Patent Application
20230110118
The present invention relates to a lock, especially to a padlock that cannot be sawn off.
A conventional padlock has a lock base and a U-shaped buckling unit. The U-shaped buckling unit is elongated and is used to hook and surround objects that need locking. The lock base can be set on both ends of the U-shaped buckling unit and locked to make the objects unable to be detached from the U-shaped buckling unit.
However, in the conventional padlock, the U-shaped buckling unit has two straight segments, facilitating a saw to be abutted thereon, and therefore the U-shaped buckling unit is easy to be sawn off. Besides, the U-shaped structure is also easily broken by applying an exterior force between the two straight segments by two wrenches propping up each other. To sum up, the conventional padlock has a weak anti-theft effect.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides an anti-vandal padlock to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.
The main objective of the present invention is to provide an anti-vandal padlock that cannot be sawn off and therefore has a strong anti-theft effect.
The anti-vandal padlock has a base, a buckling unit, a first anti-sawing sleeve, a second anti-sawing sleeve, at least one ball, and a locking mechanism. The base has a mounting passage having an annular groove formed on an inner surface of the mounting passage. The buckling unit is an elongated rod and has a pivoting segment, a first straight segment, an enclosing segment, and a second straight segment. The pivoting segment is rotatably mounted in the base. The first straight segment is connected to the pivoting segment and is located outside the base. The enclosing segment is connected to the first straight segment. The second straight segment is connected to the enclosing segment. The first anti-sawing sleeve is rotatably sleeved on the first straight segment. The second anti-sawing sleeve is rotatably and axially moveably mounted in the mounting passage. The second anti-sawing sleeve has at least one ball hole and at least one guiding wall. The at least one ball hole is formed through a wall of the second anti-sawing sleeve. The at least one guiding wall is respectively formed on a periphery of the at least one ball hole. The at least one ball is movably mounted in the second anti-sawing sleeve and is capable of respectively protruding out of the at least one ball hole. The at least one ball is restricted by the at least one guiding wall such that the at least one ball cannot move along an axial direction of the second anti-sawing sleeve. The locking mechanism is connected to the second anti-sawing sleeve and has an abutting wall and a retreating groove. The anti-vandal padlock has a locked state and an unlocked state.
When the anti-vandal padlock is in the locked state, the second straight segment is aligned to the mounting passage of the base, the second anti-sawing sleeve is rotatably sleeved on the second straight segment, the at least one ball hole of the second anti-sawing sleeve is aligned to the annular groove of the base, the locking mechanism abuts the at least one ball by the abutting wall and makes the at least one ball keep protruding out of the at least one ball hole and located in the annular groove, the at least one ball is capable of moving in the annular groove along with the rotation of the second anti-sawing sleeve, and the second anti-sawing sleeve is restricted by the at least one ball and the annular groove and cannot move along the axial direction of the second anti-sawing sleeve, such that the second straight segment cannot be detached from the second anti-sawing sleeve.
When the anti-vandal padlock is in the unlocked state, the retreating groove of the locking mechanism is aligned to the at least one ball, the at least one ball is located in the retreating groove and does not protrude out of the at least one ball hole, and the second anti-sawing sleeve is axially moveable and is not sleeved on the second straight segment such that the buckling unit is capable of pivoting with respect to the base.
When the anti-vandal padlock is in the locked state, since the first anti-sawing sleeve is rotatably sleeved on the first straight segment of the buckling unit and the second anti-sawing sleeve is rotatably sleeved on the second straight segment of the buckling unit, a saw can only abut the first anti-sawing sleeve and the second anti-sawing sleeve but cannot directly abut the first straight segment or the second straight segment of the buckling unit. Further, since the first anti-sawing sleeve and the second anti-sawing sleeve are rotatable, the first anti-sawing sleeve and the second anti-sawing sleeve will rotate along with the movement of the saw such that the saw cannot saw off the first anti-sawing sleeve and the second anti-sawing sleeve, and therefore the anti-vandal padlock has a strong anti-theft effect.
Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
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The ball 50 is movably mounted in second anti-sawing sleeve 40 and is capable of protruding out of the ball hole 41. The ball 50 is restricted by the guiding wall 42 such that the ball 50 cannot move along an axial direction of the second anti-sawing sleeve 40.
The locking mechanism 60 is connected to the second anti-sawing sleeve 40 and has an abutting wall 601 and a retreating groove 602.
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When the anti-vandal padlock is in the locked state, at least one of the lock bolts 63 is mounted in the first bolt hole 611 and the second bolt hole 621 at the same time to prevent the first lock cylinder base 61 and the second lock cylinder base 62 from rotating with respect to each other. The locking unit 66 is located in the locking groove 613 of the first lock cylinder base 610. The locking wall 6131 of the locking groove 613 stops the locking unit 66 such that the lock shaft 65 cannot move axially and is restricted to abut the ball 50 with the abutting wall 601.
When the anti-vandal padlock is in the unlocked state, none of the lock bolts 63 is mounted in one of the first bolt holes and one of the second bolt holes at the same time. The first lock cylinder base 61 and the second lock cylinder base 62 are rotatable with respect to each other. The locking unit 66 is located outside the locking groove 613 of the first lock cylinder base 61 and abuts the inner surface of the first lock cylinder base 61. The lock shaft 65 is axially moveable and the retreating groove 602 is aligned to the ball 50.
