Abstract:
An electrical control lock device comprises: a safety casing which is provided at least one cover body; a rotating shaft, which is connected fixedly with a locked part and drives the locked part outside the casing to rotate, is provided in the casing; a locking plate which is perpendicular to said rotating shaft is arranged fixedly on the rotating shaft, and said locking plate is provided with a pin control portion; a lock pin which selectively drops into the pin control portion and said lock pin is driven by a power motor to rotate; and a control portion which controls the rotating of the power motor according to a guiding control instruction in order that the lock pin drops into the pin control portion to enable that the locking plate and the locked part are locked.

Description:
[0001]    The present application claims the benefit of Chinese Patent Application No. 201210326293.3, titled “ELECTRICALLY CONTROLLED LOCKING APPARATUS” and filed with the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office on Sep. 5, 2012, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. 
       FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present application relates to a locking apparatus, and particularly to an electrically controlled locking apparatus for an oil port cover of an oil tank truck. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    With the popularization of cars in our country, fuel consumption has been greatly increased. Accordingly, the amount of fuel transported by oil tank trucks, as the core of the supply chain of gas stations and fuel consuming sites, has been greatly increased. Due to the high fuel price, recently, loopholes in oil tank truck management have been exploited by lawbreakers in their illegal activities. Apparently, since oil tank trucks are running on the road in most of the times, it is more difficult to ensure the operation security of the oil tank trucks than that of warehouses. 
         [0004]    For solving these problems, supervisory departments progressively enhance management and technical measures to prevent such incidents. In the prior art, generally, physical label seal, electronic label seal or padlocks are used to restrict manually opening and closing the oil port. The principles of these preventive measures for restricting the illegal operations are as follows. 
         [0005]    1. The physical label seal is to seal the oil port via a disposable label, and only the staff of the oil company are allowed to break the label in operation, thus if the label is broken by other people, it means that something wrong occurs. 
         [0006]    2. The electronic label seal is to seal the oil port via an electronic label, which has the same working process as the physical label seal, and corresponding technical measures are required to break the electronic label seal. 
         [0007]    3. The lock is a most simple padlock, and keys are kept by the staff of the oil company. 
         [0008]    However, in view of the principles of the above measures, the lock and the physical label seal are easy to be destroyed and duplicated, and the electronic label seal may be disabled by lawbreakers by shorting out the electronic label seal or by other means. It is obvious that each of these measures has security flaws which can not be solved. 
         [0009]    1. If the preventive measures are disabled, there is no system that can detect the destruction action. 
         [0010]    2. The preventive measures rely on artificial operations excessively, and has to be combined with management method to be effective, thus there is a high risk of the managerial personnel being united to cheat. 
         [0011]    3. The preventive measures do not have function of active defense, and has to rely on the staff operating by following specification. 
         [0012]    Therefore, it is urgent to provide an electrically controlled locking apparatus for an oil port cover of an oil tank truck, which is not easy to be disabled and duplicated and is safe and reliable, so as to fundamentally prevent unlawful actions. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0013]    An object of the present application is to provide an electrically controlled locking apparatus for an oil port cover of an oil tank truck, which is not easy to be disabled or duplicated, and is safe and reliable. 
         [0014]    The electrically controlled locking apparatus provided by the present application includes a safety housing provided with at least one cover; a rotating shaft provided in the housing, the rotating shaft being fixedly connected to a component to be locked and being configured to drive the component to be locked outside the housing to rotate; a locking sheet fixedly provided on the rotating shaft, the locking sheet being perpendicular to the rotating shaft and being provided with a pin control portion; a locking pin being configured to selectively engage with the pin control portion and being driven to rotate via a power motor; and a control portion being configured to control a rotation of the power motor according to a control instruction, such that the locking pin is controlled to be engaged with the pin control portion to lock the locking sheet and the component to be locked, or to be disengaged from the pin control portion to unlock the locking sheet and the component being locked. 
         [0015]    Preferably, the locking sheet is a semicircular locking plate. 
         [0016]    Further, the pin control portion is a notch provided at an edge of the semicircular locking plate for receiving the locking pin. 
         [0017]    Preferably, the locking pin is fixed on a pin shaft, the pin shaft is driven by a driven wheel, and the driven wheel is engaged with a driving wheel driven by the power motor. 
         [0018]    Further, an end, away from the locking sheet, of the pin shaft is fixedly connected with a blocking sheet. 
