AU5352900A - A lock for a moveable wing - Google Patents

Description

Title A Lock for a Moveable Wing Field of the Invention This invention primarily relates to locks for sliding glass doors often referred to as patio doors or the like comprising a piece of glass supported by a surrounding aluminium frame, the frame being supported by rollers which permit the door to be moved in a direction parallel with the plane of the face of the door and usually by means of rollers.

:The lock is usually mounted on the closing edge of the door and is supported on the face of the frame by two screws, which pass through the doorframe to engage in a handle S"assembly on the other side, on the exterior of the door.

15 Commonly available locks are generally surface mounted where the lock mechanism is supported within an interior handle assembly and the engaging member, beaks or hooks protrude from the casing to enagage a catch plate attached to the surface of a channel comprising a part of the door opening. Having the beaks and hooks and catch plate accessible is thought to be less secure that having them within the door envelope as happens for mortice %.00 20 locks which have a lock casing fixed within the door frame.

The object of this invention is to provide a lock, which although substantially a surface mounted lock has the means of engagement, a hook or hooks within or substantially within, the envelope of the door frame. Although described with reference to a sliding door, many features of the invention are applicable to hinged door and other types of locks Summary of the Invention The invention provides lock for a moveable wing including an interior portion mountable to the interior face of the wing, an exterior portion mountable to the exterior face of the wing, an internal portion mountable within the wing and an engageable means of an element defining part of an opening, said internal portion comprising engaging means while said external portion comprises a handle assembly including an exterior key operable barrel operable to effect a locking function, said interior portion including a casing and an internal handle and an interior operable lever operable to effect a locking function.

The invention further provides a lock for a moveable wing including an interior portion mountable to the interior face of the wing including a casing and an internal locking lever, an exterior portion mountable to the exterior face of the wing including an exterior key operable barrel, an internal portion mountable within the wing including an engaging means and an engageable means of an element defining part of an opening, and locking means to restrain disengagement between the engageable and engageable means said locking means including the exterior key operable barrel and the interior hand operable locking lever said lock being lockable in a first locked configuration from which it cannot be unlocked by operation of the locking lever and a second locked configuration from which it can be unlocked by the hand operable member.

The invention still further provides a lock substantially as described herein with :15 reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

Description of the Drawings go99 Embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which S 20 Figure 1 is a schematic partial side view of the part of the lock which is fitted to the inside of a door, when viewed from that side, Figure 2 is a schematic partial edge view of the lock of Figure 1 when viewed from the opening edge of a door to which the lock is fitted, Figure 3 is a schematic partial side views of the part of the lock, which is, fitted to the exterior of a door, when viewed from that side.

Figure 4 is a schematic partial plan view of the lock.

Figure 5 is a schematic partial vertical cross-section through the detent pin Figure 6 is a partial schematic enlarged side view of the marked area Figure 7 is a partial side view of the rocker providing points of attachment for rods which operate remote locks Figure 8 is a schematic partial side view of the lower end of the second slide showing an impact absorbing connection of bolt 22 Description of the Preferred Embodiments The accompanying drawings illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention.

Co-pending Applications 14699/99 is hereby, by reference, included in this application The lock preferably comprises a boxlike casing 1, which may comprise a cavity within a lever sub-assembly as shown in Figure 1, having apertures 2, through which screws have passage and by which the casing is fastened onto a door 50. Supported within the casing there is a key operable cylinder 3, having an angularly displaceable barrel as is well known, and on the internal end of the barrel is an annular washer having an extension comprising the arm 4, by which the barrel operates the lock. Importantly the barrel is operably connected to a cam 5 described below and the exact form of the connection is unimportant and it may comprise for example, one or more pinned protrusions of the barrel locating within one or more recesses in the cam 5. The preferred design, as drawn, is of minimum height and facilitates easy insertion and replacement of cylinders by simply removing a back or lid of the 15 casing the cylinder is simply supported between such.

