Cutlery – Cutting tools – Plural cooperating blades
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-14
2001-09-25
Payer, Hwei-Slu (Department: 3724)
Cutlery
Cutting tools
Plural cooperating blades
C030S092000, C030S250000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06293019
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF INVENTION
The device of this application is useful in cutting power cables. Cable cutting devices require a sizable mechanical advantage in order to sever large power cables. In order to keep the size of such a cutting tool to a reasonable size and yet have a large mechanical advantage, cutter manufacturers have universally resorted to the use of a ratchet mechanism to produce small advances of the cutter blade while the cutting tool handle moves through great distances.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Utility linemen are frequently required to cut an end for a power cable, for instance during a cable splicing operation, where a pair of power cables must be cut to a desired length and spliced. In the past, the lineman really required three hands to safely cut a power cable and, yet maintain control of the severed end of the cable.
The reason for this is simple. The cutting tool had two handles, one of which was stationary and one of which was oscillated back and forth to ratchet the cutter blade toward an anvil or an opposing cutting blade. (Before widespread use of the ratchet mechanism was adapted, cutting tools originally had a pair of long handles which were held together at a pivot point and the mechanical advantage was determined by the ratio of the distance that the cutter mechanism and the handle pressure points were from the pivot.)
With the advent of the ratchet mechanism, the cutter handles continued to be located on the opposite side of the pivot from the cutting head, and usually only one handle was moved in an oscillatory manner to advance the ratcheting mechanism to close the cutter blade.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention provides improved overall safety when large electrical power cables must be cut. If, for some reason, a power cable some distance above ground must be trimmed or cut, in order to prepare the ends of a pair of cables for a splicing operation, at times prior art cutters made it almost impossible for a utility lineman to perform a cable cutting operation and not drop the severed end of the cable to the ground below.
Considerable thought has been directed to improving the mechanical leverage of prior art cutters, but little thought has been directed to improving the safety of the cutting operation. This invention makes it possible for a utility lineman to simultaneously hold the cable end (about to be severed) and one of the handles (the stationary one) of the cutter device with the same hand while the other hand is free to operate the pivoting handle of the cutter to advance the cutting blade.
PRIOR ART
U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,682
This patent is an excellent example of a prior art tool which has received wide commercial acceptance in the electrical utility industry. Basically, the tool provides a method of obtaining substantial mechanical advantage for performing a cutting operation while maintaining a compact size for the cutter itself. One of the handles is pivoted about a pivot point on the main housing to advance a cutter jaw by means of a ratchet mechanism to provide the required mechanical advantage necessary to cut large power cables.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3007245 (1961-11-01), Keiser, Jr.
patent: 4178682 (1979-12-01), Sadauskas
patent: 4254549 (1981-03-01), McMullin
patent: 4443941 (1984-04-01), McPaul
patent: 4899445 (1990-02-01), Erbrick et al.
patent: 5184404 (1993-02-01), Chen
Lee Robert
Vanlauwe Randall
Oldham Edward H.
Payer Hwei-Slu
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