The present invention relates generally to a foldable utensil, and more particularly to a foldable eating utensil.
A conventional beverage lid with cutlery is disclosed in Taiwan patent application No. 084211279 “Structure of Lid with Spoon”, wherein an annular wall formed by protruding away from a circumference of a bottom plate of the lid, and positioning pistons, engaging plates, and hooking plates are disposed on and between the bottom plate of the lid and the annular wall. The positioning pistons, the engaging plates, and the hooking plates are adapted to be engaged with the folded spoon. The user could simply take out the folded spoon by poking folded spoon on the lid.
The folded spoon is folded manually. The spoon is manually folded, and then locking the folded spoon by the positioning pistons, engaging plates, and the hooking plates of the lid. The conventional foldable spoon is difficult to be automatically folded by a machine, because during a process of folding each part of the foldable spoon, the folded parts may return back to hinder the operation of the automated folding process, even stuck the operation of the automatic machine. Additionally, during the process of folding the spoon and engaging the folded spoon with the lid manually, the foldable spoon is probably polluted, thereby leading to sanitary problems.
In view of the above, the primary objective of the present invention is to provide a foldable eating utensil, the restricting portion could retain different parts of the foldable eating utensil in a folded position, so that the foldable eating utensil becomes suitable for being automatically folded by an automated machine instead of manual folding, thereby saving the manpower and avoiding the sanitary issue of packing.
The present inventive subject matter provides a foldable eating utensil including a cutlery head, a first rod, and a second rod, which are sequentially connected in a first direction, which is defined as a direction from a front end to a rear end of the foldable eating utensil. The he cutlery head includes a functional portion and a neck, wherein the neck extends in the first direction from the functional portion. A front end of the first rod is foldably connected to a rear end of the neck; a front end of the second rod is foldably connected to a rear end of the first rod. A bottom portion of the second rod has a restricting portion; after the first rod and the second rod are folded, the cutlery head is then folded to the first rod and the second rod that are folded, and the cutlery head could be restricted by the restricting portion of the second rod, thereby the foldable eating utensil is retained in a compacted state.
With such design, when the second rod and the first rod are folded, the second rod is restricted by the restricting portion at the folded position. After that, during a process of folding the cutlery head toward the second rod and the first rod that are compacted, the second rod is not going to hinder or stuck the folding process because the second rod is not disengaged from the restricting portion of the first rod. Thus, the foldable eating utensil is suitable for automatically folding and mounting into the lid. Compared to the traditional foldable spoon that needs for folding manually, the foldable eating utensil of the present invention could avoid sanitary issues due to manual folding.
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 illustrated in
The cutlery head 10 includes a functional portion 12 and a neck 14 extending in the first direction D1 from the functional portion 12. The neck 14 has a slot 18. In the first embodiment, the functional portion 12 is a spoon head, and a top side of the functional portion 12 forms a bowl 16. The bowl 16 extends in the first direction D1 to an inner side of the neck 14 to form a groove 161 in the inner side of the neck 14. More specificially, the slot 18 is disposed on a bottom side of the groove 161.
The first rod 20 is a straight rod that extends in the first direction D1, wherein a front end of the first rod 20 is foldably connected to a rear end of the neck 14 by means of hinge. A first hinge joint 21 is located between the front end of the first rod 20 and the neck 14, wherein a bottom side of the neck 14 and the front end of the first rod 20 jointly form a first buckle assembly 22. The first buckle assembly 22 includes an inserting tab 221 formed at the bottom side of the neck 14 and an engaged loop 222 formed at the front end of the first rod 20. When the cutlery head 10 is folded toward the first rod 20, a portion of the first rod 20 that is covered by the neck 14 has an overlapped section A. When the second rod 30 is folded toward the first rod 20, a portion of the first rod 20 that corresponds to the second rod 30 has an indentation portion 24, and at least a portion of the indentation portion 24 is located in the overlapped section A. In the first embodiment, the indentation portion 24 is an elongated groove in the first direction D1. In other embodiments, the indentation portion 24 could be an embedded hole or an elongated perforation in the first direction D1. As illustrated in
The second rod 30 is a straight rod that extends in the first direction D1, wherein a front end of the second rod 30 is foldably connected to a rear end of the first rod 20 by means of hinge. A second hinge joint 31 is located between the rear end of the first rod 20 and the front end of the second rod 30, wherein a bottom side of the rear end of the first rod 20 and the front end of the second rod 30 jointly form a second buckle assembly 32. The second buckle assembly 32 includes an engaged recess 321 formed at the bottom side of the rear end of the first rod 20 and an engaging block 322 formed at the front end of the second rod 30. A top portion of the second rod 30 has a first engaging block 34 which corresponds to the indentation portion 24, and a bottom portion of the second rod 30 has a restricting portion X. In the current embodiment, the restricting portion X is a second engaging block 36 that corresponds to the slot 18. As illustrated in
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The indentation portion 24 has two first side walls 241 at a right and a left side, namely the two first side walls 241 are opposite in the second direction D2. The first engaging block 34 has two first side surfaces 341 at a right and a left side, namely the two first side surfaces 341 are opposite in the second direction D2. The first engaging block 34 has a first guiding surface 342 at a top side. The first guiding surface 342 is curved, wherein a middle portion of the first guiding surface 342 is the highest, and a height of the first guiding surface 342 is gradually reduced from the middle portion to two ends of the guiding surface 342 in the first direction D1. The first engaging block 34 has a width d1 in the second direction D2, which is greater than a width d2 of the indentation portion 24 in the second direction D2. A top edge of each of the two first side surfaces 341 has a first chamfer 343. Each of the first chamfers 343 is adapted to abut against an edge of one of the two first side walls 241 of the indentation portion 24. When the first engaging block 34 is engaged into the indentation portion 24, the two first chamfers 343 urges the edges of the two first side walls 241 to slightly push away the two first side walls 241 of the indentation portion 24 and to allow the two first side surfaces 341 of the first engaging block 34 tightly fitting into the two first side walls 241 of the first indentation portion 24.
