WO2010126359A1

WO2010126359A1 - A bolt housing and a follower for said bolt housing

Info

Publication number: WO2010126359A1
Application number: PCT/NL2010/000072
Authority: WO
Inventors: Edwin Bunschoten
Original assignee: Nemef B.V.
Priority date: 2009-04-29
Filing date: 2010-04-28
Publication date: 2010-11-04
Also published as: EP2425073A1; EP2425073B1; NL1036963C2

Abstract

The invention relates to a bolt housing which comprises a follower, which follower - has a hole for receiving a pin of a turning knob, which pin of the turning knob comprises at least 1 longitudinal rib wherein - the hole is arranged for engaging the at least 1 longitudinal rib of the pin of the turning knob allowing the follower to be turned; and - the axis of rotation of the follower lies within the hole for the pin of the turning knob; and the bolt housing is arranged for opening using a key comprising a shaft and a key bit, wherein the follower is provided with a first area of contact for the taking along from a first position of the follower to a second position of the follower by turning the key in contact with the key bit of the key, and a second area of contact for the taking along from the second position of the follower to the first position of the follower by turning the key in the opposite direction in contact with the key bit of the key. The invention also relates to such a follower suitable for use in the bolt housing according to the invention.

Description

A bolt housing and a follower for said bolt housing

The present invention relates to a bolt housing which comprises a follower.

Such a bolt housing is generally known. EP1329578 discloses a multifunctional bolt housing wherein use is made of follower assembly having multiple parts.

In their continuous pursuit to lower the cost of the bolt housing, increasing the production numbers is an important means.

The present invention aims to provide a multifunctional bolt housing, which - in that it can fulfill more than 1 role - can be produced in larger numbers, while the logistic and stock problems, where the one type of bolt housing is in stock but the other type is not, are avoided.

To this end the present invention provides a bolt housing which comprises a follower, which follower - by turning the follower can be taken from a first terminal position of the follower to a second terminal position of the follower and back;

- possesses a hole for receiving a pin of a turning knob, which pin of the turning knob comprises at least 1 longitudinal rib wherein

- the hole is designed for engaging the at least one longitudi^¬ nal rib of the pin of the turning knob allowing the follower to be turned to a terminal position selected from the first and the second terminal position of the follower; and - the axis of rotation of the follower lies within the hole for the pin of the turning knob; and the bolt housing is arranged for opening using a key that comprises a shaft and a key bit, wherein the follower is provided with a first area of contact for the taking along from the first position of the follower to the second position of the follower by turning the key in contact with the key bit of the key, and a second area of contact for the taking along from the second position of the follower to the first position of the follower by turning the key in the opposite direction in contact with the key bit of the key. Because the bolt housing can be operated with both a turning knob provided with a pin as well as with a simple key, the bolt hous- ing is suitable for, for instance, a WC door (turning knob comprises a pin) , a cabinet door (with turning knob or key) as well as an inner door (with key) . The actual choice is made by the end user, by choosing turning knob/key and ironwork. The used follower that accepts without further modification either a key or the pin of a turning knob enables a multifunctional bolt housing with a simple construction that can be easily manufactured in large quantities. The centreline of the axis of rotation of the follower substantially coincides with the centreline of the hole for receiving the pin of the turning knob. The term turning knob is used here in a broad sense. In practice the turning knob will not be supplied together with the bolt housing and can be any organ having a pin, for instance also a door handle. It is noted that the key bit of the key is limited with respect to the usual variation of the various key bit shapes, which for a variety of applications (such as cabinet doors) is also of minor importance. A follower within a bolt housing according to the invention can be used for various purposes. A follower can operate a latch-bolt or a dead bolt, may be used for bolting a latch-bolt as a result of which this obtains the function of a dead bolt. All this can take place by the directly engaging a bolt or indirectly by engaging other parts of the lock. All these applications are encompassed by the present invention.

