FOOD PROCESSOR WITH ENHANCED LID HANDLE AND PROCESS FOR

OPERATION THEREOF

Field of the invention

The present invention refers to the field of food processors presenting a recipient and lid arrangement, in particular to a lid that is adapted for being securely retained on a respective recipient.

Background of the invention

The prior art includes several solutions relating to food processing systems presenting a recipient adapted for receiving food ingredients and a respective lid adapted for providing closure of said recipient, whereby said food ingredients are processed by meane of a food processing tool provided inside of said recipient and/or by means of a heating arrangement provided next to said recipient.

The WO 2005/099536 A2 and the EP 1945075 Bl disclose lids presenting a hole and a handle. Such lid handle configurations may be adapted for a lid to be placed on top of a recipient, but present handling constrains in the case of the operation of a food processor requiring retention thereof in a respective recipient. Such constrains include reduced manual gripping extension and reduced gripping force momentum if said lid is to be retained in and released from a blocked position on said recipient, or if said lid presents a relatively bigger weight or dimension.

Moreover, it is known to provide a lid adapted so that, can be retained in removable manner on said .recipient. In same cases, said retention of the lid on the recipient is provided by reciprocal engagement means, and in some- other cases, said retention is provided, such that blocking means can be actuated by respective actuation means, such as by means of a button or similar.

The EP 0699409 Bl and the EP 1119273 Bl disclose a food processor that, presents a lid adapted so that can be blocked on a respective recipient, and comprising actuation means adapted for actuating said blocking means .

The US 6, 554,466 Eil discloses a similar arrangement: of the actuation means on a handle in the proximity of the perimeter region of the lid.

The US 4,763,567 refers to cooking vessel with a removable top cover, whereby a handle integral with the cover includes a pistol grip portion.

In the particular case of food processors adapted for heating food ingredients, this arrangement and configuration of the lid actuation means in the proximity of the perimeter region of the lid, requires the user to place her/ his hand next to the immediate opening oil the recipient as this opens up thereby exposing the hand to thermal injury hazards.

Moreover, there are food processors presenting lid handles that extend over the entire cross extension of the lid. This symmetric configuration does not attach to a lid opening and does not inherently communicate the status of blocking engagement of the lid on a respective recipient. None of the documents in prior art discloses a solution for enhanced signaling of the blocking status of the lid, associated with a lid handle.

G*n«xal description of th« invention

The objective of the present invention is to provide a food processor comprising a recipient adapted for receiving food ingredients and a respective lid adapted for providing closure of said recipient, whereby said food ingredients are processed by means of at least one of a food processing tool provided inside of said recipient and a heating arrangement provided next to said recipient, and whereby said lid presents a more effective lid handle, providing enhanced force leverage in securely retaining said lid to the recipient, a safer handgrip of the lid, and a more ergonomic manual actuation and status apprehension of the lid closing and opening actuation mechanism.

The aforementioned objective is attained according to the present invention by means of a food processor according to claim 1.

In particular, the food processor according to the present invention comprises a lid presenting a lid handle that develops above the upwards-oriented surface of said lid and extends off-centered in relation thereto.

It is preferred when said lid handle is provided so that extends along an extension that is off-centered in relation to the center of said lid, thereby providing a handgrip above said center of said lid, and in that said lid handle is provided so that can be rotated around one of respective supports of lid handle in relation to said lid. It is preferred when said lid handle is provided so that extends from a first lid handle support disposed on the perimeter region of said lid, inwards above and beyond the center of said lid, to a second lid handle support that is not provided on a perimeter region of said lid, and so that said lid handle provides a handgrip extension that is unevenly arranged in relation to the center of said lid.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a process for operation of a food processor, including a lid adapted so that can be retained on a respective recipient by means of a more ergonomic manual handling of a respective lid handle.

The aforementioned objective is attained according to the present invention by means of a process according to claim 12.

Description of the Figures

The present invention shall now be explained in greater detail based upon preferred embodiments and the attached Figures.

The Figures show, in schematic representations:

Figure 1: a side view of recipient (2) and lid (3) in a food processor (1) according to the present invention;

Figure 2: a perspective view from above of the recipient

(2) and lid (1} according to Figure 1, in the closed position; Figure 3; a perspective view frora above of the recipient (2) and lid (1) according to Figure; 1 , in the open position;

Figure 4: a top view of a lid (3) according to Figure i, in the closed position;

Figure 5: a top view of a lid (3) according to Figure I, in the open position;

Figure 6: a side-cut view of the recipient (2) and lid

(3) according to Figure 1;

Figure 7: a front, view of a food processor (1) according to the present invention;

Figure B: a top view of a food processor (1) according to the present invention;

Figure 3: a side view ox a food processor (1) according to the present invention.

