GB2501955A

GB2501955A - Metal Can Opener

Info

Publication number: GB2501955A
Application number: GB1220367.5A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Hesham Mohamed Badr Eldin Elhalabi
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2012-11-12
Filing date: 2012-11-12
Publication date: 2013-11-13
Anticipated expiration: 2032-11-12
Also published as: GB2501955B8; GB2501955A8; GB2501955B; GB201220367D0

Abstract

The user friendly metal can opener has a uniquely designed knife with specially shaped blades (G) and (H1, H2 in figure 4 and 5), the unique design allows the knife to open metal cans without the need of frustrating manual labour or electrical power, and it opens the metal cans with minimal effort just by applying a vertical pressure force.

Description

THE CLEVER USER FRIENDLY METAL CONTAINER OPENER

For as long as we can remember till this present day, metal can openers revolved around 2 simple designs.

1: The stab metal can opener, like the ones used in pocket knives and military edition tin can openers 2: The serrated wheel with a rolling blade operated either manually by a lever or electrically The main 3 problems with these two designs are: 1: Stab tin can openers are simply just too slow and not very practical.

2: The serrated wheel with a rolling blade on the manual openers is a little faster, but still slow and not very user friendly, add to that the frustrating manual labour and the issue of the occasional skipping which occurs when the serrated wheel skips a cycle or two and doesn't push the tin hard enough toward the rolling blade which leads to a small area of the tin can's lid left unopened.

3: With electrical openers the main issue is the fact that they are rely constantly on power, whether through a direct current or batteries, and this means of course that they are not environmentally friendly and they are expensive to buy and run. They also use the same serrated wheel and rolling blade technology which comes with its own problems like the ones mentioned above.

To overcome these problems, the present invention proposes a new clever way to open tin cans, and a solution to the problems mentioned above.

The presented invention offers a cheap user friendly metal can opener that is fast, environmentally friendly, practical and safe.

The invention simply consists of two pieces, a cylindrical shape knife that consists of four uniqucly designed blades joint together to font a circle, with each blade acting as one quadrant of the circle, and a plastic dome that acts as housing for the knife. This invention will be simply mounted on top of a tin can, and hand pressed to create a vertical pressure which will allow the uniquely designed knife to cut through the whole lid of the can.

An example of the invention will now be described by referring to the accompanying drawings: -Figure 1: A side view of the plastic hollow dome and an exploded 3D view of its inner cross shaped plastic frame.

-Figure 2: A 3D side view of the cylindrical knife.

-Figure 3: A side view of the cylindrical knife housed inside the plastic dome.

-Figure 4: An explanatory view of the cylindrical knife outlining its features.

-FigureS: A laid out flat view example of two of the four blades that make up the cylindrical knife to outline their features.

-Figure 6: An explanatory view of the cylindrical knife housed inside the plastic dome.

-Figure 7and 8: A vicw of how thc cylindrical knifc housed inside thc plastic dome will penetrate a metal can, like a tuna can for example.

As mentioned earlier this invention consists of two pieces, the plastic housing dome (A) shown in figure 1, and the cylindrically shaped knife(C)shown in figure 2. The knife(C) will be fixed inside the plastic dome (A) as shown in figure 3.

The plastic dome is thick but hollow on the inside except for a cross shaped plastic frame (B) shown in figure 1, the cross shaped frame not only supports the dome structure, it also acts as pressure beams.

The cylindrical knife is uniquely designed for a quick penetration with little effort. It consists of four uniquely shaped blades connected together in a circle and will form the four quadrants of thc cylindrical knife, to strcngthcn thc structurc they arc also joint by a cross shaped metal frame (D) that also double acts as pressure beams like shown in figure 4.

The four tips of the blade (0) in figures 4 and 5, will be the first to penetrate through the metal surface of the can, then as they are pushed further, the pressure will be shifted to both sides where blades (Hi, H2) run upwards diagonally like shown in figure 4 and 5, the diagonal shape of each of the four blades will ensure cutting through the four quadrants of the tuna can as they are pushed down.

On the outward side of the cylindrical knife, four metal strips(E) are welded on each quadrant as shown in figure 4 and 5, they serve as stopping mechanism to prevent the four blades from sinking flirther into the tuna can after it's opened.

On the inner side of the blades, two magnetic strips (F) which are positioned opposite to each other like shown in figure 4 and 5 will lift the lid of the tuna can after it's opened.

The plastic dome is slightly bigger and larger in diameter at the bottom than the cylindrical knife, this will aHow the knife's blade tips to be concealed within as shown in figure 6, this means that it will be almost impossible for the blades to get in contact with fingers or any part of the body, and it also cannot be used as a stabbing weapon, unless a person intentionally pushed their finger inside the plastic dome.

The plastic cross shaped pressure beams of the dome (B) are strategically placed on top of the mctal pressure beams of the knife (D), which arc also placed on top of the four tips of the blades, this is meant to direct all the pressure force applied by hand straight onto four tips of the blade (0) like shown in figure 6, this will ensure an easy penetration which is the part that requires most of the force applied, the rest of the cutting performed by blades(Hl,H2) require less force due to their unique diagonal design.

