EP0895560B1

EP0895560B1 - Safe device comprising a number of safe-deposit boxes each lockable by an individual door

Info

Publication number: EP0895560B1
Application number: EP97919740A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Joseph Eduardus Nicodemus Neerincx
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1996-04-25
Filing date: 1997-04-25
Publication date: 2000-04-05
Anticipated expiration: 2017-04-25
Also published as: NL1002949C2; ATE191536T1; EP0895560A1; AU2409797A; DE69701629D1; CA2252832A1; WO1997040250A1

Abstract

Safe device (1) comprising a number of safe-deposit boxes (2) each lockable by an individual door (3), in which a storage container (8) can be slid, said container being provided with pins (16) operable with a key (14) by which said container can be secured to the walls (4) of said safe-deposit box (2). The key (14) can only be taken away after securing the container (8) and the door (3) of the safe-deposit box can only be closed if the key (14) has been removed from the container (8). Signalling and protection means (22) have been provided for signalling when the door (3) of a safe-deposit box (2) is closed while there is no container (8) present and secured in it and for signalling when someone is trying to force the door of the safe-deposit box.

Description

The invention relates to a safe device comprising: a number of safe-deposit boxes each of which can be closed of by an individual door which is hingedly connected to a jamb of said box and is provided with locking means, a number of storage containers each of which can be slid into one of said boxes and is provided with securing means for securing said container to at least one wall of a box, a key for each of said containers for operating said securing means which key can be put into an opening in the front wall of the container.
Such a safe device, particularly applied in banks, is known from FR-A-2535382. A client can rent such a safe deposit box. With such a device, for protection of the safe deposit boxes, the key to the door will be with the bank, and the key to the safe-deposit box will be with the person hiring the safe-deposit box. When the hirer wishes to use the safe-deposit box, the safe-deposit box door will be openend by the bank employee and the hirer of the safe deposit box can take the box from the safe-deposit box with his own key.
If an unauthorized person succeeds in opening the door of a safe-deposit box in one way or another, he will not be able to take out the contents of the safety-deposit box right away, since he must then also try to remove the box from the safety-deposit or to force the box itself open.
If a safety-deposit box hirer wishes to use the safety deposit box, he will have to report to a bank employee first, and, if necessary, will have to identify himself. In addition to that, e.g. a so-called signature card must be filled out and signed. The bank employee will accompany the hirer to the safe device to open the door of a safety-deposit box. Thus, he will not be available for other work.
In order to prevent the hirer form being in the safe room all by himself, the bank employee will have to stay with him. If he doesn't, then there is a chance that the hirer might try to affect the lock of the bank and the lock of his safe-deposit box and of the storage box in it.
The hirer might also try to take away the storage box and claim later that the box was unlawfully taken from the safe-deposit box.
The object of the invention is to remove these difficulties and to provide a system such, that the risk of fraude and burglary is limited as much as possible. It is also important, that if affection of the alarm system and of locks occurs, this inevitably leaves traces of burglary.
According to the invention, to that end it is provided for, that said securing means and the related key are executed such that the key can only be removed from the front wall of a container when by said securing means the container is secured to the walls of a box, the distance between the front wall of a container present in a box and the inner surface of the door of the box being such small that the door cannot be closed when the key is present in said front wall of the container, signalling means being present for signalling when the door of a box is closed when no container is present and secured in it, the jamb of a box accomodating electrically actuated locking means for locking and releasing the door of a box which locking means are cooperating with electronic protection means for signalling when one is trying to open the door in a non-official way.
Thus a hire will not be able to leave the key in the container unintentionally, since then the safe-deposit box door can not be closed. Nor can he take away the container and close the safe deposit box, since then the absence of a container in the safe-deposit box will be signalled.
The means for signalling when an unauthorized person is trying to open the door can be in the form of an alarm system. By activating the alarm on unauthorized opening of the door it can be achieved, that a bank employee has sufficient time to take action, since removing the container from said safe-deposit box is not easily realized.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invenion the signalling means are mounted in the walls of the box and are operated by the securing means of a container.
By mounting said signalling means as well as the door locking and protection means in the wall of the safe-deposit box, the possibility of affecting these is considerably reduced, since these parts are not easily accessible.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention the securing means for securing the container to the walls of a box comprises: a lock, coupling members connected to the rotatable part of said lock, pins connected to said coupling members and being slidably supported by the container such that they can be slid into and out of bores in the abutting walls of the box, said pins being positioned at some distance from the front wall of the container and thus from the front side of the box.
So said pins will be at some distance from the front-wall of the container and thus from the front side of the safe-deposit box, so that they are not easily accessible. Since the walls of container and safe-deposit box closely connect, the pins can not be sawed-through easily.
Said lock and the coupling members for the pins to be actuated by said lock can be mounted in a portion of the storage container closed off in such a way that said lock, said coupling members and the parts of the pins positioned inside the container can only be reached by breaking open the container. Thus traces of burglary will be produced and a hirer can not affect the lock of his storage container without burglary.
Said closed off portion of the storage container can be realized by welding together wall portions of said container for example.
The signalling means mentioned before can be mounted in the side walls of the safe-deposit box and can be operated by the pins of said container. In order to prevent undesired influencing of said signaling means when the container has been removed from said box, it is provided for that closing means are present by means of which, when the container is removed from the box, the bores in the side walls of said box, in which bores the pins of the securing means of the box can be received, are closed off.
In a simple way, this can be mechanical closing means operated by actuating means mounted on or near the rear wall of the container. Then it will be possible to push away the closing means, but then the actuating means at the back in the space must be forced, which must be made as difficult as possible.
It will be obvious, that it is impossible to replace the lock in a storage container when it is within its welded up room. By employing an arbitrary combination of safe-deposit box and container, reproduction of the key of a container by a temporary user thereof will be useles.
However, in some cases, it might be desirable that a specific storage container can only be mounted in one specific safe-deposit box. To this end, the container is provided with electronically operated identification means cooperating with identification means adjusted to them, mounted in the wall or walls of the box, at least one system of identifictaion means being adjustable.
Since a large number of combinations is possible with the use of electronic identification means, it can be provided for that only one specific container can be placed into one specific safe-deposit box. Another container wil not be accepted.
The invention concerns as well a method for providing access to the box of a device as described above according to which for influencing the electrically actuated locking means for releasing the door of a box use is made of the pass-pin code method which can be supplemented by employing a biometrical characteristic of the hire of said box, such as a fingerprint, the shape of the hand, of the face, or a like personal characteristic.
The invention is now further explained by means of an embodiment shown in the drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 diagrammatically shows a plan view and a partial cross-sectional view of a safe-deposit box received in a safe device with a storage container mounted therein;
Fig. 2 diagrammatically shows a cross-section according to the line II-II of Fig. 1 from which certain portions have been omitted; and
Fig. 3 diagrammatically shows a front view of a storage container with the pins thereof in the extended position.