Supported adjacent the internal end of the barrel end and co-axially with the barrel is a disc-like member 5 having radially protruding shoulders 6 and 7 between which the armed extension 4 of the washer locates with free movement to drive the disk-like member 5 the ooo.

free movement enabling a barrel to be rotated in one direction to displace disc member 5 to 20 operate the lock and then be returned to the undisplaced position to enable key removal. The disc-like member has an armed extension 8 which locates within a substantially rectangular recess 9 within a slide 10 supported by the casing for sliding movement. Alternatively, not shown, the member 5 may have an arm having an orthogonal pinned protrusion which locates within a slot within the side of the slide 10 and alternatively, again not shown, the member may have a geared profile which engages with a mating geared rack portion comprising an edge portion of the slide. Importantly, as in the embodiment shown, cylinder 3 and slide are always operably coupled so that each may impart movement to the other within the range of normal movement; in the preferred embodiment shown the extension 8 is always within the recess 9.

Supported by the casing is another angularly displaceably cam 16 preferably having an axis of rotation parallel that of the cylinder barrel. This cam having an armed extension 17, similar to and preferably substantially the same as extension 8, which locates within a substantially rectangular recess 18 of the slide 10, similar to recess 9. Importantly the extension 17 is always coupled to the slide 10 so that each may impart movement to the other within the range of normal movement; in the preferred embodiment shown the extension 17 is always within the recess.

Within the cam 16 is a rectangular aperture 19 to accept and engage with a rod which passes through the door to engage similarly in a cam within the external lever-backplate assembly. In the embodiment shown, slide 10 can always be actuated to move by rotation of the rod 20 or by operation of the cylinder 3 because of the operable coupling described above between the cams 5 and 16 and the slide.

The part of the lock described above is mirrored within the part attached to the other side of the door, Fig. 3 and although better described below a brief description is offered here to explain an essential feature of the lock. The rectangular rod 20 which passes through a third aperture in the door locates in a mating rectangular recess in a cam 36 which has an axis of rotation co-linear with that of cam 16 said cam 36 has an armed extension 37 which engages in a substantially rectangular recess 38 of a third slide 39 supported within casing for sliding movement. Positioned above the cam is a second cylinder 41 having an associated cam 44 to which it is coupled with free movement said cam 44 having an armed extension 42 which engages in a substantially rectangular recess 43 in the slide 39. In the embodiment *go* shown, as with the mechanism within the internal assembly shown, it is essential that cams *ooo 36 and 44 are always operably coupled by the intermediate slide 39 such that movement of 20 one cam causes the other to move in the same way that cams 16 and 5 are coupled by slide More generally, cylinder 3 and cylinder 41 must be able to independently operate the lock irrespective of the configuration in which the lock is left after a previous operation. For S•example a lock when locked from the inside of the door by key must be unlockable from the exterior by key and consequentially the mechanism interconnecting each cylinder to the other must be able to be operated at all times by either cylinder. The exact location of cylinders is operably unimportant and they preferably would be located for ease of operation well back from the edge of the door on the other side of the slides 10 and 39 and the recesses 43 and 9 would be located on the other side of the slides to mesh with the cylinder as described above.

The housings may also be widened to accommodate the location of the cylinder well back from the door edge. The cylinders may be located so the barrels are co-axial with the shaft in which case the slides would be omitted and the barrels would engage directly with the cams 16 and 36 with free movement to facilitate independent operation by each cylinder. The preferred embodiment employs slides to facilitate the provision of an ergonomically preferred lever assembly design of minimum protrusion from the face of the door, which also enables the easy insertion of cylinders.

The lock may also be opoerated by an internal lever but importantly as described below a lock locked by either cylinder cannot be unlocked by lever and a lock locked by lever can be unlocked by either cylinder and both cylinders can be operated to effect engagement.

Supported by the casing 1 is a hand operable lever 11 coupled to a cam 12 having an armed extension 13 and which is preferably similar to the armed extension 8, and which locates within a substantially rectangular recess 14 of a second slide 21 so that the slide may be caused to slide by operation of the lever. Importantly the lever is always coupled to the slide 21 and the exact form of coupling is relatively unimportant and may comprise, for example, a geared cam mating with a geared rack portion of the slide 21, but in the preferred embodiment shown, extension 13 is always within recess 14. Importantly for reason 15 discussed below, when the slide 21 has been moved to the upper limit of movement by a cylinder it cannot be moved from that configuration by the lever.

