The present invention relates to the field of locks, in particular to an actuator assembly of a combination lock.
The present invention improves over the prior art based on the technical solution as disclosed in P.R.C. Pat. No. CN201110244325.0.
A conventional combination lock generally adopts a lock mechanism driven by a micro motor. One of the technical solutions adopts a coil spring sheathed on a rotating shaft and a pin fixed to the rotating shaft, and the rotation of the motor is converted into a linear movement between the spring and the pin to push or pull a blocking member to control and receive a lock bolt of the lock.
Due to cost reasons, the combination lock generally uses a micro DC motor. However, the micro DC motor has the disadvantages of a wide dispersion of parameters in its manufacturing process, a change of battery voltage, and a large difference of its rotation speed, and it is very difficult to control the stroke of the pin with respect to the coil spring even when a reducer gear set is used and the power-on time is controlled. Most of the time, the pin may slip or jam when it moves to a distal end of the spring (for the last turn of the spring) and if the motor is still not powered off. As a result, a relatively larger friction may be produced or the spring may be jittered and twisted easily.
When the pin moves along the spiral of the spring, the spring is compressed by the pressure of the pin to produce a relatively larger friction, and the friction further generates a force to rotate the spring axially and causes an axial rotation and a radial jitter of the spring easily, and the spring cannot be displaced stably in the axial direction. These results not just wear out or damage the spring and slider only, but also cause the pin being locked-rotor into the spiral track of the spring. In addition, the friction produced between the pin and the spring may wear out or damage the pin and the spring.
As disclosed in P.R.C. Pat. No. CN201110244325.0, the jitter and jumping of the spring are controlled by installing a third winding of a spring to absorb and buffer the vibration and impact produced by the pin to the spring when the motor is starting and turning, so as to prevent the spring from twisting or jittering. However, P.R.C. Pat. No. CN201110244325.0 has not disclosed any technical solution to overcome the problem of wearing out the pin and the spring.
In summation, the problem related to the jitter and jumping of the spring may be overcome by the aforementioned or other technical solutions, but the problem of wearing out the pin and the spring still remains unsolved. For the interaction between the pin and the coil spring, the rotation of the motor is converted into a linear movement between the coil spring and the pin to push or pull a blocking member in order to control and receive a lock bolt of the lock. Obviously, the present invention can improve the performance of the actuator assembly for locks.
Therefore, it is a primary objective of the present invention to provide an actuator assembly of a lock with simple structure and high safety and reliability.
To achieve the aforementioned and other objectives, the present invention provides an actuator assembly for a locking device, comprising: a fixed motor, a drive shaft fixed to the axis of the motor, a cylindrical spring sheathed on the drive shaft and displaceable axially, a pin installed onto the drive shaft and screwed within two adjacent loops of the cylindrical spring, and a casing installed coaxially with the motor, characterized in that casing comprises a cavity for accommodating the cylindrical spring, and a second sliding groove formed on casing, and both ends of the cylindrical spring have a retaining ring extended outwardly from the outer periphery of the cylindrical spring and disposed at the second sliding groove for preventing the rotation of the cylindrical spring.
Preferably, the second sliding groove includes two symmetrical bevels, and the retaining ring includes two rings formed by two free ends of the cylindrical spring respectively and extended outwardly from both ends of the cylindrical spring, and the axis of the ring is perpendicular to the axis of the cylindrical spring, and the bevel and the ring surface of the retaining ring abut against one another.
Preferably, the second sliding groove includes two symmetrical bevels, and the retaining ring includes a neck formed by two free ends of the cylindrical spring, and a ring coupled to the neck, and the two rings are extended outwardly from both ends of the cylindrical spring, and the axis of the ring is parallel to the axis of the cylindrical spring, and the bevel and the neck of the retaining ring abut against one another.
Wherein, casing includes a first-half casing and a second-half casing installed symmetrically with respect to the axis of casing, and after the first-half casing and the second-half casing are combined to form the cavity, the cavity comprises: a cylindrical cavity and two circular cone frustum shaped cavities symmetrically formed on both sides of the cylindrical cavity, and the cylindrical cavity has a diameter greater than the diameter of the axial and radial rotation of the pin around the cylindrical spring, and the circular cone frustum shaped cavity has a small diameter greater than the outer diameter of the cylindrical spring, and the circular cone frustum shaped cavity has a large diameter equal to the diameter of the cylindrical cavity.
Wherein, the distal end of the first-half casing or the distal end of the second-half casing has a buckle, and the distal end of the second-half casing or the distal end of the first-half casing has a hook matched with the buckle, and both first-half casing and second-half casing have a rivet hole for pivotally coupling the first-half casing and the second-half casing.