The safe device 1 shown in the drawing comprises a number of safe-deposit boxes 2, in which each of them can be closed off by an individual door 3. By means of the hinge 5, the door 3 is connected to the side wall 4 and the jamb 4A of the safe-deposit box 2 and at the opposite side wall 6 of the safe-deposit box 2, said door is provided with a lock 7. At the same time, the door is provided with a so-called security lock 25. Due to this, the door can not be taken out after sawing through the hinge pin of the hinge 5. The lock 7 cooperates with the side wall 6 and is operable by means of a key or electrically or electronically. In the latter case, a pass/pin code can be used, for example. Obviously, this is different for every safe-deposit box.
When the door has been released electronically, the hirer need only exert a slight pressure on the door to be able to open the door. When a released door is not opened within a fixed time, it will be locked again automatically. Thus, when a user has released the door using his code and something would take place as a result of which he does not actually open the door within a specific time, the door will be locked again. The electrical lock operates according to the rest principle, that is, that on lack of voltage or failure of the electronics, the bank lock will remain closed and locked. In that case, the bank lock of every safe-deposit box, possibly per column of safe-deposit boxes, can be operated mechanically.
A special protection can be achieved by incorporating e.g. the fingerprint or another biometrical characteristic of a hirer, and possibly of authorized representative, in the safety system and use it for identification on opening of the door.
A safe-deposit box 2 can receive a storage container 8 consisting of a tray 9 and a cover 10. The front wall 11 of the container is provided with a handle 12 by which the container can be pulled from the safe-deposit box 2. Further, at the front wall 11 there is the lock 13 that can be operated with the help of the key 14. The cylinder (not shown) of the lock 13 is provided with two excentric pins to which two arms 15 being situated behind the front wall 11 are pivotably connected. The other ends of the arms 15 are pivotably connected to pins 16 being slidably received in the side walls 17 of the container 8. On sliding the pins 16 out, they are received in bores 18 in the side walls 4 of the safe-deposit box 2. The cross-section of the pins 16 and of the bores 18 need not necessarily be round, but can be U-shaped too, or have another arbitrary shape.
In order to prevent documents or the like stored in the container 8 from impeding the proper functioning of the lock 13 and of the pins 16, a wall 19 can be mounted in the container 8 behind the pens 16. For example, the wall 19 can be connected to the front wall 11 of the container 8 by means of a flanged portion. The wall 19 can be welded to the further walls of the container so that a completely closed up space is formed in which the lock 13 and the various moving parts are situated. Therefore, undesired influencing of said portions, other than through burglary, is excluded.
It will be obvious, that the walls of the container 8, except for the front wall 11, will closely connect to the walls of the safe-deposit box 2, although this is not always the case in the drawing, for the sake of clarity.
Directly behind the side walls 4 of the safe-deposit box 2, strips 20 can be slidably, or possibly pivotably mounted, so that they will be able to close off the bores 18 in the side walls 4 when the container 8 is removed from the safe-deposit box 2. When the strips 20 are slidably mounted in the safe-deposit box, the rear wall 21 of the container 8 e.g. can be used for actuating an inwardly protruding part of the strips 20. With the help of the container itself, the strips 20 are then slid to release the bores 18 on sliding the container 8 into the safe-deposit box. For example, by means of a spring 26, a strip 20 can be pushed to the position in which the strips 20 close off the bores 18. Possibly, pins or levers not shown can be incorporated in the side walls 4 of the safe-deposit box 2, that are operated on sliding storage container 8 into the safe-deposit box 2.
Means 22 for signalling, e.g. electronically, whether pins 16 are in the bores 18 can be mounted near the bores 18 behind the side walls 4 of a safe-deposit box 2. The presence of a container 8 in the safe-deposit box 2 can be signalled in this way. For example, if there is no container 8 in the safe-deposit box 2, the door 3 can not be closed off, or this is signalled on closing the door.
If only one specific container 8 is allowed to be accomodated in a safe-deposit box 2, a side wall 17 of the container 8 can be provided with identification means 23 and 24 respectively, adjusted to one another. If another container 8 is slide into the safe-deposit box concerned, this will be signalled.
Fig. 1 shows the key 14 when it is in the lock 13. As it appears, first the key 14 has to be taken from the lock 13 before the door 3 can be closed. Further, the key can only be taken from the lock if the pins 16 are in the extended position. This position is shown in particular in Figures 1 and 3.
It will be obvious, that only one possible embodiment of a device according to the invention has been illustrated in the drawings and described above, and that many changes can be made without leaving the inventive idea, as it appears from the following claims.

