WO2002064329A1

WO2002064329A1 - Hand-held cutting device

Info

Publication number: WO2002064329A1
Application number: PCT/IL2002/000112
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ephraim Golshevsky
Original assignee: Corner Cutters Ltd.
Priority date: 2001-02-15
Filing date: 2002-02-14
Publication date: 2002-08-22

Abstract

The invention provides a hand-held cutting device (10) especially suited for slitting open corners (12) of sealed plastic bags (14), comprising a housing (16) having a top surface (18) and a bottom surface (20) joined along their peripheral edges (22) with a hollow space there between, each of the surfaces (18, 20) being provided with one of a pair of substantially rectangular aligned slits (24) sized to accommodate the introduction of a corner (12) of a plastic bag (14) there through, the housing (16) containing a cutting edge (26) moveable within the hollow space, having a first position adjacent the aligned openings (24) and being attached to a manpulating means external to the housing (16) for moving the cutting edge (26) the area between the substantially rectangular aligned slits (24) to cut off the corner (12) of a plastic bag (14) inserted there through, the substantially rectangular aligned slits (24) being dimensioned to delimit the length of the hypotenuse of the triangular corner (12) of the plastic bag (14) inserted therein, thereby controlling the size of the opening formed in the plastic bag (14).

Description

HAND-HELD CUTTING DEVICE

The present invention relates to manual cutting devices. More particularly, the invention provides a hand-held cutting device for opening plastic bags by cutting off a corner thereof.

Many food products, such as regular milk, chocolate-flavored milk, rice, noodles, soup almonds, snack-foods, some breakfast cereals and the like are marketed to consumers as contained in tough plastic bags. World-wide consumption of such bags runs into billions daily, so it is important that a convenient way of opening such containers be available to consumers. It is generally not possible to open such bags without using a cutting tool of some sort. Consumers often do not have scissors readily available, and the use of the teeth for opening the bag produces a jagged edge so that a beverage flows through the newly formed opening in an irregular manner. Bags can of course be opened by means of a sharp knife, but the risks involved thereby need no elaboration. Furthermore some bag materials tear easily once opened, making continued use of the bag impractical.

Accordingly, various devices have been marketed or proposed which attempt to provide some convenient and safe method of opening such bags.

In US Patent no. 3,942,247 Ponczek et al. disclose a combination can opener and bag opener. Supporting means and a housing form an enclosure for the blade with an opening, which provides access for the sharpened edge of the blade, enabling engagement of the bag therewith. The device lacks any control for the size and location of the cut.

Farquharson in US Patent no. 4,671 ,427 proposes a pitcher with a lid fitted with a device for cutting off the corner of a milk bag contained in the pitcher, and for closing the milk bag thereafter. The device is costly, and its use requires that the bag size matches that of the pitcher. It is not a general-purpose device, which could be used for snack foods for example.

A hand-held device of more general application is disclosed by Horning in US Patent no. 5,007,171. The bag opener has a U-shaped form with a blade mounted on an interior leg surface. The device is intended to cut off the whole sealed edge of a bag. The user needs to squeeze the legs together, pull the device sideways while maintaining the U in its cutting orientation. Many users will find this task difficult. In embodiments proposing to use material spring-back to eliminate the need for squeezing the legs of the device together during cutting, users will find that assembling the device to the bag requires more than two hands.

A possible improvement on the Horning device is found in US Patent 5,103,562 to Braatz, who proposes a self-opening tool, wherein packages can be inserted without difficulty. During cutting this tool also requires the user to squeeze the tool legs together. Neither specification is suitable for cutting corners.

A business card letter opener disclosed by Carney in US Patent no. 5,285,577 is provided with a pointed finger-shaped member to be inserted between the main body of the envelope and the glue flap. The envelope is drawn by the user towards a knife-edge embedded at the end of the opening formed by said member. Use of this device for opening plastic bags would entail the preliminary step of forming an aperture in the bag.

Tipp in US Patent 5,524,348 proposes a hand-held slitting device having an insertion slot and a pointed blade protruding therein. The user needs to manipulate the bag to be opened firstly to pierce a starting hole and then to cut the bag open. The device fails to provide close support for the bag and edge during cutting, and will be particularly difficult to use to cut corners. The blade is unprotected and could be a source of injury to children playing therewith.

It is therefore one of the objects of the present invention to obviate the disadvantages of prior art cutting devices and to provide a device suitable for safely cutting off the corner of a plastic bag to open same.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a device, which provides bag support at both sides of the cutting blade so as to achieve a clean cut.

Yet a further aim of the present invention is to provide a bag corner cutting device which is easy to use.

