said anchor cylinder. Said anchor also bears one of a plurality of mounting devices to fix it to an immobile base. Said top bears a spring seat and one of a plurality of functionalities requiring ratcheted displacement, including magnets and seals. Ratcheted displacement in said clicker ratchet depends on the travel of a free leg of a staple shaped wire form within a closed circuit track formed into the anchor side, aided by the compression and propulsion of a coil spring positioned between the top and the anchor pieces. The terminus of the free leg distal to the staple back runs generally perpendicular to, and inside, the track in the anchor. The opposite leg is fixed, except for rotation, in a spring seat in said top piece, separate from said anchor. The long back of the staple is orientated generally parallel to the generally planar upper surface of the track in the anchor. The staple thus links the anchor to the top. The floor of this track is ramped and stepped to allow the flat end of one leg of a staple-shaped wire to pass in one direction about the track, but not reverse.
The action of a clicker ratchet involves travel of the free leg around a one-way, closed-loop track. Two stops in the track define the minimum and maximum displacement of the fastener. Pushing the top piece in a slidingly engaged fashion down over the anchor piece engages the free leg of the staple in a minimum displacement position. Pushing the top piece again disengages the free end of the link wire from the minimum displacement position and allows the free leg of the staple to travel around the track to a maximum displacement position. Pushing the top piece once again, once again results in the free leg being engaged in the minimum displacement position. This device allows for the anchor part of the clicker fastener to be attached to an anchoring object, including a kitchen cabinet or the secured portion of a bath drain, and the mobile top part of the clicker fastener to be attached to a second object bearing one of a plurality of functionalities dependent on said limited displacement. The descriptor clicker refers to the clicking sound of the link wire leg moving within the track when the top is depressed.
In order to prevent unintentional rotation of the top part in its cylindrical axis shared with the anchor part, a plurality of raceways are provided. Raceways comprise vertical ribs on the exterior surface of the anchor cylinder fitting into complementary vertical inverted ribs formed into the walls of the internal cylindrical void of the top part.
The clicker ratchet can be used as an anchored device, the position of the top part being adjustable between a minimum displacement and a maximum displacement by depressing the top in a sliding engagement over the anchor part. A device attached to the top part may be situated in an engaged and disengaged fashion corresponding to the minimum and maximum displacement. An example is a bath drain closure, where the bottom part of the clicker ratchet may be anchored using a screw mount to a bath drain fitting, whereas a seal-bearing top piece may be adjusted from closed to open position by pushing downward on the top, to form a sealing drain closure allowing bath water to be accumulated and drained in the bath.
A shortcoming of this ratchet is that the link wire is the only device preventing separation of the top part from the anchor part when the top is pulled in a direction coincident with the cylindrical axis of the cylindrical anchor part and away from the anchor. Said link wire is a weak breakage prevention device. This design flaw results in the breakage of the clicker drain closure when pulled vertically upward.
In contrast, the Invention presented in this Application provides a device for prevention of pulling off the top of the clicker ratchet. A hook and step displacement limiter provided in each raceway in the clicker ratchet prevents pulling off of the top.
This Application describes the device composed of a hook and step breakage prevention device provided in an anchored clicker ratchet assembly. The assembly comprises an anchored cylinder fitted with a top composed of a cylindrical sleeve. In between these two cylinders are located various necessary devices. A coil spring is mounted in the upper portion of the anchor cylinder to provide propulsion when the top is depressed. A staple-shaped link-wire has one leg trapped in a spring seat on the top, and the other leg travelling around a closed circuit ratcheting track formed into the side of the anchor cylinder. And a plurality of raceways formed in the fitting together of vertical ribs on the anchor cylinder running inside inverted vertical ribs formed into the inside wall of the cylindrical sleeve that is the overlying top. The hook and step breakage prevention device is a displacement limiter that prevents the top from being pulled off the bottom anchor piece by means of a hook provided in each vertical rib that catches on an internal step provided within each complementary inverted rib in the interior of the cylindrical sleeve comprising the top. Placement of the hook and step devices depends on the maximum displacement of the top piece relative to the anchor piece.
The clicker ratchet illustrated in isometric view in
In
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