Wherein, the first-half casing and the second-half casing have a recess symmetrically and separately formed on a joint surface of the first-half casing and the second-half casing, and the recess includes a bevel, and after the first-half casing and the second-half casing are combined, the recess forms the second sliding groove.
Preferably, the two bevels of the second sliding groove have an included angle of 35 degrees to 45 degrees.
Preferably, the actuator assembly for a locking device further comprises a bearing shell matched with the pin, and the drive shaft having a bearing shell mounting hole formed thereon and matched with the bearing shell.
Preferably, the bearing shell is in a ring shape, and the pin includes two pin nails configured head to head with each other, and each pin nail has a head with a diameter greater than the inner hole of the bearing shell.
Preferably, the actuator assembly for a locking device further comprises a positioning block disposed between the heads of the two pin nails.
The present invention has the following advantages:
1. The structure of two retaining rings and the second sliding groove of casing is adopted, and the retaining ring is contacted with a bevel or arc surface of the second sliding groove, and the force is uniformly received, so as to effectively reduce or prevent the jitter or jumping of the spring during the process of rotating the pin along the cylindrical spring.
2. The two half casings are combined to form the cavity structure. Compared with the conventional frame, the invention changes the plan that limits the axial jitter of the cylindrical spring into a uniform arc surface disposed along the circumference of the cylindrical spring, so as to improve the ability of limiting the radial jittering of the cylindrical spring and the operating reliability of the actuator assembly. In addition, the buckles installed to the two half casings and the rivets can overcome the problems of fixing the half casings securely and positioning them accurately.
3. The invention uses the bearing shell made of an oily material and installed on the drive shaft and operated with the pin to change the sliding friction into the rolling friction, so as to significantly reduce the friction between the pin and the cylindrical spring and effectively overcome the wearing problem of the pin and the cylindrical spring.
4. The present invention uses a smaller amount of components and has the features of simple structure, to facilitate manufacturing and installation.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of this disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings.
With reference to
In the first and second preferred embodiments of the present invention, the motor 10 is a conventional micro DC motor, and the drive shaft 20 is made of metal or a composite material, and the drive shaft 20 is sheathed on and fixed to the shaft of the motor by interference kit, and the outer cylindrical surface 21 of the drive shaft 20 is slidably matched with the inner periphery of the cylindrical spring 31, and a mounting hole 23 is perpendicularly formed at the middle of the outer cylindrical surface 21 of the drive shaft 20. After the pin 5 is installed into the mounting hole, both ends exceed the outer periphery of the cylindrical spring 31, and the diameter of the pin 5 is slightly smaller than the spring pitch of the cylindrical spring 31 in the free status, so that the pin 5 can be rotated within two adjacent loops of the spring. After the drive shaft 20, the cylindrical spring 31, and pin 5 are assembled together, the drive shaft 20, cylindrical spring 31 and cylindrical surface 21 will be situated on the same axis.
In
Specifically, the casing 40 is comprised of two symmetrical casings, respectively: the first-half casing 41 and the second-half casing 42, and the first-half casing 41 and the second-half casing 42 may be in form of a cylindrical half shell or a rectangular half shell, each including half of a distal end of the casing 43, half of the head of casing 45, and half of the cavity 50. In the whole cavity 50, the middle of the cavity 50 has a diameter greater than the rotating diameter of the pin 5, and both sides of the cylindrical cavity gradually cross from the cylindrical cavity towards both ends to the circular cone frustum shaped cavity, and its minimum diameter is substantially equal to but slightly greater than the external diameter of the cylindrical spring 31. The distal ends of the first-half casing 41 and second-half casing 42 have a semicircular hole with a diameter slightly greater than the diameter of the drive shaft neck 22. After the first-half casing 41 and the second-half casing 42 are combined to form the drive shaft neck 22, they can pass through the round hole, and the axial displacement of the cylindrical spring 31 is limited in a range between two internal distal surfaces of the cavity 50.
In
With reference to
After the cylindrical spring 31 is installed in the cavity 50, not just the range of its axial displacement is limited only, but both of its radial displacement and jittering are also limited effectively. Although the drive shaft 20 has the effect of limiting the radial displacement of the cylindrical spring 31, as the cylindrical spring 31 has to move with respect to the drive shaft 20 between the locked and unlocked statuses, the interval between the cylindrical spring 31 and the drive shaft 20 should not be too small, otherwise the axial displacement may be hindered during the process of compressing or releasing the cylindrical spring 31 by friction. Therefore, the shape of the cylindrical spring 31 matched with the structure of the cylindrical casing cavity 50 may effectively limit the jittering or jumping of the cylindrical spring 31 to improve the operating reliability of the actuator assembly effectively. The structure of the first-half casing 41 and the second-half casing 42 can increases the contact area between the cavity 50 and the external periphery of the cylindrical spring 31, to significantly enhance the limitation brought by the casing 40 against the cylindrical spring 31. In addition, the structure with such components can be manufactured conveniently and easily.
