Patent Publication Number: US-2006010939-A1

Title: Security device for container door stanchions

Description:
RELATED PATENT APPLICATION  
      Features of the invention disclosed herein are disclosed in U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/587,912 filed Jul. 14, 2004, for a Security Device for Container Door Stanchions, the benefit of which is claimed. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      This invention is a device for preventing unauthorized opening of the doors of a cargo container of the type used on truck trailers, storage containers such as those used for ocean-going shipments and construction sites, conex containers such as those used by the military, and the similar type door configurations. Such containers customarily have two doors hinged to laterally opposite sides of the rear of the container on vertical axes and the doors are latched in their closed position by vertical stanchions mounted on the outside of the doors. The stanchions have latching fingers at their tops and bottoms which engage keeper pockets at the top and bottom of the rear of the container when the stanchions are pivoted about their axes. Although various locking devices have been proposed for the handles provided for rotating the stanchions, thieves using bolt cutters, power hack saws and sledgehammers are all too frequently destroying the locking devices.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The security device of this invention locks the stanchions to one another, thus preventing the doors of the cargo container or van from being opened. This security device is portable; that is, it is not permanently secured to the doors or their stanchions. It includes a J bar with hook at one end for hooking over the stanchion for one door and a housing with an elbow or a curved L bar at one side, which hooks around the stanchion of the other door. The J bar has notches forming one or more saw blade shaped teeth near its other end and when the other end is passed through aligned openings in the housing and beyond the housing and beyond the stanchion of the other door, a pocket is formed with the L bar in which the stanchion is locked. At least one tooth shaped stopper or latch is formed on a flip plate, which in turn is pivotally mounted on the housing for swinging the stopper into and out of engagement with teeth of the J bar. The latch is held in its engagement or locking position by a puck lock whose locking bar engages an opening in a receiver or tab rigidly secured to the housing. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      Two embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the drawings in which:  
       FIG. 1  is a front view of a first embodiment showing the locking device installed on a pair of door stanchions;  
       FIG. 2  is a view taken on the line  2 - 2  in  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 3  is a side view of the locking device shown in  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 4  is a perspective view of the locking device;  
       FIG. 5  is a partial front view with a puck lock installed and with parts broken away for illustration purposes;  
       FIG. 6  is a side view of the locking device illustrated in  FIG. 5  with parts broken away for illustration purposes;  
       FIG. 7  is a side view similar to  FIG. 6  but showing the puck lock removed;  
       FIG. 8  is a view similar to  FIG. 5  showing a second embodiment of the locking device with a multiple tooth flip plate, and  
       FIG. 9  is a side view of the locking device shown in  FIG. 8 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       FIGS. 1, 2 ,  3  and  4  illustrate the locking device  11  installed on a pair of vertically extending and laterally spaced stanchions  12 ,  13  which are rotatably secured to a pair of cargo container doors  14 ,  16 . The parallel stanchions  12 ,  13  pivot about their laterally spaced axes  17 ,  18  between locking and unlocking positions. The stanchions have latching fingers, not shown, at their tops and bottoms, which engage keeper pockets when the stanchions are pivoted about their respective axes. The locking device  11  is portable. It attaches only to the stanchions  12 ,  13 . The locking device  11  includes a J bar  21  and a housing  22 . The J bar is formed from a hardenable flat plate metal, such as steel, and has a hook  23  at one of its ends, which can be hooked around the stanchion  12 . The other end  31  extends through horizontally aligned and vertically extending slots or openings  26 ,  27  in the laterally spaced vertical side walls  28 ,  29  of the housing  22 , with the end  31  extending laterally beyond the stanchion  13 . The end  31  of the J bar  21 , together with an L shaped hook or elbow  32  rigidly secured to and extending from the lateral side  29  of the housing  22  and the housing side wall  29  encompass and trap the stanchion  13 . The hook  32  is preferably an extension of a back wall  49  of the housing.  
      As shown in  FIGS. 5 and 6 , the end  31  of the J bar  21  also includes a portion with saw teeth  33 . In the installed position shown in  FIGS. 5 and 6 , a plurality of notches  34  are disposed between the side walls  28 ,  29 , one of which is engaged by an upwardly extending wisdom tooth shaped latch  37  rigidly secured to the front end of a pivotable flip plate  51  held in an engaged locking position, as shown in  FIGS. 1, 5  and  6 , by a puck lock  38  which is locked in a cavity  39  in the lower part of the housing  22 . The cavity is defined by the side walls  28 ,  29 , a horizontal bottom wall  43  and the back wall  49 . In  FIG. 1 , the puck lock  38  is not locked and its key receiving portion  41  extends downwardly through a slot  42  in the bottom wall  43  of the housing  22 .  
      As shown in  FIGS. 5 and 6 , the puck lock  38  is locked to the housing  22  and in that condition its cylindrical bolt  46  extends through an annular opening  47  in a bolt receiver keeper or tab  48  rigidly secured to and extending forwardly from the back wall  49  of the housing  22 . The flip plate  51  includes horizontally aligned trunnions  52 ,  53  at its rear end pivotally mounted on a laterally extending horizontal axis  55  in coaxial openings  54 ,  56  in the side walls  28 ,  29  of the housing  22  allowing the flip plate  51  to be pivoted about the horizontal axis  55  between a nonlocked position shown in  FIG. 7  and a locked position shown in  FIGS. 5 and 6 . When the puck lock  38  is locked to the tab  48 , it holds the flip plate  51  in its locked position in which the tooth or latch  37  engages a complementary shaped notch  34  in the J bar  21 . The laterally opposite ends of the flip plate  51  have an abutting relationship with the side walls  28 ,  29 . Ears  57 ,  58  are rigidly secured, as by welding, to the flip plate  51  for additional lateral stability in event the trunnions  52 ,  53  are struck with blows from one or the other of the lateral opposite side walls  28 ,  29  of the housing  22 . The housing  22  includes a front wall  61  and a roof  62 , which slopes upwardly from the front wall  61  to the rear of the housing. The sloping roof  62  helps to deflect hammer blows of thieves attempting to destroy the locking device.  
       FIGS. 8 and 9  illustrate an embodiment of the locking device in which a flip plate  66  is provided with a plurality of laterally spaced notches forming teeth or saw tooth shaped latches  67  which mesh with the complementary saw tooth shaped notches  34  forming the saw teeth  33  of the J bar  21 . The plurality of teeth  67  engaging the teeth  33  of the J bar  21  affords greater resistance to removal of the J bar  21  than a flip plate with a single tooth. The horizontally opposite ends of the flip plate  66  could be in abutting relationship with the interior sides of the side walls  28 ,  29 .  FIGS. 8 and 9  show the flip plate  66  pivoted about the horizontal axis  71  of its trunnions  72 ,  73  to a J bar locking position and it is held in that position by the puck lock bolt  46  engaged in the opening  47  of the tab  48 .  
      This portable security device is easily installed on existing cargo containers and vans and is relatively inexpensive. It is a cost effective deterrent to loss of cargo.