Abstrict A spice crusher comprising a main body, a handle pivotally mounted
on the main body, a crushing plate, a gear driving mechanism and
a fineness control mechanism. The crushing plate, gear driving mechanism
and fineness control mechanism are arranged within the main body
so that the gear driving mechanism and the fineness control mechanism
co-operate with the crushing plate. The driving gear mechanism enables
the spice crusher to be operated easily by one hand. The fineness
control mechanism controls the fineness of the crushed spices. The
spice crusher may be used to crush peppercorns.
Claims What is claimed is:
1. A spice crusher, comprising a main body, a handle pivotally
mounted on the main body, a crushing plate, a gear driving mechanism
and a fineness control mechanism, wherein the crushing plate, gear
driving mechanism and fineness control mechanism are disposed within
the main body and the gear driving mechanism and the fineness control
mechanism co-operate with the crushing plate, said gear driving
mechanism comprising a driving gear, a pinion and a large gear,
wherein one end face of the larger gear and one end face of the
pinion have respective protruding teeth that engage with each other
when the pinion is rotated in a first rotational direction, thus
causing the large gear to rotate with the pinion in the first rotational
direction, and wherein the protruding teeth of the pinion slip over
the protruding teeth of the large gear when the pinion is rotated
in a second rotational direction opposed to the first rotational
direction, thus preventing the large gear from being rotated with
the pinion in the second rotational direction.
2. A spice crusher as claimed in claim 1 wherein the driving gear
is connected to the handle, the pinion and large gear are mounted
coaxially and mutually engaged and the large gear works in cooperation
with the crushing plate.
3. A spice crusher as claimed in claim 1 wherein the driving gear
is sector-shaped and connected to a cylindrical shaft of the handle.
4. A spice crusher as claimed in claim 1 wherein a hollow cylinder
is provided within a centre of an upper part of the main body, whereby
the pinion and large gear are successively mounted on a cylindrical
shaft inserted within a hollow portion of the cylinder and the pinion
presses against a spring that forms a sleeve around a periphery
of the cylinder.
5. A spice crusher as claimed in claim 1 wherein a back of the
crushing plate is provided with a protrusion, the fineness control
mechanism comprises a control plate and a knob, one end of the control
plate includes an elliptically shaped hole and an other end includes
a protruding portion that engages with the protrusion on the back
of the crushing plate, the knob includes a head, a cam-like hard
plastic plate, a cylindrical body that is inserted into the elliptically
shaped hole of the control plate and a shaft that is offset to the
cylindrical body and mounted in a predetermined position on the
main body.
6. A spice crusher as claimed in claim 1 wherein the handle is
provided with a spring bow and a curved piece to return the handle
to its initial position after being moved towards the main body.
7. A spice crusher as claimed in claim 6 wherein a hard plastic
plate with a semi-circular wall is provided within the main body
and arranged so the spring bow presses against the semi-circular
wall.
8. A spice crusher as claimed in claim 7 wherein a bottom of the
hard plastic plate is provided with a plurality of protruding portions
that are inserted into corresponding accommodating holes in the
main body.
9. A spice crusher as claimed in claim 1 wherein a lid is disposed
on the top of the main body, the lid has a tail end with a protruding
section and swings open when pressure is applied to the protruding
section.
10. A peppercorn crusher comprising a main body, a handle pivotally
mounted on the main body, a hard plastic plate with a semi-circular
wall, a crushing plate, a gear driving mechanism and a fineness
control mechanism whereby a lid is disposed on the top of the main
body, the handle includes a spring bow and a curved piece, the hard
plastic plate is disposed within the main body and the spring bow
presses on the semi-circular wall and the crushing plate, the gear
driving mechanism and the fineness control mechanism are disposed
within the main body and the gear driving mechanism co-operates
with the crushing plate and the fineness control mechanism links
with the crushing plate.
Description CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims priority of Chinese Application No. 01233473.1
filed Aug. 16 2001.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable
REFERENCE TO A "MICROFICHE APPENDIX"
Not applicable
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a spice crusher, particularly to a spice
crusher that is able to crush spices, such as peppercorns. Such
a spice crusher is often called a peppercorn crusher and more commonly
known as a pepper mill.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventional spice/peppercorn crushers are long cylinders that
consist of a cylindrical body and a top cover. These spice/peppercorn
crushers require a user to hold the cylindrical body with one hand
and apply pressure whilst turning the cover 360.degree. with another
hand in order to crush spices or peppercorns contained within the
cylindrical body by a crushing plate positioned under the top cover.
Such devices require the use of both hands at the same time and
significant strength is needed to press and twist the top cover.
