The present invention relates to a safe or similar container, etc. with a safe door and a recessed dial. The dial is constructed to actuate the lock and to release the blocking of the bolting system.
Such a safe is already known in the art. In addition to the recessed dial, there is a recessed handwheel. After releasing the blocking by the dial, the handwheel can be pulled from its recessed position by a certain amount so that it can be rotated easier in order to move the lock bars and to pull open the door of the safe. This construction has the disadvantage that the safe door must have two openings of relatively large diameters, one for the dial and one for the handwheel. The dial always remains in its recessed position. Pulling the door open by means of the dial is not possible.
There are also known safes with number combination locks having a dial where the dial knob projects beyond the front side of the door. The dial knob and other parts of the dial or a dial scale project forward from the door surface so that they interfere with the camouflaging of the safe, e.g., by a painting hung over the safe door in the case of a wall safe. To apply force to the dial knob of the dial, only the dial knob itself is available and it has a relatively small application surface. This is sufficient for dial movements, but cumbersome and inadequate with a heavy safe door.
With smaller safes, it also is known how to actuate the bolt system and the lock by the dial alone. Here the abovedescribed disadvantage of operation occur. With larger safes, the dial is only used to actuate the lock and to release the blocking of the movement of the bolt system. The bolt system itself is actuated via a handwheel or a handle etc.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a safe with recessed dial which no longer has the disadvantages described. Even with heavy safes, the entire operation, i.e., opening and closing of the safe door, should be possible by means of one element. This requires, above all, that for actuating the bolt system and for pulling open the door, a sufficiently large surface area with corresponding active radius for rotary movements is available to the bolt system.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a safe with a recessed dial of the foregoing character, which is simple in construction and may be economically fabricated.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a safe arrangement, as described, which may be readily maintained in service and which has a substantially long operating life.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds