This invention deals generally with so-called case knives, that is knives specifically designed to cut open corrugated cardboard packing cases or cartons. A problem with prior case knives is that it is very difficult to control the depth to which the blade, (usually a replaceable and disposable steel blade such as a single-edge razor blade), penetrates through the corrugated cardboard panel or edge of a case. Inadequate penetration can result in inefficiencies. For example, the lid or panel of the corrugated cardboard case will not fully separate from the base. Perhaps more importantly a case knife blade, if it penetrates too deeply into the corrugated cardboard panel, can damage the packing case contents. If the contents are foodstuffs, such too deep penetrations can result in spoilage or consumer rejection of the products, as for example when the case knife blade has opened the individual packages of food, such as breakfast cereals and the like. Another problem with prior case knives is the risk that the operator can be cut with the exposed edge or pointed end of the case knife blade. While some prior knives include spring-operated guards and the like, such guards tend to be cumbersome and even when operating properly, can still present an unduly high risk of injury to the operator.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,750 shows a case knife with a fixed blade 13 and a movable hood 12, which can be locked in a position that resists displacement away from the blade by arc 60. This hood consists of a generally U-shaped member. There are other such fixed blade case knives, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,730,800, 4,744,146 and 6,233,832. In each disclosed device, the guard can be placed in a position to shield the knife blade. Other prior case knives include mechanisms for automatically withdrawing the blade into the handle of the case knife to prevent injury. Examples of these are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,139,939, 4,713,885 and 3,641,667. One characteristic of these movable blade knives is a fairly complex blade positioning mechanism, which can result in higher manufacturing costs, poor operability, and difficulty in properly positioning the blade when the blade needs to be replaced.
Another problem with prior case knives is that they favor a right or left-handed operator. One prior case knife construction shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,581 attempts to solve this problem by providing a case knife handle construction that accommodates a triangular blade in one of the two positions, so that the blade protrudes in a preferred position for either a right or a left handed operator. This system, however, requires the user to elect whether the case knife will be configured for use in the right or left hand when installing the blade. Once the blade is installed, the case knife cannot necessarily be easily operated with the opposite hand until the blade is re positioned in the handle.
Some prior case knives include a guard used to position the case knife at a proper distance along a right-angled edge or corner of a corrugated cardboard box. The purpose and intention of this guard is to assure that the blade of the knife penetrates the box at the ideal position along the edge of the box, while holding the blade to just sever a lid or panel of the box without penetrating the contents. One such prior case knife is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,376,887. Here, means 59 provides a guide for the blade along the edge or surface of a corrugated box.
Accordingly, it is an object of the subject inventive case knife to provide a case knife construction that provides separately operable guards, each one on each side of a replaceable blade to thus flank the blade. The blade is held in a fixed position within the handle shell and positioned between each of the two separately operable guards. Thus, each guard can be operated independent of the other, to permit the operator to expose one or the other sides of the blade, or to displace both of the guards away from the blade's sharp edge to permit the blade to protrude from the case knife structure and result in superior operation.
It is another object of the inventive case knife to present a case knife structure that can be operated with either hand, while simultaneously providing an automatic or spring operated guard to help make the case knife safer to operate.
It is also an object of the disclosed case knife to provide a system for guarding the protruding blade edge of the case knife, which can be selectively moved by proper application of the case knife to the edge of a corrugated cardboard box and the like, which edge displaces one guard an adequate distance while the other guard remains in position to guide the knife at an appropriate distance along the edge of the corrugated packing case.
It is another object of the invention to provide a case knife with a pair of separately operable guards which closely flank the cutting edge of the knife blade, each of the guards being operated by a button which is moved by the users thumb or finger, the button having several positions, each placing the guard in a different condition. Among the conditions are a fully locked condition in which the guard resists exposing the knife blade, a first unlocked condition in which the guard permits the blade to project beyond the guard to a first cutting depth, and a second unlocked condition in which the guard permits the blade to project beyond the guard a second cutting depth.
It is another object of the invention to provide a case knife with a pair of relatively movable guards closely flanking the knife blade at one end of the case knife, the guards having operating means which project out of a side of the knife handle for placing the one or both of the pair of guards in a locked condition and an unlocked condition, and a sheath sized to receive at least the end of the case knife having the blade, the sheath having an interior surface for engaging the operating means, whereby when the case knife is inserted in the sheath the operating means is operated by the interior surface of the sheath to place the guards in a locked condition.
a and 5b are respectively plan views of the inside of the a first shell half and a second shell half which assemble to make the handle of the case knife.