As a result conventional spice/peppercorn crushers are difficult
to use, require much effort and are unsuitable for injured or disabled
people. The fineness of the crushed spices/peppercorns is determined
by the pressure that is exerted on the top cover by the user's hand.
Such a great pressure is required to crush the spices/peppercorns
very finely it is difficult to obtain. Also, constant pressure is
difficult to maintain and so the fineness of crushed spices/peppercorn
is often uneven in the same operation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided
a spice crusher, comprising a main body, a handle pivotally mounted
on the main body, a crushing plate, a gear driving mechanism and
a fineness control mechanism, wherein the crushing plate, gear driving
mechanism and fineness control mechanism are arranged within the
main body such that the gear driving mechanism and the fineness
control mechanism co-operate with the crushing plate.
Preferably, the gear driving mechanism comprises a driving gear,
a pinion and a large gear, whereby the driving gear is connected
to the handle, the pinion and large gear are mounted coaxially and
mutually engaged and the large gear works in co-operation with the
crushing plate.
Even more preferably, the driving gear is sector-shaped and connected
to a cylindrical shaft of the handle.
Preferably, a hollow cylinder is provided within a centre of an
upper part of the main body, the pinion and large gear are successively
mounted on a cylindrical shaft inserted within a hollow portion
of the cylinder and the pinion presses against a spring that forms
a sleeve around a periphery of the cylinder.
Additionally, one end face of the pinion may be provided with a
plurality of protruding teeth and one end face of the large gear
is provided with protruding teeth. The pinion and large gear are
arranged so that the protruding teeth of the pinion engage with
the protruding teeth of the large gear such that the pinion and
large gear rotate together in one direction only.
Likewise, a back of the crushing plate may be provided with a protrusion,
the fineness control mechanism comprises a control plate and a knob,
one end of the control plate includes an elliptically-shaped hole
and an other end includes a protruding portion that engages with
the protrusion on the back of the crushing plate, the knob includes
a head, a cam-like hard plastic plate, a cylindrical body that is
inserted into the elliptically-shaped hole of the control plate
and a shaft offset to the cylindrical body that is mounted in a
predetermined position on the main body.
Preferably, the handle is provided with a spring bow and a curved
piece to return the handle to its initial position after being moved
towards the main body.
Additionally, a hard plastic plate with a semi-circular wall may
be provided within the main body and arranged so that the spring
bow presses against the semi-circular wall.
Even more preferably, a bottom of the hard plastic plate is provided
with a plurality of protruding portions that are inserted into corresponding
accommodating holes in the main body.
Preferably, a lid is disposed on the top of the main body, the
lid has a tail end with a protruding section and swings open when
pressure is applied to the protruding section.
In a second aspect of the invention there is provided a peppercorn
crusher comprising a main body, a handle pivotally mounted on the
main body, a hard plastic plate with a semi-circular wall, a crushing
plate, a gear driving mechanism and a fineness control mechanism
whereby a lid is disposed on the top of the main body, the handle
includes a spring bow and a curved piece, the hard plastic plate
is arranged within the main body such that the spring bow presses
on the semi-circular wall and the crushing plate, the gear driving
mechanism and the fineness control mechanism are arranged within
the main body so that the gear driving mechanism co-operates with
the crushing plate and the fineness control mechanism links with
the crushing plate.
The crushing process of the spice crusher is driven by a gear-driving
mechanism. The spice crusher can be operated with only one hand
and requires very little strength. A fineness control mechanism
is provided so as easily to control the fineness of the crushed
spices/peppercorns. The spice crusher of the present invention saves
time and labour.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
An embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in the accompanying
drawings, by way of example only, in which:
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a peppercorn crusher of present invention;
FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the peppercorn crusher as shown in
FIG. 1 with a handle pulled towards a main body;
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a pinion and a large gear of the
peppercorn crusher as shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a knob to adjust a control plate
of the peppercorn crusher as shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view of a handle and a hard plastic
plate of the peppercorn crusher as shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 6 is an exploded schematic view of a crushing plate, fineness
control mechanism and a knob of the peppercorn crusher as shown
in FIG. 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings depicts all the requisite parts
of a peppercorn crusher 1 according to an embodiment of the present
invention. The peppercorn crusher 1 comprises a main body 2 and
a handle 3 pivotally mounted on said main body 2. The main body
2 conveniently consists of two identical halves, which are fixed
together by means of fasteners such as screws. The peppercorn crusher
1 includes mounting points 2a for installation of the fasteners.
The handle 3 has a cylindrical pin 4 passing through its upper end,
and two ends of said cylindrical pin 4 are accommodated in a predetermined
position in the main body 2 (not shown in the figure), so that the
handle 3 is pivotally fixed on the main body 2. In addition, a spring
bow 5 is provided on the handle 3 in order to restore the handle
3 back to its initial position after being pulled towards the main
body 2.