According to one important application it is used for bringing outward a bolt head. Thus a preferred embodiment is characterized in that the bolt housing comprises a bolt having a bolt head that can be in a first terminal position of the bolt wherein the bolt head of the bolt is brought maximally outside the bolt housing and in a second terminal position of the bolt wherein the bolt head is brought maximally in the bolt housing, wherein the bolt housing is arranged to take the bolt head towards the first position of the bolt head by turning the follower with the pin or the key.

According to a practical embodiment the pin is a polygonal pin. In practice the pin is usually a square pin (that is a pin having a square cross section transverse to the centreline of the pin; known standard sizes for the width of a side are 5 mm and 7 mm) .

A preferred embodiment is characterized in that it comprises an organ for keeping the follower in the first position when it is in the first position and for keeping the follower in the second posi- tion when this is in the second position, and the taking of the follower to 1 of the first position and the second position when this is in a position between the first position and the second position.

The organ is for instance a spring. This facilitates operating the follower using a key. The organ puts the follower in a position that is suitable to the user for inserting (or optionally retracting) the key (usually such that the key bit is positioned at the underside) .

One important embodiment is characterized in that the key bit of the key within the follower is freely rotatable with respect to the follower before coming into contact with an area of contact selected from the first area of contact and the second area of contact for limiting the effective turn that controls the follower.

The key, more specifically the key bit of the key, is thus free within the follower and rotatable with respect to the follower over a certain angle (which is dependent on the specific embodiment of the bolt housing, the follower), i.e. without the follower being taken along by the key bit of the key, whereas the follower is consistently taken along by the pin. In this way it is achieved that for a turning knob a short turn suffices for opening and closing, whereas a key will have to be turned full circle (or half, as will be explained later) in order to allow the key bit to pass the key hole. The angle over which the follower is taken along generally lies between 55 and 125°, and preferably between 85-95°. The invention can be realized in two important manners.

According to a first embodiment the bolt housing is designed such that the axis of rotation of the pin and the location of the centreline through the shaft of a key that has been introduced in the bolt housing do not coincide, and the hole - comprises a first lobe for receiving the pin of the turning knob;

- a second lobe for receiving the shaft of the key;

- a third lobe arranged for receiving the key bit of the key, which third lobe has a first area of contact and a second area of contact for the taking along of the follower by the key bit upon turning the key; and

- a fourth lobe for receiving the shaft of the key; wherein the lobes are dimensioned such that for a key having a key bit that is designed such that

- the end of the key bit lies at such a distance of the centreline of the shaft of the key that upon turning of the key about the centreline of the shaft the key bit can come in contact with the areas of contact of the third lobe for turning the follower, and

- the end of the key bit upon turning the key about the centreline of the shaft can pass an intermediate zone situated between the third lobe and the second lobe and an intermediate zone situated be- tween the third lobe and the fourth lobe, it applies that:

# when the shaft of the key is in the second lobe

- the distance between an intermediate zone situated between the third lobe and the fourth lobe and the centreline of the shaft of the key is at least as large as the distance between the centreline of the key and the key bit end; and

- the distance between an intermediate zone situated between the first lobe and the fourth lobe and the centreline of the shaft of the key is at least as large as the distance between the centreline of the key and the key bit end; and

# when the shaft of the key is in the fourth lobe

- the distance between an intermediate zone situated between the second lobe and the third lobe and the centreline of the shaft of the key is at least as large as the distance between the centreline of the key and the key bit end; and

- the distance between an intermediate zone situated between the first lobe and the second lobe and the centreline of the shaft of the key is at least as large as the distance between the centreline of the key and the key bit end; so that the key bit can pass the particular intermediate zones during the turning of the key and the turning of the key takes along the follower for part of the rotation of the key.

The phrase "end of the key bit" refers to the end that is situ- ated furthest away from the centreline, in radial direction with respect to the centreline of the shaft. Here, the term "not coincide" means "not coincide exactly", i.e. situated at a distance from one another but still situated closely according to the conditions mentioned hereinbefore.

The angle over which the follower is taken along generally lies between 55 and 125°, and preferably between 85-95°. A smaller or larger angle of rotation is achieved by increasing respectively reducing the distance between the axis of rotation of the pin of the turning knob and the axis of rotation of the key.

