GB2084243A - Security transfer unit - Google Patents

Abstract

A security transfer unit (1) has a cashier's door (4) and a customer's door (5) for providing access to an intermediate transfer chamber (3) from opposite sides of a security screen (2), but only one of the doors (4, 5) can be opened at a time, opening of the cashier's door (4) normally being obstructed by a pivotted bar (11) engaged in a bracket (13). Upwards swinging of the bar (11) to remove the obstruction turns a shaft (12) to block, via a cam (15), withdrawal of catch-bolts (22, 23) which hold the customer's door (5) closed. The cam (15) in this condition also abuts a block (20) mounted on the rear edge of the door (5) such that if the customer's door (5) is open as the bar (11) is swung up it will be forced closed before the cashier's door (4) can be opened. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Security transfer arrangements This invention relates to security transfer arrangements of the kind in which access to a chamber for entering items into, and or removing them from, the chamber, is made via two mutually-spaced doors, and in which provision is made to enable only one of the doors to be opened to give access to the chamber, at a time.

Security transfer arrangements of this kind are described in UK Patent Specification Nos 532,536 and 1,419,382 and find application in particular, though not exclusively, in banks and other institutions where cash and other valuables are to be transferred through a security barrier between regions of open and restricted access. In a bank, for example, the transfer arrangement may be installed in the counter or security screen that separates the cashier from customers, with one door on the inside of the counter or screen to be accessible to the cashier, and the other door on the outside to be accessible from the public area of the bank.Cash or other items can be transferred to a cashier from this public area simply by opening the outside door and entering such items into the chamber between the doors, and then closing the outside door so as to enable the cashier to open the inside door and remove the deposited items from the chamber. Transfer from the cashier to a customer or other person in the public area can be made in the opposite direction by reversing the procedure, there being provision for interlocking of the doors so as to ensure that only one door can be open at any one time to preserve security.

It is one of the objects of the present invention to provide a security transfer arrangement of the above-specified kind having an improved form of interlocking between the doors.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a security transfer arrangement of the above specified kind, wherein a bar or other member is arranged at one of the doors for displacement between a first position in which it extends at least part way across said one door to obstruct opening of that door and a second position in which it is clear of obstruction to opening of said one door, and wherein displacement of the bar or other member into its said second position is effective to block opening of the other of said doors.

With the security transfer arrangement of the present invention there is the advantage that the bar or other member may be simply coupled to means for inhibiting opening of the said other door without the need for additional means to inhibit opening of said one door.

A security transfer arrangement in accordance with the present invention and in the form of a discrete unit as installed through a security barrier of a bank, will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a sectional-plan view of the installation; Figure 2 is a end elevation of the security transfer unit showing the cashier's door of the unit inside the security barrier of the bank; Figure 3 is an end elevation, partly in section, viewed from the cashier's door within the security transfer unit, and showing the inside of the other, customer's door; Figure 4 shows (to a reduced scale) the customer's door from the outside; and Figure 5 illustrates in side elevation a detail of a cam mechanism associated with the customer's door.

Referring to Figure 1, a hollow, open-ended, rectangular box-structure 1 of the security transfer unit is mounted to extend through the wall 2 of the security barrier and provide an enclosed rectangular chamber 3 (having, for example, a height of some 67 cm, a width of some 34 cm and a depth of some 40 cm) within the wall 2. Access to the chamber 3 from opposite sides of the wall 2 is provided through two doors 4 and 5 of the unit which close the two ends of the structure 1, the door 4 (see also Figure 2) enabling access to be gained from the cashier's side of the wall 2, and the door 5 (see also Figures 3 and 4) from the other, customer's side.

The cashier's door 4, which is hinged to a hollow side-wall 6 of the structure 1 to open outwardly therefrom, incorporates a latching and locking mechanism 7 for engaging with the opposite side-wall 8 of the structure 1. The mechanism 7 includes a bevelled spring-bolt 9 that enables the door 4 to be pushed closed and latched to the wall 8, and also has provision for locking the door 4 closed in this way by key operation. While the door 4 is unlocked, a knob 10 of the mechanism 7 can be turned by the cashier to withdraw the bolt 9 and allow for the door 4 to be opened. However, the door 4 can be opened only after a pivotted bar 11 that normaliy extends across the door 4 (as shown in broken line in Figures 1 and 2), has been swung up into a vertical position as illustrated in Figure 2.

The bar 11 is fixed to a shaft 12 that is rotatably mounted within the hollow side-wall 6, and in the horizontal position across the door 4 normally occupied, engages in a fixed bracket 13 and blocks entirely any outward, opening movement of the door 4. A handle 14 is provided on the bar 11 to facilitate the swinging of it upwardly to the vertical position in freeing the door 4 for opening, and subsequent swinging of it downwardly to the horizontal block such opening once again.

Referring now also to Figure 3, the shaft 1 2 carrying the bar 11 extends the length of the structure 1 within the wall 6 and carries a cam 1 5 adjacent the internal hinging of the customer's outwardly-opening door 5 to the wall 6. The cam 1 5 co-operates with boltwork 1 6 that is mounted on the door 5 internally of the structure 1 the cam 1 5 freeing the door 5 to be opened by operation of an external handle 1 7 (see Figure 4 also) of the door 5, of locking it closed, according to whether the bar 11 is horizontal or vertical. More particularly, the boltwork 1 6 includes two horizontally-mounted spring-bolt assemblies 1 8 and 19.The bolt assemblies 18 and 19 can be withdrawn by operation of the handle 1 7 to free the customer's door 5 for opening, only when the bar 11 is horizontal and opening of the cashier's door 4 is thereby blocked. On the other hand, when the bar 11 is vertical so that the cashier door 4 is free to be opened, the cam 1 5 is oriented to obstruct via a block 20 mounted on the rear of the door 5 and a rod 21 of the assembly 18, not only any opening of the customer's door 5, but even withdrawal of the bolt assemblies 18 and 1 9 that hold it closed.

