Locking device

A locking device capable of forming a condition in which relative rotation of a first member and a second member configured to move relative to each other is locked by meshing engagement of teeth and capable of maintaining the condition, comprising:

• a pawl provided and guided so as to be capable of advancing and retreating in a specific linear direction with respect to the first member;
• a pressing cam configured to press the pawl in an advancing direction with respect to the first member;
• and
• an engaged tooth formed in the second member and configured to mesh with an engagement tooth of the pawl pressed that is moved in the advancing direction by the pressing cam,
• wherein the pawl is guided by raised wall-shaped guide walls formed in the first member while both side portions of the guide walls corresponding to an advancing/retreating moving direction are applied to the pawl, wherein the pawl is divided into two divisional pawls configured to obliquely contact with each other, so as to be pressed and moved away from each other in opposite lateral directions and to be pressed against the guide walls positioned in respective lateral directions when the pawl is pressed and moved in the advancing direction by the pressing cam, and wherein a division line dividing the pawl into the two divisional pawls is set to form inclined surfaces that are configured to bring the two divisional pawls into face contact with each other obliquely with respect to the advancing moving direction of the pawl, vertical surfaces parallel to surfaces of the guide walls that are configured to bring the two divisional pawls into face contact with each other in a direction perpendicular to the pawl advancing moving direction relative to the inclined surfaces, and holding surfaces that are configured to form V-shaped inclined surfaces with respect to the inclined surfaces so as to vertically hold the two divisional pawls in the pawl advancing moving direction,
• wherein the division line dividing the pawl into the two divisional pawls is set as a vertical division line parallel to the surfaces of the guide walls that is configured to laterally divide an outer circumferential surface of the pawl at a forward end side in the advancing direction of the pawl.