Patent ID: 8310322

Claim:
A solenoid actuated assembly apparatus, said apparatus comprising: a linear motion, single-coil solenoid actuator, capable of operation on either an Alternating Current or Direct Current power supply, said apparatus further comprising an integrated locking and unlocking mechanism, said solenoid actuated assembly having a single actuator coil mounted on its frame and having a displacement and locking guide stem, having an actuator shaft being the armature, having a locking stem, having a displacement stem, having a plunger, having a recoil spring, having a retainer cap, inside said displacement and locking guide stem, are slots and ribs that guide the movement of said displacement stem and said locking stem, the ribs of said displacement and locking guide stem have double saw-tooth shaped projections, where the major saw-tooth projections serve as the upper position lock, whereas the minor saw-tooth projections slope to the slots thereon, said saw-tooth shaped projections are sloped with the same angle but of opposite orientation in the assembly with the saw-tooth projections of the displacement stem, said locking stem thereon is equipped with ribs on the side that move along the slots on the displacement and locking guide stem to keep it firmly in position, the top of said locking stem having saw tooth projections that lock with saw-tooth projections of said displacement stem, whereby for every solenoid actuation, the wedging actions between the saw-tooth shaped projections of the stems cause the displacement stem to turn incrementally thereby positioning the saw-tooth projections to either the upper lock or on the slots where they rest on top of the guide ribs of the locking stem at the lower lock position, the upper and lower lock positions respectively corresponding to the plunger locked and unlocked positions, further having a recoil spring to push the plunger downward to cushion on both locked and unlocked position, as well as to support positioning and integrity of the assembly, and said mechanism mechanically latching, and thereby locking, the solenoid assembly at the end of the solenoid shaft's allowable travel with the single coil solenoid then being in the de-energized state at the end of the solenoid shaft's completed travel, said mechanism mechanically unlatching, and thereby unlocking, the solenoid assembly at the end of the solenoid shaft's allowable travel with the single coil solenoid then being in the de-energized state at the end of the solenoid shaft's completed travel, thereby eliminating the need of permanent magnets to hold said latching mechanism, and said apparatus operating as a self-latching and self-unlatching device by the solenoid actuator repeating the same linear motion, said apparatus' integrated locking and unlocking mechanism being completely mechanical in nature, without need of secondary actuator or external release fixture.