Telephone keypad guard

Details Telephone keypad guard Telephone keypad guard

2000-01-21

2001-11-13

Kuntz, Curtis (Department: 2643)

Telephonic communications

Terminal accessory or auxiliary equipment

Protective structure

C379S143000, C379S144020, C379S145000, C379S155000, C379S428030, C379S437000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06317496

ABSTRACT:

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not applicable.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not applicable.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to a guard that prevents the destruction and vandalism of the keypad of a telephone. Specifically, this invention is a keypad guard mated into an upper housing guard to form a telephone guard for a telephone upper housing. The keypad guard is of sufficient strength to prevent damage to the telephone keypad, and prevents access to the money in a coin vault of a pay telephone via an opening created by destruction of the keypad.
Over a prolonged period of time, a large amount of coin money is retained within the vault of a pay telephone. Due to their normally isolated and unprotected location, pay telephones are the subject of frequent vandalism attempts. Vandals use a variety of means to gain access to the pay telephone vaults, including smashing through the keypad, which is typically positioned within the pay telephone directly above the open-top coin vault drawer. The present invention is directed to preventing vandalism to the telephone keypad, and to preventing access to money in the pay telephone coin vault by protecting the keypad assembly.
2. Related Art
Several inventions aimed to prevent the vandalism of pay telephone keypads are known to the prior art. Illustrative of such inventions are U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,057 issued to Anello and U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,136 issued to McGough. Both patents teach the use of embossed mini-housings around each push button of the keypad. McGough requires retrofitting the keypad with L-shaped buttons that afford a smaller side surface area to minimize lateral force from a detrimental source. Anello teaches the use of full length and width double face plates, which adds additional weight and cost of material to the pay telephone without affording significant additional keypad protection over a standard face plate.
Other prior art known in the field of guarding pay telephones includes single piece face plates. Prior art face plates are typically made of light metal or heavy plastic, which affords minimal security protection to the telephone.
It would thus be beneficial to the prior art to provide a telephone keypad guard constructed of high strength material that prevents a vandal from damaging the telephone keypad, and from smashing out the keypad to gain access to the money in the pay telephone coin vault.
The prior art would also benefit from a keypad guard that is relatively inexpensive, simple to manufacture, has a secure exterior appearance and requires minimal retrofitting of the existing pay telephone.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the objectives of this invention are to provide, inter alia, a new and improved telephone keypad guard that:
protects the telephone keypad from striking blows or other vandalism;
prevents a vandal from smashing through the keypad to gain access to money in the coin vault;
is relatively inexpensive and simple to manufacture;
requires no retro-fitting of the pay telephone keypad; and
can be installed quickly and easily.
These objectives are accomplished by the structure and use of the inventive telephone guard, composed of an upper housing guard and a keypad guard, both of which are mated and secured by high strength visible fasteners to the upper housing of a telephone. A first critical feature of the invention is the close inset mating of the upper housing guard and the keypad guard, which prevents prying off the keypad guard. A second critical feature of the telephone guard is the thickness of the keypad guard. Each push button of the keypad has a throw distance, defined as the distance required to depress the keypad push button until an associated electrical switch is engaged, thus completing the electrical circuit signaling the entry of the number or function associated with the keypad push button. In the prior art, keypad push buttons are oriented such that their throw distance is reached before the keypad push button front face recedes beyond the face of the faceplate cover. In the present invention, the thickness of the keypad guard is such that the keypad push button is fully depressed only when it is flush with the keypad guard. The keypad guard alignment prevents damage to the keypad push buttons and their associated electrical switches when struck by excessive force. This damage protection further prohibits access to the interior of the telephone and money in the coin vault.
Other objects of the invention will become apparent from time to time throughout the specification hereinafter disclosed.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4160136 (1979-07-01), McGough
patent: 4555600 (1985-11-01), Morse
patent: 5134654 (1992-07-01), McGough
patent: 5148476 (1992-09-01), Zausner
patent: 5155765 (1992-10-01), McGough
patent: 5509057 (1996-04-01), Anello
patent: 5802171 (1998-09-01), Deutsch

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