US3828591A

US3828591A - Lock assembly

Info

Publication number: US3828591A
Authority: US
Inventors: C Beaver
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1972-08-14
Filing date: 1972-08-14
Publication date: 1974-08-13
Anticipated expiration: 1991-08-13

Abstract

A guarded lock assembly in which a guard surrounds three sides of a padlock and is attached to its shackle, the assembly having a combination rib and barrier interconnecting the sides of a guard to prevent them from being pried apart by a crowbar.

Description

O United States Patent 1191 1111 3,828,591 Beaver [4 Aug. 13, 1974 [54] LOCK ASSEMBLY 3,590,607 7/1971 Beaver 70/56 [76] Inventor: Commodore E. Beaver, Council FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS Bluffs, Iowa 227,884 1/1925 Great Britain 292/281 [22] Filed: Aug. 14, 1972 Primary ExaminerRobert L. Wolfe [2H Appl' 280550 Attorney, Agent, or FirmHiram A. Sturges [52] US. Cl. 70/56 [51] Int. Cl E05b 67/38 [57] ABSTRACT [58] Field of Search 70/56, 55, 54, 52, 51, A guarded lock assembly in which a guard Surrounds 70/2 1 3; 292 231 three sides of a padlock and is attached to its shackle,

V the assembly having a combination rib and barrier in- [56] References Ci d terconnecting the sides of a guard to prevent them UNTED STATES PATENTS from being pried apart by a crowbar.

3,392,555 7/1968 Beaver 70/56 6 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures LOCK ASSEMBLY FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention is in the field of padlocks having guard means therearound for protecting the shackle from being cut by thieves. Such guards further prevent a thief from gaining easy access to a staple of a staple and hasp assembly.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART The guarded lock assembly of this invention is an improvement over the assembly described in my own earlier US. Pat. No. 3,392,555, issued to Commodore E. Beaver, July 16, 1968, and titled PADLOCK AND GUARD ASSEMBLY.

In the earlier patent a special padlock was contemplated having a notch therein to receive the lower edge of the guard and with the shackle welded to the inner side of the forward side of the guard. However, with further research, it isfound not to be practical to weld the shackle to the forward side of a guard because of the inaccessibility of that portion of the shackle from the standpoint of being reached by a welding torch. Research further determined that the practicality of using a padlock with a special body with a notch in it for the guard led to special costs that carried the product beyond the reach of many users.

It is important that the guarded lock have the minor feature of welding to a portion of the top and preferably to a portion of the forward side of the top of a shackle where accessibility is improved. However, this leads to a problem because a padlock that is of standard manufacture and accessible will be found to have a shape such that a gap exists between the forward wall of the guard and the center of the padlock body even when the sides of the padlock body are engaged at their forward corners with the inner side of the guard. This gap allows a thief to insert a crowbar.

A crowbar inserted into this gap has a powerful effect because the crowbar tip can be inserted even beyond the lock body and up into an area alongside of the shackle and very close to the weld of shackle to guard. A long crowbar produces a tremendous leverage whereby it is possible to first bend, and then tear the guard so that the thief can gain access to the shackle to saw it in two.

It is important that a solution be provided to the problem because contractors tools and other valuables are often stored out on construction sites and far from possible surveillance by police or company personnel.

It is further important that the staple of a staple and hasp assembly be protected as much as possible from access thereto by burglars tools.

In my earlier patent provision for this was provided by causing the padlock body to have means thereon extending under the hasp to prevent a saw blade from being passed upward alongside the padlock body at the forward side of the padlock body to reach the staple. However. the cost of placing such special addition onto a padlock body is excessive. The cost of manufacturing a padlock body of such a shape in the first place is even more excessive.

It is important that there be a solution to further protect the staple from access thereto by a tool reaching the staple from the underside and without these excessive costs.

