US3481166A

US3481166A - Lock timer

Info

Publication number: US3481166A
Application number: US689956A
Authority: US
Inventors: Harry J Lingal
Original assignee: Mosler Safe Co
Current assignee: Mosler Safe Co
Priority date: 1967-12-12
Filing date: 1967-12-12
Publication date: 1969-12-02
Anticipated expiration: 1986-12-02
Also published as: JPS4813392B1

Description

Dec. 2, 1969 H. J. LINGAL. 3,481,166

LOCK TIMER Filed Dec. l2, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet l Dec.-2, 1969 H.J. I -INGAL 3,481,166

l I LOCK TIMER Filed Dec. l2, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTO ATTOzA/Ev's United States Patent O 3,481,166 LOCK TIMER Harry J. Lingal, Hamilton, Ohio, assignor to The Mosler Safe Co., Hamilton, Ohio, a corporation of New York Filed Dec. 12, 1967, Ser. No. 689,956 Int. Cl. Eb 43/00; E05c 19/00 U.S. Cl. 70-267 17 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A device to be attached to a conventional lock to delay opening of a closure to which the lock is attached for a predetermined time interval after the lock is opened. 'Ille delay is provided by a pneumatic timing device which controls the rate of movement of an auxiliary bolt after opening of the main lock bolt. Only after both the lock bolt and the auxiliary timer bolt have moved to an unlocked condition may the door bolt be opened.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Lock timers and time delay mechanisms have long been known and used commercially to delay the opening of a safe or Vault door for a predetermined time interval after opening of a safe lock. However, the only timers now available and used commercially are expensive, complicated escapement type time clocks. Consequently, there has been a long standing need for an inexpensive, dependable time delay unit useable in combination with a lock to provide a time delay after the lock is opened before the closure or door secured by the lock may be opened.

It has, therefore, been a primary objective of this invention to provide an inexpensive, dependable lock timer mechanism operable in combination with a lock to prevent the lock from opening for a predetermined time interval after opening manipulation of the lock.

The time delay unit of this invention which accomplished this objective comprises a piggy-back pneumatic lock timer adapted to be mounted directly upon the housing of a combination lock and to cooperate with the bolt of the lock to provide a predetermined time delay after opening manipulation of the lock before it may be opened. This time interval is accurately repeatable and is adjustable so that it may be setto delay the opening for a few seconds up to an hour or more.

Briey, the timer comprises an attachment adapted to be secured directly to a combination lock housing so as to form an integral lock mechanism assembly with a built in time delay. The delay is provided by a pneumatic diaphragm valve having a valve body movably mounted within a housing. By adjusting the setting of a plug within the valve body, the rate of admission of air into a diaphragm chamber may be regulated so as to vary the rate of movement of the valve body relative to the housing. A bell crank shaped auxiliary bolt is pivotally attached to the housing and has one end secured to the valve body and the opposite end located in the path of. travel of the combination lock bolt. When the bolt of the combination lock is thrown to a locked position, the end of the auxiliary bolt is simultaneously moved into a blocking position relative to a bolt bar of the door or closure. Upon unlocking of the combination lock, the lock bolt is immediately withdrawn from a blocking position relative to the bolt bar but the auxiliary bolt remains locked and is moved into a non-blocking position upon movement of the valve body at a rate which is controlled by the rate of admission of air into the diaphragm chamber. Only after the predetermined delay and after the chamber is filled with air is the bell crank moved to a completely non-blocking position relative to the bolt bar.

3,481,166 Patented Dec. 2, 1969 A primary advantage of the time delay unit described hereinabove is that it provides a relatively inexpensive piggy-back time delay unit which may be secured directly to the housing of a combination lock to provide a built in time delay after manipulation of the lock before the closure secured by the lock may be opened. The unit is much less expensive than commercially available escapement type time clocks and is much less subject to breakdown or failure. Because this unit costs a mere fraction of the cost of an escapement type time clock and because it is more durable, it has much wider application than commercially available time delay units. Specifically the cost of this unit is so low as to make it practical for use on security files or small safes to provide additional resistance to manipulative or surreptitious attack. This additional protection is afforded by minimizing the number of combination attempts which may be tested in a given time period by a burglar or a person attempting a surreptitious attack on the le or safe.