The assemblies 1 8 and 1 9 include respective bevelled latch-bolts 22 and 23 for engaging with the side-wall 8 of the structure 1 in holding the door 5 closed. The bolt 22 is free for limited sliding coaxially within a horizontal tube 24 of the assembly 18, which is pinned to the rod 21 to move axially with it. A spring 25 within the tube 24 urges the bolt 22 outwardly sideways of the door 5, and the tube 25 itself together with the rod 21, is urged in the same direction by a spring 26. The bolt 23 is similarly urged resiliently outwardly by a spring 27 from within a horizontal tube 28 of the assembly 19, which is pinned to a rod 29 (similar to the rod 21 but shorter in this case, and which together with the rod 29 is also urged in-the same direction by a spring 30.A vertical bar 31, which as part of the boltwork 16 is coupled to the handle 17, engages with lugs 32 and 33 that are welded to the tubes 24 and 28 respectively, so that operation of the handle 17 acts to withdraw the bolt assemblies 1 8 and 1 9 against the actions of their respective springs 26 and 30. However, withdrawal of the bolt assembly 1 8 is obstructed (as shown in Figure 3) while the bar 11 is vertical, by abutment of the rod 21 with the cam 1 5. Such obstruction, acting via the lug 32 upon the bar 31 and thence via the lug 33 upon the tube 28, obstructs the withdrawal of the bolt assembly 19 too.Any attempt to operate the handle 1 7 to open the door 5 is accordingly ineffective, the bolts 22 and 23 thereby remaining engaged with the wall 8 to hold the door 5 locked closed while the bar 11 remains in the vertical position.

Swinging of the bar 11 to the horizontal position across the cashier's door 4, turns the cam 15 to break its obstruction to the rod 21. Indeed such turning brings a slot 34 of the cam 15 into alignment with the rod 21 to enable full travel of the rod 21 against the action of the spring 26.

Obstruction to withdrawal of the bolt assembly 18, and with it of the bolt assembly 1 9, is accordingly removed so that operation of the handle 1 7 will now be effective to withdraw the bolts 22 and 23 to unlock the customer's door 5.

While the handle 1 7 is operated in this way, the rod 21 enters the slot 34 of the cam 1 5 and so obstructs turning of the cam 1 5; this precludes any movement of the bar 11 from the horizontal position in which it blocks opening of the door 4.

The turning of the cam 1 5 that accompanies swinging of the bar 11 down into the horizontal position, also breaks abutment (illustrated in Figure 5) between a bevelled projection 35 of the cam 1 5 and the block 20 on the rear of the door 5.

Such abutment obstructs movement of the block 20 inwardly of the wall 6, necessary for the door 5 to open. Swinging of the bar 11 down into the horizontal, however, turns the cam 11 so as to clear the projection 35 from the path of the block 20 and enable the door 5 to be opened fully without obstruction.

If the customer's door 5 is not opened, or after having been opened is closed again with the handle 17 released, the bar 11 can be swung back to the vertical again to enable the cashier's door 4 to be opened. The cam 1 5 turns back with the return of the bar 11 to its vertical position, so as to obstruct the effective operation of the handle 1 7 and opening of the door 5 until the bar 11 is once again returned to the horizontal. On the other hand, if the customer's door 5 after being opened, is left open, upward movement of the bar 11 from the bracket 13 towards the vertical will cause the door 5 to be closed; such movement also acts to overcome any attempt to hold the handle 1 7 operated with the bolts 22 and 23 withdrawn, during closing of the door 5.

Upward movement of the bar 11 from the bracket 13 turns the cam 1 5 to bring the projection 35 back into the path of the block 20.

Thus if the customer's door 5 is open, such movement causes the projection 35 to strike the block 20, and as the bar 11 is raised further, to push the door 5 closed. The bevelling of the projection 35 ensures that the door 5 swings smoothly back to close as the bar 11 is swung upwardly, and to complete this before the vertical position of the bar 11 is reached, that is to say, in advance of the condition in which the cashier's door 4 becomes free to be

Claims (6)

1. A security transfer arrangement in which access to a chamber for entering items into, and removing them from, the chamber, is made via two mutually-spaced doors, and in which provision is made to enable only one of the doors to be opened to give access to the chamber, at a time, wherein a bar of other member is arranged at one of said doors for displacement between a first position in which it extends at least part way across said one door to obstruct opening of that door and a second position in which it is clear of obstruction to opening of said one door, and wherein displacement of the bar or other member into its said second position is effective to block opening of the other of said doors.

2. A security transfer arrangement according to Claim 1 wherein said other door has a releasable latch mechanism for latching that door closed, and including means for inhibiting release of the latch mechanism while the bar or other member is in its said second position.

3. A security transfer arrangement according to Claim 2 wherein said means for precluding release of the latch mechanism includes means coupled to the bar or other member to obstruct release of said latch mechanism while the bar or other member is in its said second position.

4. A security transfer arrangement according to any one of the preceding claims including means intercoupled with the bar or other member to provide an abutting obstruction to opening of said other door while the bar or other member is in its said second position.

5. A security transfer arrangement according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the bar or other member extends fully across said one door when in its said first position and is mounted for pivotal displacement from across the door into its said second position.

6. A security transfer unit substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.