The present invention is in the technical field of door bolting and barricading devices. More particularly, the present invention is in the technical field of door deadbolt devices that allow rapid engagement and disengagement of the bolting mechanism from both the inside and the outside of a door using a special tool to prevent unauthorized persons from deploying the locking mechanism from the inside, while providing safety personnel the ability to unlock the door from the outside in an emergency. Inmost jurisdictions at least around the U.S., building and fire codes dictate that a single linear or rotational operation is allowed to unlock and unlatch a door which is in the path of egress.
It is desirable to have all of the locks and latches on a door retract in a single mechanically connected operation. This allows an occupant to quickly exit the room without prior knowledge of the location or operation of door locks thereby hindering egress.
The present invention comprises an unlocking mechanism designed to interoperate with the deadbolt device that is the subject of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/139,827 filed on Sep. 24, 2018, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. The unlocking mechanism of the present invention is actuated as a result of contact with the door's existing lever. When an occupant rotates the door's lever, it not only retracts the door's latch, but the handle will also engage the unlocking mechanism of the present invention, the door lever engaging the unlocking mechanism. The door's lever follows the geometry of the cam thereby pushing the sliding bar of the unlocking mechanism thereby engaging a latch release. The latch release moves the locked lever of the door's deadbolt assembly and the deadbolt is retracted. When the door's lever is returned to its normal state, a spring pushes the sliding bar backward to the ready position. The latch release rotates to its ready position and the mechanism is ready for a subsequent activation.
In at least a first embodiment, when an occupant rotates the door's lever, it not only retracts the door's latch, but the handle will also engage the unlocking mechanism of the present invention, the door lever making contact on a cam feature on the unlocking mechanism, during its arc of rotation. The door's lever follows the geometry of the cam thereby pushing the sliding bar of the unlocking mechanism thereby engaging and rotating a latch release. The latch release rotates and moves the locked lever of the door's deadbolt assembly and the deadbolt is retracted. When the door's lever is returned to its normal state, a spring pushes the sliding bar backward to the ready position. The latch release rotates to its ready position and the mechanism is ready for a subsequent activation.
The present invention is directed to satisfying the applicable building code and ADA requirements by using the natural rotation of the door's lever. This is considered to be a “mechanically interconnected” means of unlocking the door without modifying the door's hardware or violating the door's fire rating.
The present invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:
In
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The assembly housing 210 is formed with a sliding channel 210a into which the unlocking mechanism 220 is slidably positioned. The sliding channel 210a further has a guide groove 211 into which a guide tab 224b of the latch release bar 224 and a spring 226 are slidably positioned so as to guide the movement of the latch release bar 224 within the sliding channel 210a while urging the latch release bar rightward away from the unbolting lever 29.
The unlocking mechanism 220 is composed of a sliding contact shoulder 222 fixedly attached above a latch release bar 224 that is slidably positioned in the sliding channel 210a. The latch release bar 224 is formed with a cam portion 224a that engages with an upper portion of the unbolting lever 29 when the latch releaser bar 224 is moved leftward along the sliding channel 210a. In the ready state, the unbolting lever 29 is positioned adjacent to but not in contact with the latch release bar 224. The latch release bar 224 is movable leftward to the unlocking position against resistance of the spring 226 which is positioned to return the latch release bar 224 rightward into a ready position. In this second embodiment, the sliding contact shoulder 222 is formed with an angled portion (i.e., approximately 45 degrees) that is designed to slidably contact with the door lever 12. As would be understood by those of skill in the art, the angled portion of the sliding contact shoulder 222 may be formed with any other angular position or shape (i.e., a circular, semi-circular, curved) that would accommodate sliding contact with the door lever 12 to then operate the latch release bar 224 in accordance with the present invention disclosed herein.
A locking neck portion 216 of the deadbolt 22 is formed to engage the locking mechanism 28 or other similar mechanism to keep the deadbolt 22 in the locked position under tension of the deadbolt spring 26. In at least one embodiment, the locking neck portion 216 is composed of a portion of the length of the deadbolt 22 that has a narrower diameter than the remainder of the length of the deadbolt 22. The locking neck portion 216 may be formed by machining. The locking mechanism 28 is formed on the door unbolting lever 29 to extend into the bore 219 through the lever slot 210b. The unbolting lever 29 is hinged in the lever slot 210b and mounted via a mounting bolt (not shown) with the unbolting lever spring 217 in a compressed state, wherein the lever spring 217 rotatively urges the unbolting lever 29 and thus the locking mechanism 28 into the bore 219. As the deadbolt 22 slides into the bore 219, the locking neck portion 216 will pass by the lever slot 210b and engage with the locking mechanism 28. Pushing down on the button portion 29a rotatively disengages the locking mechanism 28 from the locking neck portion 216, which then releases the deadbolt 22 and the compression of the deadbolt spring 26. The deadbolt 22 is released but retained within the deadbolt housing 210.
To lock the bolt, the removable key or tool 215 is inserted through the keyhole slot 214a in the tamper resistant plate 214 pushing against the activator 22a of the deadbolt 22 to slide the deadbolt 22 through the bore 219 in the assembly housing 210 under tension of the deadbolt spring 26, until it is locked into position when the locking neck portion 216 of the bolt 22 engages with the locking mechanism feature 28 of the door unbolting lever 29.
To unlock the bolt via the operation of the door lever 12, the door lever 12 is rotated as normal as to contact the sliding contact shoulder 222. Further rotation of the door lever 12 then slidably pushes the unlocking mechanism 220 via the latch release bar 224 along the sliding channel 210a, which correspondingly pushes the cam portion 224a engaging with the upper portion of the unbolting lever 29. The hinged unbolting lever 29 rotatively moves thus disengaging the locking mechanism 28 from the locking neck portion 216 of the deadbolt 22.
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In other variations of this embodiment of the unlocking mechanism 100, mirror images of all the components of the unlocking mechanism may be constructed such that the unlocking mechanism may operate with the sliding bar configured to move in a rightward direction relative to a deadbolt device to which it would be attached. Similarly, the deadbolt device may be constructed as a mirror image so as to operate and move in the direction to the deadbolt device employed with the present invention as described above. Such mirror image construction of the unlocking mechanism and deadbolt device allows the present invention to be ambidextrous, namely the present invention may be use on clockwise and counter-clockwise (i.e., left-handed or right-handed) door levers. With respect to the various screws used throughout the invention for mounting, setting or otherwise affixing various elements of the present invention, various sizes, dimensions and types of such screws may be used as would appropriate for their specific application as would be understood by those of skill in the art.
The foregoing discussion discloses and describes merely exemplary embodiments of the present invention. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from such discussion, that various changes, modifications and variations can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the present disclosure. Furthermore, while exemplary embodiments have been expressed herein, others practiced in the art may be aware of other designs or uses of the present invention. Thus, while the present invention has been described in connection with exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood that many modifications in both design and use will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, and this application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations thereof. It is therefore manifestly intended that this invention be limited only by the present disclosure and the equivalents thereof.
This application claims priority to the U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/905,568 filed on Sep. 25, 2019, and claims priority as a continuation-in-part to U.S. application Ser. No. 16/139,827 filed on Sep. 24, 2018, the entire contents and disclosure of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20210079694 A1 | Mar 2021 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62905568 | Sep 2019 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 16139827 | Sep 2018 | US |
Child | 17032415 | US |