Rotatable and extendable locking shaft apparatus
OwnerDale Kickerinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An adjustable locking shaft apparatus is disclosed. A locking adjustment system, fully enclosed within the movable shaft segments enables rapid simultaneous angular and length adjustments to be made to the shaft. An eccentric cam configuration operated by simple twisting of the shaft segments provides the locking pressure for maintaining selected adjustments. The apparatus provides an infinite number of adjustment positions. A kayak paddle implementation of the invention is disclosed.
Claims13
An adjustable shaft apparatus, comprising:
- (a) a first hollow shaft portion;
- (b) a second hollow shaft configured for axial operative alignment with said first shaft portion;
- and
- (c) a releasable locking assembly mounted within and connecting said first and second shaft portions in axial alignment, said locking assembly being arranged and configured to respond to relative twisting motion between said first and second shaft portions about said axis, to selectively fix the angular orientations of said first and second shaft portions relative to one another, to any desired angular positions.
An adjustable kayak paddle, comprising:
- (a) a shaft having first and second ends and being separable near its longitudinal center;
- (b) paddle blades fixedly attachable to said first and second shaft ends;
- and
- (c) a releasable locking assembly mounted within said shaft and bridging the separable portion thereof;
- said locking assembly being operable in response to relative twisting motion between the separable shaft segments about the shaft axis to fix the angular orientations of said shaft segments and attached paddle blades about said axis, at any desired angular positions.
A shaft adjustment locking apparatus of a type being sized and configured to be entirely operatively inserted within first and second joinable shaft segments to be controlled, and containing no operable threaded parts, comprising:
- (a) a first portion configured for fixed mounting within the first shaft;
- (b) a second portion configured for slidable movement within and relative to said second shaft, comprising:
- (i) a cam member mounted for movement with said first portion;
- and
- (ii) a cam follower rotatably mounted on said cam member and engageable with an inner surface of said second shaft, for selectively frictionally engaging said inner surface of said second shaft in response to rotation of said cam follower relative to said cam member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.