EP2466039B1

EP2466039B1 - Security device for lock cylinder

Info

Publication number: EP2466039B1
Application number: EP11194140.7A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Jose Alcelay Bea; Ander Munoz Laguardia
Original assignee: Talleres de Escoriaza SA
Current assignee: Talleres de Escoriaza SA
Priority date: 2010-12-17
Filing date: 2011-12-16
Publication date: 2019-01-23
Anticipated expiration: 2031-12-16
Also published as: EP2466039A2; ES2718300T3; EP2466039A3

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to lock cylinders.
The present invention is centred on two typical vulnerability modes which have similar operation and have not yet been adequately resolved.
One of these modes consists in drilling, by applying a drill-bit from the front part of the cylinder lengthwise along the channel for the key, in order to destroy the pins, which form the opening combination, taking advantage of the fact that the material of the drill-bit is much harder than the material of the cylinder and the pins.
The other mode consists in screwing in a high-resistance screw into the channel for the key, and once it is anchored in it, pulling it until succeeding in pulling it out together with the rotor of the cylinder.

PRIOR ART

There are devices called "anti-drill" devices for lock cylinders, which use bolts with higher hardness in the rotor. These devices are designed to cause a peripheral damage in the blade of the extracting drill-bit and impede the professional burglar from perforating the key channel and gripping the rotor of the cylinder, thus preventing its extraction. Examples of such devices have been disclosed in international patent application publications WO 2008/098858 A1 and WO 2009/147677 A1 .
The "New Kitemark Standard" of 18 August 2011 also refers to a series of specifications formulated by following the emergency related to a method of attack centred on the cylinders used in locks. This standard uses tests with human interventions and thus ensures that such tests are very similar to a real attack.
This standard has been subject to modifications in the direction of toughening the test, because the old standard required dimensions of the opening in the door with oval form with dimensions 40x25 mm, into which the lock is inserted and the attack test is performed. Currently, these dimensions must be of 60x40 mm, because residential doors are not excessively strong, for example they are neither reinforced nor armour-plated. This leads to a greater accessibility of the cylinder from the front part of the door, which makes it more vulnerable to vandalistic attacks. In addition, the existing security mechanisms for lock cylinders, which are designed according to the requirements of the old standard, are not sufficiently effective.
For ensuring the security of the cylinders, the European standard EN 1303 establishes five levels of security based on the compliance with the recommended parameters related to the design and the tests simulating an attack, such as resistance to fire, security against break-ins, number of possible combinations, durability, resistance to corrosion, etc.
The purpose of this standard is to guarantee a certain level of quality related to a traceability of the results of the tests, which, with the objective to create a comparative base for standardisation, are entrusted to machines with the task of the responsible technician being nothing else than the operation of the machine and ensuring that the conditions established for the test are fulfilled; in other words, tests which can qualify as academic ones.
On the basis of the results of this type of tests, known solutions have been adopted, which consist in mounting in the rotor bolts made of hardened steel, which have a completely cylindrical form.
However, in reality it happens that the professional burglar is an expert in the domain of cylinders and can find weak points in them permitting him to attack them successfully; in addition, the retail market constantly offers a wide range of instruments and tools which provide greater effectiveness for his ends; for example, autonomous portable tools, high-resistance widia drill-bits, screwdrivers made of special steels and more diverse and handy traction means.
Under these circumstances, private certification organisations have appeared that perform tests with participation of a human element, with the tests reproducing conditions that are very similar to those of a real attack by a burglar.
Although in both kinds of tests it is presumed that the cylinder will be violated, the resulting quality certificates take into account and ensure also a period of time parameter which is different according to the certified level of security and during which the cylinder will resist the attack.
These private organisations acquire great relevance because the insurance companies provide bonuses when, in addition to the compliance with the requirements of the European standard EN 1303, certificates of such private organisations are submitted.
As it has already been pointed out above, in reality the adopted protection is based on the use of cylindrical bolts with high resistance located in a frontal transversal section of the rotor. This solution is not effective because the cylindrical bolt opposes a very small section of hard material in order to disable or impinge the action of an attack with a drill-bit or a screwdriver, so that in the case when the drill-bit suffers a peripheral damage it is not sufficient to stop its destructive effect, and in the case of a screw the thread would not be destroyed completely and could still produce a sufficient grip in order, depending on the case, to support the traction which could succeed in extracting it taking out with it the rotor of the cylinder; including, in the case of a straight frontal penetration, if the separation between the cylindrical bolts of the set is not well adjusted, a purely tangential contact or absence of contact could be produced, which would make the work of the burglar very convenient. In the special case of the use of a screw with the said configuration of the cylindrical bolts, it is possible for the burglar to attack in obliquely under an angle coinciding with half the thread pitch, with the result that the cylindrical bolts themselves provide a support for advance in the thread in a way that is similar to the way this is done by a self-tapping screw in strip clamps.
One way to improve the resistance to this type of attack consists in the positioning of different sets of bolts aligned transversally or obliquely along the rotor in a way to create a series of successive strong points in order to provoke a break in the drill-bit or disablement of the screwdriver. The inconvenience here is that, since the positions occupied by the bolts cannot be occupied at the same time by the pins which establish the combination, the number of the possible combinations of the cylinder will be affected, which reduces the security level provided by it; it has to be pointed out that for each combination pin there are from 5 to 7 possible heights available, due to which the combination capacity of the cylinder will be diminished in proportion to each position that has been lost by the combination pins.

