Patent Grant
10422164
This utility model relates to a lock body, to be specific, a handle lock body for sliding doors. It belongs to the technical field of locks and lock accessories. This utility model also relates to a kind of assembly for door locks, to be specific, a kind of strike plate and strike box assembly for door locks which is adjustable to improve fit with a door frame.
Most lock bodies used in existing sliding doors have a dead bolt structure, and to enhance tamper resistance, most of them are provided with hooks extending towards both sides of the dead bolt and the contact of hooks with a lock body panel is used to achieve reset. However, applicant has found in practice that existing lock bodies easily cause stuck hooks due to their inability to automatically reset during use and that the dead bolt is prone to deflection after long-term use.
In addition, the lock body used in existing sliding doors is usually provided with a popable draw ring, but as the lock body is made of metal, a harsh metal sound will be produced when the draw ring pops up, which is inconducive to maintaining user comfort.
After search, it is discovered that a Chinese utility model patent titled “An Electric Lock for Sliding Doors” (Application Number 201020119517X and authorized Publication Number CN201661139U) adopts the structure of combined sliding of sliding column and chute to achieve hook stretching and retracting, but a big force is required during the process of thrusting and pulling the hook, which will cause serious wear to sliding column and chute under long-term contact and friction.
Furthermore, during the installation of a door lock, a strike box inserted into the door frame is typically mounted first at a position of the door frame corresponding to the door lock. Then a strike plate is mounted outside the strike box, so as to affix the strike box.
The applicant found in practice that, on the one hand, it is very difficult to align the centerline of the strike box with that of the door lock bolt during installation; on the other hand, the door body will droop due to the door weight or other factors after use for some time, leading to the deviation between the centerline of door lock bolt and that of the strike box. After the occurrence of the above two problems, it is necessary to fine-tune the vertical position of the strike box. However, the existing structure of strike plate and strike box assembly, coupled with the impossibility of freely adjusting the position of fastening hole in a door frame after the fastening hole has been set, makes it impossible to fine-tune the position of the strike box after it is properly affixed on the door frame. Although it is a small problem, it cannot be effectively solved. After search, the existing technologies represented by a Chinese utility model titled “A Mute Strike Box” (Application Number 201320860057.X and authorized Publication Number CN203640400U) have not made effective improvements with respect to the above problem.
The technical problem to be solved by this invention is overcoming the problems in the existing technologies and providing a handle lock body for sliding doors, which can realize automatic reset of the hook and prevent it being stuck.
A second technical problem to be solved by this invention is on the basis of solving the primary technical problem, avoiding the harsh metal impact sound when the draw ring pops up.
With this structure, under the action of the elastomer and limit post, the hooks can automatically reset when the dead bolt draws back and timely pop up when the dead lock extends out, so as to prevent the hooks getting stuck by the lock body panel.
Preferably, the hooks have a strip-shaped sheet body, one end of the hooks extends out a first protrusion towards the other hook to contact the elastomer and a second protrusion towards the direction against the other hook to contact the corresponding limit post, the other end of the hooks extends out a hook-shaped part towards the direction against the other hook; the hinge point is located near where the hooks are adjacent to the second protrusion.
Preferably, a limit bar is set in the dead bolt shell along the access direction of the dead bolt and the two hooks are distributed symmetrically on both sides of the limit bar.
Preferably, the drive mechanism comprises a dial wheel with a handle and a thrust plate to match the handle, the thrust plate is parallel to the plane of hooks; the dead lock shell is perpendicular to the plane of hooks and to the section of side panel and forms a “C” shape, the plane of hooks is perpendicular to the side panel; the opening end of the “C” shape clamps and is fixedly connected with the thrust plate and its closing end faces the outside of lock shell.
More preferably, the opening end of the “C” shape is permanently connected with the thrust plate with a set of rivets, and the tops of the rivets lie on the same side of the dead lock shell. This can ensure that the dead bolt will not deviate during movement. More preferably, when the dead lock is at the second state and the hooks extend out of the dead lock shell, the second protrusion of the hooks is clamped between the limit post and thrust plate. This can function as spacing and prevent excessive rotation of the hooks. More preferably, a gasket is provided between the said dial wheel and lock shell.
