Patent ID: 9084913
Filing Date: 2015-07-21
Classification: A63B

Abstract:
1. A locking mechanism for a shaft comprising: a first cylinder having at least a portion of an inside diameter approximately equal to an outside diameter of the shaft allowing for the cylinder to slide freely on the shaft, the first cylinder having at least one hole; at least one ball retained in the at least one hole of the first cylinder, the hole allowing a projection of the at least one ball into an interior of the first cylinder and small enough to retain the ball in the hole; a tensioning ring in the form of a second cylinder at least partially overlapping the first cylinder and having an inside diameter approximately equal to an outside diameter of the first cylinder at one end of the second cylinder and at least a portion of the inside diameter increasing in diameter toward an opposite end of the second cylinder, the second cylinder serving to retain the at least one ball within the at least one hole of the first cylinder; a biasing mechanism acting against the second cylinder in a first direction to urge the at least one ball into the interior of the first cylinder in order to frictionally engage the cylindrical shaft; a release mechanism movable with the biasing mechanism and manually actuated against the bias to move the second cylinder in a second direction opposite the first direction to allow the at least one ball to freely move within the at least on hole and allow the locking mechanism to be slid onto and removed from the shaft the release mechanism having at least one pair of handles of which one or both handles are rotatable toward or away from another of the handles to manually actuate the release mechanism; and a first body fixed relative the tensioning ring having peripheral cam surfaces and wherein the release mechanism comprises a second body fixed relative the first cylinder having mating cam surfaces such that, when the first body is rotated relative the second body, the peripheral cam surfaces ride up the mating cam surfaces to maintain the locking mechanism in an unlocked condition to facilitate sliding the locking mechanism on and off the shaft.