Powered fastener driver

A powered fastener driver comprising:

• a cylinder;
• a piston movable within the cylinder from a top-dead-center (TDC) position to a driven or bottom-dead-center (BDC) position;
• a driver blade attached to the piston for movement therewith along a driving axis from the TDC position toward the BDC position for driving a fastener into a workpiece, the driver blade including
• a plurality of lifter teeth, and
• a plurality of latch teeth separate from the lifter teeth;
• a lifter operable to engage the plurality of lifter teeth and move the piston and driver blade from the BDC position toward the TDC position;
• a latch pivotable between a released position in which the latch is incapable of contacting any of the latch teeth, and a latched position in which the latch directly contacts the latch teeth to prevent movement of the driver blade from the TDC position toward the BDC position;
• and
• a detent mechanism including
• a pin configured to engage and maintain the latch in the released position after the latch is pivoted to the released position, and
• a spring biasing the pin outward from a bore in which the pin is received to a position where the pin is engageable by the latch,
• wherein the pin maintains the latch in the released position until overridden by contact with the driver blade to return the latch to the latched position.

A latch system for selectively retaining a driver blade in a powered fastener driver, the latch system comprising:

• a latch movable between a latched position and a released position;
• a plurality of latch teeth on the driver blade, including at least a first latch tooth and a second latch tooth spaced along a longitudinal side of the driver blade;
• a first finger on the latch configured to engage one of the plurality latch teeth to hold the driver blade in an intermediate position between a bottom‑dead‑center (BDC) position and a top‑dead‑center (TDC) position;
• a second finger on the latch configured to be contacted by the first latch tooth during movement of the driver blade toward the TDC position to move the latch from the latched position to the released position;
• and
• a detent mechanism configured to maintain the latch in the released position until overridden by movement of the driver blade toward the BDC position.