Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 022~2832 1998-10-21
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Safe device comprising a number of safe-deposit boxes each
lockable by an individual door.
The invention relates to a safe device comprising: a
number of safe-deposit boxes each of which can be closed of
5 by an individual door which is hingedly connected to a jamb
of said box and is provided with locking means, a number of
storage containers each of which can be slid into one of
said boxes and is provided with securing means for securing
said container to at least one wall of a box, a key for each
10 of said containers for operating said securing means which
key can be put into an opening in the front wall of the
container.
Such a safe device, particularly applied in banks, is
known from FR-A-2535382. A client can rent such a safe
15 deposit box. With such a device, for protection of the safe
deposit boxes, the key to the door will be with the bank,
and the key to the safe-deposit box will be with the person
hiring the safe-deposit box. When the hirer wishes to use
the safe-deposit box, the safe-deposit box door will be
20 openend by the bank employee and the hirer of the safe
deposit box can take the box from the safe-deposit box with
his own key.
If an unauthorized person succeeds in opening the door
of a safe-deposit box in one way or another, he will not be
25 able to take out the contents of the safety-deposit box
right away, since he must then also try to remove the box
from the safety-deposit or to force the box itself open.
If a safety-deposit box hirer wishes to use the safety
deposit box, he will have to report to a bank employee
30 first, and, if necessary, will have to identify himself. In
addition to that, e.g. a so-called signature card must be
filled out and signed. The bank employee will accompany the
hirer to the safe device to open the door of a safety-de-
posit box. Thus, he will not be available for other work.
In order to prevent the hirer form being in the safe
room all by himself, the bank employee will have to stay
with him. If he doesn't, then there is a chance that the
hirer might try to affect the lock of the bank and the lock
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CA 022~2832 1998-10-21
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of his safe-deposit box and of the storage box in it.
The hirer might also try to take away the storage box
and claim later that the box was unlawfully taken from the
safe-deposit box.
The object of the invention is to remove these diffi-
culties and to provide a system such, that the risk of
fraude and burglary is limited as much as possible. It is
also important, that if affection of the alarm system and of
locks occurs, this inevitably leaves traces of burglary.
According to the invention, to that end it is provided
for, that said securing means and the related key are execu-
ted such that the key can only be removed from the front
wall of a container when by said securing means the contai-
ner is secured to the walls of a box, the distance between
15 the front wall of a container present in a box and the inner
surface of the door of the box being such small that the
door cannot be closed when the key is present in said front
wall of the container, signalling means being present for
signalling when the door of a box is closed when no contai-
20 ner is present and secured in it, the jamb of a box accomo-
dating electrically actuated locking means for locking and
releasing the door of a box which locking means are coopera-
ting with electronic protection means for signalling when
one is trying to open the door in a non-official way.
Thus a hire will not be able to leave the key in the
container unintentionally, since then the safe-deposit box
door can not be closed. Nor can he take away the container
and close the safe deposit box, since then the absence of a
container in the safe-deposit box will be signalled.
The means for signalling when an unauthorized person is
trying to open the door can be in the form of an alarm
system. By activating the alarm on unauthorized opening of
the door it can be achieved, that a bank employee has suffi-
cient time to take action, since removing the container from
35 said safe-deposit box is not easily realized.
According to the invention the signalling means are
mounted in the walls of the box and are operated by the
securing means of a container.
By mounting said signalling means as well as the door
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CA 022~2832 1998-10-21
locking and protection means in the wall of the safe-deposit
box, the possibility of affecting these is considerably
reduced, since these parts are not easily accessible.
According to the invention the securing means for
5 securing the container to the walls of a box comprises: a
lock, coupling members connected to the rotatable part of
said lock, pins connected to said coupling members and being
slidably supported by the container such that they can be
slid into and out of bores in the abutting walls of the box,
10 said pins being positioned at some distance from the front
wall of the container and thus from the front side of the
box.
So said pins will be at some distance from the front-
wall of the container and thus from the front side of the
15 safe-deposit box, so that they are not easily accessible.
Since the walls of container and safe-deposit box closely
connect, the pins can not be sawed-through easily.
Said lock and the coupling members for the pins to be
actuated by said lock can be mounted in a portion of the
20 storage container closed off in such a way that said lock,
said coupling members and the parts of the pins positioned
inside the container can only be reached by breaking open
the container. Thus traces of burglary will be produced and
a hirer can not affect the lock of his storage container
25 without burglary.
Said closed off portion of the storage container can be
realized by welding together wall portions of said container
for example.
The signalling means montioned before can be mounted in
30 the side walls of the safe-deposit box and can be operated
by the pins of said container. In order to prevent undesired
influencing of said signaling means when the container has
been removed from said box, it is provided for that closing
means are present by means of which, when the container is
35 removed from the box, the bores in the side walls of said
box, in which bores the pins of the securing means of the
box can be received, are closed off.
In a simple way, this can be mechanical closing means
operated by actuating means mounted on or near the rear wall
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CA 022~2832 1998-10-21
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of the container. Then it will be possible to push away the
closing means, but then the actuating means at the back in
the space must be forced, which must be made as difficult as
possible.
It will be obvious, that it is impossible to replace
the lock in a storage container when it is within its welded
up room. By employing an arbitrary combination of safe-depo-
sit box and container, reproduction of the key of a contai-
ner by a temporary user thereof will be useles.
However, in some cases, it might be desirable that a
specific storage container can only be mounted in one speci-
fic sage-deposit box. To this end, the container is provided
with electronically operated identification means coopera-
ting with identification means adjusted to them, mounted in
15 the wall or walls of the box, at least one system of identi-
fictaion means being adjustable.
