A glass holder

Abstract: A glass holder (1) is provided which is used to hold a glass stably at the edge of a dish. A glass holder (1) comprises a glass holding body (1) shaped like a cup and a cylindrical mounting frame (2) vertically extending from the underside of the bottom of the glass holding body (1). The mounting frame (2) is cut horizontally halfway around to form a mounting section (8) so that the edge of a dish can freely be inserted into or removed from the mounting section (8).

Description: The present invention relates to a glass holder according to the preamble of claim 1, as already disclosed in JP-A-62-42473. Description of the Prior Art In parties, when eating standing, one often has to hold a glass of drink and a hand-held dish at the same time. When a person picks up food and put it on his dish or when he eats the food, the glass should be put temporarily on a table or the like to free his hand. He also has to find an appropriate location on which to place his glass and to take care so that his glass will not be taken for other glasses placed near by. Because of such additional attention he may not be able to enjoy the party. At times the person may be forced to hold both glass and dish while eating and accidentally make a mess. To cope with such a problem, a glass holder has been proposed, which enables a person to hold with one hand both dish and glass with the glass held at the edge of the dish. Example patent applications that propose such a glass holder include Japanese Utility Model Preliminary Publication No. Showa 62-42473 mentioned above, Showa 63-138182, Heisei 1-119570, and Heisei 1-179572. These glass holders have as basic constituent elements a holding section that holds a glass upright and a clamping section that clamps an edge of a dish to fix the holding section to the dish. In the Japanese Utility Model Preliminary Publication No. Showa 63-138182, when attached to a dish, the glass holder has its holding section located on the edge of the dish to support a glass. In other glass holders, the clamping section grips the edge of the dish with the holding section projecting out from the dish. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Of the above-mentioned proposed glass holders, the former type holds a glass on the edge of the dish so that the glass is stable. But the glass holder of this type cannot be used to hold legged glasses. Since the holding section is formed by simply erecting four tongue pieces, the glass holders cannot be stacked one upon the other for easy storage. As for the latter three examples, on the other hand, since the holding section protrudes outside the edge of the dish, the glass holder can hold even legged glasses. However, because the glass is supported outside the dish, the clamping section is required to have a strong gripping force, which makes troublesome the procedure for attaching the clamping section to the dish. In light of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional glass holders, the present invention has been accomplished to offer improvements in these points. The objective of this invention is to provide a glass holder which has an improved dish-edge-attaching performance with easy operation and which, when holding a glass, supports it with improved stability by holding the dish and the glass firmly together. To achieve the above objective, according to this invention, there is provided a glass holder according to the preamble of claim 1, which comprises: a mounting section comprising a horizontal strip of cut formed in the mounting frame so that an edge of a dish can freely be inserted into the mounting section. The glass holder of this construction can easily and stably be attached to the dish. According to a further embodiment of this invention, there is provided a glass holder which further comprises: vertical openings formed in alignment in the arc or circumferential wall of the glass holding body and in the mounting frame at positions opposite the side where the mounting section is provided; and a glass leg holding section comprising a cut formed in the bottom of the glass holding body, the cut extending from the edge toward the center of the bottom of the glass holding body so that the cut is continuous to the openings. Next, the present invention will be described in detail in conjunction with one embodiment by referring to the accompanying drawings. These and other objects and features of this invention will become apparent from the following description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a front view of a glass holder according to this invention; Figure 2 is a rear view of the glass holder; Figure 3 is a right-hand side view of the glass holder; Figure 4 is a plan view of the glass holder; Figure 5 is a bottom view of the glass holder; Figure 6 is a bottom cross sectional view taken along the line X-X of Figure 2; Figure 7 is a central vertical cross section of the glass holder attached to a dish, viewed from the right side; and Figure 8 is a partially cross-sectioned, right-side view of glass holders stacked. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Figure 1 shows one embodiment of the glass holder according to the present invention. Figure 1 is a front view of the glass holder, Figure 2 a rear view, Figure 3 a right-hand side view, Figure a plan view, Figure 5 a bottom view, and Figure 6 a cross-sectional bottom view taken along the line X-X of Figure 2. In these figures, designated 1 is a glass holding body of the glass holder shaped like a cup. A mounting frame 2 that attaches to a dish extends vertically downwardly from the bottom 3 of the glass holding body. The glass holding body 1 has a cylindrical, circumferential wall 4 of a specified height to accept the bottom part of a glass A . The glass holding body 1 has a vertical slit to form an opening 5 . The bottom portion of the circumferential wall 4 facing the opening 5 is formed with a cut 6 (Fig. 4) along the circumferential direction to separate a part of the circumferential wall 4 and thereby form spring portions 7 , 7 . The mounting frame 2 is formed cylindrical and has a size such that it is installed in the circumferential wall 4 of the glass holding body 1 . The mounting frame 2 has a horizontal strip of cut formed in its circumferential wall to form a mounting section 8 . Although it is formed cylindrical, the mounting frame 2 need only be a frame having an arc wall surface with a mounting section 8 cutting horizontally into its wall surface. The mounting section 8 accepts the edge b of a pickup dish B . The cut in the mounting section 8 is set slightly smaller in thickness than the edge of a commonly used pick-up dish. In this embodiment, the mounting section 8 is provided on the rear side of the glass holding body 1 opposite the opening 5 . The mounting section 8 is located at nearly the central portion of the mounting frame 2 in terms of height and laterally extends halfway round the frame. To snugly accept the edge b of the dish B which is slightly curved upward, the mounting section 8 is slanted upward moderately from the central portion toward the ends so that the glass holder remains horizontal when mounted. The mounting section 8 has an expanded portion 9 at each end to allow the mounting section to easily expand as the dish is forced into it. On the front side, the mounting frame 2 has an opening 10 formed vertically aligned with the opening 5 in the glass holding body 1 . The bottom 3 of the glass holding body 1 is cut with a glass leg holding section 11 for accepting the leg c of a legged glass C , which extends from the edge of the bottom toward the center at a position such that the leg holding section 11 is continuous to the openings 5 and 10 . The openings 5 and 10 are formed to accept the leg of the glass into the leg holding section 11 . Hence, these openings have the widths to allow the leg c of the glass to pass therethrough, and the leg holding section 11 also has a similar width. The leg holding section 11 is progressively narrowed in width from the edge of the bottom of the glass holding body toward the center, with the central end formed as a circular expanded portion 11a . When the glass leg is introduced into the central expanded portion of the leg holding section and the glass C is lowered, the upper large-diameter section of the glass leg fits into it, preventing the glass leg from shifting toward the opening. The glass holder of this invention has the abovementioned construction and is made of plastic and molded as one integral piece. In use, the side surface of the mounting frame 2 is put in contact with the edge b of the dish B so that the mounting section 8 faces the dish edge, and then the glass holder is pushed against the dish to accommodate the dish edge into the mounting section. Since the mounting section 8 extends horizontally halfway round the cylindrical mounting frame 2 , when the edge b of the dish B is inserted into it, the upper edge and the lower edge of the cut portion or mounting section engage the upper surface and the lower surface of the dish edge b , respectively. The mounting section 8 thus stably clamps the dish edge, firmly fixing the glass holder to the dish. Resiliency of the material of the glass holder allows the mounting section to be expanded slightly. Because the mounting section is formed slightly narrower than the thickness of the dish edge b , the mounting section elastically but firmly grips the dish edge. The mounting section 8 cuts horizontally across a part of the cylindrical mounting frame 2 to partly separate the lower part of the mounting frame, whose central portion can be deflected about the base portions at the ends of the mounting section 8 thanks to the resiliency of the material. The base portion, which forms the connecting portion between the body of the mounting frame 2 and the partly separated lower portion, can be provided with a desired cross sectional area by changing the vertical position of the mounting section. In other words, it is possible to produce a desired clamping force to enable firm mounting of the glass holder. With the glass holder mounted to the dish in this way, a glass A is put into the glass holding body 1 from above. To hold the glass A stably, the glass holding body 1 is formed such that its inner diameter is equal to the outer diameter of the bottom portion of the glass A . To absorb manufacturing errors and to increase the kinds of glasses usable, the circumferential wall 4 of the glass holding body 1 is formed expandable as mentioned hereinabove. Therefore, as the bottom of the glass is pushed down against the bottom of the glass holding body, the glass A is gripped at its cylindrical body portion by the spring portions 7 , 7 and held in a stable condition. The glass A can of course be taken out of the glass holder freely. As described earlier, the glass holder mounted to the dish B can hold a legged glass C . With the legged glass C