EXPLANATION OF THE INVENTION AND ITS ADVANTAGES

This invention presents a lock cylinder according to claim 1.
With the security device within this lock cylinder, a high-resistance, wide longitudinal zone is created, where the drill-bit or the screw, no matter whether the attack is perpendicular or tilted with respect to the front section of the cylinder, receives serious damage which cripples their action due to the loss of their aggressive means (blades of the drill-bit or the edges of the thread of the screw) or is even broken.
Another very important advantage of the proposed solution is that, although this is not limitative, in general, only one pair of bolts located very close to the front part of the cylinder can be sufficient so that that they can also be compatible with the usual combination pins of the cylinder; in the limit case, one of the locations of the usual combination pins of the cylinder can be sacrificed. This means that this solution permits to have a large capacity for combinations, which also incorporates the anti-drilling protection proposed in the invention.
According to a particular optional feature of the invention, the flat face is at the end of at least at least one radial flap with an anti-rotation facet, which juts out from a cylindrical core.
In this respect, another particular feature which may be included in the invention is that the anti-drilling security bolts have a polygonal cross-section determining a plurality of flat faces, each one of them capable to be oriented in parallel to the key channel. Eventually, the transversal polygonal section can be rectangular and determine a plate-shaped anti-drilling security bolt. Alternatively, according to the invention, the anti-drilling security bolts may have a mixed cross-section which has at least one flat face with anti-rotation facet cutting into a cylindrical or ovoid core.
According to the invention in order to facilitate their assembly, the anti-drilling security bolts have chamfered cylindrical ends with a smaller contour, which are complementary to purpose-made pockets in the rotor.
According to the invention, the anti-drilling security bolts may be obtained by by material-removing machining, stamping or moulding; they may be made of hardened carbon steel or based on metal carbide.
Another particular feature of the invention is that the anti-drilling security bolts may be inserted in cylindrical sockets made in the rotor with a standard drill-bit. To this purpose, the much greater hardness of the material of the bolt with respect to the cylinder, which is generally in brass, is used, so that by insertion under pressure the anti-drilling security bolt is located in the socket, with its deformation and with anti-rotation interlocking, positioning in turn the bolt in such a way that the radial flap with anti-rotation facet of the bolt remains oriented along the penetration direction of the forcing screw or drill-bit in order to achieve the maximum opposing effectiveness against this penetrating action.
Another particular feature of the invention is that the anti-drilling security bolts are respectively mounted in a vertical or horizontal position depending on whether the channel for the key is vertical, for a serrated key or horizontal for a flat key.
These and other particular features of the invention will be demonstrated in the following detailed explanation based on the included graphical representation.

DRAWINGS AND REFERENCES

In order to understand better the nature of the invention, the appended drawings represent only one form of implementation which has the character of a purely illustrative and not limiting example.

