JP3021050B2 - Gas lighter device with ignition safety system - Google Patents

Abstract

The gas lighter comprises a reservoir intended to contain a liquid petroleum gas, a valve mounted on the resevoir to let the gas out, a system (3) for opening and closing the gas flow as well as a lighting system presenting a flint cooperating with a wheel (6) rotationally driven by at least one driver (9) mounted coaxially with the wheel (6). According to the invention, the peripheral surface of each driver (9), intended to come into contact with a user's finger, is smooth. Such a lighter is easy to use for an adult, but difficult for a child. Furthermore, it has only few modifications with respect to a standard lighter.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a gas lighter device having an ignition safety system.

A gas lighter generally has a container for containing a fuel such as petroleum-based liquefied gas, a valve attached to the container and capable of taking out the gas from the container, and a gas flow controlled by a lever. The system includes a system for opening and closing, a system for regulating gas flow, and an ignition system. As is known, ignition systems include a stone that works in conjunction with a jagged wheel, and typically a protective cover. The jagged wheels are mounted on a shaft passing between two carriers. The jagged wheel is in the form of a cylinder. Also, the carrier is disc-shaped and has a diameter which is significantly larger than the diameter of the knurled wheel. The edge of the carrier is roughened to form irregularities. The user can easily operate the jagged wheel by rubbing the finger with the carrier.

When the jagged wheel in contact with the stone is rotated by the carrier and the user's finger, a bundle of sparks is created. After that, a certain amount of gas is released by the same finger acting on the gas release lever. The spark bundle ignites the gas and produces a flame that blows out of the cover member.

Therefore, such systems require aggressive action by the user to create and maintain the flame.
Also, two independent actions are required to create the flame, namely a knurled rotation of the wheel and a pressing action on the gas release lever.

However, attempts have been made to find ways to make the use of lighters even more difficult so that children younger than 5 cannot form flames with the lighter.

Lighters already provided with additional obstacles in forming the flame already exist, and several patents or patent applications relating to such lighters have been disclosed. These are the patents US 5 125 829, US 5002 482 and the international patent applications WO-93 / 17282, WO-95 / 04247.

The lighters disclosed in these documents are provided with additional devices that make the jagged wheel more difficult to access or hinder the operation of the gas release lever in the above-mentioned conventional lighters.

Therefore, these lighters are complicated in structure,
This increases the manufacturing costs. Moreover, these lighters are difficult to use and require operating instructions.
Even adults find it difficult to use such lighters and require prior operational training.

The present invention relates to a lighter which can be used easily by adults, but which is difficult to use for children, especially children younger than 5 years, and which requires only a slight modification of conventional lighters of the above type. It is intended to provide.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a reliable safety system that is "reliable" and always active even without initial operation.

Another object is to provide a lighter having a function as close as possible to that of a conventional lighter of the above type, so that the user does not need to explain or practice the operation when using the lighter.

To this end, the present invention provides a container for containing a petroleum-based liquefied gas, a valve attached to the container and capable of removing gas from the container, and a system capable of opening and closing the gas flow. An ignition system having stones that cooperate with a jagged wheel rotated by at least one carrier mounted coaxially.

In the present invention, the peripheral surface of each carrier configured to contact a user's finger is a smooth surface.

Therefore, in order to move the jagged wheel by the carrier, the user has to exert a force on the carrier, which mainly consists of a rotational component. And
The user must follow the carrier with respect to the rotational movement of the carrier in order to form a spark. In this case, the action performed by the user to use the lighter of the present invention is the same as the action performed to use the conventional lighter. However, the user must follow the movement of the carrier better by applying a larger force, and moreover, a larger force in the rotational direction. This makes it difficult for children to use such a lighter.

In addition, no modification is made to the main components of a conventional lighter, only the carrier is modified.

In the lighter of the present invention, the knurled wheel is preferably cylindrical and is mounted on a shaft disposed between a plurality of carriers which are substantially disc-shaped or of significantly larger diameter than the knurled wheel. Have been.

With this configuration, a good moving image of the jagged wheel by the carrier is also increased.

In a preferred embodiment, each carrier is an annular disk.

