GB2124566A - Immobilising vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

A wheel clamp for immobilising vehicles is secured by a combination lock. This can minimise the need for attendance by a policeman or other official and maximise the inconvenience to the driver of the immobilised vehicle. The device has three radial arms 1 each with a central slot along which is a rack 9 of teeth, engaged by a common central pinion 5 so that all three arms can be wound in or out simultaneously. After being wound in, the arms are fixed in position by means of a combination lock 13 with pins 15 which are advanced into holes 7 in a plate 6 fixed to the pinion, before the lock is set. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Immobilising vehicles This invention concerns the immobilisation of vehicles, in particular for controlling parking.

All of the conventional ways of controlling parking of vehicles have serious disadvantages.

The use of parking meters involves a substantial number of staff to monitor the meters and pursue offenders, and rarely produces a useful financial return. Devices for immobilising vehicles can make it more difficult for offenders to escape, but require excessive amounts of time, as it is necessary for a police officer or other attendant with a key to release the immobilising device as well as to install it.

Many, if not all, of the disadvantages of conventional parking control methods can be overcome if, in accordance with the present invention, a parked vehicle is immobilised by means of a device incorporating a combination lock.

If such a device is used, a police officer or other official or attendant is needed to apply the device to a vehicle wheel and set the combination lock.

However, to release the device, it is not necessary for a police officer or other official to go to the vehicle. Instead, the car driver must attend a Police Station or other office in order to discover the combination of the lock. The driver can then release the lock himself. Before being given the combination, the driver must either provide full personal particulars for subsequent action, or must pay an immediate fine. The driver can also be required to return the immobilising device to the Police Station or other office, and to ensure this is required to pay a deposit before being given the combination.

Such a system has numerous advantages. It reduces demands on the time of the police or other officials, because the release and return of the device are carried out by the vehicle driver. This also ensures that the device can be released without delay even when no policeman can be made immediately available. Because the driver is required to attend personally at the Police Station or office, it becomes difficult or impossible for him to avoid a penalty. Furthermore, as the driver has to attend the Police Station or other office twice, a considerable amount of time is taken up, which is a deterrent at least as compelling as a fine, particularly in the case of vehicles used on business.

As individual immobilisation devices will have differing lock combinations, each device will carry a code number or the like as well as an indication of the Police Station or office to which the driver has to refer in order to obtain the combination.

The code number enables the corresponding lock combination to be obtained from a confidential register.

In one convenient form, the immobilisation device consists of a plurality of generally radial arms which can be put in position embracing a vehicle wheel to hinder its rotation, and a central pivot for the arms provided with a combination lock to prevent the arms from pivoting relative to one another after installation. The arms may be of adjustable length to accommodate the wheels of different sizes. The device can be designed to grip the wheel, or to stand on the ground beside the wheel in such a way as to hinder movement of the wheel. Alternatively the device may for example comprise a cage or box in two or more parts designed to stand on the ground around the wheel and provided with a combination lock for fastening the parts together.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 shows the central portion of one embodiment of the present device, in axial section, Figure 2 shows schematically the end of one arm of the device fitted to a wheel, Figure 3 is an axial view of part of the device shown in Figure 1,and Figure 4 schematically shows the present device in use, fitted to a vehicle wheel.

The illustrated device for immobilising vehicles by blocking movement of their wheels comprises three radial arms 1 with hooked outer ends 2 capable of fitting round the tyre of a vehicle wheel, shown in broken lines. The number of arms may vary. The arms are mounted pivotably on a central spigot or shaft 3 which has a retaining flange or plate 4 and a forward extension 3a of reduced diameter.

On the shaft 3 is a pinion 5 fast with a circular plate 6 in which is a ring of holes 7. This plate and the pinion are held in place by a circlip.

Each arm has a central longitudinal slot 8 fitted over the shaft and pinion, and a toothed rack 9 along one side of the slot, the dimensions of the slot, rack and pinion being such that the pinion is held in engagement with the rack but can rotate in the slot. Consequently, if the pinion is rotated, all three of the arms are simultaneously moved radially inward or radially outwards depending on the direction of rotation. The plate 6 is provided with wings 10 to facilitate rotation of the pinion.

The rear plate 4 is made large enough to prevent access to the wheel nuts of a wheel on which the device has been fitted. It is provided with blocks 11 for locating the two lower arms at an angle of 1200 apart. In use, the lower ends of these arms rest on or adjacent to the ground. The forward arms, which in use extends vertically upwards, is not provided with any positive restraint against rotation. The relative positions of the arms in use are shown in Figures 3 and 4, the lower arms being cut away to reveal details of the mechanism.

