IES86633B2 - Protective shield for a wooden or cooking spoon to protect the hand from heat or splashes - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is a kitchen utensil. It is a cone or disk shaped protective shield which can be attached to a wooden or cooking spoon handle to protect a cooks hand from heat and hot splashes. The advantages of the invention is that it is made from a variety of materials including but not limited to lightweight, heatproof material such as silicone or plastic and can be assembled to fit existing spoons in the cooks kitchen. <Figure 1>

Description

Protective shield for a wooden or cooking spoon to protect the hand from heat or splashes.

Field of invention The present invention is a kitchen utensil. In particular the invention is a protective shield for a wooden or cooking spoon which will protect the hand from heat and splashes.

Background A wooden or cooking spoon is a common utensil found in every kitchen. The main purpose of the wooden or cooking spoon is for mixing or stirring food. As a wooden or cooking spoon is heatproof, it is often used for mixing or stirring hot food in a saucepan or pot on a stove or hob.

It is a common occurrence for hot food to splutter and splash when cooking and sometimes splashing the cooks hand and causing discomfort or even burns to the hand. Accordingly, there exists a need for a utensil or attachment to overcome this problem. It is also desirable that this utensil or attachment be cost effective and be designed in such a way as it can be used with the existing spoons in your kitchen.

Statement of invention Accordingly, there is provided a protective shield in the form of disk or cone, made from a light heatproof material, a number of materials are suitable, including food grade silicon and other plastics. The protective shield will have a hole in the centre to allow the spoon pass through. The hole can be of variable size to allow for different size spoon handles. The protective shield can be made from a flat sheet of plastic folded into shape or by a preformed disk or cone. A flat design would be the shape of a cone flattened to two dimensions with a hole in the centre and on one side, slits are cut to allow for assembly in varying cone sizes by the insertion of tabs from the other side, these tabs can be flat or shaped with notches which fit into the slits to form a cone shape. Other designs are possible to provide the protective shield on a spoon between the food being stirred and the hand holding the top part of the spoon and performing the stirring. The protective shield can come in any size and could be shaped to form corporate logos or identifiable features or be irregular in shape but S3 663 3 to serve the purpose of protecting the hand from food splashes while cooking. The different sizes and shape would be design features of the protective shield.

The advantages of the invention are that the protective shield when attached to a wooden or cooking spoon can prevent heat and hot food from burning the cook's hand. The protective shield may also be used to advertise a business, product or company by printing logos or wording onto the material of the protective shield or by forming the protective shield into an identifiable shape, a corporate logo or trade mark, physical thing or other shape. The protective shield can be of any size to provide the protection. The protective shield may also serve the useful purpose of preventing the spoon from sliding into the cooking pot or for resting the spoon on a counter so that the soiled end is suspended in the air and will not dirty the counter top by touching it.

Brief description of the drawings.

The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of an embodiment thereof, given by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 (to accompany abstract when published) shows a side view of a cooking spoon with the protective shield attached to it.

Figure 2 shows a view of the basic shape of the utensil; Figure 3 shows the position of the notches and slits on the disc which are needed to assemble the cone shape for a self-assembly design of the protective shield.

Detailed description Referring now to the drawings and initially to Figure 1, there is illustrated a wooden spoon complete with the protective shield attached to the handle, advertising material may be printed onto the protective shield if desired or the shape can be altered to a corporate logo or trade mark, physical thing or other shape.

Referring to Figure 2, shows the shape of the material to be used for the protective shield if supplied in self-assembly form. It comprises of a disc shape in two dimension form with a small circle cut out of the centre to facilitate the handle of the wooden spoon.

Figure 3 illustrates the arrows or notches which are cut out of one side of the slit on the disc if supplied in self-assembly form. These arrows or notches are then inserted into slits cut into the opposite side of the disc. A number of sets of slits can be made to enable the user to adjust the size of the protective shield according to the size of the spoon being used, in this example two sets of slits are used allowing two sizes to be assembled.

Alternatively the cone or disk shape protective shield can be supplied as one piece with a spoon or stirring implement together as one device The invention is not limited to the embodiments herein described but may be varied in both construction and detail.

Claims (5)

Claims:

1. A cone or disk shaped kitchen utensil comprising a disc made out of lightweight heatproof material such as, but not limited to, silicon or plastic, with a hole in the centre to facilitate the handle of a cooking spoon being inserted through the hole.

2. A cone or disk shaped kitchen utensil as claimed in claim 1, supplied in a selfassembly flat disk form, the cone being made by folding into a cone shape and securing with tabs inserted into notches.

3. A cone or disk shaped kitchen utensil as claimed in claim 2, which attaches to any cooking spoon for the purpose of protecting the cooks hand from heat or hot splashes and with the option of printing advertising on the material of the protective shield.

4. A cone or disk shaped kitchen utensil as claimed in claim 1, supplied as one piece with a spoon or stirring implement together as one implement.

5. A cone or disk shaped kitchen utensil as substantially hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying description and drawings.