Second slide 21 mentioned above, supports a hooked bolt 22, which is engageable behind a shoulder 23 of an engageable plate 24. The second slide has a substantially rectangular recess 25 which is also engageable by the armed extension 17 but importantly the top and the bottom, edges 26, 27 respectively, of the recess opening are chamfered to allow the armed extension 17 to rotate over the chamfers while not causing the second slide to move. At the upper and lower extremities of second slide movement the extension 17 is movable in coupled engagement with the first slide 10, slide 39, the rod 20, and cylinder cams 5 and 44 and at the extremities of cam 16 movement the second slide is retained immovable by the extension 17. The upper extremity of the second slide movement corresponds with deadlocking of the bolt 22 in an engageable position which in practice would be behind shoulder 23 from which it can only be disengaged by key operation of a cylinder..

Supported for pivotal movement co-axially with the cam 16 is a annular member 28 having an armed extension 29 which supports a hooking beak 30 which is able to lift and engage behind shoulder 31 of the strike plate to provide latching engagement.

Cam 16 has a radial shoulder 31, which is engageable with shoulder 32 of the extension 29 to drive the extension angularly to cause the beak to lift out of the engageable position which in practise would be to disengage the strike plate. Importantly the shoulders are relatively angularly disposed such that the angular movement of the cam 16 which causes the beak 30 to move to the disengageable position substantially corresponds with movement of cam extension 17 over the adjacent chamfered surface 27 of the slide 21 which as described above, remains restrained stationary and in practise this enables the beak 30 to be disengaged from the strike plate without moving the bolt 22.

Positioned in the vicinity of the extension 29 there is in one embodiment a hand operable member, which is engageable to the arm 29 such that its operation causes the arm to rotate to lift the beak 30 out of engagement. This means that the latching hook 30 is operable internally by both the key and the hand operable member. In another preferred embodiment the hand operable member comprises a lever supported coaxially with the cam 16 for angular movement, (not shown), which has an associated armed extension which locates adjacent to shoulder 32 said lever being operable to cause the extension to push on the extension 32 to cause cam 28 to rotate to cause the beak to disengage the strike plate. The exact design is not important but it is important that the cam 28 is supported with free movement to facilitate the latching movement described above. Preferably the member 28 is biased towards the undisplaced position by a spring 33 and the beak 30 has a ramped leading edge portion which on making engagement with shoulder 31 during latching engagement is caused to slide up the shoulder 31 and once the ramp has moved past the shoulder the hook 30 is moved by 20 the spring to engage behind the shoulder 31 this latching of a hooked member is also well Goe known. In the preferred embodiment shown beak 30 is biased towards engagement by spring 33 acting on extension 29.

On the other side of the door, the exterior side is a lever-back-plate assembly for S" operating the lock. Preferably it is retained by the screws which have passage through apertures 2 and which pass through the door and engage in elongated bosses of the external back plate 40. The rectangular rod 20 which passes through the third aperture in the door locates in a mating rectangular recess in a cam 36 which has an axis of rotation co-linear with that of cam 16 said cam 36 has an armed extension 37 which engages in a substantially rectangular recess 38 of a third slide 39 supported within plate 40 for vertical sliding movement. Preferably positioned above the cam is a second cylinder 41 having an associated cam 44 to which it is coupled with free movement said cam 44 having an armed extension 42 which engages in a substantially rectangular recess 43 in the slide 39 and as with the mechanism within the internal assembly is important that cams 36 and 44 are always operably coupled by the intermediate slide 39 such that movement of one cam causes the other to move in the same way that cams 16 and 5 are coupled by slide 10. As with the internal sub-assembly described above, the design may take many forms provided however that cylinder 3 and cylinder 41 can independently operate the lock irrespective of the configuration in which the lock is left after a previous operation Preferably there is positioned above the cam 36 an external operating lever having a radial extension 46 which is engageable within a recess 47 of cam 36 when cam 36 is angularly disposed so that the arm 17 of the interconnected cam 16 is adjacent the start of the chamfer 27 and as described previously, in this configuration the bolt 22 unlocked but the slide 10 is permitted further movement in an unlocking direction as cam arm 17 slides over chamfer 27. When the second slide is in a position removed from the unlocked position the corresponding position of the recess 47 is such that it is not within the locus of movement of the extension 46 and therefore the operating lever is not able to operate the hooked bolt 30 to e lift, i.e. when the lock is locked the recess 47 is withdrawn from an operative position.

