Cutlery – Can opener – With lid retainer or lifter
Patent
1985-09-12
1988-04-05
Watts, Douglas D.
Cutlery
Can opener
With lid retainer or lifter
30426, B67B 734
Patent
active
047349867
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to can-openers.
A disadvantage with traditional can-openers is that they are effective to cut a part of the can, usually the perimetric region of one of its end walls, which is in direct contact with the contents. Thus, a cutting portion of the opener often contacts the contents during opening and this can be unhygienic. Furthermore, slivers of metal may be detached by the cutting operation and may thus enter the can. Also the edges of the cut end wall, and in some cases the can side wall, may be left sharp and/or jagged after cutting.
Can-openers have therefore been proposed which are effective to remove an end wall of a can by cutting through part of the joint between the end wall and the can body; the joint is normally in the form of a multi-layered upstanding rim extending around the perimeter of the can end wall, and such can-openers are generally operable to separate the end wall from the can body by cutting through the outermost layer on the outside of the rim. With such openers the aforementioned problems associated with traditional openers do not arise since a cutting portion of the opener does not penetrate the can, but only an outer wall portion of the rim. A further advantage with openers of this type is that generally no potentially dangerous sharp edges remain adjacent the rim after the end wall has been removed.
However, experience shows that can-openers which cut an outer layer of the end joint or rim present significant design problems, and in practical terms it is difficult to provide reliable and consistent operation with an opener which is at the same time reasonably convenient to manufacture and thus relatively inexpensive.
Can-openers of this type generally include a rotatable cutler wheel and a rotatable drive wheel arranged tightly to engage a can rim therebetween so that the cutter wheel penetrates the outer wall of the rim, the drive wheel being rotated in operation whereby the rim is fed between the wheels and a cut is formed in the rim outer wall. With such openers, for successful operation the gripping pressure exerted by the cutter and drive wheels must be relatively high, and this can present practical difficulties concerning the mounting of the cutter wheel which must be able to withstand the force of engagement. Typically, the cutter wheel has been rotatably mounted to such openers by means of a shaft or rivet and although this approach may provide a sufficiently firm mounting in the case of an all metal opener, problems may be encountered where it is desired to form the main parts of an opener from a plastics material which may not be strong enough to anchor a shaft or rivet sufficiently firmly. A further problem regarding the mounting of the cutter wheel in certain types of opener which operate by cutting around the rim is that for reliable operation the arrangement should be such that close tolerances can be maintained in the position of the cutter wheel relative to other parts of the opener, and cutter mounting arrangements which present practical difficulties in providing a precise relative location of the cutter wheel are undesirable.
Viewed from a first aspect the invention provides a can-opener which operates to separate an end wall of a can by cutting through an outer part of a rim joining such end wall with the main body of the can, the can-opener comprising a plastics body portion mounting a cutter wheel arranged for engagement with said outer part of the rim, and a rotatable drive wheel arranged to engage an inner part of the rim in gripping relation with the cutter wheel, wherein the cutter wheel is rotatably mounted in a recess formed in a part of said body portion which is arranged to locate said cutter wheel and to provide support therefor.
In accordance with the invention the mounting of the cutter wheel in a recessed part of the plastics body portion is such that the disadvantages associated with known arrangements may be overcome. Thus, a sufficiently firm mounting may be provided to withstand the force on the cutter wheel consequen
REFERENCES:
patent: 2628422 (1953-02-01), Yeomans
patent: 2924878 (1960-02-01), Brown
patent: 3094776 (1963-06-01), Smith
patent: 4251916 (1981-02-01), Peres
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