GB2256378A - Pepper grinder. - Google Patents

Abstract

A grinder for pepper is operated by pressing or releasing a manipulating plate 2 which is pivotably, Fig 5, or non-pivotably (Fig 11) movably mounted in an opening of an outer wall of a cylindrical body 1 in such a way that a grinding wheel 52 is rotated by a gearing mechanism 3, 34, 41, 4, 51. The gearing mechanism is operated by pressing the manipulating plate 2 inwardly and is stopped by releasing the manipulating plate 2 which is urged to its original position. Thus the pepper corns falling into a gap between a grinding wheel 52 and a grinding cylinder 53 can be ground. The gap between the grinding cylinder 53 and the grinding wheel 52 can be adjusted to change the degree of coarseness of the ground pepper. <IMAGE>

Description

GRINDER This invention relates to a grinder and in particular but not exclusively to a pepper grinder.

One known pepper grinder has a pepper chamber for pepper corns and two grinding surfaces between which pepper corns are ground. The outer grinding surface is fixedly attached to the grinder body whilst the inner grinding surface is movable relative to the outer grinding surface by means of a shaft, the other end of which is attached to a movable top portion of the grinder. No relative movement is possible between the inner grinding surface, the top of the pepper grinder and the shaft. To operate the grinder, a user must grasp the grinder body with one hand and rotate the movable top portion of the grinder with the other hand.

This causes relative movement between the grinding surfaces so that the pepper corns can be ground therebetween.

A disadvantage with such a grinder is that is requires the use of both hands. Furthermore, it requires a relatively high degree of manual dexterity to be used. Finally the degree of coarseness of the ground pepper cannot be easily altered.

According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a grinder comprising a chamber for receiving material to be ground, a manipulating plate for pushing between first and second positions, grinding means for grinding the material, a gearing mechanism coupled between said manipulating plate and said grinding means, whereby when the manipulating plate is pushed from the first to the second position, the gearing mechanism operates the grinding means so that material from the chamber is ground.

Thus such a grinder can be easily operated with using one hand and by people with limited manual dexterity.

Preferably, the grinding means comprises an outer grinding surface and an inner grinding cooperatively arranged to grind material passed between the two surfaces.

Preferably, means are provided for altering the spacing between the inner and outer grinding surfaces so as to alter the coarseness of the ground material. The user of the grinder is able to determine the coarseness of the ground material.

In one embodiment of the invention, a grinder for pepper comprises a cylindrical body for containing a salt chamber, a pepper (corn) chamber and the mechanical components for grinding.

The salt chamber is arranged in the upper section of the body, having a filling opening and dispensing holes on the upper wall selectably covered by a rotatable lid.

The pepper (corn) chamber is provided in the lower section of the body, having a filling opening in the vertical wall of the body covered with a rotatable lid.

The mechanical components for grinding include a manipulating plate, a rack to be moved by the manipulating plate, a movable gear to engage with the rack, a gear mounted on a shaft on which a worm is mounted and, the gear being able to engage or disengage with the movable gear, a worm and a worm wheel mounted on the top end of a long shaft to engage with the worm, a long shaft extending vertically through the pepper chamber and mounted with the worm wheel at its top end, a grinding wheel at its bottom end and a grinding cylinder fixed around the bottom inner surface of the pepper chamber to surround the grinding wheel.

The manipulating plate is movably mounted in a rectangular opening in the vertical wall in the upper section of the body and can be manually pressed to incline inwardly by means of two tenon and mortise arrangements so that a sideways triangular arm projecting inwardly from the inner surface of the plate can press down on the rack with its tip. When the rack is pressed down, it can rotate the movable gear to move down toward the gear on the same shaft of the worm and finally engage with the gear to rotate it. The worm can then rotate together with the gear to rotate the worm wheel and the shaft. The grinding wheel can be rotated by the shaft so as to rub against pepper corns falling from the pepper chamber into the gap between the grinding wheel and the grinding cylinder. Therefore, the pepper corns can be ground and fall down through bottom holes.

There are two height adjusters for raising or lowering the shaft on which the grinding wheel is mounted. The height adjusters are arranged just below the worm wheel and through which the shaft extends.

These two height adjusters can change their height by turning the upper one by 0-360 degrees to raise the worm wheel and also the shaft. As a result the grinding wheel is also raised accordingly to gradually lessen the gap between itself and the grinding cylinder. Thus the pepper corns can be ground more finely.

