This application is a 35 U.S.C. 371 National Stage Application of International Application No. PCT/IB2010/051509, filed Apr. 7, 2010, claiming priority from South African Application No. 2009/02432, filed Apr. 8, 2009, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
This invention relates to spice grinders.
Spice grinders known to the Applicants comprise a first component that screws or snap fits onto a spice container such as a bottle. A second component fits onto the first component and is rotatable with respect to the first component. The components include teeth or serrations between which the spice is ground when the second component is rotated on the first component. With these known grinders it is not possible to see if the spice grinder has been tampered with.
To grind the peppercorns, the bottle to which the spice grinder is fitted is inverted and the parts of the grinder rotated relatively to one another. Ground pepper falls from the spice grinder. When the bottle is returned to its upright position, partially ground peppercorns, and ground pepper which has not fallen from the grinder, fall back into the bottle. Thus the bottle, after a period of use, contains peppercorns, peppercorn pieces and ground peppercorns. Hence, what is dispensed, after the bottle has been used for some time, is not freshly ground pepper but a mixture of freshly ground pepper and pepper ground at some earlier time.
The present invention seeks to provide a spice grinder which includes a means to indicate if the product has been tampered with. The invention furthermore seeks to provide a grinder in which the quantity of partially ground peppercorns and ground pepper which falls back into the bottle is minimised.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a spice grinder which comprises a first static component including means for attaching it to a container, a second rotatable component which fits on the first component, the first component having a tapering bore with teeth projecting inwardly from the surface of the bore and the second component having a toothed portion in said bore, whereby grinding takes place in the gap between the teeth of the components when said second component is rotated with respect to the first component, the second component further having a transverse closure partition with a set of openings in it through which ground spice falls from the grinder when it is in an inverted position, and the spice grinder further including a third tamper evident closure component sealing off the openings.
The first static component may be adapted to be snap fitted to the container.
The tamper evident closure may comprise a disc with a removable part.
The tamper evident spice grinder may include a retainer to secure the disc to the second component. The retainer may be in the form of an annulus. In a specific form the annulus is frustoconical. The second component can include a skirt with an annular rib on the inner surface thereof, the outer periphery of the annulus fitting under said rib to secure the annulus in place.
The removable part may have a pull ring attached thereto.
The closure component may be made of a synthetic plastics material.
The removable part may be secured to the remainder of the closure component along a line of weakness in the plastics material.
The grinder may have interlocking circumferentially extending ribs and grooves, which permit the rotatable second component to be moved axially with respect to the first component and thereby to vary the spacing between the teeth of the rotatable component and the teeth of the static component.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a spice grinder which comprises a first static component including means for attaching it to a container, a second rotatable component which fits on the first component, the first component having a tapering bore with teeth projecting inwardly from the surface of the bore and the second component having a toothed portion in said bore, whereby grinding takes place in the grinding gap between the teeth of the components when said second component is rotated with respect to the first component, the first component having a transverse partition, the partition extending across the first component, the partition having an opening in it which permits spice to be ground to drop into the grinding gap upon inversion of the grinder to its position of use, and the partition limiting the quality of ground, partially ground and unground spice which falls through said opening back into the container when the spice grinder is inverted.
In one form of the invention the partition can be in the form of a disc. Said opening may be a generally triangular shape or a fan-shaped cut-out in the disc or it can be a cut-out that extends inwardly from the periphery of the disc.
The first static component may be adapted to be snap fitted to the container.
The grinder may have interlocking circumferentially extending ribs and grooves, which permit the rotatable second component to be moved axially with respect to the first component and thereby to vary the spacing between the teeth of the rotatable component and the teeth of the static component.
According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a spice grinder which comprises a first static component including means for attaching it to a container, a second rotatable component which fits on the first component, the first component having a tapering bore with teeth projecting inwardly from the surface of the bore and the second component having a toothed portion in said bore, whereby grinding takes place in the gap between the teeth of the components when said second component is rotated with respect to the first component, the second component having a locking member attached to the second component, the locking member being configured to bear on the first component if a force is applied to separate the second component from the first component thereby to restrict removal of the second component from the first component.
Said second component may include a socket and said locking member may include a split pin that fits into said socket.
The first static component may be adapted to be snap fitted to the container.
The grinder may have interlocking circumferentially extending ribs and grooves, which permit the rotatable second component to be moved axially with respect to the first component and thereby to vary the spacing between the teeth of the rotatable component and the teeth of the static component.
For a better understanding of the present invention, and to show how the same may be carried into effect, the invention will now be described by way of non-limiting examples, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
Referring to the drawings, a container 10 (
The component 12 (
On the external surface of the component 12 there is a circumferentially extending rib 30.
The rotatable component 16 (
The cone 40 is closed at its lower end and joined, at its upper end, to the ring 36 by the spokes 38 which extend outwardly from the cone 40. On the outside of the cone there are four equally spaced protruding teeth 44 (see particularly
Two parallel internal grooves 46, 48 (
As shown in
The angled teeth 44 break the pepper corns but do not grind them. They also push the corns towards the fine grinding zone, constituted by the teeth 50 which are provided around the outer surface of the cone 40 at its wider end.
When the grinder is inverted from the position shown in
If the component 16 is pulled up from the position shown in
The spice grinder further includes a tamper evident closure component 54 in the form of an annular disc that fits into the rotatable component 16 (see
An internal rib 58 (
The closure component 54 (see
The embodiment of
The retainer 56 is not dished but is extended downwardly by a sleeve 68 which has a circumferentially extending rib 70 on the radially inner face thereof. The configuration of the static component 16 differs from that of the static component of
A removable closure cap is shown at 80.
In
If the part 16 is pulled upwardly with respect to the part 12, the outer ends of the spokes 90 bear on the underside of the web 24 of the static part 12, thereby preventing separation of the parts.
In
When the spice grinder is returned to its upright condition, only the ground and partly ground peppercorns in the immediate vicinity of the opening 94 fall back into the container. Most of the material in the grinding gap falls onto the partition 92 where it is retained for grinding when the container is next inverted.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2009/02432 | Apr 2009 | ZA | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
PCT/IB2010/051509 | 4/7/2010 | WO | 00 | 12/29/2011 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2010/116334 | 10/14/2010 | WO | A |
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4815671 | Akira | Mar 1989 | A |
6663031 | Henderson et al. | Dec 2003 | B2 |
7284719 | Delbridge et al. | Oct 2007 | B2 |
20050184177 | Blouse et al. | Aug 2005 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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1989979 | Nov 2008 | EP |
WO-0028870 | May 2000 | WO |
WO2007093974 | Aug 2007 | WO |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20120091240 A1 | Apr 2012 | US |