Latch mechanism

A latch mechanism, comprising a latch bar;

• a latch-bar-receiving member having side-by-side aligned notches for receiving said latch bar;
• a latch-bar-securing member having a wedge formation which secures said latch bar in said notches of said latch-bar-receiving member when in a latched position;
• a spring which urges said latch-bar-securing member into said latched position;
• wedge shaped compensating means associated with the notches in the latch-bar-receiving member for firmly securing the latch bar in the notches of said latch-bar-receiving member when in latched position, thus substantially preventing relative motion between said latch bar and said latch-bar-receiving member;
• and means for an operator to unlatch said latch mechanism by manually opposing said spring and urging said latch-bar-securing member away from said latched position, thus releasing said latch bar from securement in said notches of the latch-bar-receiving member;
• the said latch-bar-receiving member being fashioned in the form of an elongate, notched housing attachable to a mounting surface and adapted to receive the latch bar in said aligned notches and also to contain the latch-bar-securing member;
• the said spring being a compression spring having one end bearing against a portion of the said latch-bar-securing member, positioned internally thereof, and spaced apart from an end wall thereof which is provided with a bore through which said spring extends to bear against a portion of the said housing;
• the latch-bar-securing member having a protuberance protruding through a wall of said housing for manual movement of said latch-bar-securing member;
• said housing having mounting flanges at an open face thereof, which open face provides passage for inserting said latch-bar-securing member into said housing, said housing being so fashioned that said latch-bar-securing member is contained closely but loosely therein when said housing is attached to a mounting surface;
• the forward end of the elongate housing being open;
• the aligned notches being positioned in opposing sides of said housing near the open end;
• and the forward edges of said opposing sides sloping rearwardly and upwardly from the bottom of said sides so as to intersect said notches, thus providing an inclined ramp for said latch bar to slide upon during latching to the position where said latch bar can drop into said notches and thus become latched in place.

A folding table, comprising a table top;

• a pair of dual table legs, which legs are interconnected by a latch bar;
• a latching mechanism for each pair of legs to hold the corresponding pair of legs in an upright, table-top-supporting position;
• each of the latching mechanisms comprising a latch-bar-receiving member having one or more notches for receiving, when it is in latching position, a corresponding latch bar;
• a latch-bar-securing member having a wedge formation adapted to slidingly engage the latch bar and continually press it into said notch or notches with forward movement of said wedge formation unlimited by other structure, so as to firmly secure said latch bar in said notch or notches of said latch-bar-receiving member when in the latching position;
• a spring which urges said latch-bar-securing member into said latching position;
• and means for an operator to unlatch said latch mechanism by manually opposing said spring and urging said latch-bar-securing member away from said latching position, thus releasing said latch bar from securement in said notch or notches of the latch-bar-receiving member.