Some embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a first pepper grinder with part of the outer portion cut away; Figure 2 is a perspective view of the first pepper grinder; Figure 3 is an exploded perspective view of the first grinder; Figure 4 is a cross-section view of the first pepper grinder when in a non-operative condition; Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view of the first pepper grinder when in an operative condition; Figure 6 is an exploded perspective view of the first pepper grinder showing a modified adjuster mechanism; Figure 7 is a cross-sectional view of a second pepper grinder; Figure 8 is a cross-sectional view of the second pepper grinder with a manipulating plate pressed in; Figure 9 is an exploded perspective view of the second pepper grinder;; Figure 10 is a cross-sectional view of the second pepper grinder; Figure 11 is a cross-sectional view of the second pepper grinder with the manipulating plate pressed in; Figure 12 is a view from below of a lid of the second pepper grinder; Figure 13 is a view from below of the lid of figure 12 in a second position; Figure 14 is a perspective view of a modified gear unit for the second pepper grinder.

A first pepper grinder as shown in figures 1, 2 and 3, comprises a body 1 of a cylindrical shape, a salt chamber 11 in the upper section of the body 1, and a pepper (corns) chamber 12 in the lower section of the body 1. At the top of the salt chamber 11, a filling means 111 is provided having a large opening 112, a plurality of small holes 113 and a rotatable lid 114 to cover the filling means 111. The rotatable lid 114 can be rotated to selectably cover the large opening 112 or the small holes 113 for filling salt in the salt chamber and for shaking it out through the small holes 113 respectively. An opening 121 for filling the pepper chamber 12 with pepper corns is provided in the vertical wall of the middle section of the body 1 and is covered with a round rotatable lid 122.

A rectangular vertical opening 13 is provided in the upper section of the body 1 in which a manipulating plate 2 is mounted. The surrounding circumferential edge of the opening 13 prevents the circumferential edge 21 of the manipulating plate 2 from moving out of the opening 13 or from falling off the body 1.

The curved rectangular manipulating plate 2 is arranged so as to close the opening 13 and is provided with two projecting round tenons 22 on each side of the manipulating plate 2 at the lower ends of the two vertical sides. The tenons fit in two corresponding round mortises 14 in the vertical edges of the wall of the body 1 surrounding the manipulating plate. Thus, the manipulating plate 2 can be pressed so as to only tilt inwardly with the tenons 22 acting as pivots. In addition, the manipulating plate 2 has a triangular arm 23 protruding radially inwardly from the left lower section. The arm 23 has an inclined upper side 231 and the front of the bottom side is in contact with the top flat face 31 of a rack 3 as shown in Figures 1, 4 and 5.

The rack 3 which has a toothed surface 32, is fixed in a rack recess 15 in the vertical wall of the body 1.

In the rack recess 15, under the rack, is placed a compression spring 33 to resiliently urge the rack to its rest position when it is not pressed down by the arm 23. The toothed surface 32 engages with a gear 34. A shaft 35 of the gear 34 has each end fitted into a vertical corresponding long recess 16 in the body 1.

Thus, when the rack 3 is pressed down from the rest position by the arm 23 of the manipulating plate 2 when it is pushed inwardly, the ends of the shaft 35 are to be moved from the upper ends of the recesses 16 to the lower ends of the recesses 16 through the movement of the gear 34 by the rack 3 as shown in Figure 5. When the rack 3 is released by returning the manipulating plate 2 so that it is flush with the body 1, the ends of the shaft 35 are to be raised from the lower ends of the recesses 16 to the upper ends as shown in Figure 4.

A grinding wheel 52 is provided at the bottom end of a shaft 5 and a grinding cylinder 53 is provided around the bottom inside wall of the body 1, surrounding the grinding wheel 52. When the grinding wheel 52 is rotated by shaft 5, pepper corns falling in the gap between the grinding wheel 52 and the grinding cylinder 53 can be ground into powder. This occurs when the manipulating plate is pushed inwardly and the arm 23 is pressing down on the rack. The shaft 35 is at the lower end of the recesses 16 and gear 34 is consequently engaged with a gear 41 which causes shaft 5 to rotate via worm wheel 51 and worm 4. When the manipulating plate 2 is released, the arm 23 no longer presses down on the rack 3, which is then pushed up by the spring 33 to its original position. The gear 34 is also moved up by the rack 3 and disengaged from gear 41.Thus gear 41 stops rotating which causes the worm 4 to stop and also the shaft 5. Therefore, the grinding wheel 52 also.

stops rotating and the grinding action ceases.

