DE2717726A1 - Electrical safety lock for containers holding valuables - has electronic locking and releasing keys and detachable coding elements - Google Patents

Abstract

The electrical safety lock ensures that a door cannot be opened by an unauthorised person. This lock can be used for rooms or cabinets or containers for holding valuables, money or confidential documents. This arrangement is locked electromagnetically and the locking process is controlled by an electronic arrangement. For closing or opening, semiconductor elements are used in the manner of an electronic key. This semiconductor arrangement is withdrawn after completion of locking process. The security is improved by removing a coupling element with oscillating circuits or other coded electrical switching elements and bypass conduction path. The locking combination can be selected individually and freely by the user. Two electrical keys can be used, one for locking and the other for opening.

Description

The invention relates to an electric safety lock which makes opening by unauthorized persons practically impossible, which is not the case with the security locks that have been customary up to now.

In order to protect valuables, money or secret documents from unauthorized access, lockable rooms, cabinets or containers whose doors are fitted with security locks are used. The closing process takes place mechanically.

Apart from box locks with complicated keys, the double-bit security lock, the combination lock and the protector mount key lock are most commonly used.

If only keys are used, wax impressions are sufficient to make duplicate keys for opening. It is also possible to scan the lock in order to produce a duplicate key from the template obtained in this way. In the case of locks with a combination of numbers, burglar specialists are able to determine the combination of numbers for the opening process by listening to the lock noises. A combination lock can even be fatal for the owner if he forgets the combination. He cannot unlock the lock without an opening specialist.

The usual security locks, such as those used on apartment and car doors with so-called lock cylinders, are practically no longer an obstacle for thieves or burglars with today's state of the art. It is known, for example, that car thieves are able to mechanically or electrically scan the steering wheel or ignition lock locks designed as safety locks and to produce a duplicate key for the car to be stolen within a few minutes.

The invention is now based on the object of using electrical or electronic components to create a locking device in which a key reproduction by printing or scanning is not possible and listening to a combination of numbers is ruled out, since security is achieved by electrical switching combinations. The invention also allows locking to take place only with a specific key, while a completely different key is required for unlocking. For security reasons, when transporting larger amounts of money from a supermarket to the bank with special transporters, one key for locking at the supermarket and the other key for unlocking at the bank can be kept.

The locking system can also be designed in such a way that it is locked by turning the electronic key to one side and unlocking by turning it to the other side.

Mechanical locks can also be equipped with electrical nically secured.

This object is achieved according to the invention in that a cylindrical electromagnet is switched on and off, which contains a rod-shaped permanent magnet as a central core. While the permanent magnet has a fixed north and south pole, the two poles in the electromagnet can be changed depending on the direction of the current flow. As long as no current flows, the electromagnet is neutral. It is well known that unlike poles attract and like poles repel each other. The permanent magnet is now attached to an amagnetic slide rail so that it can slide freely back and forth when inserted in the electromagnet.

The permanent magnet is offset by approx. 10% to the magnet poles of the electromagnet. If the current is now switched on, the north and south poles are formed in the coil, offset by approx. 10% relative to the permanent magnet (hereinafter referred to as "bar magnet"). This has the consequence that the bar magnet is repelled or attracted depending on the direction of the magnetic field of the coil. The bar magnet acts like a bolt that moves back and forth. The direction of movement depends on the direction of rotation of the windings or on the polarity of the current in the electromagnet.

As a variation, however, the locking can also be effected by an electric motor which, depending on the polarity of the current, pushes a bolt forwards or backwards.

For the electromagnetic or motorized locking or unlocking are used as switching elements for the current

Transistors are used which, because of their different conductivity (pnp or npn), do not require mechanical switching. These transistors are controlled by pre-transistors and other electronic components. A total of 2, 3 or more levels can be used for this, depending on the encryption. However, electronic oscillating circuits or other types of coding can also be used.

The special feature of the arrangement is that a part can be removed from the electronic components that contains detour lines, semiconductors or other electrically active parts that are indispensable for the function of the system. These removable parts correspond to a key which, when removed, makes the entire system ineffective, so that a locked lock cannot be opened. The advantage of the electrically or electronically driven locking system is that the structure of the electronic key cannot be scanned and consequently it is not possible for unauthorized persons to produce duplicate keys. The removable electronic key is wired differently so that it only fits the intended lock and no other lock.

The applicant is aware that an "electronic key" for ignition systems for cars with gasoline engines is already protected by patent. However, since the current applicant is also the inventor of the electronic key for motor vehicles, this could be a competing invention, which is nevertheless worthy of protection because it goes beyond the scope of transistor security. ignition goes out quite considerably.

An embodiment of the invention is shown in the drawings and is described in more detail below.

Show it

Figure 1 a to d the structure of the lock with the help of magnets.

