Safety lighter
A safety lighter includes a gas tank, a wheel racket, a file wheel assembly, and a metal cap. A wheel racket being provided at the top of the gas tank further includes two file-wheel seats having a slot extended up therefrom and a multiplicity of match-up seats. The file wheel assembly made by pressing together a file wheel with relatively smaller shaft diameter and two side wheels having external teeth at the circumference edge and with shaft diameter greater that that of the file wheel has its salient shaft pivotally connected to the slot. The metal cap being slipped on the external portion of the wheel racket has an extension portion provided at a location adjacent to the file wheel assembly. Under normal condition, the extension portion of the metal cap meshes with the side wheels of the file wheel assembly and the external teeth of the file wheel having relatively small shaft diameter such that it is not easy to ignite the lighter by turning the file wheel assembly to rub against the flint since it is propped up by the extension portion. When it comes to ignite the lighter, one needs only to exert a small force to press down the file wheel assembly and the slot will guide the salient shaft of the file wheel assembly to slide downward. After pressing down, the file wheel assembly will separate the prop-up engaging of the extension portion of the metal cap and turn the file wheel assembly to rub against the flint to generate flame to achieve the ignition action. Therefore, the lighter is capable of avoiding the children playing with the lighter to cause hazard.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an improvement of safety lighter, and more particularly, to a safety lighter having safety protecting structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The simple-type lighter provides consumers with conveniency and low cost, and claims to be a great breakthrough in the contemporary era ever since the first use of fire in human history. However, the lighter brings forth concerns on safety consideration.
Subsequently, there are lighters with various kinds of safety structural designs appeared on the market.
As we can see the U.S. Pat. No. 6,676,405B2, the lighter mainly makes use of two metal cap to cover the two wheels wherein the outside diameter is designed to be greater than that of the file wheel. The lighter also utilizes a spring, which is used for rub-to-ignite, to form a file wheel. Moreover, a ring-shaped protecting piece is provided at the exterior of the file wheel. When it comes to use, one firstly presses down the two covered exterior lids and their interior two side wheel. In the meantime, one exerts force to push down the ring-shaped protecting piece making the two metal exterior covers (covered around the exterior portion of the two side wheels) rub against the side wheels to drive the two side wheels, then press down to make the ring-shaped protecting piece and the file wheel lower down to contact the flint. Afterwards, one turns the file wheel assembly to achieve the object of ignition. Although this kind of structure can protect the children from easily playing with the lighter, the demerits of the structure are that the elements are complicated and the cost is high.
In accordance with the above-mentioned structures of the safety lighters, one can see that there are some disadvantages: 1. Some structures are inconvenient in operation causing not easy in igniting; 2. Some structures are complicated in design making the cost become too high; 3. Some structures are inconvenient to use by “sense of touch” that might cause the car driver divert his/or her attention on driving when he/or she intend to use the lighter.
Therefore, it has been an urgent plan and improvement project for the designers to resolve the above-mentioned problems by designing a safety lighter structure that is simple in structure, convenient in use without changing the user's habit.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIn light of the above-mentioned demerits of the prior art, the invention provides a safety lighter that aims to ameliorate at least some of the demerits of the prior art or to provide a useful alternative.
The primary objective of the invention is to provide a safety lighter making use of the two file-wheel-seat of the wheel racket having a slot to pivotally connected to a file wheel such that the extension portion of the metal cap meshes with the side wheels, which have external teeth at their circumference, of the file wheel assembly for increasing the interference of the turning of the file wheel assembly, thereby, it is not easy to ignite the lighter by turning the file wheel assembly to rub against the flint, thus it is capable of achieving high safety efficacy.
The secondary objective of the invention is to provide a safety lighter such a portion of the waste metal is retained for using for the extension portion and the salient pieces. Therefore, the invention is capable of increasing the efficacy of saving material without increasing any material cost nor any mold or cutting cost in the overall working process.
The further objective of the invention is to provide a safety lighter where the metal cap has a second match-up portions that is capable of positively make the engagement of the metal cap and the wheel racket even more secure without worrying about the dislocation, deformation or coming off due to impact or dropping from a high position so as to assure that the metal cap is not apt to come off, thereby, increase the efficacy of the overall safety protection. Moreover, the above-mentioned guided surface (241), which is appeared in arcuate and slant face, provides a guidance to facilitate the slip-on engagement of the metal cap (4), thereby again increase the efficacy of the overall safety protection
In order to achieve the above-mentioned objectives, a safety lighter is provided. The lighter includes a gas tank, a wheel racket, a file wheel assembly, and a metal cap. A wheel racket being provided at the top of the gas tank further includes two file-wheel seats having a slot extended up therefrom and a multiplicity of match-up seats. The file wheel assembly made by pressing together a file wheel with relatively smaller shaft diameter and two side wheels having external teeth at the circumference edge and with shaft diameter greater that that of the file wheel has its salient shaft pivotally connected to the slot. The metal cap being slipped on the external portion of the wheel racket has an extension portion provided at a location adjacent to the file wheel assembly. Under normal condition, the extension portion of the metal cap meshes with the side wheels of the file wheel assembly and the external teeth of the file wheel having relatively small shaft diameter such that it is not easy to ignite the lighter by turning the file wheel assembly to rub against the flint since it is propped up by the extension portion. When it comes to ignite the lighter, one needs only to exert a small force to press down the file wheel assembly and the slot will guide the salient shaft of the file wheel assembly to slide downward. After pressing down, the file wheel assembly will separate the prop-up engaging of the extension portion of the metal cap and turn the file wheel assembly to rub against the flint to generate flame to achieve the ignition action. Therefore, the lighter is capable of avoiding the children playing with the lighter to cause hazard
The accomplishment of this and other objectives of the invention will become apparent from the following description and its accompanying drawings of which:
As shown in
It will become apparent to those people skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing description, it is intended that all the modifications and variation fall within the scope of the following appended claims and their equivalents.
Claims
1. A safety lighter comprising:
- a gas tank for filling liquid gas;
- a wheel racket further comprising two file-wheel-seat and a securing seat, the file-wheel-seat has a slot extended up therefrom and the securing seat is for placing a spring and a flint;
- a file wheel assembly made by pressing together a file wheel with relatively smaller shaft diameter and two side wheels having external teeth at the circumference edge and with shaft diameter greater that that of the file wheel; and
- a metal cap characterized by that the metal cap is slipped on the external portion of the wheel racket, and the metal cap has an extension portion provided at the corresponding external teeth of the file wheel assembly.
2. The safety lighter as claimed in claim 1 characterized by that the wheel racket provides a multiplicity of match-up seats.
3. The safety lighter as claimed in claim 1 characterized by that the top surface of the match-up seats of the wheel racket appears a guided surface having arcuate shaped surface.
4. The safety lighter as claimed in claim 1 characterized by that the top surface of the match-up seats of the wheel racket appears a guided surface having slant surface.
5. The safety lighter as claimed in claim 1 characterized by that an extra salient pieces are provided corresponding to the file wheel at the extension portion of the metal cap.
6. The safety lighter as claimed in claim 1 characterized by that a multiplicity of second match-up portions are provided at the metal cap corresponding to the multiplicity of match-up seat of the wheel racket.
Type: Application
Filed: Sep 25, 2006
Publication Date: Mar 27, 2008
Inventor: Chi-Hsuan Hsu (Taipei)
Application Number: 11/526,105
International Classification: F23D 11/36 (20060101);