KR20130114905A - Wand attachments for hold-held electric blenders - Google Patents

Abstract

The wand-shaped tool 20 for the hand blender comprises an elongate, tubular housing 22 comprising a rotatable drive shaft 23. The tool allows the shaft 23 at one end to pick up the rotary drive from the portable drive unit and supports the food-processing head at the other end; The treatment head includes a blade member 26 coupled to the shaft 23 and having three or more blades 32a, 32b, 32c. The blade member rotates in the processor head housing 27 having a tubular side-wall 30 with a loop 36 formed therein, which processor head housing 27 connects the tubular shaft housing 22 and opens at the opposite end. The inner surface 38 of the side-wall 30 supports the protrusion 40 facing the tips of the blades 32a, 32b, 32c. Each protrusion 40 provides a respective bluff body for the food product flowing past the protrusion. In certain embodiments of the present invention, the side-wall 30 is in the form of castle members 44 and 46 and the protrusions 40 are formed only in the non-castle member region of the side-wall 30. In one preferred embodiment, the shaft housing 22 is formed of metal, such as stainless steel, while the head housing 27 is formed of a plastic material such that the protrusions 40 and the cast members 44, 46 are molded. To facilitate formation by means of the stainless steel dome 50 for the decorative reasons and to rest on the connection between the stainless steel and the plastic part portions 22, 27 and / or on the roof member 36 of the plastic housing 27. do.

Description

Wand accessories for portable electric blenders {WAND ATTACHMENTS FOR HOLD-HELD ELECTRIC BLENDERS}

The present invention relates to wand-like attachments for portable electric blenders, commonly referred to as "hand blenders."

Typically, hand blenders are versatile devices capable of supporting and driving various accessories and / or accessories designed to perform a variety of tasks, such as whisking, mixing, or chopping, for example. In general, such accessories and accessories (generally referred to herein as "tools" for convenience) are selectively attachable to the (somewhat) tubular main body portion that houses the electric motor (and the tubular main). Removable from the body portion); This tubular main body portion is shaped and configured to hold naturally in the user's hand. The aforementioned tools generally tend to be tubular and elongate, and in fact, they are wand-like, and from now on the expression wands are often used to describe the aforementioned tools. When selected for use, the tool is attached to the main body portion in the longitudinal direction so that it extends along the axis of the drive shaft of the electric motor, each tool being cut, chopping, crushing or otherwise at an end remote from the main body portion. And support each processing head comprising a blade or other devices designed to process food products when the blade (or other device) is driven to rotate by an electric motor.

The speed at which a blade or other device of a given tool is driven will depend on the function intended to be performed. Thus, some blades or other devices are driven at maximum motor speed (typically 15,000 revolutions per minute ("ppm") or so), while the other blades or other devices are operated at low speeds and therefore require gearing. . Low speed operation is required, for example, to provide additional operating torque for some functions and / or to reduce the risk of over-processing.

If gearing is provided, although not essential, it is desirable to engage the gearing into the shaft of the tool, since it is assured that the correct gearing is in place when the tool is used. Alternatively, gearing may be provided in the motor housing with manual actuation means for selecting the appropriate gearing for the selected tool, or mounted coaxially between the tubular motor housing and the general tubular tool and between the tubular motor housing and the general tubular tool. Individual gearboxes designed to be provided may be provided.

In addition, useful blends of tools designed to avoid user injury through contact with high-rotation blades and the like, and at least tools manufactured by reputable manufacturers, are hand blended to comply with stringent safety conditions. However, when using existing tools, the following problems were encountered:

(a) significant power levels may be required to perform certain processes;

(b) splashes or spurs of the processed foodstuff may occur during operation;

(c) A strong vortex may occur, which tends to suck the blender tool down onto the receptacle where the food is processed.

(d) Incomplete or prolonged processing occurs because food products are not effectively operated by blades or other devices.

The present invention is directed to solving one or more of the above mentioned problems.

According to the present invention, there is provided a wand-type tool for a hand blender; The tool includes an elongate housing containing a rotatable drive shaft; One end of the tool is configured for coupling the shaft to a motor driven drive outlet and has a food processing head at the other end; A processing head includes a blade member coupled to the shaft and mounted for rotation in a housing that is open at an end remote from the drive shaft; The blade member comprises three or more blades, each of which three or more blades have a tip and follow each different cutting path in the housing as it rotates, the inner surface of the housing facing the tip of the blade. Support a plurality of spaced apart protrusions; Each protrusion is configured to provide a bluff body for the food product moving relative to the protrusion.

