Patent Application
20170313122
This application claims priority of Chinese Utility Model Patent Application No. 201620384634.6, filed on Apr. 29, 2016.
The disclosure relates to a pencil sharpener.
Pencils have been widely adopted in our daily life since the invention thereof in 1795 due to low price, portability, and wide application.
After long-term use, a tip of a pencil will eventually be blunt and requires to be sharpen. The shavings generated when sharpening the pencil can be collected by a shaving collector of a pencil sharpener or a shaving collecting space defined by an outer case. However, during operation of the pencil sharpener, the shaving collector or the outer case tends to be dislodged due to vibration of the pencil sharpener.
Therefore, an object of the present disclosure is to provide a pencil sharpener that can alleviate the drawback associated with the prior art.
According to the present disclosure, a pencil sharpener includes a main unit and an outer shell.
The main unit includes a main body and a pencil sharpening device. The main body includes a bottom base, a supporting seat and at least one engaging member. The supporting seat includes a surrounding wall that extends upwardly from a periphery of the bottom base, and a top wall that is connected to a top end of the surrounding wall. The pencil sharpening device is detachably disposed between the bottom base and the top wall. The engaging member is fixedly disposed on the surrounding wall.
The outer shell is detachably sleeved on the main body and has an inner surface that frictionally abuts against the engaging member. The outer shell and the surrounding wall cooperatively define a shaving collecting room that is adapted to receive shavings during operation of the pencil sharpening device.
Other features and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent in the following detailed description of the embodiment and modifications with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:
Referring to
The main unit 1 includes a main body 100, a driving device 200, a transmitting device 300, a fixing device 400 and a pencil sharpening device 500.
The outer shell 2 is detachably sleeved on the main body 100, and includes a cylindrical shell body 21 having an inner surface 22, and a notch 23 that is formed in an upper end of the shell body 21.
The main body 100 includes a bottom base 110, a supporting seat 120, a top plate 130, four engaging members 140 and a block 150 fixedly disposed on the top plate 130. The bottom base 110 includes a base body 111 that defines a transmitting room 31 therein, and a cylindrical lower holder 112 disposed on the base body 111. The supporting seat 120 includes a surrounding wall 121 that extends upwardly from a periphery of the bottom base 110, a top wall 122 that is connected to a top end of the surrounding wall 121, and a cylindrical upper holder 123 that is mounted to the top wall 122, that corresponds in position to the lower holder 112 and that has a through hole 127 penetrating the top wall 122. The surrounding wall 121 has a wall body 124 that defines a receiving space 32, and that has an outer arc surface 125 disposed along an outer peripheral portion thereof and proximate to the inner surface 22 of the outer shell 2 and an inner arc surface 126 extending from an end of the outer arc surface 125 toward the pencil sharpening device 500 for cooperating with the inner surface 22 of the outer shell 2 to define a shaving collecting room 33 that is adapted to receive shavings during operation of the pencil sharpening device 500. In other words, the outer shell 2 and the surrounding wall 121 of the supporting seat 120 of the main unit 1 cooperatively define the shaving collecting room 33. The top plate 130 is fixedly mounted to and disposed above the top wall 122. The top plate 130 includes a plate body 131, a pencil inserting hole 132 that penetrates the plate body 131 and that corresponds in position to the through hole 127 of the upper holder 123, and an electrode cover 133. The plate body 131 of the top plate 130 has a power supply exchange opening 134 that spatially communicates with the receiving space 32. The electrode cover 133 of the top plate 130 openably covers the power supply exchange opening 134. In this embodiment, the electrode cover 133 is made of a conductive metal. Compared to a conventional pencil sharpener including a plastic cover and a metal conductive sheet, the electrode cover 133 is thinner in size.
In this embodiment, the number of the engaging members 140 is four, but can be changed to less than or more than four according to practical requirements. The engaging members 140 are made of rubber, and are disposed on the wall body 124 of the surrounding wall 121 and partially protruding out of the outer arc surface 125. The outer shell 2 is prevented from easily sliding off the main body 100 through frictional contact between the inner surface 22 of the outer shell 2 and the engaging members 140.
In this embodiment, the notch 23 of the outer shell 2 corresponds in position to the block 150 such that the block 150 engages the notch 23, so as to prevent rotation of the main unit 1 in the outer shell unit 2, especially when the driving device 200 is in operation, which generates vibration to the pencil sharpener.