S 15 Importantly it can be seen that part of the available angular rotation of the sub-assembly comprising members 16, 20 and 36 which are coupled is reserved for operating the latching beak 30 while holding the locking beak 22 unmoved while another part of the movement is reserved for moving the locking beak 22 between two extreme positions while leaving the hooking beak 30 unmoved and a third part of the available angular rotation is reserved for moving the extension 17 while the second slide 21 remains substantially unmoved to deadlock the second slide 21 to deadlock the bolt 22. As stated above, in the embodiment shown, the key locking functionality is controlled by coupled members 5, 16, 20, 36, 39 and 44 which can be actuated by either cylinder 41 and 3. It should be noted .i that to enable locking by internal lever the cam 16 has a neutral position corresponding to the 25 extension 17 being adjacent the chamfered face 27 while being within the recess between faces 26 and 27.

In a preferred embodiment the slide 10 may be releaseably retained in the locking position by a detent device, not shown but well known, comprising an outwardly biased ball within the edge of the slide and a recess within the casing wall within the loci of movement of the ball such that when the extension 17 is over face 26, the deadlocking position of cam 16, the ball engages within the recess to require a significant force on the slide to cause the ball to be dislodged. There may also be a second recess corresponding with the cam 16 being in the neutral position where the extension 17 is within the chamfers 26 and 27 and adjacent chamfer 27. As with other locks and as is well known, the detent may also comprise a spring biased rocker arm which presses on the cam 16 to restrain displacement and which urges the caml 16 towards the neutral position when in the vicinity of the neutral position and which urges the cam towards the locking position when in the vicinity of the locking position said locking position.

In another preferred embodiment there is no key operable cylinder within the internal lever and in this embodiment the slide 10 and chamfers 26 may also be omitted and in which case the lock could always be unlocked internally by lever 11. In another embodiment, the cylinder is replaced with a thumbturn lever which operably connects to the cam In another embodiments the internal lever may be omitted and in another embodiment again the external lever may be omitted and in these cases the lock is operable by cylinder or as described immediately above by a thumbturn lever.

In the locked configuration the fixing screws are preferably covered by plates 34 which comprise extensions to the slide 21 or to slide 10 and which during locking are moved vertically to be adjacent and over the fixing screws to render them inaccessible and similarly adjusting screw 35 which is accessible through an aperture within the casing in the unlocked position is moved to be remote from this aperture when locked to be inaccessible.

One of the problems sometimes encountered by sliding door locks is damage when a So locked lock is slammed against the engageable plate 24. In a preferred embodiment this is addressed by having a detent device comprising an outwardly biased, by spring 54, auxiliary bolt 51 having rearwardly a shoulder 52 of increased height as shown, which when the S.engageable plate is remote from the lock is adjacent to engage a flat portion 53 of the cam 12 preventing rotation of this cam and hence movement of the bolt 22 to the engageable position. Inward depression of this auxiliary bolt causes the shoulder 52 to be moved out of 25 the path of movement of cam 12 to enable the lock to be locked.

In another embodiment, the beak 22 to slide 21 junction may include a partly compressed compression spring which is further compressible to absorb energy of door closing. This preferably comprises a slideable plate 60 supported within a slot 61 of the slide 21 and urged towards the front edge by a partly compressed spring 62 said plate having a threaded fixing aperture in which the screw 35 locates to fasten the bolt to the plate 60. If the bolt 22 is impacted inwardly the slide plate 60 moves inwardly against increasing spring force to absorb some or all of the energy of impact to reduce the damage to the lock.

It should be noted that both points of attachment 35 for bolt 22 and 36 for beak accommodate adjustment by having slotted apertures in the beak and bolt additionally the mating surfaces are knurled to prevent slipping between members and raised blades on members 21 and 29 prevent sideways slipping.