The present invention achieves the above objects by providing a hand-held cutting device especially suited for slitting open corners of sealed plastic bags, comprising a housing having a top surface and a bottom surface joined along their peripheral edges with a hollow space there between, each of said surfaces being provided with one of a pair of substantially rectangular aligned slits sized to accommodate the introduction of a corner of a plastic bag there through, said housing containing a cutting edge moveable within said hollow space, having a first position adjacent said aligned openings and being attached to a manipulating means external to said housing for moving said cutting edge the area between said substantially rectangular aligned slits to cut off the corner of a plastic bag inserted there through, said substantially rectangular aligned slits being dimensioned to delimit the length of the hypotenuse of the triangular corner of said plastic bag inserted therein, thereby controlling the size of the opening formed in said plastic bag.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention there is provided a handheld cutting device wherein said manipulating means is in contact with spring means within the housing, automatically urging the blade and manipulating means to their first position after use.

In preferred embodiments of the present invention said device comprises a housing having a top surface and a bottom surface joined along their peripheral edges with a hollow space there between, each of said surfaces being provided with one of a pair of substantially rectangular aligned slits sized to accommodate the introduction of a corner of a plastic bag there through, said housing containing a steel blade slideable within said hollow space, having a first position adjacent said aligned openings and being attached to a manipulating means external to said housing via an elongated aperture provided in one of said surfaces of said housing for sliding said blade across the area between said substantially rectangular aligned slits to cut off the corner of a plastic bag inserted there through, said substantially rectangular aligned slits being dimensioned to delimit the length of the hypotenuse of the triangular corner of said plastic bag inserted therein, thereby controlling the size of the opening formed in said plastic bag.

In other preferred embodiments of the present invention said cutting edge is formed along a first blade of a scissors-like device contained in and rigidly attached to said housing, corner cutting being effected by manipulation of a second blade movable inside said housing and around a hinge point joining said blades of said device, said second blade acting to shear off said triangular corner of said plastic bag when inserted through said aligned slits in said housing.

In a most preferred embodiment of the present invention there is provided a hand-held cutting device provided with means for adjusting the effective length of at least one of said pair of substantially rectangular aligned slits.

Yet further embodiments of the invention will be described hereinafter.

It will thus be realized that the novel device of the present invention serves to open milk bags and can also be used for opening bags of the type used for snack foods.

With regard to milk bags, the device can be manufactured to cut a corner having a hypotenuse of about 15 mm. A corner cut substantially larger than this tends to allow milk to pour out too fast, while a substantially smaller cut is liable to try the patience of the milk user.

Snack food bags usually require a much larger opening. This is provided for, simply by elongating all three slits of the cutting device. The embodiment described with reference to FIG. 4 may be used should it be decided to market a single model of the cutter to cover both requirements.

As with any cutting device, safety requirements must be met to prevent injury during normal and even careless use of the product. In the device of the present invention the cutting blade is contained in a closed housing making it impossible for children or anyone else to injure themselves thereon.

For successful and neat cutting of flexible materials it is not sufficient to rigidly support the cutting blade; the material being cut should also preferably be gripped or at least restrained on both sides of the cutting blade, and as near thereto as possible. The type of unrestrained cutting illustrated in US Patent no. 3,942,247 will not give best possible results - particularly after the blade is no longer very sharp. Restraint ^cof the flexible plastic being cut by the device of the present invention is achieved by means of the two aligned slots - one on each side of the blade.

While it is possible to cut many materials by stationary pressing of a sharp blade thereagainst, better cutting can be achieved if there is some longitudinal movement of the blade such as is commonly executed when a knife is used by and, or example during the eating of meat or vegetables. In an embodiment of the invention to be described with reference to FIG. 5, a simple method of achieving this end will be seen.

Optionally the device of the present invention may be provided with convenience features, such as means for storage for ready use and collection means for the cut corners to prevent littering the kitchen. Embodiments for these purposes will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 & 7.

The invention will now be described in connection with certain preferred embodiments with reference to the following illustrative figures so that it may be more fully understood.

