ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,551,991, issued on Feb. 17, was assigned to Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp. (Brookfield, Wis.).
"Tool with ratchet mechanism" was invented by Jack C. Melkovitz (Wauwatosa, Wis.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Various designs for a ratchet mechanism and tools incorporating a ratchet mechanism are described. One embodiment relates to a ratchet with each layer of the gear stack includes teeth rotationally offset from each other increasing the number of circumferentially spaced gear tooth surfaces that are available to engage with the pawl teeth. Another embodiment relates to a ratchet with multiple pawls placed in series such that the pawls ar...