EP0389447A2

EP0389447A2 - Series of parts for making internal-external locks for sliding doors, windows and equivalents

Info

Publication number: EP0389447A2
Application number: EP90830097A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Marco Lambertini
Original assignee: Giesse SpA
Current assignee: Giesse SpA
Priority date: 1989-03-15
Filing date: 1990-03-13
Publication date: 1990-09-26
Also published as: EP0389447A3; IT8903383A0; IT1234030B

Abstract

The series of parts for making internal-external locks consists essentially of two identical plates (1, 1a), obtained from the same basic section (3), reversable and combinable within corresponding longitudinal slots (2, 2a) made opposite each other on a door or window; the plates have respective openings (4, 4a) through which it is possible to move corresponding rods (5, 5a) from the outside. These rods are housed, and can slide within, respective pairs of longitudinal guides (6, 6a) which are on the plates on the side facing the door or window and have at their ends respective seats (7, 8). The rod assigned to the inner part of the door or window has, in its first seat, an adjustable locking device (10), and in the second seat, a spring means (11) which acts on the same rod and moves between two extreme stable positions, one a fully unloaded position, in which the device is lowered thus locking the door or window, the other fully loaded under manual action from the outside on the rod, in which the device is raised, thus unlocking the door or window.

Description

Object of the present invention is a series of parts for making internal-external locks for sliding doors, windows or equivalents.
Many types of lock for sliding doors and windows are known in the field of industrial production of doors and windows, in particular those doors and windows made from metal sections.
The most common and also the simplest are those with recessed handles. These handles consist essentially of two plates one of which is fixed externally on the sliding part of the door or window and the other internally on the same. The latter has in its central area a recess inside which runs a manually operated slider. This slider has a catch fixed to it by means of a grub screw, which locks or unlocks the sliding part of the door or window to and from the fixed part, while the recess permits the user to get a good grip when making the door or window slide, and also acts as a seat for the slider.
This type of locking can be obtained both manually, by moving the slider first upwards and then downwards, or automatically, by inserting inside the lock, between the slider and the catch, a simple return spring, which maintains the catch in a stable position.
A whole series of improved locks for sliding doors and windows have been derived subsequently from this type of lock, some of which also have key operated safety devices for, for example, sliding doors which are on the outside of a building. There are locks which can be worked from the outside by means of a key while from the inside they are worked by the usual slider.
All these improvements however have been made within such a short space of time, not least because of the competition between companies in this field, that unawares a situation has come into being where the companies producing these locks do not have a standard mould for one single lock, on which the various subsequent improvements may be made, but must each time build from scratch the lock called for by market demand, thus rendering production very difficult, since so many different types of lock exist. Furthermore this situation means the firms producing the locks have considerable stocking problems since they must stock large quantities of every type of lock in order to cover the full range of market demand.
The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks just mentioned by making a lock from a series of parts making it possible to obtain different types of lock from the same standard mould and thus from the same type of section used.
The invention, as characterized by the claims, solves the problem with a series of parts formed by two identical plates, obtained from the same basic section, reversable and combinable within corresponding longitudinal slots placed opposite each other made in a door or window. Each plate has an opening through which it is possible to move corresponding rods from the outside.These rods are housed and able to slide within respective pairs of longitudinal guides which the plates have on the side facing the door or window and have at their ends respective seats. The rod which is on the inner part of the door or window has, in one of its seats, an adjustable locking mechanism, and in the other seat, a spring means which acts upon the same rod and can move between two extreme stable positions, one of being fully unloaded in which the device is lowered and locked, the other of being fully loaded due to manual action from the outside on the rod, in which the device is raised and unlocked.
One of the advantages obtained by means of the present invention consists essentially of the fact that by means of the two plates with their relative rods provided with seats it is possible to make more than one type of internal-external reversable lock by adding or taking away those parts such as key operated rotation means or different types of spring, according to the needs communicated by the user.
The invention is explained in more detail below with the aid of drawings which represent a purely explicative and not limitative form of realization, in which:

- figure 1 illustrates a perspective view of a lock which forms the object of the present invention;
- figure 2 illustrates a perspective view of a lock which forms the object of the present invention furnished with a key operated rotation means ;
- figure 3 illustrates a cutaway view of a detail "A" which refers to figure 1 ;
- figure 4 illustrates a side view of a variation to the lock which forms the object of the present invention;
- figure 5 illustrates a perspective view of the variation shown in figure 4 inserted into a plate of the lock which forms the object of the present invention.