With specific reference now to the figures in detail, it is stressed that the particulars shown are by way of example and for purposes of illustrative discussion of the preferred embodiments of the present invention only and are presented in the cause of providing what is believed to be the most useful and readily understood description of the principles and conceptual aspects of the invention. In this regard, no attempt is made to show structural details of the invention in more detail than is necessary for a fundamental understanding of the invention, the description taken with the drawings making apparent to those skilled in the art how the several forms of the invention may be embodied in practice. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view looking at the front surface of a preferred embodiment of the cutting device according to the invention, showing a corner of a bag to be opened inserted in the device;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the same embodiment with its front surface removed to show inner details;

FIG. 3 again shows the same embodiment looking at the rear face; FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a second embodiment provided with adjustment means for changing the size of the cut corner;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of an embodiment arranged for improved cutting action;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an embodiment providing magnetic attachment for storage; FIG. 7 is a perspective view of an embodiment providing means for collection of the cut corners;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of an embodiment wherein the corner is sheared by a scissors-like device; and

FIG. 9 is a plan view of an embodiment similar to that seen in FIG. 8, provided with an improved stop arrangement.

There is seen in FIGS.1 , 2 & 3 a hand-held cutting device 10 especially suited for slitting open corners 12 of sealed plastic bags 14. A housing 16 having a top surface 18 and a bottom surface 20 is joined along their peripheral edges 22 with a hollow space therebetween. Each surface 18, 20 is provided with one of a pair of substantially rectangular aligned slits 24 sized to accommodate the introduction of a corner 12 of a plastic bag 14 therethrough. The housing 16 can suitably be molded from a hard, tough engineering plastic, for example acrylonitrile- butadiene-styrene (ABS).

The housing 16 contains a steel knife blade 26 slideable within the hollow space. In its first position the blade 26 is adjacent to the pair of aligned opening slits 24, being attached to a manipulating means 28 external to the housing 16. Manipulating means 28 is a plastic molding extending through and being guided by an elongated aperture 30 provided in one of the surfaces 18 of the housing 16. The external portion of the molding is formed as a finger button 32 shaped to allow easy application of finger or thumb pressure for sliding in the direction of the elongated aperture 30. Such movement causes the blade 26 to move across the area between the substantially rectangular aligned slits 24 to cut off the corner 12 of a plastic bag 14 inserted therethrough.

Advantageously manipulating means 28 is in contact with spring means 33 within the housing. In the shown embodiment a coil spring automatically urges the blade 26 attached to manipulating means 28 to its first position, ready for reuse.

The substantially rectangular aligned slits 24 are dimensioned to delimit the length of the hypotenuse of the triangular corner 12 of plastic bag 14 inserted therein, thereby controlling the size of the opening formed in the plastic bag 14. A cut having a length of about 15 mm forms an opening suitable for a milk bag and fine granulated materials such as sugar and salt. For snack foods, a cut of about 40 - 50 mm is suitable.

With regard to the rest of the figures, similar reference numerals have been used to identify similar parts.

Referring now to FIG. 4, there is seen a hand-held cutting device 34 provided with elongated slits 36, 38, allow the corner of a bag inserted in the device 34 to be cut off at a size suitable for allowing the consumption of snack foods.

In order to also allow smaller corners to be cut, as is appropriate for bags containing free-flowing liquids, the device 34 is provided with means for adjusting the effective length of one of the substantially rectangular aligned slits 36. This is achieved by the addition of a b.idge piece 38 which can be positioned to cover a small or large part of the slits 36. The bridge piece 38 has projections 40 on its inner leg extremities 42 which locate in a series of dimples 44 along housing edges 46.

FIG. 5 illustrates a further embodiment 48 of the hand-held cutting device. As is evident from the figure, the elongated aperture 50 guiding the knife manipulation body 52 is non-parallel to the substantially rectangular aligned slits 54 wherein the corner 12 of the plastic bag is inserted. Thus as the cutting blade 56 moves in the direction of the cut, the blade 56 also moves longitudinally across the edge being cut. As is to be expected, such movement reduces the cutting pressure required, and more importantly allows continued use of the device 48 also after the cutting blade 56 is no longer at its optimum sharpness.

Seen in FIG. 6 is a hand-held cutting device 58 similar to the device 10 seen in FIG. 1. The housing surface 20 opposite to the surface 18 provided with the elongated aperture 30 seen in FIG. 1 carries a magnetic attachment pad 60. Thus the device 58 may be held for storage on the vertical face of a steel refrigerator door to be readily available for use whenever required.

Referring now to FIG. 7, there is depicted a further hand-held cutting device 62 similar to the device 10 seen in FIG. 1. The device 62 is further provided with retention means - a pair of small hooks 64 molded integral with the housing 66, allowing the attachment thereunder of a waste receptacle 68, such as a small light- duty plastic bag. Referring now to FIG. 8, there is seen a hand-holdable cutting device 70 wherein a stationary cutting edge 72 is formed along a first blade 74 of a scissors- like hand-holdable cutting device 70 contained in and rigidly attached to a housing 76. Corner 78 cutting is effected by external manipulation of blade handles 80, 82. A second blade 84 is movable inside the housing 76 and around a hinge point 86 joining the two blades 74, 84 of the device. The second blade 84 acts to shear off the triangular corner 78 of the plastic bag when 86 the corner 78 is inserted through the aligned slits 88 in the housing 76.

