Abstract:
Although a door locking handle assembly is small as a whole in thickness, it permits through a computerized personal management system of users a plurality of persons or users to have easily access to instruments contained in a box which is provided with the door locking handle assembly. In this assembly, a combination lock ( 19 ), which is opened by turning each of a set of its specially marked dial discs ( 21 ) a given number of times to establish a unique combination of marks of the dial discs ( 21 ), is incorporated in a door handle ( 13 ) or a base body ( 1 ) of the assembly. In operation, a locking member ( 44 ) of the assembly prevents the door handle ( 13 ) from being pulled out of the base body (1), and is driven to reach its unlocked position when the combination lock ( 19 ) is opened.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The present invention relates to a door locking handle assembly with a built-in combination lock of a pull-out and side-swinging lever-action type, in which a door handle is pivoted to a base body of the assembly so as to be pulled out forward and pushed back rearward relative to the base body and turned on its pivoted end.  
           [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0004]    As is well known in the art, a door locking handle assembly of a conventional type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,623, herein incorporated by reference, has a construction in which: a base body of the assembly is fixedly mounted on a door; a door handle is pivoted to the base body so as to be pulled out forward and pushed back rearward relative to the base body and further turned sideward on its pivoted end after completion of its pulling-out operation; when the door handle is pulled out of the base body to assume its pulled-up or raised inclination position relative to the base body or turned sideward after completion of its pulling-out operation, a catch plate which serves as a door bolt directly or indirectly connected with the door handle is released from a receiving portion of a stationary frame element (i.e., door frame). In this type of conventional door locking handle assembly, a cylinder lock is incorporated in either the door handle or the base body. On the other hand, the door handle is pushed back rearward relative to the base body and held in its pushed-back or locked position in the base body.  
           [0005]    In the conventional door locking handle assembly, an available space for mounting the assembly is extremely limited in each of opposite sides of the door to which the assembly is fixedly mounted because the interior space of a box or container for housing various instruments therein is relatively limited due to the presence of the instruments housed in the box. Due to this, it is necessary to considerably limit in size the projections of the assembly in opposite directions perpendicular to the plane of  
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0006]    The best modes for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail using embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings. In a first embodiment of a door locking handle assembly with a built-in combination lock according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 5, a base body  1  of the door locking handle assembly is fixedly mounted on a front surface of a door  2 , which is provided with a mounting hole  3 . More specifically, a screw  7  is inserted into a through-hole  8  of a fastening casing  5  from its rear side, passes through this fastening casing  5  forward, and is threadably engaged with a threaded hole  6  of a rear portion of the base body  1 , so that a door  2  is firmly sandwiched between the base body  1  and the fastening casing  5 . Incidentally, the fastening casing  5  is combined with a rack  12  to form a door latch mechanism  4 , wherein the rack  12  serves as a door bolt for the door  2 .  
         [0007]    On the other hand, a bearing hole  9  is formed in an upper portion of the base body  1  to extend in a direction perpendicular to a front surface of the door  2 . Rotatably received in such a bearing hole  9  of the base body  1  in an insertion manner is a locking shaft  10 . As is clear from FIG. 5, the locking shaft  10  is provided with a shoulder portion in its substantially intermediate portion. This intermediate shoulder portion of the locking shaft  10  prevents the locking shaft  10  from axially sliding relative to the base body  1 . The locking shaft  10  is provided with a square hole  10   a  in its rear portion. Fixedly received in such a square hole  10   a  of the locking shaft  10  in an insertion manner is a corresponding square column portion formed in a front end portion of a pinion shaft  11 . As is clear from FIG. 6, the pinion shaft  11  is provided with a pinion gear formed in an outer peripheral surface of its rear end portion. Such a pinion gear of the pinion shaft  11  meshes with a rack  12 , which serves as a door bolt for the door  2 . The rack  12  is slidably supported and guided in the door latch mechanism  4  of the door  2 , and capable of moving up and down relative to the door latch mechanism  4  so as to be engaged with and disengaged from a receiving portion “3” of a stationary frame element “2” of a box containing the instruments therein, the pinion gear of the pinion shaft  11 . Since the pinion gear of the pinion shaft  11  meshes with the rack  12  (shown in FIG. 6), the rack  12  is slidably moved up and down relative to the door  2  when the door handle  13  is turned on the locking shaft  10 . As a result, the door  2  is unlocked or released from the stationary frame element which is denoted by the reference numeral “2” in the prior art: U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,623, herein incorporated by reference. This makes it possible for the user to open the door  2  by simply pulling the door handle  13  forward. Consequently, it is possible for the user to inspect and maintain his or her instruments contained in the main body of the box.  
