Slam latch with pop-up knob
AssigneeSouthco, Inc.
InventorsJoseph W. Jackson, Jr., Claes Gunnar Wilhelm Magnusson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A latch has a pop-up knob that provides a handle for pulling on a door when the knob is extended. The door can be closed with the knob either up or down. With the knob up, the latch pawl can be disengaged from a keeper attached to the door frame by pulling the door open. With the knob down, the latch pawl remains in an extended position behind the keeper and the door cannot be pulled open. The knob can be selectively retained in the down position, and placing the knob in the down position results in the rotational movement of the latch pawl being blocked.
Claims18
A latch assembly for releasably securing a first member in a closed position relative to a second member, the second member having a keeper in a fixed positional relationship therewith, the latch assembly comprising:
- an upper housing adapted for mounting to the first member;
- a lower housing attached to said upper housing and having a cavity;
- a pawl supported by said cavity, said pawl being capable of pivotal and rectilinear motion relative to said cavity, and said pawl being rectilinearly movable between extended and retracted positions;
- a knob supported by said upper housing for rectilinear movement between retracted and extended positions, said pawl being rotationally movable between a first angular position and a second angular position when said knob in said extended position of said knob;
- means for selectively retaining said knob in said retracted position of said knob;
- and
- means to block rotational movement of said pawl when said knob is in said retracted position of said knob, wherein said means to block rotational movement of said pawl blocks rotational movement of said pawl toward said second angular position such that said pawl cannot move out of engagement with the keeper when said knob is in said retracted position of said knob.
A method of operating a latch assembly, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a latch assembly comprising:
- a housing;
- and
- a pawl supported for both pivotal movement relative to the housing and rectilinear movement relative to the housing;
- mounting the latch assembly to a first member;
- and
- locking the latch assembly by a user selectively blocking pivotal movement of the pawl while allowing rectilinear movement of the pawl such that the first member can be moved to a closed position relative to a second member even when pivotal movement of the pawl is blocked, but the first member cannot be moved from the closed position relative to the second member to an open position relative to the second member when pivotal movement of the pawl is blocked.
A latch assembly for releasably securing a first member in a closed position relative to a second member, the second member having a keeper in a fixed positional relationship therewith, the latch assembly comprising:
- a housing adapted for mounting to a closure member;
- and
- a pawl supported for both pivotal movement relative to said housing and rectilinear movement relative to said housing,
- wherein the latch assembly is operable between a locked configuration and an unlocked configuration and wherein said pawl is prevented from pivotal movement but is capable of rectilinear movement when the latch assembly is in said locked configuration, and said pawl is freed to move pivotally when said latch assembly is in said unlocked configuration such that said pawl can be moved out of engagement with the keeper.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.