These and other objectives and advantages of this invention will be more readily apparent from the following description of the drawings in which:

FIGURE l is a perspective view of a closure locking mechanism including a combination lock and the lock timer mechanism of this invention.

FIGURE 2 is a rear elevational View of the closure locking mechanism of FIGURE 1 showing the locking mechanism in a locked condition.

FIGURE 3 is a cross-sectional View through the lock timer mechanism taken on line 3 3 of FIGURE 2 but illustrating the locking mechanism in an unlocked condition.

FIGURE 4 is a cross-sectional view similar to FIG- URE 3 but illustrating the locking mechanism in a locked condition.

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view through the diaphragm valve of the lock timer taken on line 5-5 of FIGURE 2.

Generally, the lock timer 10 of this application is adapted to be secured directly to the rear wall 11 of a conventional combination lock housing 12. The lock housing 12 is in turn aixed to the rear side 13 of a door or closure 14 and has an arbor 15 extending through the door or closure 14 which terminates in a dial (not shown) on the front side of the door. By manipulation of the dial, the lock may be opened and the bolt 17 of the lock moved between a locked and unlocked condition. When the lock bolt 17 is in the locked position illustrated in FIGURE l, a bolt bar 18 is secured against opening movement in the direction of the arrow 19. When the lock bolt 17 and an auxiliary bolt 16 of the timer are both in la retracted unlocked condition, the bolt bar 18 may be moved in the direction `of the arrow 19 to an unlocked position.

The door or closure 14 may be a vault door or a safe door, a security le door, or any type of closure conventionally secured by a combination or other style of lock. While the invention has been illustrated as applied to a combination lock, it is equally applicable to a key operated lock, a push button lock, an electrical lock, or any locking device. In fact, it may be applied to any type of security device to afford a predetermined time delay after the lock is opened before the door or closure of the secured area may be opened.

The lock timer generally comprises a housing 20, a diaphragm 42, a diaphragm valve 21, a one-way check valve 22, a lock bar blocking bell-crank or auxiliary bolt 16, a pressure plate 43, an auxiliary bolt mounting support and pressure plate guide ring 60, and biasing spring 85. The housing 20 is secured to the rear wall 11 of the combination lock by machine screws 91 which pass through projecting lugs 92 of housing 20, through the combination lock cover or rear wall 11 of the combination lock and threadedly engaged tapped holes 95 in the lock housing 12.

Timer mounting lugs 92 project below the housing as shown at 93 to hold the front wall of the timer in spaced relation to the rear wall 11 of the combination lock so that a gap 28 is defined therebetween.

A truncated conical recess 30 is formed in the rear face of the housing 20. This recess is connected by apertures such as 31, 32 to the space 28 between the lock housing and the timer housing so that, as explained more fully hereinafter, air may escape through the

apertures

31, 32 from the air chamber 90 defined by the recess 30.

The one-way check valve 22 comprises a cantilever spring 33 secured at one end by a screw 34 to a protrusion 35 on the front wall 27 of the housing 20. At the other end, the cantilever spring 33 supports a metal disc 36 having a rubber -washer or seal 37 attached to its rear face. The washer 37 tits over the -

apertures

31, 32 in the housing 20 so as to seal them against admission of air while still permitting air under pressure to exit through the

conduits

31, 32 by overcoming the force of the cantilever spring 33.

The diaphragm valve 21 comprises a valve body 40, a valve plug 41, a diaphragm 42, and Ia pressure plate 43.

Referring to FIGURE 5, it will be seen that the valve body `40 is generally cylindrical in shape and has a central aperture 45 machined therein. The rear end of the aperture 45 is threaded, as indicated at 46, while the front end is tapered inwardly as indicated at 47 to define a tapered seat for the valve plug 41. A conduit or hole 57 is cut from the side wall of the body 40 so as to provide a side port into the interior of the body.