         [0019]    Further, a blocking sheet detecting sensor is provided at each of two ends of a stroke of the blocking sheet rotating together with the pin shaft. 
         [0020]    Preferably, an opening/closing state monitoring device is provided between the cover and the housing. 
         [0021]    Further, the opening/closing state monitoring device includes a supporting plate and a self-returning pressing sheet mounted on a surface, facing the cover, of the supporting plate; 
         [0022]    the self-returning pressing sheet is rotatably provided on the supporting plate via a rotating shaft, and includes one end extending towards the cover and forming a pressing end and the other end forming a detecting end; the rotating shaft is located between the pressing end and the detecting end; and a detecting sensor is provided in a stroke of the detecting end rotating around the rotating shaft. 
         [0023]    Further, the self-returning pressing sheet realizes a self-returning function via a torsion spring coaxially provided relative to the self-returning pressing sheet. 
         [0024]    Preferably, the control portion sends an operation instruction or an alarm signal according to a signal sent from the blocking sheet detecting sensor or the opening/closing state monitoring device. 
         [0025]    Compared with the prior art, the electrically controlled locking apparatus provided by the present application has the following advantageous. 
         [0026]    The apparatus may monitor and control the legal operation via the control portion, so as to effectively restrain illegal destruction and duplication, effectively monitor the state of the cover being not closed or being not fully closed, and avoid the potential risk caused by the electrically controlled locking apparatus being destroyed, thereby greatly preventing the oil tank truck from being illegally opened and preventing oil being stolen during the transportation. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0027]      FIG. 1  is a schematic view showing an electrically controlled locking apparatus provided by the present application being used on an oil tank; 
           [0028]      FIG. 2  is a perspective schematic view of an electrically controlled locking apparatus; 
           [0029]      FIG. 3  is an exploded schematic view of the electrically controlled locking apparatus with a cover being opened; 
           [0030]      FIG. 4  is an exploded schematic view showing an internal structure of the electrically controlled locking apparatus; 
           [0031]      FIG. 5  is a sectional view of the electrically controlled locking apparatus shown in  FIG. 2  taken along line A-A; 
           [0032]      FIG. 6  is a sectional view of the electrically controlled locking apparatus shown in  FIG. 2  taken along line B-B; and 
           [0033]      FIG. 7  is a partial enlarged drawing of an area “F” in  FIG. 4 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0034]    The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described clearly and completely hereinafter in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. Apparently, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all of other embodiments, made by the person skilled in the art without any creative efforts, fall into the protection scope of the present application. 
         [0035]    Referring to  FIG. 1 , an electrically controlled locking apparatus  2  is provided at an oil port of an oil tank  1  for controlling opening and closing of an oil port cover  11 , wherein  FIG. 1  is only an illustrational view. It is well known that the oil tank  1  carried on a practical oil tank truck has a plurality of oil ports including oil inlets and oil outlets, thus a plurality of the electrically controlled locking apparatus  2  can be directly mounted at the oil inlets and the oil outlets of the oil tank  1  carried on the oil tank truck respectively. 
         [0036]    Specifically, the oil port cover  11  is fixedly sleeved on a rotating shaft  201  extended out of the electrically controlled locking apparatus  2 , and the rotating shaft  201  includes a tail end movably connected to, via a bearing, a fixed wall  12  fixed on an outer surface of a housing of the oil tank. To avoid cheating, in installation, the electrically controlled locking apparatus  2  and the oil port cover  11  are integrally connected via a bolt or by welding, and also the electrically controlled locking apparatus  2  and the outer surface of the housing of the oil tank  1  are integrally connected via a bolt or by welding. 
