EP4624706A1 - Locking and unlocking system of planes - Google Patents

Abstract

It is therefore a specific object of the present invention a locking and unlocking system of planes (20), comprising a first element or upper element (21), and a second element, or lower element (22), to be locked and unlocked, superimposed along a plane (30) of relative movement, and an actuation device (10) which is the subject matter of another patent, said system being characterized in that said first element (21) and second element (22) each provide a plurality of housings (21a) and (22a), in equal number, and positioned reciprocally so as to form pairs of housings, said system further being characterized by providing a plurality of cylindrical magnetic first elements (23) having a first length, a plurality of spherical magnetic second elements (24) having a second diameter measurement, lower than the length of said plurality of first magnetic elements, the total height of said pairs of housings being a greater measurement than twice said first length, in each of said pairs of housings a couple being provided, consisting of one of said first magnetic elements and one of said second magnetic elements, combined randomly as mutual position and as polarity orientation, so that their matching ends are located at, or offset from, said plane, said actuation device providing a plurality of interference elements, made of magnetic material, or ferromagnetic or magnetically inert, oriented and combined in such a way as to attract, repel or leave unchanged said pairs of magnets so that, by bringing said actuation element close to one of said two elements, said pairs of magnets are all aligned along said plane, allowing the reciprocal movement of the two plane elements.

Description

• The present invention relates to a locking and unlocking system of planes, and in particular refers to a magnetic system, which exploits the interaction of magnetic, ferromagnetic and magnetically inert elements with each other.
• A preferred form of system in the field of locks will be described below, but this will be a non-limiting example embodiment of the invention, where other embodiments can be obtained without thereby departing from the scope of protection.
• In the state of the art, there are covering devices for the protection of locks which have as rotation or linear sliding as movement to open access to the hole of the lock, for example patent number 102010901835661 in the name of the same Applicants. These devices are formed by overlapping cylindrical magnets and the rotation or linear sliding for reasons of physical space is necessarily on the same radius or on the same line. Consequently, the problem which is created is that if two housings containing two short magnets are found, when they overlap, are attracted either towards the actuation key or towards the base of the device, they therefore definitely remain outside the sliding plane, causing the device to be permanently locked. Consequently, for a long time the stroke of the devices made was very short and constraining. A solution was found to this limit with patent number 102011901954257 of 14/06/2011 in the name of Fontana Fabio and Fontana Massimo which solves the problem of cylindrical shapes by not overlapping two hollow housings whose contents are two short cylindrical magnets. However, such a solution certainly has several limits, such as the need to create further holes for housing other components adapted to limit the relative movement of the planes which increase the total cost of the device, and further increase the operating complexity thereof and consequently the greater susceptibility to wear and failure. Another limit is the greater complexity of assembling the components during construction. All this is reflected in a higher industrialization cost.
• An advantage of the present invention is that of being able to make two housings meet whose contents are two short magnets, since at least one of these will not be cylindrical in shape but will be spherical or spherocylindrical in shape and such shapes will therefore allow the continuation of the movement of the relative planes.
• This solution also avoids the use of the aforesaid patent 102011901954257 , obtaining a simplification of the production process with cheaper and simpler construction and assembly, and finally a lower complexity and a smaller number of moving components, therefore a greater useful life of the device.
• Let us now describe a preferred embodiment, where Figure 1 is a schematic view of the components; Figure 2 is a schematic view in a static situation; Figure 3 is a dynamic view of activation of the opening code through the approach of the key actuator; Figure 4 is a dynamic view of the initial movement of the sliding planes; Figures 5 and 5a are a dynamic view of the positioning towards the base; Figures 6 and 6a are a dynamic view of the positioning towards the key actuator.
• It is therefore a specific object of the present invention a locking and unlocking system of planes (20), comprising a first element or upper element (21), and a second element, or lower element (22), to be locked and unlocked, superimposed along a plane (30) of relative movement, and an actuation device (10) which is the subject matter of another patent, said system being characterized in that said first element (21) and second element (22) each provide a plurality of housings (21a) and (22a), in equal number, and positioned reciprocally so as to form pairs of housings, said system further being characterized by providing a plurality of cylindrical magnetic first elements (23) having a first length, a plurality of spherical magnetic second elements (24) having a second diameter measurement, lower than the length of said plurality of first magnetic elements, the total height of said pairs of housings being a greater measurement than twice said first length, in each of said pairs of housings a couple being provided, consisting of one of said first magnetic elements and one of said second magnetic elements, combined randomly as mutual position and as polarity orientation, so that their matching ends are located at, or offset from, said plane, said actuation device providing a plurality of interference elements, made of magnetic material, or ferromagnetic or magnetically inert, oriented and combined in such a way as to attract, repel or leave unchanged said pairs of magnets so that, by bringing said actuation element close to one of said two elements, said pairs of magnets are all aligned along said plane, allowing the reciprocal movement of the two plane elements. Preferably, according to the invention, said relative movement between said first (21) and second element (22) is a rotation. Preferably, according to the invention, said relative movement between said first (21) and second element (22) is a linear sliding. Preferably, said system is applied to a locking system of movable structures. Preferably, said system is applied to a protection system of a lock.
• The present invention will now be described, in an illustrative but non-limiting manner, according to an embodiment thereof, with particular reference to the attached drawings, wherein the operation of the system according to the invention is shown schematically. Figure 1 shows a schematic view wherein the key actuator (10) which is the subject matter of another patent is composed of a plurality of ferromagnetic (11) and magnetically inert (12) interference elements, an element of planes (20) composed of an upper element (21) wherein in turn there are a plurality of housings (21a) and a lower element (22) wherein in turn there are a plurality of housings (22a) in equal number of the upper element, is highlighted, furthermore, there is a ferromagnetic positioning element (25), also in the housings (21a) and (22a) in random order there are a plurality of cylindrical magnetic elements (23) and a plurality of spherical magnetic elements (24) coupled and overlapping so as to form columns which are aligned or offset with respect to the sliding line (30) of the planes, and these columns can be moved through the attraction or lack of attraction by means of the ferromagnetic or magnetically inert elements present in the key actuator (10) to all be arranged aligned with the planes so as to be able to allow the relative sliding thereof. Figure 2 shows a schematic view in which the overlapping cylindrical and spherical magnetic elements are inside the housings and in a situation of being attracted towards the ferromagnetic element (25) present below them. Figure 3 shows a schematic view in which the actuator (10) attracts the cylindrical magnetic elements (23) in the parts where the ferromagnetic element (11) is present, which is at a smaller distance than the ferromagnetic element (25). Figure 4 shows a schematic view in which the actuator, having ordered the magnetic elements in the right position with respect to the relative planes, starts the sliding step. Figure 5 shows a schematic view of the possible alignment of the spherical magnetic elements which, having a magnetically inert element (12) above, are attracted towards the underlying positioning element (25), in this case the movement can continue because the diametrical plane of the spherical magnetic element is above said plane and therefore with the edge of the upper plane element (21), the spherical element is pushed and moved upwards and the movement can continue as shown in Figure 5a. Figure 6 shows the schematic view in which the spherical magnetic element is attracted by the ferromagnetic element present in the actuator (10) and also in this case, the diametrical plane of the lower spherical element (24) being below the ideal line of the sliding line (30), the edge of the lower dimensional plane continues to push the spherical magnetic element and moving it downwards, the movement can continue without interruptions as shown in Figure 6a.
• The present invention has been described, in an illustrative but non-limiting manner, according to a preferred embodiment thereof, but it is to be understood that variations and/or modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without thereby exiting from the relative scope of protection, as defined by the attached claims.

