GB2057043A - A locking mechanism. particularly for a floor safe - Google Patents

Abstract

A locking mechanism particularly for a floor safe, having two interlocking parts. The first interlocking part 7 rests on a flange 4 integral with the second locking part 2 and has a depending portion 9 which extends below the flange of the second locking part in this position. The depending portion is provided with a pair of pivotally mounted jaw- like locking arms 11 constantly urged in a direction to maintain the face- ends in contact with one another. A locking device is provided on the first locking part which is actuable to move the arms apart so that they pass beneath the annular flange in the first locking part to lock the two parts together. The second locking part may be mounted in, or be part of, the neck of a floor safe, the first locking part thus constituting a door-locking unit movable as a body from its rest position on the second locking part when the interlocking arms have been withdrawn from beneath said annular flange. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFiCATION A locking mechanism, particularly for a floor safe Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a locking mechanism and particularly to a locking mechanism for a floor safe having a safe housing for burying in the floor with the locking mechanism located on the housing, the locking mechanism including a door-locking unit which is movable as a body to permit access to the safe.

Background of the Invention Safes of the above type are particularly useful in shops, garages and clubs but can be used in the home to protect all forms of valuables and cash against attacks by force, drills and explosives.

Normally such safes are buried in the floor in reinforced concrete thereby to prevent removal from the premises in which they are installed. Only the door-locking unit is visible, together with a deposit tube when fitted, and these units are specially designed to resist attack by the various methods listed above.

Known designs of the door-locking unit are usually made of solid steel incorporating special drill-resisting protection. They are provided with either a keyless combination locking mechanism or a standard lever keylock to secure the door unit to the safe. Additionally a live relocking device may be fitted to prevent opening of the doorlocking unit if the main locking mechanism is disturbed.

in the closed position the door-locking unit rests on a flange integral with the neck of the safe housing which defines an opening for access to the safe.

Locking is effected, for example, by means of one or more bolts operated by a cam interengaging in corresponding receiving recesses in the neck of the safe. Securing of the bolts in the locked position is then carried out using a key or a combination lock. The bolts may be radially spaced around the door thus ensuring a locking action at predetermined spaced positions on a circumferential basis with respect to the safe neck.

It will be appreciated that the greater the area of engagement between the locking members and the neck of the safe, particularly around the doorlocking unit, the greater the effort required to separate the two parts by force or other nonconventional methods.

Objects of the Invention An object of the invention is the provision of a locking mechanism, particularly for a floor safe, wherein the locking mechanism incorporates locking members which cooperate with one another over a much increased mutually interacting area thus providing for greater locking security.

Summary of the Invention According to the invention there is provided a locking mechanism comprising first and second locking parts, the first locking part being integral with or adapted for mounting in an access to be closed and the second locking part in the first locking part to close the access, said second locking part being provided with jaw-like locking members actuated by lock actuating means mounted to said second locking part to move said locking members apart into peripheral locking cooperation with said first locking part whereby to lock the first and second locking parts together.

It will thus be appreciated that with such an arrangement greater security of locking is achieved in that the respective locking parts interact over a greater area than that achieved with prior known devices.

Brief Description of the Drawings An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein: Figure 1 is a part cross-sectional view showing a door-locking mechanism according to an embodiment of the invention mounted to a floor safe; Figure 2 is an underneath view of Figure 1 with the locking mechanism and cover therefor removed; Figure 3 illustrates one of the pivotal arms of the door-locking unit; and Figure 4 shows in detail the bolt which is movable by the door-locking mechanism to pivot the locking-arms into locked and unlocked positions respectively.

Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiment The locking mechanism shown in the drawings is mounted to a safe housing 1, the locking mechanism having two locking parts, the first being a generally cylindrical steel collar 2 mounted in an opening 3 to form the neck of the floor safe.

The collar 2 is provided with an annular flange 4 defining an opening 5 to the interior of the safe housing 1. The safe housing 1 is normally buried in the floor and covered by reinforced concrete with only the cylindriffal well 6 formed by the collar being accessible.

The second locking part is door-locking unit 7 mounted in the we116, as shown in Figure 1. The door-locking unit 7 is formed of solid steel having a cylindrical head portion 8 and a depending barrel portion 9 of lesser diameter. The depending barrel portion 9 is provided with an annular recess 10 shown in dotted outline in Figure 1. The head portion 8 is provided with a pivotally mounted handle 20 for lifting the unit 7 from the well 6.

The door-locking unit 7 is provided with a combination locking device mounted in a housing 15 attached to the base of the depending barrel portion 9. A cover 21 formed of a stiff plastics material is attached to the bottom of the barrel portion 9 to enclose the housing 1 5. The combination locking device is actuable by a knurled knob 16 on the head portion 8 cooperating with a graduated scale 1 6a to set the combination of the lock when the safe is to be opened. It will be appreciated at this point that the locking device need not necessarily be a combination lock but an ordinary key lock would suffice.

The combination locking device includes a bolt 17 movable by the knurled knob 16 once the correct combination has been achieved to cause engagement therebetween. The bolt 17 is attached by means of a shaft 1 8 of another bolt 19 mounted for movement across the diameter of the barrelled portion 9 as shown in Figure 2, so that the bolts 17 and 19 are movable in unison.

A pair of semicircular arms 11 are pivotally mounted at respective ends thereof to the barrel 9. The arms 11 are urged together about their point of pivot so that their other ends 13 come into normal contact by means of a tensioned spring 14 connected between the arms 11 and through a passageway (not shown) in the barrel 9 although in the drawings the arms 11 are shown in their open position.

The arms 11 are of such a radius that in their normally closed position with the ends 13 in contact they fully occupy the annular recess 1 0 and merge flush with the outer surface of the barrel 9.