The electromagnet (1) contains two superimposed windings (2 and 3) (shown here in separate drawings a and c) in opposite directions of rotation. When the first winding (2) receives power, the north pole (a, 4) is formed on the left and the south pole (a, 5) on the right. When the other winding (3) receives power, the left is the south pole (b, 5) and the right is the north pole (b, 4).

In the hollow body of the winding body (6) is the freely movable permanent magnet (bar magnet) (7), the north pole (8) and south pole (9) of which are not at the same height as the poles of the coil (4 and 5). They are kept offset by the fact that there is a stop (10) in the spool. If the current for the coil (2) is switched on, the bar magnet (7) cannot advance to the level of the north pole of the electromagnet (a, 4) because it is stopped beforehand by the stop (10). The pole shift is achieved in this way. If the north pole of the electric pole and the south pole of the bar magnet are closest, the bar magnet (7) is pulled into the hollow body of the coil magnet (6) (a and b). Are the poles of the same name of both magnets on the Next, the bar magnet (7) is pushed out of the hollow coil body (6) (c and d) and can thus be used as a bolt for a lock.

Current through one coil (2) opens and current through the other coil (3) locks the lock.

Accordingly, FIGS. 1 a and 1 b schematically show the open lock and FIGS. 1 c and 1 d the closed lock. A wall piece (11) into which grooves (12) are embedded is shown hatched. Opposite these grooves there is an electric lock in the form of a bar magnet (7).

Figure 2

shows the electronic key in connection with the electrically controlled lock

The switching on of the current for the coils of the electromagnet (1) is effected by transistors (13 and 14) of different conductivity - pnp or npn - with the pnp transistor (13) as a switch for the locking coil and the npn transistor (14) is used for the unlocking coil. The transistors (13 and 14) or the coils (2 and 3) receive the electrical current from a battery (B) attached to the door lock or from the mains. The two transistors (13 and 14) are blocked. They only switch the current after the corresponding partial voltage has been applied to the respective base. The power supplies to the base of the pnp transistor (13) or to the base of the npn transistor (14) are combined in a plug-in coupling (15) (negative connector or connector).

Female connector), which contains far more contacts than the required 4. The connector (16) (positive connector or male connector) has just as many contacts and contains 2 transistors (17 and 18) or other electronic components (19 to 22), which are required to control one (13) and the other (14) switching transistor.

On the plug (16) there are two switch buttons (23 and 24) that activate one (18) or the other (17) control transistor of the plug.

The current for the transistors (17 and 18) is conducted from the battery via the plus and minus lines to the connector. A small battery of its own can also be accommodated in the key.

If the electric lock is to be locked, the plug (16) is pushed into the coupling piece (15) and the button (23) is pressed to close. The switching transistor for closing (14) receives base current from the control transistor (18) and releases the current for the solenoid coil (1-2). The bar magnet (7) moves out of the coil magnet (1) and locks the lock by sliding forward in the groove (12). The plug (16) is then removed and the lock remains closed.

To open the lock, the plug (16) is pushed into the coupling (15) and the button for opening (24) is pressed. The other switching transistor (13) receives base current from the control transistor (17). It switches on the current for the opening coil (1 - 3) and the magnetism of the electromagnet (1) pulls through the polarity reversal the bar magnet (7) serving as a bolt. The lock is now released again.

This version of the electric key is shown in simplified form as an example. However, it already offers an effective safeguard against opening the lock by unauthorized persons, because the lock cannot be moved without knowledge of the connections of the coupling part and without knowledge of the wiring and the electronic equipment of the plug.

The scheme can be expanded by interposing resonant circuits, digital and diode combinations, detour lines and other electrical or electronic components. For example, as can be seen in FIG Finally, in the 3rd stage, the composite pulse is filtered out, amplified and passed on to control the switching transistors.

If the second stage is housed in a removable plug, this type of locking is absolutely secured against scanning and making a duplicate key. The wiring of the plug connection is changed for each lock. With 8 connections, more than 40,000 variants are possible.

In order to give the users of the electric lock additional security, there is a freely selectable encryption between the switching stage and the control stage provided by dials (numbers or letters), as Figure 4 shows.

The connections required for the function of the system are placed on the corresponding contacts of your choice, and the same is done on the electronic key with the same combination, so that both parts correspond in terms of their circuitry.

Claims (6)

1. Electronic security lock characterized in that the locking takes place electro-magnetically. 2. Electric safety lock according to claim 1 characterized in that the closing process is controlled electronically. 3. Electric safety lock according to claim 1 and 2 characterized in that for closing or opening the lock, semiconductor elements are inserted in the sense of an electronic key and removed after the closing process. 4. Electrical safety lock according to claim 1 and 2 characterized in that a removable coupling element with resonant circuits or other coded electrical switching elements and detour lines is used to increase safety. 5. Electric safety lock according to claim 1, 2 and 3 characterized in that the locking combination is designed individually and freely selectable by the user. 6. Electric safety lock according to claim 1, 2 and 3 characterized in that two electric keys are used, one of which is only used for locking and the other only for unlocking.