It is important further that a burglar be prevented from inserting a crowbar as deeply into the space between lock body and guard as has been heretofore possible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A guarded lock assembly in which a guard surrounds the right, left, and backsides of a padlock and also the upper side thereof, the inner side of the guard being attached to the shackle, the assembly having a combination rib and barrier interconnecting the sides of the guard to prevent them from being pried apart by a crowbar, the barrier being disposed in a position closely adjacent to the upper side of the padlock body for limiting the depth to which a crowbar can be inserted into the guard from underneath the guard, the rib having an opening therethrough receiving the rearward vertical portion of the shackle for further stabilizing the rib, the body of the padlock protruding outwardly from the forward side of the guard so as to extend beneath a hasp and staple assembly at a time in which the inner side of the staple is in engagement with the forward vertical portion of the padlock shackle so as to place the padlock body in a position for interfering with and blocking the insertion of a saw upwardly from beneath the padlock body for sawing the staple, the weld point of the shackle to the guard being mostly forwardly of the forward-to-rearward center of the shackle for access by a welder, the rib having forwardly extending protrusions at its right and left sides for receiving welding for the attachment of the rib to the guard whereby the forward side of the rib is concave so that the weldings are as far forward as desirable consistent with providing room for the reception of such staple around the shackle with sufficient room to permit the staple to pass by the rib in the process of the placing of the shackle on a staple, this position of the weldings of the rib to the guard being sufficiently accessible as to make possible good weldings by welders who are of lesser skill, or who are more careless, or who have an unsteady hand that shakes when welding, or who are not capable of high concentration that skilled welding requires for making possible the lesser production cost.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a sectional view taken along the line 1-1 of FIG. 3 or 1-1 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 2 is a detail of the barrier rib of this invention as seen in top plan view.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line 3-3 of FIG. 5, with a dotted line indicating the position of the door not shown in FIG. 5.

FIG. 4 is a side elevation of the padlock and guard assembly of this invention shown with the hasp in engagement therewith as it would be seen from the left in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a rear elevation of the padlock and guard assembly as it would be seen from the left in FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The guarded lock assembly of this invention is generally indicated at in FIG. 1 and forms a part of a guarded lock and hasp and staple assembly generally indicated at 12 in FIG. 1.

The guarded hasp, lock and staple assembly of this invention is for the purpose of padlocking a staple which extends through a slot 36 of a hasp 40 in a usual manner and transversely to the hasp 40.

The guarded lock assembly has a guard which surrounds the right, left and back

sides

52, 54, and 56 of a padlock 60 and also surrounds the upper side of the padlock 60 with the top portion 62 of the guard 50, guard 50 having right, left, and back

sides

63, 64, and 65.

The padlock 60 has a body 66 and a shackle 68.

The guard 50 has a continuous U-shaped forward edge 72 and has a means of attachment to the shackle 68 in the form of welding which is disposed on the forward side of the top of the shackle 68 forwardly of a forward-to-rearward center of the shackle. A

welding at this place provides ready accessibility to welding equipment so that a strong weld can be made. Such a weld can be made by an amateur because of the accessibility of welding at this position.

The guarded lock assembly 10 has a combination rib and barrier interconnecting the

sides

52 and 54 of the guard to prevent them from being pried apart by a crowbar. The barrier 100 is disposed in a position closely adjacent to the upper side 106 of the padlock body 66 for limiting the depth to which a crowbar can be inserted into a space 112 between the guard 50 and the adjacent outer surface 122, best seen in FIG. 1 of the padlock body 66.

The rib 100 has an opening 132 therethrough receiving the rearward vertical portion of the shackle 68. Forwardly projecting portions 172 of the barrier rib 100, which latter project forwardly from the right and left hand sides of the barrier rib 100 receive the weldings and provide rib areas readily accessible to a welder for the use of welders of limited ability. Such a construction causes the forwardmost edge 175 of the barrier 100 to be somewhat concave for disposing the welding 150 opposite portions of the guard sides and 63 and 64 which are straight rather than curved. Welding to the straight side portions is preferred because the metal in such places is stronger because it has not been drawn in the process of manufacture to make it curved, such strong metal being inherently weaker.