         [0008]    Formed in an intermediate portion of the door handle  13  to extend in the longitudinal direction of the door handle  13  is an elongated hollow portion  20  for receiving therein a combination lock  19 . The hollow portion  20  of the door handle  13  is open at the rear side of the door handle  13  to form an opening which is covered by a back plate member  21 .  
         [0009]    The combination lock  19  is constructed of a plurality of its components. Essential ones of these components of the combination lock  19  are: a plurality of marked dial discs  22 ; a plurality of cam discs  23  combined with the dial discs  22 ; and, a rod-shaped locking member  24  for preventing the door handle  13  from being pulled out of the base body  1 . As is clear from FIG. 5, a lower end portion of the locking member  24  is bent to form a lower-end bent portion which is inserted in a bent recess  35   a  of a lower-end latch member  35 , so that the locking member  24  is connected with the lower-end latch member  35 .  
         [0010]    As is clear from FIG. FIG. 50, each of the cam discs  23  assumes a short cylindrical shape, and is provided with a through-hole  23   a  which axially passes through a center of the cam disc  23 . The locking member  24  passes through the through-hole  23   a  of the cam disc  23 . On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 44, each of the marked dial discs  22  is provided with a small-diameter bore portion  22   a  and a large-diameter bore portion  22   b.  These bore portions  22   a ,  22   b  are combined with each other to form a through-hole, which axially passes through a center of each of the dial discs  22 . As is clear from FIG. 54, a spring member  27  is constructed of a compression coil spring to exert its resilient force on the uppermost one of the cam discs  23 . In operation, when the lowermost one of the cam discs  23  is axially moved upward against a resilient force of the spring member  27  relative to the corresponding dial disc  22  to have its upper end portion enter the small-diameter bore portion  22   a  of the corresponding dial disc  22 , this cam disc  23  has an interlocking projection  26  of its outer peripheral surface engaged with an interlocking groove  25  of an inner peripheral surface of the small-diameter bore portion  22   a  of the corresponding dial disc  22 . In contrast with this, in locked condition of operation shown in FIG. 54, the cam disc  23  has its lower portion extend downward from the small-diameter bore portion  22   a  of the corresponding dial disc  22  under the effect of the resilient force exerted by the spring member  27 . Consequently, as is clear from FIG. 54, in this locked condition of operation, the interlocking projection  26  (shown in FIG. 49) of the cam disc  23  is disengaged from the interlocking groove  25  (shown in FIG. 43) of the corresponding dial disc  22 .  
         [0011]    As shown in FIG. 46, the cam disc  23  is provided with a plurality of positioning projections  26   a  in its outer peripheral surface. The number of these positioning projections  26   a  is equal to the number of a plurality of marks having been applied to an outer peripheral surface of the dial disc  22 . These marks are denoted by the Roman numerals, for example such as “2”, “1”, “0”, as shown in FIG. 42, and spaced apart from each other at predetermined equal angular intervals. As shown in FIG. 49, the positioning projection  26   a  of the cam disc  23  is formed in a proximal end portion of the interlocking projection  26 . On the other hand, the back plate member  21  is fixedly mounded on the inner surface of the door handle  13  by means of a plurality of screws  30  (shown in FIG. 10), each of which screws  30  is threadably engaged with a threaded hole  29  (shown in FIG. 23) of each of a plurality of guide projections  28 . As shown in FIG. 36, the back plate member  21  is provided with at least one positioning groove  31 , which is engaged with at least one of the positioning projections  26   a  of the cam disc  23 .  
         [0012]    As shown in FIG. 42, a plurality of detent grooves  32  are formed in an outer peripheral surface of the dial disc  22  at predetermined equal angular intervals in a manner such that each of the detent grooves  32  is sandwiched between adjacent ones of the marks having been applied to the outer peripheral surface of the dial disc  22 . Consequently, the number of the detent grooves  32  is equal to that of the marks applied to the outer peripheral surface of the dial disc  22 . As shown in FIG. 55, a detent leaf spring  33  is fixedly mounted in the elongated hollow portion  20  of the door handle  13  to have its free end portion detachably engaged with each of the detent grooves  32  of the dial disc  22 . This enables each of the dial discs  22  to be held in its predetermined angular position, and therefore to establish a unique combination of the marks of the dial discs  22 .  
         [0013]    It is possible for the user to arbitrarily modify such a unique combination for unlocking the combination lock  19  by simply turning any one of dial discs  22  using his or her fingertip.  
