US2312502A

US2312502A - Blade magazine

Info

Publication number: US2312502A
Application number: US333346A
Authority: US
Inventors: Testi Nicholas
Original assignee: Gillette Safety Razor Co
Current assignee: Gillette Co LLC
Priority date: 1940-05-04
Filing date: 1940-05-04
Publication date: 1943-03-02
Anticipated expiration: 1960-03-02

Description

March 2, 1943. Nv TESTl BLADE MAGAZINE Filed May 4, 1940 Patented Mar. 2, 1943 2,312,502 BLADE MAGAZINE Nicholas Testi, Boston, Mass., assigner to Gillette Safety Razor Company, Boston, Mass., a carporation of Delaware Application May 4, 1940, Serial N0. 333,346

7 Claims.

This invention relates to magazines for blades, such as safety razor blades. It consists in a magazine of new and improved construction, inexpensive to manufacture and convenient to fill with a supply of sharp edged blades, effective to guard and protect the blade edges and accurate in controlling the discharge of one blade at a time for use in a safety razor or for any other purpose.

Safety razor blades of thin sheet steel, often as thin as .004" and manufactured with an exceedingly ne sharp shaving edge, are difficult to pack and distribute without dulling and are dangerous to handle in presenting new blades to a safety razor or removing used blades for cleaning or replacement I have discovered a construction of magazine which is entirely satisfactory in the respects noted and which is also proof against the annoyance of jamming of blades in the discharge opening. This has been a serious defect in magazines heretofore available for it frequently happens that two blades at a time are forced into the discharge opening and jammed so that it is impossible to eject a single blade and serious danger of cutting is likely when the operator attempts forcibly to clear the magazine.

With these objects in view an important feature of my invention consists in a magazine comprising an elongated enclosure having a slot in its top Wall and a discharge opening in one end and provided with a pin upstanding in the bottom'of the magazine beneath the slot and serving to locate the-blade stack and also to gauge the width or depth of the discharge opening. Blades of the stack may be made each with an end notch adapted to engage the pin and thus the blades are registered in superposed relation. The upper end of the pin, moreover, may be accurately terminated below the plane of the inner face of the top of the magazine by exactly the thickness of a single blade. The accurate determination of the gauging end of the pin is facilitated since it is in an accessible position beneath the slot in the top of the magazine. Accordingly, it may be conveniently reached by the inserting tools in the assembling operation and it may be reached by a grinding l wheel after insertion so that its end face may be shaped and positioned with any desired degree of nicety. As a result of this construction it is impossible to introduce a second blade into the discharge opening until the first blade has been wholly ejected. Even if the feeding mechanism is operated accidentally to engage the second blade in the stack that blade is positively held by the pin against movement until the preceding blade has been fully discharged and removed from the space between the gauging end of the pin and the top of the magazine. Only then can the second blade en'gage the top of the magazine and clear the end of the gauge pm.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig 1 is a plan view of the magazine on an enlarged scale;

Fig. 2 is a corresponding view infront elevation:

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary View in longitudinal section on still larger scale;

Fig. 4 is a view in cross-section on the line 4--4 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is a view in elevation showing the magazine operatively connected to a safety razor.

The magazine herein shown may be bent to shape from a blank of thin sheet metal or it may be moulded from any suitable thermo-plastic material. It vcomprises an elongated shell I0 of rectangular outline forming an enclosure of which the top is formed `by longitudinally inturned flanges II and I2 separated by a Wide centrally located slot which extends from one end to the other of the shell. The i'ianges I I and I2 form a guideway for a feed slide I5 which is provided with downwardly extending undercut walls tting the flanges II and I2. The flanges are provided at their inner corners at both ends of the magazine with stops I3 and I4 in the shape of upturned ears which limit the path of movement of the feed slide I5.

Set in the bottom of the magazine centrally land in line with the 'longitudinal axis of the slot or opening between the flanges II and I2 is a pair of upstanding pins I6 and I'I. The pin or post I6 is located near the forward end of the magazine and terminates at its upper end below the plane of the inner face of the flanges II and I2 by an amount equal exactly to the thickness of one of the blades for which the magazine is designed. The end of the pin, therefore, in cooperation with the flanges II and I2 gauges the depth of the discharge opening inthe left-hand end of the magazine. The pin I'l at the rear end of the magazine projects substantially above Q the plane of the inner face ofthe flanges II and I2 and into the space which is bridged by the sides of the feed slide I5. The pin Il, therefore, effectively closes the rear end of the magazine. Within the magazine Iis located a curved leaf spring I8 which is arranged to bear upon the lowermost blade of the stack adjacent toits opposite ends and yieldingly to lift the whole stack, maintaining the uppermost blade in Vcontact with the inner face of the flanges Il and I2. The magazine is provided externally at its left-hand end with a tapering finger I9. This isiadapted and shaped to be inserted in the safety razor for the purpose of temporarily separating the blade-clamping members and of registering the magazine in the proper position for presenta'- tion of a blade to the blade seat. The side walls of the feed slide form in effect a recess affording clearance in the slide for passing over the ends of the pins I6 and I1 and also providing a bladepushing portion below each flange.

