Die head retaining mechanism

A power drive for performing thread cutting operations, the power drive comprising:

• a housing;
• a face gear disposed in the housing with a plurality of slots and at least one groove;
• a die head retaining mechanism, the die head retaining mechanism comprising:
• at least one locking jaw including an inwardly and radially directed extension;
• at least one compression spring;
• a drive ring having a plurality of cam profiles and means to compress the spring(s);
• a die head disposed in the die head retaining mechanism, the die head defining a recessed groove;
• wherein the die head retaining mechanism is disposed between the face gear and the die head for installing or removing the die head in the power drive, each of the at least one locking jaws is disposed in a respective slot provided on the face gear and engaged with at least one of the cam profiles of the drive ring, and the at least one compression spring is disposed in the at least one groove in the face gear and adapted to be compressed during rotation of the drive ring to allow the locking jaws to follow the cam profiles to move outward in a radial fashion to open or unlock the die head from the power drive, and the extension of each locking jaw disposed in the groove of the die head to thereby retain the die head.