Claims (8)

1. Locking and unlocking system of planes (20), comprising a first element or upper element (21), and a second element, or lower element (22), to be locked and unlocked, superimposed along a plane (30) of relative movement, and an actuation device (10) composed of a plurality of ferromagnetic (11) and magnetically inert (12) interference elements, said system being characterized by the fact that said first element (21) and second element (22) each provide a plurality of housings (21a) and (22a), in equal number, and positioned reciprocally so as to form pairs of housings, said system further being characterized by providing a plurality of cylindrical magnetic first elements (23) having a first length, a plurality of spherical magnetic second elements (24) having a second diameter measurement, lower than the length of said plurality of first magnetic elements, the total height of said pairs of housings being of a greater measurement than twice said first length, in each of said pairs of housings a couple being provided, consisting of one of said first magnetic elements and one of said second magnetic elements, combined randomly as mutual position and as polarity orientation, so that their matching ends are located at, or offset from, said plane (30), said actuation device providing a plurality of interference elements, made of magnetic material, or ferromagnetic or magnetically inert, oriented and combined in such a way as to attract, repel or leave unchanged said pairs of magnets so that, by bringing said actuation element close to one of said two elements, said pairs of magnets are all aligned along said plane, allowing the reciprocal movement of the two plane elements.
2. Locking and unlocking system for planes according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that said magnetic elements (23, 24) are composed of magnets having a spherical, cylindrical, or spherocylindrical shape.
3. Locking and unlocking system for planes according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that said actuation device (10) comprises a plurality of interference elements (11,12) positioned correspondingly and in the same number as that of said plurality of housings (21a, 22a) provided in said first element (21) and second element (22).
4. Locking and unlocking system for planes according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that said plane (30) constitutes a plane of symmetry for said housings (21a, 22a).
5. Locking and unlocking system for planes according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that said relative movement between said first (21) and second (22) element is a rotation.
6. Locking and unlocking system for planes according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that said relative movement between said first (21) and second (22) element is a linear sliding.
7. Locking and unlocking system for planes according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by being applied to a locking system of movable structures.
8. Locking and unlocking system for planes according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by being applied to a protection system of a lock.