A height adjuster 6 for the grinding wheel 52 is provided just under the worm wheel 51, which is fixed to the shaft 5 and which consists of an upper round adjuster 61 and a lower round adjuster 62. The upper adjuster 61 has an inclined bottom surface 611 which contacts an inclined upper surface 621 of the lower adjuster 62. In addition, the upper adjuster 61 also has an adjusting bar 612 projecting sideways so that the upper adjuster 61 can be rotated by the bar 612 to change the mutual contact point of the inclined surfaces 611 and 621 and accordingly the height of the height adjuster 6 because the lower adjuster is immovably fixed to the shaft 52. The worm wheel can accordingly be raised up to pull up the shaft 5.Thus, the gap between the grinding wheel 52 and the grinding cylinder 53 can be gradually changed from the largest to the smallest so that pepper corns can be ground into powder having different coarseness.

As shown in Figure 6, the height adjuster 6 can be substituted by a screw-threaded button 54 to screw with a top threaded end of the shaft 5 which extends upwardly through a top surface 14 of the body 1 so that screwing the button clockwise or anti-clockwise raises or lowers the grinding wheel 52 so as to change the degree of coarseness of the pepper ground.

A second pepper grinder, as shown in Figures 7 to 13, also comprises a cylindrical body 1, a salt chamber 11 in the upper section of the body 1, and a pepper chamber 13 in the lower section of the body 1. Opposite the salt chamber 11, a vertical rectangular opening 12 is provided in the vertical wall of the body 1, and a vertical rectangular curved manipulating plate 2 is provided to be placed in the opening 12. The opening 12 is surrounded by an upper downwardly projecting wall 121 and a lower upwardly projecting wall 121. A horizontally projecting wall 123, as seen in Figure*7 is also provided for supporting the manipulating plate 2.

The manipulating plate 2 closes the opening 12 in its rest position, with the circumferential edges of the plate resting upon walls 121, 122, 123 without falling off. The manipulating plate 2 is provided with two parallel round posts 23 projecting inwardly from the inner surface of the plate. The posts 23 fit and move in two tubular projections 124 on a vertical wall 112 of the salt chamber 11. The tubular projections 124 each have a spring 24 arranged in the central cavity for resiliently urging the posts 23 outwardly so that the manipulating plate 2 is urged back to its rest position where it closes the opening 12, the plate being guided by the posts 23 which move outwardly in the tubular projections 124 after being pressed inwardly manually.

A rack 3 is provided in a rack recess 31 under the bottom wall 113 of the salt chamber 11, resiliently urged outwardly by a spring 32 also placed in the rack recess 31. The front end of the rack 3 is kept in contact with the inner surface of the manipulating plate 2 so that when the manipulating plate 2 is pressed inwardly, the rack 3 is pressed inwardly by the plate 2 which causes it to move inwardly to compress the spring 32. When the plate 2 is released, the rack 3 is urged to move outwardly by the spring 32 and accordingly pushes the plate 2 to its rest position which closes the opening 12. The arrow marks A2 in Figure 8 and Al in Figure 7 show the direction of movement of the manipulating plate 2.

A moving gear 4 is provided to engage with the rack 3, positioned by the top and bottom ends of its shaft which are fitted in two shaft holes 42 one in the bottom surface of the bottom wall of the salt chamber 11 and the other in the upper surface of the upper wall of the pepper chamber 13. Thus, when the plate 2 is pressed to move from the rest position to the left (inwardly), the gear 4 is rotated and moved to the left by the rack.3 which is pushed by the plate 2. Thus the gear 4 can engage with and rotate a gear 51 fixed at the top end of a long shaft 5 as shown in Figures 8 and 11. As the shaft5 which passes downwardly through the pepper chamber 13 is engaged with a grinding wheel 52 at its lower end, the grinding wheel 52 can be rotated when the shaft 5 is rotated by gear 51 which is in turn rotated by gear 4.When the plate 2 is released so as to move back to its rest position to close the opening 12 as shown in Figures 7 and 10, the rack 3 is also moved back, which rotates and moves the gear 4 to the right end of the shaft holes 42 so that gear 4 disengages with gear 51, and the grinding wheel 52 is ceased to be rotated. Therefore, repeated pressing and releasing action of the plate 2 causes the grinding wheel 52 to rotate to grind the pepper corns falling into the gap between the grinding wheel 52 and a grinding cylinder 53.