According to a second embodiment the axis of rotation of the shaft of the key substantially coincides with the axis of rotation of the follower, and the follower has a hole for receiving the pin of the turning knob, with which hole the pin can engage and this hole is also suitable for receiving the distal end of the shaft of the key within the hole, wherein the follower comprises a first area of contact and a second area of contact at a distance that is larger than the smallest distance from the centreline of the pin to the nearest part of the inner circumference of the hole for the pin, which first areas of contact are shifted in a direction parallel to the axis of rotation of the follower with respect to the planes with which the pin engages for the respectively taking along of the follower in a first direction of rotation and a second direction of rotation that is opposite to the first direction of rotation.

This embodiment is suitable for a key of which the key bit is shifted axially. In this embodiment a key having a double key bit may be used, as a result of which the key can be inserted more easily and only has to be turned over an angle half the size. Turning over merely half an angle can also be accomplished with a second set of a first area of contact and a second area of contact, wherein the areas of contact have been shifted 175-185°, preferably 180°, about the axis of rotation of the key with respect to the areas of contact men- tioned before.

The invention also relates to a follower suitable for use as the follower in a bolt housing according to the invention.

Such a follower is a separately tradeable part for the manufacturing of bolt housings according to the invention. The present invention will now be illustrated by the drawing, in which

Fig. la-d show a side view of a bolt housing according to the invention; Fig. 2a-f are detailed drawings in side view of a follower according to the invention that is operated using a key;

Fig. 3 shows a side view of the bolt housing of fig. Ia provided with a cover plate; Fig. 4a-d show side views of an alternative bolt housing according to the invention;

Fig. 5 shows a side view of the bolt housing of fig. 4a provided with a cover plate;

Fig. 6a-c show perspective views of a follower having various means for the turning thereof; and

Fig. 7a shows a side view of the follower of fig. 6c provided with a key, and fig. 7b shows a cross-section along line B-B of fig. 7a.

Fig. la-d show in side view a bolt housing 100 according to the invention. For the sake of simplicity the latch-bolt and its related parts have been omitted. A front plate 101, a back plate 102, a side plate 103 and a cover plate 108 can be seen. Figures Ia and Ic are identical, except that fig. Ic is a side view of the other side compared to fig. Ia. The same applies for the figures Ib and Id. The front plate 101 is provided with through openings (not represented) for the latch-bolt and a dead bolt 104. The dead bolt 104 comprises a bolt head 105 and is movable between a first terminal position wherein the bolt head 105 protrudes maximally from the bolt housing 100 (fig. Ib, Id) and a second terminal position of the dead bolt 104 wherein the dead bolt 104 has been received within the bolt housing 100 as far as possible, or - putting it differently - the bolt head 105 is situated within the bolt housing 100 as much as possible. For guiding the dead bolt 104 a guide is provided, here as a slot 107 and a pen 109 attached to the side plate 103. The dead bolt 104 can be moved by a follower 120 from the first position of the dead bolt 104 to the second position of the dead bolt 104, and back. To this end the follower 120 has a cam 121 that is capable of taking along the dead bolt 104 in the envisioned direction by contact with areas of contact 122 and 123 on the follower 120. Furthermore there is a spring 124 present which contributes to the follower 120 being either in a first position of the follower 120 (wherein the dead bolt 104 is in the first position of the dead bolt 104), or in a second position of the follower 120 (wherein the dead bolt 104 is in the second position of the dead bolt 104) . Up to here everything is known.