The case knife 1 has a generally elongated, prismatic shape, typical of the conventional case knives used in the grocery or supermarket industry. There is a grip portion 2 towards one end and a blade-containing portion 3 at the opposite end. Along one lower edge of each side of the blade containing end or portion 3 protrude a pair of thumb rests 4, consisting of a pair of protruding flanges, generally symmetrically identical. These are integrally molded to protrude on each of the two shells halves making up the case knife shell. On each case knife shell half there is a generally elongated, thumb-operated button or lever 5, which pivots around its axle 14 and has at least two operative positions, as will be detailed.
A conventional knurled bolt 6 engages embedded nut 7 to hold the two shell halves together during use and to clamp and hold the blade B between the two shell halves. Each shell half includes protrusions 19 which also engage and hold the blade firmly and in the correct position when the halves are assembled to form the handle.
A pair of separately operable guards 10 protrudes from the blade-containing end of the handle shells. Each guard 10 consists of a protruding flange 11 shaped to normally project beyond the edge of a properly installed single-edge razor blade contained within the shell halves. Each guard also consists of a supplemental guard finger or supplemental guard 12 carried by the adjacent guard 10 and positioned inwardly from the guard edge 11 and towards the blade. Each of these supplemental guards 12 is positioned immediately adjacent the blade edge on either side thereof (refer to
In greater detail, each guard is affixed to the inside of each shell half by rivet-like pivot 15. In addition to the flexible supplemental guard 12 there is included a cam surface 16 affixed to the guard for rotation therewith about pivot 15. A small resilient spring portion 17 is held in position by a small stud or protrusion 18, (see
Each thumb-operated lever 5 is connected to a shaft that penetrates through the wall of each handle shell and is affixed to a guard actuator, here shown as a cam follower arm 20. The cam follower arm 20 is mounted on the inside of each shell and is positioned to block or to permit the motion of the guard 10 by respectively engaging or not its protruding cam surface 16. As seen in
In
As mentioned above, the guards 10 have a second function, that is to guide the blade in a precise manner along a corner edge of the cardboard carton so that an adjacent cardboard panel can be severed from the box at that corner edge. This operation will now be explained In order to cut along the edge of cardboard box, one of the thumb-operated levers is placed in a first operating position, in particular, down towards the thumb rest 4. This moves the cam follower arm 20 away from cam surface 16 and towards the axle 15 and thus permits the guard to deflect upwardly to expose the blade when the guard is rotated toward the handle by being pressed against the surface being cut. The other thumb-operating lever is placed in a position away from the thumb guard, thus placing the cam follower in contact with the cam 16 away from axle 15, (
Should the operator wish to cut using the other hand, or perhaps cut a panel with the blade on the other side of the cut, the operator needs only to shift the position of each of the thumb operated levers—that is the lever that was in the down position is now moved to the up position and the lever in the up position is moved to the down position. This releases the opposite guard to permit that guard to deflect inwardly when pressed against the carton panel and locks the other guard from deflecting. The user now merely places the fixed guard against the edge to be cut and presses the blade into the adjacent cardboard panel, deflecting the released guard to expose the blade. The blade penetrates the cardboard panel, and is guided along the edge corner of the cardboard container to complete the cut. The distance between the inner surface of each guard edge 11 and the blade being guarded has been fixed to approximately the thickness of a typical corrugated cardboard packing case panel. Thus whichever guard 10 serving as a guide in this operation places the blade, and thus the cut made by a properly operated case knife, just to the inside of the corrugated cardboard panel to be removed.
An important and extra safety feature of the inventive case knife is the flexible supplemental guards 12 located interiorly of each main guard edge 11. These, as mentioned before, immediately flank the protruding blade and can in fact rest on each side surface of the blade near the cutting edge thereof. The main function of these supplementary guards is to prevent the fleshy part of the finger or palm from protruding in between the inner sides of guard edges 11 on each guard 10 and advertently come in contact with the protruding blade edge. Thus, the safety function of the guards is less likely to be compromised because of the spacing required to permit the guards to operate as guides for cutting along the corner edges of corrugated cartons, as outlined above. This is so because the flexible fingers are spaced close enough to the blade and are stiff enough to resist direct, inadvertent contact in all but the most vigorous and harsh pressing of the fleshy portion of a palm or finger between the guards 10 when they are in the locked condition. Yet each of these supplemental guard fingers 12 can deflect out of the way when the knife is properly operated with one of the guards in the unlocked condition. For example, the supplementary guard on a locked guard will flex along with the unlocked guard on the opposite side of the blade, moving out of the way to allow the blade to make a cut to the proper depth.
