This disclosure relates generally to blenders and, more particularly, to blender jar collars and interlock mechanisms.
Blender jars are used to hold items, e.g., food items that are to be processed by, for example, liquefying, chopping, pureeing, etc. Most blender users want to be able to remove the blades from the blender jar in order to be able to clean the blades more effectively. Accordingly, in some examples, the blender jar is coupled to a collar having one or more rotating blades. The blades are rotated by a motor in the base of a blender base to which the jar—collar combination is coupled. Some codes agencies require that blender blades be prevented from spinning unless the blades are assembled to ajar to protect users.
Disclosed herein are example collar assemblies coupleable to a blender jar having a ring, and to the base of a blender. The collar assembly including a housing to receive a bottom portion of the blender jar, a blade assembly mounted on an axis of the collar housing, a plunger moveable upward and downward within the collar housing. The plunger has a first lower position that prevents the blade assembly from coupling with a motor in the blender base when the collar is not coupled to the jar, and a second upper position where the plunger selectively allows the blade assembly to couple with the motor. The plunger further includes an arm extending upward within the collar housing and defining at least a u-shaped feature and a protrusion rotationally associated with the u-shaped feature. The collar assembly further includes a rotating interlock ring concentric with the collar housing and rotating responsive to rotation of the blender jar, and having a first portion, a second portions, and a key. The first portion engaging the u-shaped feature as the first portion rotationally moves into alignment with the u-shaped feature thereby preventing the plunger from moving upward toward the upper position, wherein the second portion does not engage the u-shaped feature when the second portion is rotationally aligned with the u-shaped feature thereby permitting the plunger to move upward and downward within the collar assembly, and wherein the key engages the protrusion as the plunger moves upward preventing the interlock ring from rotating while the second portion is rotationally aligned with the u-shaped feature.
A disclosed example blender jar assembly coupleable to the collar assembly of a blender includes a jar to receive items for processing, and a blender jar collar fixedly assembled to the base of the jar. The blender jar collar may include an interior lip engaging an exterior lip of the jar base. The blender jar collar and jar may be made of different materials.
Electrical and mechanical interlocks can be used to reduce the likelihood of blades being moved while the blender jar is not coupled to the collar. In general, a mechanical interlock relies on an aspect of the physical coupling of the jar and collar to disable a mechanism that is intended to physically prevent the collar from coupling with a blender base. Many customers prefer glass blender jars due to their strength, scratch resistance, stain resistance, food-safe construction, etc. However, complex and/or precise features are difficult to mold with glass. This lack of precision may result in interlock mechanisms that can be defeated when enough force is intentionally applied by a user. For example, features defined in glass typically need to have sloped or curved sides and edges to prevent damage to the jar. Unfortunately, these sloped or curved sides and edges provide an opportunity to force a glass feature past a plastic member of the interlock mechanism, which may flex under a sufficient intentionally applied force. Thus, it is conceivable to intentionally and forcibly remove a blender jar from a collar while the collar remains coupled to the blender base, which is not the intention of the blender manufacturer. Other materials, such as stainless steel, may have similar challenges.
To overcome at least these problems, interlock mechanisms having more precise and/or complex features are disclosed herein. In some disclosed examples, a blender jar includes a collar ring fixedly assembled to the base of the blender jar. Because the disclosed collar rings can be formed of rigid plastic, more complex and/or precise features can be defined. Further, disclosed example collar rings can be designed for assembly to blender jars in ways that accommodate variations in the blender jar. Thus, the tolerance stack height of the blender jar—collar ring combination can be less than the blender jar by itself. Likewise, by flexibly and sealably coupling the collar ring to the blender jar, the collar ring as opposed to the blender jar can be used to seal the blender jar to the collar. Additionally or alternatively, the base of the blender jar can be sealed to the collar. However, because, the more precise collar ring can be more consistently sealed to the collar, further advantages may be obtained. Additionally, collar rings can be used to adapt different blender jars to different blenders without incurring the time and expense of designing and manufacturing additional blender jars. That is, a blender jar may be used with different blenders. Moreover, disclosed blender rings may be used to allow other materials, such as stainless steel, to be used to construct blender jars, even if they may conventionally not be suitable for use as blender jars.