More preferably, the thrust plate has a first slotted hole as a chute, the lock shell has a first positioning column in the first slotted hole, the first positioning column is provided with a sleeve circumferentially to contact the inner wall of the first slotted hole; the said first slotted hole extends along the access direction of the dead lock. In this way, the dead bolt moves smoother and the wear to the first positioning column is reduced, thus its service life is extended.
Preferably, a draw ring and draw ring control mechanism are also set in the lock shell; the side panel is provided with a through hole for the access of draw ring; the side of the draw ring facing the lock shell is permanently connected with a draw ring thrust box, the draw ring thrust box has a second slotted hole as a chute in the middle, the lock shell has a second positioning column in the second slotted hole; the lock shell also has a bracket permanently fixed with at least two first sliding columns, which are parallel to and lie on both sides of the second slotted hole, the draw ring thrust box has a channel for the first sliding columns to pass through, the first sliding columns are provided with an elastomer circumferentially with one end butting the outer wall of the draw ring thrust box and the other end butting the bracket. Thus, both the first sliding columns and the second slotted hole are the movement track of the draw ring, which can ensure the access levelness of the draw ring and prevent it getting stuck by the lock shell due to deviation.
To address the second technical problem, the second slotted hole preferably has an anti-collision mute strip at the end. This reduces the stress of the second positioning column, extend the service life of the lock body; more importantly, this can avoid the harsh metal impact sound when the second positioning column collides with the second slotted hole and make the draw ring keep mute upon popup, which will help improve user comfort.
More preferably, the draw ring control mechanism comprises a cylindrical part, a draw ring positioning plate and a second sliding column; the cylindrical part is arranged along the access direction of the draw ring, one end of the cylindrical part is exposed out of the side panel, and the other end is provided with a channel for the second sliding column to pass through, the second sliding column is fixed on the base of the lock shell, an elastomer is set circumferentially on the second sliding column with one end butting the cylindrical part and the other end butting the base; the draw ring positioning plate comprises a first straight bar and a second straight bar, one end of the first straight bar is hinged with the lock shell and the other end hinged with the sidewall of cylindrical part, the central axes of the two hinge points are parallel to each other; one end of the second straight bar is permanently connected with the middle of the first straight bar and the other end has a slip hook, and the draw ring thrust box has a notch to match the slip hook.
More preferably, the draw ring positioning plate has an axially symmetric pattern, the first and second straight bars are vertical to each other. This makes it unnecessary to distinguish the direction of the positioning plate during assembly and facilitates assembly.
More preferably, the lock shell has a square bar hole at the central axis of dial wheel and mounting holes on both sides of the square bar hole to match machine screw and/or wood screw. This facilitates the assembly of small split buttons. More preferably, the lower part of the lock shell is also provided with a handle mounting hole, the lock shell has a handle hole on both sides of the handle mounting hole. This makes it easy to install a big handle suitable for the disabled, as well as European and American handles.
By applying the structure of this invention, the hooks inside the dead bolt can realize automatic reset and prevent hooks getting stuck by the side panel of the lock body; in the meantime, the draw ring can keep mute upon popup, which will help improve user comfort.
A further technical problem to be solved by this utility model is: overcoming the problems in the existing technologies and providing a kind of strike plate and strike box assembly for door locks to facilitate the fine-tuning of the vertical position of the strike box and provide convenience for the alignment process of strike box and door lock bolt.
To solve the technical problem, the technical scheme of this invention is described. Structurally, the strike plate is permanently connected with the panel of strike box by virtue of the joint between the slot and clip bar. When the fastener connects the strike plate with the door frame, the panel of strike box is fixed and uneasy to slide under the action of the joint structure; when it is necessary to fine-tune the vertical position of the strike box, the fastener is slightly loosened so that the strike plate is slightly loose from the panel of strike box, then the vertical position of strike box is fine-tuned to meet the requirements, after that, the strike plate is fastened with the panel of strike box and the fastener is tightened. The whole fine-tuning process is very simple and convenient.
