Locks – Special application – For closures
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-21
2001-04-03
Barrett, Suzanne Dino (Department: 3627)
Locks
Special application
For closures
C070S108000, C292S039000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06209364
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an espagnolette-lock for a door, French window or the like, comprising, accommodated in a casing, a control mechanism including, on the one hand, manual and/or automatic operating means for at least one operating rod capable of acting on one or several locking organs aimed at co-operating with one or several keepers and, on the other hand, a key-operated member for controlling a dead bolt and means for locking the operating rod or rods in a locking position.
This invention will find its application in the field of building iron-mongery and in particular relates to espagnolettes-locks.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Of course, a number of espagnolettes-locks meeting the above description are already known.
Thus, such an espagnolette-lock for a door, French window or the like includes a casing fitted on the leaf and receiving a control mechanism on which the user can act through a key-operated member and often a control handle or knob.
Such a control mechanism therefore includes manual and/or automatic operating means for at least one operating rod extending above and/or below the casing and capable of acting on one or several locking organs cooperative with keepers accordingly located on the sash-frame of the door or wndow. In this respect, the operating rods of such an espagnolette-lock can be uni- or bidirectional, i.e. the operating rod extending above and the one arranged below the casing can move in the same direction in order to pass from the unlocking position into the locking position, as well as their motions can be reversed under the action of the control mechanism.
As regards the operating means for these operating rods, they usually consist in a control handle or knob acting on the operating square of a tumbler which co-operates, through either a toothing or a control pin, either directly or through a support, on the operating rod or rods. One should observe that, in a known way, such a control handle or knob can also act, through one and the same stepped tumbler, on a spring-bolt elastically restored into the locking position. In this respect, it is also usual to cause the tumbler to co-operate with springy restoring means so as to systematically retore the control handle or knob into its initial postion upon the locking or unlocking operation of the operating rod or rods or of the spring-bolt.
In order to increase the safety of such espagnolettes-locks and, in particular, to avoid the operating rod or rods from being pushed back from their locking position into their unlocked position by a direct action on the locking organs controlled by this or these operating rods. Such an espagnolette-lock in addition includes means for locking the latter in a locked position, such locking means being controlled by the key-operated member.
In this respect, these locking means are often formed by either a dead bolt capable of being controlled by this key-operated member or by an organ directly associated to this dead bolt.
Anyway, the latter is, in any case, nothing else than a locking pin which, under the action of a key-operated member, is capable of positioning itself into a slot or a cut-out provided for in the support or in an operating rod. As a matter of fact, this co-operation is possible only when the operating rod or rods are brought in their fully locked position, which leads to positioning the cut-out or the slot in the support or in the rod in front of the locking pin.
Finally, it is absolutely necessary for the operating rod or rods to have been previously properly locked, for otherwise the above-mentioned locking means cannot be activated. It often occurs that this operation cannot be fully completed because of an improper adjustment or due to wear of the keepers, so that the locking means can, in turn, not be activated.
In this context, the user has no other way of locking the door when at home than by operating the key-operated member.
In this respect, one should also observe that there presently exist espagnolettes-bolts which are often referred to as semi-automatic espagnolettes-bolts and including springy means for automatically restoring the operating rods into a locking position as soon as the door or window is closed against the sash-frame. The unlocking is achieved manually, like before, through an action on a control handle or knob, which furthermore results into resetting the springy restoring means.
Either these springy restoring means have a high stiffness coefficient to systematically and completely bring the operating rods into their locking position, which results in high operating noise, in addition to the fact that the unlocking operation is made more difficult. Alternatively, these springy restoring means are made just sufficient for the function they have to carry out as long. As a matter of fact, in the opposite case such springy restoring means often bring the operating rods in an intermediate position between their locking position and their unlocking position. The control handle through which the unlocking is carried out can, under such circumstances, be used to manually bring these operating rods into the final locking position. Finally, the user will complete this manual step only when he wants to make sure his door or window is perfectly locked, when he leaves his home for an extended period of time. In other situations, he may perfectly be satisfied with a locking resulting from a partial insertion into the keepers of the locking organs controlled by the operating rod or rods.
Now, it is obvious that, when providing such semi-automatic espagnolettes-locks with locking means for the operating rod or rods corresponding to a design as described above, the user will almost systematically have to act on the operating rod or rods, through the control handle, to make sure they are effectively in their fully locked position, before controlling the key-operated member.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present this invention is aimed at providing a solution for the above-mentioned problem through an espagnolette-lock authorizing a locking, and therefore an immobilization, of the operating rods against an action tending to bring them into a locking position, regardless of the position taken by these operating rods between the unlocking and the locking position. Finally, this invention provides for locking resulting from the dead bolt, thus of increasing the safety, even with a slight insertion of the locking organs in their keepers.
To this end, the invention relates to an espagnolette-lock for a door, French window or the like, comprising, accommodated in a casing, a control mechanism including, manual and/or automatic operating means for at least one operating rod capable of acting on one or several locking organs cooperative with one or several keepers and, a key-operated member for controlling a dead bolt and means for locking the operating rod or rods in locking position, characterized in that the locking means for the operating rod or rods has a locking pawl which is capable of co-operating in locking position, under the action of the key-operated member, with a rack directly or indirectly associated to the operating rod or rods in order to immobilize the latter only in the unlocking direction.
This espagnolette-lock preferably includes, in addition, means capable of impeding the locking from co-operating with the operating rod or rods over a travel distance which, starting from the unlocking position of the latter, is at most equal to the backlash remaining between the locking organ or organs associated to this or these operating rods and the keeper or keepers which they cooperate with.
Thus and by way of an example, in the event the ends of these operating rods are protruding at the upper portion and/or the lower portion of the leaf, so as to co-operate with keepers accordingly arranged on the sash-frame, this travel distance will be at most equal to the backlash existing between the fillisters of the door.
In addition it is usual to provide such espagnolettes-
Collet Jean-Yves
Gerard Prevot
Barrett Suzanne Dino
Ferco International
Harrison & Egbert
LandOfFree
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