In conformity with the accompanying illustrations, the series of parts which makes up the lock in question consists essentially of a first and a second plate 1 and 1a which can be installed in a section 3, which is perpendicular to the direction of sliding of the latter. The first plate 1 is inserted longitudinally in a corresponding first slot 2 in the door or window 3. This plate 1 in the specific case shown in the accompanying illustrations makes up the part of the lock which is mounted on the outer part of the door or window and has, on the part facing outwards, a central opening 4 through which it is possible to activate manually from the outside a rod 5 with a recess. This rod 5 is housed within a pair of longitudinal guides 6 on the first plate 1 on the part facing the inside of the door or window 3 and has at each end a seat 7 and 8.
The second plate 1a is identical to the first and is obtained from the same section from which the first was obtained. This second plate 1a is inserted longitudinally within a second slot 2a made opposite the first in the door or window 3, in the case shown in the illustrations this plate is inserted from the inside face of the door or window 3 and can be fixed to the first by means of the screws 25. This second plate 1a also has on the side facing towards the outside of the door or window an opening 4a through which it is possible to activate manually from the outside a second sliding rod 5a with a recess and provided with two sliders 9. The second rod 5a is, like the first, housed and can slide within a second pair of longitudinal guides 6a on the second plate 1a on the side facing towards the inside of the door or window 3.
The second rod 5a has, at its ends, a first seat 7a, or more precisely a pair of guides which extend transversally with respect to the same rod and opposite the seat 7, within which an adjustable device 10 is housed coaxially. In the figures 1 and 2 the device consists of a "T" shaped catch, for locking the said door or window 3 with respect to the fixed part not shown here, and respectively a second seat 8a opposite the seat 8, within which is housed a spring means 11 placed between the said guides 6a and the rod 5a.
The spring means 11 illustrated in figure 1 consists of a leaf spring (more clearly visible in figure 3) which meets at one end with a pin 19 fixed transversally to the longitudinal guides 6a and at the other has its fulcrum within a corresponding seat 20 made in the second seat 8a, this seat 20 being nothing more than a pair of protrusions 20a and 20b, which are complementary to the end of the spring and act as a fulcrum for the spring itself.
This spring 11 acts upon the rod 5a and moves it between two extreme stable positions, one in which the spring 11 slopes to one side of the seat and is completely unloaded, in which the rod is lowered and consequently the said catch 10 is in a lowered stable position with the door or window locked with respect to the fixed part, the other in which the spring 11 moves lengthways, first from a fully loaded position and subsequently sloping towards the other side of the seat, under the manual action on the said slider 9 of the rod 5a from the outside, in which the rod 5a and the catch 10 are in a raised stable position with the door or window being open with respect to the fixed part.
In figure 2 a lock is shown in which the first plate 1 is provided at the bottom end with a key operated rotation means 12 which can be operated from the outside and housed in correspondence with the said seat 8. In this particular case the second plate 1a has shorter longitudinal guides 6a, and has in correspondence with the said second seat 8a a guide block 13 for the end of a cam means 20 which rotates integrally with the key operated rotation means 12.
More precisely the cam means 20 consists of a circular plate 18 fixed to the key operated means of rotation 12 and provided with a pin 17; the end of the pin 17 is in contact with an edge which forms a guide in the guide block 13 and is, when in the non working position(that is to say at rest), on the longitudinal plane in which the second rod 5a moves and that is to say along an axis x, perpendicular to the said plane of movement, not intersecting the centre line y of the said rod 5a.
The guide block 13 is connected to and moves with the second rod 5a by means of the reciprocal and complementary coupling of engaging means 14 and 16 (in the case illustrated they are two "L" shaped guides transversal with respect to the rod 5a, the first being obtained at one end of the guide block 13 and the second on the lower end of the rod 5a).
In this case the said second seat 8a, within which is housed the above-mentioned spring 11, has been made on the rod 5a above the guide block 13. The movements made by the said catch 10 when locking and unlocking are the same as those described above, but in this case, in addition to the manual operation of the slider 9 on the internal plate 1a, it is possible to operate the same spring 11 by rotating completely the said key operated rotation means 12 which operates the pin 17 which in turn moves lengthwise the combination made up of the guide block 13, the rod 5a and the device 10.
As can be seen in figure 2 the distance between the upper and the lower edge which define lengthwise the whole guide in the guide block 13 has been designed in such a way as not to be shorter than the maximum movement obtainable from the catch 10.
In this way it is possible to eliminate any interference of the pin 17 with the guide block 13 during the manual operation of the rod 5a by means of the slider 9 from the inner side of the door or window.
The guide block 13 has another transversal means of engagement 14 made on the opposite end with respect to where the other guides 14 are. In this way it is possible to invert the position of the guide block 13 on the rod 5a when the two plates 1 and 1a, which are identical and so are reversable on the door or window, change their position from external to internal and vice versa. Naturally in this case the said pin 17 also rotates 180° on the circular plate 18 so as to reassume the original position in contact with the guide in the guide block 13.
Another possible variation on this type of lock is illustrated in figures 4 and 5, which show a insert 21 which has a seat 21a within which is housed one end of a torsion spring 11, whose opposite end is in contact with the said rod 5a. This insert 21 has at one end a transversal guide, and on one of its sides a pair of parallel longitudinal grooves 22a which can be inserted so as to slide within the said longitudinal guides 6a. Made in this fashion the insert 21 con be inserted, by means of the longitudinal grooves 22a, on the pair of guides 6a of the plate 1a, and the guide 22 substitutes the guides 16 of the said rod 5a (visible in fig. 5), for the engaging of the same with the said guide block 13.
With this insert 21 and the relative torsion spring 11 the movement of the rod 5a remains the same apart from the fact that, after having operated the slider 9 or the key operated rotation means 12 to raise the said catch 10 and thus to unlock the door or window 3, the same rod, under the action of the torsion spring 11, returns to the stable lowered position which it was in earlier and that is with the catch 10 in the position of locking the door or window. For all intents and purposes it an automatically operated lock.
While the invention has been described in connection with specific embodiments thereof, changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, all the details can be replaced by technically equivalent parts.