The following describes the unlocking process and locking operation of this embodiment.
The anti-vandal padlock is in the locked state before unlocked. When unlocking, a user first inserts the key into the key hole of the second lock cylinder base 62. The key will push the lock bolts 63 to compress the bolt elastic units 64, and make all the lock bolts 63 non-simultaneously mounted in the first bolt hole 611 and the second bolt hole 621, such that the first lock cylinder base 61 and the second lock cylinder base 62 are allowed to rotate with respect to each other. Next, the user turns the key to rotate the second lock cylinder base 62 and to simultaneously rotate the lock shaft 65 via the limiting segment 623 of the second lock cylinder base 62. During the rotation of the lock shaft 65, the locking unit 66 slides with respect to the unlocking wall 6132 of the locking groove 613 along with the rotation of the lock shaft 65, and the locking unit 66 is pushed by the curved unlocking wall 6132 to compress the locking elastic unit 67 and gradually move into the mounting hole 652. The locking unit 66 will move across the junction between the unlocking wall 6132 and the inner wall of the first shaft hole 612, switch from abutting the unlocking wall 6132 to abutting the inner surface of the first shaft hole 612, and be detached from the locking groove 613. At the moment, the locking unit 66 is no longer stopped by the locking wall 6131 of the locking groove 613, so the shaft elastic unit 68 is allowed to push the shaft cap 69 to move the lock shaft 65 axially, and the lock shaft 65 is switched from abutting the ball 50 with the abutting wall 601 to aligning to the ball 50 with the retreating groove 602. Therefore, the ball 50 is no longer restricted to protrude out of the ball hole 41 and engages in the annular groove 12 of the base 10, and is capable of moving into the retreating groove 602 to retreat into the ball hole 41, so the second anti-sawing sleeve 40 is allowed to move axially to be detached from the second straight segment 24 of the buckling unit 20 and then makes the buckling unit 20 rotatable with respect to the base 10. Finally, the anti-vandal padlock is switched from the locked state to the unlocked state.
The anti-vandal padlock is in the unlocked state before locked. When locking, the user first hooks and surrounds an object that needs locking with the buckling unit 20, and then turns the buckling unit 20 to align the second straight segment 24 to the mounting passage 11 of the base 10. Next, the user pushes the shaft cap 69 to make the locking mechanism 60 and the second anti-sawing sleeve 40 move axially and simultaneously and to sleeve the second anti-sawing sleeve 40 on the second straight segment 24 of the buckling unit 20. Then, the user keeps pushing the shaft cap 69 to make the lock shaft 65 move axially with respect to the first lock cylinder base 61 and the second lock cylinder base 62. At this moment, the ball 50 is abutted and limited by the guiding wall 42 such that the ball 50 cannot move along with the lock shaft 65 along the axial direction of the second anti-sawing sleeve 40. Thus, the retreating groove 602 moves with respect to the ball 50 and pushes the ball 50 to make the ball 50 gradually protrude out of the mounting hole 652. After the lock shaft 65 is moved to the set position, the locking unit 66 that abuts the inner surface of the first lock cylinder base 61 at the beginning will be aligned to the locking groove 613. Then, the locking elastic unit 67 makes the locking unit 66 pop out and mounted into the locking groove 613, and therefore the locking unit 66 is limited by the locking wall 6131 of the locking groove 613 such that the lock shaft 65 cannot move axially. At the same time, the retreating groove 602 is completely detached from the ball 50, and the lock shaft 65 is switched to abut the ball 50 with the abutting wall 601 to make the ball 50 engage in the annular groove 12 of the base 10. Finally, the anti-vandal padlock is switched from the unlocked state to the locked state.
Additionally, in this embodiment, an amount of the at least one ball 50 is two, and an amount of the at least one ball hole 41 is also two. The two balls 50 respectively correspond in position to the two ball holes 41. Further, the retreating groove 602 is an annular groove extending along a circumferential direction of the lock shaft 65 in a circle. By this, the second anti-sawing sleeve 40 rotates more smoothly in the locked state, so that the second anti-sawing sleeve 40 is harder to be sawn off.
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When the anti-vandal padlock is in the locked state, since the first anti-sawing sleeve 30 is rotatably sleeved on the first straight segment 22 of the buckling unit 20 and the second anti-sawing sleeve 40 is rotatably sleeved on the second straight segment 24 of the buckling unit 20, a saw can only abut the first anti-sawing sleeve 30 and the second anti-sawing sleeve 40 but cannot directly abut the first straight segment 22 or the second straight segment 24 of the buckling unit 20. Further, since the first anti-sawing sleeve 30 and the second anti-sawing sleeve 40 are rotatable, the first anti-sawing sleeve 30 and the second anti-sawing sleeve 40 will rotate along with the movement of the saw such that the saw cannot saw off the first anti-sawing sleeve 30 and the second anti-sawing sleeve 40, and therefore the anti-vandal padlock has a strong anti-theft effect. Besides, the base 10 has the protecting wall segment 13 to further support and protect the buckling unit 20, the first anti-sawing sleeve 30, and the second anti-sawing sleeve 40, so the anti-vandal padlock is difficult to break by applying exterior force between the two straight segments and has better anti-theft ability. Additionally, the anti-vandal padlock of the present invention can be locked up without a key, which is convenient in use.
Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and features of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only. Changes may be made in the details, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