Preferably, the slots on both sides of the same slotted hole or long groove are symmetrically distributed; the clip bars on the sidewall of the same fastening hole are symmetrically distributed. Preferably, the slots are arranged transversely and parallel to one another; the clip bars are arranged transversely. Preferably, the box of the strike box takes a rectangular shape and its one side opens, the panel of the strike box is rectangular and permanently connected with the opened side of the box. Preferably, the slotted hole or long groove lies on both ends of the panel at the position which reaches beyond the box. Preferably, the fastening hole is tapered. Preferably, the panel and strike plate respectively have a rectangular hole in the middle.
This utility model is skillfully constructed, adopts simple joint structure to effectively solve the problem of fine-tuning the strike box, facilitates fine-tuning of the vertical position of the strike box and brings convenience to the alignment process of the strike box and door lock bolt.
Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a lock body for sliding doors which avoids making excessive noise during operation.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for adjusting a strike plate relative to a lock body to allow the lock body to precisely fit in a door frame for easy and reliable operation of a sliding door.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a lock body for a sliding door which is easy to use, even by disabled individuals and provides reliable operation to lock and unlock the sliding door.
Other further objects of the present invention will become apparent from a careful reading of the included drawing figures, the claims and detailed description of the invention.
Further details of this invention are given by referring to the drawings combined with embodiments in the following pages, but this invention is not limited to the given embodiments.
Lock Body Embodiment
As shown in
The hooks 4 have a strip-shaped sheet body, one end of the hooks 4 extends out a first protrusion 4-1 towards the other hook 4 to contact the elastomer 5-1 and a second protrusion 4-2 towards the direction against the other hook 4 to contact the corresponding limit post 6, the other end of the hooks 4 extends out a hook-shaped part 4-3 towards the direction against the other hook 4; the hinge point A is located near where the hooks 4 are adjacent to the second protrusion 4-2.
A limit bar 3-1 is set in the dead bolt 3 shell along the access direction of the dead bolt 3 and the two hooks 4 are distributed symmetrically on both sides of the limit bar 3-1.
The drive mechanism comprises a dial wheel 7 with a handle 7-1 and a thrust plate 8 to match the handle 7-1, the thrust plate 8 is parallel to the plane of hooks 4; the dead lock 3 shell is perpendicular to the plane of hooks 4 and to the section of side panel 2 and forms a “C” shape, the plane of hooks 4 is perpendicular to the side panel 2; the opening end of the “C” shape clamps and is fixedly connected with the thrust plate 8 and its closing end faces the outside of lock shell 1.
The opening end of the said “C” shape is permanently connected with the thrust plate 8 with a set of rivets 9, and the tops of the rivets 9 lie on the same side of the dead lock 3 shell; when the dead lock 3 is at the second state and the hooks 4 extend out of the dead lock 3 shell, the second protrusion of the hooks 4 is clamped between the limit post 6 and thrust plate 8; a gasket 7-2 is provided between the dial wheel 7 and lock shell 1.
The thrust plate 8 has a first slotted hole 8-1 as a chute, the lock shell 1 has a first positioning column 1-1 in the first slotted hole 8-1, the first positioning column 1-1 is provided with a sleeve 8-2 circumferentially to contact the inner wall of the first slotted hole 8-1; the first slotted hole 8-1 extends along the access direction of the dead lock 3.
