ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,253,121, issued on March 18, was assigned to TSUBAKIMOTO CHAIN Co. (Osaka, Japan).
"Cam clutch" was invented by Eiichi Nakagawa (Osaka, Japan) and Yoshihito Shimanaka (Osaka, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "To provide a cam clutch that allows use of the outer race as a rotating member without requiring a complex structure, and that allows a size reduction in the axial direction. The cam clutch includes an operating mode switch mechanism (140) for switching between two or more of a free state that allows relative rotation in both directions, a one-way clutch mode that allows relative rotation in one of forward and reverse directions...