Patent ID: 7753184

Claim:
A bidirectional clutch, further comprising: a central support shaft; first and second peripheral output drives rotatably mounted onto the central support shaft; a rotational power source; a centrally mounted clutch jaw slidably and rotatably mounted on the central support shaft, and positioned between the first and second peripheral output drives, the centrally mounted clutch jaw having means for rotating in a first direction on the central support shaft under control of the rotational power source, and rotating in the opposite direction under control of the rotational power source; the centrally mounted clutch jaw having first and second ends, each end having cam surfaces and a driving surface which faces the first and second peripheral output drives, respectively; the first and second peripheral output drives having cam surfaces and driving surfaces on their ends which face the cam surfaces and driving surfaces of the first and second ends of the centrally mounted clutch jaw, respectively; and the first and second cam surfaces and driving surfaces are structured such that when the first driving surface of the centrally mounted clutch jaw is engaged with the driving surface of the first peripheral output drive, it remains engaged while rotated in a first direction, and when the rotational power source reverses direction, the driving surface of the first peripheral output drive is disengaged and the first cam surface of the centrally mounted clutch jaw rotates toward the cam surface of the first peripheral output drive and slides up the cam surface of the first peripheral output causing axial motion of the centrally mounted clutch jaw such that it slides laterally along the central support shaft until it disengages from the first peripheral output drive and continues to slide laterally toward the second cam surface using momentum generated by sliding up the cam surface of the centrally mounted clutch jaw until it engages the driving surface of the second peripheral output drive; wherein an axial force for switching the centrally mounted clutch jaw from one peripheral output drive to the other is provided solely by the currently engaged cam surface; whereby reversing the direction of the rotational power source automatically disengages the centrally mounted clutch jaw from one peripheral output drive and engages it with the other peripheral output drive.