Reinforcement pay phone upper housing

A reinforcement pay phone upper housing for mounting to and protecting a pay phone is disclosed, including an outer casing having at least a front panel and two opposite side panels extending from the front panel to be mounted to the upper portion of the pay phone so as to at least cover a portion of a front side and two lateral sides of the upper portion of the pay phone in order to protect the upper portion of the pay phone. An inner plate is arranged inside the outer casing and fixed to an inner surface of the front panel. The inner plate has an opening for mounting dial keys which extend out of the front panel through corresponding openings provided on the front panel. An intermediate reinforced plate is interposed between the inner surface of the front panel and the inner plate, having a reinforced section on which an opening for the dial keys is formed. The section of the intermediate reinforced plate has at least one reinforced zone adjacent the opening for protecting the section from vandalism, such as drilling. Side protection plates may also be provided and fixed to inner surfaces of the side panels of the outer casing. A locking mechanism is provided to be user-operable to releasably secure the upper housing to the pay phone.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates generally to a protective pay phone housing 
structure and in particular to a reinforced upper housing or cover for a 
pay phone. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Conventionally, some of the pay phones are configured to have an upper 
portion inside which the electronic and mechanical parts that operate the 
phone are arranged and protected and a lower portion inside which a coin 
collection box is disposed for receiving and collecting coins deposited 
into the phone. The electronic parts that operate the pay phone usually 
comprise an integrated circuit (IC) chip which is valuable and small in 
size as compared with other parts of the phone so that it sometimes 
becomes the target of thieves who damage or destruct the pay phone housing 
in order to get access to the IC chip. 
To provide a protection to the valuable IC chip, a reinforced upper housing 
of the pay phone has been suggested, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,057, 
wherein a telephone body guard armor is disclosed. The prior art telephone 
body guard armor comprises an outer plate and an inner plate both of which 
are attached to a front side of the pay phone and secured thereto with the 
inner plate sandwiched between the front side of the pay phone and the 
outer plate. 
Although the prior art telephone body guard armor provides an effective way 
to prevent the pay phone housing from being destructed or damaged by means 
of for example drilling, since the outer plate and the inner plate of the 
prior art pay phone protection device is externally attached to the 
housing of the pay phone and secured thereto by means of for example 
threaded studs, it is still possible for the thieves or vandals to 
destruct the pay phone by forcibly removing the outer and inner protection 
plates and then directly drilling the phone housing to get access to the 
IC chip. 
Thus, to overcome such a problem, it is desired to provide an improved 
reinforced pay phone housing structure which is mounted inside the pay 
phone housing so as to prevent any forcible removal of the reinforcement 
or protection structure of the pay phone housing. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Therefor, the principal object of the present invention is to provide a 
reinforced pay phone upper housing which comprises reinforcement mounted 
inside the pay phone housing so as to prevent any forcible removal of the 
reinforcement in attempting to break in the pay phone. 
To achieve the above and other objects, in accordance with the present 
invention, there is provided a reinforced pay phone upper housing 
structure for mounting to and protecting an upper portion of the pay 
phone, comprising an outer casing having at least a front panel and two 
opposite side panels extending from the front panel to be mounted to the 
upper portion of the pay phone so as to at least cover a portion of a 
front side and two lateral sides of the upper portion of the pay phone in 
order to protect the upper portion of the pay phone. An inner plate is 
arranged inside the outer casing and fixed to an inner surface of the 
front panel. The inner plate has an opening for mounting dial keys which 
extend out of the front panel through corresponding openings provided on 
the front panel. An intermediate reinforced plate is interposed between 
the inner surface of the front panel and the inner plate, having a 
reinforced section on which an opening for the dial keys is formed. The 
section of the intermediate reinforced plate has at least one reinforced 
zone adjacent the opening for protecting the section from vandalism, such 
as drilling. Side protection plates may also be provided and fixed to 
inner surfaces of the side panels of the outer casing. A locking mechanism 
is provided to be user-operable to releasably secure the upper housing to 
the pay phone.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
With reference to the drawings and in particular to FIG. 1, wherein a pay 
phone, generally designated at 10, incorporating a reinforcement upper 
housing constructed in accordance with the present invention is shown, 
comprising a base 12 adapted to be fixed to for example a wall (not shown) 
to which a front housing 14, comprised of an upper portion 16 and a lower 
portion 18, is attached to encase therein electronic and mechanical parts 
(not shown) that operate the phone 10 by means of the upper portion 16 and 
a coin collection box (not shown) by means of the lower portion 18 
thereof. To provide an access to the electronic and mechanical parts 
encased in the upper portion or upper housing 16, the upper housing 16 is 
made openable by being operated by a key 20 receivable in a key way 22 
formed on the upper housing 16. 
