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:
Jan. 26, 1999
Filed:
Feb. 12, 1996
William E Askins, Lititz, PA (US);
Woodstream Corporation, Lititz, PA (US);
Abstract
A cage-like animal trap has a door mechanism at a front end of the trap which closes on an animal inside of the trap when the animal steps on an internal trip pan while going for bait positioned at the rear of the trap. The door mechanism has a main body panel pivoted to the roof of the trap and a reactor plate pivotally connected to the bottom edge of the body panel and urged away from the body panel by a spring. In the open position, the body panel and reactor plate are squeezed together and lie flat against the roof of the trap held in place by a hook-like trigger in the roof. When the trigger is released by an animal stepping on the trip pan, the body panel of the door is lowered by gravity and the reactor plate springs away from the body panel with its top edge sliding outwardly along the inside of the roof until it engages a stop at the front of the roof. A drop latch in the roof prevents the top edge of the reactor plate from sliding back to the open position of the door mechanism unless the catch is lifted from outside of the trap so that the trapped animal cannot open the door from inside the trap. The trap is disclosed in collapsible and non-collapsible versions.