Figure 1 shows a horizontal section of a cylinder (1), whose perspective view is illustrated in the attached detail in the upper part of Figure 1. This horizontal section of Figure 1 shows the internal structure of our cylinder, showing, in particular, a pair of bolts (31) with a facet, which is located in the rotor (34) and is designed according to the invention. To the right of Figure 1, an enlarged detail of the bolt section is incorporated in order to facilitate the numerical identification of its details, and it is accompanied by the possible most prominent variations of the facets according to the invention.
Figures 2A to 2F illustrate a larger array of implementations of the I bolts (31) according to the invention.
Figure 3 shows the position the locking bolts would take in the case of a flat key, i.e. with a channel for a flat and horizontal key.
Figure 4 is the cross section portion of the rotor (4) of Figure 1 illustrating the action of the pair of bolts (31) over an extracting screw (34) attacking the rotor (4) from the front along its longitudinal axis.
Figure 5 is a representation similar to Figure 4, which illustrates the action on the extracting screw (34) in Figure 4 on the part of the known cylindrical bolts (36).
Figures 6 and 7 are similar to figures 4 and 5, but they illustrate the oblique attack of the extracting screw (34).
Figure 8 illustrates the action of a pair of bolts (31), positioned as shown in figures 1, 5 and 6 with respect to a drill-bit (35) attacking the front section.
Figure 9 is a representation similar to Figure 8, which illustrates the action on the drill-bit (35) in Figure 8 on the part of the known cylindrical bolts (36).
Figure 10 is like Figure 4, but referring to the drill-bit (35) of Figure 9.
Figures 11, 12 and 13, respectively, are like figures 8, 9 and 10, but referring to the oblique attack of a drill-bit (35).
Figure 14 shows a bolt (31) as in Figure 1, which is provided with chamfered cylindrical tips (31c) as this is shown in a large size in the enlarged detail in this Figure 14.
Figure 15 is a figure similar to Figure 10, which however shows a rotor (4) equipped at its ends with pairs of bolts (31) according to Figure 1, and illustrates their action with respect to a drill-bit (35), as shown in Figure 10.
Figures 16 and 17 illustrate the capacity of a bolt (31), for example, as in Figure 1, to be put under pressure in a socket (32d) of the rotor (4).

PRESENTATION OF THE IMPLEMENTATION FORMS

On the basis of the drawings, different variants are illustrated of a preferred form of implementation of the object of the invention related to an anti-drilling device for protection of lock cylinders, which, as illustrated by figures 1 and 2A to 2F, has a specific feature of comprising bolts (31) with adequate increased hardness and having in their periphery at least one flat face (31a) with an anti-rotation facet oriented in parallel to the key channel (7) of the cylinder (1). According to the invention, the flat face (31a) with an anti-rotation facet has a longitudinal dimension (31d) of at least 0.5 mm in the direction of the key channel (7); and the rotor (4) has at least one pair of bolts (31), which, as shown in Figure 1, are located collaterally in a cross-section of the cylinder (1) in a way that their respective flat faces (31a) remain confronted with respect to the key channel (7) with a separation (31e) that is not greater than 3.3mm.
According to a preferred form of implementation of the bolt (31) of the invention, the flat face with an anti-rotation facet (31a) in the bolt (31) is at the end of at least one radial flap with an anti-rotation facet (31b), which juts out from a cylindrical core (31c); this configuration is the one shown in Figure 1 and is then used in the remaining drawings. One variant of it is the one shown in Figure 2A, which, instead of a radial flap with an anti-rotation facet (31b), shows two equal ones confronted to each other for greater practical versatility.
According to the invention, a variant is considered, in which the bolts (31) have a transversal polygonal section determining a plurality of flat faces (31a),each one of them capable to be oriented in parallel to the key channel (7). In this respect, figures 2B to 2E show the respective transversal sections of the forms: triangular, which offers three flat faces (31a), each one of them with a minimum dimension established in the invention; square, with four flat faces (31a), according to the invention; octagonal, with eight flat faces (31a) with the same condition as the preceding ones; and rectangular, which, due to the relationships between the dimensions, results in a design with locking plate-shaped bolt (31), where the active flat faces (31a) could be the small faces from Figure 2E, always under the conditions of minimal dimensions established in the invention.
Another implementation form is one in which the bolts (31) have a mixed transversal section which has at least one flat face with anti-rotation facet (31a) cutting into a cylindrical or ovoid core. The transversal section from Figure 2F corresponds to this variant.
In order to facilitate their assembly (Figure 4), the bolts facet (31) according to the invention have cylindrical ends (31c) with a smaller contour which are complementary to purpose-made pockets in the rotor (4); for example, those shown in figures 6 and 7 for the rotor (4), maintaining their operative position due to the anti-rotation effect of the slot.
Taking advantage of the much greater hardness of the two bolts (31) with respect to the material of the rotor (4) and, thanks to the exercising of a certain pressure, another specific feature of the invention is that (figures 30 and 31) it is provided that the bolts (31) are inserted in cylindrical accommodations (32d) made with a standard drill-bit in the rotor (4) by maintaining their operative socket position.
According to the invention, the bolts (31) are obtained by material-removing machining, stamping or moulding; they are made of hardened carbon steel or based on metal carbide.
Also according to the invention, the bolts (31) will be always mounted with their axes in parallel to the central plane of the key channel (7) and respectively mounted in a vertical or horizontal position depending on whether the key channel (7) is vertical, for a serrated key or horizontal for a flat key.
With respect to the functionality, the effectiveness of the invention is illustrated clearly in figures 4 to 13 and 15, where, for the sake of representative uniformity, all of them use the configuration of a bolt (31) shown in the final enlarged detail of Figure 1, with the purpose to have the flat face with anti-rotation facet (31a) at the front of the radial flap with anti-rotation facet (31b); figures 4 to 7 refer to attacks with an extracting screw (34); figures 8 to 13 and 15 refer to attacks with a drill-bit (35).
In the case of a frontal attack with extracting screw (34), it is observed (Figure 4) that the filleted thread is "eaten" due to the great extension of the flat face with anti-rotation facet (31a) in the direction of penetration of the extracting screw (34) and by first opposing a sharp edge to this penetration; on the other hand, with the traditional cylindrical bolts (36) (Figure 5) what impacts the thread of the extracting screw is a peripheral curved section which damages the thread without ensuring its total destruction, so that the portion of the thread that has not been destructed can provide sufficient support, so that when the extracting screw (34) is pulled out, it can pull the rotor (4) out of the stator (6). When the attack of the extracting screw (34) is oblique, the bolts (31) produce a result (Figure 6), which is equivalent to the preceding case, with a total destruction of the thread; on the other hand, when traditional cylindrical bolts (36) are used (Figure 7), the result is more favourable for the burglar who, in the case of a frontal attack, can give a certain tilt of the extracting screw (34), which coincides with the average thread profile, and the cylindrical bolts (36), instead of hindering, improve the thread in the same way as a self-tapping screw threads in its clamp.
In the case of a frontal attack by means of a drill-bit (35), the comparison of figures 22 and 23 shows the much greater destructive action on the drill-bit (35) on the part (Figure 8) of the bolts (31), compared to the cylindrical bolts (36) shown in Figure 9; Figure 10 illustrates the effect of Figure 8 showing the drill-bit (35) penetrating in the rotor (4); an extrapolation of this Figure 10 is the presentation in Figure 15, where the rotor (4) is provided with a second pair of bolts (31) in its rear end. When the attack of the drill-bit (35) is oblique, the comparison of figures 25 and 26 shows that the action of the bolts (31) is "eating" the body of the drill-bit (35) until it reduces it to a diameter (d), which can produce the effective rupture of the drill-bit (35), as shown in Figure 13; on the other hand, with the cylindrical bolts (36) (Figure 12), the body of the drill-bit (35) conserves a larger diameter (D) that is sufficient for it to continue its destructive action.

