GB2135383A - Transfer chamber - Google Patents

Abstract

An aim is to construct a transfer chamber, for e.g. post offices or banks, which can easily be converted from a break-proof version to a highly efficient bullet-proof version. The chamber comprises break-proof protecting means 7, 15, 13 secured in rabbets 5, 6; 14, 17, 18 borne respectively by a frame 1 and a rotary drum 9. A number of removable bulletproof means 8, 19 and a bullet-proof transparent screen may together or separately be juxtaposed with, or replace, the break-proof protection means by fitting them into the rabbets 5, 6; 14, 17, 18 using easily detachable locking means which, when locked, are embedded in the rabbets. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A security lock for conveying parcels or articles between a sealed-off place and a public place The invention relates to a security lock for conveying parcels or articles between a space reserved for the public and a place sealed off from the public by a separating partition, the lock being of the kind comprising a stationary frame in which an axially vertical rotary drum is mounted and formed with at least one access opening having a cavity for temporarily receiving articles to be passed through, the drum being laterally surrounded by the frame and being in the form of a cylinder divided along two parailel vertical planes, one containing the access opening and the other containing an opening closed by an observation window of transparent material, the lock also comprising means for locking the drum relative to the frame in two diametrically opposite positions.

Locks of the aformentioned kind, also called parcel hatches, are know and used for equipping door or window gratings of offices for receiving or forwarding articles or parcels, the locks usually comprising a sort of box or frame having two facing openings disposed opposite an opening formed in the partition separating the official from the public, the box receiving a rotary drum likewise having an opening which can if required be brought in line with the opening in the box on the official's side or the opening on the public's side.

The drum bounds a cavity which, in a first position, can receive an object deposited from the exterior (the space or room reserved for the public) whereas when the drum is in the second position the article can be taken out by the official in the room sealed off from the public.

Security devices of this kind, for transferring articles such as parcels and for use in postal or other public offices or in banks or even commercial premises working at night, such as chemists, are already known e.g. from French patent specifications 79 03963 and 80 034 00 filed in the names of the present applicants.

This kind of lock gives some protection against breaking in, but when fitted together the assembly is definitive, i.e. it cannot be converted e.g. to give it complete protection from bullets, except by completely dismantling the drum installation and perhaps even the frame secured to the partition in which the lock is mounted. Such an operation is very laborious and inevitabiy takes a long time, with the result of course that the grating comprising the lock will be temporarily out of service, with all the inevitable consequences.

This is a serious disadvantage in the present situation, where it is necessary to find a completely effective but simple and cheap method, without excessive modifications in construction, inter alia of the frames or gratings, of refitting a very large number of "break-proof" gratings to make them builet-proof, in view of the present policy of avoiding or reducing the risk of violent crimes in public places, inter alia post offices and banks.

According to the present invention, a security lock of the previously-mentioned kind is characterised in that it comprises break-proof protecting means secured by engaging in rabbets borne respectively by the frame and the rotary drum with interposition of removable wedges, and/or panels and a number of removable bullet-proof means may together or separately be juxtaposed with the break-proof protection means by fitting them into the rabbets by removing or adjusting the wedges and panels, the break-proof and bullet-proof protection means being secured to the rabbets by easily detachable locking means which, when locked, are embedded in the rabbets.

The lock according to the invention thus provides a simple, efficient, quick method, without special tools or skiil, of converting a light breakproof structure into an efficient bullet-proof structure, by releasing locking means, taking out or replacing wedges, inserting bullet-proof components by simple fitting-in and tightening the locking means.

The invention can be applied even to existing locks, simply by replacing the lateral rabbets in the frame and drum.

According to an advantageous feature, in a security lock according to the invention in which the anti-break protection means are formed by the side walls, e.g. of sheet-metal, of the frame and drum and by the window made e.g. of glass or transparent plastics, the bullet-proof protection means may comprise detachable elements adapted to be mounted in the rabbets of the frame and drum and comprising lateral wall elements intimately following the shape of the drum and mounted therein, and also comprising at least one bullet-proof glass partition disposed against the breakproof glass partition.

The present invention will be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a top view in horizontal cross-section of a lock embodying the invention; Figs. 2 and 3 are views in detail in partial horizontal section of the top edge of a side wall of the drum level with the observation window, in the case respectively of the lock of Fig. 1 in its break-proof version and in its armoured bulletproof version, and Fig. 4 is a view in vertical axial section of the loading plate of the drum in the lock.

The lock embodying the invention comprises a frame (or box) 1 secured to a partition 2 separating an official's room from a public space.

In the embodiment shown in Fig. 1, the frame is parallelepipedal, i.e. octagonal in the present case, and comprises an opening 3, e.g. facing the official, and an opening 4 facing the public.