         [0014]    Such modification procedure of the combination of the marks is as follows: namely, in a condition in which the door handle  13  is in its raised position shown in FIG. 8, at first, it is necessary for the user to push up the lower-end latch member  35  into a hollow portion  36  of the door handle  13  by using his or her finger, as shown in FIG. 57. When the lower-end latch member  35  is pushed up relative to the door handle  13 , the lowermost one of the cam discs  23  is moved upward against a resilient force exerted by the coil spring member  27  since the lowermost cam disc  23  has its bottom surface abut against an interlocking ring  37  which is fixedly mounted on the locking member  24 . As is clear from FIG. 54, the locking member  24  has its lower end portion engaged with the lower-end latch member  35 , which makes it possible to move up the lowermost one of the cam discs  23  against the resilient force exerted by the coil spring member  25  when the lower-end latch member  35  is moved up into the hollow portion  36  of the door handle  13 . As a result, an upper end portion of the cam disc  23  enters the small-diameter bore portion  22   a  of the dial disc  22 , so that the positioning projection  26   a  of the cam disc  23  is axially moved up out of the positioning groove  31  (shown in FIG. 36) of the back plate member  21 . At this time, the interlocking these dial discs  33  using his or her fingertip, the dial disc  22  is so arranged as to have a part thereof extended forward (i.e., upward in FIG. 55) from a slot  38  formed in the front surface of the door handle  13 . In this first embodiment, as is clear from FIG. 42, each of the marks of the dial discs  22  is constructed of a predetermined numeric character, for example such as any one of numerals from “0” to “9”. These marks or numerals are angularly spaced apart from each other at predetermined equal angular intervals. On the other hand, the locking member  24  passes through the though-holes  23   a  formed in the centers of the cam discs  23 .  
         [0015]    When the unique combination of the marks of the dial discs  22  is established by the eligible user who knows such unique combination, the interlocking groove  25  of the dial disc  22  is aligned in angular position with the interlocking projection  26  of the cam disc  23  to receive therein the interlocking projection  26  of the cam disc  23  when the cam disc  23  is moved upward in FIG. 54, which permits the combination lock  19  to be unlocked.  
         [0016]    Under such circumstances, when the user has his or her fingertip engaged with the fingertip engaging edge portions  17  of the lower free end portion of the door handle  13  and swingably pulls forward the door handle  13  from the front surface of the base body  1 , as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the locking member  24  is pushed upward against a resilient force exerted by the coil spring member  27  since the lower end portion of the lower-end latch member  35  having been connected with the locking member  24  is pushed upward by means of a rear cam slope  50  of a locking projection  48  which is provided in an outer peripheral surface of a lock sleeve  46 . As shown in FIG. 5, the lock sleeve  46  is rotatably mounted on a fixed casing portion  47  of the base body  1  to cover an outer peripheral surface of the fixed casing portion  47 , wherein the fixed casing portion  47  assumes an inner sleeve-like projection extending from the front to the rear. Therefore, at this time, the front end portion of each of the cam discs  23  enters the small-diameter bore portion  22   a  of the corresponding dial discs  22 , so that the interlocking projection  26  of the cam disc  23  is engaged with the interlocking groove  25  of the corresponding dial disc  22 .  
         [0017]    In a brief summary, a time when the door handle  13  is released from the base body  1  is a time when the lower-end latch member  35  is pushed upward to reach its uppermost position shown in FIG. 7. After the lower-end latch member  35  reaches its uppermost position, the door handle  13  is further pulled up or swung forward through a predetermined angle, as shown in FIG. 8. Then, the door handle  13  is turned on the locking shaft  10  through a predetermined angle in a direction perpendicular to the paper of FIG. 8, so that the rack  12  of the door  2  is retracted from a stationary frame element, wherein such a stationary frame element is disclosed in the prior art: U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,623, herein incorporated by reference. As a result, the door  2  is unlocked from the stationary frame element.  
         [0018]    In the above embodiment described with reference to FIGS. 5, 5 and  8 , the cylinder lock  43  is completely out of use in a condition in which the locking projection  48  of the lock sleeve  46  serves as if it were a stationary receiving portion for receiving a door bolt and were fixedly mounted on the base body  1 . Further, the door handle  13  is locked and unlocked using only the combination lock  19 .  
         [0019]    The following is a second mode of operation of the door locking handle assembly of the present invention. Such a second mode of operation is shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, in which the locking projection  48  of the cylinder lock  43  is positively used in locking and unlocking operation of the door locking handle assembly.  
         [0020]    In other words, in the second mode of operation, the unique combination of the marks of the dial discs  22  is not established in the combination lock  19 . The lower-end latch member  35  mounted on a lower end portion of the locking member  24  serves as if it were a receiving portion having been fixedly mounted on the door handle  13 .  
         [0021]    When the eligible user, who keeps a regular key, inserts the key into a keyhole of a rotor  44  of the cylinder lock  43  and turns the rotor  44  in a predetermined direction through a predetermined angle, the lock sleeve  46  is rotated together with the rotor  44 , so that the locking projection  48  is rotatably driven from a position shown in FIG. 5 to a new position shown in FIG. 9.  
         [0022]    Due to the above rotational motion, the lower-end latch member  35 , which is