The present invention relates to a key for use in a cylinder lock with a rotatable key plug having a profiled key hole or keyway, said key comprising:
Such a key with an undercut groove is previously known, e.g. from U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,717 (Widén) or U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,865 (Widén). Such keys have proven to be very useful in that they provide an improved security. The key profile is quite distinguished from conventional keys, and it is rather difficult to copy such keys. Moreover, they permit a great variation of the cross-sectional profile, which is a great advantage.
However, over time, there is a constant need for further distinguishing profiles and many more possible variations thereof.
A further object of the invention is to make it even more difficult to copy such profiled keys with ordinary lock smith tools.
In order to achieve these objects, the undercut portion of the longitudinal profile groove, at its innermost part inside said ridge portion, is extended or expanded downwardly, preferably substantially in a direction in parallel to said side surface of the key blade, into a longitudinal pocket having opposite lateral wall portions and a lowermost transverse end wall, which is substantially flat or slightly curved, and which is substantially parallel to a lower edge portion of the key blade and faces upwardly in a direction in a central plane of the key blade.
The inside wall of the ridge portion may be substantially parallel to a side surface of the key blade, so that the ridge portion forms a massive and strong material portion extending in parallel to the side surface of the key blade. The pocket inside the ridge portion may have a substantially rectangular cross-section, a substantially circular cross-section, with a relatively large curvature, or some other configuration.
In this way, the material of the key blade is used in an optimum way, and a new kind of profile is obtained, and it will be very difficult to copy such keys, especially if they are produced by stamping and milling. A cutting disc is normally not enough. Rather, it may be necessary to use broaching tools and a well-controlled use of such tools in order to secure exact dimensions of the pocket-like extension of the groove. This is of great importance for key control and high security to the end user of the key.
With such a configuration of the undercut groove, many advantages are obtained at the same time, as will be explained further below.
Other preferable features are stated in the dependent claims and will appear from the detailed description below.
The invention will be described more fully below with reference to the appended drawings.
The operation of the lock is more readily understood from the cross-sectional view in
The full profile of the key 20 (of prior art design) is illustrated in
The prior art key blade shown in
The undercut portion 29 of the longitudinal groove 22 has many advantages, as explained in the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,717 (Widén), especially with regard to increasing the number of possible profile variations, improved resistance against picking the lock and high security against unauthorized key copying.
According to the present invention and as illustrated in
In
Also, in the embodiments shown in
TheAs illustrated in FIG. 7, the downwardly extended pocket-like configuration 135 of the modified undercut groove 122, is (in this particular embodiment) substantially rectangular in cross-section, with opposite lateral walls 132 and 133 being parallel to each other, and a lowermost transverse end wall 134, being parallel to the lower edge surface 127 of the one piece key blade and facing upwardly in the direction of the central plane A of the one piece key blade. The one piece key blade 120 has the step-like transition formed by an external side wall surface 123 at the lower part of the one piece key blade 120 that is in a plane which is parallel to an upper side surface 1123′ of the one piece key blade 120 at an upper part thereof, above said longitudinal profile groove 122. The lowermost transverse end wall 134 of the pocket 135 faces upwardly towards an upper wall surface 144 that is formed by a projecting surface 143 on the upper side surface 1123′.
The innermost lateral wall 132 of the pocket-like extension 135 adjoins with the inner wall 124 of the undercut groove, whereas the opposite lateral wall 133 forms the inside wall of the ridge portion 128, in parallel to the external side surface 123 of the key blade.
Thus, the surfaces 123, 133 and 132 are substantially parallel to each other. The one piece key blade 120 includes an undercut portion 129 of the longitudinal profile groove 122 which, at an innermost part, extends substantially in the same direction as the vertical direction (VD) into a longitudinal, substantially uniformly wide pocket 135 having a uniform width with opposite inner and outer substantially parallel lateral wall surface portions 132, 133. The undercut portion or longitudinal profile groove 122 defines, above said lower part with said undercut portion, an opening vertical width (w), as measured along a vertical direction (VD) in parallel to the external side wall surface 123 of the one piece key blade 120 between an upper wall 144 of the longitudinal profile groove (122) and the ridge portion 128.
According to a first aspect of the invention, the undercut portion 129 of the longitudinal profile groove 122, at an innermost part, extends substantially in the same direction as the vertical direction (VD) into a longitudinal substantially uniformly wide pocket 135 having a uniform width with opposite inner and outer substantially parallel lateral wall surface portions 132, 133 wherein the inner wall surface 124 of the longitudinal profile groove 122 adjoins the inner lateral wall surface portion 132 of the pocket 135. The inner lateral wall surface portion 132 of the pocket 135 extends downwardly to a lowermost transverse end wall surface 134, which is substantially flat or slightly curved, and which is substantially parallel to a lowermost edge wall surface 127 of the one piece key blade 120 and which faces upwardly in a direction towards the upper wall surface 144 of the longitudinal profile groove 122 with the opposite lateral wall surface portions 132, 133 of the pocket 135 being substantially parallel to the external side wall surface 123 of the one piece key blade 120.
According to a second aspect of the invention, the undercut portion 129 of the longitudinal profile groove 122, at an innermost part, is expanded downwardly into a longitudinal widened pocket 1353. The longitudinal widened pocket 1353 is formed by opposite inner and outer lateral wall surface portions and a lowermost transverse end wall surface. The inner lateral wall surface portion 1323 of the longitudinal widened pocket is connected to the inner wall surface of the longitudinal profile groove 122. The lowermost transverse end wall surface 1343 faces upwardly towards the upper wall surface 144 of the longitudinal profile groove 122 and at least a part of one of the opposite lateral wall surface portions of the longitudinal widened pocket 1353 is a circular arc.
