Patent Publication Number: US-2019178021-A1

Title: Use of Motion to Disguise a Locking Cabinet / Safe

Description:
(1) TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The disclosure relates to locking cabinets or safes, and more particularly, to disguising a locking cabinet or safe. 
     (2) BACKGROUND 
     Safes or locking cabinets are used to store valuables so they are not accessible to others. Traditional safes are exceedingly heavy and/or bulky and made of steel and/or concrete. These safes are often placed on a floor where people need to bend over to access their jewelry or other items stored in the safe. 
     Safes can be concealed under the floor of a building, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,658 (Hodges) and U.S. Pat. No. 1,584,294 (Heise). Other patents describe hidden locking compartments, such as U.S. Pat. No. 8,726,704 (White). Other patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,022,137 (Chiu) and U.S. Pat. No. 9,078,531 (Medawar), describe cabinets that can be raised and lowered. 
     SUMMARY 
     A principal object of the present disclosure is to provide a safe or locking cabinet that can be concealed in a piece of furniture. 
     Another object of the disclosure is to provide a concealed safe or locking cabinet that can be raised and lowered automatically. 
     A further object is to disguise a safe as a piece of furniture and to move the safe from a place of concealment to an accessible level and back again. 
     In accordance with the objects of the disclosure, a concealed high security locking safe is provided. The concealed locking safe comprises a lifting device within a hollow furniture piece and a locking safe on a platform of the lifting device wherein the locking safe is concealed within the hollow furniture piece and covered by a top of the hollow furniture piece. 
     Also in accordance with the objects of the disclosure, a method to conceal a locking safe in a furniture piece is provided. A lifting device is positioned within a hollow furniture piece. A locking safe is positioned on a platform of the lifting device wherein the locking safe is concealed within the hollow furniture piece. The locking safe is covered with a top of the hollow furniture piece. The lifting device is signaled to raise the locking safe to a position above the hollow furniture piece. A lock on a door of the locking safe is opened to access the contents. The lifting device is signaled to lower the locking safe into a concealed position within the hollow furniture piece. 
     Also in accordance with the objects of the disclosure, a method of using a concealed locking safe is achieved. A concealed locking safe is provided comprising a lifting device within a hollow furniture piece and the locking safe affixed to a platform of the lifting device wherein the locking safe is concealed within the hollow furniture piece and covered by a top of the hollow furniture piece. A user signals the lifting device to raise the locking safe to a position above the hollow furniture piece, opens a lock on a door of the locking safe to access contents of the locking safe, and signals the lifting device to lower the locking safe into the concealed position within the hollow furniture piece. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       In the accompanying drawings forming a material part of this description, there is shown: 
         FIG. 1  schematically illustrates a concealing cabinet of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 2  schematically illustrates a cut-away view of a safe concealed within the concealing cabinet of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 3  schematically illustrates the underside of a top of the concealing cabinet of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 4  schematically illustrates a cut-away view of a safe raised to a position above the concealing cabinet of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 5  schematically illustrates the safe of the present disclosure with its door open. 
         FIG. 6  schematically illustrates a remote control, lift control, and power supply of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 7A  schematically illustrates a top view of a first alternative concealing cabinet of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 7B  schematically illustrates a safe of the first alternative concealing cabinet with its door open. 
         FIG. 8A  schematically illustrates the underside of a top in a second alternative concealing cabinet of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 8B  schematically illustrates a safe of the second alternative concealing cabinet with its door open. 
         FIG. 9  schematically illustrates a safe of the present disclosure concealed within an art stand. 
         FIG. 10  schematically illustrates a cut-away view of a safe of the present disclosure concealed within a dresser. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     A safe or locking cabinet is provided that can be concealed in a piece of furniture in a home or office, for example. This may be a cabinet, end table, dresser, or any other type of furniture that can have a hollow inside area. A vertical lifting device is positioned inside the hollow area of the furniture. The safe is placed on and/or attached to the lifting device. The top portion of the furniture covers the safe. 
     Referring now to  FIGS. 1-6 , the present disclosure will be described in more detail.  FIG. 1  illustrates a piece of furniture  10 ; for example, a cabinet.  FIGS. 2 and 4  illustrate cut-away views of the safe concealed within the cabinet  10 . The safe is shown through the front of the cabinet in the drawings, but it is not actually visible through the cabinet. The safe will be completely hidden and concealed within the furniture.  FIG. 2  shows a vertical lifting device  12  inside the hollow cabinet  10 . The lifting device is preferably an electric scissor lift. The scissor lift can be, but is not limited to, a DXS Series Double Scissor Lift (Presto Lifts Inc, Norton, Mass.). The lifting device needs to have a sufficient load capacity, such as between 500 and 1000 pounds, to lift a standard safe and its contents. Various lift models are commercially available that have differing lift heights, such as  36 ″,  43 ″, or more, with the lifting height needed dependent on the height of the hollow furniture piece and the height of the safe. 
