Patent Application
20170266821
The present invention is to provide a knife, more particularly to a knife having a blade with an engaging groove to facilitate assembly and disassembly, which includes a blade having one end formed as a tip and having the engaging groove formed on a side adjacent to the other end thereof; a handle having a side concavely provided with an inwardly extending receiving space and an engaging post fixedly provided therein adjacent to one end thereof and having an elastic plate provided therein adjacent to the other end thereof; and a back-lock member having a first end corresponding to the receiving space, a second end being movably abutted by a free end of the elastic plate, and a middle section pivotally connected in the handle. Thus, when the second end is being pressed, the other end of the blade can be inserted into the receiving space and, is then securely engaged with the engaging post through the engaging groove while the second end is released
Recently, with the advancement of craft techniques and the improvement of living standards, people who intend to buy a new product consider not only the price and durability of the product, but also whether the product is convenient and safe to use. Such a change in market trends has driven manufacturers and designers in all fields to develop new and better products on a regular basis in order to meet consumers' needs. Take portable knives for use in outdoor recreational activities for example. The demand for both portability and safety has made “folding knives” a very common type of knives, and yet knife manufacturers keep making great efforts to improve their structural details, with a view to further increasing ease of use and durability.
While the structure of the folding knife 1 makes it possible to fold the blade 11 conveniently by a pressing operation, the inventor of the present invention has found after an observation of market trends that one who plans to buy a knife will assess whether a knife meets the needs of intended “use” in addition to such basic requirements as convenience, portability, and durability, and this attention to practicality can be attributed to the increasingly detailed classification of knives. For instance, the cutting edges of knives can be divided into two major types: plain and serrated. A plain edge is smooth and can cut precisely. A serrated edge, on the other hand, has a larger contact surface during use and therefore cuts with greater ease. Since both types of edges have their respective pros and cons, knives with a partly serrated edge, or combo edge, were invented and are now commercially available.
In light of the fact that a consumer facing the huge variety of knives nowadays would take into account purchase costs, methods of operation, and suitability of use at the same time, the inventor of the present invention began designing a knife structure featuring easy assembly and disassembly to facilitate replacement of its parts. And during the research process, the inventor believed that using and improving the existing knife structures would help reduce product costs and save consumers from the trouble of having to adapt to a brand new structure. Hence, the issue to be addressed by the present invention is to incorporate the concept of a “detachable blade” into the conventional knife structures without incurring any adverse effects on the cost, quality, and durability of the final product.
Given the fact that most knives on the market do not allow blade replacement, and that the few knives with a detachable blade are extremely complicated in structure, the inventor of the present invention put years of practical experience in research and development into repeated trials and tests and finally succeeded in developing a knife whose blade has an engaging groove to facilitate assembly and disassembly and thereby effectively solve the aforesaid problems of the conventional knives.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a knife having a blade with an engaging groove to facilitate assembly and disassembly. The knife includes a blade, a handle, and a back-lock member. The blade has one end formed as a tip, one side formed with a first edge, and the opposite side (hereinafter referred to as the second side) formed with an inwardly extending engaging groove. The engaging groove includes a back-lock groove, a passage groove, and a first positioning groove successively arranged along an inward direction. The back-lock groove has one end located at the periphery of the second side of the blade. The passage groove is smaller than the back-lock groove and has one end in communication with the other end of the back-lock groove. The first positioning groove has one end in communication with the other end of the passage groove and is at an angle with respect to the passage groove. The handle has one side concavely provided with an inwardly extending receiving space. An engaging post is fixedly provided in the handle at a position adjacent to one end of the handle. When the other end of the blade extends into the receiving space, the engaging post moves sequentially through the back-lock groove and the passage groove to the aforesaid end of the first positioning groove. By subsequently pushing or pulling the blade, the engaging post is pressed tightly against the other end (hereinafter the second end) of the first positioning groove. As a result, the portion of the blade that corresponds to the first positioning groove is tightly engaged with the engaging post, and assembly of the blade and the handle is completed. In addition, an elastic plate is provided on an inner wall of the handle and is adjacent to the other end of the handle. The elastic plate has a free end movably extending into the receiving space. The back-lock member has one end provided with an abutting portion and the other end formed as a pressing portion. A middle section of the back-lock member is pivotally connected in the handle at a position adjacent to the other side of the handle, with the free end of the elastic plate abutting against the inner side of the pressing portion. Thus, when the engaging post is pressed tightly against the second end of the first positioning groove to bring the blade and the handle into the assembled state, the abutting portion is engaged in the back-lock groove and abuts against the blade to secure the blade and the handle in the assembled state. Conversely, when it is desired to replace the blade, the user only has to press the pressing portion, thereby disengaging the abutting portion from the back-lock groove, and the blade can be pushed and removed from the handle while the engaging post moves sequentially from the first positioning groove through the passage groove to the back-lock groove and finally out of the back-lock groove. As the engaging groove is applicable to various types of blades, one can buy a single handle and many different blades with the same engaging groove and use whichever blade as needed. The knife of the present invention, therefore, has greater flexibility in use and better meets market demands than the existing knifes.
