Cutting – Other than completely through work thickness or through work... – Scoring
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-29
2001-03-20
Peterson, Kenneth E. (Department: 3724)
Cutting
Other than completely through work thickness or through work...
Scoring
C033S027032, C033S027070, C083S452000, C083S733000, C269S057000, C269S303000, C269S900000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06202530
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a cutting device for easily and reproducibly cutting glass such as stained glass, especially when regular and/or irregular shapes need to be cut.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
The process of hand scoring and breaking glass into geometric shapes has been known for more than hundred of years.
Numerous devices to aid this process have been developed. Some early devices, such as Munford, U.S. Pat. No. 325,855, is fully capable of scoring intricate geometric shapes. However, each angle scores would require an individual setup including the positioning of the glass.
The glass cutting machine patented by Mayer (U.S. Pat. No. 1,515,129), although having a circular platen was developed for producing rectangular glass plates in quantity and is limited to 900 angles.
Another group of glass scoring devices have been developed to produce rectangular glass, e.g., R. J. Louviaux et al. (U.S. Pate. No. 2,273,716), W. M. Arck (U.S. Pat. No. 2,812,579), T. W. Macaulay (U.S. Pat. No. 2,845,713), C. H. Moeller (U.S. Pat. No. 3,227,016), but these devices do not have the capability of scoring other than 90° angles.
Another group of glass scoring devices allows the user to score non-linear, free-form shapes by moving the glass by hand under the scoring instrument. The ability to score intricate geometric forms is left solely to the ability of the user, making accuracy, repeatability and production rate very low. An example of this type of device was patented by Mullen (U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,220).
Another group of devices were developed primarily for making circular glass, e.g., Molleger et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,245), and is incapable of geometric forms with flat or straight sides.
The Able glass scoring device (U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,477) is currently the standard device for use by the small stained glass crafts person. This device, although more versatile in some ways than the first mentioned Munford device, is much more difficult to set up and much less accurate than the Munford device. Set ups, other than 90° are complex and time consuming. Each new score line requires a new setup.
Thus, the prior art has not addressed the need to produce regular and irregular polygon shapes or glass quickly, accurately and repeatedly with a minimum of setups.
The technique of cutting glass by scoring the surface and subsequently breaking it at the score mark has, of course, been known for many years. Over the years, numerous accessories have been developed to assist the operator in effectuating the glass cutting process. Among these have been tables having a specific surface thereon to facilitate the glass cutting operation without scratching the glass surface, guide elements to guide the cutting tool to accurately cut the glass in a straight line, and devices to enable the user to cut small, odd-shaped pieces of glass.
Typical of this latter category of devices is the apparatus shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,220. This apparatus enables a user to cut odd-shaped pieces of glass by disposing a glass cutter in a retaining arm over a work table such that the operator may use both hands to manipulate the glass piece. Alternatively, the glass piece may be secured to the cutting surface and the entire cutting arm moved If the operator so desires. However, this typical apparatus suffers a serious drawback that is shared by virtually all of the prior art devices intended for the home/hobbyist user, that is the collection of glass chips generated by the glass cutter on the work table surface. These chips may cause scratching of the glass surface, injury to the hands of the user, and almost certain inconvenience by the requirement to constantly dean the work table.
The problem of glass chips scratching the surface of the glass that is being cut has long been recognized in commercial glass cutting operations and several solutions have been put forth (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,578,919, 2,595,079 and 2,273,716). These solutions have generally involved placing a plurality of longitudinal ridges on the top of the glass cutting table such that the glass pane being cut rests on the top of the ridges and the glass chips fall between the ridges. In the field of commercial glass cutting operations, which generally cuts panes of glass of relatively large size for windows, doors, picture frames, etc., this solution has been perfectly acceptable. However, for the home/hobbyist user has substantially different criteria for cutting relatively small, irregularly shaped pieces of glass for art works than does the commercial business establishment which cuts almost solely rectangular, rather large glass panes. The prior art solutions mentioned above achieve their affect through a table structure having attached thereto, or integrally formed therewith, the plurality of parallel ridges to collect the glass chips. Obviously, for a home user who must often pursue his hobby without benefit of a separate workshop area, a complete table structure having no other use than for cutting lass is not practical. Furthermore, the hobbyist user must cut various small pieces of glass into highly irregular shapes, which is not possible on glass cutting surfaces utilizing a plurality of longitudinal ridges. Even if the ridges were spaced closely enough together to support the glads while being cut, the irregular shapes encountered by the hobbyist user would invariably require a cut parallel to the support ridges. Obviously, this would cause a breakage of the glass if too much pressure on the cutting tool were exerted, and insufficient scoring of the glass if too little pressure were exerted.
One prior art device attaches a surface of rubber having parallel ridges on its cutting side which supports the glass pane. This is also of no benefit to the home-hobbyist user, since the rubber surface with the ridges will deform if cutting small pieces of glass, thereby rendering small pieces impossible.
The prior art is also replete with devices for guiding a glass cutter along a particular path. These have primarily involved guide bars or other devices permanently attached to a cutting surface along edges disposed at right angles to each other. Once again, these are primarily used in commercial glass cutting establishments to accurately and repeatedly cut rectangular, relatively large panes of glass. They are of particular import in this type of establishment since it enables the operator to rapidly cut a straight line over a large area. Some of these prior art devices are adjustable to readily enable the operator to cut rectangular glass panes of various sizes. However important these devices may be to the commercial business establishment, they are of virtually no use to the home/hobbyist user.
Another type of device for cutting glass is that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,477, however this device is difficult to use as it requires a protractor to measure the angles to be cut on a piece of glass which is laborious and time consuming.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
This invention comprises a device to facilitate the making of regular or irregular polygons.
The device comprises a rotatable platen fitted into a base with a shaft. The glass to be scored is secured to the platen using various positioning and locating devices. A sliding, lockable “T” square (or straight edge) slides over the platen glass with clearance. Using the combination of the rotating platen to achieve the desired angle and sliding the straight edge into the desired position, a standard handheld scoring device is used to score the glass.
With the present invention, any angle within a 360° circumference may be set and scored within seconds. Subsequent angles may also be set and scored to produce an entire sheet of scored, ready to break, triangles or difficult, time consuming more complicated shapes, like pentagons, hexagons, octagons, etc. Larger sheets of glass and glass strips may be scored by sliding and affixing the straight edge to either the left or right hand side of the base and securing the “L” shaped adjustable stops to either th
Caesar Rivise Bernstein Cohen & Pokotilow Ltd.
Peterson Kenneth E.
Professional Glass Tools, Inc.
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