GB1584611A - Safes - Google Patents

Description

(54) IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO SAFES (71) We, BRISTOL S.A., a Luxembourg company having a place of business at 43 Rue Goethe, formerly at 15 Blvd. Roosevelt, Luxembourg, do hereby declare the invention for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: The present invention concerns a safe.

A safe generally has a door mounted so as to protude from or to be in the same plane as the surface of the safe wall in which the door is arranged, and means for precluding unauthorized access to the safe and to pieces of value or other objects placed in it. However, this kind of safe is unsatisfactory when one wishes to withdraw from the safe or to put in the safe money, documents, jewels or other pieces of values since it is always necessary to have in the first place access to the room where the safe is located. Moreover, the risk exists that a person authorized to have access to safe may remove all or some of the contents he is not supposed to withdraw. Elimination or reduction of this risk is of vital importance when objects of value are to be transferred outside of the office hours or opening hours, e.g. from stores, bank branches, insurance, etc. to a central bank premises.

According to the present invention there is provided a safe having receiving and delivery openings arranged directly opposite one another, a door designed to shut and open each respective receiving or delivery opening, and a blocking device arranged to lock one said door when the other said door is open.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a safe sunk or embedded in a concrete wall; and Figure 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view on a smaller scale of the safe of Figure 1; In Figure 1 the safe 1 comprises a frame 3 formed by two lateral walls 5, 7, a lower wall 9 and an upper wall 11 and in which a front door 13 and a rear door 15 directly opposite to the front door 13 are provided. In the embodiment shown the safe is embedded into a wall 17 so that it is accessible from two different points one located on each side of the wall 17.

In case of need the safe may also be constructed so as to be accessible by a second door arranged in anyone of the walls 5, 7, 9 and 11 thus from rooms located above or below the room where the door 13 can be opened or from rooms situated at the left or at the right from said room with respect to said first door.

Embedding means 19 of channel section are provided in the embodiment shown which extend around the frame 3 and retain the safe in the wall 17 in which it is embedded.

Providing a door on two of the walls of the safe enables a first person in one of the rooms to deposit values which may be removed by another person through the other door from another room without any assistance by said first person.

The locking of each door may be realized by means of one or several locks which are operated by key and/or by combinations of digits and/or letters and/or electrically, even by remote control with or without wires. It is not required that each door has the same locking mechanism.

An opening counter may also be provided for one or the other or both doors with or without recording of the hour of opening.

A blocking device is provided which blocks one of the doors when the other door is open.

Another blocking device may also be provided which blocks one of the doors when the safe is empty. A blocking device may be provided which blocks the door through which the objects have been introduced to avoid removal therefrom through the same door; this device may be unblocked by the removal of the objects through the other door.

The inner space of the safe may be divided by means of movable or fixed structures into several compartments which are open or closed by means of doors.

The safes according to the invention are particularly useful for transferring pieces of value from one place to another as they enable introduction of the objects and their removal without the person removing the objects having to call for assistance of the person having introduced the objects or having to enter into the room or building where the objects have been introduced. The remover may operate from outside, even outside of the normal working hours of the proprietor of the safe.

While the invention has been described in terms of its preferred embodiments, it would be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications may be made in the construction and arrangement of parts thereof without departing from the scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. A safe having receiving and delivery openings arranged directly opposite one another, a door designed to shut and open each respective receiving or delivery opening, and a blocking device arranged to lock one said door when the other said door is open.

2. A safe as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one blocking device is controllable by a mechanical key.

3. A safe as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one blocking device is controllable by an electronic key.

4. A safe as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a counter for each opening to count how many times its respective opening has been opened.

5. A safe as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising recording means for recording the time during which each opening has been opened.

6. A safe as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the doors are hinged.

7. A safe substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims (7)

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. remover may operate from outside, even outside of the normal working hours of the proprietor of the safe. While the invention has been described in terms of its preferred embodiments, it would be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications may be made in the construction and arrangement of parts thereof without departing from the scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A safe having receiving and delivery openings arranged directly opposite one another, a door designed to shut and open each respective receiving or delivery opening, and a blocking device arranged to lock one said door when the other said door is open.

2. A safe as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one blocking device is controllable by a mechanical key.

3. A safe as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one blocking device is controllable by an electronic key.

4. A safe as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a counter for each opening to count how many times its respective opening has been opened.

5. A safe as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising recording means for recording the time during which each opening has been opened.

6. A safe as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the doors are hinged.

7. A safe substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.