Further referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, which particularly show the structure 
of the upper housing 16 which embodies the present invention, the upper 
housing 16 in accordance with the present invention comprises an outer 
casing 24 on which a plurality of openings of variable sizes are formed 
for the access of for example coin deposition slot 24a, coin release lever 
24b, dial keys 24c or the like that is needed on a regular pay phone. In 
the embodiment illustrated, the outer casing 24 is configured to have a 
front panel 26 on which the openings are formed, two side panels 28 
extending from the front panel 26 and a top panel 30 also extending from 
the front panel 26 and connecting between the side panels 28. 
The upper housing 16 also comprises an inner plate 32 fixed to an inner 
surface of the front panel 26 of the outer casing 24, to which a locking 
mechanism 34 is mounted for releasably securing the upper housing 16 to 
the phone 10. The inner plate 32 has an opening 36 for mounting the dial 
keys 24c which extend through the corresponding opening provided on the 
front panel 26 of the outer casing 24. Due to the openings 36, the 
mechanical strength of the inner plate 32 is reduced, especially at the 
section where the opening 36 is formed. Thus, to overcome such a problem, 
an intermediate reinforcing plate 38 is provided and sandwiched between 
the inner face of the front panel 26 of the outer casing 24 and the inner 
plate 32, which comprises a reinforced section on which an opening 40 
corresponding to the opening 36 of the inner plate 32 is formed for 
mounting the dial keys 24c. 
In the embodiment illustrated, the reinforced section of the intermediate 
reinforced plate 38 has two reinforced zones 42 respectively located at 
two opposite sides of the opening 40 thereof. However, in other 
embodiments where the opening 40 may be located adjacent to a lateral side 
of the intermediate reinforced plate 38 so that there may be only one such 
reinforced zone. The reinforced zones 42 provide a protection against for 
example drilling and thus breaking in through the weaker section of the 
inner plate 32. 
The reinforced zones 42 may be made by mounting an additional plate thereto 
or alternatively and preferably in the case that the intermediate 
reinforced plate 38 is made of a metal that may be heat-treated to 
increase the hardness, the reinforced zones 42 are formed by means of heat 
treatment to increase the hardness thereof so as to provide the desired 
protection. 
The reinforcement upper housing 16 may selectively comprise two side 
protection plates 44 respectively fixed to the inner surfaces of the two 
side panels 28 of the outer casing 24 for reinforcement and protection of 
the side panels 28 of the outer casing 24. 
The locking mechanism 34 comprises two side support plates 46 which may be 
respectively fixed to inner surfaces of the two side panels 28 of the 
outer casing 24 or to the side protection plates 44, if any, and each has 
a slide plate 48 mounted thereon in such a way to be slidable relative 
thereto. For example, the slide plate 48 may be provided with at least one 
elongated slot 50 to receive therein a guide pin 52 fixed to and extending 
from the respective side support plate 46, as shown in FIG. 3, so as to 
slidably mount the slide plate 48 to the respective side panel 28. 
The slide plates 48 comprises a plurality of hooks 54 formed thereon to be 
movable with the slide plate between a locked position where the hooks 54 
engage corresponding slots (not shown) formed on the pay phone 10 so as to 
secure the upper housing 16 to the pay phone 10 and a released position 
where the hooks 54 are disengaged from the slots of the pay phone 10 so as 
to release the upper housing 16 from the pay phone 10. 
One of the slide plates 48 is mechanically coupled to the key way 22 that 
is formed on the upper housing 16 as shown in FIG. 1 to allow a user or 
operator to use the key 20 to move the hooks 54 between the locked 
position and the release position. 
A link bar 56 is rotatably supported on the inner plate 32 by means of 
holders 58 fixed to the inner plate 32 so as to be rotatable about a 
central axis thereof. The link bar 56 has two end extensions 60 which are 
respectively pivoted at 62 to the slide plates 48 (FIG. 2) so that the 
movement of the one of the slide plates 48 that is coupled to the key way 
22 may be transmitted to the other one of the slide plates 48 and thus the 
hooks 54 of both slide plates 48 may be actuated simultaneously. 
In accordance with the present invention, the reinforcements, such as the 
inner plate and the reinforced intermediate plate, are arranged inside the 
housing of the pay phone so that forcible removal of the reinforcements is 
not possible. As compared to the externally attached reinforcements 
adapted in the prior art design, the present invention provides a more 
effective protection to the housing of the pay phone. 
Although the invention has been described by means of the preferred 
embodiment thereof, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that many 
changes, variation and modifications are possible without departing from 
the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.