For adjusting the degree of coarseness of the ground pepper, a tube 153 is provided just under and in contact with the gear 51, the tube being fixed around the shaft 5 and having an inclined bottom end 531.

Under the tube 153, a height adjuster 6 is provided having a horizontally rectangular shape, a rectangular hole 61 for the shaft 5 to pass through as shown in Figures 10 and 11, an upper inclined surface 62 to contact the bottom inclined surface 531 of the tube 53, and a threaded sidewise hole in which a threaded bar 631 of an adjusting button 63 is screwed into. The adjusting button 63 is located on the vertical outer surface of the body 1. Thus, rotation of the adjusting button 63 can pull or push the adjuster 6 such that the tube 53 can be lowered or raised, and accordingly the shaft 5 can also be lowered or raised by the tube 53.

As a result, the grinding wheel 52 can be lowered or raised as shown in Figures 10 and 11 to change the gap between the grinding wheel 52 and the grinding cylinder 53 and consequently to change the degree of coarseness of the ground pepper.

Figures 12 and 13 show an opening 114 for filling thesalt chamber 11 with salt and holes 113 for dispensing salt from the salt chamber. A rotatable lid 112 is provided to cover either the salt filling opening 114 or the pouring-out holes 113, the lid having a semicircular opening 115 to cover either the opening 114 or the holes 113.

Figure 14 shows another type of gear combination for rotating the shaft 5. A rack 3 provided with its toothed surface facing downwardly, the toothed surface engaging with a moving gear 4 having its shaft fitted in two side shaft holes 42. Under the moving gear 4, a gear 432 is provided mounted on a shaft 431, on which is mounted a bevel gear 43 which meshes with another bevel gear 51 fixed on the top end of the shaft 5. The transmitting theory and effect of the movement of the manipulating plate 2 on the grinding wheel 52 is the same as the structures of the first and the second grinders.

It will be appreciated that although these embodiments have been described in relation to pepper grinders, the grinder can be modified to suit other substances such as coarse salt and spices.

Claims (9)

1. A grinder comprising a chamber for receiving the material to be ground, a manipulating plate for pushing between first and second positions, grinding means for grinding the material, a gearing mechanism coupled between said manipulating plate and said grinding means, whereby when the manipulating plate is pushed from the first to the second position, the gearing mechanism is caused to operate the grinding means so that material in the chamber is ground.

2. A grinder as claimed in claim 1, wherein said grinding means comprises an outer grinding surface and an inner grinding surface cooperatively arranged to grind material passed between the two surfaces.

3. A grinder as claimed in claim 2, wherein means are provided for altering the spacing between the inner and outer grinding surfaces so as to alter the coarseness of the ground material.

4. A pepper grinder comprising: a cylindrical body having a salt chamber at the upper section provided with a filling opening covered with a rotatable lid at the top surface and a pepper grain chamber at the lower section provided with a filling opening covered with a rotatable lid in the vertical wall of the body;; a manipulating plate of a rectangular curved shape to close an rectangular opening in the vertical wall of the upper section of the body, having its upper edge stopped by a projecting-down edge of the body from falling out of the body, and having twp tennons at the bottom of the two vertical sides to fit in two mortises set in the side walls defining the rectangular opening and a triangular arm projecting radially inward from the inner surface, said two tennons fitting in said two mortises being able to function as pivots to make the manipulating plate incline only inward by manual operation, said triangular arm having a horizontal bottom side to touch with the top face of a vertical rack;; a rack fitting in a rack recess in the body wall opposite to the rectangular opening and resiliently pushed by a spring at its lower end, having a teeth surface to mesh with a movable gear; a movable gear meshing with the rack and having both ends of its shaft fitting and able to move up and down in two shaft recesses; a worm mounted on a worm shaft supported in two opposite walls of the body to mesh with a worm wheel mounted on the top end of a long shaft and a gear mounted on the same worm shaft and able to mesh with the movable gear; a long shaft vertically passing through the pepper chamber and having its top end mounted with the worm wheel and its bottom end mounted with a grinding wheel;; two round height adjusters, the upper and the lower, being located just under the worm wheel and having a central hole for the shaft to pass through, said upper height adjuster having an inclined bottom surface and an adjusting bar projecting out sidewise through the body wall, said lower height adjuster having an inclined upper surface to touch with the inclined bottom surface of the upper one and being immovably fixed with the shaft; and said manipulating plate being able to be manually pressed to incline only inward said triangular arm of said plate being able to press down the rack when said plate is pressed inward, said rack being able to rotate and move the movable gear toward the gear mounted on the worm shaft, said movable gear being able to mesh with and rotate said gear, said worm being able to be simultaneously rotated by the rotation of the said gear, said worm wheel being able to be rotated by the worm, said shaft being able to be rotated by the worm wheel, said grinding wheel being able to be rotated by the shaft by pressing inward of the manipulating plate and to be stopped by the shaft by releasing the manipulating plate to its original position of closing the opening, said upper height adjuster being able to be rotated by the adjusting bar to change the mutual touching points of its bottom surface with the upper surface of the lower height adjuster so as to push up the worm wheel, the shaft and finally the grinding wheel so that the gap between the grinding wheel and the grinding cylinder can be altered to change the degree of minuteness of the pepper ground.

