Double arm pawl for autofeed screwdriver

An apparatus for sequentially driving fasteners from a fastener strip comprising a plurality of fasteners secured in a row in a holding strip, the apparatus comprising:

• a slide body having a lateral screwstrip receiving channelway and a guideway bore intersecting the channelway, the channelway configured to slidably receive the strip;
• an elongate driver shaft having a shaft axis of rotation, said shaft including a fastener driving bit for engaging and driving fasteners in succession into a workpiece, said shaft being journalled and longitudinally slidably housed in said bore for reciprocal movement relative the slide body between an engaged position and a withdrawn position;
• an advance mechanism mounted to said slide body for incrementally forwardly advancing the strip carrying the screws in the strip with the axis of each screw to pass in succession along a plane of advance within the channelway into the bore, said advance mechanism including a linkage member housed in said slide body and reciprocally movable between an advanced position and a retracted position as a function of cyclical reciprocal relative movement of the slide body and driver shaft,
• a pawl pivotally mounted on the linkage member for pivoting between a first blocking position and a second passage position,
• the pawl having a first arm with a first screw engaging surface and a second arm with a second screw engaging surface,
• in the first blocking position, both the first and second engagement surfaces are positioned in the plane of advance such that the first engagement surface blocks any screw in the screwstrip immediately forward of the first engagement surface from movement relative the first engagement surface rearwardly past the first engagement surface and the second engagement surface blocks any screw in the screwstrip immediately forward of the second engagement surface for movement relative the second engagement surface rearwardly past the second engagement surface,
• in the second passage position, both the first and second engagement surfaces are positioned out of the plane of advance such that they do not block screws in the screwstrip forward of the first or second engagement surfaces from movement relative the first and second engagement surfaces rearwardly past the first or second engagement surfaces.