As shown in Fig. 5 the razor comprises a head 20 having a guard 2| and a co-operating clamping plate 22. The blade isinserted endwise between these two members while they are temporarily sprung apart by the insertion of the' nger I9. At the conclusion of the blade-delivering step the magazinemay be withdrawn and the clamping members allowed to engage and hold the delivered blade in shaving position.

The blades 23 herein shown are single-edged blades having a centrally disposed semi-circular recess in each end by which they may be registered vertically in a stack. As already stated the invention is not limited to blades of this particular design for it would be within the scope of the invention to modify the shape and dimensions of the magazine to accommodate blades of any other desired size or style.

The magazine is initially filled with ten or more blades by the manufacturer and these may be inserted one by .one or inserted 'as a stack prior to the insertion of the pin I1.' Within the magazine the blades 23 are positively retained in predetermined longitudinal Iand transverse position by the engagement of the pinsY I6 and I1 in the end recesses of the blades. At the same time the blades are free to move upwardly on the pins in response to'upward pressure of the spring I8. As already intimated the loaded magazine may be wrapped and used as a container for distributing and dispensing blades t the user.

It will be noted that the flanges II and I2 and the side walls of the magazine extend to the right beyond the pin I'I sufficiently to support the feed slide I5 in a position beyond the end of the stack, this being the initial position of the feed slide. If it is desired to present a blade to the safety razor ,of Fig. 5 the magazine is presented with the finger I9 inserted in the manner already explained and then the feed slide is advanced from right to left. In this movement its flanges Vmost blade has been completed, although the from lifting by the portion of the uppermost blade `still remaining in the magazine above the `end of the pin. No jamming of blades, therefore.

occurs in the discharge opening, but by the A obstruction of the feed slide the attention of the user is drawn to the fact that the previous blade has not been fully ejected. The magazine may be then cleared either by drawing the uppermost blade out of the discharge opening by hand or by forcibly depressing the stack against the action of the spring I8 until the feed slide is again enabled to move forwardly above the second blade in the stack. When this occurs the feed slide again reaches the end of the unejected blade whereupon the ejecting operation may be completed in the regular manner. Ordinarily when a fresh blade is advanced to the blade seat of the razor the used blade is pushed out of the razor ahead of the fresh blade.

It will be noted that while the blades are held in the stack in the magazine by the pins I6 and I l their sharp edges are positively retained out of contact with any part of the magazine enclosure although they are always free to move up or down on the pins I6 and I1 and to pass one by one above the end of the pin I6.

Having thus disclosed my invention and described the best way now known to me of putting 'it into practice, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A magazine containing a stack of end notched safety razor blades, comprising an enclosure having spaced pins in its bottomvbetween which the stack is registered and held by `the end notches of the blades, the enclosure having spaced flanges in its upper wall which expose the ends of said pins, one pin reaching the plane of said flanges and the other pin terminating below said plane sufficiently to provide a discharge opening of the width of a single blade, and a feed slide movable on the flanges of the upper wall of the enclosure and bridging the ends of said pins.

2. A blade magazine comprising an elongated rectangular enclosure having a flanged top, a feed slide guided for limited longitudinal movement therein and having a blade-pushing portion projecting into the enclosure, and pins of unequal length set upright in the bottom of the enclosure and exposed at their upper ends between said flanges, one of said pins terminating below the plane of the inner face of said flanges by a distance equal to the thickness of a single blade, and the other being longer and closing the magazine at its inner end.

3.`A magazine for` safety razor blades, comprising a sheet metal enclosure open at both ends and having its'l top formed by opposed parallel flanges separated by a central opening, centrally disposed pins upstanding in the bottom of the enclosure and serving to locate a stack of end notched blades with their sharp edges held positively out of contact with the walls of the enclosure, one of the pins closing one end of the enclosure and the other pin terminating below the flanges by the thickness of a single blade thus providing a, discharge opening of that depth, and a feed slide movably mounted to slide on said flanges and shaped to bridge the ends of both pins in its movement and to engage a blade on both sides of the pin.

4. A magazine for safety razor blades, including in its structure an elongated enclosure having a top dened by spaced ilanges extending inwardly from the sides of the enclosure so as to form a longitudinally extending slot, an upstanding pin at one end terminating below said flanges and defining therewith a discharge opening of substantially the width of a single blade, and a feed slide interitting at its edges with said spaced flanges and having a blade-engaging portion movable inside the enclosure and recessed in its nner face to aord clearance for passing over the end of the pin While making feeding engagement with a blade in the magazine.

5. A magazine for safety razor blades, including in its structure an elongated enclosure having a top defined by spaced flanges extending inwardly from the sides of the enclosure and separated by a longitudinal slot, upright pins set in the bottom of the enclosure, one of said pins terminating below the inner face of the anges and the other above said face, and a feed slide undercut at its edges to t said flanges and to extend partially within the enclosure, the slide being recessed to bridge the upper ends of said pins and to provide blade-pushing portions below each ilange.

6. A magazine of the character defined in claim 5 in which the flanges extend outwardly for a distance suilicient to support the feed slide outside said longer pin.

7. A magazine of the character defined in claim r5 which has an elongated finger projecting from one end in a direction parallel to the path of the feed slide and of a blade ejected by the movement thereof.

NICHOLAS TESTI.