Apparatus and method for disengaging a motor from an actuator gear train
AssigneeInteva Products, LLC
InventorIan J. Dow
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A clutch mechanism for coupling and decoupling a motor to a rack is disclosed herein. The clutch mechanism having: a clutch lever pivotally mounted to an axis for movement from a first position to a second position; a cam gear having a cam surface, wherein rotational movement of the cam gear causes the cam surface to move the clutch lever from the first position to the second position; and a gear train configured to cause linear movement of the rack in response to rotational movement of the motor, wherein movement of the clutch lever from the first position to the second position disconnects a pair of gears of the gear train.
Claims20
A clutch mechanism for coupling and decoupling a motor to a rack, comprising:
- a clutch lever pivotally mounted to an axis for movement from a first position to a second position;
- a cam gear having a cam surface, wherein rotational movement of the cam gear causes the cam surface to move the clutch lever from the first position to the second position;
- and
- a gear train configured to cause linear movement of the rack in response to rotational movement of the motor, wherein movement of the clutch lever from the first position to the second position disconnects a pair of gears of the gear train.
A method of decoupling and coupling a motor to a rack, comprising:
- decoupling the rack from the motor by rotating a cam gear from a first position in a first direction to an intermediate position wherein a clutch spool is moved from a first position, wherein the clutch spool couples the motor to the rack to a second position, wherein the clutch spool decouples the rack from the motor;
- and
- further rotating the cam gear in the first direction from the intermediate position to a second position wherein a lever moves the rack after it has been decoupled from the motor, wherein the cam gear is spring biased into the first position and the clutch spool is spring biased into the first position and wherein the second direction is perpendicular to the first direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.