JPH0866288A - Fixture for eating and drinking - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide the fixture for eating and drinking which can be manufactured at low cost by improving productivity, is hardly dropped from a hand and can easily be adjusted the angle of a receiving part to a body part. CONSTITUTION: Since a body part 1 and a spoon 10 are attachably and detachably linked by spline coupling, the angle of the spoon 10 can be changed to the body part 1 by the umber of engagement grooves 9. Thus, since it is not necessary to manufacture the spoon corresponding to the state of each individual, productivity is improved and cost can be considerably reduced. Further, since the body part 1 is provided with guard covers 15a and 15b, the fixtures for eating and drinking are not dropped out of the hand even for the person weak in grasping force.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to food and drink spoons and forks, and more particularly to food and drink equipment used by persons with physical disabilities such as handicapped persons.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the problems to be solved by the invention
Some of the spoons used by handicapped people are ready-made products or those that have been improved to make them easier to use. There are also custom-made spoons tailored to the size and shape of the user's hand.

However, the above spoon has the following problems. (1) Conventional off-the-shelf spoons are difficult to use, and people with weak grip may drop the spoon from their hands during use.

(2) A custom-made spoon is hard to drop from the hand, but since it is manufactured according to each individual's condition, productivity is poor and it is very expensive. (3) In any of the spoons, very few can change the angle between the body part held by the hand and the receiving part on which food or drink is placed.
Therefore, depending on the physical condition at that time, the bending of the hands may change, and when eating in different postures (such as sitting or sleeping), food or drink may spill from the receiving part when carrying food or drink to the mouth. There is a problem.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems. A first object of the present invention is to improve the productivity and reduce the cost, and the food and drink is hard to drop from the hand. To provide equipment.

A second object is to provide an eating and drinking apparatus in which the angle of the receiving portion with respect to the body portion can be adjusted.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the gist of the invention of claim 1 is that the angle of the receiving portion connected to the tip of the body can be adjusted.

The gist of the invention of claim 2 is that the body and the receiving portion are detachably connected by spline coupling. The gist of the invention of claim 3 is that a stopper for fixing a hand is provided on the body portion to which the receiving portion is connected.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, the gist of the invention is that the stoppers are provided in a pair in the front and rear of the body portion and rotate with respect to the body portion. The gist of the invention of claim 5 is that the stopper relatively moves in the axial direction with respect to the body portion.

[0010]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the angle of the receiving portion with respect to the body portion is adjusted according to the posture when eating or drinking and the bending of each person's hand. That is, the angle of the receiving part is adjusted so that the food and drink placed on the receiving part can be carried to the mouth without spilling. In this way, since the angle of the receiving portion with respect to the body portion can be adjusted, it is not necessary to manufacture the eating and drinking utensil according to the condition of each individual.

According to the second aspect of the invention, when the angle of the receiving portion is changed, the receiving portion is pulled out from the body portion. Then, the receiving portion is inserted into the body portion with the receiving portion oriented at a desired angle. As a result, the angle of the receiving portion is changed. That is, since the receiving portion and the body portion are spline-coupled, the angle of the receiving portion can be changed by the number of grooves forming the spline.

Further, for example, it is assumed that a spline shaft is formed in the receiving portion and a hole in which the spline shaft of the receiving portion is engaged is formed in the body portion. Then, a plurality of receiving portions having different shapes (for example, spoon or fork shape) are prepared, and each receiving portion is provided with a spline shaft. As a result, the receiving portion can be exchanged as if it were an attachment, depending on the type of food or drink.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the hand is fixed by the stopper, even a person with a weak grip can surely hold the eating and drinking utensil in his / her hand. According to the invention of claim 4, since the stopper is rotated with respect to the body portion, the orientation of the receiving portion can be changed in conjunction therewith.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since the stopper can move relative to the body in the axial direction, the distance between the stoppers can be adjusted according to the size of the hand that differs for each individual.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the body 1
Is formed in a tubular shape, and a grip portion 2 in which a knurl is engraved is formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof. Outer peripheral surface 3 of both ends of body 1
The grip portion 2 is not engraved on the
Smaller diameter than. A cap 5 is attached to the rear end of the body 1. A first blind hole 6 is formed in the front end surface of the body 1. The second blind hole 7 is formed on the bottom surface of the first blind hole 6.
Are formed. A plurality of engagement grooves 9 extending in the axial direction are formed on the inner peripheral surface 8 of the second blind hole 7.

