Safety box

A safety box, such as a safe or small vault adapted for mounting in the wall of a building, is provided with a removable cover or door. A rotary latching arrangement is key-actuated to cause the cover to be selectively secured to the box at a plurality of points to effectively seal an opening to the interior of the safety box. Opening of the safety box is achieved by utilizing the key to rotate the latching arrangement in order to release the cover for removal from the box.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
This invention relates generally to wall-mounted safety boxes, such as 
small safes or vaults, and more specifically, this invention relates to a 
cover and latching arrangement for a wall-mounted safety box. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
In the past, safety boxes, such as small safes or vaults mounted in the 
walls of a building, have been constructed with a door hinged to the body 
of the safety box. A locking mechanism is generally located on the inner 
surface of the door, perhaps being located within a housing, and this 
locking mechanism, of course, protrudes into the hollow interior of the 
safety box when the door is closed. While this protrusion into the safety 
box in the closed position of the door is not ususally objectionable, when 
the door is opened it can be a nuisance. As the doors are frequently only 
permitted to open through approximately 90.degree. of travel, which in 
itself restricts access to the interior of the safety box, the protruding 
locking mechanism further restricts accessibility to the interior of the 
safety box. 
One solution to this problem has been to provide a completely removable 
door or cover. With this approach, a latching arrangement must be utilized 
that not only provides the selective sealing and unsealing of the previous 
locking mechanism, but must also provide the supporting and positioning 
function formerly provided by the permanent hinge mounting. 
The conventional practice adopted to provide the desired latching 
arrangement has been to provide one or more dead bolts actuated in 
conjunction with the locking mechanism. However, the systems employed to 
manipulate the dead bolts are typically quite complex, involving the use 
of numerous cams, springs, gears and levers. Also, the tolerances in these 
systems are quite tight, and hence these systems are costly to produce, 
both in terms of the number of parts needed and the manufacturing 
processes involved. In addition, due to the complexity of these systems, 
malfunctions may occur which are irritating to the owner of the safety box 
and which may be costly to repair. 
Thus, there is a need for a safety box which has a non-complex, reliable 
and easily manufactured cover or door. The latching arrangement of this 
cover should be easily actuatable to selectively support and lock the 
cover in the box, to prevent access to the interior of the box, and to 
disengage the cover from the box for removal, in order to permit access to 
the interior of the safety box. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention provides a safety box having a non-complex latching 
arrangement to selectively secure a cover on the box to prevent access to 
the interior of the box, and to release the cover for removal to permit 
access to the interior of the box. This latching arrangement secures the 
cover to the safety box to provide the desired sealing, but it does not 
have the complex control mechanisms or other disadvantages of prior art 
approaches, and is much easier and less expensive to manufacture. 
The safety box of the present invention includes a hollow body formed of a 
strong material, such as a suitable metal. An access opening permits 
access to the interior of the hollow body. In the case where the hollow 
body has a rectangular shape (the preferred embodiment disclosed herein), 
the opening would be located at one end of the hollow body. 
A cover is utilized to close the access opening to prevent access to the 
interior of the hollow body. This cover has a cover plate formed of a 
strong material, such as a suitable metal, which fits into the access 
opening with a relatively tight fit. 
A latch securing structure is located in the hollow body. In a preferred 
embodiment, this latch securing structure takes the form of a flange 
located about the inner periphery of the hollow body and extending toward 
the central axis of the hollow body, the latch securing flange being 
positioned inwardly from the opening. A plurality of engaging flanges may 
be secured to the latch securing flange (e.g., to each side of the 
rectangularly-shaped box of the preferred embodiment herein), the engaging 
flanges extending toward the opening to limit the amount by which the 
cover plate is inserted into the hollow body, thus positioning the cover 
and providing a sealing surface. These engaging flanges thus form a 
recessed opening smaller than the access opening. 
A positioning and strengthening plate, smaller than the cover plate, is 
spaced from the cover plate and secured thereto. The positioning and 
strengthening plate is small enough to fit through the recessed opening, 
without contacting the engaging flanges or the latch securing flange. 
Some suitable locking arrangement, such as a key-actuated cylinder lock, is 
mounted on and extends through the cover plate. A rotatable stem or shaft 
of the cylinder lock has a latching plate mounted thereon. This latching 
plate is located adjacent the positioning and strengthening plate, between 
the positioning and strengthening plate and the cover plate. The latching 
plate has a desired number of latching protrusions or arms located about 
the periphery thereof. These latching projections or arms are located 
substantially within the outline of the positioning and strengthening 
plate, when it is desired to remove or insert the cover, while actuation 
of the cylinder lock to rotate the latching plate will cause the arms to 
project to engage the latch securing flange and prevent removal of the 
cover. 