The provision of a bluff-body protrusion (ie, a protrusion that provides a steeply inclined non-linear surface for the flowing material) is beneficial in laminar flow disturbing and generating turbulence, thereby allowing the in-housing in the housing during use of the tool. It significantly reduces the strength of the vortices that tend to occur. Such vortices can otherwise be powerful enough that the tool is sucked downward into the iningient, making the tool difficult to use and thus reducing the efficiency of the mixing operation.

It is believed that a significant vortex reduction, which can be attributed to the bluff-body protrusion, occurs because the bluff-body protrusion creates turbulence that repeatedly moves the raw material mixed into the zone in which the vortex is attempting to form.

In preferred embodiments of the invention, the blade member comprises three blades (hereinafter referred to as "tri-blade") and in a particularly preferred embodiment, each blade has a convex curve in the direction of rotation and same. This blade configuration is beneficial in reducing the torque required to move the blade through the blended raw material.

One of the blades is intended to be positioned substantially horizontal during use and the other two blades are at different angles; It is further preferred in a triple-blade arrangement, for example angled upwards 10 degrees and 20 degrees upward from the horizontal plane, respectively. This configuration further reduces the drive torque requirements and additionally ensures efficient interaction of the raw material and the blade assembly.

The substantially cylindrical housing of the treatment head is typically formed of a loop member and the loop member surrounds the drive shaft and extends outward from the drive shaft, and in further preferred embodiments of the invention, the cylindrical housing of the treatment head is at the top. Formed by a tubular side-wall attached to the loop and open at the bottom; The open ends of the side-walls are castellated, in particular to provide a series of paths, and raw material can enter and exit through a series of paths, especially when the tool is placed adjacent to the floor of the receptacle where the material is mixed. .

Preferably, but not necessarily, the bluff-body protrusions are provided only within the non-concave member of the housing; That is, the bluff-body protrusion extends downwardly from near the roof of the housing but no longer than the top of the cast member.

Generally no direct correlation between the angular positions of the protrusions and the angular positions of the cast member is required but it is preferred that both the protrusion and the cast member are symmetrically distributed around the side-wall. However, in a preferred example, twelve protrusions and six castle members are used, one protrusion being provided at or near the center of the slot of each castle member and each interposed land. .

The cast member is preferably formed as down-open slots in the side-wall, preferably all of the same width (but not required). Typically, these slots are relatively shallow; Typically it extends upward along the side-wall by a distance of one third or less of the total height of the side-wall. In one example, six slots were provided, distributed at uniform angles around a tubular side-wall of 60 mm inner diameter. Lands between the slots subtend the same angle in the drive shaft axis in this example, but other relationships may be used if desired.

In the above example, the protrusion extends inwardly from the inner surface of the side-wall by 2.5 mm and the maximum blade diameter is chosen such that blade tip to protrusion separation is 1 mm for the horizontal blade. Any blades bending from the horizontal plane are intended to have a slightly different separation from the protrusions when the blades are nominally the same length as the horizontal blade.

If desired, it will further be appreciated that other blade-to-projection separations can be used, especially if significant changes have been made to the overall dimensions of the tool housing. In one embodiment, the fairly large diameter housing utilizes a blade-to-protrusion separation of 15.5 mm.

In certain preferred embodiments of the present invention, the protrusions are all the same height measured along the side-wall, but in other embodiments the protrusions vary in height according to a regular design or a semi-random manner.

In most embodiments of the invention, the protrusions all extend inwardly from the side-wall to a similar size, but this need not be the case, and protrusions of different thickness may be used if desired. Preferably however, whatever their individual thicknesses, all individual protrusions show a substantially constant thickness throughout their entire height.

In general, it is desirable to use an angularly symmetrical arrangement of protrusions and cast members as otherwise the forces generated can be unbalanced, resulting in undesirable irregular movement of the tool.

In order to facilitate the manufacture of the relatively complex inner surface of the treatment head, it is desirable to manufacture the treatment head of plastic material to allow the protrusions and the cast member to be formed by molding. However, it is desirable to form a wand elongate tubular shaft from stainless steel. Under these circumstances, there is a decorative advantage to providing a dome of a truncated-conical stainless steel to rest on the upper portion of the plastic treatment head; The inner diameter of the dome is attached to the shaft and the outer diameter of the dome is sealed about the outer periphery of the treatment head.

The present invention also includes a hand blender that combines any of the above described types of tool.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS An embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, in order that the present invention can be clearly understood and the effect can be easily performed.