The slot 18 has two second side walls 181 at a right and a left side, namely the two second side walls 181 are opposite in the second direction D2. The second engaging block 36, the restricting portion X, has two second side surfaces 361 at a right and a left side, namely the two second side surfaces 361 are opposite in the second direction D2. The second engaging block 36 has a second guiding surface 362 at a top side. The second guiding surface 362 is curved, wherein a middle portion of the second guiding surface 362 is the highest, and a height of the second guiding surface 362 is gradually reduced from the middle portion to two ends of the guiding surface 362 in the first direction D1. The second engaging block 36 has a width d3 in a second direction D2, which is greater than a width d4 of the slot 18 in the second direction D2. A top edge of each of the two second side surfaces 361 has a second chamfer 363. Each of the second chamfers 363 is adapted to abut against an edge of one of the two second side walls 181 of the slot 18. When the second engaging block 36 is engaged into the slot 18, the second chamfers 363 urges the edges of the two second side walls 181 to slightly push away the two second side walls 181 of the slot 18 and to allow the two second side surfaces 361 of the second engaging block 36 tightly fitting into the two second side walls 181 of the slot 18.
As illustrated in
In the first embodiment, the second rod 30 and the cutlery head 10 are folded sequentially. The first engaging block 34 of the second rod 30 could be restricted by the indentation portion 24 of the first rod 20, and then the slot 18 of the cutlery head 10 could be engaged with the second engaging block 36 of the second rod 30, so that the the cutlery head 10, the first rod 20, and the second rod 30 could be retained in a compacted state. Therefore, during a process of automated folding, the second rod 30 could not return back to hinder the automatic machine to fold the cutlery head 10 toward the first rod 20, thereby the automatic machine could work smoothly. With such design, the foldable eating utensil 100 of the present invention is suitable for automatically producing and packaging, which could save manpower and avoid the sanitary problem of manual folding processing.
Except for the abovementioned first embodiment, when the automatic machine could fold the foldable eating utensil 100 in a high speed, namely after the second rod 30 is folded toward the first rod 20, the first rod 20 and the second rod 30 are immediately folded toward the cutlery head 10. Thus, the second rod 30 has no time to return back, the second rod 30 and the first rod 20 are folded toward the cutlery head 10. In such situation, the restricting structure, the first engaging block 34 of the second rod 30 and the indentation portion 24 of the first rod 20, for restricting the second rod 30 from moving away from the first rod 20 is not necessary. Therefore, the first engaging block 34 and the indentation portion 24 of the foldable eating utensil 100 could be omitted. In an embodiment, the foldable eating utensil 100 merely includes the second engaging block 36 (restricting portion X) on the bottom portion of the second rod 30 and the slot 18 of the cutlery head 10, which could be correspondingly engaged with the second engaging block 36 to retain the foldable eating utensil 100 in a compacted state, which is suitable for automatic packing.
Except for the aforementioned first embodiment, the engagement between the indentation portion 24 and the first engaging block 34 could be done by other means. In other embodiments, the slot 18 and the second engaging block 36 are expandable and elastic, so that the indentation portion 24 could be designed in any geometric shape, such as a rectangle and circle, and the first engaging block 34 could be designed as a block, wherein a contour of the block is slightly greater than the indentation portion 24, so that the first engaging block 34 could be engaged into the indentation portion 24. The slot 18 could also be designed in any geometric shape, such as circle, and a contour of the second engaging block 36 could be slightly greater than the slot 18 to allow the second engaging block 36 could be engaged into the slot 18. With such design, after the the second rod 30 and the first rod 20 are folded, the second rod 30 could be restricted from moving away, and after the cutlery head 10 is folded toward the first rod 20 and the second rod 30, the cutlery head 10 could be restricted from moving away from the second rod 30, thereby the foldable eating utensil 100 is suitable for automatic packing.
In the first embodiment, the functional portion 12 is a spoon head. In other embodiments, the functional portion 12 could be fork head. As illustrated in
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In the third embodiment, the structure used for engaging the second rod 30 and the cutlery head 10 after folded includes a second engaging block 36 and a slot 18, wherein the structure in the third embodiment could be changed.
As illustrated in
It must be pointed out that the embodiment described above is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention. All equivalent structures and methods 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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112111791 | Mar 2023 | TW | national |