To facilitate further understanding of the structural and technical features and operation of the present invention, some illustrative embodiments are detailed below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
During the research and development process of the present invention, the inventor found that, despite their vast diversity, the existing folding knives are generally based on the same structural principle, i.e., the blade must be fixed to the handle by a “pivot pin” (e.g., a rivet) in order to be received in the handle by rotating around a center defined by the pivot pin. The pivot pin, though essential to the “rotating and folding” function of a folding knife, fixes the blade to the handle and thus prevents the blade from being replaced as desired. The inventor's unconventional design concept lies in a “pivot pin” which is formed as an engaging post to enable “blade replacement” as described in more detailed below.
Referring to
As to the handle 22, a receiving space 220 extends into one of its sides. An engaging post 221 is fixedly provided in the handle 22 at a position adjacent to one end of the handle 22. When the other end of the blade 21 extends into the receiving space 220, the engaging post 221 moves sequentially through the back-lock groove 31 and the passage groove 32 to the second end of the passage groove 32 (i.e., the first end of the first positioning groove 33). Then, the engaging post 221 is pressed tightly against the other end (hereinafter the second end) of the first positioning groove 33 by pushing the blade 21 toward the other end (hereinafter the second end) of the handle 22. Consequently, the portion of the blade 21 that corresponds to the first positioning groove 33 is tightly engaged with the engaging post 221, and the blade 21 and the handle 22 are in the assembled state. The handle 22 also has an inner wall provided with an elastic plate 24. The elastic plate 24 is adjacent to the second end of the handle 22 and has a free end movably extending into the receiving space 220.
In this embodiment, the angle of the first positioning groove 33 with respect to the passage groove 32 is 90 degrees. More specifically, the second end of the first positioning groove 33 extends toward the first end of the blade 21 to form the angle between the first positioning groove 33 and the passage groove 32. In other preferred embodiments of the present invention, the angle and direction of the first positioning groove 33 may be adjusted as appropriate. For example, the second end of the first positioning groove 33 may extend toward the handle 22 instead. In that case, once the blade 21 is inserted into the receiving space 220, and the engaging post 221 has reached the first end of the first positioning groove 33, the user must “pull” the blade 21 in order to press the engaging post 221 tightly against the second end of the first positioning groove 33.
It should be pointed out that, for the sake of simplicity and to present the core of design of the present invention,
The back-lock member 23 is configured as a slender plate, with one end provided with an abutting portion 231 and the other end formed as a pressing portion 232. A middle section of the back-lock member 23 is pivotally connected in the handle 22 at a position adjacent to the other side of the handle 22 while the free end of the elastic plate 24 abuts against the inner side of the pressing portion 232. Thus, when the engaging post 221 is pressed tightly against the second end of the first positioning groove 33 to bring the blade 21 and the handle 22 into the assembled state, the abutting portion 231 is engaged in the back-lock groove 31 and abuts against the blade 21 to hold the blade 21 and the handle 22 firmly together and prevent the blade 21 from getting loose.
According to the present invention, the blade 21 and the handle 22 are connected by engagement between the engaging post 221 and the first positioning groove 33. In practice, the width or length of the engaging post 221 may be increased to enlarge the area of engagement, thereby enhancing the stability of the blade 21 in all directions. Besides, as shown in
When it is desired to replace the blade 21, referring to
The engaging groove 3 can be formed in different types of blades 21 so that a single handle 22 can be used in combination with various blades 21 as needed. As a user can replace the blades 21 by himself/herself, the knife 2 of the present invention not only allows the blade 21 in use to be rotated into and out of the handle 22, but also functions as a knife with a “replaceable blade” and features convenient blade replacement. The knife 2 therefore is more flexible in use and can better meet market demands than its conventional counterparts.
According to the present invention, the shape of the engaging post 221 can be modified to enhance positioning stability. Referring to
Use of the blade 51 is described below as applied to the handle 22 depicted in
In the third preferred embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIG. 6, the engaging groove 63 also includes a back-lock groove 631, a passage groove 632, and a first positioning groove 633, but the angle θ between the passage groove 632 and the first positioning groove 633 (or between the passage groove 632 and the longitudinal direction of the blade 61, the first positioning groove 633 in this embodiment being parallel to the longitudinal direction of the blade 61) is less than 90 degrees. Thus, even if the blade 61 becomes loose due to an external force and allows the engaging post 621 to move to the end of the first positioning groove 633 that is in communication with the passage groove 632, the engaging post 621 will not move further outward along the passage groove 632 easily. This ensures that the blade 61 will not fall off the handle instantly when impacted by a large external force.
The technical features of the foregoing three embodiments can be used in conjunction with one another. In the second preferred embodiment, for example, the angle between the passage groove 532 and the first positioning groove 533 and the angle between the passage groove 532 and the second positioning grooves 534 may also be adjusted as appropriate, and the widths of the positioning grooves 533 and 534 may also be designed as slightly less than the length L of the engaging post 221 so that the blade 51 must deform in order to engage with the engaging post 221.
The above-mentioned descriptions represent merely the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, without any intention to limit the scope of the present disclosure thereto. Various equivalent changes, alternations or modifications based on the claims of present disclosure are all consequently viewed as being embraced by the scope of the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 105203915 | Mar 2016 | TW | national |