         [0037]    Referring to  FIGS. 2 to 6 , an internal structure of the electrically controlled locking apparatus will be further illustrated by dividing it into parts. An external part of the electrically controlled locking apparatus includes a housing  202  and a cover  203  which are made from pressed steel plate. The housing  202  and the cover  203  are connected via a bolt  204  to close the housing  202 , and a sealing ring is provided between the housing  202  and the cover  203 , thereby forming a sealed cavity which is dustproof, waterproof, electromagnetic radiation-proof and explosion-proof. A rotating shaft  201  is provided in the housing  202 , and the rotating shaft  201  is fixedly connected to the oil port cover  11  to be locked and may drive the oil port cover  11  to be locked outside the housing  202  to rotate. A locking sheet  205  perpendicular to the rotating shaft  201  is fixedly provided on the rotating shaft  201  and is provided with a pin control portion  2051 . A locking pin  206  is further provided to selectively engage with the pin control portion  2051 , and the locking pin  206  is driven by a power motor  207  to rotate. A control portion (not shown) is further provided to control the rotation of the power motor  207  according to a control instruction, such that the locking pin  206  is controlled to be engaged with the pin control portion  2051  to lock the locking sheet  205  and the oil port cover  11  to be locked, or to be disengaged from the pin control portion  2051  to unlock the locking sheet  205  and the locked oil port cover  11 . Additionally, for electrically connecting the control portion to a main control system of a vehicle, a wire outlet hole for protruding of an electrical wire and a shaft outlet hole for protruding of the rotating shaft are provided at a side wall of the housing  202 . These holes are provided with sealing rings to be dustproof and waterproof. 
         [0038]    In particularly, referring to  FIG. 5  and  FIG. 6 , the locking sheet  205  fixedly and perpendicularly provided on the rotating shaft  201  is a semicircular locking plate. A notch  2051  for receiving the locking pin  206  is provided at an edge of the semicircular locking plate. The locking pin  206  is fixed on a pin shaft  2061 , and the pin shaft  2061  is driven by a driven wheel  2062  which is engaged with a driving wheel  2063  driven by the power motor  207 . Working principle of the electrically controlled locking apparatus  2  will be further explained according to two position states of the locking sheet  205  shown in  FIGS. 5 and 6 .  FIG. 5  is a schematic drawing showing the position state of the locking sheet  205  when the oil port is closed by the oil port cover  11 , and at this point, the oil port cover  11  which is coaxially rotated with the locking sheet  205  is located at a position where the oil port is completely covered by the oil port cover  11 . Since the oil port cover  11  is coaxially rotated together with the locking sheet  205 , when opening or closing the oil port cover  11 , the rotating shaft  201  is driven by the oil port cover  11  to rotate, such that the locking sheet  205  is rotated together with the rotating shaft  201 . When the oil port cover  11  is fully closed, the notch  2051  on the locking sheet  205  arrives at a predetermined position, and at this point, the control portion controls the power motor  207  to rotate, so as to drive the locking pin  206  to engage with the notch  2051 , thereby realizing the purpose of locking the locking sheet  205 . After being locked, the locking sheet  205  can not rotate, thus the rotating shaft  201  can not rotate either, thereby realizing the function of locking the oil port cover  11 . If it is required to open the oil port cover  11 , the control portion controls the power motor  207  to rotate in the opposite direction, so as to drive the pin shaft  206  to rotate and to be disengaged from the notch  2051 , thereby realizing the purpose of unlocking the locking sheet  205 . When the locking sheet  205  is in an unlocked state, the locking sheet  205  can rotate freely, thus the rotating shaft  201  can also rotate freely, such that a function of unlocking the oil port cover  11  may be realized. The relationships between the components after being unlocked are shown in  FIG. 6 . 
         [0039]    Furthermore, for monitoring the opening/closing state of the corresponding oil port cover  11 , a locking sensor  31  and an opening sensor  32  for monitoring the locking pin  206  and an opening/closing state sensor  33  for monitoring the cover  203  are provided in the electrically controlled locking apparatus  2 . In particular, an end, away from the locking sheet  205 , of the pin shaft  2061  is fixedly connected with a blocking sheet  20611 . Two blocking sheet detecting sensors (i.e. the locking sensor  31  and the opening sensor  32 ) are respectively provided at two ends of a stroke of the blocking sheet  20611  rotating together with the pin shaft  2061 . The locking sensor  31  is provided at such a position that when the locking pin  206  is engaged with the notch  2051  for receiving the locking pin  206 , the blocking sheet  20611  enters the range of a U-shaped sensor of the locking sensor  31 . The opening sensor  32  is provided at such a position that when the locking pin  206  is completely disengaged from the notch  2051  for receiving the locking pin  206 , the blocking sheet  20611  enters the range of a U-shaped sensor of the opening sensor  32 . Thus, if it is required to open the oil port cover  11 , the control portion sends an instruction of opening, and the power motor  207  begins