With reference to
In the coil spring 35, the said retaining ring 34 includes a neck 38 formed by two free ends of the cylindrical spring 31 and a ring coupled to the neck 38, and the two rings are extended outwardly from both sides of the cylindrical spring 31 respectively, and the axis of the ring is parallel to the axis of the cylindrical spring 31, and the bevel 47 and the neck 38 of the retaining ring 34 abut against each other. Specifically, an extended section (i.e. the neck 38 of the retaining ring) is formed between the ring of the retaining ring 34 and the end ring of the cylindrical spring 31. In other words, the neck 38 of the retaining ring is extended smoothly from the end ring of the cylindrical spring 31, and the inclined angle is equal to that of the bevel 47 of the second sliding groove 48. When the cylindrical spring 31 is rotated altogether, the necks 38 of the two retaining ring abut one of the bevels 47 of the second sliding groove 48 to stop the rotation of the cylindrical spring 31. Since the neck 38 crosses the cylindrical spring and the retaining ring smoothly, the pin 5 will slip when the pin 5 is rotated to the position of the neck 38 of the retaining ring 34, if the motor 10 is still not powered off, as no thread is provided for rotating the pin and no bent portion is provided for stopping the pin 5. It is noteworthy that the two retaining rings 34 are wound in different directions, but their shape and size are the same, and their positions are symmetrical, and their effects are the same, so that they are said to be symmetrical.
In
The benefit of installing the bearing shell 4 resides on that when the pin 5 is rotated between two adjacent loops of the spring, the pin 5 may rotate with the drive shaft 20 or rotate by itself. Therefore, the original sliding friction produced between the pin 5 and the spring is changed to a rolling friction to effectively reduce the wearing of the pin and the spring. Particularly, when the pin 5 rotates idly or slips at the position of the neck 38 of the retaining ring, the friction is the largest at that moment, and the use of the bearing shell can significantly reduce the friction when the pin 5 slips. It is noteworthy that the aforementioned technical solution of the bearing shell 4 may be used in the first preferred embodiment of the present invention. Although the pin 5 is blocked by the bent portion 37 and can no longer be rotated at the position of the retaining ring in the first preferred embodiment, only a small friction is produced by rotating the pin 5 into the spring, so that the structure of the bearing shell may be omitted to simplify the structure. After the structure of the bearing shell is used, the friction produced by rotating the pin 5 into two adjacent loops of the spring can be further reduced.
The operating process of the two preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described together with
In
In
After the unlocking process ends, the external force is released, and the lock bolt returns to its locked status by the resilience of the spring. In the meantime, the swinging post 7 is driven to rotate counterclockwise, so as to drive the cam dog 9 to rotate clockwise from the first sliding groove 3 to the outside. Now, the motor 10 is powered on and rotated counterclockwise, and the pin 5 is rotated into the cylindrical spring from the left end of the cylindrical spring 31 to push the cylindrical spring to move towards the left end of casing 40, so as to push casing to move towards the left until the head of casing 45 occupies the space of the left end of the first sliding groove 3 of the lock housing and returns the lock bolt to its locked status as shown in
The operating process of the second preferred embodiment is substantially the same as the operating process of the first preferred embodiment except that: in the first preferred embodiment, when the pin 5 is rotated to the position of the retaining ring 34, the pin 5 will be blocked by the bent portion of the retaining ring and cannot be rotated further, so that the motor 10 is situated in locked-rotor condition; while in the second preferred embodiment, when the pin 5 is rotated to the position of the retaining ring 34, the pin 5 slips at the position of retaining ring neck 39 between the retaining ring and the cylindrical spring, so that the motor 10 will not be locked-rotor.
Since the selected micro motor can be situated in locked-rotor condition for a short time without affecting the performance of the motor or damaging the motor, the technical solution of using these two types of spring structures is feasible. Regardless of which of the two structures is adopted, it is necessary to power off the motor after the locking or unlocking process is completed. In general, the locking device with electronic control comes with a position switch to detect any positional change of a lock bolt, a slider, or any other component linked with the lock bolt, and transmit a signal to the control unit of the locking device in order to timely stop the operation of the motor.
While the invention has been described by means of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention set forth in the claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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201610684269.5 | Aug 2016 | CN | national |