1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to chopsticks, and more particularly to a pair of retractable chopsticks.
2. Description of Related Art
Disposable tableware, especially disposable chopsticks, is widely used for its convenience and effect of preventing spreading contagious diseases. However, recent surveys on the sanitary quality of disposable chopsticks have shown that most of the disposable chopsticks contain chemical additives, and in certain cases, there are even heavy metals contained therein, which potentially harms the food safety.
Therefore, many people encourage consumers to carry chopsticks on their own to prevent ingesting the toxic substances contained in the disposable chopsticks. Furthermore, using reusable chopsticks also corresponds to the trend of environmental protection, which is considered more eco-friendly.
However, chopsticks are elongated, and therefore may not be convenient to carry around. If chopsticks could be more portable, there would be more people willing to carry chopsticks by themselves.
In view of the reasons mentioned above, the primary objective of the present invention is to provide a pair of chopsticks, which is retractable and more portable.
The present invention provides a chopstick of a pair of chopsticks, wherein the chopstick includes a first body, a second body, and a locking member. The first body is elongated, and has a storage space inside, wherein an end of the first body has an opening communicating with the storage space. The first body has at least one positioning slot provided on a wall of the storage space thereof, each of which has a main slot section. The second body is elongated, and is completely or partly receivable in the storage space through the opening of the first body, wherein the second body has at least one protrusion provided on an outer wall thereof. The at least one protrusion enters the main slot section of the at least one positioning slot when the second body is at a first position in the storage space. The locking member has a locking portion, and is engaged with the first body, wherein the locking member is controllable to make the locking portion enter the main slot section of one of the at least one positioning slot to prevent one of the at least one protrusion therein from leaving said main slot section.
With the aforementioned design, the pair of chopsticks are more portable because of its retractability, for the second body could be completely or partially received in the storage space through the opening of the first body.
The present invention will be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of some illustrative embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which
As shown in
The first body 10 is elongated, and includes a stick 11, a securing member 12, a ring 13, and a cover 14.
The stick 11 is a polygonal tube. In the first embodiment, the stick 11 is a rectangular tube with four slightly curved corners, and two ends of the stick 11 have two openings 111a, 111b, which communicate an inner space of the stick 11 and outside.
As shown in
As shown in
The cover 14 is detachably engaged with the stick 11, and seals one of the openings 111a.
The locking member 20 is tubular, and fits around the securing member 12 in a way which makes the locking member 20 rotatable relative to the securing member 12. The locking member 20 has three locking portions 22 and a positioning portion, wherein the three locking portions 22 are bulges bulging from an inner wall of the locking member 20, and each of the locking portions 22 is located respectively in one of the positioning slots. The locking member 20 is controllable to rotate on the securing member 12 to move each of the locking portions 22 between the main slot sections 123 or between the subsidiary slot sections 124 (as shown in
In the first embodiment, the positioning portion has a first positioning hole 24 and a second positioning hole 26, which are on the inner wall of the locking member 20. While rotating the locking member 20, the positioning protrusion 131 of the securing member 12 could enter the first positioning hole 24 or the second positioning hole 26 of the locking member 20. In this way, the locking member 20 is restricted by the positioning protrusion 131, and consequently gets positioned, for the locking member 20 could not rotate relative to the first body 10 without being moved by an external force.
As shown in
The second body 30 is elongated, and could be made of plastic, wood, or metal, wherein, if the second body 30 is made of metal, the material could be selected from stainless steel or other anti-corrosive metal, such as silver. Alternatively, the second body 30 could also be made of common metal coated with an anti-corrosive layer. In the first embodiment, the second body 30 is made of common metal, which is coated with a silver layer to prevent corrosion or bacteria growth. The second body 30 is received in the first body 10, and could stretch out of the first body 10 through the opening 12a of the first body 10 to be positioned at a first position P1 on the first body 10 (as shown in
In the first embodiment, an outer wall of the second body 30 has three pairs of protrusions 32a, 32b near one end thereof, wherein the pairs of protrusions 32a, 32b correspond to the main slot sections 123 of the positioning slots. Furthermore, the pairs of protrusions 32a, 32b are arranged evenly along an axial direction of the second body 30, with regular intervals therebetween. The structure of the pair of chopsticks 100 of the present invention has been explained above, and the method of use the pair of chopsticks 100 is described below.
First, the pair of chopsticks 100 is ready to be used when the second body 30 is positioned at the first position P1. In this condition, the three pairs of protrusions 32a, 32b respectively enter the main slot sections 123 of the positioning slots, and the locking member 20 is rotatable to make the locking portions 22 get into the main slot sections 123, respectively. In this way, each of the locking portions 22 could be positioned between one of the pairs of the protrusions 32a, 32b to prevent each of the pairs of protrusions 32a, 32b from leaving the corresponding main slot section 123 (as shown in
After using the pair of chopsticks 100, the locking member 20 could be forced to rotate, moving each of the locking portions 22 into one of the subsidiary slot sections 124 (as shown in
In such a condition, each of the protrusions 32a, 32b of the second body 30 could be easily moved toward the first body 10 by an external force, and the second body 30 would be completely received in the storage space S of the first body 10. By simply remove the cover 14, the second body 20 could be taken out through the opening 111a to be cleaned.
In the aforementioned first embodiment, the cover 14 is detachably engaged with the stick 11 to form an end of the first body 10. With such design, the second body 30 could be conveniently taken out of the first body 10 to be cleaned. However, the stick 11 and the cover 14 could be also integrally made in other embodiments.
In addition to the aforementioned first embodiment, one of a pair of chopsticks 200 of a second embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in
As shown in
The first body 50 is elongated, and includes a stick 52, which is a polygonal tube, and a securing member 54. The difference between the third embodiment and the aforementioned embodiments is that, an inner wall of the stick 52 has an internal threaded section 521; the securing member 54 is a round short tube, and an outer wall thereof has an external threaded section 541. The securing member 54 could be fixed by screwing the external threaded section 541 thereof with the internal threaded section 521 of the stick 52 (as shown in
To assemble the pair of chopsticks 100 of the first embodiment, a plurality of screws are required to be screwed into the securing member 12 and the stick 11. On the contrary, the securing member 54 of one of the chopsticks 300 of the third embodiment could be fixed through the external threaded section 541 and the internal threaded section 521 on the stick 52, which is much easier for assembling, and the manufacturing process could be further facilitated.
In conclusion, the present invention does have the following advantages and efficiencies:
It must be pointed out that the embodiments described above are only some preferred embodiments of the present invention. All equivalent structures which employ the concepts disclosed in this specification and the appended claims should fall within the scope of the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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104127285 A | Aug 2015 | TW | national |
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686336 | Mar 1996 | CH |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20170049255 A1 | Feb 2017 | US |