While the latching plate may take any desired shape that will achieve these 
functions, it is desirable to have at least one latching arm engage the 
latch securing flange on each side of the box (in the rectangular 
embodiment disclosed herein). As a preferred embodiment disclosed herein, 
the latching plate takes the shape of two similar substantially right 
triangles facing in opposite directions, with the longer non-hypotenuse 
sides joined together for a portion of their length from the right angles 
of the triangles. With this arrangement, the ends of the hypotenuses of 
the triangles provide the latching arms to engage the latch securing 
flange. It should be noted that the positioning and strengthening plate is 
spaced far enough from the cover plate so that when the cover plate 
contacts the engaging flanges both the positioning and strengthening plate 
and the latching plate are positioned on the inside of the latch securing 
flange. 
In this fashion, applicant has provided an easily manufactured safety box 
with a removable cover that obviates the difficulties of prior art safety 
boxes of this type. While applicant's safety box is preferably mounted in 
the wall of a building, and the box includes provisions for so mounting, 
the strong and secure, yet relatively simple, latching arrangement 
invented by applicant has applicability in other spheres. 
These and other objects, advantages and features of this invention will 
hereinafter appear, and for purposes of illustration, but not of 
limitation, an exemplary embodiment of the subject invention is shown in 
the appended drawing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
A safety box 11, such as a small wall-mounted safe or vault, is illustrated 
in the perspective view of FIG. 1. Safety box 11 includes a hollow body 
portion 13 and a cover or door 15. Cover 15 has an appropriate locking 
arrangement, such as a cylinder lock 17. This locking arrangement may be 
selectively activated, such as by a key 19. 
Hollow body 13 of safety box 11 is made of suitably strong material, 
preferably a metal such as a heavy steel or iron. The reason for using a 
heavy strong material is, of course, to prevent anyone from breaking into 
the safety box and gaining unauthorized access to the contents. Also, it 
may be noted that the safety box of this preferred embodiment has a 
rectangular shape, although it should be recognized that other shapes, 
such as a cylindrical hollow body, could also be useful in some 
situations. 
As best seen in FIGS. 2 and 6, hollow body 13 has a generally rectangular 
access opening 19 at one end to permit access to the interior of the 
hollow body. In its preferred utilization, hollow body 13 would be mounted 
in the wall of a building, with opening 19 facing toward the room where 
access to the box is to be achieved. Generally, hollow body 13 would be 
mounted so that the front portion defining opening 19 would be flush with, 
or slightly recessed from, the wall of the room. Suitable provisions for 
mounting body 13 in the wall would be provided, such as mounting holes 21 
and other mounting holes (not shown) toward the other end of the body 13. 
Spaced inwardly from access opening 19, there is a latch securing structure 
located about the inner periphery of hollow body 13, in order to provide 
for latching cover 15 to body 13 at a plurality of points. In this 
preferred embodiment, the latch securing structure takes the form of a 
continuous latch securing flange 23 rigidly secured to the hollow body and 
extending toward the central axis thereof. In the preferred embodiment of 
the present invention, the latch securing flange 23 may be integrally cast 
with the hollow body 13. 
An engaging flange 25 extends outwardly toward opening 19 from each of the 
four sides of the latch securing flange 23. In this preferred embodiment, 
the engaging flanges 25 extend for substantially the entire length of the 
respective sides of the safety box 11, although there may be some 
circumstances in which this length would not be required. Also, in this 
preferred embodiment, the engaging flanges are integrally formed with the 
latch securing flange, although any rigid attachment would suffice. It may 
be noted that the engaging flanges 25 may be said to define a recessed 
opening 27, smaller than access opening 19. 
With reference now to FIGS. 2 and 3, cover 15 may be seen to have a cover 
plate 29. Cover plate 29 is made of a suitably strong material, 
preferrably a heavy metal such as steel. Cover plate 29 could be a single 
plate, but in the preferred embodiment disclosed herein, it is composed of 
two sandwiched plates 31 and 33. 
Cylinder lock 17 is mounted in cover plate 29 by means of a nut 35 on 
threaded barrel 37. Barrel 37 extends through an appropriate opening 
formed in the cover plate 29. A rotatable central shaft or stem 39 extends 
outwardly from the barrel 37. As will be noted, the stem 39 is also 
threaded. 
A positioning and strengthening plate 41 is spaced from and attached to 
cover plate 29 by supporting legs 43 and 45, located at diagonally opposed 
positions. Mounting legs 43 and 45 may be formed integrally with 
positioning and strengthening plate 41 and secured to cover plate 29 by 
any appropriate method, such as welding. The length of arms 43 and 45 is 
such as to place positioning and strengthening plate 41 a desired distance 
beyond latch securing flange 23 when cover plate 29 is brought into 
contact with engaging flanges 25, as best seen in FIG. 10. Positioning and 
strengthening plate 41 is smaller than cover plate 29, so that it can pass 
through the smaller recessed opening 27. A relatively large circular 
opening 47 is formed in the positioning plate 41 to permit the threaded 
stem 39 to extend therethrough with considerable clearance. 
