Foods and beverages: apparatus – Beverage – Infusors
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-03
2001-12-11
Alexander, Reginald L. (Department: 1761)
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Beverage
Infusors
C099S306000, C099S317000, C099S323000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06327965
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an infusing tea maker. The infusing tea maker of the present invention can be placed by a simple action and selectively positioned in any container with any diameter or on a plane, and then tea therein can be poured out automatically or stopped automatically. Moreover, by a special improvement, it can prevent that the tea is drained out due to a mistake contact. The present invention can be widely used in various container. Therefore, the present invention is an infusing tea maker with safely draining preventing ability.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventionally, tea is directly put into a container and then hot water is poured. After several minutes, a fragrant tea is acquired. However, when less water is in the container, the tealeaves remain in the container. The remained tea water has a higher concentration with more impurity. Furthermore, the fragrant odor of the tea will gradually disappear. Therefore, U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,493, “INFUSION COFFER MAKER”, is disclosed by the applicant. As shown in
FIG. 1
, in the patent, the bottom of the cup body
60
is installed with a protruding ring
600
. A plurality of vertical long holes
601
and leg plates
602
are installed on the protruding ring
600
. A retaining plate
61
is further installed. A sleeve
611
with posts
610
and through holes
612
are formed on the retaining plate
61
. Therefore, by the posts
610
to insert into the long holes
601
and the through hole
612
is inserted by the leg plates
602
, the retaining plate
61
can move with respect to the a cup body
60
. The center of the retaining plate
61
is further installed with a stop
62
at the center thereof for being inserted into the penetrating hole to seal the penetrating hole as desired. Therefore, the cup body
61
can be placed on a place by solely the leg plates
602
. If the retaining plate
61
is descended due to the gravitational force thereof, the stop
62
will seal the penetrating hole
63
for stopping water. When the user places in a container
7
with a diameter not larger than that of the cup body
61
, the stop
62
will eject the container
7
upwards, so that the rod
613
will eject the stop
62
, and the water in the cup body will pour out. The use is convenient.
If using this aforesaid structure, it is convenient. However, since the retaining plate
61
is larger and protrudes, it is possible to be touched by the user due to a mistake, so that the stop
62
is ejected from the penetrating hole to cause water to be poured out slightly. Thus, a secondary structure, “TEA INFUSING DEVICE”, U.S. application Ser. No. 09/464476, is disclosed by the applicant. As shown in
FIG. 2
, the tea infusing device is extended from the first structure of
FIG. 1
, in which no leg plate (
602
,
FIG. 1
) is installed, and the diameter of the retaining plate
61
is smaller than that of the protruding ring
600
so as to be received therein. When the retaining plate
61
is descended to a lowest position, it remains not to be lower than the lower rim of the protruding ring
600
. When the tea infusing device is flatly placed on a plane, it is supported by the protruding ring
600
. Thus, the whole periphery of the retaining plate
61
is protected by the protruding ring
600
so as to effectively prevent the cup body to be touched by a mistake.
However, the second structure has still some defects as used with the prior art container. There are some fewer containers
7
(As shown in
FIG. 2
) having a diameter not larger than that of the retaining plate
61
so as to be suitably used with the tea infusing device of the present invention, while unluckily, one lateral side thereof has a protruding mouth
70
and or handle
71
, so that as the tea infusing device is placed on the container, the mouth
70
or handle
71
will at first eject the protruding ring
600
so that the retaining plate
61
originally hidden in the protruding ring
600
can not be ejected by the container for pouring water. Although the containers with such structure, mouths or handle, are not much. However, it is desired to have a novel safety and drain-preventing infusing tea maker for further suiting such structures in order to improve the defects in the prior art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a safety and drain-preventing infusing tea maker for preventing a mistake. Any container with a diameter smaller than that of the retaining plate can be used for containing the infusing tea maker.
In order to achieve aforesaid object, the present invention provides a safety and drain-preventing infusing tea maker. A mask for completely containing the whole retaining plate, and the bottom thereof extends downwards with a plurality of leg plates and a mask is formed at the periphery thereof so that the retaining plate having through hole for being penetrated by the leg plate can be hidden in the mask to be moved therein. When the retaining plate is descended to a lowest position, it is lower then the lower rim of the mask and protrudes slightly therefrom without being lower that the lower ends of the leg plates. As a consequent, not only the retaining plate is covered by the mask for preventing an error contact, but also any container with a diameter smaller than that of the retaining plate can be used for containing the infusing tea maker. When the infusing tea maker is placed on the container, the protruding retaining plate will at first contact with the container so as to be ejected upwards. Thus, the tea water can be poured out successfully. Not only it is convenient and safe in use, but also it can be widely used at any container.
The various objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description when reading in conjunction with the appended drawing.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5249509 (1993-10-01), English
patent: 5813317 (1998-09-01), Chang
patent: 5826493 (1998-10-01), Tien Lin
Alexander Reginald L.
Rosenberg , Klein & Lee
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