The empty space between the walls of the dome and the knife, will also allow room for the metal strips (E) to rest comfortably on the top sides of the can when the knife is pushed down like shown in figure 8, so that the whole piercing and cutting process is hidden within the dome as a safety measure.

So this invention will solve many of the problems present today with the current metal can openers, the unique features of the invention offers: -A more user friendly can opener.

-A decreased time taken to open cans.

-A decreased manual labour and frustration required to open cans compared to current manual tin can openers on the market today.

-No mechanically moving parts, which means it's less likely to break or develop a fault.

-More hygienic approach: The simple unique design with no moving parts means less room for collecting food remains, and it also makes it easier to clean.

-A more environmentally friendly opener: Unlike the currcnt top of the range metal can openers currently on the market which require batteries, the cylindrical knife will open the tin can in less time and without the need of power or using batteries.

-A cheap to buy and run opener: with minimal parts and no power required to operate, the cylindrical knife will be more reliable than all of the current manual metal can openers and a lot less expensive than the current battery operated metal can openers.

This invention has a few other possibilities as well, it could be made in different sizes to fit different sizes of metal cans, and there is also the possibility to fit up to three different sizes of the circular knife inside one plastic dome for more practicality.

Using the same design idea of the invention, the uniquely shaped knife could also be modified to any other shape to open irregularly shaped metal containers, the same method will be applied, and the blades can be altered to cut through different types of surfaces.

Claims

1-A user friendly metal container opener.

2-A user thendly metal container opener according to claim 1, which consists of two pieces, a uniquely shaped plastic housing and a uniqucly designed knife.

3-A user thendly metal container opener according to claim 2, where the uniquely designed knife is housed inside the uniquely shaped plastic housing.

4-A user fiicndly metal container opcner according to claim 1,2 and 3, in which by no means of mechanical or electrical intervention, and by no means of using moving parts, and by no means of using any fbrm of repetitive motion, and only by applying vertical pressure, the uniquely designed knife with the uniquely shaped blades will not only penetrate the surface of the metal container but it will also eut through along the whole sides or circumference of the container's surface to open it and completely expose the insides of the container.

5-A user friendly metal container opener according to claim 2, where in this example the plastic housing is shaped like a dome and is thick but hollow except for a cross shaped plastic frame that supports the structure and acts as pressure beams to direct applied vertical pressure.

6-A user fiicndly metal container opcncr according to claim 2, where in this example the uniquely designed knife is shaped like a cylinder, and is made up of thur uniquely designed idcntical blades joint together in a circle to form the cylindrical knife and linked together with a cross shaped metal frame that supports the structure and also acts as pressure beams.

7-A user friendly metal container opener according to claim 6, in which the four uniquely designed blades that are joint together to make the knife, have three sharp edges each, the blade tip in the middle and two diagonally upward blades, one on the left side of the blade tip and one on the right side of the blade tip.

8-A user friendly metal container opener according to claim 6, where the cross shaped metal frame of the knife has its four beams connected to the four uniquely designed blades right in the centre of each blade, making each of the four pressure beam of the frame resting exactly on top of each of the four blade tips.

9-A user friendly metal container opener according to claim 1, in which four metal ships are added to the four outer sides of the uniquely designed blades of the knife to act as a stopping mechanism, the strips will rest on the sides of the metal container to prevent the blades from sinking further into the container.

10-A user friendly metal container opener according to claim i, in which two magnetic strip are placed opposite to each other in the inner side of the knife's blades to lift the lid of the metal container as the knik is moved away once the container is opened.AMENDMENTS TO THE CLAIMS HAVE BEEN FILED AS FOLLOWSClaims 1-A quadruple blade multi tip knife for opening metal containers.2-A quadruple blade multi tip knife for opening metal containers according to claim 1, which consists of two pieces, a plastic housing and a knife.3-A quadruple blade multi tip knife for opening metal containers according to claim 2, where the knife is housed inside the plastic housing.4-A quadruple blade multi tip knife for opening metal containers according to claim 2, wherethe plastic housing is shaped like a dome and is thick but hoflow except for a cross shaped plastic frame that supports the structure and acts as pressure beams to direct applied vertical pressure.5-A quadruple blade multi tip knife for opening metal containers according to claim2, where the knife is made up of four identical blades joined together in a circle to form a cylindrical knife and linked together with a cross shaped metal frame that supports the structure and also acts as pressure beams.1.. . . . 6-A quadruple blade multi tip knife for opening metal containers according to claim 5, CO in which the four blades that are joint together to make the knife, have four sharp C edges each, the two edged penetrating tip in the middle and two diagonally upward sharp edges, one on the left side of the blade tip and one on the iight side of the blade c\j tip.7-A quadruple blade multi tip knife for opening metal containers according to claim 1, in which four metal strips are added to the four outer sides of the blades of the knife to act as a stopping mechanism, the strips will rest on the sides of the metal container to prevent the blades from sinking further into the container.8-A quadruple blade multi tip knife for opening metal containers according to claim 1, in which two magnetic strip are placed opposite to each other in the inner side of the knifc's bladcs to lift thc lid ofthc mctal containcr as thc knifc is movcd away oncc thc container is opened.