GB2472424A

GB2472424A - Adjustable pepper mill

Info

Publication number: GB2472424A
Application number: GB0913685A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ming-Fong Wu
Original assignee: Yienn Lih Enterprise Co Ltd
Current assignee: Yienn Lih Enterprise Co Ltd
Priority date: 2009-08-06
Filing date: 2009-08-06
Publication date: 2011-02-09
Anticipated expiration: 2029-08-06
Also published as: GB2472424B; GB0913685D0

Abstract

A pepper mill includes a receiving unit (1), a grinding unit (2) that includes inner and outer grinding seats (22, 23), an adjusting seat (3) disposed under the outer grinding seat (23) and formed with an adjusting surface (33) that has at least one inclined surface portion (331), and a base unit (4) disposed under and coupled rotatably to the receiving unit (1), and including at least one urging block (423) that abuts slidably against the inclined surface portion (331). The base unit (4) is rotatable for driving the urging block (423) to slide on the inclined surface portion (331), thereby urging the adjusting seat (3) and the outer grinding seat (23) to move upwardly relative to the inner grinding seat (22), and is further reversely rotatable for driving the urging block (423) to slide reversely on the inclined surface portion (331), such that the adjusting seat (3) and the outer grinding seat (23) are permitted to move downwardly relative to the inner grinding seat (22).

Description

PEPPER MILL

The invention relates toagrinder, moreparticularly to a pepper mill.

A pepper mill generally includes a pair of male and female grinding seats that cooperatively define a rinding space therebetween. The male grinding seat is rotatable relative to the female grinding seat so as to cooperate with the female grinding seat to grind peppercorns in the grinding space. By adjusting the size of the grinding space1 sizes of the particles of the ground pepper can be changed.

British Patent No. GB2412616 discloses a conventional pepper mill that includes an inner base ringhavingan external threaded section, anda rotatable outer base ring surrounding the inner base ring and formed with an internal threaded section that meshes with the external threaded section of the inner base ring. The conventional pepper mill further includes a male grinding seat, and a female grinding seat secured to the inner base ring, surrounding the male grinding seat, and cooperating with the male grinding seat to define a grinding space therebetween. In use, the outer base ring is rotatable to drive the inner base ring to move upwardly or downwardly relative to the outer base ringviatheengagementbetweentheinternalandexterna threaded sections, such that the female grinding seat is driven simultaneously to move upwardly or downwardly relative to the male grinding seat, thereby changing the size of the grinding space.

After use, there may be some residual unground peppercorns in the grinding space of the conventional pepper mill (i.e., the residual unground peppercorns stuckbetweenthemale and female grinding seats) At this time, the female grinding seat can not be moved toward the male grinding seat (i.e., the grinding space is not able to be shrunk) if removal of the residual unground peppercorns is not conducted beforehand.

Therefore, userhastostoptheadjustmentof shrinking the grinding space (i.e., to stop the rotation of the outer base ring which results in downward movement of the inner base ring and the female grinding seat relative to the male grinding seat) and rotate an operating shaft to which the male grinding seat is coupled relative to the female grinding seat so as to grind the residual unground peppercorns. After the residual unground peppercornsaregroundintogroundpepperanddischarged out of the grinding space, the outer base ring is again able to be rotated to drive the female grinding seat to move downwardly relative to the male grinding seat for shrinking the grinding space. However, such operation of this conventional pepper mill is relatively inconvenient.

Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a pepper mill that is convenient to operate for grinding peppercorns into groundpepper of different particle sizes.

