Jail cell lock mechanism

Claim 1

In a system for operating from a remote-control station one or more of a plurality of cell doors arranged substantially in horizontal alignment along a corridor or the like, wherein (a) a housing is located above each door and each door is roller suspended via its own carriage and rides a rail which extends horizontally in each housing, (b) a reversible electric motor drive is within each housing for selectively moving the associated door between open and closed positions, (c) a movable emergency release bar extends from the remote control station and through each housing, (d) a vertical locking head is adjacent each door and is connected to a bolt engageable with the associated door to hold the door in closed position, (e) a pivotal deadlock prevents vertical movement of said locking head while said bolt is holding the door in closed position, and (f) means carried by said release bar at each door is provided for operating said locking head for each door thereby unlocking all of said cell doors simultaneously; the improvement in which, at each cell-door location: (g) said deadlock means is pivotally mounted to a slide bar carried by said carriage and having limited horizontally guided lost-motion engagement to said carriage, said deadlock means at one limit of said lost-motion engagement having deadlock action to foreclose locking-head displacement from door-bolting position, and said deadlock means at the other limit of said lost-motion engagement having no deadlock relation with said locking head; (h) cam means on said slide bar coacts with said locking head for displacing the same out of door-bolting position, such coaction being in the course of slide-bar movement from said one to said other limit of said lost-motion engagement; and (i) said motor means is mounted to said slide bar and has an output shaft connected to drive at least one roller of said suspension; whereby, starting with a deadlocked bolted and closed condition of said door, and upon motor excitation in one direction, said one roller is driven to displace said slide bar from said one to said other limit of the lost-motion engagement, thereby unbolting said door so that, after reaching said other limit of the lost-motion engagement, continued motor drive in said one direction is operative to drive said carriage in any opening displacement of the door; and further whereby, starting with an open condition of said door, and upon motor excitation in the opposite direction, said roller may be first driven to displace said slide bar from said other to said one limit of the lost-motion engagement and continued motor drive in said opposite direction is operative to drive said carriage in a closing displacement of the door, with said cam means returning the locking head to door-bolting and dead-locked condition upon completion of the door-closing displacement.