The follower 120 according to the invention is provided with a specially shaped hole 230 (fig. 2) . This hole 230 is arranged for re- ceiving a square pin (as can be seen in fig. 6a) of for instance a turning knob for a toilet door. The sides of the square pin engage the planes 231, 232, 233, 234 of the hole 230. The hole 230 of the follower 120 according to the invention is also arranged for being operable using a key, of which in fig. 2 the shaft S and key bit B are visible. Now it will be explained with reference to fig. Ia, Ib and fig. 2 how this is possible. Fig. Ia shows that hole 230 has a first lobe 251 for receiving the key bit B of the key (and for receiving the square pin of the turning knob) , a second lobe 252 for receiving the shaft S of the key, a third lobe 253 for receiving the key bit B of the key and a fourth lobe 254 for receiving the shaft S of the key. Between the first lobe 251 and the second lobe 252 there is a first intermediate zone 261, between the second lobe 252 and the third lobe 253 there is a second intermediate zone 262, between the third lobe 253 and the fourth lobe 254 there is a third intermediate zone 263 and between the fourth lobe 254 and the first lobe 251 there is a fourth intermediate zone 264. The third lobe 253 has two areas of contact 273c, 273b (fig. Ib) with which the key bit B can engage, as will become clear hereinafter.

In the first position of the follower 120 (so the first posi- tion of the dead bolt 104 as depicted in fig. Ib and fig. 2a), the shaft S of the key is in the second lobe 252 of the hole. The key bit B of the key protrudes into in the first lobe 251. The key is turned (in fig. 2a-f clockwise) . Therewith the key bit B passes the fourth intermediate zone 264 and the third intermediate zone 263 until the key bit B comes into contact with the area of contact 273c. From that moment on the follower 120 will be turned, until the intermediate zone 262 is reached where the contact between key bit B and the inner circumference of the hole 230 is lost. The user will turn the key further until the key bit B is down again (fig. 2f) and the key may be taken out of the bolt housing. As a result the dead bolt 104 has been moved from its first to its second position. For bringing the dead bolt 104 to the first position, the same will be done but then the key will be turned in the opposite direction (fig. 2f -> 2a) . In that case the key bit B, upon turning the follower 120, will come into contact with the area of contact 273b until the contact is lost at the third intermediate zone 263.

For easy operation using a key a spring 189 is provided (shown in fig 4. because of lack of space) which engages the follower and ensures that the follower is in a position that is suitable for the user for introducing (or optionally retracting) the key (usually such that the key bit is positioned below) .

A follower 120 can conveniently be made by means of injection molding or the like, for instance out of Zamac.

Fig. 3 shows the bolt housing 100 provided with the cover plate 108.

Fig. 4 shows an alternative bolt housing 400. It distinguishes itself in that the areas of contact with which the key bit of the key engages are shifted in axial direction with respect to the areas with which the square pin of the turning knob engages. Furthermore, this bolt housing demonstrates the possibility to use a key having 2 key bits, as a result of which the user needs to only turn the key over 180° instead of 360° . Fig. 4b, 4d show the bolt housing with dead bolt 104 in the first position thereof. Fig. 4a, 4c show the bolt housing with dead bolt 104 in the second position thereof. Again the side view of fig. 4b is mirrored to that of fig. 4d, and the same applies for fig. 4a and 4c. In the embodiment illustrated here a follower 420 is provided with a hole 430. For turning a pin having a square cross section the hole 430 is provided with areas 431, 432, 433. The follower 420 may also be operated using a key. In contrast to the embodiment disclosed in fig. 1, in the embodiment of fig. 4 the axes of rotation of the square pin and the shaft of the key coincide. It can be seen that the key is freely rotatable over 90° without the follower being taken along. The key bit of the key engages an area of contact 473a for bringing the dead bolt 104 to the second position, and for taking to the first position engages area of contact 473b. When using a key having a double key bit the key only needs to be turned 180°. There may be another set of areas of contact 474a, 474b, in which case using a key with a single key bit also only requires a 180° turn. Fig. 5 shows the bolt housing 400 provided with the cover plate 408 arranged for operating the follower using a key having a double key bit, or having a square pin.

Fig. 6 shows the follower 420 of fig. 4 in perspective view. One of the areas 431 can be seen that will be engaged by the square pin VS when this is introduced into the hole 430 in the follower 420. Also an area of contact 473a can be seen, that will be engaged by the key bit B of a shaft S of a key when this is inserted into the hole 430 (fig. 6b) . The follower 420 of fig. 6c is still the same as that of fig. 6a and 6b, and the only difference is in the key, which here comprises a shaft S and a key bit composed of two key bit parts B', B". In fig. 7 this key is illustrated inserted in the follower 420. Cam 721 can be seen, which otherwise is the same as cam 121 of fig. 1. Fig. 7b shows this in cross section along line B-B of fig. 7a.