1 (a) and 1 (b) show a side view and a bottom view, respectively, of a typical main body portion of a hand blender containing an electric motor, to which the inventive tool of the present invention may be coupled,
2 is a bottom view of an operating head of a tool according to an embodiment of the present invention,
3 is a partial cross section through a tool of the kind shown in FIG. 2, FIG.
4 shows a partial cross-sectional view of a tool formed of a stainless steel shaft and a plastic treatment head and having a dome of stainless steel to decoratively cover the area between the shaft and the treatment head.

Referring now to Figures 1 (a) and 1 (b), the main body portion 10 of the hand blender includes a general tubular casing 12 that receives an electric motor (not shown), which electric motor It is configured to drive the tandem output shaft 14, mounted axially in the casing 12, and disposed axially of the casing 12. The casing 12 supports the main lead 16, which may be connected to a motor and to a suitable power source for powering the motor for use.

The casing 12 also supports one or more control switches illustrated by buttons 18 in this embodiment, which control switches the motor on and off by the user and in some cases. To change the motor speed and / or to cause pulsed or continuous operation of the motor. It will be appreciated that different controls and different numbers of controls may be provided depending on factors such as aesthetic design considerations and that the functional range is provided by the device and / or the reference price point that the device targets.

The main body portion may be of any convenient type, such as a bayonet fixture or snap-fitting, to securely latch the wand into the main body portion while the wand is temporarily coupled to the motor output shaft 14 for use. A latching arrangement (not shown) is provided.

Referring further to FIGS. 2 and 3 from now on, the wand-shaped tool 20 according to one embodiment of the invention is capable of rotating in a bearing, such as 25, penetrating axially and supported in a tube. An elongate tube 22 containing the drive shaft 23. The drive shaft 23 is applied at one end to engage with the main body portion, such as 10 (see FIGS. 1A and 1B) of the hand blender, and is configured to engage with the motor-driven shaft 14 of the main body portion. To this end, the tube 22 and main body portion 10 are provided with a co-operating element of a suitable coupling, such as a bayonet fixture or snap fitting, which is used by the hand blender with the tool 20. Allow the wand-type tool 20 to be temporarily attached to the main body portion using the drive shaft 23 of the tool that is in drive engagement with the output shaft 14.

The tube 22 of the tool 20 forms a tubular head cavity 28 at the end 24 away from the main body portion 10 and with the tubular castle side-wall 30 described in more detail below. It is disposed in an open end housing to be joined.

The housing 27 forming the head cavity 28 provides a substantially cylindrical housing or cover in which the blade member 26 can rotate; The housing 27 is open at the end away from the tube 22 containing the drive shaft 23.

The blade member 26 comprises three blades 32a, 32b, 32c in this example, each of which is equal to a convex curve in the direction of rotation (clockwise in FIGS. 2 and 3). Such a blade configuration is advantageous in that it reduces the torque required to move the blade through the mixed raw materials. The blades 32, in this embodiment of the invention, are disposed at different angles and, when rotated, follow different cutting paths through the raw material to which the blades are mixed; In this example, the arrangement is such that the blade 32a is positioned substantially horizontal in use (ie, the blade extends substantially perpendicular to the axis of the drive shaft 23, which is connected to the blade member 26 at 34). While blades 32b and 32c angle upwards with respect to blade 32a (ie, toward loop 36 of head cavity 28), respectively, at 10 and 20 degrees. However, blade angles other than 10 and 20 degrees may be used if desired.

The inner surface 38 of the tubular side-wall 30, which determines the limit of the lateral size of the head cavity 28, supports an inward protrusion, such as 40 facing the tip of the blade 32. A protrusion such as 40 is formed to create a bluff-body interaction with the raw material flowing past the blade as a result of the operation of the blades 32a, 32b and 32c, thus preventing the laminar flow generated and A perfusion flow pattern that results in a significant reduction, otherwise vortices can occur in the head cavity 28 during use of the tool 20 and the laminar flow pattern may cause the tool or the container or receptacle into which the raw material is mixed, in particular the raw material is mixed. It may be strong enough to suck strongly towards the base of (not shown). Turbulence generated by the bluff body properties of the protrusions, such as 40, is thought to repeatedly move the raw material mixed into the zone where the vortex is attempted to be established.

As described above, the housing 27 forming the substantially cylindrical treatment head cavity 28 is formed with a loop 36 extending outwardly from the tube 22.

It will be appreciated that the above-mentioned castle-like member in the tubular side-wall 30 provides in particular a series of paths, in particular through a series of paths when the tool 20 is placed adjacent to the floor of the receptacle in which the raw materials are mixed. Raw materials can flow in and out.

