AU2004205183A1 - Improvements in Locks - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT' 1990 DIVISIONAL APPLICATION Name of Applicant(s): Yarra Ridge Pty Ltd 8-14 Ross Street, South Melbourne, Victoria 3205 Invention Title: Improvements in Locks Actual Inventor: John Russell Watts, 61 St. Vincent Place, Albert Park, Victoria 3206 Address for Service: Austral Lack Industries Pty Ltd P 0 Box 275, Albert Park, Victoria 3206 Divisional Application Number: DOCAustraia mo'tents received on: 0 L rtNo:

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Signed: John R The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of 35 performing it known to me: 2 Field of the Invention This invention relates to locks and locking and operating mechanisms for door locks.

Summary of the Invention According to the invention there is provided a lock including a casing, a strike plate having an aperture, an angularly displaceable first cam, an outwardly biased latch bolt supported by the casing and having a leading portion, said latch bolt being displaceable to and from an extended position in which the latch bolt protrudes from the casing to engage in the strike plate aperture, said latch bolt leading portion contacting the strike plate during latching to be inwardly displaced by the strike plate whereby to facilitate the engagement with the aperture, said leading portion being characterized by each side being curved, chamfered, ramped or otherwise profiled to enable either side of the latch bolt to engage the strike plate to inwardly displace the latch bolt, an outwardly biased plunger-like member comprising an auxiliary bolt supported by the casing and displaceable against biasing means from an extended position in which the auxiliary bolt causes the latch bolt to be restrained in a partly extended position prior to latching, an external lever to cause the latch bolt to be displaced towards the retracted position, a deadlocking member displaceable to a deadlocking configuration in which the deadlocking member and the latch bolt co-operate to cause the latch bolt to be restrained in the extended position, and an operable locking member operably connected to the deadlocking member, the deadlocking member being controlled by the first cam wherein the deadlocking member is displaceable by the first cam and by the locking member when the first cam is within a first range of angular disposition, and while the deadlocking member remains in the deadlocking configuration, the first cam is angularly displaceable beyond the first range to cause the first cam and deadlocking slide to adopt a locked configuration whereby to restrain the deadlocking slide from being displaced.

Preferably, the first cam has an extension including an operative portion disposed from the first *35 cam pivotal axis and the deadlocking member includes drive shoulders and wherein the operative portion remains between the drive shoulders when the first cam is within the first range.

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Preferably, the first cam has an extension including an operative portion disposed from the first cam pivotal axis and the deadlocking member includes drive shoulders and wherein the operative portion is displaced from the recess between the drive shoulders when the first cam is within the second range.

Preferably, the first cam within the second range is characterized by the point of contact on the deadlocking member by the operative portion being defined by a normal vector which passes substantially through the axis of rotation of the first cam.

Preferably, the deadlocking member comprises a rectilinearly displaceable deadlocking slide.

Preferably, the operable locking member comprises a locking cam supported by the casing for pivotal movement and having a locking arm by which the locking cam is operably coupled to the deadlocking member.

'Preferably, the lock includes biassing means to urge the first cam from displacing from the second range.

Preferably, the first cam is operably connected to a key operable cylinder.

Preferably, when the engaging member is restrained in the extended position, an external load applied to the engaging member will not cause the deadlocking member nor engaging member to displace.

Preferably the lock includes engageable means and stop means to restrain the engaging member from being displaced to the extended position to engage the engageable means unless the engaging member and engageable means are adjacently disposed, said stop means including an outwardly biased and inwardly displaceable plunger-like member supported within the casing.

Preferably, the plunger-like member comprises an auxiliary bolt.

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4 Preferably, the lock includes multiple engaging members each displaceable between a retracted position and an extended position.

Preferably, each engaging member comprises a bolt.

