Back to results
US 4,359,883 AGranted
Time delay combination lock
AssigneeSargent & Greenleaf, Inc.
InventorsCharles G. Bechtiger, James C. Miller
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
AssigneeSargent & Greenleaf, Inc.
InventorsCharles G. Bechtiger, James C. Miller
Estimating the term…
A time delay combination lock having the usual combination mechanism including a stack of rotatable tumbler wheels journaled on a dial spindle by a driving cam, and a fence lever pivoted on a bolt to descend to a lower coupled position with the drive cam and retract the bolt along an unlocking path when the proper combination is dialed. A timing movement is provided having an intercoupling gear train including an input gear rearwardly adjacent the driving cam for winding the main spring to woundup condition upon rotation of the dial and driving cam through a predetermined arc. A pivoted blocking lever biased to a normal stop position is located in the unlocking path of part of the fence lever to bar unlocking movement of the fence lever in its lower coupled position, and the lock case has a fixed backup shoulder immediately adjacent the blocking lever to support the blocking lever against attempted forced displacement of the fence lever and bolt in a bolt unlocking direction. The intercoupling gear train permits multidirectional operation of the dial to dial the combination for a limited time dialing period following wind-up of the main spring, and a lever system is provided to displace the blocking lever to a release position for a later short time period after termination of the multidirectional dialing period to allow retraction of the bolt to unlocked condition. A formation on the input gear bars change key access to the combination change mechanism except at selected positions.
In a time delay combination lock including a lock case, a combination mechanism including a plurality of peripherally gated tumbler wheels rotatably journaled about a common axis, a driving cam on a drive spindle extending along said axis from a dial to adjust the angular positions of the tumbler wheels through lost motion couplings, and a fence lever pivoted on a reciprocative bolt to descend from a raised position to a lower coupled position with the drive cam and movable thereby along an unlocking path at the lower coupled position to retract the bolt;
A time delay combination lock as defined in any of claims, 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 13 or 18, wherein said lever means includes a cam lever for positioning the blocking lever and an interact lever coactive with the cam lever to locate the latter at first and second positions disposing the blocking lever at said blocking and release positions respectively, said interact lever having a part in the retraction path of a projection on the fence lever to be engaged by said projection whenever the fence lever and bolt are retracted to unblocking position and return said blocking lever immediately to said blocking position upon bolt retraction at any time during said release time period.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.