In this example, there are twelve protrusions, such as 40, all of which are substantially equal in thickness and height and distributed at the same angle around the upper portion of the housing 27 forming the head cavity 28. On the other hand, in this example, there are six castle members each including slots such as 44 of rectangular profile. The slots are symmetrically distributed around the side-wall 30 and are separated by interposing a land area such as 46.

The slot portions 44 of the cast member at the open end of the tubular wall 30 are preferably all the same width and relatively shallow, and the overall height of the side-wall 30 from the open edge to the loop 36. Extend upwards along the side-wall 30 by a distance of one third or less. In this example, six slots, such as 44, are distributed at even angles around the side-wall 30, which side-wall typically has an inner diameter of 60 mm; Each slot corresponds to an angle of about 30 degrees from the drive shaft axis. Lands such as 46 between slots 44 of the cast member correspond to the same angle in the drive shaft axis passing through connection 34 in this example, although other relationships may be used if desired. Although angular symmetry is preferably maintained, there is no need for the application of any particular angular relationship between the protrusion 40 and the slot 44 of the cast member. In this particular example, there is a protrusion 40 that is aligned with the slot 44 of each cast member and the center of each interposed land 46.

In this example, the protrusion 40 does not extend into the area of the head cavity 28 occupied by the cast members 44, 46; That is, the protrusions are provided only when the side-walls 30 are continuous. However, in other examples of the invention, at least some of the protrusions extend into the castled region of the side wall 30.

In this example, each projection, such as 40, extends inwardly 2.5 mm inward from the inner surface 38 of the side-wall 30, with the dimensions of the blade member 26 being the desired blade tip versus blade 32a. The protrusion separation is selected to be 1 mm. As mentioned above, the separation is somewhat larger for the blades 32b and 32c. However, these dimensions are not critical and useful performance can be achieved with other dimensions. For housing diameters significantly larger than 60 mm, for example the ones used for the tools are the same size as the small frying pan and the like, blade tip to protrusion separation up to 15.5 mm can be applied.

The parameters described in the particular example above can be changed without departing from the scope of the present invention. In particular, although the example described above used six castle shaped slots and twelve internal protrusions, it will be appreciated that there is no need for direct correlation between the number of slots and the number of protrusions, or at the location of the slot relative to the protrusion.

For example, in another embodiment of the present invention that provides acceptable performance, sixteen protrusions are provided. Moreover, if desired, any convenient number of slots of the cast member may be used, and in particular, if the overall diameter of the processor head varies, slots and / or protrusions of different numbers of cast members may be preferred.

Moreover, it will be appreciated that protrusions such as 40 need not extend inwardly from the side wall by the same height or the same amount, and furthermore, the surfaces of the protrusions facing the blades may be formed differently from each other. However, it is preferable that each individual protrusion is substantially constant inward size through the height of the protrusion. It is also desirable to apply an angularly symmetrical configuration, as otherwise out-of-balance forces can be generated that result in irregular movement of the tool.

To facilitate the manufacture of a relatively complex inner surface of the housing 27 forming the head cavity 28, a housing made of plastic material is fabricated so that protrusions such as the cast members 44, 46 and 40 are formed in the molding. It is preferably formed by. However, it is desirable to form an elongate tubular shaft 22 of the wand 20 from stainless steel. Under these circumstances, a nearly truncated conical stainless steel is placed on top so that the loop 36 forming the top of the joint and / or plastic housing 27 is placed between the stainless steel and the plastic part portions 22 and 27 as shown in FIG. 4. There is a decorative advantage to providing the river dome 50. In this example, as indicated at 52, the upper portion (inner diameter) of the dome 50 is attached to the shaft 22 by welding; The weld joint is polished to provide a smooth joint between the shaft 22 and the dome 50. The lower distal end (outer diameter) of the dome 50 is sealed about the outer periphery of the loop 36 of the housing 27 as indicated by 54. This arrangement is contemplated to provide a more favorable appearance than at least certain embodiments presented by the simple attachment of the plastic housing to the shaft of stainless steel. In other embodiments, the dome 50 may extend downward to wrap over all or a portion of the wall 30. As a further alternative, the upper part of the loop 36 may be provided with a short upstanding circular wall only on the inner side of the perimeter, the dome 50 enclosing the outside of the short wall to seal against it and the plastic housing 27. It may be configured to be adjacent to an outer surface that is aligned with the outer wall 30 of and the top of the loop 36.

