GB2501263A

GB2501263A - Wire Cutter with Measuring Guides and Depth Adjustment

Info

Publication number: GB2501263A
Application number: GB201206703A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Eugene Conlon
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2012-04-17
Filing date: 2012-04-17
Publication date: 2013-10-23
Also published as: GB201206703D0

Abstract

A board cutter having in use two elongate measuring guides 3 spaced apart by a plurality e.g. two depth gauges 4; having a flexible wire1 for cutting the board. The wire may be fixed in one place on the cutter and may be retractable by mounting to a spring-loaded wheel. A handle 1 may be provided on one end of the wire. The wire may be a serrated, studded or textured length of steel. The guides may be elongate, flat, metal e.g. aluminium ribbons disposed to flatly engage with surfaces of the board and preferably have numbering to relate to the width of the board. The depth gauges enable varying the space between the guides to match boards of different depths to securely hold the board for cutting, and may comprise long bolts, tubes or bars. The gauges may have a ratchet mechanism and may be adjustable simultaneously by disengaging a catch or latch. The gauges may have measurements, numbering or lettering on them. Legs 5 may enable the cutter to stand up. The cutter may be for cutting roof insulation boards of polyisocyanurate (PIR).

Description

PATENT APPLICATION

OF

EUGENE CONLON

FOR

ABOARD CUTrER

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a board cutter, more particularly for cutting rigid insulation boards.

Background

Due to increasing pressures of prices, income, wealth and space, increasing numbers or buildings are being extended, in many cases for example into their roof spaces.

Contemporaneously and potentially as a consequence, increasingly high standards of building regulations and standards are being applied, particularly for example in sound and heat insulation.

In typical use as insulation is polyisocyanurate (PIR) rigid insulation. This is provided as boards in a variety of thicknesses, which require cutting to size.

This board is easy but tiresome to cut, typically done using a general purpose wood saw, which leads to uneven cuts, imprecise measurements, wasted board and generally a lot of insulation dust.

Prior Art

Accordingly a number of patent applications have been filed and granted in the past in an effort to deal with this problem or similar, including the following: Granted German patent DE 10 2007 061 047 (MAIER et al) discloses a device that has a heatable cutting wire clamped at a frame. The wire is supplied with direct current by an electrical power supply device with a rechargeable battery. The power supply device comprises a regulating circuit e.g. CPU unit, that is formed for temporary current-andjor voltage application of the wire from the battery in dependence of operating condition of the wire. The regulating circuit regulates current and/or voltage of the wire such that a set operating condition of the wire is maintained, where the set operating condition is adjusted by a switch United States patent application US 2005 166 732 (VALSOANEY) discloses a culling apparatus for cutting insulation, comprising: a rigid base adapted to overlie insulation material, said base defining an elongate slot extending from an upper surface of said base to a lower surface of said base; and a gripping structure arranged in connection with said base to enable said base to be manually placed over the insulation material whereby a cutting implement is passed through said slot in a longitudinal direction of said slot when said base overlies the insulation material to thereby cut the insulation material.

European patent application EP 0 649 713 (SCI-4UERCI-1) discloses a cutting unit for culling pieces from soft material, comprising a stirrup, which is guided so that it can be displaced in a parallel manner and which has two parallel stirrup arms and a connecting strut, a cutting wire being tensioned between the two free ends of the stirrup arms, and comprising a frame-shaped holding device with two parallel frame arms, which are connected together at one end by a part which connects them and, at the other end, by an elongated load-carrying member, a guide strip for guiding the piece to be cut being fastened to the load-carrying member, characterised in that the stirrup arms are each guided by a guide device in guides of the frame arms and in that the load-carrying member is fastened to the frame arms so that it can be pivoted about an axis parallel to the cutting wire and so that it can be arrested.

European patent application EP 0 596 407 (OBER) discloses a cutter assembly for cutting at least one relatively thin sheet of material, said cutter assembly comprising: (a) a base member including an upper member, a lower member, and a cambering means connected to said upper and lower members for cambering said upper member upwardly, said cambering means including a spring member disposed between said lower member and said upper member so as to spring bias said upper member with respect to said lower member such that said upper member can move towards said lower member as said cutter wheel moves along said cutting strip; (b) support means securely attached to said base member; (c) an elongated guide rail having a first end and a second end, and being supported by said support means in laterally spaced relation to said base member; (d) a cutting strip securely retained by said base member for receiving said at least one sheet of material thereon; (e) a cutter head slidably mounted on said elongated guide rail, a culling wheel operatively retained in rotatable relation by said cutter head, a biasing means that biases said cutting means toward said cutting strip; (f) whereby said cutting wheel is received in intimately contacting relation against said culling strip: and (g) wherein said cutting wheel moves along said elongated guide rail so as to intimately contact said culling strip along the length thereof, so as to thereby provide means to cut said at least one sheet of material when said at least one sheet of material is between said cutting wheel and said cutting strip.

