CA2587072A1

CA2587072A1 - Lighter with cigarette extinguising compartement

Info

Publication number: CA2587072A1
Application number: CA 2587072
Authority: CA
Inventors: Michel Charbonneau; Helene Desjardins; Maxime Laporte
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2007-04-26
Filing date: 2007-04-26
Publication date: 2008-10-26

Description

LIGHTER WITH CIGARETTE EXTINGUISHING COMPARTMENT

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a lighter incorporating a cigarette butt extinguisher. More particularly, the invention relates to a cigarette lighter comprising a compartment for receiving a burning cigarette and a manually actuated blade mounted in a compartment cover for cutting a cigarette burning head, thereby extinguishing the cigarette while storing the cigarette butt in the compartment.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

With the advent of strict government enforcement of non-smoking policies, smokers are often facing the problem of having to extinguish a cigarette before it is completely smoked, in order to enter a non-smoking area or vehicle for example. Given the significant cost of cigarettes, smokers may not want to discard a long butt of a partly smoked cigarette and are seeking means to save the butt by properly extinguishing the cigarette so to enable safe storage of the butt and prevent development of bad odours and/bad taste when lit again. One way to do so is to cut the burning end of the cigarette. When this is performed using a sharp blade, maximal butt length can be preserved, cutting is neat, tobacco particles are less likely become loose and be lost and the butt can be reused as would be a new cigarette. In order to render them readily available, some cigarette extinguishing devices of the prior art have been integrated into lighters, but do not provide burning end cutting and extinguishing combined with butt storage means in a cost effective way.

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2 An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a cigarette lighter comprising a cigarette burning end cutter forming an integral part of a cigarette extinguishing and butt storage compartment cover.

SUNIlKARY OF THE INVENTION

More specifically, in accordance with the invention as broadly claimed, there is provided a lighter comprising a cigarette extinguishing and storage cylindrical compartment provided with a pivotally actuated longitudinal cover, said cover having a cutter blade mounted thereto and projecting from the inner wall thereof in a plane perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the compartment. The compartment further defines a circular opening closable by a sliding door. Thereby, a user may open the cover and the sliding door to enable placement of a cigarette in the compartment, and close the cover to cut the burning end of the cigarette while preventing air to enter the compartment causing extinguishment of said burning end. The door may then be sled in a closed position to stores a short butt inside the compartment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure la is a side isometric view of a lighter with a cigarette extinguishing compartment according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein a long cigarette is inserted into and extending out of the compartment;

Figure lb is a bottom isometric view of the lighter of Figure la;

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3 Figure ic is bottom isometric view of the lighter of the invention, with an open compartment showing a short cigarette stored in the compartment, a compartment cover implemented cutter and a closed compartment sliding door;

Figure ld is a front elevation view of the lighter of Figure lc;

Figure le is a front elevation view of the lighter of Figure la;

Figure if is a side elevation view of the lighter of Figure le;

Figure 1g is a bottom plan view of the lighter of Figure le;

Figure lh is a cross sectional view taken along line H-H of Figure le;

Figure 2a is a side isometric view of the lighter of the present invention, wherein a burning cigarette has been inserted into an extinguishing and storage compartment thereof according to a first step of an extinguishing and storage method;

Figure 2b is a side isometric view of the lighter of Figure 2a, wherein a cover of the cigarette extinguishing compartment has been closed on a cigarette according to a second step of the extinguishing and storage method;

Figure 2c shows the lighter with the compartment cover reopened after performing the second step, showing that /9, ,,.

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4 the burning end of the cigarette has been extinguished and cut from the cigarette;

Figure 2d is a side isometric view of the lighter of the present invention, wherein a short burning cigarette has been inserted into the compartment thereof according to the first step of the extinguishing and storage method, thus enabling closing of the compartment sliding door.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A preferred embodiment of the lighter with cigarette extinguishing compartment according to the present invention will now be described in detail referring to the appended drawings. The same numerals represent the same elements in every illustration.

Referring to Figures la to lh, there is illustrated a plastic moulded lighter 1 comprising a cylindrical compartment 2 having a shape and size adapted to receive a cigarette C. The compartment is closed by a longitudinal cover 3 pivoting about a hinge 4 between an open posit'ion and a close position. Hinge 4 may be a live hinge moulded along with cover 3 and the lighter body 11 as a single part. Complementary locking means 5a and 5b cooperate to hold cover 3 in a closed position. Compartment 2 further comprises a circular opening 6 to enable a portion of a long cigarette to extend therefrom.

A cutter blade 10 is mounted on the inner side of the cover 3 and projects substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the compartment 2. The shape of the blade is such that closing cover 3 causes said blade to penetrate ~. , ~,.

into compartment 2 and gradually sweep the cross section thereof so that a cigarette C being placed into said compartment 2 can have an end thereof sharply cut in length by moving the cover from its open to its closed position.
Thereby, a burning end BE of a cigarette C may be extinguished and cut from the cigarette by placing the cigarette C into open compartment 2 and then closing cover 3. A clean and neat cigarette butt CB is thus provided and stored into compartment 2. If the cigarette butt CB is obtained from a relatively short burning cigarette C, opening 6 of compartment 2 can be completely closed to store and hide butt CB inside thereof by closing sliding door 7 by manually gripping and slidably actuating knob 8 to move door 7 from one end (open position) to a second end (closed position) of slot 9. Otherwise, sliding door 8 abuts on the peripheral wall of long butt CB to hold it and prevent it from escaping compartment 2.

In use, a smoker may first insert a burning cigarette C into compartment 2 as shown in Figure 2a (step 1), and then close cover 3, as shown in Figure 2b (step 2), thereby cutting the burning end BE of a cigarette C, and extinguishing it by preventing fresh air to penetrate inside the compartment. Figure 2c shows the cut and extinguished cigarette C after performing steps 1 and 2. In the case of a shorter cigarette being inserted in compartment 2 as shown in Figure 2c, sliding door 7 may be closed according to a third step of the extinguishing and storing method, to thereby obdurate opening 6 and store cigarette butt CB completely inside compartment 2. At any time after step 2, cover 3 can be reopened to pick up the neat butt CB and dispose of the residues of the cut cigarette by dropping them into an ashtray or another appropriate location. The smoker may reuse the butt back or place it back in a cigarette pack, for future reuse.

Therefore, the present invention provides a simple and cost effective cigarette extinguishing device which provides neatly cut cigarette butts, unlikely to develop bad odours or bad taste when stored and reused.
Further, the cigarette extinguishing compartment can be easily integrated into a disposable plastic lighter by implementing slight modifications into the moulding process.

Although the present invention has been described hereinabove by way of a preferred embodiment thereof, it can be modified at will within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit and nature of the subject invention.

INVENTOR

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