The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 15, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 25, 1996
Robert G Everts, Chandler, AZ (US);
Harry Gene Rickard, Phoenix, AZ (US);
Ryobi North America, Easley, SC (US);
Abstract
A line trimmer head is provided including a rotatable drive shaft and a housing mounted to the drive shaft for rotation therewith. The housing has an open end and at least one peripheral aperture formed through the housing. A spool subassembly is positioned at least partially within the housing adjacent the open end of the housing. The subassembly includes a spool having at least one flange extending radially outwardly from the periphery thereof, a cog ring secured to the spool, and a ratchet and pawl assembly formed between the cog ring and spool. The ratchet and pawl assembly allows rotation of the spool in a first direction with respect to the cog ring for winding line around the spool while preventing spool rotation in a second direction opposite the first direction to facilitate line feed bumping and line trimming operations. In an alternative embodiment, the pawl is integrally molded with the spool to eliminate the separate spring-pawl assembly.