A ball detent is a simple mechanical arrangement used to hold a moving part in a temporarily fixed position relative to another part. Usually the moving parts slide with respect to each other, or one part rotates within the other.
The ball is a single, usually metal sphere, sliding within a bored cylinder, against the pressure of a spring, which pushes the ball against the other part of the mechanism, which carries the detent - which can be as simple as a hole of smaller diameter than the ball. When the hole is in line with the cylinder, the ball falls partially into the hole under spring pressure, holding the parts at that position. Additional force applied to the moving parts will push the ball back into its cylinder, compressing the spring, and allowing the parts to move to another position.
Ball detents are commonly found in the selector mechanism of a gearbox, holding the selector rods in the correct position to engage the desired gear. Other applications include clutches that slip at a preset torque, and calibrated ball detent mechanisms are typically found in a torque wrench.
Ball detents are one of the mechanisms often used in folding knives to prevent unwanted opening of the blade when carrying it.
Read more about Ball Detent: Use in Paintball Markers
Famous quotes containing the word ball:
“Any balance we achieve between adult and parental identities, between children’s and our own needs, works only for a time—because, as one father says, “It’s a new ball game just about every week.” So we are always in the process of learning to be parents.”
—Joan Sheingold Ditzion, Dennie, and Palmer Wolf. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 2 (1978)