US1758070A - Locking mechanism for doors - Google Patents

Description

May 13, 193Q- Y A. s. BARRows 1,758,070

/f @MQW .May 13, 1930. A S BARRQWS 1,758,070

LOCKING MEGHANISM FOR DOORS Filed March 25, 1923 2 Sheets-Slieet 2 Patented May 13, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ALLAN S. BARR/OWS, OF LOS GELES, CALIFORNIA., ASSIGNOB, TO THE YOUNGSTOWN STEEL DOOR COMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, CORPORATION OF OHIO LOCKING MECHANISM FOR DOORS Application med March 23, 1923. serial No. 627,005.

This invention relates to improvements in locking mechanisms for sliding doors.

One object of the invention is to provide novel and efficient means, particularly adaptable to sheet metal car vdoors of the double outside sliding type, for locking a secondary or auxiliary door in so-called closed position.

Another object of the invention is to provide a locking means of the character indi- 11o cated, which is automatically controlled to lock the door when the same is moved to closed position.

Another and more specific object of the invention is to provide a door locking means 15 for sliding doors, including a latch which is gravity actuated, wherein the locking action of the latch is controlledby the movement of the sliding door.

Other objects and advantages will more clearly appear from the description and claims hereinafter following.

In the drawings forming a part of this specification, Fig. 1 is an interior, side elevational view of a portion of a car, showing my improvements in connection therewith, parts being broken away in order to better accommodate the figure on the sheet. Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view, corresponding substantially to the line 2f-2 of Fig. 1. Fig.

3 is a vertical sectional view corresponding substantially to the line 3 3 of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional view corresponding substantially to the line 4-4 of Fig. 3. And Figs. 5, 6 and 7 are detail, perspective views of the latch, latch retaining member,

and stop block, respectively.

In said drawings, 10 indicates the usual side wall of a box car and 11 one of the door posts or jams, the one at `the rear of the auxiliary door, it being understood that there will be a similar post at the opposite side of the door opening.

In the arrangement shown, two sliding outside doors are employed, one of which may be termed the main door and indicated by A, and the other a somewhat narrower door which may be termed a secondary or auxiliary door, which is indicated by B.

The doors A and B are preferably Vof the tophung type, `and of a construction yand arrangement the same as that illustrated in my co-pending application, Serial No. 611,243, filed January 8, 1923.

rIhe main door A is composed of sheet metal throughout, the same preferably being formed with vertical and horizontal corrugations and multiple ply edges as described in my prior Patent No. 1,315,537. The secondary door B is also formed preferably of sheet metal, the same being preferably made with a plurality of sheet metal panels united along the meeting edges and forming the main sheet of the door as clearly disclosed in my co-pending application referred to. The main sheet of the door is corrugated so as to provide a rear, vertical corrugation 12, a vertical corrugation 13 at the front edge of the door and a series of horizontally extending corrugations 14, merging at their ends with the vertical corrugatons 12 and 13. At the bottom of the door B, a plate 14a is riveted or otherwise secured to the main sheet, said plate ,spanning the lowermost horizontal corrugations and providing a double-ply lower edge. At the rear edge of the door, a strip 15 is secured to the inner side of the main sheet, bridging the vertical corrugation 12 and riveted to the main sheet on opposite sides of said corrugation 12, said strip being preferably extended at its rear edge and bent to hook shape as indicated at 16, so as to engage over the projecting edge 17 of a wear plate 18 applied to the exposed face of the post 27.

At the front edge of the door B, the corrugationv 13 is provided with an extended flange 19, and a strip 2O secured on the inner side of the main sheet, the flange 19 and the strip being tied together by an angle bar 21. The angle bar 21 has an outer, relatively narrow, fla-nge 22 parallel to the side wall of the car and to which is riveted, or otherwise rigidly secured, the extension 19. The angle bar 21 has an elongated leg 23 extended transversely of the car and to which one edge of the strip 20 is riveted or otherwise rigidly secured, as indicated at 24. The lower horizontal strip 14a is extended, as indicated at 25 in Fig. 2, and thence bent at right angles, as indicated at 26 and riveted to the angle 100 bar 21. The elongated leg 23 of the angle bar 21 provides a suitable supportfor a heavy wood beam 27, which may be bolted to the angle bar.

To lock the door B in closed position, a gravity controlled latching mechanism is provided. rlhe latch mechanism comprises broadly, a pivoted latch C; a retaining member D; and a latch block E.

