Locking key with memory
OwnerJost Hoenerinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A locking key, designed to preserve an indication of the lock-shifting (opening or closing) operation last performed, has a shank with an extension shaft rotatably received in an adjoining head, the relative rotation of the shank and the head being limited to 90.degree. or 180.degree. by a retaining pin in the head coacting with a part-circular recess on the shaft. The pin and the recess also serve to hold the head in a fixed axial position with reference to the shank. A spring-loaded detent in the shaft or elsewhere inside the head serves to index the two key portions in either of their limiting relative positions.
Claims13
A locking key comprising:
- a head member grippable by fingers of a user;
- a shank member provided with a lock-operating bit, said shank member being rigid with a shaft rotatably lodged in a central bore of said head member, said shaft having an axis parallel to and situated completely between a pair of substantailly flat faces of said head member;
- a holding pin in said head member, said pin disposed always perpendicular to said shaft faces and offset from said shaft axis, said pin engaging in a part-circular recess of said shaft for limiting the relative rotatability of said members to less than a full turn, said pin and said recess also maintaining said members in a fixed relative axial position;
- and
- a spring-loaded detent inside said head engageable with a coacting formation for indexing said members in either of two limiting positions of relative rotation, said recess being a part-circular peripheral groove on said shaft with linear extremities of the groove occupied by said holding pin in respective limiting positions spaced a whole number of quandrants apart.
A locking key comprising:
- a head member grippable by fingers of a user;
- a shank member provided with a lock-operating bit, said shank member being rigid with a shaft rotatably lodged in a central bore of said head member, said shaft having an axis parallel to and situated completely between a pair of substantially flat faces of said head member;
- a holding pin in said head member said pin disposed always perpendicular to said shaft faces and offset from said shaft axis, said pin engaging in a part-circular recess of said shaft for limiting the relative rotatability of said members to less than a full turn, said pin and said recess also maintaining said members in a fixed relative axial position;
- and
- a spring-loaded detent inside said head engageable with a coacting formation for indexing said members in either of two limiting positions of relative rotation, said shaft being provided with an axially extending blind bore, said detent being lodged in said blind bore and projecting partly from an end thereof under spring pressure in either of said limiting positions upon engaging said coacting formation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.