Patent GB-992224-A (GB)
Title: Door latches
IPC: E05B65/32
Filed: 1964-02-20
Abstract: 992,224. Latches. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION. Feb. 20, 1964 [April 16, 1963], No. 7072/64. Heading E2A. A door latch comprises a support plate 18 with upper and lower laterally disposed portions 32, 94, a latch bolt 24 mounted on said plate for movement, between latched and unlatched positions, a detent 66 for holding the latch bolt in the latched position, shaft means 92 defining an approximately vertical axis extending between said portions, a detent release member 96 mounted on the shaft with means for sliding movement along said axis between first and second positions and swinging movement about said axis, the detent release member being capable of engaging. the detent in one of said positions to release it upon swinging movement of the release member, and locking means 120 for moving the release member 96 between said one position and the second position, in which latter the detent release member does not engage the detent. A headed striker pin 52 secured to the car body pillar engages a wedge shaped nylon shoe 44 slidably mounted on a pin 42 and is received within an opening 48 on the forked latch bolt 24. The bolt is biased towards an unlatched position by a tension spring 58 and is held in the latched position by a detent 66 with a foot 70 which engages one of two shoulders 72, 74. The release member 96 is pivotally and slidably mounted on the shaft 92 by upper and lower flanges 98, 100 and is biased in the clockwise direction by a tension spring 102. The flange 98 has a tab 114 which is adapted to engage a tab 116 of the detent and a tab 118 which is received between the legs of a forked locking lever 120 pivotally mounted for movement from the locked position, Fig. 4, to an unlocked position, Fig. 2. When the locking lever is in its unlocked position, Fig. 2, the tab 114 is located in opposition to the foot 116 so that operation of the release member 96 by a rod 108 at any point along its length, pivots the detent 66 anticlockwise thus releasing the bolt 24 to rotate anticlockwise and so disengage the pin 52. When the locking lever is in the locked position, the tab 114 is located above the foot 116 so that rotation of the flange 98 causes the tab 114 to swing past the foot 116 thereby leaving the bolt in the latched position. The release member 96 is actuated from the inside by an operating lever 142 which engages a depending portion 104 on the lower flange 100. If the door is closed with the locking lever in the locked position the counter-clockwise movement of the detent 66 shifts the member. 96 downwardly, i.e. out of the locked position by the engagement of the tab 146 with the tab 148. However if the lever 120 is held in the locked position and the rod 108 actuated as the door closes the tabs 146 and 148 do not engage and the lever 120 remains in the locked position. In another embodiment (Figs. 8-12 not shown), the bolt is biased to the unlatched position by a coil spring 60 and the detent release member 124 has a tab 126 which abuts the tab 128 on the detent 76 so that on rotation of the member 124 about pins 118 the tab 128 is rotated releasing the bolt to return to the unlatched position. In the locked position the tabs 128, 126 do not abut so that the detent is held in engagement with the bolt even if the member 124 is rotated.