A draw ring 9 and draw ring control mechanism are also set in the lock shell 1; the side panel 2 has a through hole for the access of draw ring 9; the side of the draw ring 9 facing the lock shell 1 is permanently connected with a draw ring thrust box 10, the draw ring thrust box 10 is provided with a second slotted hole 10-1 as a chute in the middle, the lock shell 1 has a second positioning column 1-2 in the second slotted hole 10-1; the lock shell 1 also has a bracket 1-3 permanently connected with at least two first sliding columns 1-4, which are parallel to and lie on both sides of the second slotted hole 10-1, the draw ring thrust box 10 has a channel for the first sliding columns 1-4 to pass through, the first sliding columns are provided with an elastomer 5-2 circumferentially with one end butting the outer wall of the draw ring thrust box 10 and the other end butting the bracket 1-3.
The draw ring control mechanism comprises a cylindrical part 11-1, a draw ring positioning plate 11-2 and a second sliding column 11-3; the cylindrical part 11-1 is arranged along the access direction of the draw ring 9, one end of the cylindrical part 11-1 is exposed out of the side panel 2, and the other end is provided with a channel for the second sliding column 11-3 to pass through, the second sliding column 11-3 is fixed on the base 1-5 of the lock shell 1, an elastomer 5-3 is set circumferentially on the second sliding column 11-3 with one end butting the cylindrical part 11-1 and the other end butting the base 1-5; the draw ring positioning plate 11-2 comprises a first straight bar 11-21 and a second straight bar 11-22, one end of the first straight bar 11-21 is hinged with the lock shell 1 and the other end hinged with the sidewall of cylindrical part 11-1, the central axes of the two hinge points B,C are parallel to each other; one end of the second straight bar 11-22 is permanently connected with the middle of the first straight bar 11-21 and the other end has a slip hook 11-23, and the draw ring thrust box 10 has a notch 10-2 to match the slip hook 11-23.
The draw ring positioning plate 11-2 has an axially symmetric pattern, the first and second straight bars 11-21, 11-22 are vertical to each other. The end of the second slotted hole 10-1 is provided with an anti-collision mute strip 10-3 to avoid the harsh metal impact sound when the second positioning column collides with the second slotted hole and make the draw ring keep mute upon popup, so as to help improve user comfort.
The lock shell 1 has a square bar hole 12-1 at the central axis of dial wheel 7 and mounting holes 12-2 on both sides of the square bar hole 12-1 to match machine screw and/or wood screw. The lower part of the lock shell 1 is also provided with a handle mounting hole 12-3 (for mounting handle 14), the lock shell 1 has a handle hole 12-4 on both sides of the handle mounting hole.
All elastomers in this embodiment are springs. In other embodiments, the elastomer could be a resilient mass of rubber or other resilient material.
The basic operating process of the lock body in this embodiment is as follows:
(1) Dead bolt: Under the action of a small external button 13, the dial wheel rotates and drives the thrust plate through the handle, then the thrust plate drives the dead bolt to enter and exit from the side panel. In this process, under the action of the elastomer and limit post, the hooks can automatically reset when the dead bolt draws back and timely pop up when the dead lock extends out.
(2) Draw ring: When the draw ring draws back into the lock shell, the slip hook of draw ring positioning plate joints the notch of the draw ring thrust box to play the positioning role; when popup of the draw ring is required, the end of cylindrical part is pressed at the side plate, then the cylindrical part drives the positioning plate to rotate around the hinge point B, disengaging the slip hook from the notch, the draw ring thrust box pops up the draw ring under the action of the elastomer and keeps silent.
Adjustable Strike Plate Embodiment
As shown in
Both upper and lower ends of the panel 101-2 reach beyond a second side of the box 101-1 non-parallel with the first side of the box 101-1. The panel 101-2 has a long groove 101-3 (shown open at an end, but optionally closed to be a slotted hole) on its upper and lower ends most preferably. The length direction of the long groove 101-3 extends vertically and coincides with the length direction of the panel 101-2. The long groove 101-3 has a set of slots 103-1 respectively on at least one side and preferably on both sides of the groove 101-3.