Frame 1 has a structure made e.g. of sheet aluminium or stainless steel, or alternatively of wood.

The vertical side edges of the openings in the frame comprise rabbets 5, 6 which grip the frame wall 7 by being securing thereto as shown in Fig.

3.

In the bullet-proof version embodying the invention (Fig. 1), rabbets 5 also grip detachable elements of wall 8 giving protection against bullets, intimately following the shape of the frame and made in the form of bent plates adjusted to the inner contour of frame wall 8 and fitting into rabbets 5, members 5, 8 and 7 being secured together by suitable locking means described with reference to Fig. 3.

The drum 9 of the lock embodying the invention, which is rotatably mounted around a vertical shaft 10 in frame 1, comprises a bottom loading plate 11, a top plate (not shown) of the same size, and light cylindrical side walls of aluminium or stainless steel sheeting 12 extending round a certain angular sector such that they bound an access opening corresponding to opening 3 on the official's side and a second opening corresponding to opening 4 on the public's side and closed by a window 13 of transparent material.

Window 1 3 has side rabbets such as 1 4 gripping a glass partition 1 5 held via panels (described with reference to Figs. 2 and 3) in a frame 16.

The vertical edges of the lateral walls 12 of drum 9 are mounted in rabbets 1 7 secured to the window rabbets 14, and also in rabbets 18 disposed on the side of the access opening, i.e. on the side of the official as shown in Fig. 1.

In Fig. 1, which shows the complete bulletproof version of the lock embodying the invention, detachable bullet-proof wall components 1 9 in the form of flexible plates made of any suitable bulletproof material are mounted against and on the inner side of walls 1 2 by being fitted and gripped in rabbets 17 and 18. Elements 19 are also guided and held against walls 9 by three top abutments and three bottom abutments (references 20, 21, 22 and 23, 24, 25) secured to the loading plate 11 and the top plate (not shown) of drum 9.

The top and bottom abutments on the same side of the drum (e.g. 20, 21,22) are thus aligned in pairs along a vertical line, the various pairs of abutments being respectively disposed near the vertical rabbets 1 7, 1 8 and in the axial plane of the drum coinciding with the plane of partition 2, at a horizontal distance from walls 12 just greater than the thickness of the bullet-proof wall element 19.

Walls 12 and 19, window 13, the plate 11 and the top plate thus bound a cavity adapted to receive an article such as a parcel.

We shall now, with reference to Figs. 2 and 3, describe an embodiment of the various rabbets 5, 6, 14, 17, 18 and the method of securing the bullet-proof wall elements 8 and 1 9 and the various glass partitions 1 5.

Fig. 2 shows the simple version of the lock protected only against breaking-in (in this case components 8, 19 and 20-25 in Fig. 1 are absent), whereas Fig. 3 shows the "converted" bullet-proof version of the lock containing components 8, 19 and 20--25.

In the version in Fig. 3, rabbet 1 7 is secured to rabbet 14 by a locking means (e.g. a screw), shown only by its axis 26, the locking means being screwed into rabbet 14 and extending through a gripping wall 18, a wedge 27 and part 28 of rabbet 1 7.

In Fig. 2, the glass partition 1 5 is a single plate of glass or plexiglass (R.T.M.) and is held in rabbet 14 and a surrounding frame 16, secured by a screw represented by axis 29 only, by interposition of a panel 30 which in turn is secured by a screw (axis 31) to rabbet 1 4.

In other respects, rabbets 5, 6 are secured to wall 7 as shown and described with reference to Fig. 3.

In the version in Fig. 3, rabbet 17 is as before secured to rabbet 1 4 by the screw (reference 32 here) with axis 26, but wedge 27 has been removed and is replaced by the bullet-proof wall element 19. Wall 1 6 has a conical recess to receive the head of screw 32.

Partition 1 5 is supplemented or replaced by another assembly as described hereinafter, by positioning a suitably-sized panel 30.

In the example shown in Fig. 3, glass partition 1 5 is retained but a bullet-proof glass partition 33 is placed on its outside and a bullet-proof partition 34 on its inside, a symmetrical arrangement allowing for bullets hitting either side of the partition, since it can pivot through 1 800 (drum pivoting around shaft 10). In another variant (not shown) in the case of prefabricated bullet-proof partitions made up of one thickness of glass and one thickness of polycarbonate, the glass surfaces of two such partitions are pressed against one another in rabbets 14 and frame 16 of the window in drum 9.

As shown also in Fig. 3, rabbet 6 is secured to wall 7 by an angle member 35 secured by a screw 36 in the rabbet and attached by a screw 37 to wall 7 via a wedge 38, whereas a wedge 39 is mounted between wall 7 and the edge 40 of rabbet 6, and is secured to wall 7 by a screw 41.

This method of securing can be applied to rabbets 6 in both versions of the lock embodying the invention.