The spoon 10 serving as a receiving portion has a shaft portion 11
Are integrally formed. A small diameter portion 12 is provided at the rear end of the shaft portion 11.
Are formed. A spline shaft 13 projects from the end surface of the small diameter portion 12. A plurality of engagement protrusions 14 extending in the axial direction are formed on the outer peripheral surface of the spline shaft 13.

A spoon 1 is placed in the second blind hole 7 of the body 1.
The 0 spline shaft 13 is inserted. Further, the small diameter portion 12 of the spoon 10 is inserted into the first blind hole 6. Thereby, the body 1 and the spoon 10 are connected.

A pair of guard covers 15 as stoppers
Reference characters a and 15b include a ring portion 16, a connecting piece 17 integrally formed with the ring portion 16, and a fixing piece 18 that is bent at a substantially right angle from the connecting piece 17. The ring portion 16 is rotatably inserted in the outer peripheral surface 3 of the body portion 1. Body 1
The outer peripheral surface 3 is formed in a gentle taper shape whose diameter increases toward both ends. Further, the inner peripheral surface of the ring portion 16 is also formed in a tapered shape having substantially the same inclination as the outer peripheral surface 3 of the body portion 1,
It moves back and forth along the outer peripheral surface 3. And the ring part 1
By moving 6 to both ends of the outer peripheral surface 3, the ring portion 1
The inner peripheral surface of 6 and the outer peripheral surface 3 are in strong contact with each other, and movement and rotation of the ring portion 16 are restricted. (FIG. 2 (a) and FIG.
(B)).

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, the user grips the grip portion 2, and the guard covers 15a, 1
While rotating 5b, the orientation of the spoon 10 with respect to the hand is roughly determined. In this state, guard cover 1
5a and 15b are moved in the axial direction of the body 1 to move the body 1
The guard covers 15a and 15b are positioned with respect to (see FIG. 3). As a result, both guard covers 15a, 1
The hand is clamped from the side by the connecting piece 17 of 5b. Then, the hand is clamped from above and below by the fixed piece 18 of both guard covers 15a and 15b and the grip portion 2. As a result, the body 1 is securely fixed to the hand, and the body 1 does not fall from the hand.

Next, the angle of the spoon 10 is finely adjusted so that food and drink does not spill. When finely adjusting the angle of the spoon 10, the spoon 10 is pulled out from the body portion 1 and the engaging groove 9 of the second blind hole 7 with which the engaging protrusion 14 of the spline shaft 13 engages is changed. This makes spoon 1
Fine adjustment of the 0 angle is performed. I.e. spoon 10
The angle can be changed by the number of the engaging grooves 9 of the second blind hole 7.
A healthy person performs positioning of the guard covers 15a and 15b and angle adjustment of the spoon 10.

As described above, in this embodiment, since the eating and drinking apparatus is constructed, the following effects can be obtained. (1) By forming the body portion 1 in a cylindrical shape, it is possible to reduce the weight of the eating and drinking utensil and to reduce the load during use. Further, since the outer peripheral surface of the body portion 1 is formed into the uneven grip portion 2, the user can more surely grasp the grip portion 2
Can be gripped. Furthermore, since the grip portion 2 is formed thicker than an ordinary spoon, a person with a physical disability can hold it very easily.

(2) The body 1 and the spoon 10 are detachably connected by spline connection. As a result, the angle of the spoon 10 can be changed with respect to the body 1 by the number of the engaging grooves 9. As a result, since it is not necessary to manufacture a spoon according to the condition of each individual, productivity can be improved and cost can be significantly reduced.

