Lock used for the cabinets in public places

Details Lock used for the cabinets in public places Lock used for the cabinets in public places

2002-03-27

2003-01-21

Gall, Lloyd A. (Department: 3676)

Locks

Special application

For control and machine elements

C070S284000, C070S285000, C070S312000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06508089

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a lock used for the cabinets in public places, more particularly a lock, which takes the form of a combination lock, and of which the combination of numbers can be reset by the present user.
Storage cabinets are provided for customers to keep their personal objects in public places such as railway stations, swimming pools, shopping centers, and spas. The storage cabinets are usually equipped with a lock such that they can prevent the personal objects of the customers from being stolen when the customers keep the objects in them. The customers can lock those objects in the cabinets that are not needed while they are getting service in the public places, and only have to carry a key for the lock of the cabinets with them. Therefore, the storage cabinets are very convenient to use.
However, such cabinets are found to have a disadvantage because of the type of the locks that they are provided with; the customers might lose the key for the lock while they are getting service in the public places, causing themselves a lot of trouble; and, a thief can pretend to store his personal objects in the cabinets in order to get the key for the lock, and have the key reproduced such that he can open the lock with the reproduced key to steal other people's objects some other time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, it is a main object of the present invention to provide a lock for a cabinet in public places, which takes the form of a combination lock, and of which the combination of numbers for opening it can be reset by the present user.
It is an other object of the present invention to provide the combination lock such that the cabinet can be opened by a spare key kept in the counter should the user forget the combination of numbers that he set, and that the forgotten combination of numbers can be found out by a probing needle.
The combination lock of the present invention includes a housing member, several control rings each separably engaged with a wheel, a lock rod, a control block and an operating rod.
The wheels are turnably disposed in the housing members, and are each marked with spaced numerals on the outer side. The control rings each has spaced projections on the outer side to engage spaced teeth on the inner side of the wheel. The control rings each has a through hole formed with both a central round portion and a square portion.
The lock rod is passed through the control rings from a rod part that has spaced projections, each of which sticks rearwards and has gap. A spring is disposed under a lowermost one of the control rings to bias same up.
The control block has a centrol hole formed lengthwise therein and several concavely curved portions lengthwise formed on the outer side that include a first one and a second one shallower than the first one. The control block is lengthwise passed through an upper portion of the housing member to abut a curved propping block placed on an uppermost one of the control rings.
The operating rod is passed through the control hole of the control block from a middle rod portion, and has a front knob sticking out from the front side of the housing, and is connected to locking plate at the rear end. The middle rod portion engages the control block, and can be disengaged from same when a spare key is inserted into the keyhole of the operating rod.
Thus, the control rings can be pressed down and disengaged from the wheels when the control block is turned together with the operating rod to abut the propping block at the shallow second curved portion thereof allowing the wheels to be turned relative to the control rings for resetting the unlocking combination of numbers. When the control rings are biased by the spring to engage the wheels, and the wheels are turned randomly with the control block abutting the propping block at the first deep curved portion, the lock is locked and the locking plate keeps the cabinet door closed.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4671088 (1987-06-01), Jeang
patent: 4770013 (1988-09-01), Nakai
patent: 4885923 (1989-12-01), Nakai
patent: 5020346 (1991-06-01), Eisermann
patent: 5237842 (1993-08-01), Rasch et al.
patent: 5345798 (1994-09-01), Nakai
patent: 5485734 (1996-01-01), Yang
patent: 5661991 (1997-09-01), Hsu
patent: 6439006 (2002-08-01), Tsai

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