GB2286216A

GB2286216A - Security grill

Info

Publication number: GB2286216A
Application number: GB9402048A
Authority: GB
Inventors: John Glynn Williams
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1994-02-03
Filing date: 1994-02-03
Publication date: 1995-08-09
Also published as: GB9402048D0

Abstract

A security grill for a window comprises: solid or tubular elongate grill bars 2a - 2e arranged spaced apart substantially parallel to each other and a corresponding number of spaced apart substantially parallel tubular sockets 3a - 3e which are installed within one side of the surround of a window substantially plane parallel to the closed window, each grill bar being slidably mounted, at a first end thereof within the corresponding tubular socket such that the grill bars may be slidably moved between a first position in which they are substantially fully retracted into the sockets and a second position in which they extend at least partly across the window while remaining held substantially rigidly plane parallel thereto. The bars can be mounted at their second ends in a transverse bar 10a which is guided by being slidably mounted in a transverse bar 11. As shown a window opening can be spanned by two sets of bars mounted one on each side. <IMAGE>

Description

SECURITY GRILL Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a security grill for a window or the like opening in a building.

Background to the Invention With crime against property ever increasing efficient and cost effective systems for preventing intruder access into buildings are keenly being sought.

Security grills are a familiar feature of prisons, mental hospitals and other repressive institutions where it is desired at all cost to prevent an occupant from escaping. To the best of the applicants knowledge, however, these security grills, which generally comprise of a plurality of rigid metal bars embedded in concrete above and below a window opening are not generally utilized for providing a barrier to intruder access and are clearly unsuitable for wide scale commercial or domestic use in view of their permanence, unsightliness and intimidating nature.

It is a general objective of the present invention to provide a security grill which combines the strength and effectiveness of known security grills with the flexibility to withdraw and stow the grill conveniently when not required.

Summarv of the Invention According to the present invention there is provided a security grill for a window which comprises: a number of solid or tubular elongate grill bars, each having a first and a second end being arranged spaced apart substantially parallel to each other; and a corresponding number of correspondingly spaced apart substantially parallel tubular sockets which are installed, in use, within one side of the surround of a window substantially plane parallel to the closed window, each grill bar being slidably mounted, in use, at a first end thereof within the corresponding tubular socket such that the grill bars may be slidably moved between a first position in which they are substantially fully retracted into the sockets and a second position in which they are substantially full extended therefrom to at least partly cover the window while remaining held substantially rigidly plane parallel thereto.

Preferably the grill further comprises a transverse bar extending transversely of each said grill bar and to which each grill bar is fixed by said second end thereof; Advantageously the grill further comprises a rigid fixed guide bar which is, in use, fixed extending across the opening of the window and to which said transverse bar is slidably mounted, in use, to be slidable there along across the opening.

Advantageously the tubular sockets are adapted to be mounted to the surround of a window extending into the wall cavity of a cavity wall in which the window is built.

Preferably each said socket is at least one quarter the length of the corresponding grill bar.

Preferably said tubular sockets are adapted to be installed into the surround of a window to slidably extend substantially horizontally across the opening.

Preferably each said tubular socket is mounted at or near a first end thereof to a transverse fixing plate extending transversely thereof.

Suitably the guide rail is fixed at one end thereof, to the fixing plate.

Each tubular socket may extend through an aperture in the fixing plate and is suitably welded or screw threaded thereto.

Advantageously that portion of each tubular socket which extends outwardly beyond the fixing plate is provided with a seal member to seal the juncture between the tubular socket and the grill bar which is mounted slidably therein.

Each grill bar may be telescopic or otherwise extendible to enable storage of the grill bars in a confined space window surround.