Accordingly, a pepper mill of the present invention comprises a receiving unit defining a peppercorn-receiving space, a grinding unit, an adjusting seat, and a base unit. The grinding unit includes a rotatable coupling shaft that extends along an axis in the peppercorn-receiving space, an inner grinding seat that is coupled co-rotatably to a bottom end of the coupling shaft, and an outer grinding seat that surrounds the inner grinding seat, that cooperates with the inner grinding set to define a grinding space therebetween, andthat ismovable along the axis relative to the inner grinding seat. The adjusting seat is disposed under the outer grinding seat of the grinding unit, and has a bottom end that is opposite Ut the outer grinding seat along the axis and that is formed with an adjusting surface. The adjusting surface has at least one inclined surface portion that has a lower part and a higher part disposed at a height position higher than that of the lower part. The base unit is disposed under andcoupledrotatablytothereceivingunt, and includes at least one urging block that abuts slidably against the inclined surface portion of the adjusting surface of the adjusting seat. The base unit is rotatable in a first rotational direction relative to the adjusting seat so as to drive the urging block to slide on the surface portion of the adjusting surface toward the lower part, thereby urging the adjusting seat and the outer grinding seat to move upwardly along the axis relative to the inner grinding seat and enlarging the grinding space. The base unit is further rotatable in a second rotational direction opposite to the first rotational direction relative to the adjusting seat so as to drive the urging block to slide on the inclined surface portion of the adjusting surface toward the higher part, such that the adjusting seat and the outer grinding seat are permitted to move downwardly along the axis relative to the inner grinding seat, thereby shrinking the grinding space.

Other features and advantages of the present inventionwillbecomeapparent in the followingdetailed descriptionof the preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which: Fig. 1 is a partly exploded perspective view of a first preferred embodiment of a pepper mill according to the invention; Fig. 2 is a partly sectional view of the first preferred embodiment; Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of the first preferred embodiment; Fig. 4 is a fragmentary exploded perspective view of the first preferred embodiment, illustrating an adjusting seat and an inner base seat; Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 3, but illustrating a grinding space larger than that in Fig. 3; and Fig. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view of a second preferred embodiment of the pepper mill according to the invention.

Before the present invention is described in greater detail, it shouldbe noted that like elements are denoted by the same reference numerals throughout the

disclosure.

As shown in Figures 1 to 3, the first preferred embodiment of a pepper mill according to the present invention comprises a receiving unit 1, a grinding unit 2, an adjusting seat 3, and a base unit 4.

The receiving unit 1 includes a hollow container body 11 and a cover body 12. The container body 11 has a gourd-shaped surrounding container wall 111 that surrounds an axis (L) , and that has a bottom surface formed at a bottom end thereof. In this embodiment, the bottom surface is formed with three angularly spaced-apart coupling holes 112. The cover body 12 is coupled rotatably to a top end of the surrounding container body 11 opposite to the bottom surface of the surrounding container wall 111, and cooperates with the llto define apeppercorn-receiving space 10.

The grinding unit 2 includes a coupling shaft 21, an inner grinding seat 22, and an outer grinding seat 23. The inner grinding seat 22 is formed with a plurality of irregularly-arranged spiral external grinding teeth 221, and has a top end formed with a rectangular through hole. The coupling shaft 21 has a rectangular cross-section, and extends along the axis (L) in the peppercorn-receiving space 10 with its top end coupled co-rotatably to the cover body 12 of the receiving unit 1 and its bottom end inserted fittingly into the rectangular through hole in the inner grinding seat 22, such that the inner grinding seat 22 is coupled co-rotatablyto the coupling shaft21. The outer grinding seat 23 is movable along the axis (L) relative to the innergrinding seat22, includes an outer surrounding wall 231 that surrounds the inner grinding seat 22, and that has an inner surrounding surface confronting the inner grinding seat 22 and formed with a plurality of irregularly-arranged spiral internal grinding teeth 232. The outer surrounding wall 231 further has a bottom surface formed with a pair of receiving holes 235. The internal grinding teeth 232 of the outer grinding seat 23 cooperate with the external grinding teeth 221 of the inner grinding seat 22 to define a grinding space therebetween. In this embodiment, the outer grinding seat 23 further includes three angularly spaced-apart coupling poles 233 that project upwardly parallel to the axis (L) and that extend respectively and movably into the coupling holes 112 in the container body 11 of the receiving unit 1. In this embodiment, the grinding unit 2 further includes three springs 24 disposed between the outer grinding seat 23 and the bottom surface of the surrounding containerwall Ill of the container body Ii, and sleeved respectively on the coupling poles 233.