Plug 41 has a large diameter threaded end section 50, a smaller diameter neck section 49, and a tapered front end section 48. A screw driver slot 51 is machined in the rear face of the plug 41 so as to enable it to be threaded into and out of the internally threaded aperture of the body 40 to adjust the clearance between the tapered seat 47 and the tapered end section 48 of the plug.

The tapered section 48 of the plug 41 is preferably long and has the same taper as the seat 47. The taper need be -only a few degrees but should be relatively long to obtain very fine time delay adjustment. Best results are obtained by keeping the plug diameter small, as for example, 1/s of an inch, and the seat of a length approximately three times the diameter, thus providing considerable resistance to air movement due to friction between the wall of the seat and the surface of the plug. Both surfaces are polished so as to eliminate air turbulence and thus maintain accurate repeatability of the time delay setting.

A guide ring 60 is secured to the rear face of the housing 20 by the screws 25 which extend through apertures in a radial flange 61 of the ring. This ring serves to sealingly clamp the outer periphery of the generally annularly shaped diaphragm 42 to the rear face of the housing 20 and to guide the movement of the pressure plate 43.

At its center, the diaphragm 42, which is made from a non porous flexible material such as Mylar, is sealingly sandwiched between la radial ange 64 of the Valve body 40 and a nut 65 which is threaded over external threads 66 on the valve body. The annular pressure plate -43 is also sandwiched between the flange 64 and nut 65,

but is free at its periphery to slide within the guide ring or sleeve 60.

A bell crank 67 is pivotally mounted between a pair of

ears

68, 69 which extend outwardly from the guide ring `60. This crank I67 serves as an auxiliary time delay bolt, as is explained more fully hereinafter. Itis supported upon a pivot pin 70 which extends through apertures 71, 72 of the bell crank `67 medially of its ends. The pin 70 in turn is supported at its ends in the

ears

68, 69 of the ring 60. At one end 73, the bell crank 67 has an arcuate recess 74 machined therein from which protrudes a pair of inwardly extending

fingers

75, 76. These lingers fit into an annular slot 77 in the valve body 40 and acts as trunnions for piv-otally connecting one end of the bell crank 67 to the valve body 40.

From the pivot pin 70, the bell crank 67 has a second forwardly extending leg 78 which terminates in an end section 79 located in the path of travel of the combination lock bolt 17 and movable within a recess 80 of the bolt bar 18. When the bell crank 67 is in the locked position (illustrated in FIGURE l), the end 79 of the bell crank `67 is located between an end wall 82 of the recess 80 and a block 81 welded or otherwise fixedly secured to the rear wall 13 of the closure 14. Thus, the end wall 82 of the recess 80 of the bolt bar 18 and an end wall 83 of the block 81 define a slot within which the end 79 of the bell crank is movable under the control of the lock bolt 17 and the diaphragm valve 21. When the lock bolt 17 is extended, it forces the end 79 of the bell crank 67 outwardly into the slot defined between the end wall 82 of the bolt bar 18 and the end wall 83 of the side thrust resisting block 81.

A torsion spring 85 is mounted over the bell crank pivot pin 70 :between side walls of a rectangular aperture 86 cut from the bell crank 67. This torsion spring 85 has one end 87 in engagement with one leg 78 of the bell crank 67 and the other end 88 in engagement with a side wall 89 of the timer housing so that the spring normally biases the bell crank 67 to the unlocked condition illustrated in FIGURE 3. When the combination lock is thrown to a locked condition, the bolt 17 of the lock moves outwardly from the wall 94 into the recess 80 of the lock bar and in so doing, moves the leg 78 of the bell crank 67 outwardly into the recess 80 as illustrated in FIGURES l and 4.