Detailed description of preferred embodiment of the invention

Figures 1 to 5 show different views of a recipient (2) and a lid (3) of a food processor (1) according to the present invention, including in a respective closed and open positions.

As known In prior art, said lid (3) presents an upwards side and a downwards side and is adapted so that can be securely retained in removable manner with the perimeter region of the opening of .said recipient (2) . According to a first inventive aspect, said lid (3) presents a ^" lid handle (31) that extends inwards from a perimeter region of said lid (3) corresponding to a preferential engagement position of said lid {35 on said recipient (2), so that said lid handle (31) can be handled with reference to said engagement position, and that provides a surrounding hand handgrip extension developing above and beyond the center of said lid (3), so that said lid handle (31) car. provide a bigger force leverage driving said lid (3) in a rotation movement.

According to a second inventive aspect _/ said lid (3) presents a lid handle (31) that is adapted so that can provide manual closing and opening actuation of said lid (3) to said recipient (2) , by means of rotation ox said lid handle (31) around one of respective support on said lid (3) .

This arrangement advantageously provides for a more ezgonomic manual grip of. the lid by a single hand, thereby releasing the other hand for securing the recipient or another ongoing task.

It is preferred when said lid handle (31) provides a handgrip extension that is unevenly arranged in relation to the diameter and radius extensions of said lid (3), so that a manual force handling of the lid (3) results more effective .

It. is preferred when said lid handle (31) provides a handgrip extension over a center region and along most part of the cross extension of said lid (3), whereby said handgrip extension is preferentially bigger than the radius extension of said lid (3) , so that a user can easily find a handgrip support.

Moreover, this arrangement of the lid handle prevents thermal injuries to the hand grabbing the lid from hot spillovers. It is preferred when said lid handle (31) extends from a perimeter region of said iid (3) upwards to the top region of a lid projection (32) that extends above of said upwards side and that is arranged off centered relative to the lid (3), whereby said lid projection (32) comprises a lid opening.

According to another embodiment, said iid (3) presents a lid closure (33} adapted so that can be placed onto said iid projection (32), whereby said lid closure (33) is provided as a single piece of a preferentially transparent or semi-transparent synthetic material .

It is preferred when said recipient (2) presents a recipient handle (21) that extends along a meridian disposition along at lea3t part of a side wall extension of said recipient (2), and further presents blocking means (7) arranged at the top thereof and adapted for actuating a release of blocking retention of said lid (3) on said recipient (2), and when said iid handle (31) extends in a substantially continuous alignment with said recipient handle (21) when both recipient (2) and lid (3) are in a respective blocked position, so as to provide an increased manual grip surface that can be reached from said preferential engagement position of said iid (3) on said recipient (2) .

This arrangement advantageously provides for a user to handgrip the recipient with one of hand and handgrip the lid with the other hand, thereby greatly improving the ergonomics of driving said lid (3) in a rotation and vertical movements .

As depicted in Figures 2, 3, and A, 5, according to another inventive aspect, said lid handle (31) is adapted so that can be rotated around a respective support on the lid projection (32) . Said support is preferentially provided on a sidewall of said generally tubular lid projection (32) and adapted so that provides for a swiveling movement of the lid handle (31) in respect there to, preferentially by an angular movement of up to 45°, preferentially up to 30°, relative to the position where said lid handle (31) is aligned with said recipient handle (21) .

This arrangement advantageously provides for a more ergonomic actuation of the lid (3) , in particular in view of providing a leak-tight and blocked retention of said lid (3) on said recipient (2) .

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, said lid handle (31) is provided attached to an upper-lid part that is adapted so that can be driven in vertical and rotation movements relative to a lower- lid part, so that a manual grip of said lid handle (31) can actuate a vertical movement jointly of said upper-lid part and lower-lid part, and a rotation movement of said upper-lid part relative to said lower-lid part.

The lid (3) thus comprises a first upper part that is movably attached to a second lower part, and adapted so that can be driven in vertical movement so as to establish a sealing engagement with the perimeter region of the recipient opening. Moreover, said first upper part is adapted so that can be driven in rotation movement so as to establish a locking retention with the perimeter region of the recipient opening.

