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U.S. Pat. No. 9,505,528 B2 by Thomas B. Walker, U.S. Pat. No. 9,751,566B2 by Samuel Lincoln Brannock, US20040250690A1 by Thomas Restis, U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,948B2 by Stanley Kin Sui Cheng, HU215273B by Hans Fingerle Todd W. Kroscher U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,751A
This invention relates to the shape, design & use of a concave shaped lid (opposed to the normal convex shaped lid), used to cover the cylindrical openings of pots & containers, generally used in kitchens & elsewhere.
The concave lid ‘has no & needs no attachments’ for handling it, since it is provided with formed features to handle it with a stand-alone vise grip pliers style utensil.
The manner of using the lid is simply to place the lid on the circular opening of a pot or a container with the concavity down, with such opening being smaller than the diameter of the concave lid.
The lid for pots has been predominantly convex in shape, requiring precise centered-only placement on a pot with the lid's top-heavy convexity being above the pot's opening.
A convex lid needs an attachment for handling it; that increases the lid's space requirements & its design complexity.
Convex lids are, and need to be, individualized for the size & shape of a pot's opening.
The result is the requirement of as many lids as there are pots, & the lids cannot be interchanged for pots with different openings & openings' styles. The convex lid, devoid of stability, cannot be placed off centered on a pot, as when needed for throttling the vapors coming out of the pot.
A convex lid being top heavy, is not stable & steady when errored in its placement & hence requires matching mating nesting designs for both the pot's & the lid's rims.
All the design complexities add manufacturing & material costs, extra space requirements everywhere, —in using, storing, packaging, shipping, etc.
Nesting & stacking of convex lids is not possible due to their protruding attachments.
Since each pot opening (design) needs its own matching lid (design) with attachments, Often searching for the correct lid each time becomes an annoying, tedious task.
Any evaporating/rising fluids from inside the pot forming a condensate on lid's underside, will gravitate unwantedly along the inside of the lid's dome toward its outer rim & frequently ooze out as overflows along the outside of the lid-pot's rim junction.
If the lid has been provided with vent holes, similar undesirous overflow direction results but on outside of the lid.
Efficient cleaning of a convex lid, due to the nooks & crannies presented by its attachments & rim design, not only becomes a chore, but also requires excessive amounts of, —pre-prep & cleaning time, —cleaning agents & cleaning tools.
Eventually, these hard-to-reach regions will retain a gradual buildup of undesirable particulates, which, by any means become impossible to get rid of.
Excessive aggressive attempts at cleaning such regions prematurely damage the surface finish of the lid.
The lid described here is concave in shape, —spherical or conical. It ‘has no & needs no’ attachments. It may have one or more vent holes placed as deemed ideal.
The concave lid removes the necessity of either the pot or the lid needing mutually nesting, matching rim designs for pots or any precise placement of the lid on a pot.
A single, diametrically adequately oversized, lid will fit over the openings of a multitude of pots within a range of diameters of pot openings.
The lid even if placed off center over a pot's opening, still will effectively cover the pot's contents, regardless of the complexity of the pot's rim shape, —because of the contact by the concavity's underside.
Any rising content, such as steam/fluids etc., contacting the underside of the lid will gravitate in the desirous manner, radially to the pot's center as a condensate on the underside of the lid.
The lid will not need any handling attachment, since commonly found kitchen tongs or various other special but simple tools described here will easily handle it's placement or removal, when hot or cold.
A few gentle horizontal taps to a placed lid's rim will move it sufficiently off center allowing it to be grabbed at the lid's edge.
One or more strategically placed holes in the lid will provide effective venting & draining of formed condensate on the upper side radially to the center of the lid, and back into the pot. The holes can also be access passages for additives or content stirrers into the pot without removing the lid.
Cleaning & maintaining the cleanliness of the lid becomes easier & simpler, while reducing the requirements of both time & cleaning agents.
Just one or two lid sizes will cover a large range of pot openings, saving much space in the sink, counter, & cabinets.
The stability of a lid placed on a pot opening is improved due to its bottom heaviness, regardless of any placement errors.
The concavity of the lid need not be large, whereby any encroachment by it into the pot's interior can be negligible. As will be seen, a shallow rim wall for a shallow concave lid with vent holes will provide much space for overflow condensate with very little encroachment of lid into the pot.
A metal lid of shallow concavity and a few minor design changes can behave both like a lid as well as a frying pan.
The One-Piece No-attachments concave lid, improves &/or simplifies:
Note: Following Acronyms are Used Wherever Appropriate
The invention relates to a concave shaped lid, devoid of handles (OPNACL) & other attachments, that which can be used to cover a circular opening of a pot. The ideas presented here are contrarian to the construction and use of the traditional convex lid.
Referring to
OPNACL has no, and needs no attachments (#100, #102, #104, #106).
Generally, preferred OPNACL is spherical, (#102, #104) but it can be conical (#106).
The OPNACL may have strategically placed venting/throttling hole(s) (#108).
The vent hole(s) can be access points to add fluids, powders, spices, etc. from outside the pot without removing the OPNACL
Referring to
In OPNACL's use, it (#116) is simply placed on the opening of the pot with the concavity downward into the pot (#114). Precise placement is not needed.
Since the concaveness is designed to be shallow, the OPNACL does not encroach into any significant space required by the pot for its contents.
In its placement, the OPNACL does not have to be centered accurately because its diameter is larger than the largest pot's opening usable for a specific OPNACL.
A certain amount of off-centeredness can be tolerated.
