US2948140A - Hotel function lock - Google Patents

Description

INVENTOR.

MORRIS H. ETSTEN AL; ATTORNEY 4 2,948,140 HOTEL FUNCTION LOCK Morris H. Et sten, Leominster, Mass, assignor to Inde- I pendent Lock Company, Fitchburg, Mass, at corporanon of Massachusetts Filed Jan. 18, 1957, Ser. No. 635,011

2 Claims. (Cl. 70-216) This invention relates to a door lock of the type commonly known as a hotel lock because of its frequent use in doors of hotel and motel rooms which open onto hallways or public passageways. More particularly, this invention relates to a door lock which is normally operable from the outside by means of an ordinary guest key, but which may be rendered inoperable to a guest key by the depression of a push button or turn button on the inner knob, actuation of said push button or turn button additionally resulting in the extension on the outer knob of an indicator, serving as a signal that the room is occupied.

In installations of the aforementioned type, an emergency key is provided, which key is adapted to operate the lock from the outside, notwithstanding depression of the push button or turn button.

Still more particularly, this invention relates to a key operated, or more specifically, an improved pin tumbler assembly for a door lock of the type described.

Known to me are lock assemblies of the indicator type in which a pin tumbler assembly is provided on its inner end with threaded capping elements, bolts, inserts and like expedients for rotatably securing the pin tumbler assembly Within the pin tumbler casing and for preventing endwise removal in an inward direction of the latch operating means.

While such expedients have been found to operate satisfactorily, their use has increased the cost of manufacture of the lock assembly, due to the complexity of the parts used and to the additional time required in assembling such complex parts.

Accordingly, it is an object of my invention to provide a pin tumbler assembly for a door lock of the type described which is inexpensive to fabricate and which is capable of being rapidly assembled.

A further object of my invention is to provide a pin tumbler assembly for a lock of the type described wherein a simple adjustment of the tumbler assembly will alter the lock to remove the obstacles to normal guest key operation, notwithstanding the actuation by an occupant of the turn button or push button, actuation serving in such case merely as a signal that the room is occupied.

Still a further object of my invention is to provide a pin tumbler assembly for a multi-purpose door lock as above described, in which the operation of shifting to de-actuate the key blocking feature may be accomplished by a simple rearrangement of the parts already present.

In order to illustrate .these objects and such further objects as may appear herein or may be hereinafter pointed out, I make reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof,in which Figure 1 is a plan view of a mounted door lock, with the door in phantom;

Figure 2 is a face view of the door lock from the outside, with the door and jamb depicted in phantom;

Figure 3 is a magnified, partially fragmentary, perspec tive view of the operating elements of the door lock prior to assembly;

. eter.

2,948,146 Patented Aug. 9, 1960 ice Figure 4 is a face view of the pin tumbler assembly 1 from the inner end;

Figure 4A is a face view of the locking washer;

Figure 5 is a section taken on the line 5-5 of Figure 4, with the dogging mechanism extended and with an emergency key in lock operating position;

Figure 6 is a fragmentary section taken on the line similar to Figure 5, with the dogging mechanism ex.-

jqtended, showing a guest key inserted in the tumbler mechanism;

Figure 7 is a sectiontaken on the line 77 of Figure 4, showing the pin tumbler assembly in guest key operable position;

Figure 8 is a section similar to Figure 5, showing the actuator bar reversed through an angle of 180.

Referring to the drawings in detail, a retractor housing 10 is mounted in a cylindrical mortise hold in the door A, by the sandwiching pressure of the attached escutcheons I I on the portions surrounding the mortise hold. The-retractor mechanism is operatively connected to the door latch assembly B, which engages the strike plate C on the door jamb in a well known manner.

The pin tumbler assembly D has a tumbler casing 12 5 which is provided in a known manner with a plurality of spring biased driver pins 13, which ride in the cylinders 14. The casing 12 is provided with a central cylindrical boring, and is formed at its outer and inner ends with annular shoulders 15, 15a, respectively.

The plug 16 is provided in a known manner with a cylindrical body portion 17 within which the bottom or driver pins 18 are free to ride. The plug 16 has at its outer end a raised annular shoulder 19, and adjacent its inner end 20 is formed with an annular recess 21. An

. axially aligned bore 22 is formed through the plug 16,

widening at its inner end 23 ll'lltO a boring of greater diam- An axially aligned key slot 24 is formed through the plug 16, said key slot 24 merging at the inner end of the plug 16 with the bar receiver slot 25. Cross slot t An indicator pin 27, having an extended head 28, is

inserted within the coil spring 29. The pin 27 is slidably inserted throughthe boring 23 and into a narrower boring 22, with the spring 29 acting to bias the head 28 outwardly against the shoulder 30 which forms a seat for the spring.

The plug 16 is positioned within the tubular orifice of the tumbler casing 12, with the plug shoulder 19 abutting the annular casing shoulder 15.

The actuator bar 31, having side brancehs 32, 33 and a lead-branch 34, is inserted into the plug 16 with the side; branches 32, 33lying in the slot 26, and the lead 4 branch 34 positioned in thelower section 35 of the slot 25. It should be mentioned, in passing, that the inversion of the bar 31 and the insertion of the lead branch 34 in the upper section 36 of the slot 25 brings about certain calculated changes in operation in the lock mechanism, which will be fully described hereafter.