The size of the cut corner hypotenuse is determined by the setting of the adjustable stop 90, which is set to produce a cut corner 78 of about 10 - 15 mm for bags containing free-flowing liquids and about 40 - 50 mm for solid particles, for example breakfast cereals.

As the cutting edge 72 is completely enclosed in the housing 76 there is no possibility of children cutting themselves, the slits 88 being too narrow to allow children to insert fingers therein. The cutting edge 72 is also protected from misuse, for example by the cutting of flower stems or thick carton, because only flat thin items can be inserted in the slits 88.

FIG. 9 shows a second embodiment 92 of the hand-held cutting device, generally similar to the embodiment 70 seen in FIG. 8. An adjustable-position sliding stop element is attached to the outer face of the housing for controlling the size of the opening to be cut in the plastic bag. For setting convenience graduation marks are provided along the length of one of the slits.

Advantageously location detents are provided along the length of at least one of the slits. The adjustable-position sliding stop element engages the detents to provide protection against inadvertent movement of the stop when the device is in use.

Space on the exterior of the housing may be used for the display of the product name, or for operating instructions, or for advertising purposes.

It will be evident to those skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to the details of the foregoing illustrative embodiments and that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof. The present embodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A hand-held cutting device especially suited for slitting open corners of sealed plastic bags, comprising a housing having a top surface and a bottom surface joined along their peripheral edges with a hollow space therebetween, each of said surfaces being provided with one of a pair of substantially rectangular aligned slits sized to accommodate the introduction of a corner of a plastic bag therethrough, said housing containing a cutting edge moveable within said hollow space, having a first position adjacent said aligned openings and being attached to a manipulating means external to said housing for moving said cutting edge the area between said substantially rectangular aligned slits to cut off the corner of a plastic bag inserted therethrough, said substantially rectangular aligned slits being dimensioned to delimit the length of the hypotenuse of the triangular corner of said plastic bag inserted therein, thereby controlling the size of the opening formed in said plastic bag.

2. A hand-held cutting device according to claim 1 , especially suited for slitting open corners of sealed plastic bags, comprising a housing having a top surface and a bottom surface joined along their peripheral edges with a hollow space therebetween, each of said surfaces being provided with one of a pair of substantially rectangular aligned slits sized to accommodate the introduction of a corner of a plastic bag therethrough, said housing containing a steel blade slideable within said hollow space, having a first position adjacent said aligned openings and being attached to a manipulating means external to said housing via an elongated aperture provided in one of said surfaces of said housing for sliding said blade across the area between said substantially rectangular aligned slits to cut off the corner of a plastic bag inserted therethrough, said substantially rectangular aligned slits being dimensioned to delimit the length of the hypotenuse of the triangular corner of said plastic bag inserted therein, thereby controlling the size of the opening formed in said plastic bag.

3. A hand-held cutting device according to claim 2, wherein said manipulating means is in contact with spring means within said housing, automatically urging said blade and said manipulating means to said first position after use.

4. A hand-held cutting device according to claim 1 , wherein said device is provided with means for adjusting the effective length of at least one of said pair of substantially rectangular aligned slits.

5. A hand-held cutting device according to claim 2, wherein said elongated aperture is non-parallel to said substantially rectangular aligned slits.

6. A hand-held cutting device according to claim 2, wherein the housing surface opposite to the surface provided with said elongated aperture carries a magnetic attachment pad.

7. A hand-held cutting device according to claim 1 , wherein said device is further provided with retention means allowing the attachment thereunder of a waste receptacle.

8. A hand-held cutting device according to claim 1 wherein said cutting edge is formed along a first blade of a scissors-like device contained in and rigidly attached to said housing, corner cutting being effected by manipulation of a second blade movable inside said housing and around a hinge point joining said blades of said device, said second blade acting to shear off said triangular corner of said plastic bag when inserted through said aligned slits in said housing.

9. A hand-held cutting device according to claim 8 wherein an adjustable- position sliding stop element is attached to the outer face of said housing for controlling the size of said opening to be cut in said plastic bag.

10. A hand-held cutting device according to claim 9 wherein graduation marks are provided along the length of one of said slits.

11. A hand-held cutting device according to claim 9 wherein location detents for said adjustable-position sliding stop element are provided along the length of at least one of said slits.