The present disclosure relates to utility knives. The present disclosure has particular applicability to retractable utility knives with replaceable blades.
Utility knives are hand-held cutting tools capable of a wide range of uses. Some utility knives include a longitudinal main frame to house a snap-off blade, which has a series of fracture lines and can be broken transversely to expose a new sharp edge portion. However, one problem with knifes of this design is that breaking the snap-off blade to obtain a new, sharp blade can lead to injury.
Some conventional utility knifes have blades which are exchangeable with new blades. Extra blades can be stored in a compartment within the main frame of the utility knife. However, a number of utility knives have many movable parts which makes them difficult to use and expensive to manufacture. In some of these utility knives replacement of the blade is a complicated operation which may require the use of special tools or tedious dissembling and then reassembling of the utility knife to affect changing of the blade, which is inconvenient to the user.
To overcome the disadvantages discussed above, the present application is directed to a utility knife that allows for easy and safe changing of the blade.
One embodiment of the present disclosure is directed to a utility knife comprising a knife body, a movable blade holder inside the knife body for slidably moving a flat blade and having a blade retaining arm selectively engageable with the blade for removably retaining the flat blade on the blade holder, and a blade release device engageable with the blade retaining arm for disengaging the blade retaining arm from the blade. The blade release device is slidably mounted in the knife body and movable in a direction substantially parallel to a major plane of the flat blade such that sliding the blade release device moves the blade retaining arm to disengage the blade retaining arm from the blade.
Additional advantages and other features of the present disclosure will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from the practice of the disclosure. The advantages of the disclosure may be realized and obtained as particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
As will be realized, the present disclosure is capable of other and different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modifications in various obvious respects, all without departing from the disclosure. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.
Reference is made to the attached drawings, wherein elements having the same reference numeral designations represent like elements throughout, and wherein:
A utility knife of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to the drawings. The knife comprises a knife body 10, having a movable blade holder 20, a blade replacement compartment 30, and a blade release mechanism 40. The knife body 10 optionally comprises an upper grip 11 and a lower grip 12. One embodiment of the auto-feed utility knife of the present disclosure is adapted to use a standard utility knife blade 50 having a trapezoidal shape and a pair of notches 51 in its top edge opposite its sharpened edge 52 (as shown in
As shown in
The present disclosure can be practiced by employing conventional materials, methodology and equipment. Accordingly, the details of such materials, equipment and methodology are not set forth herein in detail. In the previous descriptions, numerous specific details are set forth, such as specific materials, structures, chemicals, processes, etc., in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosure. However, it should be recognized that the present disclosure can be practiced without resorting to the details specifically set forth. In other instances, well known processing structures have not been described in detail, in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present disclosure.
Only a few examples of the present disclosure are shown and described herein. It is to be understood that the disclosure is capable of use in various other combinations and environments and is capable of changes or modifications within the scope of the inventive concepts as expressed herein.
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Provisional U.S. Patent Application 61/193,995 filed on Jan. 16, 2009, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61193995 | Jan 2009 | US |