With the bar 31 positioned with the lead branch in the lower section of the slot 25, the resilient locking washer 37 may be seated in the annular recess 21 on the plug 16. To facilitate this operation, the washer 37 has adjacent its split end portions, ears 38, 38 which are engageable by a spreading tool (not shown). When properly seated within the annular recess 21, the tabs 39, 39, extending radially inwardly from the washer 37, overlie the cross slot 26, locking the actuating bar 31 against endwise removal in an inward direction from the plug 16. The said washer 37 abuts the shoulder 15a of the tumbler casing 12, thereby rotatively locking to abut the ears 39 of the washer 3'7. 1t will be, readily recognized thatv outward rnovement of the actuator bar will bias the indicator pin axially outwardly, against the pressure of the spring 29. When the side branch 32 has projected the indicator pin 27, the head branch 34 of the actuator bar 31 lies abutting the inner end of the key slot 24. With the head branch 34 in such inward position, operation of the pin tumbler assembly with a normal guest key G is impossible'by reason of the fact that full insertion of the guest key' to pin tumbler aligning position is blocked by the said head branch '34. This action of the branch 34 is shown in Figure 6.

The inward or outward position of the actuator bar 31 is controlled by the depression of the push button 40 located on the inner knob 41. Depression of the push button 40 extends the dogging arm 42, which dogging arm, is retained by the engagement of the latch lug 43 with known retaining means (not shown) formed on the spindle 44. The push button 40 is, upon actuation of the latch assembly B, returned to its normal, extended position by the biasing actionof the spring 45, said actuation operating additionally to release the bar 31 to the inner, non-key blocking position and to retract the indicator pin 27.

The normal operation of the locking assembly is as follows: 1

The latch B may be retracted, irrespective of the position of the push button 40, by rotation of the inner knob 41. Likewise, when the push button is in extended position (see Figure the latch mechanism may be withdrawn by actuation with a guest key from the outside. When the push button 40 is depressed, however, the normal guest key G may not be fully inserted to key actuating position as previously described (see Figure 6) and the latch may not be retracted from the outside.- In such case, the door may be actuated on the outside only through the use of an emergency key E, said key having its leading tip E modified and shortened (see Figure 5). The shortened tip E mentioned allows the seating of the 'key bits 46 against the shoulders 47, 47 which surround the key slot 24, thus permitting emergency key operation from the outside, notwithstanding the blocking position of the push button 40 and the forward extension of the branch 34.

The arrangement of the slot 36 readily permits handling of the branch in accordance with the swing of the door. Also, in certain circumstances, such as dual occupancy of a single room, it is often convenient to dispense with the guest key rejecting feature aforementioned, and for this purpose I have provided a means in my tumbler assembly whereby said tumbler may be simply converted and the lock installation rendered operable from the outside through the use of a single key, notwithstanding the blocking position which the push button 40 has effected.

In order to so convert the tumbler assembly to serve the latter purpose, it is merely necessary to remove the washer 37 and invert the branches of the actuating bar 31 so that the head branch 34 is turned through and occupies the upper slot 36 rather than the lower slot 35. When the actuating bar 31 is thus inverted, depression of the push button 40 serves only to extend the indicator pin 27 and the inverted head branch no longer lies in blocking position (see Figure 8) the door thus being operable by the extended guest key G, as well as by the emergency key E.

The above described pin tumbler assembly, in addition to being a highly efiicient and versatile construction, willbe found to be inexpensive to manufacture and easy to assemble.

Having thus described my invention and illustrated its use, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a cylindrical lock mechanism having inner and outer knob members, said inner knob member including dogging means manually shiftable to disable said mechanism from normal latch operation from the outside, a tumbler assembly mounted in said outer knob member comprising a tumbler casing and a plug mounted for rotation in said casing, a keyway in said plug, an indicator slidably mounted within said plug, the inner end of said plug being formed to define a plurality of slots, one of said slots exposing the inner end of said keyway and another of said slots exposing the inner end of said indicator, an actuator bar slidably mountable in said plug in two positions with respect thereto, branch members on said actuator bar spaced to register, respectively, with said indicator slot and said keyway slot in one said mounted position of said bar to said plug, one of said branch members lying out of registry with said keyway in said other mounted position of said bar .to said plug.

2. In a cylindrical lock mechanism having inner and outer knob members, said inner knob member including dogging means manually shiftable to disable said mechanism from normal latch operation from the outside, a tumbler assembly mounted in said outer knob member comprising a tumbler casing and a plug mounted for rotation in said casing, a keyway in said plug, an indicator slidably mounted within said plug, the inner end of said plug being formed to define intersecting slots, one of said slots exposing said keyway and another .of said slots exposing said indicator, an actuator bar including a pair of side branch members and a central branch member, said branch members being slidably mountable in said plug in a plurality of positions with respect thereto, one of said side branch members being adapted to register with said indicator in all mounted positions of said bar in said plug, said central branch member being arranged to register with said keyway in at least one but not all mounted positions of said bar in said plug.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,908,701 Falk May 1 6, 1933 2,738,666 Tornoe Mar. 20, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,079,987 France May 26, 1954

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