Magnetic safety interlock for a food processor utilizing vertically oriented, quadrant coded magnets

In a food processor of the type including tool drive means located in a base with control means for rendering the tool drive means inoperative unless said control means is actuated, said base having a turret shaped platform extending from its upper surface, a bowl having a downwardly extending skirt mountable on said base and rotatable relative to said turret, a removable cover rotatably mountable atop said bowl, a movable element mounted on said bowl and spring biased away from said base when said bowl is mounted on said base, means on said cover for driving said movable element towards said base when said cover is in a predetermined position relative to said bowl,

• the improvement comprising a safety interlock apparatus including:
• a first permanent magnet mounted to said movable element and movable therewith, said first permanent magnet having a plurality of North polarized magnetic pole faces and a plurality of South polarized magnetic pole faces, all of said pole faces being oriented in a vertical plane perpendicular to the upper surface of said base,
• a second permanent magnet movably mounted within said base and coupled to said control means, said second permanent magnet having a second plurality of North polarized magnetic pole faces and having a second plurality of South polarized magnetic pole faces all of said pole faces being oriented in a second vertical plane parallel to and closely spaced from the plane of orientation of said first permanent magnet,
• each of said first and second permanent magnets having said pole faces arranged in predetermined identical magnetic codes in non-symmetrical quadrant format, said quadrant format being non-symmetrical with respect to mutually perpendicular axes located in the respective vertical plane of orientation of said pole faces such that said second permanent magnet is movable to actuate said control means by the magnetic force between said first and second permanent magnets only when said first permanent magnet is moved into alignment vertically and into registration laterally with said second magnet,
• said first permanent magnet being mounted to said movable element such that said first permanent magnet is moved into alignment vertically with said second permanent magnet by said movable element only when said cover is in said predetermined position relative to said bowl and said first magnet is moved into registration laterally with said second magnet only when said bowl is rotated into a second predetermined position relative to said base,
• whereby said control means are actuated only when said cover is in a first predetermined position relative to said bowl and said bowl is in a second predetermined position relative to said base.

In a food processor of the type including tool drive means located in a base with control means for rendering the tool drive means inoperative unless said control means are actuated, said base having a turret shaped platform extending from its upper surface, a bowl having a downwardly extending skirt mountable on said base and rotatable relative to said turret, a removable cover rotatably mountable atop said bowl, a movable element mounted on said bowl and spring biased away from said base when said bowl is mounted on said base, means on said cover for driving said movable element towards said base when said cover is in a predetermined position relative to said bowl,

• the improvement comprising a safety interlock apparatus including:
• a first permanent magnet mounted to said movable element and movable therewith, said first permanent magnet being oriented in a plane perpendicular to the upper surface of said base,
• a second permanent magnet movably mounted within said base and coupled to said control means, said second permanent magnet being oriented in a plane parallel to the plane of orientation of said first permanent magnet,
• each of said first and second permanent magnets having predetermined identical magnetic codes such that said second permanent magnet is movable to actuate said control means by magnetic forces between said first and second permanent magnets only when said first permanent magnet is moved into alignment and registration with said second magnet, and a counterbalance coupled to and extending from said second permanent magnetic, said counterbalance being of sufficient weight to prevent momentary actuation of said control means resulting from momentary impact on the food processor when said first and second permanent magnetics are not in alignment, the weight of said counterbalance not being great enough to prevent actuation of said control means when said first and second permanent magnets are in alignment.