to rotate and drives the locking pin  206  to be disengaged from the notch  2051 . Then, the blocking sheet  20611  which is also located on the pin shaft  2061  as the locking pin  206  may rotate together with the pin shaft  2061  to leave the range of the locking sensor  31 . At this point, the locking sensor  31  may sense the leaving of the blocking sheet  20611  and informs the control portion of the detected state. Then, when the blocking sheet  20611  arrives in the range of the U-shaped sensor of the opening sensor  32 , the opening sensor  32  may sense the arriving of the blocking sheet  20611  and informs the control portion of the detected state. Then, according to the signal from the opening sensor  32 , the control portion sends an instruction of stopping the power motor  207 , and the power motor  207  stops immediately. At this time, the electrically controlled locking apparatus  2  is in an unlocked state, thus the oil port cover  11  can be opened. When it is required to close the oil port cover  11 , firstly, the oil port cover  11  is fully closed relative to the oil tank, and at this time the notch  2051  of the locking sheet  205  on the rotating shaft  201  is in a locking position, then the control portion sends an instruction of locking. After receiving the instruction, the power motor  207  begins to rotate and drives the locking pin  206  and the blocking sheet  20611  to rotate together. When the blocking sheet  20611  leaves the range of the opening sensor  32 , the opening sensor  32  informs the control portion of the detected state. Finally, when the locking pin  206  is engaged with the notch  2051 , that is the blocking sheet  20611  arrives the range of the locking sensor  31 , the locking sensor  31  detects the arriving of the blocking sheet  20611  and informs the control portion of the detected state information. According to the signal from the locking sensor  31 , the control portion sends an instruction of stopping the power motor  207 , and the power motor  207  stops immediately. At this point, the electrically controlled locking apparatus is in a locked state, and the oil port cover can not be opened. 
         [0040]    In the case that the oil port cover  11  is not fully closed, or someone intentionally instructs to lock when the oil port cover is not fully closed, the locking sheet  205  is in the unlocking position due to the fact that the oil port cover is not fully closed, and the locking pin  206  can not make the predetermined stroke due to the fact that the locking sheet  205  is not at the right position, i.e. the notch  2051  is not at the proper position, therefore the blocking sheet  20611  can not rotate into the range of the locking sensor  31  within the specific time. At this time, the control portion may send a warning instruction due to the timeout of the locking operation, thus the administrator may immediately knows that an abnormal situation occurs on the oil port. 
         [0041]    Furthermore, referring to  FIG. 7 , in order to monitor illegal destruction of the electrically controlled locking apparatus  2 , an opening/closing state sensor  33  is provided between the cover  203  and the housing  202 . The opening/closing state sensor  33  can monitor the opening and closing states of the cover  203  of the electrically controlled locking apparatus. The opening/closing state sensor  33  includes a supporting plate  331  and a self-returning pressing sheet  332  mounted on a surface, facing the cover  203 , of the supporting plate  331 . The self-returning pressing sheet  332  is rotatably provided on the supporting plate  331  via a rotating shaft  333 , and has one end extending towards the cover and forming a pressing end  3321  and the other end forming a detecting end  3322 . The rotating shaft  333  is located between the pressing end  3321  and the detecting end  3322 . A detecting sensor  334  is provided in a stroke of the detecting end  3322  rotating around the rotating shaft  333 . The self-returning pressing sheet  332  realizes the self-returning function via a torsion spring  335  coaxially provided relative to the self-returning pressing sheet  332 . 
         [0042]    When the cover  203  is opened, the self-returning pressing sheet  332  is not subjected to the force from the cover  203 , and under the action of the torsion spring  335 , the detecting end  3322  of the self-returning pressing sheet  332  leaves the range of the detecting sensor  334 . Then, the detecting sensor  334  informs the control portion of state information of the leaving of the detecting end  3322 , and a background is informed immediately that the cover  203  has been opened. If the cover  203  is closed, the pressing end  3321  of the self-returning pressing sheet  332  is pressed down by the cover  203 , and the detecting end  3322  is raised into the range of the detecting sensor  334 , then the detecting sensor  334  informs the control portion of state information of the arriving of the detecting end  3322 , and the control portion is immediately informed that the cover has been closed. Due to the opening/closing state sensor  33 , an object that the electrically controlled locking apparatus can not be disassembled without permission can be realized. 
         [0043]    The above-described embodiments are only preferred embodiments of the present application. It should be noted that, for the person skilled in the art, many modifications and improvements may be made to the present application without departing from the principle of the present application, and these modifications and improvements are also deemed to fall into the protection scope of the present application.