Shaft-mounted snap lock assembly

A snap lock assembly operable to be radially mounted about a shaft without passing over an end of a shaft or sliding axially along a shaft, said assembly comprising first and second segments which are sized and shaped to encircle a shaft and which radially interlock with each other, each of said first and second segments comprising:

• a body member having an arc portion defining part of a bore for the reception of at least a part of a shaft and having engaging means on the inner periphery of said part of a bore for at least partially engaging a member placed within the bore;
• first and second circumferentially spaced shoulder portions, integral with said body member, and having longitudinally extending outwardly directed faces, which slope generally linearly away from an imaginary plane intersecting an imaginary longitudinal axis of said arc portion, said imaginary plane further serving to divide said body member into identical portions on each side of said imaginary plane;
• a plurality of rachet teeth formed upon each of said sloping faces of said first and second shoulder portions, said rachet teeth each including generally planar ramp portions and a recess at the end of each ramp and at the beginning of a next adjacent tooth;
• first and second circumferentially spaced projections integral with and extending outwardly from said body member, said spaced projections having longitudinally extending, mutually opposing faces extending on opposite sides of the imaginary plane which slope generally linearly away from the imaginary plane;
• and
• a plurality of rachet teeth extending from each of said mutually opposing faces of said first and second circumferentially spaced projections said rachet teeth each including generally planar ramp portions and a recess at the end of each ramp and the beginning of a next adjacent tooth wherein said rachet teeth of said first and second circumferentially spaced projections of said first segment operably engage with said rachet teeth of the faces of said first and second shoulder portions respectively of said second segment and said rachet teeth of said first and second circumferentially spaced projections of said second segment concomitantly engage with said rachet teeth of the faces of said first and second shoulder portions respectively of said first segment when said first and second segments may be radially snapped together to operably form a unified snap lock assembly about a shaft without passing over an end of the shaft or sliding axially along the shaft.