Referring to
Note in these figures, each of the actuating buttons 105 slides along a slot 130 provided in the corresponding handle shell 102. Each button 105 has an integrally molded lug 103 that has resilient detents that affix the button to a correspondingly square-shaped hole in the body of the actuator 114. The actuator slides along a linear path defined by the slot 130 next to its corresponding guard 110. The actuator has a protrusion or cam follower 120 in the form of a stud that protrudes from the side of the actuator facing the guard. This protrusion acts much like the cam follower 20 of the previous embodiment in that it blocks or permits motion of the guard depending on its position along a complex cam surface 116 extending along the upper face of each guard 110. The cam surface 116 has three stepped portions that can be engaged by the protrusion 120. When the stop is in the rearmost position (to the right as viewed in
In the first unlocking position of the actuator, the stop is positioned to engage the middle step at the central portion of the cam surface 116. In this condition, the guard is permitted to deflect against the bias of the spring arm when the operator presses the guard against the box surface to be cut. The guard deflects the ideal distance, preferably about 0.125″, to just permit the corner of the blade B held in between the handle shell half 102 by protrusion 119, etc (
When the button, and thus the operator, is moved to its position fully forward, (or to the left as in FIG. 9,) the guard is thus placed in a fully unlocked condition. This permits the blade to protrude beyond the guard a full 0.250″, thus permitting the blade to cut through two thicknesses of corrugated cardboard. The various mechanisms are shown in
Thus it can be seen that there is a logical correlation between the positions of the actuator buttons and the functioning condition of the guard associated with that actuator button. That is, when the button is pulled back, the blade is essentially “back” or in a withdrawn position within the guard. When the actuator button is moved forward, the blade moves, at least relative to that guard “forward”, to permit the blade edge to engage and cut the intended cardboard panel preferably to one or two depths.
The actuator buttons protrude from the profile of the handle shells on both sides. This not only permits easy operation by the digit of the operator, preferably the operators thumb, but also permits the specially formed holster or sheath 140 shown in
The following table illustrates the various possibilities or conditions of the blade guards (and sheath where it is provided or used), together with the resulting condition and exemplary uses of the knife when the blade guards are in the conditions specified:
While both preferred embodiments employ a single edge razor blade which can be removed from the holding fixtures in the blade halves and replaced, other blade schemes are contemplated and fall within the inventive concepts taught by these two embodiments. One simple variation would permit the use of a conventional double-edged razor blade. Also, a cutting blade could be insert molded into the handle, eliminating some of the structures needed to permit blade replacing. Such inventive case knives could be so cheaply made as to justify disposing the entire case knife when the blade becomes to dull to function properly. Also, our inventive blade guard could be adapted to operate with the popular “snap-off” blade systems common in the hobby knife and matt knife markets.
Of course, while the preferred embodiment of the invention has been detailed above in order to fully apprise the reader of the invention and how to make and use it, the true scope of applicant's invention is limited only by the appended claims.
This application is related to Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/332,656 filed Nov. 21, 2001, and claims benefit of this provisional application's filing date. This application is also related to Design Patent Application Serial No. 29/150,554, which was also filed on Nov. 21, 2001.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2376887 | Walters | May 1945 | A |
2743523 | Honey | May 1956 | A |
3781988 | Jones | Jan 1974 | A |
4675996 | DuBuque | Jun 1987 | A |
4980977 | Matin et al. | Jan 1991 | A |
5241750 | Chomiak | Sep 1993 | A |
6178640 | Votolato | Jan 2001 | B1 |
6233832 | Berns | May 2001 | B1 |
6560873 | Ortner et al. | May 2003 | B1 |
6578266 | Chomiak | Jun 2003 | B1 |
6637112 | Davis | Oct 2003 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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60332656 | Nov 2001 | US |