Description of the Drawings Embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a partial schematic cut away side elevation of a lock where a latch bolt is retained in a partly extended position by a plunger-like member comprising an auxiliary bolt, the operative portion is between the drive shoulders of a deadlocking slide that is in an undisplaced position where it does not restrain the latch bolt from displacing, Figure 2 is a partial schematic cut away side elevation of a lock where the latch bolt is in the fully extended position, the operative portion is not between the drive shoulders and the deadlocking slide is in a displaced, deadlocking position where it engages with the latch bolt to restrain the latch bolt fully extended and within the strike plate aperture which is shown in cross-sectioned view, Figure 3 is a partial schematic cut away side elevation of a lock where the deadlocking slide has been adapted to connect to transmission means operably connected to remote bolts, Figure 4 is a partial schematic enlargement of Figure 3 Description of the Preferred Embodiments The invention comprises in summary, an engageable member comprising a strike plate having an engageable aperture, a boxlike casing I, a displaceable engaging member comprising a latch bolt 2, a displaceable plunger-like member comprising an auxiliary bolt 3 positioned adjacent the latch bolt, a deadlocking slide 4 having an axis of movement substantially orthogonal to the axis of movement of the latch bolt as shown in Fig 1 and 2 and displaceable into and out of engagement with the latch bolt, and a pivotally supported rocker member 5 biased towards an angularly displaceable first cam; said first cam, (also referred to herein as an actuating cam), comprising an S* angularly displaceable cam having an extension comprising an arm 7, a key operable cylinder 6, an operable locking member comprising an angularly displaceable locking arm 8 supported within the casing and operably coupled to the deadlocking slide, said locking member being displaceable to displace the deadlocking slide, and an operating cam 9 operably connected to an external lever and by which the latch bolt can be made to retract. The operating cam, first cam and locking arm all preferably have parallel pivotal axii which are co-linearly disposed and displaced rearwardly of the deadlocking slide as shown in Fig I and 2.

In normal use, operation of the external operating lever causes the operating cam 9 to rotate to cause an armed extension 10 of the operating cam 9 to engage a rearward shoulder 11 of the latch bolt to draw it rearwardly to thereby causing the latch bolt to be displaced inwardly. The latch bolt in normal use would be made to displace inwardly from a fully extended position to a free position where it has disengaged the strike plate 57 shown in Fig 2, at which point, the door in which the lock is fitted can be opened.

In normal use, after door opening, the lever would be angularly displaced by hand to the undisplaced position and the hand would then be removed. As the lever so displaces the operating cam 9 would correspondingly angularly displace towards an undisplaced position. As the operating cam rotates towards the undisplaced position the latch bolt would displace correspondingly under biasing means towards the fully extended position. The latch bolt would displace outwardly until it is engaged by the fully extended auxiliary bolt, at which point the operating cam would continue to displace while the latch bolt remains retained at the position of engagement with the auxiliary bolt in a pre-latching, partly extended configuration. In normal use, this configuration of the lock occurs between the opening and closing of a door after the operating lever has been released by 25 hand.

The action of closing the door causes the auxiliary bolt and the latch bolt to be inwardly displaced by sliding up the strike plate. When the latch bolt attains the position over the aperture in the strike iplate it is displaced under the action of biasing means to a fully extended position while the 30 auxiliary bolt is maintained displaced from the fully extended position by the strike plate. The latch bolt, (previously restrained from displacing outwardly by the auxiliary bolt), is able to displace outwardly because the displacement of the auxiliary bolt from the fully extended position causes the auxiliary bolt to become unengageable by the latch bolt. When the latch bolt is in the fully extended position shown in Fig 2, the deadlocking slide can be displaced from the undisplaced 35 position shown in Fig 1 to the deadlocking position shown in Fig 2, a position where a leading portion of the deadlocking slide is disposed behind a shoulder 12 of the latch bolt to thereby restrain the latch bolt from being displaced inwardly. The deadlocking slide can be displaced by rotation of the first cam that in a preferred embodiment is operably connected to the key operable cylinder to be displaceable by the cylinder, while in another embodiment the first cam is operably connected to a small external hand operable lever.

In more detail, the lock comprises a rectangular box-like casing I having a front wall 14 in which there is an aperture 15 through which the latch bolt protrudes and aperture 16 through which the auxiliary bolt protrudes. At the upper and lower end of the casing, the front wall is integrally joined to elongated extensions 17 by which the lock casing is secured into a door. The casing also includes substantially cylindrical apertures in the sides to support the shaft-like portions of the angularly displaceable members supported in the casing and to accommodate a locking cylinder 6 and spigots 58 with which external lever assemblies are secured to the door. There is also an aperture of rectangular cross-section in the operating cam to accommodate a rectangular shaft operably coupling the external levers situated one on each side of the door to the operating cam 9..

There is also an aperture of rectangular cross-section in the cylindrical boss portion of the locking arm 8 to accommodate a rectangular shaft operably coupling an external lever to the locking arm 8.

