AU2002300556B2 - Improvements in or Relating to Scissors - Google Patents

Description

P/00/011 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION Invention Title: Improvements in or Relating to Scissors The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me: IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO SCISSORS TECHNICAL FTELD This invention relates to cutting devices, in particular, scissors BACKGROUND ART Cutting devices such as scissors at present available have some disadvantages. In particular the hand holding the pair of scissors is usually in a somewhat unnatural position. A conscquence of this is that persons using scissors a lot, such as hairdressers, can suffer from repetitive strain injury and occupational overuse syndrome. This is clearly disadvantageous.

OBJECT

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide scissors which will obviate or minimise the foregoing disadvantage in a simple yet effective manner or which will at least provide the public with a useful choice.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Accordingly in one aspect the invention consists in a cutting device comprising a pair of pivotally connected members, the members including cutting blades and handles, each handle having a gripping member, one gripping member being a thumb member, the distance from the pivot to the point of connection between the thumb member and the remainder of the handle to which the thumb member is connected being greater than the distance between the pivot and the centre of the thumb member, the thumb member being mounted on the remainder of the handle through adjustment means which enable the distance between the gripping members to selected and the rotational orientation of the thumb member relative to the remainder of the cutting device to be selected, and allowing the thumb member to be fixed in the selected position Preferably the gripping members each comprise gripping rings.

Preferably the thumb member is positioned substantially adjacent the second finger of the user's hand when the cutting device is in normal use.

IOS93cCS. 802doc/CW/di Preferably the angle between the plane containing the thumb member and the plane of the remainder of the cutting device is between substantially 30" and substantially 400 Preferably the adjustment means includes an arm provided between the thumb member and the remainder of the handle Preferably the arm is variable in length during manufacture Preferably the arm is rotatable during manufacture.

Preferably the cutting device comprises scissors.

In a further aspect the invention consists in a method of making a cutting device according to any one of the preceding paragraphs comprising the steps of providing a cutting device according to any one of the preceding paragraphs and adjusting the adjustment means so that the thumb member is positioned to suit the intended user's hand.

Preferably the adjusted length and rotation are substantially permanently fixed once the length and/or rotation is adjusted to the desired position.

To those skilled in the art to which the invention relates, many changes in construction and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest themselves without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims., The disclosures and the description herein are purely illustrative and are not intended to be in any sense limiting.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS One preferred form of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a cutting device comprising a pair of scissors according to one preferred form of the invention, Figure 2 is a side elevation of one form of the scissors of Figure 1, Figure 3 is a view from the other face of the scissors of Figure 1 in an alternative embodiment, 105593cCS.802.doc/CW/da Figure 4 is a diagrammatic cross-scetional vicw of an arm for use in the scissors of Figures 1, 2 and 3.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE TNVENTTON In the drawings Figure I shows a cutting device in particular a pair of scissors The scissors are essentially of a 50/50 power to weight ratio but thc invcntion is applicable to scissors having other power to weight ratios. The scissors comprise a pair of pivotally connected members 2 and 3 which are shaped to provide cutting bladcs 4 and 5 in substantially the known manner.

Thc members 2 and 3 are connected by a pivot at 6 and again this connection is substantially in the known manner.

Handles 10 and 11I forming part of the members 2 and 3 extend from thc blades 4 and One of the handles 10 may be substantially in thc known form having a gripping member preferably in the form of a gripping ring 12 as shown. The gripping ring 12 may be inlaid with an insert, again in substantially in the known manner, which can comprise inserts 13 formned of any desirablc materials such as a plastics material or other material such as greenstone, aluminium, gold, silver, a birth stone, or otherwise. A rcst 15 may be provided against which the user's little finger bears in use.

A further gripping member, preferably a thumb ring 20, is provided and this again may have an inlay 21 formed, for example, substantially as described above. Adjustment means are provided to allow the distancc betwccn the two gripping members to be selected and to allow the rotation of the thumb ring 20 to be selected relative to the remainder of the scissors 1L The thumb ring is positioned such that in normal use of the scissors, the thumb will lie substantially adjacent the second finger of the user's hand, that second finger preferably being positioned in a saddle 23 in the arm 10. This may be achieved by in effect reversing the arm 11 along its length., The thumb ring 20 may be oval or egg shaped if desired and the manufacturer may supply a range of different sized thumb rings.

In a particular embodiment of the invention a further arm 30 is provided and the construction is desirably such that both the length of the arm 30 and the rotation of the plane in which the thumb ring 20 lies, when compared to the plane in which the scissors 1 lie, can be formed at an 105593cCCS-S02.docICW/da angle. In one form of the invention this may be achieved by providing a spacer 31 through which passes a screw 32 able to be engaged into a receiving threaded aperture in an extended portion 33 of the thumb ring 20. A suitable washer 34 may be provided and also other means such as a rubber washer 35 to assist the engagemcnt of the scrcw 32 in the aperture in the part 331 The provision of the spacer 31 moves the thumrb ring 20 both away from gripping ring 12 and forward along the length of the scissors 1. This allows the position of the thumb ring 20 can be individualised. For example, a forward movement of about 10rrm -compared to existing hairdressing scissors is possible.