In another embodiment, each carrier is substantially disc-shaped, and its peripheral surface is provided with undulations. In this mode, the operation of the carrier can be improved while maintaining the difficulty of operation for young children.

In any event, the invention will be more clearly understood from the following description. The following description is given by way of non-limiting example and is made with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show an embodiment of a gas lighter according to the invention.

 FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a lighter of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing the lighter shown in FIG.

1 and 2 show a gas lighter, which, as is known, has a member 1 which functions as a reservoir and is intended to contain a petroleum liquefied gas.

Above the member 1, the reservoir is provided with a valve 2. The valve 2 is capable of releasing gas when the valve 2 is set to the open position. The lever 3 controls opening and closing of the valve 2. The spring 4 acts on the lever 3 so that the valve 2 is closed in the rest state. The part of the lever 3 opposite the valve 2 is driven by the user, for example, when the user wants to release gas from the reservoir to form a flame.

The lighter also has an ignition system that allows the gas emitted via the valve 2 to be ignited. The ignition system comprises flint 5 and jagged wheels 6. The jagged wheel 6 is mounted on a shaft 7 and can rotate around the shaft 7. The jagged wheel 6 has a columnar shape, and its peripheral surface is jagged.

The flint 5 is supported in the radial direction of the jagged wheel 6. A spring 8 supports the flint 5. Thus, when the jagged wheel 6 rotates about the axis 7, a spark is generated. Spark is
The gas released via the valve 2 can be ignited.

Two carriers are mounted. These two carriers, on both sides of the jagged wheel 6,
It is mounted in a coaxial relationship with the knurled wheel 6. These carriers 9 can be considered as one member for the knurled wheel 6, or can be considered as separate members that function in combination with the knurled wheel 6.

The carrier 9 is an annular disk. The edge surface of the carrier 9 is smooth. Thus, the coefficient of friction between the user's finger and the carrier 9 is quite small.

To rotate the jagged wheel 6, the user places a finger 10 on the carrier 9 opposite the stone 5. Then, the user applies a force to both carriers 9 with a force that exerts a large rotational force. In order to continue this rotation, the finger 10 must continue to apply a force having a large rotational direction component. At the same time, the finger 10 needs to follow the carrier 9. This operation is continued until the finger 10 reaches the lever 3. Compared to a conventional lighter with an uneven carrier on the surface, the user's finger must follow the jagged wheel rotation to a larger angle of rotation. The jagged wheel operation is intentionally emphasized in terms of the angle of rotation.

If the rotational force is insufficient, no spark will occur. Furthermore, if the finger does not follow the jagged movement of the wheel 6 until the lever 3 is reached, no further sparking will occur and no gas will be ignited.

It is difficult for children to use such a lighter because of the relatively large force required and the need to follow the movement of the carrier up to relatively large angles of rotation. .

Nevertheless, adults know that they can use this lighter in the same way as a conventional lighter.
However, the difference is that in the conventional lighter, the surface of the carrier has irregularities. The only differences in use are that more force must be applied to rotate the jagged wheel, and that the user must be able to follow his or her finger with the movement of the jagged wheel.

It is emphasized that the invention is not limited to the non-limiting embodiments described above, but includes all variants.

For example, only one carrier may be used to rotate a jagged wheel.

The surface of one or a plurality of carriers may be a smooth surface, and need not necessarily be annular. The edge of the carrier can be undulated.

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-61-38324 (JP, A) JP-A-5-321324 (JP, A) Jikoh 5-18614 (JP, Y2) US Patent 5096414 (US) U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,335 (US, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) F23Q 2/16 F23Q 2/46

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A container for containing a petroleum-based liquefied gas, a valve (2) attached to the container and capable of extracting the gas from the container, and capable of opening and closing a gas flow and coaxially. A system (3, 4) having a stone (5) functioning in combination with a knurled wheel (6) rotated by at least one carrier (9) mounted on the gas lighter. A gas lighter characterized in that the peripheral surface of each carrier (9) that comes into contact with the user's finger is a smooth surface. 2. The gas lighter according to claim 1, wherein each carrier has a substantially disk shape, and a undulation is provided on a peripheral surface thereof.