Brief Description of the Drawings The present invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein; Figure 1 is a front elevation view of a security grill embodying the invention fitted to a window; Figure 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of a grill bar and corresponding socket; Figure 3 is a detailed view of an opposing end of the socket of Figure 2, closed by a plug; Figure 4 is a sectional view of a telescopic grill bar; Figure 5 is a side elevation view of a variant of the sockets of the embodiment of Figure 1, in which the sockets are open at both ends and project through a fixing plate; Figures 6-8 illustrate three alternative methods of fixtures of the sockets to the fixing plate of the Figure 5 embodiment; Figure 9 is a perspective view of a second variant of the grill bars; Figures 10-12 are detailed views of the juncture of each grill bar to the interlinking transverse bar; and Figure 13 is a view similar to Figure 1 but illustrating the Figure 5 and 9 variants in use.

Description of the Preferred Embodiments Referring to Figure 1, the security grill is mounted to the room ward face of a window 1. The grill comprises two sets of five grill bars 2a-2e, 2f-2j each bar extending laterally across the window 1.

The first set of grill bars 2a-2e is adapted to be stowed in the left hand side of the surround of the window 1, passing into the cavity 3 of the cavity wall forming the surround of the window 1. The second set of grill bars 2f-2j is adapted to be stowed in the right hand side of the surround of the window 1.

Each of the two sets of grill bars 2a-2e and 2f-2j is longitudinally slidable from a stowed position in which the bars 2f-2j are substantially fully stowed within the respective left or right hand side surround and an extended position in which both sets 2a-2e and 2f-2j cover approximately half the width of the window each and thereby cover the whole of the window 1 between them.

When in the stowed state, each of the grill bars 2a-2j is substantially fully accommodated within a respective tubular socket 3a-j in which the grill bar 2a-j is longitudinally slidably received.

As illustrated in Figure 1, the right hand side grill bars 2f-2j are stowed within their respective sockets 3f-3j and the left hand grill bars 2a-2e are extended from their respective sockets 3a-3e to a maximum extent. The grill bars 2a-2j are held captive within their respective sockets 3a-3j by a flange 4 on the inner end of each respective grill bar 2a-j as may be more clearly seen in Figure 2. This flange 4 abuts an inner edge 7 of an end cap 5 fitted via a screw thread 6 into the mouth of the respective socket 3. In the Figure 2 embodiment the flange 4 has a rubber pad 8 to dampen collision between the flange 4 and edge 7 of the cap 5.

For each set of grill bars 2a-e and 2f-j the bars are arranged substantially parallel to each other interlinked by a transverse bar 10a, 10b joining the outer most ends of each of the bars 2a-2e or 2f-2j respectively.

The transverse bars 10a, 10b not only ensure the maintenance of even spacing between the grill bars 2a-2e and 2f-2j, respectively, but also ensure the rigidity of the grill bar configuration and enable extension and retraction of each set of bars 2a-2e and 2f-2j in a single movement.

To further ensure horizontally of the bars 2a-2e or 2f-2j as they are extended or retracted, a guide rail 11 is provided extending horizontally transversely across the top of the window 1 and extending through a respective aperture 12a, 12b provided in each of the transverse bars 10a, 10b.

The correspondingly even spaced parallel arrangement of the tubular sockets 3a-3e and 3f-3j is ensured by mounting to a respective fixing plate 13a, 13b, which is screwed to the window surround and has a series of apertures 14 therein into which the outer most end of the respective tubular socket 3a-3f is fixed. The fixing plate 13a 13b has an uppermost aperture 40a 40b into which a respective end of the guide rail 11 is mounted.

Referring to Figure 4, there is shown a telescopic grill bar 20, a plurality of which may be substituted for the rigid grill bars 2a-2j for installations where the space in the window surround is limited. Alternative compressible variants may also be utilized such as, for example, variants in which the grill bars 2 are each formed in two or more sections which are linked by pin in slot arrangements or the like to slide relative to each other to compress or extend the length of the bar 2.

Referring now to Figures 5-8, there is shown a further embodiment of tubular socket arrangement in which the sockets 30a-30d are mounted to the fixing plate 13a 13b extending through apertures therein and projecting from the outer, in use, face thereof. The sockets 30a-30d are sleeve-like, being open at both ends unlike the embodiment of Figures 1-3.

