Cutlery – Cutting tools – With guard and/or guide
Patent
1996-01-22
1998-11-10
Watts, Douglas D.
Cutlery
Cutting tools
With guard and/or guide
30DIG3, B67B 749
Patent
active
058326138
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to cutting apparatus.
This invention has particular but not exclusive application to cutting apparatus for use in opening sealed containers such as envelopes, and for illustrative purposes reference will be made to such application. However, it is to be understood that this invention could be used in other applications such as for making incisions in a material or for shredding a material.
For safety reasons, it is undesirable to provide disabled persons, epileptics or children in particular, or persons traveling in a vehicle in general, with cutting instruments having a cutting edge which during normal conditions of use are accessible to parts of the human body such as fingers or the like and which as a result of misuse may injure the user such as when attempting to open sealed envelopes or the like.
It is also noted that many couriers use envelopes or bags made from a plastics material and wherein the bags are difficult to open once the closure flap has been sealed even with the aid of a pair of scissors. However, it is noted that scissors tend to be rather bulky and typically include sharp points and exposed cutting edges which may injure persons or damage property if carried for example in a persons pocket, handbag or brief case.
The present invention aims to alleviate one or more of the above disadvantages and to provide cutting apparatus which will be reliable and efficient in use.
With the foregoing in view, this invention in one aspect resides broadly in
In one embodiment the cutting assembly may comprise a fine wire which may be smooth or serrated.
In an alternative embodiment the cutting assembly may include a cutting blade which may comprise one or more cutting edges which may be sharpened or which may include a plurality of teeth. For example, the cutting blade may include a single cutting edge which forms part of or is integral with the incising end portion and wherein the cutting blade may include an arcuate cutting edge or a substantially straight cutting edge which may extend upwardly from a lower end portion of the cutting blade whereby in use a lower portion of the cutting edge may be employed to form an incision in the material to be cut.
Alternatively the blade assembly may include a cutting blade having a lower incising end portion which is distinctive from a cutting edge extending upwardly therefrom. For example, the incising portion may include a pointed end portion, which may be sharp or blunt, and wherein the cutting edge may comprise a sharpened side edge of the cutting blade. However it will be appreciated that the incising end portion may be straight or curved.
In a preferred embodiment however, the cutting assembly includes a cutting blade comprising a pair of opposing side cutting edges separated at their distal end by a pointed incising end portion having outwardly divergent cutting edges.
In addition, the cutting assembly may be removable and wherein the cutting assembly may also include locking means for restricting access to and/or the removal of the cutting assembly. For example worn or broken cutting blades may be replaced by new or freshly sharpened blades, access to which may be controlled by appropriate locking means.
In one embodiment the mounting means and the article support means may be constituted by respective upper and lower portions of the apparatus and wherein the position of the upper portion relative to the lower portion may be fixed or may be selectively varied. For example, the apparatus may include mounting means and article support means maintained in a fixed, spaced, relationship by connecting means.
Alternatively, the mounting means and the article support means may be maintained in a spaced relationship by connecting means which may be actuated so as to urge together or otherwise reduce the spacing separating the mounting means and the article support means.
In yet another embodiment, a portion of the mounting means may be pivotally connected to a portion of the article support means such that the opposing portions of the mount
REFERENCES:
patent: 4360970 (1982-11-01), Ostroski et al.
patent: 5103562 (1992-04-01), Braatz
patent: 5117524 (1992-06-01), Chang
Port Bell Pty Ltd
Watts Douglas D.
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