The latch C, as best shown in Figs. 4 and 5, is in the form of a fiat plate, having upwardly diverging side edges 28 and 29, and a convex top edge of a curvature of relatively great radius, and a convex bottom edge 31 of a curvature of relatively short radius. The side edge 23 is of greater length than the side edge 29, thereby providing a toe portion 32 adapted to co-act with the latch block E. Upon reference to Fig. 3, it will be noted that the toe portion 32 is adapted to engage in one of the horizontal corrugations 14 and is of a general outline corresponding to said corru- `gations. The latch C is recessed as indicated at 33 for a purpose hereinafter described, the recess 33 being provided with a pair of diverging side walls 34 and At its lower end. the latch C is provided with a pivot receiving opening 36 concentric with the conrex lower face 31 of the latch. To provide means for withdrawing the latch C from its locking position, the top edge 30 may be notched as indicated at 3G.

rlhe retaining member D is in the form of a fiat bar. Projecting at right angles from the inner face of the bar, at the opposite ends thereof, are a pair of cylindrical bosses 37 and 33, the boss 38 being adapted to engage within the opening 3G, serving as a pivot for the latch C. The bosses 37 and 38 are provided with bores 39 and 40, respectively, the bore of each boss being concentric with the outer cylindrical face thereof. rlhe openings 3) and 40 are adapted to receive bolts 41 and respectively by which the retaining member is rigidly secured to the post 11.

As clearly shown in Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive, the latch C is swingingly mounted on the post 11 by having its lower end pivoted on the retaining member D by means of the boss 38 engaging in the opening 3G, the boss 37 eX- tending into the recess 35, and the body portion of the retaining member spanning the space between the recess 33 and the opening 3G. holding the latch in position against lateral movement away from the post, and forming a guide for the same. As clearly shown in Fig. 3, the boss 37 is adapted to coact with the walls 34 and 35 of the recess 33 to limit the swinging movement of the latch C, both in an upward and downward direction. ln the lowermost position of the latch C, as shown in full lines in Fig. 3, the wall 35 is in abutment with the boss 37, holding the toe of the latch in registration with the alined corrugation 14. Upon the latch being raised,

the wall 34 will limit the upward movement of the same by engagement with the boss 37, the limit of the upward movement of the latch being indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 3. its will be evident, the boss 37 is fixed, being so positioned with reference to the pivot point of the latch that it will arrest the upward movement of the latch with the center ot gravity .of the latter located to the left of the pivot as seen in Fig. 3, thereby assuring the automatic return of the latch to its lowermost position.

The wedge locking block E is of triangular shape in cross sect-ion, and is adapted to snug ly lit within the horizontal, latch receiving corrugation 14, and provided with converging top and bottom faces 41 and 42, adapted to abut the walls of the corrugation, a flat rear face 43 adapted to form an abutment co-acting with the latch C, a front cam face 44, and a flat inner side face 45. The block E is arranged near the rear end of the door B and is held in fixed position within the corrugation 14 in any suitable manner, preferably, by flat headed flush rivets 46, received in countersunlr openings in the block E. As will be evident upon reference to Fig. 2, the block E is spaced the proper distance from the rear end of the door to permit the latch C to drop behind the same, when the door is closed, and engage with the abutment face 43 to hold the door locked in closed position.

The operation of the automatic locking mechanism is as follows, assuming that the door is being moved from open to closed position. At the beginning of the sliding movement of the door B, the latch will be supported in its lowermost position by engagement of the wall 35 thereof with the abutment 37, with the toe 32 of the latch C eX- tending into the latch receiving corrugation 14, the latch being preferably supported entirely by the abutment 37 so that the toe will have the edges thereof slightly spaced from the walls of the corrugation 14 to prevent wear, as clearly indicated in Fig. 3. During the sliding movement of the door B in bringing the same to closed position, the latch will ride in the alined corrugation 14 until the cam face 44 of the block E engages with the toe 32 of the latch, whereupon the latch will ride upwardly on the cam face and over the i'iat face inally reaching the end of the block, when it will drop behind the abutment face 43 of the block due to the influence of gravity, thus automatically locking the door B in closed position.

To unlock the latching mechanism, the toe 32 of the latch C is moved clear of t-he block E by raising the latch C to the dotted line position shown in Fig. 3, whereupon the door B is free to be moved to open position. In the operation of opening the door, when the block E has passed beyond the latch C, the latter, due to the influence of gravity, again mss-,07o

drops into position in front of the block, with the toe 32 extending into the corrugation 14.

