Patent GB-364946-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to locking devices for doors of freight container and other demountable bodies
IPC: E05B65/14
Filed: 1931-03-21
Abstract: 364,946. Door fastenings. WADE, H., 111, Hatton Garden, London.-(Motor Terminals Co. ; Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.) March 21, 1931, No. 8763. [Class 44.] In a door fastening particularly for the doors of a freight container B adapted to be placed on a support such as a railway wagon A, means are provided whereby the fastening device may be locked automatically when the container is placed on the support. The fastening shown comprises a pair of vertical bolts 20, 21 guided in housings 22, 23 secured to one of a pair of doors 15, the bolts engaging behind the lintel 18 and sill 19 respectively. The bolt-carrying door overlaps the other door so that both may be secured by one pair of bolts. The outer ends of the housings having circular boltguiding apertures, and the inner ends have guiding slots to allow limited oscillation of the bolts, the inner ends of which are connected to a rocking head 25 secured to a shaft 26 with an outside handle 27 by which the bolts may be operated. The locking device comprises a cranked lever pivoted below the floor 10 of the container, one arm having a counterweight 39 and the other arm an arcuate lip 37 adapted to engage over a horizontally projecting foot 24 on the lower bolt 21, so locking the bolts against retraction by handle 27. The lever when free hangs in the released position and is rocked to locking position, when the container is lowered into place, by engagement of the weighted arm 39 with an abutment 40 secured to the support A. The container is correctly positioned by angle-pieces on the support engaging the corners of the container or by projections engaging corresponding sockets. The abutment 40 may be fixed, so that the locking device is always operative, or the locking device may be arranged so that it may be made operative or inoperative. Thus the abutment 40 may be pivoted at one end so that it may be rotated into or out of the position in which it engages the lever, or as shown it may be slidable in guides 43 and secured in either of its two positions by pins 46. Alternatively, the lever may be slidable along its pivot 33 so that it may be placed clear of the foot 24 and so move idly if operated by the abutment. A distance-piece dropped into place at one side or the other retains the lever in the desired setting. In a further form the lever may be rocked beyond its locking position so that lip 37 is clear of foot 24, and held there, with its end 39 raised clear of the abutment 40, by a pin. In another form the foot 24 is formed on a sleeve slidably and rotatably mounted on the lower end of the bolt, so that it may be rotated through a right-angle, the foot in one position projecting so that it may be engaged by lip 37, and in the other position lying parallel with the door and clear of the lip. In each of the above forms the desired setting requires access to the interior of the container and is effected beforehand. If locked, the bolts can only be released when the container is raised from its support. In another modification the abutment is in the form of an arm on a rotatable shaft operable by a handle at the side of the container, so that setting may be effected without access to the interior. In this case the operating handle is sealed or padlocked in its set position.