Claims

1. Series of parts for the making locks for sliding doors, windows and equivalents made from metal sections, characterized by the fact of comprising, so as to be installable in a position perpendicular to the direction of sliding,on a section (3) of a sliding door or window:
- a first plate (1) which can be inserted longitudinally into a first slot (2) in the section (3); said plate (1) having, on its side facing the latter, a pair of parallel longitudinal guides (6) which house, permitting it to slide, a first rod (5) with a recess and having also an opening (4) through which it possible to reach the inside of the said rod (5) and to operate manually from the outside the same rod (5); the latter having, at each end within the section (3), a seat ( 7 and 8);
- a second plate (1a), practically identical to the first and which can be obtained from the same section as the first plate (1), installable longitudinally with respect to the said section (3) in correspondence with a second slot (2a) made in the side of the section (3) opposite to that where the first slot (2) is; said second plate (1a) having, on the side facing towards the section (3), a pair of parallel longitudinal guides (6a) which house and allow to slide a second rod (5a) having a recess and having also an opening (4a) through which it is possible to reach the inside of the said second rod (5a) and operate manually the same which has at least one slider (9) for operating the lock; the said second rod (5a) having, at its ends within the section (3), a first and second seat (7a and 8a) of which the first (7a), extends transversally with respect to the same rod (5a) opposite one (7) of the said seats of the first rod (5), housing coaxially an adjustable device (10) for locking the said sliding door or window with respect to the fixed part and respectively the second (8a), opposite the other (8) of the said seats of the first rod (5), within which is housed a spring means (11) placed between the said second guides (6a) and the said second rod (5a), which acts upon the latter so as to move it between a first extreme stable position, in which the spring means (11) is in a completely unloaded position and the said locking device (10) is in a position locking the sliding part of the door or window to the fixed part, and a second extreme stable position, in which the said spring means (11) is completely loaded under the action of the said slider (9) and the said device (10) is in a position of the sliding part of the door or window being unlocked with respect to the said fixed part.

2. Series of parts for making locks according to claim 1, in which the first plate (1) can be furnished at one of its ends with a key operated rotation means (12) which can be operated from the outside and is housed in correspondence with one (8) of the seats of the said first rod (5), wherein the said plate (1a) has, in correspondence with its second seat (8a) opposite the seat (8) of the first rod (5) which houses the key means (12), a guide block (13) for one end of a cam means (20) which rotates integrally with the said key means (12); the said guide block (13) can mechanically engage and disengage with the end of the said second rod (5a) in proximity of which is its seat (8a) which houses the said spring means (11); the said cam means (20) being movable, by means of the said key means (12), between two extreme stable positions corresponding to the said extreme positions which can be reached by the said second rod (5a).

3. Series of parts according to claim 2, wherein the said guide block (13) has, on each of its ends an engaging means (16) which can couple with a corresponding engaging means (14) with which the said second rod (5a) is furnished at the end facing the said guide block (13) and a guide of the said end of the cam means (20) at least as long as the distance between the said two raised and lowered positions reached by the said locking device (10) in such a way as to permit manual operation of the said second rod (5a) without the guide block (13) interfering with the said cam means (20).

4. Series of parts according to claim 2, wherein the said cam means (20) consists of a plate (18) fixed to the said key operated rotation means (12) and furnished with a pin (17) eccentrically positioned with respect to the axis of rotation of the plate (18); the said pin (17) being, when in its rest or inoperative position, on the longitudinal plane in which the said second rod (5a) moves, and positioned along an axis (x), perpendicular to the said plane of longitudinal movement, not intersecting the centre line (y).

5. Series of parts according to claim 1, wherein the said spring means (11) consists of a leaf spring which meets at its ends with a pin (19) fixed to the said longitudinal guides (6a) and respectively with its fulcrum within a corresponding seat (20) offered by the said second seat (8a).

6. Series of parts according to claim 1, wherein the said spring means (11) consists of a leaf spring housed at one end within an insert (21) and with the other end between the said second bolt (5a), said insert (21) being positioned in correspondence with the said second seat (8a) and having a pair of parallel guides (22a) which sliding can engage with the said longitudinal guides (6a).

7. Series of parts according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the said first plate (1) and the said second plate (1a) are reversable on the said door or window (3).