As shown in Figures 1, 3 and 4, the adjusting seat 3 is disposed under the outer grinding seat 23 of the grinding unit 2, and includes an annular surrounding wall 31 that is formed with a top surface 32 and an adjusting surface 33 opposite to the top surface 32 along the axis (L), and a pair of spaced-apart coupling rods that project upwardly from the top surface 32 of the annular surrounding wall 31, and that extend respectively and removably into the receiving holes 235 in the outer surrounding wall 231 of the outer grinding seat 23 for coupling detachably the adjusting seat 3 to the outer grinding seat 23. In this embodiment, the adjusting surface 33 has a pair of inclined surface portions 331 spaced apart from each other. Each of the inclined surface portions 331 has a lower part 333, a higher part 334 disposed at a height position higher than that of the lower part 333, and three positioning grooves 335 formed between the lower and higher parts 333, 334 thereof. The adjusting surface 33 further has a pair of diametrically-opposite limiting surface portions 332, eachof which interconnects the lowerpart 333 of one of the inclined surface portions 331 and the higher part 334 of the other one of the inclined surface portions 331, and has a distal end part projecting downwardly and disposed at a height position lower than that of the lower part 333 of the one of the inclined surface portions 331.

The base unit 4 is disposed under the receiving unit 1, and includes a hollow outer base seat 41 and an inner base seat 42. The outer base seat 41 is coupled rotatably to the surrounding container wall 111 of the container body 11 of the receiving unit 1, and surrounds the adjusting seat 3 and the inner and outer grinding seats 22, 23 of the grinding unit 2. The inner base seat 42 is disposed within and coupled co-rotatably to the outer base unit 41, and includes an annular bottom wall 421, an annular side wall 422 that extends upwardly from a periphery of the bottom wall 421, and a pair of diametrically opposite urging blocks 423 that project upwardly from the bottom wall 421 within the annular side wall 422 and that correspond respectively in position to the inclined surface portions 331 of the adjusting surface 33 of the annular surrounding wall 31 of the adjusting seat 3. Each of the urging blocks 423 engages a selected one of the positioning grooves 335 in the respective one of the inclined surface portions33loftheadjustingsurface533f0rP05iti0nin the base unit 4 relative to the adjusting seat 3.

In use, the cover body 12 of the receiving unit 1 can be rotated together with the coupling shaft 21 of the grinding unit 2 so as to drive rotation of the inner grinding seat 22 relative to the outer grinding seat 23 of the grinding unit 2, thereby grinding peppercorns in the grinding space 20. Moreover, the size of the grinding space 20 can be adjusted so as to result in different particle sizes of the ground pepper. The adjustment of the grinding space 20 is described in the following.

As shown in Figure 3, for example, each of the urging blocks 423 engages a highest one of the positioning grooves 335 in a corresponding one of the inclined surface portions 331 of the adjusting surface 33 of the adjusting seat 3 before adjustment of the grinding space 20. The outer base seat 41 of the base unit 4 can be rotated in a first rotational direction (Rl) so as to drive the inner base seat 42 to rotate in the first rotational direction (Fl) relative to the adjusting seat 3 and the outer grinding seat 23. The rotation of the inner base seat 42 drives the urging blocks 423 to rotate in the first rotational direction (Fl) (as indicated by arrow Fl in Figure 3) , such that each urging block 423 is disengaged from the respective positioning groove 335 andslides onthe respective inclinedsurfaceportion 331 of the adjusting surface 33 of the adjusting seat 3towardthe lower part 333, therebyurging the adjusting seat 3 and the outer grinding seat 23 to move upwardly along the axis (L) relative to the inner grinding seat 22 and enlarging the grinding space 20 (see Figure 5) As the outer grinding seat 23moves upwardly, the springs 24 are compressed. Finally, each of the urging blocks 423 slides to and engages the lowest one of the positioning grooves 335 in the corresponding one of the inclined surface portions 331 of the adjusting surface 33, thereby positioning the outer grinding seat 23 relative to the inner grinding seat 22.