In a preferred embodiment the armed extension29 has an inwardly raised shoulder against which the beak 30 isfastened by the screw 36 and the hook 22 is similarly secured to a raised shoulder of the slide 21. The height of these shoulders is such that these engaging, hooking members are located within the width of the doorframe andpreferably substantially on the centreline of the frame section. In this embodiment the lengths of the hook 22 and the beak 30 is so configured that these entire members are always within the doorframe.

For this embodiment, the catch plate is as shown in Figure 9 where portions project sideways to provide the engaging shoulders 23 and 31. The door frame has horizontally slotted apertures to permit the passage of these sideways projections which would be engaged by the hook and beak respectively similarly to the engagement that takes place with these members in other embodiments. This embodiment allows the catch plate to be suface mounted in an S 15 inaccessible location while not requiring the door section to be slotted to accept a mortice i •lock. Such slotting can be difficult to effect and and can severely weaken a door frame.

i. It is envisaged that these principles can be applied to all sliding door locks and to hinged door locks as well where a slidably supported bolt could be supported by an enveloping rectangular housingportion which would locate within a mating rectangular aperture in the edge of the door. The bolt and housing portion would be supported off the back, internalface of the internal lever plate subassembly which would house the lock mechanism.

In the embodiment shown the internal casing comprises a D shaped handle assembly as shown in Fig 1 having an operable lever 70 supported by the casing for angular rotation about a boss 66 and having an arm joined at the pivot point and angled so as to locate 25 adjacent the extension 29 to be engageable with an anular boss 65 projecting from the arm.

Operation of the lever causes the arm to press on the boss to cause the latch bolt 30 arm 29 and member 28 sub-assembly to be rotated to lift the beak 30 from the engageable position.

As shown, the lever is biased by spring 67 towards the undisplaced position. There is preferably a similar a D shaped handle assembly as shown in Fig 3 on the exterior of the door. Prererably these levers are configured to pivot while unlatching in a direction corresponding substantially to the direction of door opening so that in a simple natural motion the handle assembly may be gripped and pulled in a simple natural motion.

Within the lever assembly shown and in other embodiments described within this application there may be a disabling device 72 comprising one or more push buttons requiring depression before unlatching can occur by means of lever operation such a device being to make it difficult or impossible for children to unlatch the lock. In the device shown the device comprises a push button 73 supported within the lever 70 and which protrudes through an aperture 74 in the handle casing when the lever 70 is in the undisplaced position.

This button is outwardly biased by spring 75, has a conical head and as shown in Figure 8 is operable by a finger to move below the handle surface to enable the lever 70 to be rotated to operate the lock. The degree of difficult can be determined by the position and number of such buttons which must be simultaneously depressed while operating the lever.

In another preferred invention the lock provides for remote locking by providing points of attachment for rods which connect to remote locks or vertically moving bolts. The rods 81, 82 preferably include a right-angled return which locate in apertures in a rocker member 83 which is connected to the cam 12 by a shaft 84 as shown, when the slide moves upwards the shaft on the end nearest slide 21 would be driven upwardly while the shaft on the other end would be driven down. The rocker member as drawn would be inserted within the door frame and the shaft would pass into the frame to support and drive the rocker. In another embodiment not shown, the rocker is in the casing I preferably supported beween the casing and the door frame in a concave recess and connected to the cam 12 by a shaft or fitted over a protruding extension of member 12 and the remote lock operating rods have right angled return portions which pass through vertical slots in the door frame to locate within the apertures in the cam. This later arrangement is quickly fitted by inserting the rods, placing the rocker over the rods and securing them and then placing the cam 12 into the rocker as the lock is fitted to the door.

In the above description the spatial prepositions, below above etc. are used for convenience of description only referring to a lock attached to a door in the manner shown but they have no meaning beyond that.

Throughout this specification and claims which follow, unless the context requires otherwise, the word comprise" and variations such as "comprises" or Cccomprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers or steps but not the exclusion of any other integer or group of integers and the positional prepositions such as up, down, rear which are used to assist in description of the preferred embodiments have in general no absolute significance.