Patent Application
20130047686
This invention relates to walk-in cold rooms, and specifically to a lockable strike for walk-in cold rooms.
Walk-in cold rooms, such as walk-in coolers, freezers, or other refrigerated environments, are common in various industries, including supermarkets and grocery stores, commercial kitchens, and other food service facilities. They typically have one or more access doors for entry and exit from the environment. Since these environments are often used to store valuable contents, such as expensive products and/or large quantities of products, it is typically desirable that the access door(s) can be locked to control and/or restrict access to such contents. For example, to control access, the availability of a keyed locking option may be desirable so that keys can be provided to personnel who are authorized to access the cold-room environment. As another example, to restrict access during certain times, the availability of an alternate or additional locking option may be desirable so that even authorized personnel cannot access the cold-room environment. There may also be other reasons to control and/or restrict access to walk-in cold rooms such as safety or maintenance.
A problem with these locks is that in order for the locks to be built to endure the loads placed upon them, the lock must be ruggedly built. This criteria typically results in a lock strike being made of all metal components. Metal components however are thermally conductive, resulting in the lock strike becoming cold. The coldness of the lock strike may create condensation, which may cause a safety hazard on the floor should it drip, or cause the lock strike to become inoperable should it freeze.
Accordingly, it is seen that a need exists for a lockable strike for walk-in cold rooms that is strong yet restricts thermal conductivity to the exterior components of the lockable strike. It is to the provision of such therefore that exemplary embodiments of the present invention are primarily directed.
A lockable strike for walk-in cold rooms comprises a housing including a bottom mounting plate and a guide bridge extending from the bottom mounting plate defining a guide channel, and a locking mechanism including a reciprocally moving deadbolt and a handle coupled to the deadbolt so that movement of the handle causes the movement of the deadbolt. The reciprocally moving deadbolt being mounted for reciprocal movement within the guide channel of the guide bridge. The guide bridge being mounted to abut the deadbolt should a door opening pressure be applied to the deadbolt.
With reference to the drawings,
The lockable strike 100 also includes a knob 120 that is at least partially positioned within the well 104. The knob 120 includes one or more gripping portions 121 that facilitate rotational operation of the knob 120. Knob gripping portions 121 include one or more holes 122 therethrough which are alignable with housing holes, the holes are all aligned along a lock path. It is noted that, among other benefits, the positioning of the knob 120 within the well 104 can provide an effective seal that prevents dirt, debris, and/or other undesirable materials from entering the housing 104 and, for example, contaminating the walk-in cold room, or allowing an undesirable loss of cooling from the cold room.
A cylinder lock 130 is positioned within a central portion of the knob 120. The cylinder lock 130 provides another manner of locking the lockable strike 100. The lockable strike 100 includes a reciprocating tongue or deadbolt 110, which can be extended and retracted within the housing 102 by operation of the knob 120 and also locked in one or more of these positions. As will be apparent, the deadbolt 110 can facilitate the locking or unlocking capability of the lockable strike 100. The term deadbolt as used herein has a very specific definition, which is a lock bolt that is positively driven by a handle, knob or other device, in other words, the deadbolt must be physically forced through a handle or knob to move it from one position to the other. This prevents someone from merely inserting a tool between the door and jamb and forcing the deadbolt to a retracted position by contacting and pushing upon the bolt with the tool. Deadbolts are not spring loaded and can not be retracted by force against the bolt when in the engaged position, although a spring may be coupled to the deadbolt simply to reduce the amount of force necessary to actuate the handle. By preventing retraction the deadbolt provides a security measure on a closed door. The term deadbolt does not include a slam latch which is a latching device with a spring loaded bolt or tongue that retracts upon striking the door jamb or strike and extends when the bolt is released.
Moreover, as depicted in
Also depicted in
Therefore, in light of the foregoing, it can be seen that exemplary embodiments of the lockable strike described herein can allow a user to control and/or restrict access to walk-in cold rooms. For example, a user can control access to a cold room environment using the lockable strike 100 by providing one or more keys to the cylinder lock 130 to personnel who are authorized to access the cold room, thus limiting access to these authorized personnel. Yet, as another example, a user can restrict access to the cold room using the lockable strike 100 by installing a locking device 202 through the housing holes 106 and the knob hole 122 thereby restricting movement of the knob 120 while the deadbolt 110 is in a locked configuration so that even authorized personnel with a key to the cylinder lock 130 cannot access the cold-room environment. Additionally, as discussed above, a user can control or restrict the lockable strike 100 to an unlocked configuration by the foregoing methods via the cylinder lock 130 and/or the knob 120 and a locking device 202.
It should also be understood and/or otherwise apparent that such elements of exemplary embodiments of the invention may be constructed in numerous forms, shapes, sizes, etc. of numerous materials, compositions, formations, etc., using numerous methods, processes, procedures, etc. For example, exemplary embodiments of the invention may include elements that are constructed of plastic or other non-metallic materials, which may, for example, also offer the benefit of reduced thermal conduction (e.g., between the cold room and the adjacent environment) and lower the costs to manufacture. It should also be understood that the strike may be releasably mounted to the door jamb for safety reasons, as with a threaded rotatable knob extending to the strike from the interior of the cool room.
It should be understood that as used herein the term lateral, laterally, laterally moving, lateral movement or the like is intended to denote a straight, sideways movement of the deadbolt and is not intended to include a pivotal movement of the deadbolt even if such pivotal movement incorporates a lateral component or offset.
It should be understood that the foregoing descriptions merely relate to exemplary, illustrative embodiments of the invention. Therefore, it should also be understood that various modifications may be made to exemplary embodiments described herein that are within the scope of the invention, which will be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the disclosure herein. Furthermore, various elements of the described exemplary embodiments of the invention may be known in the art or recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art based on the disclosure herein.
This is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/751,859 filed May 22, 2007 and entitled Lockable Strike for Walk-in Cold Rooms.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 11751859 | May 2007 | US |
| Child | 13663661 | US |