OPNACL of sufficient diameter size may be used to cover various pot openings & pots' rim configurations (#114). This reduces the number of OPNACL sizes required.
The OPNACL, being bottom heavy, is inherently self-centering & self-stabilizing when placed on an opening. It has no tendency to topple over.
Referring to
A pot's contents can be vented/throttled by controlling the OPNACL's placement (#120, #122).
#124 is a schematic illustration how an OPNACL can be pushed, pulled or tapped into any stable desired position.
Off centering OPNACL permits edge gripping OPNACL with ease.
Referring to
OPNACLs of similar concavity can be compactly nested, say, for storage (#128).
Only two sizes of OPNACLs are shown but there is no limitation.
Referring to
A common kitchen tongs (#130) can be used to handle an OPNACL. If the overhang of the OPNACL over the pot rim is not sufficient to grab it, then it can be pushed or pulled or tapped off center (#124) & then gripped.
Referring to
Illustrative flow arrows (#134, #136) show how rising fluids becoming condensates drain back into the pot, be they from the underside or upper side of OPNACL.
Referring to
A special design tongs shown can grip OPNACL tangentially. This requires no disturbing of the OPNACL's position on the pot.
Tangs #144 will wall off the rim of the OPNACL radially. Tangs #140 will act as the underside rest for the OPNACL. Squeezing the upper arm #142 downward will grip the OPNACL over tongs #140.
Referring to
Mini-OPNACL (#150) used to cover vent holes. Mini-OPNACL can be pushed aside as needed (#152) by using any kitchen tool such as a butter knife, for throttling or full venting.
The shallowness of concavity & friction between the two OPNACLs will prevent. Mini-OPNACL from sliding back from a preferred placement.
Referring to
Alternate design of tongs to handle an OPNACL by its rim. Tangs #156 are squeezed to grab the OPNACL using, say, thumb & index finger. The large tangs #154 will prevent finger over travel & inadvertently touching a hot OPNACL or pot.
Referring to
1st & 2nd alternate embodiments of OPNACL. Bottom of OPNACL is modified to decrease lid encroachment into pot.
The sphericalness of OPNACL is flattened as shown in 1st embodiment of
Encroached space into the pot by the OPNACL can be regained by creating an upward bump in the OPNACL as shown in 2nd embodiment of
(Enough spherical underside area can be retained to accommodate several pot openings.)
Referring to
3rd embodiment: OPNACLs (#164) are provided with rim walls (#166). The wall provides for extra condensate accumulation on the upper side surface. It also provides a means to grip the OPNACL by the wall and portion of the concave underside, using special tongs. The special tongs will be substantially similar to #222 with the addition of the outer jaw of #222 encroaching to the underside of #220 the lid.
Referring to
A flat bottomed (1st or 2nd embodiment) OPNACL's spherical portion (#160) is used for several pot openings, albeit for limited number of sizes. Pots of lesser diameter may opt to use the flat portion of the OPNACL.
Referring to
4th embodiment: OPNACL (#176) with a + shaped slot through which a Content Stirrer (#172) with matching vanes (#174) can be inserted. To minimize the escape of contents from the pot #180 through gaps at + shaped slot, smaller OPNACL (#178) with its own matching + slot and partially rotated, can be placed as a barrier to escaping fluids.
Vanes #174 are inserted through both OPNACLs' slots into the pot's (#180) contents.
Knob #170 is used to rotate the Vanes (#174) as and when desired to stir.
The Smaller OPNACL (#178), turned/out of phase, enough to mask the + slots underneath, will minimize any fluid escape. The idea is to eliminate the need to lift the lid to stir the contents of the pot.
Referring to
The detailed views of OPNACL (#176) with a wall & a + shaped slot, smaller OPNACL (#178), Content Stirrer (#172) with Vanes (#174) & Knob (#170).
Referring to
5th Embodiment: a spherical OPNACL having Radial Tangs (#190) & the OPNACL being handled by a specially made OPNACL Tang-Handler (#192)
Referring to
6th Embodiment (#194). The OPNACL has small bumps of low but sufficient height (#196) formed on its underside, so as maintain a deliberate off centered position of the OPNACL, and prevent it from sliding down to center itself. Interference of the bumps with the rim of the pot on inside or outside will achieve this. Desired throttling gap #198 is thus maintained.
Referring to
5th Embodiment: OPNACFL (#220) has a vertical wall with a Flared Flange (#224). A special VGPCFL utensil (#222) can be used, as a gripping handle.
The tightened wingnut (#226) secures the gripped status of the jaws.
#228 is a pot shown for reference, intentionally having the same Flared Flange design, and thus the pot may also be handled by the same utensil.
Note: if the vent holes in #220 are eliminated and, say, 1st embodiment style is used, the OPNAL shown in #220 can be used as a design for a frying pan.
Referring to
They show the use of a VGPCFL gripping a OPNAXLF by its flange. Though this convex lid needs no attachments, and can be compactly stacked it still has the other disadvantages of a convex lid mentioned above.
Accordingly, the reader will see that a concave lid for pots, having no attachments, has numerous advantages over a conventional convex lid.
A convex lid poses the following disadvantages, all of which a concave lid overcomes.
A convex lid:
This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application, EFS ID 41502555, Appl. No. 63/135,714, filed—2021 Jan. 10, confirmation number 9189, by the present inventor under title—“Concave Lid for Utility Pot”. This application also cross references with: 63/140,811 (Jan. 23, 2021) (“Universal Tongs for Indented Pot”), & 63/134,908 (Jan. 7, 2021) (“One Piece, No attachments, Utility Pot”). The three applications are connected in several areas.