The present invention discloses a safe door in which the entire bolt pan is movable to secure the safe door in the locked position.
The B rated safe is probably the most misunderstood safe in the market today. Essentially, B rated safes are designed to hold limited amounts of cash or valuables for short periods of time where the safe is placed in a location that is not left unattended. The general idea is to ward off attempts at armed robbery during open hours and to support CIT (cash in transit or armored car) operations. The introduction of this safe in the late 1960's was primarily focused on managing cash and supporting chain of custody of bank deposits within a retail, restaurant, or service organizations. Because of these minimal security expectations, manufacturers of B rated products typically use a light gauge steel to construct the safe and its associated deposit compartment, usually incorporated in to the design of the safe. These safes are lightweight and not particularly recognized as a burglary resistive container. Client users of the B rate safes recognizes the safe's door, bolts, and combination lock and almost automatically assume that the safe is designed to resist an attack from burglary tools. This assumption is not supported by the construction of the safe.
As a point of knowledge, the actual term “B rated” is a moniker anomaly in itself. The term B rate was derived in part from the ISO (Insurance Services Office) commercial lines manual which offered a classification system to assist underwriters in a variety of subjects that address certain risk assessment practices. The ISO manual mentioned safes in terms of metal thickness and what type of lock was being used to secure the safe. For instance, an ISO B classified safe was to be constructed from steel less than ½ inch thick on the door and ¼ inch thick on the body. ISO is not a testing organization, but only assigns classifications by construction.
Underwriters Laboratories, on the other hand, is a testing organization. Their nomenclature is about ratings of safes (under spec. 687), being physically tested as to their resistance to burglary attacks by specified list and attack times and burglary tools. Ironically, UL doesn't have a test for a B class constructed safe.
The name anomaly is created by combining the UL rating system with the ISO classification system, and referring to the light metal safes a “B rates”, which technically should be called “B classified”.
As society evolves, the risk of loss or mysterious disappearance of cash deposits take on a different level. The loss is not the cash deposit missing as much it is the consequences surrounding the manager who is held responsible. Additionally, the introduction of analytical camera and surveillance systems makes the risk of armed robbery less commonplace. What is at higher risk today are cash deposits and controlling the chain of custody of those deposits. CIT (armored car) services are becoming more prevalent in the US as national brands would rather pay for this service than to risk mysterious disappearance or the “walk to bank” practice for store managers to take. Traditionally, B rated safes are owned by user clients, and CIT companies are given restricted access to the compartment where the prepared deposits wren stored. When the CIT service needed access to the compartment where the deposits are kept, a condition of dual custody exists, as the store manager must be present to open the outer door that protects that mangers compartment.
Today, “smart safes” also manufactured in the B rate construction, accept cash notes instead of prepared deposit and network the exact amount of funds in the safe to offsite management. Typically, these notes can only be removed by CIT or senior management. This allows for a strong deterrence to armed robbery as well as mitigation of mysterious disappearance. The alternative to smart safes is still the traditional B rated safe. The emphasis of its value becomes driven towards armed robbery risk mitigation and protecting the chain of custody for cash deposits. As the distinction between traditional B rated safes and smart safes broaden, it is imperative that the cost differentiators be apparent. Therefore, a need still exists for a way to reduce the cost of manufacturing a B rate safe while allowing for the overall strength of the door to body interface to be increased.
The present invention discloses a movable bolt pan in which the bolt pan frame is secured directly to a safe door. The positions of securement of the bolt pan frame to the safe door are spread across a large percentage of the door slab. An entirety of the leading edge of the movable bolt pan contacts the door jamb of the safe when the movable bolt pan is in the closed position. A handle on an exterior of the safe door can be used to slide the movable bolt pan laterally from the closed position to the open position, allowing the safe to be opened.
Embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way of example, and not limitation, in the accompanying figures in which like references denote similar elements, and in which:
Rotation of the exterior handle 116 of on the safe door 104 causes bolt cam actuator 112 to rotate as depicted in
The bolt pan 114 is typically constructed of a lighter metal than the rest of the safe and is fastened to safe door 104 with machine screws. The bolt pan 114 may additionally have a hole drilled in the surface corresponding to the position of lock 108 to allow it to be changed without removing bolt pan 114.
While the bolt system 100 may appear massive enough to hold the safe door 104 closed in its locked positon, the reality is that it is that it is only the limited surface contact of bolts 106 against the bolt guide bar 102 that holds the entire safe locking mechanism together. Also, the welds holding bolt guide bar 102 to safe door 104 are subject to failure during a prying attack.
Referring next to
Referring next to
Lock 108 remains stationary whereas movable bolt pan 400 can move left/right. Specifically, bolt pan frame 402 further comprises four horizontal grooves 406 located at corners of bolt pan frame 402 (
It should be apparent that additional horizontal grooves 406 and attachment bolts 408 may be provided. For example, bolt pan frame 402 may comprise additional grooves 406 other than those shown at any other locations as long as they do not interfere with the sliding of movable bolt pan 400.
The positions that the movable bolt pan 400 is fastened to the safe door 104 are spread over 50% of the door slab. Further, as depicted in
Once the lock 108 is unlocked, handle 116 can be turned which causes bolt pinion gear 410 to concurrently be turned through a connection shaft. The bolt pinion gear 410 is coupled to the same surface as the lock 108 and protrudes through relief cavity 404 of bolt pan frame 402. The teeth of bolt pinion gear 410 interfaces with the teeth of bolt gear rack 412 of bolt pan frame 402. Thus, the turning of bolt pinion gear 410 also causes bolt pan frame 402 to move to the left which unlocks safe door 104 as depicted in
Bolt pan frame 402 further comprises leading bolt edge 413 which is best seen in
Safe door 104 may further comprise a detent spring support 414 coupled to a first end of a detent spring 416. The other end of detent spring 416 is coupled to relocker stop 418. Relocker stop 418 is a component of relocker 420 which are well known in the art for providing backup security for safes.
An opposing edge of safe door 104 preferably comprises two or more hinges 422 for attaching safe door 104 to the body of the safe. And, as previously mentioned and depicted in
In sum, the movable bolt pan 400 (
Several embodiments of the present invention are specifically illustrated and/or described herein. However, it will be appreciated that modifications and variations of the present invention are covered by the above teachings without departing from the spirit and intended scope of the invention.
The features disclosed in the foregoing description, or in the following claims, or in the accompanying drawings, expressed in their specific forms or in terms of a means for performing the disclosed function, or a method or process for obtaining the disclosed results, as appropriate, may, separately, or in any combination of such features, be utilized for realizing the invention in diverse forms thereof. Any one or more features or functions of the first/other aspects/embodiments disclosed above may also be incorporated into the second/present aspect/embodiment, alone or in any combination.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/906,370, filed Sep. 26, 2019, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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20130154462 | Cho | Jun 2013 | A1 |
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106014088 | Oct 2016 | CN |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20210095515 A1 | Apr 2021 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62906370 | Sep 2019 | US |