20160097412 | SELF-LOCKING PLUG - A compact, highly-reusable, self-locking includes a body component, a flexible beam finger component with a plurality of axially-oriented flexible beam fingers, a tab sleeve component including one or more downward extending tabs, an annular detent ring component including a plurality of detents in radial alignment with the plurality of flexible beam fingers, and a wave spring disposed between the tab sleeve component and the annular detent ring component for providing a biasing force to urge the tab sleeve component in a direction of a central, longitudinal axis of the self-locking plug. The flexible beam finger component moves relative to the annular detent ring component when the body component is rotated about the central, longitudinal axis, A, of the self-locking plug, thereby causing the plurality of flexible beam fingers to travel across the plurality of detents and cause elastic deformation of the flexible beam fingers. | 04-07-2016 |
20110255914 | COMPACT, HIGHLY-REUSABLE, LOCKING DEVICE - A compact, highly-reusable, locking device includes a carrier, roller elements, a body, and a band spring. The carrier includes a plurality of apertures for receiving each a corresponding roller element. The body includes a plurality of detents separated by ridges. The number of detents is different than the number of roller elements. The body is at least partially received in the carrier such that the detents are in radial alignment with the apertures. The band spring is disposed about the roller elements. The roller elements travel across the detents and ridges to cause elastic deformation of the band spring when the body is rotated about a central axis. | 10-20-2011 |