US 7,024,965 B2Granted

Semi-automatic jar opener

OwnerDonald Tremblayinventor

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Abstract

The present disclosure is a semi-automatic jar opener made up of a lower part including a run button activating an electric motor mounted under the lower part, which allows a lower plate to turn and activate a gear rack allowing the lower jaws provided with non-skid rubber strips to squeeze a jar according to the desired size, when the jar turns the friction rubber strips prevent it from sliding, and when the jar is unscrewed the electric motor stops automatically. The vertical jagged posts are mounted onto the lower part and engaged inside the apertures of an upper part including a base with an extension on which is mounted a shaft passing through gears and knobs, which in pulling on the knob including a locking means it allows to lower manually the upper part onto the posts, which includes an upper plate provided with the friction rubber strips pressing a lid and preventing it to slide, when the lower plate turns it allows automatically the jar and the upper plate to turn, which activates a gear rack allowing the upper jaws provided with non-skid rubber strips to squeeze the lid until the jar be unscrewed. The extension of the base from the upper part allows the means locking to block the knob when the jar is removed from the semi-automatic jar opener.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A semi-automatic opener for a jar closed by a threaded cover comprising:

a first portion including a first body defining a base for receiving the jar thereon;
a second portion including a second body mounted to said first body so as to be superimposed to said first body;
one of said first and second portions having:
a first turntable rotatably mounted to the respective body between said first and second portions via a rotatable shaft for rotating at least one of said jar and said cover;
a first toothed rack mounted to said first turntable;
said first toothed rack having a first central gear coaxially mounted to said rotatable shaft and a first pair of rack elements each interlocked to said first central gear for reciprocating movement towards and away each other upon rotation of said first central gear;
and
a first pair of immobilizing elements for immobilizing said at least one of said jar and said cover;
each of said pair of immobilizing elements being secured to a respective rack element of said first toothed rack;
and
the other of said first and second portions being provided with second immobilizing elements mounted to the respective body for immobilizing the other of said at least one of said jar and said cover;
whereby, in operation, the jar is positioned onto said base and its cover is immobilized by said second immobilizing elements;
said rotatable shaft is then rotated causing said first pair of immobilizing elements to move towards each other until they grip said at least one of said jar and said cover;
rotating said shaft then causes a torsional force between said jar and said cover so as to unlock the cover.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.