UTILITY KNIFE WITH DUAL RETRACTABLE CUTTING GUIDES

COUTEAU UNIVERSEL AVEC DOUBLES GUIDES DE COUPE ESCAMOTABLES

English Abstract

A utility knife includes both left and right side cutting guides. The guides are preferably retractable, and lockable in either retracted or operating positions. The distance between the guides and the blade of the knife can be either fixed or adjustable. The knife preferably also includes a retractable hood that covers the blade.

French Abstract

Le présent extrait concerne un couteau universel qui comprend des guides de coupe à la fois du côté gauche et du côté droit. Ces guides sont de préférence escamotables et blocables en position soit rentrée soit d'utilisation. La distance entre les guides et la lame du couteau peut être soit fixe soit réglable. Le couteau comprend également de préférence un protecteur escamotable qui recouvre la lame.

Claims

CLAIMS
1. A knife comprising:
a portable, hand carried handle that holds a cutting blade;
a left edge guide adaptation; and
a right edge guide adaptation.
2. The knife of claim 1 wherein the left edge guide adaptation includes a
first edge guide,
and the right edge guide adaptation simultaneously includes a second edge
guide.
3. The knife of claim 2 wherein the first and second edge guides comprise
distinct, non-
connected pieces.
4. The knife of claim 1 wherein the left edge guide adaptation includes a
first slot in which a
first edge guide slides into and out of an operating position.
5. The knife of claim 1 wherein the right edge guide adaptation includes a
second slot in
which a second edge guide is slidably disposed.
6. The knife of claim 2 wherein the left and right edge guides are each
distanced from
opposite sides of the blade by approximately the same distance.
7. The knife of claim 2 wherein the left and right edge guides are each
distanced from
opposite sides of the blade by less than 0.5 inches.
8. The knife of claim 2 wherein the left and right edge guides are each
distanced from
opposite sides of the blade by less than 0.25 inches.
9. The knife of claim 2 wherein at least one of the left and right edge guides
are distanced
from opposite sides of the blade by adjustable amounts.
10. The knife of claim 2 wherein at least one of the left and right edge
guides is angled
inwardly towards a bottom cutting surface of the blade at an angle of less
than 10°.
11. The knife of claim 2 wherein at least one of the left and right edge
guides is angled
inwardly towards a bottom cutting surface of the blade at a positive angle of
less than 6°.
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12. The knife of claim 2 wherein at least one of the left and right edge guide
adaptations
includes a locking mechanism that holds the respective guide in a retracted
position.
13. The knife of claim 2 further comprising a retractable blade hood carried
by the handle.
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Description

