ROTARY LOCK PROTECTION MEMBER

• US 3,795,123 A
• Filed: 12/20/1972
• Issued: 03/05/1974
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/1972
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Henry R. Stiffel
• Original Assignee: Henry R. Stiffel
• Inventors: Stiffel, Henry R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wolfe, Robert L.
• Application Number:
  US05/316,705
• Time in Patent Office: 440 Days
• Field of Search: 70/417,418,416,86,85,63,454
• US Class Current: 70/417
• CPC Class Codes: E05B 15/02 Striking-plates; Keepers; Bolt staples; Escutcheons keyhole finders E05B15/08; escutcheons made of hard materials E05B15/1614; finger-plates E06B7/285
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 70/7921 Armoring

Abstract

This invention pertains to rotary locks and their protection when said locks are used with vaults or enclosures for coin collecting systems such as parking meters. The door or heavy wall of the vault or enclosure in which the lock is mounted for releasing or securing the vault is counterbored for retention of a rotatable shouldered plug of hardened metal. In and through the plug is a passageway for the receiving and passing of a key. The plug in its mounted condition has its exterior face flush or substantially flush with the outer surface of the vault member in which it is mounted.

Claims

1. A rotary lock protection member for use in a heavy walled portion of a vault, a door for a vault and like portions for a coin receiving and retaining system, the lock protection member in combination with the heavy walled portion including:

(a) a stepped bore formed in and through a heavy walled portion of said system;

(b) a rotatable plug having a key passageway therethrough and havinG its outer longitudinal extent formed with at least two diameters of different extents, the largest diameter being rotatably carried in the stepped bore in the heavy wall and with said largest diameter portion being inward of the outer surface of the heavy wall portion and with the adjacent next smaller diameter portion rotatably supported in said bore and extending toward the outer surface of the heavy walled portion, this smaller diameter in combination with the larger diameter establishing a shoulder which is engaged by cooperating means in the bore to position the plug so that its outer facing end is next to the outer surface of the heavy walled member, and with at least the exposed end surface of the plug which is not protected by said heavy wall being hardened to resist drilling, chiseling and the like, and (c) a key-type lock carried by said heavy walled portion with the entrance end of the lock adjacent the larger diameter end of the rotary plug and in alignment with the key passageway, the plug and lock in mounted condition being retained by fixed means so as to resist violent attacks by hammers, punches and the like, said plug in mounted condition being freely rotatable in said bore while its longitudinal movement is restrained within predetermined limits in said bore.

2. A rotary lock protection member as in claim 1 in which the rotary plug is a one-piece member and is of hardened steel.

3. A rotary lock protection member as in claim 2 in which the smaller diameter portion of the plug which is adjacent the larger diameter portion is rotatably retained by a hardened sleeve member of substantially the same length as said smaller diameter portion, this hardened sleeve being fixedly mounted in the stepped bore so as to engage the shoulder of the plug between the larger and adjacent smaller diameters of said plug to position the plug with its outer end substantially flush with the outer end of the sleeve and the heavy walled portion.

4. A rotary lock protection member as in claim 1 in which the rotary plug is of two pieces with at least the inner portion hardened to resist attack by drilling and the like and in which the stepped bore in the heavy walled portion has an outer reduced bore of short length, the plug and its hardened inner portion being retained and positioned so as to not enter this outer reduced bore of short length.

5. A rotary lock protection member as in claim 1 in which the lock is carried in the stepped bore with that end of the lock which is opposite the key entering end being supported against inner thrust forces by a back-up bar fixedly secured to the heavy walled portion.

6. A rotary lock protection member as in claim 1 in which the rotary plug is made with two diameters and the stepped bore has its outer extent made as a bore which is larger than the bore portion which retains the larger diameter of the plug, this outer larger bore being made substantially the same length as the outer reduced diameter of the plug and there is provided a hardened steel sleeve which is sized so that its inner diameter provides a rotating guide and support for the outer reduced diameter of the plug and the outer diameter of the hardened sleeve is sized so as to snugly fit in this larger outer bore, the sleeve in mounted condition in the bore being substantially at the outer surface of the heavy walled portion and with the rotary plug in mounted condition, the mounted sleeve is fixedly secured in the heavy walled portion to prevent removal of the plug and the sleeve.

7. A rotary lock protection member as in claim 6 in which are formed complementary grooves in the larger bore and the outer diameter of the hardened sleeve and permanent cement is used to fixedly secure the sleeve in the bore to provide the permanent mounting of the sleeve.