However, there is a difference as regards rabbets 5 of the bullet-proof version, since in this case wedge 39 is eliminated and wall element 8 is fitted in position in rabbets 5.

Rabbets 1 8 are secured to wall 12 (Fig. 1) by a screw 42 extending through the edge of the rabbet and screwed into wall 12 only, with interposition of a wedge 43 (anti-break version) or into wall element 1 9 and wall 12 (bullet-proof version in which wedge 43 is omitted and replaced by element 19).

Fig. 4 (and partially Fig. 1) diagrammatically shows a system for stopping drum 9 and installed between the drum loading plate 11 and the frame base 44, on which the drum is rotatably mounted.

The system mainly comprises two leafsprings 45,46 secured in base 44, the other ends of the springs bearing against the base and being raised near the central plane 47 of the lock, the base comprising an abutment means 48 having a shoulder 49 which locks against a spring in one of its stop positions.

Claims (9)

1. A security lock for conveying parcels or articles between a space reserved for the public and a place sealed off from the public by a separating partition, the lock being of the kind comprising a stationary frame in which an axially vertical rotary drum is mounted and formed with at least one access opening having a cavity for temporarily receiving articles to be passed through, the drum being laterally surrounded by the frame and being in the form of a cylinder divided along two parallel vertical planes, one containing the access opening and the other containing an opening closed by an observation window of transparent material, the lock also comprising a system for locking the drum relative to the frame in two diametrically opposite positions, the lock being characterised in that it comprises break-proof protecting means secured by engaging in rabbets borne respectively by the frame and the rotary drum with interposition of removable wedges, and/or panels, and in that a number of removable bullet-proof means can together or separately be juxtaposed with the break-proof protection means by fitting them into the rabbets by removing or adjusting the wedges and panels the break-proof and bullet-proof protection means being secured to the rabbets by easily detachable locking means which, when locked, are embedded into the rabbets.

2. A safety lock according to claim 1, in which the break-proof protection means, are formed by side walls of the frame and drum and by the window the lock being characterised in that the bullet-proof protection means comprise detachable elements adapted to be mounted in the rabbets of the frame and drum and comprising lateral wall elements intimately following the shape of the frame and mounted therein, and lateral wall elements intimately following the shape of the drum and mounted therein, and also comprising at least one bullet-proof glass partition disposed against the break-proof glass partition.

3. A safety lock according to claim 2, in which the fixed frame is closed by vertical partition elements bounding an octagonal shape in vertical section, characterised in that the detachable bullet-proof lateral wall elements in the frame are made up of bent plates adjustable to the inner contours of the frame and mounted on at least two sides of the octagon and secured in one rabbet of the fixed frame.

4. A safety lock according to claim 2 or 3, characterised in that the detachable bullet-proof lateral wall elements in the rotary drum are made up of two flexible sheet-metal plates pressed internally against the side walls of the drum and inserted into the vertical rabbets thereof, after removing the wedges, the plates being guided and held pressed against the respective walls by top and bottom abutments secured respectively to the top horizontal plate of the drum and to the bottom horizontal plate for loading the drum.

5. A security lock according to claim 4, characterised in that three bottom and three top abutments aligned vertically in pairs are provided near each of the two lateral walls of the drum the various pairs of superposed abutments being respectively disposed near the vertical rabbets in the axial plane of the drum coinciding with the plane of the separating partition at a horizontal distance from the drum wall slightly greater than the thickness of the bullet-proof wall element.

6. A security lock according to anyone of claims 1 to 5, in which the vertical rabbets of the drum bound a rectangular component surrounding the observation window formed from a break- - proof glass partition held by panels in a removable lateral frame having an angled cross-section, characterised in that a bullet-proof glass partition is mounted in the frame and the rabbets and is placed against the outer and/or inner face of the bullet-proof glass partition by interposition of panels having an appropriately reduced size.

7. A security lock according to anyone of claims 1 to 5, in which the vertical rabbets bound a rectangular component surrounding the observation window formed by a break-proof glass partition held by panels inside a removable lateral frame having an angled cross-section, characterised in that in the case of combined break-proof and bullet-proof glass partitions comprising e.g. one thickness of glass and one thickness of polycarbonate,the glass surfaces of two such partitions are pressed one against the other in rabbets and frame of the window.

8. A security lock according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterised in that the bulletproof wall components comprise a sheet of aluminium or steel.

9. A security lock according to anyone of claims 1 to 8, characterised in that the means for securing and locking the break-proof and bulletproof protective means are screws mounted in vertical rabbets in the drum and frame extending through the protective wall elements and screwed into the rabbets and/or wall elements, conical recesses being formed for the screw heads in the corresponding rabbets and/wall elements so as to be embedded therein when screwed.