By referring to Fig. 2, it will be noted that the spark seal flange 16 prevents tampering with the gravity latch C when the latter is in locked position, that is, a thin tool or other instrument cannot be inserted between the door B and the door post to lift or disengage the latch. In this manner, I prevent unauthorized opening of the door B unless the main door A is first opened, which could not be ldone in railroad practice without leaving visual evidence thereof, in view of the common use of lead seals, as is well understood by those skilled in the art.

From the preceding description taken in connection with the drawings, it will be evident that a door locking mechanism is provided which is entirely automatic in its locking operation, that the locking movement of the latch is controlled entirely by the movement of the sliding door, and that this result is accomplished without the use of complicated connecting mechanism.

I have herein shown and described what I now consider the preferred manner of carrying out the invention, but the same is merely illustrative and I contemplate ail changes and modifications that come within the scope of the claims appended hereto.

I claim:

l. In a door latching mechanism, the combination with a one piece swinging latch member having a pivot opening at one end thereof; of a one piece retaining member for said latch member and adapted to overlie the outer surface of the same, said retaining member being provided with an integral pivot element extending through said pivot opening and an integral abutment element adapted to limit the swinging movement of said latch member in opposite directions.

2. In a house car having a side door opening defined in part by side door posts and adapted to be closed by main and auxiliary oppositely slidable doors, means for latching the auxiliary door in its closed position, said means comprising relatively iixedly and movably mounted cooperating elements, said elements being disposed on the inner side of the auxiliary door and the corresponding adjacent side post so as to be inaccessible from the exterior of the car when both doors are closed, the said relatively movably mounted element being arranged to bridge between the auxiliary door and post when in operative position and adapted to be retracted to the clearance position, whereby the said door opening remains free from obstruction by any auxiliary door latching means.

3. In a house car having a side door opening defined in part by side door posts and adapted to be closed by main and auxiliary oppositely slidable doors, means for latching the auxiliary door its closed position, said mea-ns comprising relatively'rxedly and mov-- ably mounted cooperating elements, said elements being disposed on the inner side of the auxiliary door and the corresponding adjacent side posts so as to be inaccessible from the exterior of the car when both doors are closed, the said relatively movably mounted element being arranged to bridge between the auxiliary door and post when in operative position and adapted to be-retracted to a clearance position, said movably mounted element being gravity actuated and automatically operativcly engageable with said fixed element when the auxiliary door is moved to its closed position, whereby the said door opening remains free from obstruction by any auxiliary door latching means.

e. In a house car having a side door opening defined in part by side door posts and adapted to be closed by main and auxiliary oppositely slidable doors, means for latching the auxiliary door in its closed position, said means comprising a relatively fixed element A disposed on the inner side of the auxiliary door and a cooperating element movably mounted on the corresponding adjacent side post so as to be inaccessible from the exterior of the car when both doors are closed, said movable element being movable to a bridging position from the post to said door to engage the fixed element and adapted to be retracted to a position clear of the auxiliary door, whereby when so retracted, the auxiliary door may be opened without interference and the said door opening is left free from obstruction.

5. In a house car having a side door opening defined in part by side door posts and adapted to be closed by main and auxiliary oppositely slidable doors, means for latching the auxiliary door in its closed position, said means comprising a relatively xed element disposed on the inner side of the auxiliary door and a cooperating element movably mounted on the corresponding adjacent side post so as to be inaccessible from the exterior of the car when both doors are closed, said movable element being movable to a bridging position from the post to said door to engage the iixed element and adapted to be retracted to a position clear of the auxiliary door, said movable element being gravity actuated and automatically cooperable with said fixed element to drop into operative latching position as the auxiliary door is moved to its closed position, whereby when so retracted, the auxiliary door may be opened without interference and the said door opening is left free from obstruction.

6. In a house car having a side door opening defined in part by side posts and adapted to be closed by main and auxiliary oppositely slidable doors, the combination with a metal auxiliary door having an outwardly pressed corrugation therein; of a relatively ixed latching element disposed in seid corrugation on the inner side of the door near the rear edge thereof; and a cooperalole latching element movably mounted on the corresponding adjacent side post and adapted to be extended beyond Said post into said corrugation to engage said relatively fixed latching element to thereby latch the auxiliary door in closed position, whereby the door opening is left free from obstruction.

In Witness that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto subscribed my nzune this 13th day of March, 1923.

ALLAN S. BARROVVS.

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