US1967627A - Door or like lock - Google Patents

Description

July 24, 1934. A. RILEY ET AL DOOR OR LIKE LOCK Filed March 24, 1954 Patented July 24, 1934 )Ij Mrs-D:- s rAr qm orrics V 5 I 1,987,627 I I noon on LIKE LOCK v Allan Riley and Harryltush, Coventry, England Applica tionfMai-cha l, 1934, Serial N5. 717,244 In' Gr'eatBritain March 23, 1 933 I 4 Claims. (01. 292-340) This invention relates to locks, particularly for ie doors of motor-vehicles, its main object being to provide an improved lock which will be very flexible in action to allow of relative movement .5 between the members to be locked without any possibility of them being opened except when one of the locking members is appropriately turned.

The lock, according to the invention, includes movable spring-pressed jaws and a rotatable dowel with opposite notches in it to receive the jaws. Preferably the jaws are slidingly guided for movement to-and-fro in one direction, and by making them wider somewhat than the cooperating dowel provision can be made for allow- ..15 ing of this to move to-and-fro relatively to the jaws in another direction.

In the accompanying drawing:-

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a door pillar and door, just open, fitted with a lock according 20 to the invention;

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the rotatable dowel, with the cover removed.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the springpressed jaws detached from their casing.

Fig. 4 is an inside view in perspective of the spring-pressed jaws.

In the construction illustrated, as applied to a door-lock for a motor-vehicle, the jaws 11, 12 are supported in a striker-plate 13 secured to the door-post 14 and the rotatable dowel 15 is mounted on the door 16 and provided externally on a non-circular portion of its stem with an operating handle 17. Conveniently this latter is formed. with a shoulder 18 engaging a coil spring 19 by which the dowel is biased to lie in a locking position in which the oppositely-arranged notches 20 in it are either vertical or horizontal. These notches in the present instance are shown as being vertical ones when in the locking position, in

.4 which case the jaws are arranged, as illustrated,

for sliding in a horizontal direction. Any usual form of safety catch, such as the lever 21, may be provided, this co-acting with the handle for example, with the lug 22 thereon, to prevent the handle from being turned in an unlocking direction until the safety catch is released.

The form of striker-plate illustrated comprises two parts 13, 23 bolted or otherwise secured to one another with the jaws slidingly supported between them. One of these 11 is shown as being an end wall of a hollow rectangular part, the other jaw 12 being formed on a part mounted within the rectangle. Each of these jaw parts has a laterally-extending lug 24 between which is disposed a compression spring 25 acting to bias the lugs apartv and therefore the jawstowards one another. They are prevented from engaging each other by stops 26, formed on the two portions or the striker-pirate against which the lugs abut, and the minimum opening between the jaws is sufficient to allow of the pointed end of the dowel pin entering as the door is being closed. Conveniently, the portions of the strikerplate are formed with aligned relatively large holes 27 of which the centre line of th space between the jaws is a diameter. When the dowel has been entered through these aligned holes, expanding the jaws as necessary, and when these have retracted to engage the oppositely-arranged notches, a certain amount of lateral movement is allowed to the dowel and jaws in unison relatively to the striker-plateor in other words between the door and the door-post-such movement being limited either by the stops aforesaid or by the dowel engaging the margin of the opening in the striker-plate. In the arrangement illustrated such movement is in a horizontal direction. Up and down movement can be provided by the dowel being of smaller diameter than the holes 2'7 in the striker-plate and by the width of 30 the jaws extending right across the holes, also as illustrated.

The notches may be V-shaped ones, the retaining wall being at right-angles to the dowel axis and the other inclined thereto, in which case each of the jaws is preferably bevelled on one side in a corresponding manner, as shown in the drawing.

To release the door the handle is turned to cause a portion of the periphery 28 of the dowel that is not notched to engage the jaws, thus spreading them apart, whereupon the dowel can be withdrawn.

It will be seen that the present invention provides an easy-acting lock allowing of movement in any direction in the vertical plane, as not only do the jaws float but the dowel can move relatively to the At the same time, owing to the arrangement of the parts, there is no likelihood of the dowel becoming inadvertently released from the jaws when movement occurs between the door and the door-post.

What we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States 1. In a lock having a rotatable notched dowel, a pair of movable jaws spring-pressed towards one another, and stops limiting the movement of said jaws, one of said jaws comprising a dowel engaging member, guide means carried by said 110 member, a spring engaging lug secured to said guide means, the other jaw slidingly engaging said guide means, and a spring engaging lug carried by said other jaw.

2. A lock comprising a striker-plate, a pair of jaws, one of said jaws being formed by one edge of a hollow rectangle which is slidingly mounted in said striker-plata the other of saidjaws being formed on a part slidingly mounted in the interior of said hollow rectangle, outstanding lugs formed on the jaw parts to co-operate with stops provided by said striker-plate to limit the movement of said jaws, and a compression spring acting to press said lugs away from one another and said jaws towards one another.

3. A lock comprising a hollow striker-plate the interior of which has a pair of parallel longitudinal sides, a hollow rectangular part slidingly mounted in said striker-plate to be guided by said parallel sides, a second part slidingly mounted in said hollow rectangular part to be guided thereby, said parts having facing knife-like edges formed on them, outstanding lugs formed on said parts away from said knife-like edges, said lugs extending through an opening in the wall of said striker-plate, compression spring means acting between said lugs to bias them towards the adjacent edges of said opening respectively, and a further opening through opposite walls of said striker-plate in the vicinity of said knife-like edges.

4. In a look including a striker plate and a rotatable notched dowel, a pair of opposed movable jaws, means for slidably mounting one of said jaws on the other of said jaws, a pair of lugs carried one by each of said jaws and disposed in spaced relation to each other, and a spring engaging said lugs to constantly urge said jaws toward each other.

ALLAN RILEY. HARRY RUSH.

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