The operating cam 9 has a substantially cylindrical shape with an extension comprising the arm The latch bolt 2 has a substantially box-shaped profile with a leading end portion having each side curved, chamfered, ramped or otherwise profiled to facilitate inward displacement by strike plate engagement on either side. This latch bolt has rearwardly two legs, one of which has a rear shoulder 11 that is engageable by the arm 10 of the operating cam. The arm 10 is located in a 25 concave recess that exists between the rear shoulder 11 and the latch bolt leading end. A spring 18 biases the latch bolt outwardly towards the fully extended position.

The latch bolt also has a shoulder 12 that is disposed rearwardly of the leading end portion that is engageable by the deadlocking slide 4, said engagement being effected by displacement of the deadlocking slide towards the latch bolt. In the deadlocked configuration of the lock, a leading end portion of the deadlocking slide lies behind the latch bolt leading end portion adjacent the shoulder 12 and beside the lower rearwardly projecting leg, thereby restraining the latch bolt from inwardly displacing. Adjacent the auxiliary bolt, the latch bolt has at least one ramped shoulderl 9 that projects into the locus of displacement of the rearward shoulder 20 of the auxiliary bolt.

I 1 The auxiliary bolt comprises a substantially cylindrical portion 21 that is supported in the aperture in the casing front wall and has at least one rearwardly disposed protruding substantially annular shoulder 20. This auxiliary bolt has a leading portion that may be curved ramped or chamfered on one or both sides but is preferably chamfered on one side only.

Preferably the auxiliary bolt is angled on one side only so that the lock may be used on both the left hand and right hand hinged doors because there is means for reversing the auxiliary bolt so that the inclined leading portion 13 can be in the direction of the door closing. This is achieved as described below. Rearwardly the auxiliary bolt comprises a shaft of rectangular cross section as shown in cross-section CC, Fig 2. This shaft is supported for longitudinal movement and limited vertical movement by the forked extension 22, Fig 2 of the lock casing. Within the normal range of movement of the auxiliary bolt, the shaft of rectangular cross section is supported by the forked extension but between the shaft portion of rectangular cross-section and the leading portion of the auxiliary bolt is a portion of circular cross section 23, cross-section BB Fig 2. Depression of the auxiliary bolt beyond the normal range causes this portion 23 to move adjacent the forked support.

When this portion is supported by the forked extension it is possible to rotate the auxiliary bolt so that the inclined portion can be disposed in the direction of door closing to facilitate latching. The auxiliary bolt can be so depressed when the spigot 58 is not within its fitting aperture behind the auxiliary bolt. The auxiliary bolt can be depressed beyond its normal range to be rotated prior to fitting of the external levers assemblies but it cannot be so depressed when the lock is completely installed because the spigot 58 lies in the path of travel of shoulder 20 to limit its movement.

25 On the side of the forked extension, disposed towards that side of the auxiliary bolt that is furthest from the latch bolt, is an inclined surface 24 that is engageable by the auxiliary bolt shoulder When the auxiliary bolt outwardly displaces under the action of the spring (from the inwardly displaced position it is displaced to by the strike plate), the shoulder 20 on contacting the inclined surface, slides up the inclined surface 24 to be displaced towards the latch bolt. In this way the shoulder 20 is displaced into a position in which a portion of it protrudes into the path of movement of the ramped shoulder 19 of the latch bolt thereby to be engageable by the latch bolt protrusion 19.

Commencing rearwardly of the casing and extending towards the front of the casing is a casing finned extension 26 that has a ramped leading edge 27 that is disposed substantially rearwardly of the shoulder 20 when the auxiliary bolt is fully extended as shown in Fig I, said ramped leading edge 27 being engageable by the shoulder 20 on the auxiliary bolt. When the auxiliary bolt is inwardly displaced from the fully extended position the shoulder 20 contacts this ramped leading edge 27 and slides up the ramp to be displaced away from the latch bolt to displace the engaging shoulder 20 out of the locus of displacement of the ramped shoulder 19 of the latch bolt.

The deadlocking slide comprises a blade-like member with a leading end 28 that is engageable with the latch bolt, said deadlocking slide having a side recess 29 engaged with a sideways protruding pin 30 protruding from the angularly displaceable locking arm 8, said pin being disposed away from the pivotal axis of the locking arm to operably interconnect the locking arm 8 and deadlocking slide.