Claims

C L A I M S

1. Bolt housing (100) comprising a follower (120), which fol- lower

- by turning the follower can be taken from a first terminal position of the follower to a second terminal position of the follower and back;

- possesses a hole (230) for receiving a pin of a turning knob, which pin of the turning knob comprises at least 1 longitudinal rib wherein

- the hole is designed for engaging the at least one longitudinal rib of the pin of the turning knob allowing the follower to be turned to a terminal position selected from the first and the second terminal position of the follower; and

- the axis of rotation of the follower lies within the hole for the pin of the turning knob; and the bolt housing is arranged for opening using a key that comprises a shaft and a key bit, wherein the follower is provided with a first area of contact for the taking along from the first position of the follower to the second position of the follower by turning the key in contact with the key bit of the key, and a second area of contact for the taking along from the second position of the follower to the first position of the follower by turning the key in the opposite di- rection in contact with the key bit of the key.

2. Bolt housing according to claim 1, wherein the bolt housing comprises a bolt having a bolt head that can be in a first terminal position of the bolt wherein the bolt head of the bolt is brought maximally outside the bolt housing and in a second terminal position of the bolt wherein the bolt head is brought maximally in the bolt housing, wherein the bolt housing is arranged to take the bolt head towards the first position of the bolt head by turning the follower with the pin or the key.

3. Bolt housing according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the pin of the turning knob is a polygonal pin.

4. Bolt housing according to any of the preceding claims, which comprises an organ (189) for keeping the follower in the first position when it is in the first position and for keeping the follower in the second position when this is in the second position, and the tak- ing of the follower to 1 of the first position and the second position when this is in a position between the first position and the second position.

5. Bolt housing according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the key bit of the key within the follower is freely ro- tatable with respect to the follower before coming into contact with an area of contact selected from the first area of contact and the second area of contact for limiting the effective turn that controls the follower.

6. Bolt housing according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the bolt housing is designed such that the axis of rotation of the pin and the location of the centreline through the shaft of a key that has been introduced in the bolt housing do not coincide, and the hole

- comprises a first lobe (251) for receiving the pin of the turning knob;

- a second lobe (252) for receiving the shaft of the key;

- a third lobe (253) arranged for receiving the key bit of the key, which third lobe has a first area of contact (273c) and a second area of contact (273b) for the taking along of the follower by the key bit upon turning the key; and

- a fourth lobe (254) for receiving the shaft of the key; wherein the lobes are dimensioned such that for a key having a key bit that is designed such that

- the end of the key bit lies at such a distance of the centreline of the shaft of the key that upon turning of the key about the centreline of the shaft the key bit can come in contact with the areas of contact of the third lobe for turning the follower, and - the end of the key bit upon turning the key about the centreline of the shaft can pass an intermediate zone situated between the third lobe and the second lobe and an intermediate zone situated between the third lobe and the fourth lobe, it applies that:

# when the shaft of the key is in the second lobe

# when the shaft of the key is in the fourth lobe

7. Bolt housing according to one the claims 1 to 5, wherein the axis of rotation of the shaft of the key substantially coincides with the axis of rotation of the follower, and the follower has a hole for receiving the pin of the turning knob, with which hole the pin can engage and this hole is also suitable for receiving the distal end of the shaft of the key within the hole, wherein the follower comprises a first area of contact (473) and a second area of contact (474) at a distance that is larger than the smallest distance from the centreline of the pin to the nearest part of the inner circumference of the hole for the pin, which first areas of contact are shifted in a di- rection parallel to the axis of rotation of the follower with respect to the planes with which the pin engages for the respectively taking along of the follower in a first direction of rotation and a second direction of rotation that is opposite to the first direction of rotation .

8. Follower suitable for use as the follower in a bolt housing according to any of the claims 1 to 7.