A latching plate 49 is attached to the threaded stem 39 by a nut 51 (and 
the opening 47 is sufficiently large to provide a large clearance about 
this nut also). The location of the latching plate 49 on stem 39 is such 
that it is adjacent to the positioning and strengthening plate 41, between 
the positioning and strengthening plate 41 and the cover plate 29. When 
cover plate 29 is brought into contact with engaging flanges 25, the 
latching plate 49 should be immediately beyond the latch securing flange 
23, again best seen in FIG. 10. Positioning and strengthening plate 41 
assures that latching plate 49 is not skewed but is maintained in the 
proper vertical plane. Also, plate 41 prevents an outward force on cover 
15 from pulling latching plate 49 off stem 39 or distorting plate 49 to 
permit removal of the cover, thus strengthening the latching arrangement. 
Insertion of a proper key 19 into the cylinder lock 17 permits the person 
holding the key to impart a limited amount of rotation to stem 39, while 
barrel 37 remains stationary. Accordingly, it is desired to form latching 
plate 49 such that the relatively limited rotation that may be imparted to 
stem 39 can be utilized to move the latching plate from a latched to a 
non-latched position, and vice versa. In addition, the latching plate 49 
should contact the latch securing flange 23 at a plurality of points, 
preferably at least one point on each side of the box. 
While any geometrical shape may be utilized that would provide latching 
arms that may be rotated to a retracted position, in which the cover may 
be inserted into and removed from opening 19, or to an extended or 
projecting position where the latching arms engage the latch securing 
flange 23 to prevent removal of the cover, a particular shape of the 
latching plate utilized in this preferred embodiment is illustrated in 
FIG. 7. The preferred form of latching plate 49 illustrated in FIG. 7 may 
be described as being two similar substantially right triangles 53 and 55 
facing in opposite directions with a portion of their longer 
non-hypotenuse sides 57 and 59, respectively, being joined together (sides 
57 and 59 are shown as extended by dotted line 61, which is included 
solely for purposes of defining the triangles 53 and 55). The portions of 
the sides 57 and 59 that are joined extend outwardly from the right 
angles. 
With this arrangement, the ends of hypotenuses 62 and 64 adjacent the 
longer non-hypotenuse sides 57 and 59 form latching arms 63. Similarly, 
the ends of hypotenuses 62 and 64 adjacent the shorter non-hypotenuse 
sides form latching arms 65. It may be noted that while both latching arms 
63 and 65 are somewhat rounded, latching arms 63 are formed with 
considerably more curvature than latching arms 65. A hole 67 is formed in 
the middle of latching plate 49 to permit the mounting on stem 39. 
In FIG. 3, latching arms 63 and 65 (solid lines) are shown extending beyond 
positioning and strengthening plate 41 in the latching or locking 
position. With latching plate 49 in this position, latching arms 65 engage 
latch securing flange 23 at the top and bottom of safety box 11 (as 
illustrated in FIG. 10), and latching arms 63 engage latch securing flange 
23 on the sides of the box (as seen in FIG. 9). When it is desired to 
insert cover 15 into the body 13 of the safety box 11, or remove it 
therefrom, latching plate 49 is rotated to the position shown in dotted 
lines in FIG. 3. In this position, it may be seen that latching plate 49 
is substantially within the outlines of positioning and strengthening 
plate 41, with only the ends of latching arms 63 extending beyond the 
outline of positioning and strengthening plate 41. With latching plate 49 
in this position, the latching arms are retracted so as to not contact 
latch securing flange 23, and the cover 15 may be inserted or removed from 
body 13. 
Illustrative of the ease of assemblying this safety box is the brief 
description that is required of the assembly process. Hollow body 13 may 
be integrally cast with latch securing flange 23 and engaging flanges 25, 
the flanges having the desired positions and shapes. Cover 15 may be 
assembled by inserting cylinder lock 17 into an appropriate opening in 
cover plate 29 and securing lock 17 to plate 29 by nut 35. Latching plate 
49 may then be located on stem 39 and secured in place by means of nut 51 
(and a lock washer, if so desired). Positioning and strengthening plate 41 
is then welded to the back of cover plate 29 to complete the entire 
assembly of the safety box 11. 
It should be understood that various modifications, changes and variations 
may be made in the arrangement, operation and details of construction of 
the elements disclosed herein without departing from the spirit and scope 
of this invention.