CA 02519665 2005-09-15
UTILITY KNIFE WITH DUAL RETRACTABLE CUTTING GUIDES
Field of The Invention
The field of the invention is cutting tools, particularly utility knives.
Background
Knives are often used to cut a line along an edge of a workpiece, and it is
known in such
circumstances to dispose an outrigger-type cutting guide that extends
laterally from the knife.
US 5575070 to Fiskars (Nov 1996), for example, teaches a cutting implement
having a handle
with a forward extending blade and a laterally extending guide. The distance
between the guide
and the blade can be adjusted with a knob carried on the top of the handle. US
4744146 to
Schmidt (May 1988) teaches a utility knife having a handle having a
retractable blade, and a
planar guide extending laterally from handle by a controlled distance. US
4442595 to Sharrow et
al. (Apr 1984) teaches a laterally spaced guide that is adapted to receive the
blade of a utility
knife. US 4713885 to Keklak et al. (Dec 1987) teaches a utility knife with a
blade guide that
descends from the handle.
Each of the cited prior art documents provides a mechanism for controlling the
path of a
cut of the blade parallel to a side edge of an object being cut. Sometimes the
guide is disposed to
the left of the blade (as viewed from the user's perspective), and sometimes
the guide is disposed
to the right of the blade. But in each case there is only one guide, and that
guide operates to
distance blade only from a right edge or only from a left edge. That
limitation reduces the utility
of the knife with respect to specific applications that require the opposite
orientation.
What is needed is a knife having both a right edge guide and a left edge
guide.
Summary of the Invention
The present invention is directed to providing tools, particularly cutting
tools, with
symmetrical cutting or other guides to provide for continued guidance of such
tools even if the
orientation of the tool is changed. Typically only a subset of the guides will
be used for a
particular orientation, so preferred embodiments will comprise guides adapted
to not interfere
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CA 02519665 2005-09-15
with use of the tool when such guides are not in use. In some embodiments the
guides will be
integral with a body of the tool and, when not in use, will be retractable
into or adjacent to the
body of the tool.
In a preferred embodiment a knife is provided with dual retractable cutting
guides such
that the knife, with the cutting guides, has left and right sides that are
reflections of each other.
Such a knife can be used with its guides regardless of whether the knife is
held in the left or right
hand, and regardless of the direction the knife is moved to cut along a line
or curve. Inclusion of
the cutting guides facilitates making a cut in parallel with an edge. As an
example, one could
remove one side of a six sided, cube shaped, cardboard shipping container by
cutting each of the
four sides coupled to the side being removed along a line parallel to the
corner/seam between the
side being cut and the side being removed. Removal of the side is facilitated
by using a knife
having dual retractable cutting guides as one can grasp the knife in a
preferred hand, orient it in
preparation for cutting along a corner/seam, extend whichever guide is closest
to the corner/seam
(and, if necessary, retract the opposite guide), place the guide against the
corner/seam, and draw
the knife along the corner/seam to make a cut in parallel with the
corner/seam. When making
subsequent cuts, the orientation of the knife can be changed, possibly by
switching it between
left and right hands, and retracting and/or extending guides as needed. The
ability to use the
knife in either the left or right hand and still take advantage of the guide
makes the a single knife
suitable for use by both left and right handed people.
It is contemplated that symmetrical guides can be added to most cutting tools.
Examples
of knives and other cutting tools having features that may be combined with
those disclosed
herein include but are not limited to those described in U.S. Patent No.
6178640 titled "Slitter
Device", U.S. Patent No. 5697157 titled "Heavy Duty Box Opener", U.S. Patent
No. 5522135
titled "Box Opener", U.S. Patent Application No. 09/832214 titled "Utility
Knife Tool with
Cover Lock", U.S. Patent Application No. 09/804451 titled "Utility Knife
Tool", and U.S. Patent
Application No. 10/300382 titled "Safety Cutting Apparatus".
Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention
will become
more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments
of the
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CA 02519665 2005-09-15
invention, along with the accompanying drawings in which like numerals
represent like
components.
Brief Description of The Drawings
Fig. 1 A is a perspective left side view of a knife embodying the invention.
Fig. 1 B is a perspective right side view of the knife of Figure 1 A.
Fig. 1 C is the view of Figure 1 A with surface shading.
Fig. 1 D is the view of Figure 1 B with surface shading.
Fig. 2A is a detail view of the front portion of the left side of the knife of
Figure 1 A with
the guide assembly removed.
Fig. 2B is a detail view of the front portion of the left side of the knife of
Figure 1 A with
the guide assembly installed and in a retracted position.
Fig. 2C is a detail view of the front portion of the left side of the knife of
Figure 1 A with
the guide assembly installed and in an extended position.
Fig. 2D is an exploded view of the guide assembly of Figures 2B, and 2C.
Fig. 2E is a detailed view of the guide position relative to the blade.
Fig. 3A is a perspective view of a 6 sided container.
Fig. 3B is a detailed view of a knife having dual retractable cutting guides
being used to
remove one side of the container of Figure 3A.
Detailed Description
Figures 1 A-1 D depict a preferred embodiment of a cutting tool. As shown, a
utility knife
1 comprises a body 10, blade 20, blade hood 30, hood release trigger 40, and