According to a third aspect of the invention, the undercut portion 129 of the longitudinal profile groove 122, at an innermost part is extended substantially in the same direction as the vertical direction (VD) into a longitudinal pocket 135 being interrupted by a longitudinal recess formed in at least one of opposite inner and outer lateral wall surface portions 132, 133 wherein the inner wall surface 1243 of the longitudinal profile groove 122 adjoins the inner lateral wall surface portion 1324, located opposite to the ridge portion. After the longitudinal recess, the inner lateral wall surface portion 1324 extends to a lowermost transverse end wall surface 134, the lowermost transverse end wall surface 134 being substantially flat or slightly curved, and being substantially parallel to a lowermost edge wall surface 127 of the one piece key blade 120 and which faces upwardly towards the upper wall surface 144 of the longitudinal profile groove 122 with the opposite lateral wall surface portions 132, 133 of the pocket 135 being substantially parallel to the external side wall surface 123 of the one piece key blade 120.
The ridge portion 128 is somewhat longer, measured in parallel to the central plane A of the key blade, than the prior art structure (
In
The parts that correspond to the previous, prior art embodiment (
Accordingly, the side tumbler 105 is (in this embodiment) rotatable around its cylindrical axis, so that a transversally projecting finger 105a will pivot back and forth when the projecting finger 105a follows a wave-like coded surface on the side of the key blade (see
The projecting finger 105a on the side tumbler 105 will contact the wave-like code pattern on the side of the key blade 120, as shown in
It would be possible to provide an even deeper pocket-like extension 135 of the undercut portion of the profile groove, in parallel to the central vertical plane A of the key blade. Then, the number of possible code levels in the ridge portion 133128 (see
It should be noted that the new configuration of the undercut groove 122, with the pocket-like extension 135, is useful even without having a side tumbler 105. Then, the ridge portion is basically continuous and does not have any cuts or codes.
Also, if at least one side tumbler is used, it does not have to be rotatable, but can be guided for elevational movement only. Furthermore, the side tumbler does not have to operate as a locking means for locking the key plug against rotation. Alternatively, it may serve only as a blocking element, which prevents incorrectly cut keys from being fully inserted into the key way 13 of the lock 10. Such a blocking element is disclosed in a patent application being filed by the same applicant on the same day as the earliest priority date of this application (WO2010/096007 A1).
The exact configuration or shape of the longitudinally extending pocket may be modified in various ways within the scope of the present invention. In
In
The embodiment shown in
In
The embodiment shown in
The embodiment of
The embodiment in
The modified embodiment shown in
The embodiments of
Finally,
In all embodiments described above, and in the appended claims, it is assumed that the inner wall 124 of the longitudinal undercut groove 122, 122′, 122″ is substantially parallel to the central plane A of the key blade and a side surfacethe external side wall surfaces 123, 123′, 123″ thereof. Within this definition, the inner wall may be oriented at a small angle to said central plane A, this angle being normally no more than 15°.
The longitudinally extending pocket may be shorter than the length of key blade and extend along only a portion thereof.
Also, the longitudinal profile rib at the key plug may be interrupted or formed as one or more separate elements mounted in the key plug.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
0900207-2 | Feb 2009 | SE | national |
PCT/SE2010/050006 | Jan 2010 | WO | international |
This application is a Divisional of co-pending application Ser. No. 12/866,204, filed on Aug. 4, 2010, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference and for which priority is claimed under 35 U.S.C. §120. This application is a continuation reissue application of co-pending U.S. Reissue application Ser. No. 14/677,452 filed on Apr. 2, 2015, now U.S. RE 47,555E issued on Aug. 6, 2019, which is a reissue of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/080,339 filed on Apr. 5, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,205,473 B2 issued on Jun. 26, 2012, which is a Divisional Application of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/866,204 filed on Aug. 4, 2010, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,210,009 B2 issued on Jul. 3, 2012, which is a National Phase of PCT Patent Application No. PCT/SE2010/050189 filed on Feb. 18, 2010, which claims priority to an earlier filed PCT Patent Application No. PCT/SE2010/050006 filed on Jan. 4, 2010 and to Swedish Patent Application No. 0900207-2 filed on Feb. 18, 2009. More than one reissue application has been filed for the reissue of U.S. Pat. No. 8,205,473; the present application and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/677,452 now U.S. RE 47,555E issued on Aug. 6, 2019.
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Number | Date | Country |
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Entry |
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Office Action issued in corresponding U.S. Appl. No. 14/677,496 dated Jan. 17, 2017. |
Office Action issued in related U.S. Appl. No. 14/677,496 dated Mar. 17, 2016. |
Partial Machine Generated Translation of WO 01/96596A1 (claims and description of the drawings). This reference was previously cited in the present application on Apr. 2, 2015. |
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, “Final Office Action,” issued in connection with U.S. Appl. No. 14/677,496, dated Sep. 19, 2017. |
Verified English language translation of WO 01/96696, 7 pgs. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 12866204 | US | |
Child | 13080339 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 14677452 | Apr 2015 | US |
Child | 13080339 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 13080339 | Apr 2011 | US |
Child | 16364887 | US | |
Parent | 13080339 | Apr 2011 | US |
Child | 14677452 | US |