Safe with concealed hinge

Abstract

A safe with a concealed hinge assembly. A safe body has a pocket with a hinge pin attached to the pocket. A safe door has a hinge lug rigidly attached to the safe door. A hinge assembly is formed when the hinge pin is inserted through the hinge lug allowing for the safe door to be pivotally attached to the safe body. The hinge assembly is contained within the pocket so that the hinge assembly is concealed and protected from tampering. In a preferred embodiment the safe body includes two pockets within a rigidly attached door frame. Two hinge assemblies are contained within the pockets so that they are concealed and protected from tampering.

Claims

1. A safe having at least one concealed hinge assembly, comprising: A. a safe body, comprising: i. at least one hinge pocket, located within a portion of a wall of the safe body along an inside surface of the wall and having no opening except a single opening, defining a pocket opening, which is completely covered by a surface of the safe door when the safe door is closed, said at least one hinge pocket comprising: a. a horizontal bottom extending inward from the front edge of said safe, b. a vertical back parallel to the front edge of said safe, c. a horizontal top parallel to said horizontal bottom, ii. at least one hinge pin within the hinge pocket and connected to said horizontal bottom, and B. at least one hinge lug rigidly attached to a side wall of the safe door and adapted to extend through said pocket opening and form a hinge assembly when said at least one hinge pin is inserted through said at least one hinge lug in order to pivotally attach the safe door to the safe body; wherein said at least one hinge lug is positioned on the side wall in manner so that when the safe door is closed, the side wall of the safe door completely covers the pocket opening of the at least one hinge pocket so that said at least one hinge assemble in addition to being concealed within the safe body is also completely concealed and contained within the at least one hinge pocket, separated from other locations inside the safe and protected from tampering by thieves gaining access to the other locations inside the safe.

2. The safe as in claim 1, further comprising a door frame rigidly connected to said safe body becoming part of the safe body, wherein said at least one pocket is contained within said door frame.

3. The safe as in claim 2, wherein said door frame is continuous and without interruption at its front surface.

4. The safe as in claim 1 wherein said at least one pocket is two pockets, each of said two pockets comprising said at least one hinge pin, and wherein said at least one hinge lug is two hinge lugs.

5. The safe as in claim 1, wherein said at least one hinge pin is at least one spring loaded hinge pin.

6. The safe as in claim 1, wherein said pocket is a recessed pocket.

7. A safe, comprising: A. a safe body means, and a safe door for protecting a hinge assembly from tampering by providing at least one hinge pocket located within a wall of the safe body along an inside surface of the wall, said safe body means comprising: i. at least one pocket means having no opening except a single pocket opening, which is completely covered by a surface of the safe door when the safe door is closed, said at least one hinge pocket means comprising: a. a horizontal bottom extending inward from the front edge of said safe, b. a vertical back parallel to the front edge of said safe, c. a horizontal top parallel to said horizontal bottom, ii. at least one hinge pin means attached to said horizontal bottom, and B. a lug means attached to a side wall of the safe door adapted to be attached to the at least one hinge pin means to provide the hinge assembly which is, when the safe door is closed, completely concealed within the at least one hinge pocket means with the pocket opening being completely covered by the side wall of the safe door, so that the hinge assembly is concealed and protected from tampering when the safe door is closed, by being completely contained inside the safe body and by being completely concealed and contained inside the hinge pocket and protected from tampering by thieves gaining access to other locations inside the safe.

8. The safe as in claim 7, further comprising a door frame means rigidly connected to said safe body means, wherein said at least one pocket means is recessed contained within said door frame means.

9. The safe as in claim 8, wherein said door frame means is continuous and without interruption at its front surface for a hinge connection.

10. The safe as in claim 9, wherein said at least one hinge lug means connects to said at least one hinge pin means at the rear portion of the inner side of said door frame means.

11. The safe as in claim 7 wherein said at least one pocket means is two pockets, each of said two pockets comprising said at least one hinge pin means, and wherein said at least one hinge lug means is two hinge lugs.

12. The safe as in claim 7, wherein said at least one hinge pin means is at least one spring loaded hinge pin.

13. The safe as in claim 7, wherein said pocket means is a recessed pocket means.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 shows a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

(2) FIG. 2 shows a preferred door frame.

(3) FIG. 3 shows a preferred door frame attached to a preferred safe body.

(4) FIG. 4 shows a preferred safe door.

(5) FIGS. 5-6 show a top view of a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

(6) FIGS. 7-11 show the operation of a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

(7) FIGS. 12-13 show another preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

(8) FIG. 1 shows a preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 shows safe 1 with safe door 2 where safe door 2 is shut and locked. Safe door 2 covers and secures the opening to safe body 3. Door frame 6 is preferably welded to and is a part of safe body 3. Safe door 2 is opened by keying in the correct combination into keypad 4 and turning handle 5. As safe door 2 opens it pivots on a hinge assembly. As shown in FIG. 1, the hinge assembly is concealed. This allows for optimum security.

Door Frame

(9) As shown in FIG. 2, door frame 6 includes two rigidly attached pockets 8 and 9. Pocket 8 includes spring loaded hinge pin 10 and pocket 9 includes spring loaded hinge pin 11. FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of frame 6 welded to safe body 3.

Safe Door

(10) FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of safe door 2. Hinge lugs 15 and 16 are rigidly attached to door 2 as shown. When safe door 2 is connected to safe body 3, hinge pin 10 engages hinge lug 15 and hinge pin 11 engages hinge lug 16. Hinge pin 10 and hinge lug 15 form an upper concealed hinge 21 (FIG. 6) and hinge pin 11 and hinge lug 16 form a lower concealed hinge.

Operation of the Preferred Embodiment

(11) FIG. 5 shows a top view of safe door 2 connected to door frame 6 of safe body 3. Safe door 2 is shut and locked. The components of upper hinge 21 (hinge pin 10 and hinge lug 15) and the lower hinge (hinge pin 11 and hinge lug 16) are concealed within safe door frame 6. Handle 5 is horizontal and bolts 25 are inserted into recesses 26 (see also FIGS. 3 and 4) so that safe door 2 is locked.

(12) FIG. 6 shows a top view similar to the top view shown in FIG. 5. However, in FIG. 6 the drawing is see-through so that the upper hinge components are visible.

(13) In FIG. 7, the user has turned handle 5 ninety degrees counter clockwise, causing bolts 25 to withdraw from recesses 26 so that the safe door 2 can be opened by pulling on handle 5.

(14) FIGS. 8-11 show safe door 2 in the process of being opened to allow access into the inside of safe body 3.

Front Surface of Door Frame is Continuous

(15) As viewed best in FIG. 1, door frame 6 is continuous and without any interruption at its front surface showing a hinge connection. This feature is not present in prior art safe door frames. For safe 1, hinge lugs 15 and 16 (FIG. 4) connect to hinge pins 10 and 11 through the rear portion of the inner side of frame 6. This makes it very difficult to improperly tamper with hinge lugs 15 and 16 and vastly improves the security of safe 1.

Other Preferred Embodiment

(16) FIGS. 12 and 13 show another preferred embodiment of the present invention. In FIGS. 12-13 it is shown that it is possible to modify the number of pockets and hinge lugs. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, safe 40 utilizes safe door frame 36 that includes just one pocket 30. Pocket 30 includes hinge pins 31. One hinge lug 32 is rigidly connected to safe door 33. In a preferred embodiment hinge pins 31 are spring loaded.

(17) Although the above-preferred embodiments have been described with specificity, persons skilled in this art will recognize that many changes to the specific embodiments disclosed above could be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. Therefore, the attached claims and their legal equivalents should determine the scope of the invention.