DE29716918U1 - Cutlery tweezers - Google Patents

Description

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Two-piece cutlery that can be joined together to form a cutlery tweezers

Standard cutlery consists of three parts: a knife, a fork and a spoon.

(Utility models have also been presented in which cutlery items that can be used as spoons and forks are described. An example of this is A 47 G-21/02 7612380.)

However, special eating circumstances, needs and habits make it desirable to use special eating utensils; this is particularly intended for people who eat in confined spaces (airplanes, snack bars, etc.), people with disabilities in the arm or hand area, people on a diet, lovers of East Asian food and small children who need to be introduced to the use of cutlery for hygiene reasons.

The invention specified in claim 1 is based on the problem of having the option of eating with just one hand if necessary. At the same time, it should also be possible to have a piece of cutlery - even if it is only small - that can be used completely normally. This problem is solved with the two-piece cutlery described in claim 1, which can be very easily put together to form a pair of cutlery tweezers that can be used with just one hand.

Such a solution is particularly beneficial for people who have to eat in a confined environment, such as a narrow airplane seat or while standing, where only one hand is usually available for eating. It will be similarly helpful for people who have disabilities in the arm or hand area. Children who can control their hands from the age of 12 months and who use their fingers to eat quite naturally from this point on should also be provided with their first set of cutlery.

The cutlery tweezers also have the advantage that their two components, used individually, can fulfill the purpose of normal cutlery.

An advantageous embodiment of the invention is specified in claim 2. It takes into account that people on a diet and people who want to lose weight should eat small portions of food so that the eating and digestion process is prolonged and thus the food can be prepared more efficiently and the natural chewing and swallowing instinct and the taste experience of the sensory cells can be better satisfied, which means that less food is consumed overall. (In this context, it should be mentioned that there is already a utility model for a diet fork (A 47 G-21/02 7704950).)

A further advantageous embodiment of the invention is described in claim 3.

East Asian food is usually eaten with chopsticks. However, many non-Asians have great difficulty using these chopsticks.

With the easy-to-use eating tweezers described here, these difficulties do not arise.

• 7 ·

(Many inventors have already devoted themselves to eliminating the difficulties of eating with chopsticks. They have described many instruments as utility models. However, the solutions proposed there are, in my opinion, too cumbersome or complicated:
Chopsticks with hinge-like connections and additional pre-tension in a resting position (A 47 G-21/10 DE 9314176 and A 47 G-21/10 DE 9316067), use of a special mechanical joint to connect the chopsticks (A 47 G-21/10 GM 8626464) and chopsticks with adjustable pincer-like connection (A 47 G-21/10 GM 8706456).)

Embodiments of the invention are explained using the following figures. They show

Fig. 1: Cutlery tweezers according to claim 1

a) Spoon-fork part from above

b) Knife part from above

c) Cutlery tweezers at an angle from the side

Fig. 2: Eating cutlery tweezers according to claim 2 (diet eating tweezers)

a) Fork part

b) Spoon part

c) Diet tweezers at an angle from the side

Fig. 3: Cutlery tweezers according to claim 3 (chopstick tweezers)

a) Chopsticks

b) Chopstick tweezers at an angle from the side

Claims (3)

t · Protection claims 1. A teaspoon-sized two-piece cutlery made of a hard but elastic material, e.g. plastic or steel, both parts of which have a handle (1) and a spade-shaped end (2), with one part of the cutlery being designed as a tine-bearing spoon (3) at its spade-shaped end and the other part of the cutlery being designed as a double-edged knife (4) at its spade-shaped end, characterized, that both cutlery parts can be hooked together to form a type of tweezers at the end of the handle that is opposite the respective spatula-shaped shape, by hooking the end of the handle of one cutlery part (e.g. the spoon-fork part), which is provided with a head -neck-shaped protuberance (5) , into the end of the handle of the other cutlery part (e.g. the knife part), which has an inverted neck-head-shaped recess (6), by rotation, so that a joint (7) of a cutlery tweezers formed in this way is created, which makes it possible to pick up solid and semi-solid portions of food by pressing the undeformed, spread elastic tweezer legs (8) together, the pressing of the tweezer legs together being facilitated by thinning the material or by a wave-shaped or accordion-like structuring of the tweezer legs below the joint-forming protuberance or recess (13). 2. Cutlery tweezers according to claim 1, but now designed as diet cutlery in tweezers form, characterized, that the two cutlery parts have the length of a normal cutlery (about 20 cm), where the spoon-fork part has a small fork (9) about 1.5 cm wide with prongs at its spatula-shaped end and the knife part has a small spoon (10) about 1.5 cm wide at this end. 3. Cutlery tweezers according to claim 1, but now designed as chopsticks in tweezers form, characterized, that the two cutlery parts have the length of a normal cutlery (about 20 cm), both are extended in the shape of rods at the end opposite the tweezer joint (7) (11) and on the inside of the rod tips have a transverse ribbed zone about 2 cm long (12).