A lid 6 is provided on the top of main body 2 with a swing mechanism.
The lid 6 swings upwards to provide an opening in the main body
when pressure is applied to the protruding section of a tail end
of the lid 6. When the lid 6 is up, an inner chamber 2.1 of the
main body 2 may be filled with peppercorns. At a centre of an upper
half-part of main body 2 is provided a hollow cylinder 7. A spring
5 acts with a sleeve 11 (hard plastic plate in FIG. 5) around a
periphery of the cylinder 7 (not shown) and interacts with handle
3 such that as handle 9 is squeezed to operate the large gear 10
spring 8.1 is tensioned so as to cause handle 9 to return to its
regular rest position when released. A cylindrical shaft 8 is inserted
into a hollow portion of the cylinder 7. A pinion 9 and large gear
10 are mounted on a cylindrical shaft 8. Two ends of said cylindrical
shaft 8 are accommodated in a predetermined position (not shown)
in the main body 2.
FIG. 3 depicts the pinion 9 and large gear 10 in more detail. The
pinion 9 has two end faces, one of which is flat and smooth whilst
the other face has a plurality of protruding teeth (FIGS. 1 and
2) with side surfaces inclined substantially at 45.degree.. The
pinion 9 may have four protruding teeth. During the assembly of
the peppercorn crusher 1 the cylindrical shaft 8 passes through
a central hole of the pinion 9. The pinion 9 is arranged so that
the face with the protruding teeth is set upwards, while the smooth
face abuts the spring that surrounds the periphery of the hollow
cylinder 7. As a result the pinion 9 is pressed against the spring
8.1.
As with the pinion 9 one end face of the large gear 10 is flat
and smooth whilst the end face of gear 10 is provided with a cylindrical
portion, on which is arranged a plurality of protruding teeth. The
protruding teeth have, though are not limited to, a substantially
inclined side surface of 45.degree.. During assembly, the large
gear 10 is mounted on the cylindrical shaft 8 and the cylindrical
portion is arranged so that the protruding teeth of the large gear
10 engage with the protruding teeth of the pinion 9.
Due to the particular mating structure of the cylindrical portion
of large gear 10 and protruding teeth of pinion 9 the two protruding
teeth of the pinion 9 and large gear 10 can only be engaged in one
direction. That is to say, when pinion 9 rotates clockwise the protruding
teeth of cylindrical portion of large gear 10 and protruding teeth
of pinion 9 engage with each other so that pinion 9 drives the large
gear 10 to rotate clockwise. But when pinion 9 rotates counter-clockwise,
the protruding teeth of pinion 9 slip over the inclined sides of
the protruding teeth of the cylindrical portion of large gear 10
and no longer engage. Thus the large gear 10 does not rotate with
the counter-clockwise rotation of the pinion and remains stationary.
After the installation of pinion 9 a hard plastic plate 11 with
a semi-circular wall is installed. The hard plastic plate 11 may
be formed from such as Bakelite.RTM.. A plurality of protruding
portions are formed on a bottom of the hard plastic plate 11 in
order to attach the hard plastic plate 11 to the main body 2. The
plurality of protruding portions are inserted into corresponding
accommodating holes (not shown) in the main body 2. The hard plastic
plate 11 may have three protruding portions. The spring 5 of the
handle 3 presses against the semi-circular wall of the hard plastic
plate 11. When the handle 3 is pulled towards the main body 2 by
the user the outward pushing force of the spring bow 5 causes the
handle 3 to return to its original position. In order to prevent
the handle 3 from being pushed beyond its original position the
handle 3 is provided with a curved piece 12 which abuts the outer
wall of the main body 2.
A sector-shaped driving gear 13 is provided at the cylindrical
pin 4 end of the handle 3. The sector-shaped driving gear 13 engages
the pinion 9. When the user pulls the handle 3 towards the main
body, the sector gear 13 swings counter-clockwise. The pinion 9
in turn drives the large gear 10 so that it rotates clockwise. Hence
these three gears constitute a gear-driving mechanism. As a result,
the user can crush the peppercorns without applying much effort
or requiring significant strength.
The main body 2 is also provided with an arc-shaped crushing plate
14 with serrations and a fineness control mechanism. FIG. 6 shows
that the fineness control mechanism comprises a fineness control
plate 15 to control the fineness of crushed peppercorns and a knob
16 to adjust the control plate 15. Two cylindrical pins 14a are
formed integrally at one end of the crushing plate 14. The cylindrical
pins 14a are accommodated in predetermined holes in the main body
2 so that the crushing plate 14 can be pivotally fixed. Moreover,
a semi-circular protrusion 14b is provided on a back of the crushing
plate 14. Serrations are formed on a front face of the crushing
plate 14 to press on the large gear 10 in order to crush the peppercorns.
