Patent ID: 7712801

Claim:
A rotary pawl latch comprising: a housing; means for actuating the latch; a pawl supported by said housing for rotary movement about an axis of rotation between a latched position and an unlatched position, said pawl having a step; a spring biasing said pawl toward said unlatched position; and a lock bar supported by said housing, said lock bar engaging said step to maintain said pawl in said latched position; wherein when the latch is actuated, said lock bar is moved toward said axis of rotation of said pawl to move said lock bar out of engagement with said step so that said pawl can begin to rotate toward said unlatched position; wherein said pawl has a lock bar slot having an inner cam profile, said inner cam profile has a shape such that said lock bar is allowed to return to its unloaded state when said pawl is in said unlatched position; and wherein when the latch is actuated by said means for actuating the latch, said means for actuating the latch acts to flex said lock bar toward said axis of rotation of said pawl to move said lock bar out of engagement with said step so that said pawl can begin to rotate toward said unlatched position.