Patent ID: 7219431

Claim:
A line trimmer, comprising: a trimmer head including a rotatable housing presenting at least one line outlet, said housing including an internal line support; a power source drivingly interconnected with said housing for rotation thereof; and a self-contained line cartridge being pre-filled with a supply of line and removably attached to the housing so as to be replaceable once the supply of line is exhausted, said self-contained line cartridge being located exteriorly of said housing so as to be exposed and readily removable, there being a line passageway between said cartridge and said housing allowing passage of line from the cartridge and into the housing, with the line engaging said line support and a section thereof extending through said line outlet to be rotated with the housing, said self-contained line cartridge presenting a line-receiving chamber in which the supply of line is contained and a line-receiving opening through which line is fed from the chamber, said opening presenting a smaller width dimension than the chamber so that the supply of line is retained within the chamber prior to cartridge attachment, said self-contained line cartridge including a sidewall that presents opposite first and second ends and an endwall that spans the first end and thereby encloses a corresponding end of the line receiving chamber, said sidewall including a main body portion that cooperates with the endwall to define the line-receiving chamber, said sidewall including a neck portion projecting axially from the main body portion to define the second end, said neck portion having a reduced cross-sectional dimension relative to the main body portion so as to define the line-receiving opening, said head including a cartridge support fixed relative to the rotatable housing, said neck portion being releasably attached to the cartridge support, with the cartridge support being positioned to overlie the line-receiving opening, said rotatable housing and cartridge being interconnected by the cartridge support so as to rotate with one another.