Combustion – Correlation of fuel or power supply with component movements...
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-29
2003-03-18
Price, Carl D. (Department: 3743)
Combustion
Correlation of fuel or power supply with component movements...
C431S255000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06533575
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to child resistant lighters with a flipper safety mechanism.
2. Related Art
The invention relates to a lighter comprising, on the one hand, a flame generation device whereof a portion called an actuator is mobile between a so-called rest position, wherein said device cannot generate a flame, and a so-called ready position wherein said device can generate a flame, and on the other hand, a safety mechanism mobile between a so-called locked position wherein said safety mechanism blocks the actuator in its rest position and a so-called unlocked position enabling said actuator to move towards its active position.
In this type of lighter, a safety mechanism is present to prevent unintended persons, such as children, from using the lighter and igniting a flame, thereby risking injury to themselves or to other persons.
A lighter of the type described above wherein the safety mechanism is a safety member cooperating with a blocking ridge integral with the lighter when the safety mechanism is in its locked position, is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,358.
To go from the locked position to the unlocked position when the lighter is placed in a vertical position, the user must cause horizontal movement of the safety member, thereby releasing it from the blocking ridge, and at the end of its movement, must depress the actuator vertically to initiate the generation of a flame.
A lighter comprising a flame generation device and a safety mechanism is also shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,448.
The flame generation device comprises a portion called an actuator, which is mobile between a rest position wherein the device cannot generate a flame and a so-called ready position wherein the device can generate a flame.
The safety mechanism of this lighter is an integral part of the actuator and has a projecting portion, which cooperates with a blocking ridge of the lighter in order to block the actuator when it is subjected to a conventional force, which any user employs to operate the lighter.
This force is aligned with an axis corresponding to that of the actuator.
The teaching of this patent indicates that to release the actuator, it must be titled rearward and hence, simultaneously, the safety mechanism attached thereto, in order to release the projecting portion of the safety mechanism from the blocking ridge of the lighter.
An axial thrust force must then be applied in a known manner to the actuator to operate the lighter.
In the view of the documents cited above, the applicant aims to find a new lighter striking a good compromise between its user-friendliness for a normal user and its difficulty of use by an unintended user.
The present invention therefore proposes a lighter comprising, on the one hand, a flame generation device whereof a portion called an actuator is mobile between a so-called rest position, wherein said device cannot generate a flame, and a so-called ready position, wherein said device can generate a flame and, on the other hand, a safety mechanism mobile between a so-called locked position wherein said safety mechanism blocks the actuator in its rest position and a so-called unlocked position enabling said actuator to move toward its ready position, wherein the safety mechanism pivots about the actuator to change position.
The present invention hence proposes a lighter safety mechanism of a novel design.
The lighter safety mechanism according to the invention offers the advantage of being simpler to use than that of the lighter described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,448 because it only provides for the pivoting motion of the safety mechanism about the actuator, and not the movement of the entire actuator, as in the patent cited.
According to one feature of the invention, the safety mechanism comprises a so-called bearing portion, which under the action of a first force makes a pivoting motion towards one end of the actuator to which a second force is applied to displace said actuator from its rest position towards its ready position, said bearing portion being arranged at the level of said end when the safety mechanism is in the unlocked position.
Thus, when the safety mechanism has been displaced from its locked position to its unlocked position by applying the first force, the bearing portion being disposed at the level of the end of the actuator, the user then merely needs to apply the second-force naturally to displace the actuator from its end, from its rest position to its ready position.
At the end of the pivoting motion, when the safety mechanism is in the unlocked position, the first force is applied to the bearing portion in a direction forming an angle greater than 90 degrees to another direction along which the second force is applied to the end of the actuator.
Thus, at the end of the unlocking movement of the safety mechanism, the force applied by the user to terminate this movement is not, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,358, perpendicular to the other direction along which the second force is applied to the end of the actuator to conventionally operate the lighter, but, on the contrary, makes an angle greater than 90 degrees to it, thereby facilitating the sequencing of the two movements and naturally guiding the user in the second movement.
Furthermore, the pivoting motion of the safety mechanism proposed according to the invention is more difficult to achieve for an unintended user of the lighter than a simple transition motion, as provided in the lighter of U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,358.
In fact, an unintended user such as a child could inadvertently use the lighter of U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,358 by pressing its finger at different places on the grooved portion of the end of the actuator, which is a non-negligible surface area if the force it applies to this portion is unintentionally oblique and not perpendicular thereto.
On the contrary, to cause a pivoting motion of the safety mechanism of the lighter according to the invention, it is necessary, by definition, to pivot this mechanism and thereby to locate the pivot about which the movement is made.
Such movement is hence theoretically more difficult to execute than a simple translation motion and, in all likelihood, a pivoting motion is more rarely applied unintentionally than a translation motion similar to the one described herein.
According to one characteristic, the pivoting motion is executed about an axis.
According to one characteristic, the actuator is mobile along a longitudinal axis.
According to one characteristic, the safety mechanism pivots about an axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of movement of the actuator.
According to one characteristic, the safety mechanism is elastically maintained in its locked position.
According to one characteristic, the safety mechanism comprises a safety member cooperating with a blocking ridge integral with said lighter.
According to another characteristic, the safety member comprises a so-called ready portion, which is disposed against the blocking ridge, in the locked position of the safety mechanism, and which is disposed facing a housing, in the unlocked position of said safety mechanism.
According to one characteristic, in the locked position of the safety mechanism, the active portion is tilted to the longitudinal axis of the actuator in the direction of said actuator.
According to another characteristic, the safety member comprises a bearing portion whereof the pivoting motion has an amplitude corresponding to the tilt angle formed between the active portion and the longitudinal axis of the actuator.
According to one characteristic, the housing is elongated along an axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of displacement of the actuator so that, in the locked position of the safety mechanism, the active portion of the safety member engages in said housing when the actuator goes from its rest position to its ready position.
According to another characteristic, the active portion of the safety members forms a flange.
According to one characteristic, the actuator comprises a cap to
Price Carl D.
Trojan Law Offices
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