Patent Application
20090050515
(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a sterilized disposal cap for dinner set, and more particularly, to one that is inserted onto one end of a chopstick that contacts food and is recyclable for reuse after sterilization under high pressure and high temperature.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
Competition strength has been emphasized by R&D or service team in coping with advanced science, pursuing innovation by the manufacturing industry, and self-upgrading by individual. As a result, people spent more time at work than at rest. Under the concept of time is money, more people are eating out so to save fuss of doing home cooking while ducking away oil contamination problem inherited in the kitchen. However, eating out is convenient indeed, those disposal dinner sets may be hazardous to human health. Taking the disposal chopsticks for an example, ten million pairs of chopsticks are consumed in each year solely in the Taiwan area, meaning at the expenses of growing 2.9 million trees for two decades. Its impacts upon the ecological environment should never be neglected. The manufacturing process of the disposal chopsticks also presents threaten to human health. Usually, wood is cut into shape of a chopstick, then fumed using sulfur or bleached using hydrogen peroxide. However, the purpose of this process of smoking or bleaching is for the interior of the chopstick to develop fibrosis not for sterilization.
Distribution of micro-holes can be easily seen on a section at where the chopstick is broken up to tell that it is impossible to filter away residual sulfur of hydrogen peroxide. Later the chopstick is dried by natural light or put in an oven. The residual acid sulfur or hydrogen peroxide upon contacting hot meal will release sulfur dioxide, which enters into human's digestion duct with the food. Medical reports have confirmed that the substance released by the disposal chopstick will cause serious discomfort, and lead to development of lymphadenoma in more serious case. Therefore, the disposal chopstick has become a major secret worry to human health, and many countries in the world encourage their citizens to bring along portable chopsticks. However, it takes to wash to clean the portable chopsticks after use otherwise germs may stick to the chopsticks to threat user's health the same as does by the disposal chopsticks. An improvement has been made as taught in a patent application No. 094143986 titled “Chopsticks Separation Health Cap” by inserting the cap onto a tip of a disposable chopstick to prevent direct contact of the chopstick with food. However, the improvement does have significant flaws. When not used, the cap is in coiled and flattened status; and when the use of the cap is needed, the user has to have one end of the chopstick to hold against the cap and uncoil the cap towards the other end of the chopstick until the cap wraps around a front section of the chopstick. During the insertion process, fingers and/or hand would have to contact the cap to run the risk of carrying bacteria on fingers/hand to the cap. Upon completing the meal, the user has to push and roll up the cap towards to one end of the chopstick for returning the cap to its coiled status; accordingly, the fingers of the user will be contaminated by residual oil stains on the surface of the cap. Furthermore, the cap is prevented from being reclaimed for other use or for reuse after sterilization at high temperature and high pressure.
The primary purpose of the present invention is to provide a sterilized disposal cap for dinner set to upgrade diet health and maintain one's health by have the cap inserted onto a front section of a disposal chopstick to prevent it from directly contacting the food.
Another purpose of the present invention is to provide a sterilized disposal cap for dinner set that avoids direct contact of one's fingers/hand when the cap is inserted onto or removed from the disposal chopstick.
Another purpose yet of the present invention is to provide a sterilized disposal cap for dinner set that is allows to be reclaimed for other purpose or for reuse after sterilization at high pressure and high temperatures.
To achieve these purposes, the present invention is comprised of a tube having one opening end and another closed end, a straight section extends from the opening end towards the closed end; a gradually reducing section in diameter is formed to the straight section at where it is approaching the closed end; one or a plurality of flutes is axially disposed on a surface of the tube in parallel with the tube; and the tube extends from the opening end of the tube to where it is approaching the closed end of the tube so to constitute a sterilized cap that can be tightly inserted to an outer surface of the front section of the disposal chopstick.
Referring to
Referring to
As illustrated in
Upon fetching a disposable chopstick 3 for use as illustrated in
The sterilized cap 1 may be made of metallic material. According to the operating status respectively illustrated in
The sterilized cap 1 may be made of food grade plastic material, e.g., Polyethylene Terephthalate, High Density Polyethylene, Polyethylene, Polyvinyl Chloride, Low Density Polyethylene, Polypropylene, or Polystyrene. Whereas the plastic material is inherited with proper resilience and the minimum inner diameter of the opening end of the sterilized cap 1 may be made slightly smaller than the maximal outer diameter of the disposable chopstick 3, those flutes 13 recessed in the peripheral of the tube 10 of the sterilized cap 1 forces the tube 10 of the sterilized cap 1 to expand following the insertion of the disposable chopstick 3 for the inner surface of each flute 13 to create comparatively greater friction coefficient against the disposable chopstick 3 during the use of the sterilized cap as illustrated in
The prevent invention provides an improved structure of a sterilized disposable cap for a dinner set, and the application for a utility patent is duly filed accordingly. However, it is to be noted that the preferred embodiments disclosed in the specification and the accompanying drawings are not limiting the present invention; and that any construction, installation, or characteristics that is same or similar to that of the present invention should fall within the scope of the purposes and claims of the present invention.