Thus the distance from the pivot at 6 and the position where the arm 30 engages arm I11 is greater than the distance from the pivot at 6 to the centre of thumb ring This allows an angle between a line from the pivot 6 to thumb ring 20 and the longitudinal axis of the scissors (thumb radius angle) of about 40' to 500 compared with the more visual 32' in existing scissors.

The head 36 of the screw may be contained in a dished washer 37 which may be formed of a resilient material such as a rubber or plastics material..

The length of the arm 30 is variable in length and this can be achieved, for example, by cutting the spacer 31 to the desired length or alternatively a selection of spaces can be provided. The spacers can be of diffierent lengths or of a relatively short lcngth so that a selected number of spacers can be used to give the desired distance..

Desirably the arm 30 is so rotatable during manufacture. To this end it will be apparent, for example, fromn Figure 2 that the thumb ring 20 can be rotated and thus once the thumb ring 20 is in the correct angle (for example about 70' out of the plane of the scissors) the screw 36 can be tightened. Typically the angle between the plane of the thumb ring and the plane of the remainder of the cutting device is between 300 and 400'. If desired and the preferably rotational parts are connected one to the other, for example, by soldering so as to fix the position of the scissors.

105593eCS.SO2.doc/CW/du -6- In Figure 3 two alternative ann shapes are shown at 11 and 1 la, but of course other arm shapes are possible.

Thus, in use, a basic pair of scissors arc provided and the length of the spacer 31 and rotation of the thumb ring 20 are selected to best suit the intended user of the scissors. Once this has been selected the elements of the arm 30 can be fixed in position, for example, as above suggested by soldering.

The preferred construction is such that the thumb ring 20 is craned down (as shown in Figure 3) with respect to the curvature of the scissors 1 which aids in keeping the elbow of the user (such as a hairdressers) down. Also the shank length (handle length) remains large notwithstanding that the thumb ring 20 is moved inwardly.

The scissors arc then used in the normal manner.

It will be apparent that the invention may be used with other cutting devices, such as snips or secateurs as well as scissors.

The cutting device such as the scissors of the invention have the particular advantage that the thumb of the user is brought to a position where it is substantially adjacent the second finger of the user's hand when the scissors are in a closed position. Thus opening and closing the scissors tends to move the thumb along a more natural path than conventional scissors. Also in the resting position the scissors sit comfortably on the hand, which is in a normal resting position, rather than a position wherein the thumb is more closely positioned to the third finger of the user's hand, as is normal with conventional scissors. As the scissors have a more comfortable fit allowing the hand to be held in a more normal position. Thus tendencies to repetitive strain injury or occupational overuse syndrome arc substantially reduced.

The intention is to individualise scissors to be the user's hand thus once the thumb ring position is selected and fixed there is little or no wear on the parts which enable adjustment to be achieved. Also the fixed construction is more comfortable than scissors which achieve adjustment by the provision of floating or flexible parts 10559WS.802.dooc/iCW/ai The following page is numbered "6a" 6a- Througout the description and claims of this specification the word "comprise" and variations of that word, such as "comprises" and "comprising", are not intended to exclude other additives, components, integers or steps.

Similarly, the word "include" and its variations are intended to by synonymous with the word "comprise" and its variations.

Claims (8)

1. 2. A cutting device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the gripping members each comprise gripping rings. 31 A cutting device as claimed in either claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the thumb member is positioned substantially adjacenit the second linger of the user's hand when the cutting device is in normal use.
2. 4- A cutting device as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the angle between the plane containing the thumb member and the plane of the remainder of the cutting device is between substantially 30' and substantially 400.
3. 5. A cutting device as claimed in claim 5 wherein the adjustment means includes an arm provided between the thumb member and the remainder of the handle.
4. 6. A cutting device as claimed in claim 5 wherein the arm is variable in length during manufacture. A cutting device as claimed in either claim 5 or claim 6 wherein the arm is rotatable during manufacture.
5. 8. A cutting device as claimed in either one of claims 1 to 7 the cutting device comprises scissors. 105593cCS.802.docW/da -8-
6. 9. A cutting device substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings. A method of making a cutting device comprising the steps of providing a cutting device according to any one of the preceding claims and adjusting the adjustment means so that the thumb member is positioned to suit the intended user's hand.
7. 11. A method as claimed in claim 10 whercin the adjusted length and rotation are substantially permanently fixed once the length and/or rotation is adjusted to the desired position.
8. 12. A method of making a cutting device substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings Dated this 14 t h day of August 2002 PIPERS Attorneys for the Applicant Kieran Craig JANES 105593eCS.802.doc/CW/da