Patent ID: 8226135

Claim:
A tong or clamp apparatus for picking up an object, comprising:— (a) a first member having an elongate arm at a front end thereof and a first wall at a rear end thereof; and (b) a second member having an elongate arm at a front end and a second wall at a rear end thereof and pivotably connected with and movable relative to said first member; wherein: (i) said first wall includes a first bulge defining a first groove at an inwardly facing side thereof, and said second wall includes a second bulge defining a second groove at an outwardly facing side thereof; (ii) one of the first and the second grooves is generally elongate in shape with substantially same width there across, and the other groove is generally elongate in shape but having a substantially widened end; (iii) the grooves are positioned such that the first and the second grooves together define a channel for accommodating a ball bearing; (iv) the ball bearing is movable along the channel in response to the orientation of said apparatus; (v) said apparatus is adapted to assume a first configuration in which said ball bearing is positioned at one end of the channel or a second configuration in which said ball bearing is positioned at the opposite end of the channel, in that in one of the two configurations said walls and hence said arms are prevented from moving relative each other by said ball bearing and in the other configuration said walls and hence said arms are movable relative to each other; and (vi) in the configuration when said walls are movable relative to each other said ball bearing is located at the widened end of the groove or in the configuration when said walls are immovable relative to each other said ball bearing is located at the end of the groove opposite to the widened end.