     The hollow furniture piece may have a bottom piece that sits on the floor of a room or it may not have a bottom piece, where the bottom edges of the side pieces of the furniture sit on the floor of the room and the floor area under the furniture is enclosed by the side pieces of the furniture. The lifting device  12  can be free-standing and positioned within the hollow cabinet or affixed to the inside of the cabinet, or directly to the floor, such as by bolting. Preferably, the base  14  of the lift can be bolted through the cabinet&#39;s bottom to the floor on which the cabinet stands. The safe can be positioned on the platform  16  of the lift or it can be affixed to the platform of the lift, such as by bolts or by welding. 
     Preferably, the lift is powered by a 110 volt plug-in motor. The lifting mechanism can be powered by hydraulic or pneumatic cylinders, for example, and can be controlled by either a wireless or wired controller. 
     The top of the furniture  22  preferably is attached to the top of the safe  20  by glue or other fasteners. In one preferred alternative, the underside of the top of the furniture is framed in order to fit on top of the safe.  FIG. 3  illustrates the underside of the top  22 . As shown in  FIG. 3 , wood framing  32  drops down from the bottom of the removable top  22  of the furniture. The inside surface  34  of this wood is directly around the top of the safe  20  itself whereas the outside surface  36  of the wood fits directly inside the hollow box  10 , as shown also in  FIG. 2 . 
     The lift  12  is activated by pressing a button on a remote control that is wired to the lift and exits the furniture via a small hole on the back. Alternatively and preferably, the lift is operated by using a wireless remote control. 
     When the lift is activated, it raises the safe up out of the cabinet, preferably until the bottom of the safe rests at the height of the top of the furniture, as shown in  FIG. 4 . Now, the safe can be opened with the locking mechanism  25 . Preferably, the locking mechanism has electronic or biometric controls.  FIG. 5  shows an exemplary safe with the door  24  opened. 
     The safe can be connected to an alarm system with a seismic alarm, so when the safe shakes, it will alert the alarm company that the safe is being moved. This can be done using either the wired alarm connection coming out of the bottom of the safe, or through a wireless adapter. Alternatively, a duress alarm or a contact alarm indicating the safe has been raised can be connected. For example, there can be a dry door contact attached to the top of the concealment cabinet. Once that connection is separated (i.e. the safe is lifted), it will trigger the alarm. There will be a wire running from this contact to the central alarm connection. 
     The concealed safe of the present disclosure can be accessed easily by the owner in the raised position. A press of a button on the lift or on the remote control will lower the safe into the furniture, thus concealing it again. Any appropriate remote control can be used, such as, but not limited to, a #TM2000 Telechief® Series Radio Remote Control (Control Chief Corporation, Bradford, Pa.). A receiver is connected to the lift control and the lift power supply to receive a signal from the remote control to raise or lower the safe.  FIG. 6  illustrates an exemplary remote control  60  having push-button controls for power on and off and lift up and down. Pushing any of the control buttons sends a signal  62  to the receiver  66  of the lift control  64 . The lift control is connected to the power supply  68  of the lift. 
     The safe and lifting device can be concealed within any appropriately sized hollow furniture piece, including furniture pieces specifically designed to accommodate the safe and lifting device or existing furniture pieces that can be modified to receive the safe and lifting device. 
     In an alternative embodiment, shown in  FIGS. 7A and 7B , the top  22  is slightly smaller in length and width than the top opening in the cabinet.  FIG. 7A  illustrates a top view of the top of the cabinet  10 .  FIG. 7B  illustrates a front view of the cabinet  10  with safe  20  raised and opened. When closed, the top  22  fits flush with the top edges of the cabinet. There will be a crack  70  of no more than about ⅛″ around the perimeter of the top opening between the top  22  and the sidewalls of the cabinet  10 . 
     In another alternative, shown in  FIGS. 8A and 8B , the cabinet  10  has a lip  80 .  FIG. 8A  illustrates a top view of the top of the cabinet  10 .  FIG. 8B  illustrates a front view of the cabinet  10  with safe  20  raised and opened. The top  22  is framed so that the frame  82  will fit around the outside surfaces of the cabinet walls and rest on the lip  80 . 
       FIGS. 9 and 10  illustrate two of many other possibilities for types of concealing furniture for the safe and lifting device.  FIG. 9  illustrates an art stand  90  having a top  92  on which an art piece  94  may be displayed. Safe  20  and lift, not shown, are concealed within the art stand. The safe  20  is shown in the raised position for access. 
       FIG. 10  illustrates a dresser  100  that may have been modified to hold the high security concealed locking safe.  FIG. 10  shows the safe within the concealing furniture in a cut-away view. This is for illustration purposes only; the safe will not be visible through furniture in actuality, but will be completely hidden and concealed within the furniture. In order to modify the dresser, for example, the drawers are removed. The front panels of the drawers are glued in place on the front of the dresser. The safe  20  is placed on a lift  12  within the hollow dresser. The top  102  of the dresser is detached, framed  32 , as shown in  FIG. 3 , for example, and affixed to the top of the safe so that the top  102  fits securely on the dresser body  100  when the safe is in the concealed position. Other possible concealing furniture pieces can be an island in a closet, an end table, a nightstand, a desk, and many other similar pieces. 
     Although the preferred embodiment of the present disclosure has been illustrated, and that form has been described in detail, it will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the disclosure or from the scope of the appended claims.