The fineness control plate 15 is generally V-shaped (FIG. 6). An
upper end of the control plate 15 is provided with an elliptically
shaped hole 15a and a lower end has a protruding portion 15b inclined
substantially as at 45.degree.. The protruding portion 15b engages
with the semi-circular protrusion 14b formed at the back of the
crushing plate 14.
FIGS. 4 and 6 depict a configuration of knob 16 in detail. The
knob includes a head, a cam-like hard plastic disc 16a, a cylindrical
body 16b and an eccentric shaft 16c. The main body 2 is provided
with a recess 17 that accommodates the head of the knob 16 so the
user may turn it. The hard plastic disc 16a may be formed from Bakelite.RTM..
The hard plastic disc 16a limits the rotation of knob by user to
a range of such as 5-180.degree. by abutting the inner wall of main
body 2. Consequently, excessive turning of the knob is prevented.
The cylindrical body 16b is smaller than the elliptical shaped hole
15a in control plate 15. The eccentric shaft 16c is arranged in
an offset position to cylindrical body 16b. The cylindrical body
16b is inserted into elliptically shaped hole 15a, and eccentric
shaft 16c is installed at a predetermined position in main body
2.
Since the eccentric shaft 16c is offset to one side, when the knob
16 is turned, cylindrical body 16b inserted in the elliptically-shaped
hole 15a of control plate 15 is driven to rotate along an elliptical
path. As a result the cylindrical body 16b moves closer to either
of an upper or a lower end of the elliptically shaped hole 15a so
that the control plate 15 is made to ascend or descend. When the
knob 16 is turned upward, the cylindrical body 16b inserted in the
elliptically shaped hole 15a of control plate 15 moves the control
plate 15 upward towards the upper end of elliptically shaped hole
15a. When the control plate 15 is moved upward the protruding portion
15b at lower end of control plate 15 presses against the semi-circular
protrusion 14b positioned at the back of the crushing plate 14.
The crushing plate is pushed towards the large gear 10 and a gap
between crushing plate 14 and large gear 10 becomes smaller so the
peppercorn is crushed more finely. Conversely, when knob 16 is turned
in a reverse (downwards) direction, the cylindrical body 16b moves
the control plate 15 downwards towards the lower end of elliptically
shaped hole 15a. By pushing the control plate 15 downwards the protruding
portion 15b no longer presses against the semi-circular protrusion
14b at back of crushing plate 14 and so the gap between crushing
plate 14 and large gear 10 becomes larger. The pressure acting on
the peppercorn lessens and it is crushed more coarsely.
The working principle of the peppercorn crusher shall now be described
as follows:
Whilst holding the peppercorn crusher with one hand, the user presses
on the protruding part of the tail end of the lid 6 with his thumb
in order to swing the lid upwards. The inner chamber of the crusher
can now be filled with peppercorns. The peppercorns fall into the
gap between crushing plate 14 and large gear 10 through opening
18. The fineness of crushed peppercorn is selected by turning the
knob 16. When the user pulls the handle 3 toward main body 2 as
shown in FIG. 2 the clockwise pivotal rotation of handle 3 rotates
the sector-shaped driving gear 13 counter-clockwise. Thereupon,
the sector-shaped driving gear 13 rotates the pinion 9 in a clockwise
direction. Since the protruding teeth on pinion 9 are engaged with
the protruding teeth on the cylindrical part of the large gear 10
the pinion 9 drives the large gear 10 in a clockwise direction.
As a result, the peppercorn within the gap is crushed and falls
out through the passage 19. Once the user releases the handle 3
it is restored to its original position through the action of the
spring bow 5 and curved piece 12 and at the same time the sector-shaped
gear 13 returns in a clockwise direction to its original position.
As a consequence, the pinion 9 returns in a counter-clockwise motion
to its original position. However, as the pinion 9 returns to its
original position it no longer remains engaged with the large gear
10. As the pinion 9 rotates in a counter-clockwise direction the
protruding teeth of the pinion 9 slip on the inclined sides of protruding
teeth of large gear 10. Hence, the large gear 10 does not rotate
with counter-clockwise rotation of pinion 9 but remains stationary
so that continuity and a degree of pressure are guaranteed.
It should be appreciated that the above-described peppercorn crusher
represents a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Various
modifications may be made to this embodiment without departing from
the scope of the present invention.
The preferred features of the invention are applicable to all aspects
of the invention and may be used in any possible combination.
Throughout the description and claims of this specification, the
words "comprise" and "contain" and variations
of the words, for example "comprising" and "comprises",
mean "including but not limited to", and are not intended
to (and do not) exclude other components, integers, moieties, additives
or steps. |