Patent Application
20050252257
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The applicant no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The patent or application file contains at least one black and white photograph as a drawing. Copies of this patent or patent application publication with black and white drawing(s) will be provided by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee.
This patent application relates to padlocks, and in particular, to tamper resistant padlocks.
Padlocks are used for securing all manner of openings against unauthorized entry. Many padlock designs use lock shackles which pass through apertures in hasps. Also, padlock designs have been proposed or used in which a lock shaft passes through apertures in the hasp but which locks retain the shaft internal to the lock body, to help protect the lock and hasps from being defeated by cutting the hasps or the lock shaft or shackles.
Many padlock designs can be breached by using a metal drill to drill thru the padlock body or housing, and then into the locking mechanism itself. To prevent successful drilling of a lock by a penetrating drill bit, some locks have been shielded by hardened balls such as metallic ball bearings. In such designs, if the drill does penetrate the lock body, when the drill reaches the balls, the balls simply spin, and cutting by the drill bit is effectively stopped. But, such a design is also defeated if the drill bit is able to slide past the balls to find non-rotating lock body material, or to push the ball firmly against a ball socket sufficiently to stop the ball from rolling.
It would be desirable to provide an improved padlock in which the use of drill defeating structures is carefully placed and controlled so as to minimize or prevent the possibility of a drill actually piercing through a shield, especially a shield including ball bearings, so that a padlock could not be defeated.
In order to enable the reader to attain a more complete appreciation of the invention, and of the novel features and the advantages thereof, attention is directed to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The foregoing figures, being merely exemplary, contain various elements that may be present or omitted from actual implementations depending upon the circumstances. An attempt has been made to draw the figures in a way that illustrates at least those elements that are significant for an understanding of the various embodiments and aspects of an improved tamper resistant padlock. However, various other elements of a padlock, especially as applied for different variations of the functional components illustrated, as well as different embodiments of artistic elements such as a visual domed design, may be utilized in order to provide a robust tamper resistant padlock.
As seen by comparison of
Padlock 10 has a lock body 30 having a tamper resistant outer shell 32. In one embodiment outer shell 32 is hardened, such as by tempering of a suitable high strength steel alloy, to have a high degree of hardness, so as to resist drilling In one embodiment outer shell 32 is providing having an outer shell surface 34 with a Rockwell hardness of at least 59. To further resist hardness, the outer shell 32 may be provided in a domed shape, or a smooth surfaced domed shape. In one embodiment, the outer shell 32 may be provided having an upper portion 36 having a substantially hemispherical surface shape, and a lower portion 38 having a substantially cylindrical surface shape. As seen in
As seen in
At the endwall 62 a shield plate 72 is provided. The shield plate 72 is securely affixed to the body 30, such as via one or more fasteners 74 to the endwall 62. The shield plate 72 includes a capture plate portion 80 extending into the recessed chamber portion 66 of the receiving bore 60. In one embodiment, the shield plate 72, or at least the capture plate portion 80 thereof, is provided in a magnetic material. In one embodiment the capture plate portion 80 is provided in a strongly magnetic material that attracts and magnetically secures a plurality of metallic ball bearings 82. In one embodiment, the metallic ball bearings are hardened, so as to be difficult to cut with conventional metal cutting tools such as drills. In one embodiment, to thwart thieves, the plurality of hardened ball bearings 82 are rotatably and magnetically attractable by, and are thus secured to and by the capture plate portion 80 of the shield plate 72. As seen in
A lock housing 92 is provided in the body 30. The lock housing 92 is defined by at least one sidewall 94 extending from the outer shell 32 into the base 30. A lock mechanism 90 is operably secured in the lock housing 92. The lock mechanism 90 includes a key mechanism 96 and a moveable lock shaft 18.
As indicated in
As shown in
Turning now to
Adjacent to the mouth 156, one or more locking flange receiving features 160 are provided. In one embodiment the locking flange receiving features 160 can be provided by using one or more cylindrical posts 162 securely affixed to the body 30 adjacent to the mouth 156. A shown in
The locking mechanism may, in one embodiment be provided in the form of a Model T-100 cylinder from MUL-T-LOCK of Israel, a leading lock mechanism supplier. However, a variety of other vendors, and locking mechanisms, may be supplied in a tamper resistant padlock 10 as taught herein.
As shown in
For further refinement, the padlock 10 may be provided with a lock housing 92 having an inwardly sloped flange 180.
It is to be appreciated that the various aspects and embodiments of a tamper resistant padlock device as described herein is an important improvement in the state of the art. The tamper resistant padlock is simple, robust, reliable, and susceptible to use in a variety of applications. Although only a few exemplary embodiments have been described in detail, various details are sufficiently set forth in the drawings and in the specification provided herein to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention(s), which need not be further described by additional writing in this detailed description.
Importantly, the aspects and embodiments described and claimed herein may be modified from those shown without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages provided by this invention, and may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. Therefore, the embodiments presented herein are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. As such, this disclosure is intended to cover the structures described herein and not only structural equivalents thereof, but also equivalent structures. Numerous modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings.
This invention is related to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/570,249, filed May 12, 2004 entitled PADLOCK, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60570249 | May 2004 | US |