In this embodiment of the invention, the plastic housing 27 is molded to provide a plurality of suitably formed upright ribs, as shown at 56, to support the dome 50; When the dome has only a decorative function, it is understood that the dome is made of a relatively thin material. A rib such as 56 is conveniently formed with a radially-directed shoulder portion, such as 58, used to abut the open end 60 of the tubular shaft housing 22 and to be placed in the plastic housing 27. However, the plastic housing 27 can be positioned relative to the tubular metal shaft housing 22 in any convenient way, and furthermore the two parts are by compression fitting and / or by interlocking or snap assembly parts and / or Or secured to each other in any convenient manner, such as by means of an adhesive.

The invention also includes a hand blender that engages with the wand as described above.

Claims (19)

As a wand-type tool 20 for hand blending,
The tool comprises an elongate housing 22 which receives a rotatable drive shaft 23; One end of the tool is configured for coupling the shaft to a motor-driven drive outlet and has a food-processing head at the other end of the tool; The food-processing head comprises a blade member 26 coupled to the shaft 23 and mounted for rotation in a housing 27 having an open end facing the loop member 36; The blade member 26 includes three or more blades 32a, 32b, 32c having respective tips and following each different cutting path in the housing as it rotates, the inner surface 38 of the housing having the blades Supporting the projection 40 facing the tips of the fields 32a, 32b, 32c; Each protrusion 40 provides a respective bluff body for the food product that moves relative to each protrusion,
Wand tool for hand blends.
The method of claim 1,
The blade member 26 comprises three blades 32a, 32b, 32c,
Wand tool for hand blends.
3. The method of claim 2,
Each of the blades 32a, 32b, 32c is the same as a convex curve in the direction of rotation,
Wand tool for hand blends.
The method according to claim 2 or 3,
One of the blades 32a is intended to be disposed substantially horizontally during use and the other two blades 32b and 32c are angled upwards 10 degrees and 20 degrees respectively from the blade 32a. ,
Wand tool for hand blends.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
A substantially cylindrical housing (27) of the treatment head is formed with side-walls (30) extending from the loop member (36) to the opposite open end; The open end of the side-wall 30 is in the form of a cast member 44, 46,
Window-type tool for portable blenders.
The method of claim 5, wherein
The protrusion 40 is formed of only non-castle zones of the side-wall 30,
Window-type tool for portable blenders.
The method according to claim 5 or 6,
The castle members 44, 46 are symmetrically distributed around the inner surface 38 of the side-wall 30,
Wand tool for hand blends.
8. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 7,
The cast member includes a slot (44) in the side-wall (30) and has a land (46) between the slots; The slots 44 all have substantially the same width,
Wand tool for hand blends.
The method of claim 8,
The slot 44 is relatively shallow and extends upwardly along the side-wall 30 by a distance of one third or less of the overall height of the side-wall 30,
Wand tool for hand blends.
The method of claim 9,
And six slot-shaped slots 44 uniformly distributed around the sidewall 30 of about 60 mm inner diameter, each slot 44 at an angle of about 30 degrees from the axis of the drive shaft 23. Corresponding (subtend),
Wand tool for hand blends.
11. The method of claim 10,
The lands 46 between the slots 44 all correspond to the same angle in the axis of the drive shaft 23,
Wand tool for hand blends.
The method of claim 10 or 11,
The projections 40 each extend inwardly from the inner surface 38 of the side-wall 30 by substantially equal distances,
Wand tool for hand blends.
13. The method of claim 12,
The distance is about 2.5 mm and the blade diameter is selected such that blade tip to protrusion separation is about 1 mm,
Wand tool for hand blends.
14. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 13,
A tubular metal shaft housing 22, wherein the housing 27 is made of a plastic material, thereby allowing the protrusions 40 and the cast members 44, 46 to be formed by molding,
Wand tool for hand blends.
15. The method of claim 14,
The tubular shaft 22 is formed of stainless steel, and the dome 50 of stainless steel is placed on the joint between the stainless steel and the plastic part portions 22, 27 and / or on the loop member 36 of the plastic housing 27. Is provided,
Wand tool for hand blends.
The method of claim 15,
An upper portion (inner diameter) of the dome (50) is attached by welding to the tubular shaft (22); The weld joint is polished to provide a smooth joint between the shaft 22 and the dome 50,
Wand tool for hand blends.
17. The method according to claim 15 or 16,
The lower end (outer diameter) of the dome 50 is sealed about the outer periphery of the loop member 36 of the housing 27,
Wand tool for hand blends.
17. The method according to claim 15 or 16,
The dome 50 is configured to be wrapped over at least a portion of the side-wall 30 extending from the loop member 36 of the housing 27,
Wand tool for hand blends.
19. A hand blender combined with a wand-shaped tool according to any of the preceding claims.

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