Claims

Lock cylinder (1) comprising a rotor (4) with a key channel (7) and a security device having anti-drilling security bolts (31) with enhanced hardness, wherein said anti-drilling security bolts (31) are mounted with their axes in parallel to a central plane of the key channel (7) and have in their periphery at least one prominent flat face (31a) with an anti-rotation facet oriented in parallel and escorting the key channel (7), and with the entire transversal dimension of the said flat face (31a) with anti-rotation facet oriented towards the possible attacking screw (34) or drill-bit (35), characterised in that said anti-drilling security bolts (31) have cylindrical ends (31c) with a smaller contour, which are complementary to purpose-made pockets in the rotor (4).
Lock cylinder (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that said flat face (31a) has a longitudinal dimension (31d) of at least 0.5 mm along the direction of the key channel (7).
Lock cylinder (1) according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the flat face (31a) with anti-rotation facet is at the end of at least one radial flap with anti-rotation facet (31b), which juts out from a cylindrical core (31c).
Lock cylinder (1) according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that said anti-drilling security bolts (31) have a polygonal cross-section determining a plurality of flat faces (31a), each one of them capable to be oriented in parallel to the key channel (7).
Lock cylinder (1) according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that said anti-drilling security bolts (31) have a mixed cross-section with at least one flat face (31a) with anti-rotation facet cutting into a cylindrical or ovoid core.
Lock cylinder (1) according to claim 4, characterised in that the polygonal cross-section can be rectangular and determine a plate-shaped anti-drilling security bolt (31).
Lock cylinder (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterised in that the rotor (4) has at least one pair of said anti-drilling security bolts (31) mounted collaterally in a cross-section of the cylinder (1) so that respective flat faces (31a) of said anti-drilling security bolts (31) remain confronted with the key channel (7) with a separation (31e) not greater than 3.3 mm.
Lock cylinder (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterised in that the anti-drilling security bolts (31) are obtained by material-removing machining, stamping or moulding.
Lock cylinder (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterised in that the anti-drilling security bolts (31) are made of hardened carbon steel or based on metal carbide.
Lock cylinder (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterised in that the anti-drilling security bolts (31) are inserted in cylindrical sockets made in the rotor (4) with a standard drill-bit.
Lock cylinder (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterised in that the key channel (7) is a vertical key channel for a serrated key and the anti-drilling security bolts (31) are mounted in a vertical position.
Lock cylinder (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterised in that the key channel (7) is a horizontal key channel for a flat key and the anti-drilling security bolts (31) are mounted in a horizontal position.