The strike plate 102 is provided with a fastening hole 102-1 on both upper and lower ends to correspond to the corresponding long groove 101-3. The fastening hole 102-1 has a sidewall 102-2 extending frusto-conically from the plane of the strike plate 102. The sidewall 102-2 has at least one clip bar 103-2 (or more clip bars) in the form of a slightly raised rib at a position able to come into contact with the corresponding long groove 101-3. The clip bar 103-2 joints into one of the corresponding slots 103-1. The strike plate 102 is preferably permanently (but selectively loosely or tightly) connected with the door frame and panel 101-2 by fasteners. Alternatively, the plate 102 can be separable from the panel 101-2 and door frame. The panel 101-2 is clamped between the strike plate 102 and door frame; the fasteners pass through the fastening hole 102-1 in the strike plate 102 and the long groove 101-3 in the panel 101-2 in turn.
The slots 103-1 on at least one side, but preferably both sides of the same long groove 101-3 are symmetrically distributed; the clip bars 103-2 on the sidewall 102-2 of the same fastening hole 102-1 are on at least one side of the sidewall 102-2 corresponding with the slots 103-1, and preferably on both sides, and preferably symmetrically distributed.
The slots 103-1 are preferably arranged transversely and parallel to one another; the clip bars 103-2 are arranged transversely to match with at least one slot 103-1. The orientations of the slots 103-1 and bars 103-2 are similar and preferably horizontal, but optionally non-horizontal. The sizes of the slots 103-1 and the bars 103-2 are similar such that the bars 103-2 can fit into one of the slots 103-1.
The box 101-1 of the strike box 101 preferably takes a rectangular shape at the hole in its first side. The panel 101-2 of the strike box 101 is preferably rectangular and permanently connected with the opened side of the box 101-1. The long groove 101-3 lies on both upper and lower ends of the panel 101-2 at the position which reaches beyond the box 101-1. The fastening hole 102-1 is preferably tapered frusto-conically. The panel 101-2 and strike plate 102 respectively have a rectangular lock hole 104-1, 104-2 in the middle.
In this embodiment, the strike plate 102 is securely connected with the panel 101-2 of strike box 101 by virtue of the joint between the slot 103-1 and clip bar 103-2. When the fastener connects the strike plate 102 with the door frame, the panel 101-2 of strike box 101 is fixed and uneasy to slide under the action of the joint structure. When it is necessary to fine-tune the vertical position of the strike box 101, the fastener is slightly loosened so that the strike plate 102 is slightly loose from the panel 101-2 of strike box 101. Then the vertical position of strike box 101 is fine-tuned to meet the requirements. After that, the strike plate 102 is fastened with the panel 101-2 of strike box 101 and the fastener is tightened. The whole fine-tuning process is very simple and convenient.
This disclosure is provided to reveal a preferred embodiment of the invention and a best mode for practicing the invention. Having thus described the invention in this way, it should be apparent that various different modifications can be made to the preferred embodiment without departing from the scope and spirit of this invention disclosure. When structures are identified as a means to perform a function, the identification is intended to include all structures which can perform the function specified. When structures of this invention are identified as being coupled together, such language should be interpreted broadly to include the structures being coupled directly together or coupled together through intervening structures. Such coupling could be permanent or temporary and either in a rigid fashion or in a fashion which allows pivoting, sliding or other relative motion while still providing some form of attachment, unless specifically restricted.
This application claims benefit under Title 35, United States Code § 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/105,469 filed on Jan. 20, 2015.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 573934 | Trepte | Dec 1896 | A |
| 1083173 | Zeckhauser | Dec 1913 | A |
| 2668073 | Collar | Feb 1954 | A |
| 2720774 | Gehrie | Oct 1955 | A |
| 3175376 | Cantwell | Mar 1965 | A |
| 3582119 | Woodworth | Jun 1971 | A |
| 4566725 | Klein | Jan 1986 | A |
| 4615550 | Abate | Oct 1986 | A |
| 5009089 | Lin | Apr 1991 | A |
| 5516162 | Takaishi | May 1996 | A |
| 7836737 | Lin | Nov 2010 | B2 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20160208526 A1 | Jul 2016 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62105469 | Jan 2015 | US |