cutting guide
assemblies 50. The external features of knife 1 are symmetrical across a plane
dividing the knife
into left (1 L) and right (1 R) sides such that the left and right sides are,
at least in regard to
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primary functional features, mirror images of each other. In particular, knife
1 comprises two
equivalent guide assemblies 50 with one assembly on either side of knife 1.
As shown best in Figures 2A-2D, guide assemblies 50 each comprise a mounting
frame
(51 L or 51 R) positioned in a guide receiving cavity (11 L or 11 R) of body
10, and a extendable
guide (52L or 52R) positioned in the mounting frame (51 L or 51 R). Each
operable combination
of mounting frame, cavity and guide comprises an exemplary guide adaptation.
Guides 52L and 52R are adapted to be extended (see Figure 2C) or retracted
(see Figure
2B), and to be locked into place when extended or retracted via locking
mechanism 53L or 53R.
Locking mechanisms 53L and 53R are also adapted to facilitate extending or
retracting guides
52L and 52R. Either guide 52L or 52R can be retracted by depressing a portion
of mechanism
53L or 53R and while keeping that portion depressed, sliding guide 52L or 52R
into its retracted
position. Guides 52L and 52R can be extended by using the same portion of
mechanism 53L or
53R to push (or pull) guide 52L or 52R into its extended position. Frame 51L
is preferably
plastic and sonically welded into cavity 1 l L of body 10, and frame 51 R into
cavity 11 R. Cavity
11 L may comprise one or more indentations 12L adapted to receive protrusions
54L on frame
51 L to facilitate frame 51 L being retained in cavity 11 L. Similar
indentations and protrusions
may be included on cavity 11 R and frame 51 R.
It should be noted that in some instances features shown in Figures 2A-2D that
have
corresponding, similarly numbered features found on the right side of knife 1
may not actually be
shown in Figures 2A-2E as they are mirror images of those shown for the left
side of knife 1.
As best shown in Figure 2E, one or both guides 52L and 52R are preferably
separated
from blade 20 by a distance of less than 0.5 inches, more preferably less than
0.25 inches, and
most preferably 0.223 inches. Similarly, one or both guides may be parallel
the blade but are
preferable angled inwardly towards the bottom cutting surface of the blade at
an angle of less
than 10 , more preferably less than 6 , and most preferably about 4 . In
alternative
embodiments, the distance from which the guides are separated from their
respective sides of the
blade, and the relative angles, may be larger or smaller than that described
above, or may be user
adjustable.
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One application of knives such as knife 1 having dual retractable cutting
guides is
illustrated by Figures 3A and 3B. In Figure 3A, a container 300 has six sides,
four of which are
sides 310, 320, 330, and 340. Side 330 is at least partially formed by flaps
331 and 332, which
are extensions of sides 320 and 340. Dotted lines 321 and 311 illustrate where
cuts can be made
to remove side 330 (assuming similar cuts are made on the opposite sides of
container 300).
Sides 310 and 320 are joined at corner/seam 301, and sides 320 and 330 at
corner/seam 302. In
Figure 3B, a knife 350 having a blade 352 and cutting guides 351 and 353 is
used to cut along
imaginary line 320 on side 320 by retracting guide 353, extending guide 351,
and cutting along
side 320 while keeping guide 351 in contact with side 330 and/or corner/seam
302.
It is contemplated that knives having cutting guides as described herein may
comprise
any form of knife to which cutting guides may be attached. As such, the
shapes, sizes, relative
positions and orientations, and structure of the various components of such
knives will likely
vary between embodiments. As an example, knife bodies of different embodiments
may
comprise plastic, metal, or some other material or combination of materials.
The actual
components included or excluded from a particular knife embodiment will likely
vary between
embodiments as well. Thus certain embodiments may include less than all the
elements shown
herein, may include multiples of the elements shown herein, or may include
elements in place of
and/or in addition to elements shown herein.
It is contemplated that some embodiments may comprise more than two guides, or
possibly may comprise two or more guides that are part of a single guide
assembly.
A particularly contemplated use for the inventive knife is in cutting off the
top of a box.
In that usage one or the other of the cutting guides (depending on whether the
user is right or left
handed, and orientation of the box), would ride along the top edge of the box
such that the
cutting blade would cut the box just below the edge. Of course, similar
cutting operations can be
additionally or alternatively applied to the bottom and/or sides of a box.
Thus, specific embodiments and applications of tools, particularly cutting
tools, with
symmetrical cutting or other guides have been disclosed. It should be
apparent, however, to
those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those already
described are possible
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without departing from the inventive concepts herein. The inventive subject
matter, therefore, is
not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims. Moreover, in
interpreting both the
specification and the claims, all terms should be interpreted in the broadest
possible manner
consistent with the context. In particular, the terms "comprises" and
"comprising" should be
interpreted as referring to elements, components, or steps in a non-exclusive
manner, indicating
that the referenced elements, components, or steps may be present, or
utilized, or combined with
other elements, components, or steps that are not expressly referenced.
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Representative Drawing