5. The pepper grinder as claimed in Claim 4, wherein the shaft combined with the worm wheel extends upward to pass through the top wall of the body and a screwthreaded button is provided to screw with the top end of the shaft, said button being able to screw downward or upward to raise or lower the shaft and accordingly to raise or lower the grinding wheel fixed at the bottom end of the shaft to adjust the degree of minuteness of the pepper ground.

6. A pepper grinder comprising: a cylindrical body having a salt chamber at the upper section of the body, a pepper chamber at the lower section of the body, the salt chamber having a filling opening and a pouring-out holes selectably covered by a rotatable lid, the pepper chamber having a filling opening covered by a rotatable lid, the body also having a vertical rectangular opening in the body wall opposite to having a vertical rectangular opening in the body wall opposite to the salt chamber and being closed by a movable manipulating plate;; a manipulating plate being shaped as the rectangular opening in the body to close it and kept resting on the circumferential edge defining the opening, and having two horizontal posts projecting from the inner surface to movably fit in two tubal projections on the vertical wall of the salt chamber and to be resiliently pushed by a spring placed in the central cavity of the tubal projections; a rack horizontally placed in a rack recess in the bottom wall of the salt chamber and having its rear end resiliently pushed by a spring in the rack recess and its front end in touch with the inner surface of the manipulating plate;; à movable gear having both the ends of its shaft movably fitting in two shaft holes, one upper in the bottom wall of the salt chamber and one lower in the upper wall of the pepper chamber, engaging with the rack to be rotated right or left, and able to engage with a gear mounted on the top end of a shaft connected with a grinding wheel when it moves to the leftmost; a shaft extending vertically through the pepper chamber and having its top end mounted with a gear able to engage with the movable gear and its bottom end mounted with a grinding wheel; a gear being mounted with the top end of the shaft; a tube being mounted under the gear mounted with the shaft and having an inclined bottom surface to touch with an inclined upper surface of a height adjuster;; a height adjuster being placed under the tube, being shaped rectangular, having a rectangular vertical through hole for the shaft to pass through, an upper inclined surface to touch with the inclined bottom surface of the tube and a sidewise screw-threaded hole for a threaded bar of an adjusting button to screw with; an adjusting button having a threaded bar to adjustably screw with the screw-threaded hole in the height adjuster so as to pull or push the height adjuster and thus to push up or lower down the tube and the gear on it together so that the shaft connected with the grinding wheel can be raised or lowered to change the gap distance between a grinding wheel and a grinding cylinder and accordingly the degree of minuteness of the pepper ground; and said manipulating plate being able to manually press to move only inward from the original position of closing the opening, said rack being possible to rotate the movable gear, said movable gear being able to engage with and rotate the gear on the top end of the shaft, the shaft being possible to rotate the grinding wheel, repeated manual pressing and releasing action of the manipulating plate being able to rotate or stop the grinding wheel so that the pepper grains falling into the gap between the grinding wheel and a grinding cylinder can be ground into power, and.the minuteness of the pepper powder can be adjusted by handling the adjusting button combined with the height adjuster.

7. The pepper grinder as claimed in Claim 4 wherein the shaft holes for the shaft ends of the movable gear are shaped rectangular or curved as long as they have the necessary function.

8. The pepper grinder as claimed in Claim 6 wherein the rack is arranged horizontal with its teeth facing downward to engage with the movable gear, a gear mounted on a same shaft that a bevel gear is also mounted being provided under the movable gear, the bevel gear engaging with another bevel gear fixed on the top end of a shaft mounted with a grinding wheel, said movable gear being able to engage with and rotate the gear, the bevel gear unit and finally the shaft and the grinding wheel.

9. Grinders as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.