The arrangement of the lid handle (31) disclosed in the present invention thereby greatly facilitates a manual handling of a lid (3) with such vertical and rotation movements, as this can be better driven from a force applied to the top side of the lid (3), than from perimeter regions thereof. According to a preferred embodiment, said lid handle (31) presents an arched configuration in side view developing above the upwards oriented side of said lid (3), including at a height that increases from the perimeter region towards a center region of said lid (3) .

In particular, it is preferred when said lid handle (31) does not provide for handing grip next to the perimeter region of said lid (3) , so that a hand cannot have grip in the region closest to the perimeter and therefore more exposed to thermal injury hazard.

Figure 6 shows a side-cut view of the recipient (2) and lid (3) in a closed position.

It is preferred when said lid handle (31) is adapted so that can be supported at a perimeter region of said lid (3) and at a side region of said lid projection (32) .

In particular, it is preferred when said lid handle

(31) presents a ring-like form at one edge adapted so as to engage around a top region of said lid projection

(32) .

Moreover, it is preferred when said lid handle (31) presents a hand-grapping extension between said support regions, whereby said hand-grapping extension presents an upwards-oriented part and a downwards-oriented part, the cross-section of said upwards-oriented and downwards- oriented parts thereby presenting at least one of different dimension and shape.

It is preferred when the cross-section of the upwards-oriented part is bigger than the cross-section of the downwards-oriented part of the hand-grapping extension of said lid handle (31) .

Moreover, as depicted in Figure 6, it is preferred when the upwards-oriented surface of said lid (3) underneath said lid handle (31) is lowered in relation to the perimeter region thereof, thereby providing more space for a surrounding hand handgrip of said lid handle (31) .

Figures 7 to 9 show a food processor (1) according to the present invention.

As represented, said food processor (1) further presents a casing cavity (5) and confines a driving arrangement (6) adapted to drive a food processing tool inside of said recipient (2) when said recipient (2) is operatively engaged onto said casing cavity (5) . In this arrangement, said recipient (2) is adapted so that can be retained in a previously defined blocked position onto said casing cavity (5), and said lid (3) is adapted so that can be retained in a previously defined blocked position onto said recipient (2), whereby said lid handle (31) and said recipient handle (21) extend in a substantially continuous alignment away from said casing <4) when said recipient (2) and lid (3) are in said blocked position.

It is preferred that when said lid handle (31) and recipient handle (21) are in a blocked position, there is an actuation of respective signaling means provided on at least one of said lid handle (31) and said recipient handle (21), and thus signaling a correct blocked position to a user.

A process for operating a food processor, in particular a food processor (1) according to the present invention, inventively comprises: first, manually gripping said lid handle (31) and placing said lid (3) on said recipient (2) such that said lid handle (31) is oriented in a first angular direction relative to the recipient {2), preferentially at an angle of up to 45° relative to said recipient handle (21), then retaining said lid (3) on said recipient (2) by means of manually driving said lid handle (31) to a second, preferentially previously defined, angular direction relative to said recipient (2), preferentially aligned with said recipient handle (21) .

It is preferred, when the user manually grips said recipient handle (21) with his other free hand during at least part of the time when manually gripping said lid handle (31) .

Following a retention, said lid (3) can be released from said recipient (2) by means of pressing blocking means (7) arranged at the top of said recipient handle (21) , thereby releasing the blocking retention of said lid (3) on said recipient (2), manually gripping said lid handle (31), and manually driving said lid (3) such that said lid handle (31) is removed from second direction relative to the recipient (2), in the opposite direction to the retention movement, thereby releasing said lid (3) from retention on said recipient (2) .

It is preferred when said retention of the lid (3) on said recipient (2) further includes manually grabbing said lid handle (31), pushing said lid (3) in a vertical movement downwards and then in a rotation movement around its central axis, thereby rotating said lid handle (31) in respect of a swiveling support thereof arranged at said lid projection (32), until said lid handle (31) is substantially aligned with said recipient handle (21) -

According to a preferred embodiment, the process further includes retaining said recipient (2) on a respective casing (4), such that said recipient handle (21) and said lid handle (31) are in a substantially continuous extension orthogonal to the front of said casing (4) ,

It is preferred when said retention of said lid (3) on said recipient (2) further includes the steps of appraising a correct blocking position by means of sensors, providing respective appraisal result to a control arrangement of said food processor (1) , and displaying the blocking condition of said lid ⁽ 3) on said recipient {2} by means of display means provided on said lid handle (3) .

Cesar, April 4 ^th 2018