Patent Application
20120235424
The present invention pertains to a forced entry resistance lock assembly for sliding doors and windows.
Common horizontal and vertical sliding windows utilize a cam lock or another type of lock in combination with a keeper to connect with a frame or sash. All such prior art locks are visible from outside the window thereby revealing the type and function of the locking mechanism. In order to make such prior art locks fulfill forced entry resistance capabilities, an extra part is required to be added to the locking device in order to hide the locking mechanism and to prevent the lock from being opened from the outside of window.
The lock assembly of the present invention provides forced entry resistance capabilities and is installed inside of the sash or frame of a sliding window or door which is invisible from outside of the frame and provides automatic locking upon closure.
The sliding door or window lock assembly of the present invention is comprised of a sash lock housing with a pair of opposed and spaced security hooks rotatably secured to this housing and respectively biased to a normally closed position against stops with the hooks respectively engaging jamb or sill keepers thereby providing a forced entry resistance lock between the sash and jamb or sill. A trigger lever arm is pivotally secured to the housing for hand manipulation and it is positioned to simultaneously transversely engage the hooks to release them from the keepers.
The hooks have sloped outer slide faces for engaging outer surfaces of the keepers upon closing of the sash against the jamb or sill, thereby causing the hooks to pivot open against their spring biases to pass and subsequently hook under the keepers for automatically locking the lock assembly upon closing of the sliding door or window.
The spaced security hooks may take on the configuration of a pair of L-shaped latches which are pivotally secured to the housing with their proximal arms aligned and their proximal ends thereof abutting against a stop, whereby the distal arms of these latches are in generally parallel alignment and extend in the same direction with their distal ends providing the spaced pair of security hooks for respectively engaging and hooking under the jamb or sill keepers. The trigger lever arm transversely engages the abutted ends of the aligned proximal ends of the proximal arms for thereby simultaneously pivoting the latches against their spring bias. This trigger lever arm may also function as the aforementioned stop to retain the L-shaped latches in their normally closed position against their spring bias.
Other objects and advantages appear hereinafter in the following description and claims. The accompanying drawings show, for the purpose of exemplification, without limiting the scope of the invention or appended claims, certain practical embodiments of the present invention wherein:
Referring to
Trigger lever arm 1 is pivotally secured to face mounting plate 2 at 13, and face mounting plate 2 is in turn secured by the screws to housing 8 via the two identical plastic side mount blocks 3 which are in turn secured to housing 8.
The two springs 4 are ribbon springs which have their proximal ends directly embedded and molded into plastic side mount blocks 3.
As can be best seen in the schematic sequence drawings of
When one is ready to open the locked window, the operator's fingers are positioned under the leverage handle 17 of trigger lever arm 1 and the handle 17 is raised as indicated by arrow 16 in
The result is that the entire lock assembly is not visible from the outside of the window and the lock assembly of the present invention automatically locks the window or door upon closure against the sill or jamb.
As an alternative, the handle 17 does not necessarily have to be part of the pivoting trigger lever arm 1 and may be instead a ledge handle secured directly to the housing 8 through mounting plate 2, and the trigger lever arm 1 may be independently provided under the handle 17 and pivoted independently to front plate 2.