The tubular socket 30a-30d may be secured by welding 31 as illustrated in Figure 6 or may be secured by screw threads 32 as illustrated in Figure 7 and optionally also be secured with a nut 33 as shown in Figure 8. The nut 33 is distinguished by having an internal annular elastomeric seal member 34 adapted to sealingly engage the circumference of a grill bar 2 inserted therein extending into the socket 30. The purpose of the seal 34 is to prevent efflux of stale air from within the cavity of the wall surrounding the window, when the grill bars 2 are pushed back into their stowed position.

In the Figure 6 embodiment, a plastic seal member 35 is fitted around the outer most end of the tubular socket 30 for the same purpose. Similarly the plug of the Figure 3 embodiment serves this purpose also.

Turning to Figures 9-12, these show an alternative shape of transverse bar 12, having a U-shaped cross section to which each grill bar 2 is mounted by a rivet 21, welding 22 or a taptite or self threaded machine screw 23.

In practice, the preferred equal distance spacing of the substantially parallel grill bars 2a-2d is suitably of the order of 75mm to 155mm.

Figure 13 shows a security grill similar to the Figure 1 embodiment but having the reduced length sleeve like open ended tubular sockets 30a-30d of the type shown in Figure 5. In this embodiment, as each set of grill bars 30 is moved to its stowed position the bars extend through and beyond the tubular sockets 30.

As further shown in Figure 13, a central bracket 25 may be provided against which the transverse bars 10a 10b of each of the extended sets of grill bars 2a-2e and 2f-2j abut and may be locked, in use.

Although the present invention has been described above with respect to certain specified embodiments, numerous alternative embodiments are conceivable within the scope of the invention.

Claims

ClAIMS

1. A security grill for a window which comprises: a number of solid or tubular elongate grill bars, each having a first and a second end being arranged spaced apart substantially parallel to each other; and a corresponding number of correspondingly spaced apart substantially parallel tubular sockets which are installed, in use, within one side of the surround of a window substantially plane parallel to the closed window, each grill bar being slidably mounted, in use, at a first end thereof within the corresponding tubular socket such that the grill bars may be slidably moved between a first position in which they are substantially fully retracted into the sockets and a second position in which they are substantially full extended therefrom to at least partly cover the window while remaining held substantially rigidly plane parallel thereto.

2. A security grill as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the grill further comprises a transverse bar extending transversely of each said grill bar and to which each grill bar is fixed by said second end thereof.

3. A security grill as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the grill further comprises a rigid fixed guide bar which is, in use, fixed extending across the opening of the window and to which said transverse bar is slidably mounted, in use, to be slidable there along across the opening.

4. A security grill as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein the tubular sockets are adapted to be mounted to the surround of a window extending into the wall cavity of a cavity wall in which the window is built.

5. A security grill as claimed any preceding Claim, wherein each said socket is at least one quarter the length of the corresponding grill bar.

6. A security grill as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein said tubular sockets are adapted to be installed into the surround of a window to slidably extend substantially horizontally across the opening.

7. A security grill as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein each said tubular socket is mounted at or near a first end thereof to a transverse fixing plate extending transversely thereof.

8. A security grill as claimed in Claim 7, wherein the guide bar is fixed at one end thereof, to the fixing plate.

9. A security grill as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein each tubular socket extends through an aperture in the fixing plate and is suitably welded or screw threaded thereto.

10. A security grill as claimed in Claim 7 or Claim 8, wherein that portion of each tubular socket which extends outwardly beyond the fixing plate is provided with a seal member to seal the juncture between the tubular socket and the grill bar which is mounted slidably therein.

11. A security grill as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein each grill bar is telescopic or otherwise extendible to enable storage of the grill bars in a confined space window surround.

12. A security grill as hereinbefore described with reference to any suitable combination of the accompanying drawings.