The deadlocking slide also includes a concave recess 31 engageable with the arm 7 of the first cam which in preferred embodiment is operably connected to the key operable cylinder, said recess 31 being defined by opposed drive shoulders 32 and 33 respectively, said arm 7 including an operative portion disposed from the first cam pivotal axis. Within a first range of first cam angular disposition the operative portion remains entirely between the drive shoulders to operably connect the first cam and the deadlocking slide whereby the arm 7 is angularly displaceable by displacement of the deadlocking slide and the deadlocking slide is displaceable by angular displacement of the arm 7; and further more, while the first cam is within the first range, the deadlocking slide is displaceable between the undisplaced and deadlocking positions by angular displacement of either the locking arm 8, (that is connected to an interior external hand operable locking member), or the first cam; i.e. the deadlocking slide can be actuated by the locking arm 8 25 and by the first cam. At the end of the first range and corresponding to the deadlocking slide being o*o*o in the deadlocking position, the first cam can also be further displaced within a second range of *first cam angular disposition while the deadlocking slide remains substantially unmoved in the deadlocking position unable to displace the said first cam and in effect becoming locked by displacement of the operative end portion of the first cam from the first range and into this second range of angular disposition to thereby become unable to be displaced by the locking arm.

Locking is achieved as a result of the shoulder 33 being integrally connected to an exit shoulder 34 that is configured such that when the deadlocking slide has been moved to the deadlocking position, the surface of the exit shoulder 34 lies substantially orthogonal to the pivotal axis of the 35 arm 7 so that the operative portion, and in particular the surface 35 of the operative portion, can be "displaced to slide on the surface 34 without substantially moving the deadlocking slide, this displacement of the operative portion over the surface of the exit shoulder corresponding to displacement of the first cam within the second range of first cam angular disposition.

The pivotally supported rocker 5 is a laminar-like member having a profiled edge disposed towards the first cam that is situated beside the deadlocking slide within the casing. This member has a raised portion 36 that, when the first cam has displaced into its second range, engages with the arm 7 to bias the first cam away from its first range of angular disposition thereby acting to urge the first cam to remain within its second range of angular disposition. The rocker is biased by spring towards the first cam.

The invention also provides a multi-point lock having multiple deadlocking bolts, said multi-point lock including a drive mechanism by which remote locks are actuated. The drive mechanism 41 includes a pair of counteracting slides 42 and 43 supported within an auxiliary casing 44, said auxiliary casing being supported relative to the casing. Each slide has an inwardly projecting pin 46 which engages in one of a pair of opposite substantially radially disposed slots 47, 48 in a disc-like member supported in the auxiliary casing 44 between the slides for angular displacement about a pivotal axis disposed between the slots and between the slides -displacement of one slide in one direction causes the disc member to rotate and drive the other slide in the opposite direction.

The deadlocking member 4 is adapted to engage one of the slides of this drive mechanism by being of extended length and having two protruding pins that engage in two corresponding recesses within one of the slides of the drive mechanism. Displacement of the deadlocking slide causes one of the slides of the drive mechanism to move in one direction and the other slide to move in the other direction. Remote locks are positioned one above and one below the drive mechanism. These locks are operably coupled by bars 49 and 50 and configured so that actuation of the deadlocking slide to the deadlocking position causes the bars to drive the bolts of the remote locks to their fully •extended and deadlocked position.

Each remote lock 51 comprises a remote casing 52 that in usage is fixed relative to the casing and which supports a displaceable remote bolt 53. This remote bolt is operated by an angularly displaceable rocker 54 supported by a pin joint comprising a protruding pin of the remote casing defined by an axis of rotation, said rocker having a substantially rearwardly projecting first arm 35 with a sideways protruding first pin 55 disposed from the said axis which is engaged in a recess 56 in the end of a bar. The rocker has a substantially vertically projecting second arm that has a

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sideways protruding second pin disposed from the said axis which engages in a profiled slot in the side of the remote bolt 53 in slide-follower relationship.

In usage, the pivotally supported rocker operates within two ranges of movement. In the first range the second pin slides within a substantially vertical portion of the slot 54 to drive the remote bolt between the fully extended and retracted positions while in the second range of movement displacement, corresponding to a fully extended remote bolt, the second pin is within an angled portion of the slot having side walls are that are substantially orthogonal to the pivotal axis of the rocker member so that the pin can slide within this portion of the channel without causing the remote bolt to displace whereby to deadlock the remote bolt in the fully extended position.

Displacement of the deadlocking slide to the deadlocking position simultaneously causes the latch bolt to become deadlocked and the remote locks to displace to the fully extended position and to become deadlocked.

Throughout this specification and claims which follow, unless the context requires otherwise, the word comprise" and variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers or steps but not the exclusion of any other integer or group of integers, and the positional prepositions such as up, down, and rear which are used to assist in description of the preferred embodiments, have in general no absolute significance.

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