Combustion – Correlation of fuel or power supply with component movements...
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-28
2003-04-01
Bennett, Henry (Department: 3743)
Combustion
Correlation of fuel or power supply with component movements...
C431S255000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06540507
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a piezoelectric lighter, and more particularly to a piezoelectric lighter with a safety lock which normally locks up the ignition cap of the piezoelectric lighter so as to prevent the piezoelectric lighter from being ignited accidentally or by children.
2. Description of Related Arts
Piezoelectric lighters have been known and sold throughout the United States. Generally, there are two types of piezoelectric lighter, namely the push-down type piezoelectric lighter that the ignition button must be depressed downwardly for ignition and the slide-down type piezoelectric lighter that the ignition button must be pushed to slide downwardly and rearwardly at the same time for ignition.
Due to safety purpose, both government and the consumers in United States demand a safety device employed in every lighter to prevent any unwanted ignition of the lighter. In order to prevent the ignition of the push-down type piezoelectric lighter, the safety device can simply block the downward movement of the ignition button so as to lock up the ignition button from ignition. However, the convention safety device which is designed for locking up the downwardly ignition button cannot fit the structure of the slide-down type piezoelectric lighter.
According to the slide-down type piezoelectric lighter, the ignition button is slidably mounted on the casing of the lighter in a radially movable manner about an operation axle provided in the casing, wherein the ignition button has a depressing arm extended to rest on the piezoelectric unit and arranged in such a manner that when the ignition button is depressed sidewardly and downwardly at the same time, the depressing arm will be driven to downwardly compress the piezoelectric unit to ignite the piezoelectric lighter. In other words, the ignition button must be traveled a radial pathway with respect to its operation axle for ignition.
An improved slide-down type piezoelectric lighter comprises a locking switch slidably mounted on the ignition button and a locking member extended from the locking switch to a rear edge of the casing to block the radial movement of the ignition button in order to lock up the ignition of the lighter. However, such locking switch is disadvantage in practice use, especially when the locking switch must be pushed forward to drive the locking member away from the radial pathway of the ignition button. The conflict movements of the locking switch and the ignition button will cause the difficulty of the ignition operation.
Moreover, the structure of the locking switch is more complicated that the original structural design of the piezoelectric lighter must be altered so as to highly increase the manufacturing cost of the piezoelectric lighter. Thus, not all the countries require the piezoelectric to employ with the safety device such that it is not economy for the manufacturer to make the piezoelectric lighters to fit both the markets whether the markets require the safety device or not.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
A main object of the present invention is to provide a piezoelectric lighter with a safety lock which normally locks up the radially ignition motion of the ignition cap so as to prevent any unwanted ignition of the piezoelectric lighter.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a piezoelectric lighter with a safety lock, wherein the ignition of the piezoelectric lighter requires a single continuous action operation by an adult, i.e. firstly push the safety lock rearwardly and secondly push the ignition button rearwardly and downwardly. However, a child is unable to complete the two movements in one single action so that the safety lock can prevent the piezoelectric lighter from being ignited by the children.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a piezoelectric lighter with a safety lock which does not require to alter the original structural design of the piezoelectric lighter, so as to minimize the manufacturing cost of incorporating the safety lock with every conventional slide-down type piezoelectric lighter having the ignition cap.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a piezoelectric lighter with a safety lock, wherein the safety lock is adapted to mount on all kinds of the ignition button of the slide-down type piezoelectric lighter to provide the locking feature of the ignition button. In other words, the manufacturer is able to simply make a universal lighter body to incorporate with the ignition button having the safety lock to fit the markets that requires the safety feature or the ignition button without the safety lock to fit the markets that do not require the safety feature.
Accordingly, in order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides a piezoelectric lighter, comprising:
a casing receiving a liquefied gas storage, an ignition cavity and a nozzle cavity provided in front of the ignition cavity;
a gas emitting nozzle disposed in the nozzle cavity of the casing and communicating with the liquefied gas storage for control a flow of gas;
a piezoelectric unit disposed in the ignition cavity of the casing for generating piezoelectricity; and
a safety lock, comprising:
an ignition cap, having a guiding slot, slidably mounted on the casing in a radially movable manner about an operation axle provided in the casing to define a radial traveling region within the ignition cavity, wherein the ignition cap comprises a depressing arm extended to rest on the piezoelectric unit and arranged in such a manner that when the ignition cap is depressed sidewardly and downwardly at the same time, the depressing arm is driven to downwardly compress the piezoelectric unit to ignite the piezoelectric lighter;
a blocking stopper provided at a front portion of the ignition cavity within the radial traveling region;
a locking member comprising a locking latch disposed in the ignition cavity and an operation button extended from the locking latch to outside through the guiding slot, wherein the locking latch is movably fitted in the ignition cavity in such a manner that the locking latch is arranged to be driven by the operation button to move from a normally locked position to an unlocked position; and
means for retaining the locking member at the locking position, wherein at the locking position, the locking latch is extended within the radial traveling region at a position that the locking latch is blocked by the blocking stopper, so as to lock up the ignition cap from ignition, and at the unlocked position, the locking latch is moved away from the radial traveling region so as to release the blocking up of the ignition cap with respect to the blocking stopper, so that the ignition cap is capable of being slid sidewardly and downwardly to ignite the piezoelectric lighter.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4784602 (1988-11-01), Nitta
patent: 5145358 (1992-09-01), Shike et al.
patent: 5531591 (1996-07-01), Yamazaki
patent: 5833448 (1998-11-01), Doucet et al.
patent: 6086358 (2000-07-01), Potskhishvili et al.
patent: 6135761 (2000-10-01), Chen
patent: 6287109 (2001-09-01), Hirota
Basichas Alfred
Bennett Henry
Chan Raymond Y.
David and Raymond Patent Group
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