In the closed position of the arms 11 the barrel 9 may be inserted and withdrawn through the opening 5 in the collar 2 as shown in Figure 1.

The bolt 19 serves to open the ends 13 of the arms 11 to cause them to pivot about point 12 and away from the barrel portion 9, as will be seen in Figure 2, when the bolt 1 7 is actuated by the knob 16. The bolt 19 in Figures 1 and 2 is shown in its forward position, that is at a position to separate and lock apart the arms 11 and in this position the forward end of the bolt 1 9 is flush with the outer surface of the barrelled portion 9 and the outer surfaces of the semi-circular arms 11. When the bolt 19 is withdrawn the arms 11 move into the respective recesses 10 by the action of spring 14 until their free ends 13 are in contact.

It will be appreciated that in the forward position of the bolt 1 9 as shown in Figures 1 and 2, the arms 11 move out from the respective recesses 10 to pass beneath the flange 4 of the collar 2 to thereby lock the door-locking unit in position in the opening 5. The arrangement as described provides circumferential interaction between the locking arms 11 and the lower surface of the flange 4 when an attempt is made to lift the door-locking unit from the well 6 by means of the handle 20.

One of the locking arms 11 is shown in more detail in plan and end elevation in Figure 3. The other arm is a mirror image thereof.

One end of arm 11 is drilled at 22 and recessed at 23. It will be appreciated that the other mating locking arm, which is not shown, is also drilled and recessed at one of its ends so that the two ends can be joined together in overlap with the drillings in alignment to provide a pivotal joint.

A drilling 24 is provided part way along the arm 11 , the other arm of the pair being also similarly machined. The drillings 24 provide anchor points for the tensioned spring 14 connected between them, part of which is shown in Figure 3.

The free end 13 of arm 11, and its other mating arm, is tapered at 25 as shown. This provides ease of passage of the bolt 19 when the bolt is being moved between the arms 11 to cause separation thereof.

The end of the slidable bolt 19 is also shaped in a special way additionally to facilitate the prizing apart of arms 11 when it is moved therebetween.

The end of the slidable bolt 19 is shown in Figure 4 from whence it will be seen that it comprises a chamfered circumferential front edge 25 delimiting a boss 26 of the main bolt part 27.

The boss 26 has top and bottom parallel flat surfaces 28 joined by circular portions, so that the flat surfaces provide sliding surfaces for movement of the bolt over corresponding opposed flat surfaces of a passageway (not shown) in the body of barrel portion 9 and the chamfered circular portions bear against the tapered ends 25 so reducing frictional forces during separation of the arms 11.

The bolt part 27 has a hole 29 for receiving the shaft 1 8 connecting the slidable bolt with the movable bolt 1 7 which constitutes its prime mover.

The invention has been described, in a preferred embodiment, with reference to a floor safe.

However, it will be evident to those skilled in the art that the invention has applicability to other types of safe presently in commercial use and also in a wider variety of applications where it is necessary to lock two parts together particularly to close an access.

Claims (14)

1. A locking mechanism comprising first and second locking parts, the first locking part being integral with or adapted for mounting in an access to be closed and the second locking part in the first locking part to close the access, said second locking part being provided with jaw-like locking members actuated by lock actuating means mounted to said second locking part to move said locking members apart into peripheral locking cooperation with said first locking part whereby to lock the first and second locking parts together.

2. A locking mechanism as claimed in Claim 1 wherein said first locking part is a collar provided with an annular rim for cooperation with an annular flange of said second locking part, the locking arms being positioned on said second locking part such that when the annular rim and flange are in abutment they are movable beneath said annular rim to lock the first and second locking parts together.

3. A locking mechanism as claimed in Claim 2 wherein said second locking part comprises a cylindrical head portion and a barrel portion defining between them said annular flange, the barrel portion being of lesser diameter and constituting a depending or projecting portion, said locking arms being pivotally mounted around said barrel portion in jaw-like fashion.

4. A locking mechanism as claimed in Claim 3 wherein said barrel portion has an annular recess in which said arms are received in their closed position.

5. A locking mechanism as claimed in Claim 4 wherein a tension spring is connected between said arms to constantly urge their free ends together.

6. A locking mechanism as claimed in Claim 5 wherein said arms are semi-circular and said barrel portion is cylindrical.

7. A locking mechanism as claimed in Claim 6 wherein the outer surfaces of the arms are flush with the outer surface of said cylindrical barrel portion in their normally closed recessed position therein.

8. A locking mechanism as claimed in any one of Claims 2 to 7 wherein said lock actuating means includes a slidable bolt movable in said depending or projecting portion to pass between the free ends of said locking arms thereby to prize them apart to cause separation thereof.

9. A locking mechanism as claimed in Claim 8 wherein the free ends of the arms are bevelled or flared in a direction to ease the passage of movement of said bolt during separation thereby of said free ends.

1 0. A locking mechanism as claimed in Claim 8 or 9 wherein said locking-actuating means includes a combination lock.

11. A locking mechanism as claimed in Claim 10 wherein said combination lock includes a movable bolt which is connected to said slidable bolt and constitutes the prime mover thereof during actuation of said locking arms.

1 2. A locking mechanism as claimed in Claim 10 wherein said movable bolt is mounted at the base of said depending or projecting portion and is enclosed by a hollow plastics cover.

13. A locking mechanism as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said locking arms are movable into peripheral cooperation with said first locking part in such a way as to permit the locking parts to be rotated one with respect to the other.

14. A safe provided with a locking mechanism as claimed in any preceding claim, the first locking part being mounted in a neck of the safe, the second locking part constituting a door-locking unit for closing access to the safe.

1 5. A locking mechanism substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 6. A safe particularly a floor safe substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.