Claims

Safe device (1) comprising: a number of safe-deposit boxes (2) each of which can be closed of by an individual door (3) which is hingedly connected to a jamb (4A) of said box (2) and is provided with locking means, a number of storage containers (8) each of which can be slid into one of said boxes and is provided with securing means (13,15,16) for securing said container to at least one wall (4) of a box, a key (14) for each of said containers for operating said securing means which key can be put into an opening in the front wall (11) of the container, characterized in that said securing means (13,15,16) and the related key (14) are executed such that the key can only be removed from the front wall (11) of a container (8) when by said securing means the container is secured to the walls of a box, the distance between the front wall (11) of a container present in a box and the inner surface of the door (3) of the box being such small that the door (3) cannot be closed when the key (14) is present in said front wall (11) of the container (8), signalling means (22) being present for signalling when the door (3) of a box (2) is closed when no container (8) is present and secured in it, the jamb (4A) of a box (2) accomodating electrically actuated locking means for locking and releasing the door (3) of a box (2) which locking means are cooperating with electronic protection means for signalling when one is trying to open the door in a non-official way.
Safe device according to claim 1, characterized in that said signalling means (22) are mounted in the walls (4) of the box (2) and are operated by the securing means (16) of a container (8).
Safe device according to claim 2, characterized in that said securing means for securing the container (8) to the walls (4) of a box (2) comprises: a lock (13), coupling members (15) connected to the rotatable part of said lock, pins (16) connected to said coupling members (15) and being slidably supported by the container such that they can be slid into and out of bores (18) in the abutting walls (4)of the box (2), said pins being positioned at some distance from the front wall (11) of the container and thus from the front side of the box (2).
Safe device according to claim 3, characterized in that said lock (13) and the coupling members (15) for the pins (16) to be actuated by said lock are mounted in a portion of the storage container (8) closed off in such a way that said lock (13), said coupling members (15) and the parts of the pins (16) positioned inside the container can only be reached by breaking open the container.
Safe device according to claim 4, characterized in that said closed off portion of the storage container (8) is realized by welding together wall portions of said container.
Safe device according to one of the claims 3 - 5, characterized in that closing means (20) are present by means of which, when the container (8) is removed from the box (2), the bores (18) in the side walls (4) of said box, in which bores the pins (16) of the securing means (16) of the box can be received, are closed off.
Safe device according to claim 6, characterized in that said closing means are mechanical closing means (20) operated by actuating means mounted on or near the rear wall (21) of the container (8).
Safe device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the container (8) is provided with electronically operated identification means (23) cooperating with identification means (24) adjusted to them, mounted in the wall (4) or walls of the box (2), at least one system of identifictaion means (23,24) being adjustable.