Patent ID: 6840703

Claim:
System for assembling a first part to a second part by means of a ball anchoring device featuring a basically cylindrical lock body comprising a central bore and an annular wall featuring radial holes to accommodate radially mobile balls, and a locking piston that slides axially within the central bore between a released position and a locked position where a piston head keeps the balls pressed outwards and protruding from a surface of the body, the two parts featuring surfaces that are applied against each other; wherein the lock body is inserted into a first hole made in the surface of the first part and into a second hole made in the surface of the second part, the two holes being more or less coaxial, the lock body features a flange bearing against a spring thrust element which in turn bears against a free surface of the first part around the first hole, and the balls are maintained partly protruding under a free surface of the second part, in angular contact with the edge of the second hole into the free surface of the second part, and bearing against a lateral retaining surface of the piston head, the lateral retaining surface displaying in an area of contact of each ball a gradient such that under the effect of an axial thrust applied to the balls by the body through the load applied to the flange by the spring thrust element, the contact of each ball on the lateral retaining surface of the piston maintains the piston in the locked position; wherein the system includes a snap ring that encircles the body, said snap ring being designed to maintain the balls in a retracted position in the holes in the body before the body is inserted into the holes in the parts to assemble and when the piston is in the released position, and where the diameter of at least one of the holes in the parts is smaller than the outside diameter of the snap ring.