supported by the glass holder, the leg c of the glass C vertically extends downwardly from the bottom 3 of the glass holding body 1 , as shown. To avoid contact between the leg c and the edge b of the dish B , this embodiment has the mounting section 8 cut to a depth that does not reach the center position of the bottom 3 and the leg holding section 11 cut to a depth that does not reach the edge of the dish fitted into the mounting section 8 . When the depth of the leg holding section 11 is set shallow so that it does not reach the center of the bottom, the mounting section 8 can be cut deeper accordingly. The leg holding section 11 has an expanded portion 11a to stabilize the holding position of the glass C . When the glass with its leg c fitted in the intermediate portion of the leg holding section 11 is lowered, the body of the glass comes inside the glass holding body 1 , so that even if the leg should be moved laterally toward the opening 5 , the glass is prevented from slipping out of the glass holder. Figure 8 is a side view, partly cross-sectioned, of the glass holders stacked one upon the other, in which condition they can be stored or transported. Each glass holder is stacked with its mounting frame 2 fitted into other glass holder's glass holding body. As described above by referring to the embodiment shown in the figures, this invention has the following features. Since the mounting section is formed by cutting halfway around the circumferential surface of the mounting frame, the glass holder can easily be attached to the edge of a dish by simply pressing the dish edge against the circumferential surface to fit the dish edge into the mounting section. The attaching of the glass holder can easily be done by one hand with the other hand holding the dish. Because the mounting section is formed by cutting halfway around the circumferential surface of the mounting frame, a clamping force obtained is strong enough to stably and firmly support a glass. When the glass holder of this invention is attached to a dish, nearly half of the glass holder is placed on the upper surface of the dish edge so that the weight of the glass can be supported on the dish and easily balanced by a hand holding the dish. At the same time because the dimension by which the glass holder protrudes outside the dish is small, the glass holder is effectively prevented from abutting against other objects while being carried. The circumferential wall of the glass holding body is formed with a spring portion so that the glass holding body is resilient and expandable. This allows glasses of different outer diameters to be held. The glass is always firmly gripped by the circumferential wall. Another advantage is that the glass holder of this invention can stably hold legged glasses in addition to ordinary glasses. When not in use, the glass holders can be stacked with the glass holding body of one holder fitted into other holder's glass holding body for easy storage and transport. Since the glass holder is made of a plastic material as a one-piece integral product, it can be mass-produced at low cost.

Claims: A glass holder comprising: a glass holding body (1) shaped like a cup; a mounting frame (2) vertically extending from the underside of the bottom (3) of the glass holding body (1), the mounting frame (2) having an arc wall surface; characterized by a mounting section (8) comprising a horizontal strip of cut formed in the mounting frame (2) so that an edge (b) of a dish (B) can freely be inserted into or removed from the strip of cut. The glass holder according to claim 1, wherein the mounting frame (2) is cylindrical. The glass holder according to claim 1, wherein the horizontal strip of cut of the mounting section (8) in the mounting frame (2) is progressively inclined upward from the center toward the ends of the strip of cut. The glass holder according to claim 1, wherein the glass holding body (1) has a vertical opening (5) at a part of a circumferential wall (4) thereof, and the glass holding body (1) also has an expandable spring which is formed by making a cut (6) in the lower part of the circumferential wall (4) running in the circumferential direction from the opening. The glass holder according to claim 2, wherein the cylindrical mounting frame (2) vertically extending from the underside of the bottom of the glass holding body (1) is so sized that it can be fitted inside the glass holding body (1). The glass holder according to claim 1, characterized by vertical openings (5, 10) formed in alignment in the arc or circumferential wall (4) of the glass holding body (1) and in the mounting frame (2) at positions opposite the side where the mounting section (8) is provided; and a glass leg holding section (11) comprising a cut formed in the bottom (3) of the glass holding body (1), the cut extending from the edge toward the center of the bottom (3) of the glass holding body (1) so that the cut is continuous to the openings. The glass holder according to claim 6, wherein the glass leg holding section (11) in the bottom (3) of the glass holding body (1) is formed to such a depth that it does not contact an edge (b) of a dish (B) fitted into the mounting section (8).

Inventors: KATAOKA JOJI, KATAOKA, JOJI, KATAOKA, JOJI, C/O KATAOKA BUSSAN KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Applicants: KATAOKA BUSSAN KK, KATAOKA BUSSAN KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1993
Main classification: A47G23
IPC codes: A47G23