Geometrical instruments – Gauge – Template
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-24
2001-11-27
Bennett, G. Bradley (Department: 2859)
Geometrical instruments
Gauge
Template
C033S563000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06321457
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to cutting material into selected shapes. More specifically, the invention relates to templates for guiding a cutting instrument for cutting selected materials so as to produce selected shapes.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Many hobbies and professions involve sizing or shaping materials or apertures therein. For example, preparing photographs for display typically includes mounting a photograph on a substrate, and then overlying the photograph with a mat having a shaped aperture so that the mat frames and enhances the photograph. Conversely the mat can be mounted under the photograph and the photograph mounted on the mat, with the protruding beyond the edges of the photograph to obtain a similar look.
Cutting a shaped aperture in a medium is accomplished in many different ways. For example, a shape may be drawn on the medium and subsequently traced with a cutting tool. The shape also may be drawn on a separate piece of material which is then cut out and applied to the medium to be cut. An appropriately sized and shaped aperture or mat also may be located on material according to a template having appropriate apertures which may be traced and subsequently incised. Also to avoid the inconvenience of maintaining a collection of templates having different aperture shapes and sizes, some templates may provide interchangeable modules. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,176, issued Jul. 2, 1996, to A. M. Johnson, U.S. Pat. No. 5,860,219, issued Jan. 19, 1999, to C. E. Wilkinson, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,811, issued Mar. 25, 1997, to G. M. Tillemans.
The use of a template for use as a cutting guide is not new. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,928, issued Feb. 2, 1999, to R. L. Lariviere, Jr. et al, describes custom cutting photographs and other graphic materials into interlocking puzzle shapes to construct a collage-puzzle. The template disclosed by Lariviere et al. has channels which guide a blade so as to cut a desired medium, such as a photograph into puzzle pieces of different predetermined shapes.
Unfortunately, the foregoing teachings do not provide for creating similar shapes, silhouettes, rings, borders or windows in or from a selected material in multiple sizes. In this connection it should be noted that a circular- or star-shaped border, for example, placed around a photograph on a page of a photograph album serves to distinguish the photograph. Prior to the invention, obtaining such borders in different sizes would require drawing a multiple of different size circle or star outlines by hand on a selected material, or tracing them on the selected material using a plurality of templates each having a different size outline of the desired shape, and then cutting along the material along the specific traced outline. Alternatively, a template with the desired size outline or pattern could be placed on top of the selected material and then the latter cut directly according to the outline without any intervening tracing step. Such procedures are time-consuming and/or lack precision. What is needed to facilitate the cutting process is a cutting template for cutting selected medium into a selected pattern that affords the choice of a plurality of like patterns that differ in size.
None of the aforementioned references, taken alone or in combination, are seen as teaching or suggesting the present claimed cutting template or the method of using same.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention provides a cutting template of novel design for use in cutting a selected medium in sheet form so as to create a selected pattern or shape, such as an oval, circle, star, or rectangle, of a selected size. The invention also provides a method of using such templates so as to cut selected shapes in a selected medium. The template may be used to cut out solid pieces of selected shapes for mounting on a separate substrate. Alternatively it may be used to cut the medium so as to provide rings, e.g., oval or star-shaped rings, for use as borders. The template also may be used to cut an aperture in a medium so as to convert the medium into a framing mat for a photograph, print or other graphic arts object. In the preferred embodiment of the invention the template comprises a plurality of cutting channels or grooves that define a plurality of like patterns that differ in size and are nested in concentric relation to one another, whereby one template can be used as a cutting guide for cutting out a plurality of pieces having similar shapes but different sizes. Templates with nested (i.e., concentric) patterns offer the advantage that only a few templates are required for cutting a selected medium so as to provide a relatively large number of patterns of diverse shapes and sizes. The templates are preferably made of a transparent plastic material which allows for observing the medium during placement of the template thereon and during cutting of the medium. The invention provides optimal cutting grooves that guide a cutting blade so as to assure precision cutting.
Other features and advantages of the invention are described in or rendered obvious by the following detailed description and the drawings referred to therein.
REFERENCES:
patent: D. 167043 (1952-06-01), Kintz
patent: 1879624 (1932-09-01), Lockwood
patent: 2334913 (1943-11-01), Eisenberg
patent: 2586039 (1952-02-01), Heggedal
patent: 3364598 (1968-01-01), Cook
patent: 3574017 (1971-04-01), Kass
patent: 4230164 (1980-10-01), Mericle
patent: 4586714 (1986-05-01), Lenkoff et al.
patent: 5511316 (1996-04-01), Fischer et al.
patent: 5865928 (1999-02-01), Lariviere et al.
Tool & Die Journal, p. 184, Jan. 1945 (classified in 33/563), see left.
Lariviere D. Marie
Lariviere, Jr. Richard L.
Bennett G. Bradley
Morriss Bateman O'Bryant & Compagni
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