In use, with the arms extended and the forward (upper) arm folded down, the two lower arms are fitted to the lower part of the wheel of a vehicle to be immobilised, with their hooked ends fitting round the tyre as shown in Figure 2. These hooked ends are provided with prongs 12, wedges, shoes or other projections to make it extremely difficult or impossible for a vehicle to which the device has been fitted to be moved. After fitting, these extremities of the arms will rest on the ground or very close to the ground, immediately to the front and rear of the bottom point of the wheel. The front arm is then swung upwards so that its hooked end is above the wheel, and the pinion is then turned by means of the wings 10 to draw all three arms radially inwards simultaneously, thus automatically ensuring proper centering of the arms relative to the wheel.The rack and pinion mechanism makes it possible to exert enough force to ensure that all three arms grip the wheel tightly and it is not possible for the upwardly extending front arm to be turned. The rear plate 4 prevents access to the wheel hub and nuts, so that the vehicle cannot be released by removal of the wheel from the vehicle. The prongs, wedges or other projections at the ends of the two lower arms prevent the wheel from rotating. The design of the arms is such that, should a driver try to move the vehicle, damage to the wheel and vehicle is minimised and in particular damage to wheel balance weights will not happen.

To lock the arms in the clamped position, a combination lock 13 is mounted on the reduced diameter end portion 3a of the shaft 3 and includes an inner end plate 14 carrying pins 1 5 which, in the locked position, fit into the holes 7 of the plate 6 attached to the pinion. Since the lock cannot rotate relative to the shaft (as described below) and the shaft cannot rotate because of the blocks 11 which define the angle between the lower arms, the lock completely prevents the device from being loosened or removed.

Any convenient form of combination lock can be used. The illustrated lock comprises a barrel 1 6 integral with or attached to the inner plate 14 and an outer plate 17, combination rings 1 8 rotatable on the barrel, and pins 19 on the shaft portion 3a, projecting through a slot in the barrel into cavities in the internal peripheries of the combination rings so that normally the lock barrel and rings gre held fast in an inward position close to the plate 6 and cannot move away from it.Each combination ring has an axial slot 19, so that when all three combination rings are turned to bring these slots into iine with the pins 19, the lock barrel and rings can be moved axially away from the plate 6, thereby releasing the pins 1 5 from the plate and allowing the pinion to rotate to release the arms.

The outer surfaces of the combination rings carry letters or numbers, in the usual way. The lock barrel can slide axially on the shaft portion 3a but is prevented from rotating on the latter by a key or pin 20 on the barrel which is received in a key way slot 21 in the shaft portion 3a.

The correct setting of the rings to release the lock corresponds to only one combination of the letters or numbers on the rings. A corresponding code is marked on the outer plate of the lock, so that the driver of an immobilised vehicle can obtain from the relevant official or policeman the combination required to open the lock, by means of a confidential catalogue of lock combinations and codes. The codes should be quite arbitrary, so that drivers cannot learn to derive the combination from the code. Any other suitable form of combination lock can be provided.

The illustrated device is clamped on to the wheel. Alternatively one or two of the arms can be replaced by a fixed stand to be placed on the ground.

For storage and handling, the arms can be rotated so as to lie adjacent to one another.

In an alternative embodiment of the device, the arms are held in position by a locking sleeve from which extend prongs each of which fits between a pair of adjacent arms and rests against the rear plate 4. The locking sleeve fits over the outer end of the spigot or shaft and is held on the latter by a combination lock for example of the kind shown in Figure 1. In this embodiment the lock may be completely removable to allow the prongs to be released from the arms.

Each arm has two or more slots for fitting on to the central spigot, radially elongated to provide some tolerance. The provision of several such slots enables the effective length of the arms to be adjusted to suit the wheel radius.

In yet another embodiment, the arms are held in position by spacers between adjacent arms, which spacers engage notches or shoulders on the arms to fix the arms at a desired radius. The spacers also fix the arms in the correct angular positions.

In yet another embodiment, the arms are held in position by a single prong for each arm, which prongs engage notches provided in the sides of a central slot in each arm. These prongs are held in position over the central shaft by a combination lock. Each arm may have several notches in its central slot so that the arms can be adjusted to fit wheels of different sizes. When the prongs are pushed home into the notches in the arms, they prevent the arms from rotating and fit the arms at the required radius.

To accommodate tyres of different widths, the end of each arm may be telescopic or slidable as shown schematically in Figure 2, being securable at the correct width by a clamping screw or the like. Alternatively the effective width may be reduced by means of a spacer.

Each hook may incorporate a spike so that if the vehicle is moved, its tyre will be punctured. The spike may be fixed or may be movable and normally retracted into a safe position, being advanced into a puncturing position only if the hook is pressed down by movement of the wheel.