Using blender jar assemblies having finer and/or more complex features are disclosed herein, novel interlock mechanisms having tighter tolerances that reduce the likelihood of being able to be disabled or bypassed can be realized. A disclosed example interlock collar assembly includes, among other things, an interlock ring and a plunger. When a blender jar is not attached to one of the example collars, the plunger is intended to be held in a lower or locked position. Thus, if a user tries to couple the collar assembly to a blender base without a jar being coupled to the collar, the plunger prevents the blender base from coupling with the collar assembly. Keying features on the blender jar and the collar allow the blender jar and collar assembly to be aligned. As the blender jar is twisted while aligned with and seated in the collar, a seal is formed between the blender jar and the collar assembly. Simultaneously, the interlock ring rotates, freeing the plunger to move upward. In examples where the plunger is spring-loaded, the plunger will remain in the lower position until the collar—jar combination is placed on the blender base. Once the collar—jar combination is coupled to the blender base, the plunger is free to move into an upper position, allowing the collar assembly and blender base to couple. One additional novel feature disclosed herein is that when the plunger is in the upper position (e.g., the jar is coupled to the collar assembly), the plunger prevents the interlock ring from rotating, which lowers the likelihood of incidental disassembly of the jar from the collar assembly while the jar is on the base. The assembly of this mechanism is also novel—all pieces permanently may be snapped together, versus requiring a heat staking operation. Yet another novel feature is that the keying features are physically smaller than previous designs, thereby making the interlock mechanism harder to defeat.
As used herein, terms such as up, down, top, bottom, side, end, front, back, etc. are used with reference to the normal or a currently considered orientation (e.g., a blender placed in and upright position on a work surface) of an item, member, assembly, element, etc. For example, with reference to a blender placed in an upright or operational position on a work surface. If any of these is considered with respect to another orientation, it should be understood that such terms need to be correspondingly modified.
As used herein, “fixedly assembled,” or variants thereof, means an item, member, assembly, element, etc. that is intended to be, for all intensive purposes, permanently attached, coupled, connected, affixed, assembled or otherwise joined to another item during manufacture, product assembly, etc. in a way that is, by design, not intended for reversal by a user. Even though two items may be disassembled through sufficient knowledge, force, or tool does not negate the fact that they were intended, by design, to be fixedly assembled from the perspective of a user.
As used herein, “removeably attached,” or variants thereof means an article, element, part, component, cover, support, mount, housing, or any other member that is reversibly attached to another member in a way that is intended, by design, for removal by hand or using a hand tool, without damage to any of the attached members.
Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of this disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The embodiments are described below by referring to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements. Here, configurations of example blenders according to this disclosure will be described with reference to
Referring to
In general, the base 12 of the blender 10 has a neck 13 extending upwardly therefrom. A control pad 14 is supported by the base 12. The control pad 14 includes one or more controls 15 for operating the blender 10, such as membrane switches, buttons, dials, slides, or the like. The base 12 is supported above a countertop or other surface by a plurality of feet 16. The base 12 includes a housing 17, which is typically made of die-cast metal or a plastic such as polycarbonate. Electrical current is typically supplied to the base 12 by a plug 18, which is connectable to a wall outlet; however, one or more features of the blender 10 may alternatively be driven by battery power.
As shown in
To seal the blender jar collar 25 to the jar 21, the example coupling portion 22 of
To engage the example interlock mechanism in the collar assembly 40 of
Turning to
In
The example collar housing 33 of
Turning to
In the unlocked state of
In this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” do not exclude the plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Further, conjunctions such as “and,” “or,” and “and/or” are inclusive unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. For example, “A and/or B” includes A alone, B alone, and A with B. Further still, connecting lines or connectors shown in the various figures presented are intended to represent exemplary functional relationships and/or physical or logical couplings between the various elements. It should be noted that many alternative or additional functional relationships, physical connections or logical connections may be present in a practical device. Moreover, no item or component is essential to the practice of the embodiments disclosed herein unless the element is specifically described as “essential” or “critical”.
Although certain example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture have been described herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the claims of this patent.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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3612126 | Emmons | Oct 1971 | A |
7909501 | Eden | Mar 2011 | B2 |
8240909 | Athey | Aug 2012 | B2 |
8360480 | Athey et al. | Jan 2013 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country |
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2005201023 | Sep 2005 | AU |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20160158719 A1 | Jun 2016 | US |