Since a large number of combinations is possible with
the use of electronic identification means, it can be provi-
ded for that only one specific container can be placed into
20 one specific safe-deposit box. Another container wil not be
accepted.
The invention concerns as well a method for providing
access to the box of a device as described above according
to which for influencing the electrically actuated locking
25 means for releasing the door of a box use is made of the
pass-pin code method which can be supplemented by employing
a biometrical characteristic of the hire of said box, such
as a fingerprint, the shape of the hand, of the face, or a
like personal characteristic.
30 (see further page 4, line 27 of the application as filed)
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CA 022~2832 1998-10-21
W097/~250 PCT~97/~220
the door 3 is connected to the side wall 4 and the jamb 4A
of the safe-deposit box 2 and at the opposite side wall 6 of
the safe-deposit box 2, said door is provided with a lock 7.
At the same time, the door is provided with a so-called
5 security lock 25. Due to this, the door can not be taken out
after sawing through the hinge pin of the hinge 5. The lock
7 cooperates with the side wall 6 and is operable by means
of a key or electrically or electronically. In the latter
case, a pass/pin code can be used, for example. Obviously,
10 this is different for every safe-deposit box.
When the door has been released electronically, the
hirer need only exert a slight pressure on the door to be
able to open the door. When a released door is not opened
within a fixed time, it will be locked again automatically.
15 Thus, when a user has released the door using his code and
something would take place as a result of which he does not
actually open the door within a specific time, the door will
be locked again. The electrical lock operates according to
the rest principle, that is, that on lack of voltage or
20 failure of the electronics, the bank lock will remain closed
and locked. In that case, the bank lock of every safe-depo-
sit box, possibly per column of safe-deposit boxes, can be
operated mechanically.
A special protection can be achieved by incorporating
25 e.g. the fingerprint or another biometrical characteristic
of a hirer, and possibly of authorized representative, in
the safety system and use it for identification on opening
of the door.
A safe-deposit box 2 can receive a storage container 8
30 consisting of a tray 9 and a cover 10. The front wall 11 of
the container is provided with a handle 12 by which the
container can be pulled from the safe-deposit box 2. Fur-
ther, at the front wall 11 there is the lock 13 that can be
operated with the help of the key 14. The cylinder ( n o t
35 shown) of the lock 13 is provided with two excentric pins to
which two arms 15 being situated behind the front wall 11
are pivotably connected. The other ends of the arms 15 are
pivotably connected to pins 16 being slidably received in
the side walls 17 of the container 8. On sliding the pins 16
CA 022~2832 1998-10-21
W097/40250 6 PCT~L97/~220
out, they are received in bores 18 in the side walls 4 of
the safe-deposit box 2. The cross-section of the pins 16 and
of the bores 18 need not necessarily be round, but can be U-
shaped too, or have another arbitrary shape.
In order to prevent documents or the like stored in the
container 8 from impeding the proper functioning of the lock
13 and of the pins 16, a wall 19 can be mounted in the
container 8 behind the pens 16. For example, the wall 19 can
be connected to the front wall 11 of the container 8 by
10 means of a flanged portion. The wall 19 can be welded to the
further walls of the container so that a completely closed
up space is formed in which the lock 13 and the various
moving parts are situated. Therefore, undesired influencing
of said portions, other than through burglary, is excluded.
It will be obvious, that the walls of the container 8,
except for the front wall 11, will closely connect to the
walls of the safe-deposit box 2, although this is not always
the case in the drawing, for the sake of clarity.
Directly behind the side walls 4 of the safe-deposit
20 box 2, strips 20 can be slidably, or possibly pivotably
mounted, so that they will be able to close off the bores 18
in the side walls 4 when the container 8 is removed from the
safe-deposit box 2. When the strips 20 are slidably mounted
in the safe-deposit box, the rear wall 21 of the container 8
25 e.g. can be used for actuating an inwardly protruding part
of the strips 20. With the help of the container itself, the
strips 20 are then slid to release the bores 18 on sliding
the container 8 into the safe-deposit box. For example, by
means of a spring 26, a strip 20 can be pushed to the posi-
30 tion in which the strips 20 close off the bores 18. Possi-
bly, pins or levers not shown can be incorporated in the
side walls 4 of the safe-deposit box 2, that are operated on
sliding storage container 8 into the safe-deposit box 2.
Means 22 for signalling, e.g. electronically, whether
35 pins 16 are in the bores 18 can be mounted near the bores 18
behind the side walls 4 of a safe-deposit box 2. The presen-
ce of a container 8 in the safe-deposit box 2 can be signal-
led in this way. For example, if there is no container 8 in
the safe-deposit box 2, the door 3 can not be closed off, or
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CA 022~2832 l998-l0-2l
W 097140250 7 PCTnNL97/00220
this is signalled on closing the door.
If only one specific container 8 is allowed to be
accomodated in a safe-deposit box 2, a side wall 17 of the
container 8 can be provided with identification means 23 and
5 24 respectively, adjusted to one another. If another contai-
ner 8 is slide into the safe-deposit box concerned, this
will be signalled.
Fig. 1 shows the key 14 when it is in the lock 13. As
it appears, first the key 14 has to be taken from the lock
10 13 before the door 3 can be closed. Further, the key can
only be taken from the lock if the pins 16 are in the exten-
ded position. This position is shown in particular in ~igu-
res 1 and 3.
It will be obvious, that only one possible embodiment
15 of a device according to the invention has been illustrated
in the drawings and described above, and that many changes
can be made without leaving the inventive idea, as it
appears from the following claims.
- claims -