United States patent application US 4 354 410 (STUBBINGS) discloses sheet material cutting apparatus comprising: a first elongated support member; a first cutting tool for cutting sheet material; a sheet material support surface; first and second guide members disposed generally parallel to each other, said support surface being disposed generally horizontally in between said guide members, and said guide members spaced a predetermined distance apart and disposed in a same, generally horizontal, plane; means for pivotally mounting said first support member, for pivotal movement about a generally vertical axis, with respect to each of said first and second guide members; means for providing linear movement of said pivotally mounting means with respect to said first and second guide members, along said first and second guide members; means for providing linear relative movement between said first support member and said pivotally mounting means; means for mounting said first cutting tool on said first support member for movement along said first support member, and means for moving said culling tool along first support member, so that cutting of sheet material, disposed on said support surface, along a line parallel to said first support member is effected: and means for moving said first guide member with respect to said second guide member so that they stay parallel to each other, said moving means comprising: a pair of lead screws extending between said first and second guide members; means for rotating said lead screws in tandem; and means associated with each lead screw and one of said guide members for transforming rotation of said lead screws into linear movement of said guide members relative to each other, said transforming means comprising a travelling nut associated with each lead screw and one of said guide members; and wherein said moving means further comprises a pair of parallel guiding edge surface manifestations of said support surface disposed parallel to said lead screws, guide roller means associated with each nut for engaging said guiding edge surface manifestations, and means operatively connecting each nut to said guide roller means for effecting guided movement of said nuts with respect to said support surface.

United States patent application US 3 097 557 (LANGSTAFF) discloses an apparatus for cutting insulation material comprising an elongated base assembly having a longitudinal slot therein adapted to receive a cutting wire, a pair of clamping members movably mounted on said base assembly for movement to a working position to hold material to be cut in overlying relation to said base assembly, said clamping members defining an elongated aperture in alignment with said slot, holding means mounted on said base assembly, a cutting wire disposed in said slot having one end attached to said holding means, an upright support mounted on said base assembly, a slide mounted on said upright support and movable between upper and lower limit positions, said wire connected to said slide in tensioned relation, a latch plate pivotally mounted on said base assembly, said latch plate having latch fingers adapted to engage said clamping members for holding said clamping members in said working position, means on said slide engageable with said latch plate for disengaging said latch fingers from said clamping members with said slide in said lower limit position, said slide being movable to withdraw said cutting wire from said longitudinal slot in said base assembly and into culling engagement with said material held by said clamping members and through said elongated aperture.

In contrast the present invention provides a a simple effective board cutting device for cutting a variety of insulation boards to desired size quickly and with precision.

Summary of the Invention

According to the present invention there is provided a board cutter having in use two elongate measuring guides spaced apart by a plurality of depth gauges; having a wire for culling the board.

According to a second aspect of the present invention the wire is fixed in one place on the cutter.

This wire may ideally be provided with a handle on the opposite end. This handle allows a user to manipulate the wire in use.

The wire is additionally retractable into the cutter or a part of the cutter in preferred embodiments. For example the wire may be wound about a reel. This reel may be provided with an internal resiliently deformable member or spring, in order that the wire is disposed to be wound into the cutter and held in tension when in use, to belier enable its use in cutting insulation.

In preferred embodiments the wire is therefore flexible. Typically it is formed of a serrated, studded or textured length of metal, such as steel.

A thin wire such as this when used for cutting the boards will ideally minimise the amount of insulation dust generated in cutting, having health, safety and tidiness benefits.

Typically the guides are elongate flat ribbons of metal such as aluminium and are disposed to engage flatly with the board faces. The guides are preferably provided with numbering such as to relate to width of the board.

The depth gauges allow a user to vary the space between the guides in order to match the board's depth so that the guides will securely hold a board when the gauges are adjusted accordingly.

These gauges may consist of long bolts, tubes or bars.

Typically both gauges will be simultaneously or contemporaneously adjusted.

Preferably in order to adjust the gauge a catch or latch will be disengages and the gauge moved. The movement of the guide in relation to adjustment of the gauge is ideally ratchet driven or on a sequential basis catching at intermittent projections.

Further embodiments may have sprung or resiliently deformable parts on the gauge, for example whereby the gauge may be adjusted slidably and the guides placed at a correct depth, the board inserted and a latch closed by releasing the resiliently deformable part.

Embodiments such as these may combine adjustment of both gauges so as to enable efficient adjustment.

In some embodiments screw adjustment may be utilised for the gauges and in addition a resiliently deformable member may be operable in or as the catch.

Measurements, numbering or lettering may be visible on the gauges in order that the user may adjust accordingly according to standard board shapes or sizes.

The gauges are ideally formed of metal bars that are welded or fixed to one of the guides and may be moved in relation to the other, as appropriate.

The invention has been described by way of examples only and it will be appreciated that variation may be made to the above-mentioned embodiments without departing from the scope of invention.

With respect to the above description then, it is to be realised that the optimum dimensional relationships for the pads of the invention, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by the present invention.

Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.

Brief Description of Ficiures

Figure 1 shows a front view of a preferred embodiment of the cutter; Figure 2 shows an isometric view of the embodiment: Figure 3 shows a plan view from above of the embodiment; Figure 4 shows a front view of the open embodiment; And Figure 5 shows a cross section of the embodiment.

Detailed Descrintion of Figures The pictured and preferred embodiment of the cutter is provided with: A retractable handle (1); A wire blade (2); Two guides (3). Figure 5 shows these guides 3 having engagement pads 30; Two depth gauges (4); Leg stands (5) so as to enable the cutter to be stood up when in use.

The insulation is shown cross hatched in position as 10.

Claims

Claims 1 A board cutter having in use two elongate measuring guides spaced apart by a plurality of depth gauges; having a wire for cutting the board.
2. A board cutter according to claim 1 wherein the wire is fixed in one place on the cutter.
3. A board cutter according to claim 2 provided with a handle on the wire's opposite end which allows a user to manipulate the wire in use.
4. A cutter according to claims 1, 2 or 3 having a wire that is retractable into the cutter.
5. A cutter according to any preceding claim wherein the wire is a serrated, studded or textured length of metal.
6. A cutter according to any preceding claim wherein the guides are elongate flat ribbons of metal and are disposed to engage flatly with board faces.