Patent ID: 8918966

Claim:
A cleat with automatic line-locking, comprising a frame having proximate and remote sides and formed with a passageway, extending between said proximate and remote sides, for receiving a line for movement along a first line moving direction from said proximate to said remote sides and an opposing line pulling direction from said remote to said proximate sides, and defining a line beating surface or limit stop on one side of said passageway for limiting excessive transverse movements of the line in a direction to said one side of said passageway; attaching means for attaching said frame to a support surface; cam means on said frame on the other or opposite side of said passageway and having a line engaging portion normally spaced a predetermined distance from the line, said cam means being movable between a line releasing position and a line locking position, said cam means being arranged to normally disengage from the line, engagement of the line by said cam means to said line locking position while advancing the line in said first line moving direction from said proximate to said remote sides creating a force couple that wedges the line between said line bearing surface or limit stop and said cam that tends to arrest or stop the line relative to said frame fixed on the support surface, said cam means being formed of flat sheet material defining a cam plane and a predetermined thickness in a direction transverse to said cam plane and said line engaging portion being formed of a plurality of generally flat pressure-engaging segments or pressure pads that are angularly offset to opposite sides of said cam plane and define a transverse width that is greater than the predetermined thickness of the flat sheet material of the cam and together generally defining a line-receiving region having a generally uniform cross-section configured to frictionally engage the line in said line locking position.