Such a spike if provided may also serve as means for fixing an adjustable hook at the correct width.

Instead of or in addition to the rear plate 4, the forward plate 6 (or equivalent element in the alternative embodiments described above) may be made large enough to prevent access to the wheel nuts. A diameter of about 25 to 30 cms will normally suffice.

In another embodiment the wheel clamp is of telescopic construction with opposite parts each provided with one solid rod and a parallel hollow tube, the rod of one part fitting in the tube of the opposite part so that the device can be fitted over or around a wheel and then telescopically reduced in size to prevent removal. The telescopictubes and rods extend through a central drum which covers the wheel hub. The clamp can be locked in any convenient way. The opposite parts of the clamp, linked by the tubes and rods, may for example be hooks or portions of a cage.

Alternatively the rods and tubes may form telescopic crossbars interconnecting the parts of a two-part frame which stands on the ground and surrounds the wheel. In a further embodiment the outer ends of the rods and tubes carry shoes which are clamped against the tyre.

In yet another embodiment, a wheel clamp is designed to grip the wheel and is provided with anti-friction means arranged to engage the road surface as the wheel is rotated. Such an arrangement can be provided in wheel clamps as already described, provided that the wheel clamp is such as to rotate with the clamped wheel. The effect is that if an attempt is made to drive the vehicle, rotation of its wheels will bring the antifriction means into contact with the ground with the result that the wheel will lose traction. If it is a driving wheel the effect of the differential will be to allow that wheel to spin while the opposite wheel will lose power. If applied to a non-driving wheel, the driver will at least lose direction or control.By way of example, a wheel clamp of generally H-shaped configuration may have two T-shaped elements of which the stems are telescopically interconnected and can be fastened together by a combination lock, and the crosspieces are clamped against the tyre and carry antifriction devices, for example rollers or balls.

Yet another device embodying the present invention for immobilising a vehicle comprises a pair of gripping devices adapted to grip different wheels of a vehicle, in particular front and rear wheels, and a chain, cable or the like extending between the gripping devices. The gripping devices are fitted with locks so that, once attached to vehicle wheels, they cannot easily be removed.

It is impossible to drive a vehicle with wheels interconnected by a chain or other connection, particularly if the length of the chain is adjusted to correspond to the shortest distance between the wheels. The gripping devices are preferably designed so that they will rotate with the wheels but even without this feature the vehicle is effectively immobilised. By way of example, each gripping device may comprise a simple pair of jaws or tongs, for example with a pivotal or telescopic interconnection lockable by means of a combination lock. It would be possible for the driver to change one of the immobilised wheels but this would not release the vehicle as the other wheel would remain attached to the wheel which has been removed, and few vehicles carry two spare wheels.

Claims (12)

1. A wheel clamp or similar device for releasably immobilising vehicles by obstructing movement of their wheels, including a combination lock for holding the device in its vehicie-immobilising condition.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1, providing with coded indicia representing the lock combination.

3. A device as claimed in claim 1 or 2 comprising a plurality of generally radial arms which can be put in position embracing a vehicle wheel to hinder its rotation, and a central pivot for the arms provided with a combination lock to prevent the arms from pivoting relative to one another after installation.

4. A device as claimed in claim 3 including means for adjusting the effective arm length and locking the arms at a selected length.

5. A device as claimed in claim 4 including a rack and pinion mechanism whereby on rotation of a centrally disposed pinion meshing with racks on the arms the lengths of all the arms can be adjusted simultaneously, the said mechanism being immobilised by the combination lock.

6. A device as claimed in claim 3 including a locking member including a plurality of prongs, which can be secured by means of the combination lock in a position in which the prongs extend through or between arms to hold these in desired angular positions.

7. A device as claimed in claim 3 in which the arms are held in position by spacers between the adjacent arms engaging notches or shoulders on the arms, thereby holding the arms in selected angular positions and at selected radii.

8. A device as claimed in any of claims 3 to 7 in which arm has a longitudinal slot which accommodates the central pivot and allows radial adjustment of the arms.

9. A device as claimed in claim 1 having opposite parts to be fitted to a wheel and means telescopically and lockably interconnecting these.

1 0. A device as claimed in claim 1 comprising a cage or box-like structure in two or more parts designed to stand on the ground around a wheel.

11. A device as claimed in any preceding claim having a cover member arranged to prevent access to the wheel hub or wheel nuts.

12. A device according to any preceding claim having hooks arranged to fit around the wheel and of adjustable width.

1 3. A device for immobilising a vehicle, substantially as hereinbefore described.