(3) By providing the guard covers 15a and 15b, even a person with weak grip does not drop the eating and drinking tool during use. (4) Since the angle of the spoon 10 can be adjusted according to the posture at that time even when eating in different postures (a sitting state, a sleeping state, etc.), food and drink can be eaten without spilling.

(5) In addition to the spline connection, the first blind hole 6 and the small diameter portion 12 are used to prevent the body 1 and the spoon 10 from coming off.
It was done by engaging with. As a result, it is possible to reliably prevent the spoon 10 from falling out of the body portion 1 during normal use.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but may be configured as follows, for example, within the scope of the invention. (1) As shown in FIG. 4, even if the body 12 is formed in a horizontal T shape, or as shown in FIG. 5, a through hole 24 for inserting a finger is formed in the body 13 to embody it. Good.

(2) As shown in FIG. 6A, a fork 31 is used as a receiving portion, or as shown in FIG. 6B, a spoon 41 and a fork 42 are integrated. May be turned into. Then, the shaft portion 11 and the spline shaft 13 are provided in each of these receiving portions as in the above-described embodiment. In this case, one receiving part can be used with one body part 1. That is, the receiving parts can be exchanged as if they were attachments according to the type of food and drink, and it is not necessary to prepare the body 1 for each receiving part. As a result, productivity is improved,
It is possible to reduce the cost.

(3) As shown in FIG. 7, a knife 51 may be connected to the body portion 1 as a receiving portion and embodied. (5) In the above embodiment, the plurality of engaging projections 14 are provided on the spline shaft 13, but the number of engaging projections 14 may be equal to or less than the number of engaging grooves 7 formed (for example, one).

[0028]

As described above in detail, according to the invention of claim 1, the angle of the receiving portion with respect to the body portion can be adjusted,
There is no need to manufacture eating and drinking utensils according to each individual's condition. As a result, productivity can be significantly improved and cost can be reduced.

According to the second aspect of the invention, since the receiving portion and the body portion are spline-coupled, the angle of the receiving portion can be finely adjusted by the number of grooves forming the spline. Also,
Since the receiving part and the body part can be attached and detached by spline connection, by preparing a plurality of receiving parts having different shapes (for example, spoon or fork shape), the receiving parts can be exchanged according to the kind of food and drink as an attachment.

According to the third aspect of the invention, since the hand is fixed by the stopper, even a person with a weak grip can surely hold the eating and drinking tool in his hand. According to the invention of claim 4, since the stopper is rotated with respect to the body portion, the orientation of the receiving portion can be changed in conjunction therewith.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since the stopper can move relative to the body portion in the axial direction, the distance between the stoppers can be adjusted according to the size of the hand which is different for each individual.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a food / drink device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 (a) is a plan view of the eating / drinking device showing a state where the intervals between the guard covers are minimum. (B) is a top view of the eating / drinking device which shows the state where the interval between the guard covers is maximum.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a usage state of the eating and drinking tool.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of another eating and drinking apparatus.

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of another eating and drinking apparatus of the same.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a receiving portion of another example.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of another eating / drinking device in which the receiving portion is a knife.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Body part, 10 ... Spoon as a receiving part, 13 ... Spline shaft, 14 ... Engagement protrusion, 9 ... Engagement groove, 15a, 15
b ... Guard cover as a stopper

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A food and drink device in which an angle of a receiving portion connected to a tip of a body portion can be adjusted. 2. The eating and drinking tool according to claim 1, wherein the body portion and the receiving portion are detachably connected by a spline connection. 3. A food / drink device, wherein a body portion to which a receiving portion is connected is provided with a stopper for fixing a hand. 4. The eating and drinking tool according to claim 3, wherein the stopper rotates with respect to the body. 5. The eating / drinking device according to claim 3, wherein the stoppers are provided in a pair in front of and behind the body, and at least one of the stoppers moves relative to the body in the axial direction.