On the contrary, as shown in Figure 5, the outer base seat 41 of the base unit 4 can be further rotated in asecondrotationaldirection (P2) (asindicatedbyarrow P2 in Figure 5) opposite to the first rotational direction (Fl) relative to the adjusting seat 3 so as to drive each urging block 423 to disengage from the respective positioning groove 335 and slide on the respective inclined surface portion 331 toward the higher part 334. The adjusting seat 3 and the outer grinding seat 23 are biased via a downward biasing force of the springs 24 to move downwardly along the axis (L) relativetotheinnergrindingseat22, thereby shrinking thegrindingspace20. Finally, eachoftheurgingblocks 423 slides to and once again engages the highest one of the positioning grooves 335 in the corresponding one of the inclined surface portions 331 of the adjusting surface 33, thereby positioning the outer grinding seat 23 relative to the inner grinding seat 22 (see Figure 3).

Since each of the urging blocks 423 is operable to engage a selected one of three positioning grooves 335 in the respective one of the inclined surface portions 331 of the adjusting surface 33 of the adjusting seat 3, the grinding space 20 can be adjusted among three different sizes. Moreover, the disposition of the limiting surface portions 332 of the adjusting surface 33 limits the rotation of the base unit 4 to 180 degrees in any one of the first and second rotational directions (Ri, R2) . During the adjustment of the grinding space 20, the base unit 4 can be rotated in any one of the firstandsecondrotationaldirections (Ri, R2) byabout degrees before being stopped by one of the limiting surface portions 332. Then, the base unit 4 can only be rotated reversely until it is stopped once again by the other one of the limiting surface portions 332.

After use, there may be some residual unground peppercorns in the grinding space 20, so that the grinding space 20 cannot be shrunk (i.e., the movement of the outer grinding seat 23 toward the inner grinding seat 22 is obstructed unless the residual unground peppercorns are removed). However, since the adjusting seat 3 is coupled separably to the outer grinding seat 23 of the grinding unit 2, the base unit 4 can still be rotated smoothly in the second rotational direction (R2) to result in the downward movement of the adjusting seat 3 to the desired position. Afterward, by rotating the cover body 12 of the receiving unit 1, the aforementioned grinding operation can be actuated to grind the residual unground peppercorns into ground pepper. Thus, the outer grinding seat 23 is biased automatically by gravity and the downward biasing force of the springs 24 to move downwardly along the axis (L) thereby shrinking the grinding space 20. During the operation of the pepper mill of this invention, the springs 24 not only exert the downward biasing force to the outer grinding seat 23 for biasing the outer grinding seat 23 to abut firmly against the adjusting seat 3, but also serve as cushions to prevent the outer grinding seat 23 from directly striking the surrounding container wall ill of the container body 11 during its upward movement. Therefore, the pepper mill of this invention is relatively convenient to operate for adjusting the grinding space 20 so as to grind the peppercorns into ground pepper of different particle sizes.

It should be noted that the number of the springs 24 may vary, or the springs 24 may even be omitted in other embodiments of the invention.

As shown in Figure 6, the second preferred embodiment of the pepper mill according to the present invention has a structure similar to that of the first embodiment.

The main difference between this embodiment and the previous embodiment resides in the configuration of the adjusting surface 33 of the annular surrounding wall 31 of the adjusting seat 3. The positioning grooves 335 in the first preferred embodiment are omitted in this embodiment. During the adjustment of the grinding space 20, when the outer grinding seat 23 is driven to move to a desired position, it will be biased by gravity and the downward biasing force of the springs 24 to abut tightly against the urging blocks 423, thereby being positioned relative to the inner grinding seat 22. The second preferred embodiment has the same advantages as those of the first preferred embodiment.