The driving device 200 is received in the receiving space 32, and includes a power supply 210, a motor 220 and a safety switch 230. In this embodiment, the power supply 210 includes two batteries 211 that are electrically connected in series by the electrode cover 133 and that can be replaced through the power supply exchange opening 134 when the electrode cover 133 is opened. In other words, the electrode cover 133 is electrically connected to the power supply 210. The safety switch 230 is a micro switch, and has an actuating portion 231 that protrudes out of the outer arc surface 125. When the outer shell 2 is sleeved on the main body 100, the inner surface 22 of the outer shell 2 abuts against the abutting portion 231 of the safety switch 230 so as to electrically interconnect the power supply 210 and the motor 220 such that the power supply 210 supplies an electric power to the motor 220 to drive the operation of the pencil sharpening device 500. Electrical connection between the power supply 210 and the motor 220 is interrupted through operation of the safety switch 230 when the main unit 1 is removed from the outer shell unit 2, thereby improving safety of the pencil sharpener. Alternatively, the safety switch 230 may be a proximity switch, a magnetic reed switch, etc., and can be adjusted according to practical requirements. When the safety switch 230 is the magnetic reed switch, the outer shell 2 should be provided with a magnetic member (not shown) for activating the magnetic reed switch.
The transmitting device 300 is received in the transmitting room 31 and includes a plurality of gears 310 meshed with each other and transmitting a power of the motor 220 to the pencil sharpening device 500. The fixing device 400 is mounted to the upper holder 123, and includes an assembling member 410 and a coiled compression spring 420. The assembling member 410 is disposed movably on the upper holder 123. The coiled compression spring 420 is received in the through hole 127 of the upper holder 123 and presses against the top plate 130 and the assembling member 410, such that the assembling member 410 abuts against and engages the pencil sharpening device 500 to detachably fix the pencil sharpening device 500 to the upper holder 123. That is, the pencil sharpening device 500 is detachably connected between the upper holder 123 and the lower holder 122. In certain embodiments, the assembling member 410 has one of a tongue 610 and a groove 620. The pencil sharpening device 500 has the other one of the tongue 610 and the groove 620, which engages detachably the one of the tongue 610 and the groove 620. The coiled compression spring 420 biases the tongue 610 and the groove 620 to engage each other. In this embodiment, the assembling member 410 has the tongue 610, and the pencil sharpening device 500 has the groove 620. The pencil sharpening device 500 is mounted between the assembling member 410 and the cylindrical lower holder 112. The power of the motor 220 is transmitted by the transmitting device 300 to the pencil sharpening device 500 so that the pencil sharpening device 500 is rotated with desired torque. Moreover, when the motor 220 is not operated, the pencil sharpening device 500 can be fixed between the assembling member 410 and the cylindrical lower holder 112 through tight fit between the tongue 610 and the groove 620, allowing a user to sharpen a pencil (not shown).
In this embodiment, the pencil sharpening device 500 can be easily replaced with the following steps. Referring to
In sharpening the pencil, the user can insert the pencil into the pencil inserting hole 132, allowing a tip of the pencil to press against the pencil sharpening device 500 to initiate operation of the motor 220 to drive the pencil sharpening device 500 for sharpening the pencil. The shavings generated during operation of the pencil sharpening device 500 is collected by the shaving collecting room 33 and can be easily accessed and removed after removal of the outer shell 2 from the main unit 1.
The merits of the pencil sharpener of this disclosure are summarized below.
By the frictional contact between the engaging members 140 and the inner surface 22 of the outer shell 2, the outer shell 2 is prevented from easily displaced from the main unit 1. Due to the engagement between the block 150 and the notch 23 of the outer shell 2, rotation of the main unit 1 in the outer shell unit 2 is prevented. Electrical connection between the power supply 210 and the motor 220 is interrupted through operation of the safety switch 230 when the main unit 1 is removed from the outer shell unit 2, thereby increasing safety of the pencil sharpener. The fixing device 400 facilitates the pencil sharpening device 500 to be assembled to and disassembled from the main body 100.
In the description above, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details have been set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiment. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that one or more other embodiments may be practiced without some of these specific details. It should also be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” an embodiment with an indication of an ordinal number and so forth means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic may be included in the practice of the disclosure. It should be further appreciated that in the description, various features are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of various inventive aspects.
While the disclosure has been described in connection with what is considered the exemplary embodiment, it is understood that this disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiment but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201620384634.6 | Apr 2016 | CN | national |