I claim:

1. A guarded lock assembly comprising: a lock body and shackle assembly, having a lock body separate from a shackle, said shackle disposed above said body and having a forward anchor section and a rearward anchor section disposed in approximate parallelism and spaced apart a substantial distance and a connecting section interconnecting upper ends of said anchor sections, said connecting section having a first portion attached to said forward anchor section and adapted to be received in a staple, said connecting section having a second portion attached to said rearward anchor section, said body slidably receiving lower portions of said anchor sections for upward and downward sliding movements thereof sufficient that said forward anchor section lower portion moves in and out of said body, said body having holding means therein adapted to engage and hold at least one of said anchor section lower portions when said lock body and shackle assembly is locked with said lower portions of said anchor sections therein to prevent said sliding of said anchor sections and adapted to release said one anchor section at times when said holding means is in an unlocking position for not holding said one anchor section, a guard having a lower end adjacent said body, means attaching said guard to said shackle, said guard having an upper end and covering the upper side of said shackle, said guard having rearward and right and left sides substantially covering the adjacent sides of those parts of said shackle which remain outside of said body at times when said lock assembly is locked, said guard having a notch therein on the forward side thereof for receiving means to be locked, said notch surrounding and receiving a portion of said forward section of said shackle so that said means to be locked can be received in said notch around said forward shackle section, said notch opening toward the body end of said guard to permit passage therethrough of a part of a means to be locked, said body having forward, rearward, and right and left sides, said guard surrounding said body on portions of said rearward and right and left sides thereof, and a barrier rib extending from the inner side of the right side of said guard to the inner side of the left side of said guard, said rib being secured to said inner sides of said right and left sides of said guard whereby a thief inserting a, crowbar between said body and said guard will find his attempt to spread the sides of said guard apart in order to gain access to said shackle to be resisted by said rib.

2. The lock assembly of claim 1 in which said rib has an opening therethrough receiving said rearward anchor section of said shackle so as to resist an effort of a thief to move said rib with respect to said rearward anchor section of said shackle.

3. The combination of claim I in which said means connecting said rib to said guard portions comprises weldings.

4. The locking assembly of claim 3 in which said weldings are disposed on the forward side of said rib.

5. The locking assembly of claim 4 in which said rib has forwardly projecting portions on its right and left hand sides for receiving welding and for providing rib areas more accessible to a welder.

6. The combination of claim 1 in which said body portion extends forwardly of the forward edges of said guard and in further combination with a hasp and staple assembly having its hasp resting on the upper side of said body at times when said staple is received on said forward portion of said shackle in a position such that said concave inner side of said shackle engages said shackle.

Claims

1. A guarded lock assembly comprising: a lock body and shackle assembly, having a lock body separate from a shackle, said shackle disposed above said body and having a forward anchor section and a rearward anchor section disposed in approximate parallelism and spaced apart a substantial distance and a connecting section interconnecting upper ends of said anchor sections, said connecting section having a first portion attached to said forward anchor section and adapted to be received in a staple, said connecting section having a second portion attached to said rearward anchor section, said body slidably receiving lower portions of said anchor sections for upward and downward sliding movements thereof sufficient that said forward anchor section lower portion moves in and out of said body, said body having holding means therein adapted to engage and hold at least one of said anchor section lower portions when said lock body and shackle assembly is locked with said lower portions of said anchor sections therein to prevent said sliding of said anchor sections and adapted to release said one anchor section at times when said holding means is in an unlocking position for not holding said one anchor section, a guard having a lower end adjacent said body, means attaching said guard to said shackle, said guard having an upper end and covering the upper side of said shackle, said guard having rearward and right and left sides substantially covering the adjacent sides of those parts of said shackle which remain outside of said body at times when said lock assembly is locked, said guard having a notch therein on the forward side thereof for receiving means to be locked, said notch surrounding and receiving a portion of said forward section of said shackle so that said means to be locked can be received in said notch around said forward shackle section, said notch opening toward the body end of said guard to permit passage therethrough of a part of a means to be locked, said body having forward, rearward, and right and left sides, said guard surrounding said body on portions of said rearward and right and left sides thereof, and a barrier rib extending from the inner side of the right side of said guard to the inner side of the left side of said guard, said rib being secured to said inner sides of said right and left sides of said guard whereby a thief inserting a crowbar between said body and said guard will find his attempt to spread the sides of said guard apart in order to gain access to said shackle to be resisted by said rib.

3. The combination of claim 1 in which said means connecting said rib to saId guard portions comprises weldings.