Claims

CLAIMS: 1. A pepper mill comprising: a receiving unit defining a peppercorn-receiving space; a grinding unit including a rotatable coupling shaft that extends along an axis in said peppercorn-receiving space, an inner grinding seat that is coupled co-rotatably to a bottom end of said coupling shaft, and an outer grinding seat that surrounds said inner grinding seat, that cooperates with said inner grinding seat to define a grinding space therebetween, and that ismovable along the axis relative to said inner grinding seat; an adjusting seat disposed under said outer grinding seat of said grinding unit, and having a bottom end that is opposite to said outer grinding seat along the axis and that is formed with an adjusting surface, said adjusting surface having at least one inclined surface portion that has a lower part and a higher part disposed ata heightpositionhigherthanthatof said lowerpart; and a base unit disposed under and coupled rotatably to said receiving unit, and including at least one urging block that abuts slidably against said inclined surface portionofsaidadjustingsurfaceofsaidadjustingseat wherein said base unit is rotatable in a first rotational direction relative to said adjusting seat so as to drive said urging block to slide on said inclined surface portion of said adjusting surface toward said lower part, thereby urging said adjusting seat and said outer grinding seat to move upwardly along the axis relative to said inner grinding seat and enlarging said grinding space; and wherein said base unit is further rotatable in a second rotational direction opposite to said first rotational direction relative to said adjusting seat so as to drive saidurgingblockto slide on said inclined surface portion of said adjusting surface toward said higherpart, suchthat saidadjusting seat andsaidouter grinding seat are permitted to move downwardly along the axis relative to said inner grinding seat, thereby shrinkiug said grinding space.
2. The pepper mill as claimed in claim 1, wherein said inclined surface portion of said adjusting surface of said adjusting seat further has at least two positioning grooves formed between said lower and higher parts thereof, said urging block of said base unit engaging a selected one of said positioning grooves for positioning said base unit relative to said adjusting seat.
3. The pepper mill as claimed in claim 1, wherein: said adjusting surface of said adjusting seat has a pair of said inclined surface portions spaced apart from each other; said adjusting surface further has a pair of limiting surfaceportions, each of which interconnects said lower part of one of said inclined surface portions and said higher part of the other one of said inclined surface portions, and has a distal end part disposed at a height position lower than that of said lower part of said one of said inclined surface portions; and said base unit includes a pair of said urging blocks abutting slidably and respectively against said inclined surface portions of said adjusting surface of said adjusting seat.
4. The pepper mill as claimed in claim 3, wherein each of said inclined surface portions of said adjusting surface of said adjusting seat further has a pair of positioninggroovesformedbetweensaidlowerandhigher parts thereof, each of said urging blocks of said base unit engaginga selected one of saidpositioning grooves ma corresponding one of said inclined surface portions of said adjusting surface for positioning said base unit relative to said adjusting seat.
5. The pepper mill as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein said grinding unit further includes a spring disposed between said outer grinding seat and saidreceivingunit forexertingadownwardbiasing force to said outer grinding seat.
6. The pepper mill as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein: said receiving unit includes a container body, said container body having a surrounding container wall that surrounds the axis, and that has a bottom surface confronting said outer grinding seat of said grinding unit and formed with at least two angularly spaced-apart coupling holes; and said outer grinding seat of said grinding unit includes at least two coupling poles that project upwardly parallel to the axis and that extend respectively and movably into said coupling holes.
7. The pepper mill as claimed in claim 6, wherein said grinding unit further includes at least two springs disposed between said outer grinding seat and said bottom surface of said surrounding container wall of said containerbodyandsleevedrespectivelyonsaidcoupling poles of said outer grinding seat for exerting a downward biasing force to said outer grinding seat.
8. The pepper mill as claimed in claim 6, wherein said receiving unit further includes a cover body coupled rotatably to a top end of said surrounding container body opposite to saidouter grinding seat, and connected co-rotatably to a top end of said coupling shaft of said grinding unit.
9. The pepper mill as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein said base unit further includes: a hollow outer base seat coupled rotatably to said receiving unit and surrounding said adjusting seat and said inner and outer grinding seats of said grinding unit; and an inner base seat disposed within and coupled co-rotatably to said outer base seat, and including a bottom wall and said urging block that projects upwardly from said bottom wall.
10. The pepper mill substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in Figures 1 to 6 of the: accompanying drawings. I0