In operation, the spring 85 biases the bell crank 67 to the position illustrated in FIGURE 3 in which the combination lock is unlocked and the lock bolt 17 is withdrawn into the lock housing 12. In this position of the bell crank 67 the valve body is in its rearwardmost position and the air chamber 90 is filled `with air at atmospheric pressure.

When the combination lock is locked, the lock bolt 17 is thrown to a locked or extended position in which it engages the end 79 of the bell crank -67 and forces it outwardly into the recess 80 of the lock bar 18. In moving the bell crank end 79 outwardly, the lock bolt 17 forces the valve body 40 forwardly thereby exhausting the diaphragm chamber 90 through the

apertures

31, 32 and the one-way check valve 22. During this inward movement of the valve body 40, the diaphragm 42 is engaged by the pressure plate 43 and forced forwardly so that the plate 43 precludes the diaphragm 42 from ballooning and entrapping a pocket of air in the chamber 90. In other words, the pressure plate 43 forces all ofthe air from the chamber through the one-way check valve 22.

When the combination lock is opened and the combination lock bolt 17 is withdrawn into the housing, the end 79 of the bell crank 67 temporarily remains extended and located within the recess 80 between the end wall 82 of the lock bar 18 and the end wall 83 of the side thrust resisting lblock 81. At this time, the torsion spring 85 forces the end section 79 of the bell crank 67 out of the recess 80 but only at the rate permitted by the diaphragm valve 21. The valve body 40 can only move rearwardly under the bias of the spring 85 and bell crank 67 as air is admitted through the conduit 57 of the valve body past the tapered valve plug 48 and tapered valve seat 47. As the valve body 40 moves slowly rearwardly, the end section 79 of the bell crank -67 is slowly extracted from the lock bar recess 80. After the end section 79 of the bell crank has been completely withdrawn from the recess 80, the lock bar may be moved in the direction indicated by the arrow 19 to an unlocked condition and the door 14 thereafter opened.

While only a single preferred embodiment of my invention has been illustrated and described herein, those skilled in the arts to which this invention pertains will readily appreciate numerous changes and modifications which may be made without departing from the spirit of my invention. Therefore, I do not intend to be limited except by the scope of the appended claims.

' Having'described my invention, I claim:

1. For use in combination with a closure having a bolt bar mounted for movement to and from a locked position and a lock having a lock bolt movable into a blocking position relative to said bolt bar, a timing device for delaying opening movement of said bolt bar after opening of said lock, said timing device comprising,

a housing,

a pneumatic valve comprising a valve body and a valve plug, said valve body being movably mounted within said housing and said valve plug being adjustably mounted within said body,

a diaphragm sealingly connected at its center to said valve body and connected at its periphery to said housing so as to define an air chamber between said housing and said diaphragm,

a mechanical linkage engageable at one end with said valve and at the other end with said bolt bar, said other end of said linkage being movable into and out of a blocking position relative to said bolt bar in accordance with the position of said valve, and

a spring for biasing said valve and said linkage to a non-blocking position relative to said fbolt bar, said spring being operable to move said valve and said linkage toward a non-blocking position after opening of said lock at a rate determined by the rate of air passage through said valve into said air chamber.

2. The timing device of claim 1 wherein said other end of said linkage is movable into a blocking position relative to said bolt bar by engagement lwith said lock bolt as it is moved into a locked condition.

3. The timing device of claim 2 which further comprises a one-way check valve for permitting the rapid escape of air from said air chamber upon movement of said valve into a locked condition but which is operable to blockvthe entrance of air into said chamber upon movement of said valve toward an unlocked condition.

4. The timing device of claim 1 wherein said device includes means for attaching said timing device housing directly to said lock.

5. For use in combination with a closure having a bolt bar mounted for movement to and from a locked position, a locking mechanism comprising a lock and a timing device,

said lock having a housing and a lock bolt movable to and from a blocking position relative to said bolt bar,

said timing device comprising a housing,

mounting means for securing said timing device housing to said lock housing,

a pneumatic timing valve having an element movably mounted within said timing device housing, and

a bolt bar blocking element engageable at one end with said valve element and at the opposite end with said bolt bar, said opposite end of said blocking element being engageable by said lock bolt to move it into a blocking'position relative to said bolt bar, and

a spring for moving -said blocking element into a nonblocking position relative to said bolt bar at a rate determined by said pneumatic timing valve after opening of said lock bolt.

6. The locking mechanism of claim 5 wherein said pneumatic timing valve comprises a valve body movably mounted in said housing, an adjustable plug for controlling the rate of air passage through said valve, and a diaphragm connected near its center to said valve body and at its periphery to said housing so as to deiine an air chamber between said diaphragm and said housing.

7. The locking mechanism of claim 6 which further includes a one Way check valve for permitting the rapid escape of air from said air chamber upon movement of said valve body to a position in which said timing device is in a locked condition relative to said bolt bar.

8. The locking mechanism of claim 5 wherein said blocking element is a generally L-shaped bar pivotally connected medially of its ends to said timing device and connected at said one end to said valve element.

9. For use in combination with a closure having a bolt bar mounted for movement to and from a locked position, 1 locking mechanism comprising a combination lock having a housing, said lock having a lock bolt movable to and from a blocking position relative to said bolt bar,

a timing device for delaying opening of said bolt bar for a predetermined time interval after opening of said combination lock, said timing device compris- 111g,

a timing device housing, said timing device housing being mounted upon and supported solely from said lock lhousing,

a pneumatic timing valve having valve element movably mounted within said timing device housing, said valve being operable to control the time delay after opening of said lock before said bolt bar may be opened,

a bolt bar blocking means engageable at one end with said valve element and at the opposite end with said bolt bar, said blocking means being movable to and from a locking position relative to said bolt bar in accordance with the positioning of said valve element within said timing device housing, and

a spring for biasing said locking means into a nonblocking position relative to said bolt bar.

10. The locking mechanism of claim 9 wherein said pneumatic timing valve includes an adjustable valve plug operable to control the rate of air admission into said timing device housing and thereby control the rate of movement of said movable valve element within said timing device housing.

11. The locking mechanism of claim 9 wherein said opposite end of said blocking means is located in the path of travel of said combination lock bolt so that said blocking means is moved into a blocking position relative to said bolt bar against the bias of said spring by said combination lock bolt.

12. The locking mechanism of claim 11 wherein said blocking means comprises an element pivotally mounted medially of its ends on said timing device.

13. For use in combination with a closure having a bolt bar mounted for movement to and from a locked position, locking mechanism comprising,

a combination lock having a housing, said lock having a lock bolt movable to and from a blocking position relative to said bolt bar,

a timing device for delaying opening of said bolt bar for a predetermined time interval after opening of said combination lock, said timing device comprising,

a timing device housing, said timing device housing being mounted upon and supported solely from said lock housing, Y

a pneumatic timing means including a flexible diaphragm and an element movable mounted within said timing device housing, said element being operatively connected to said diaphragm, and

a bolt bar blocking means interconnected at one point to said element and engageable at another point with said bolt bar, said blocking means being movable to and from a locking position relative to said bolt bar in accordance with the positioning of said element within said timing device housing.

14. The locking mechanism of claim 13 which further includes a spring for biasing said blocking means into 75 a non-blocking position relative to said bolt bar.

15. The locking mechanism of claim 14 wherein a portion of said blocking means is located in the path of travel of said combination lock bolt so that said blocking means is moved into a blocking position relative to said bolt bar against the bias of said spring by said combination lock bolt.

16. The locking mechanism of claim 15 wherein said blocking means comprises an element pivotally mounted medially of its ends on said timing device.

17. The locking mechanism of claim 13 wherein said timing device includes an adjustable valve plug operable to control admission of air into said timing device housing and thereby control the rate of movement of said exible diaphragm and movable element connected thereto after said combination lock bolt is moved to a non-blocking position relative to said bolt bar.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,989,419 1/1935 Hill 70-267 J. KARL BELL, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 109-59; 292--2