TOOL STORAGE ARRANGEMENTS FOR DOMESTIC APPLIANCES

Abstract: A multi-use kitchen appliance is described, comprising an electrically powered drive motor that is intended to drive any of number of separate tools (2, 3, 4) for performing various operations in the preparation of food or drink. The appliance itself constitutes an arrangement permitting the various tools (2, 3, 4) and the drive motor (1) to be conveniently stored and handled as a unit, whereby one of the tools (4) is associated with a stable platform, such as a bowl (6), which provides support for the remaining tools (2, 3) and the drive motor (1), all of which are intended to be stored externally of the bowl (6). A holder device (8) is supported on the bowl (6) by way of a housing portion (14) of the relevant tool (4), and provides location and support for the remaining tools (2, 3). The holder device (8) is preferably retained in place by means of the drive motor (1) being attached to the tool (4) associated with the bowl (6) as if for use of that tool (4).

Description: _ _ TOOL STORAGE ARRANGEMENTS FOR DOMESTIC APPLIANCES This invention relates to tool storage arrangements for domestic appliances, especially such appliances as may be used for operations such as food mixing, processing etc, and which utilise removable tools for such purposes. The tools used with such appliances are typically whisks, beaters and the like, and problems are often encountered with the storage of these tools when they and/or the appliances themselves are not in use. Typically the tools are kept loose and separately from the appliance and this can lead to their loss or damage, with the frustrating result that they are unavailable when the user wishes to employ them. One approach to dealing with this problem is that disclosed in our co-pending UK patent application No. 9900476.4, wherein a tool storage arrangement is provided for a domestic appliance having one or more drive sockets adapted to releasably receive and hold for operation a shanked tool. The arrangement described in the aforementioned patent application comprises a preformed member having first and second, generally opposed, major surfaces, wherein the first of said surfaces bears a protrusion shaped and dimensioned to retentively engage in the or each drive socket and the second of said surfaces is formed with a slot dimensioned and shaped to grip the shank of the or each tool . That arrangement is effective and convenient for domestic appliances using certain drive configurations, but the present invention aims at addressing the problem of tool storage in appliances of differing configuration and/or design. In particular, the present invention is concerned with appliances of the kind in which the tools or attachments, such as whisks, blenders and mincers, are constructed, and geared if necessary, to allow them to operate with optimal speed/torque characteristics; an arrangement which increases the dimensions of the tools and decreases the size of the main drive housing, to an extent that the tools tend to be at least comparable in size with the drive housing. This contrasts with the situation addressed by the arrangement described in the aforementioned patent application, where the tools consist of small, shanked contrivances that are relatively small compared to the main motor/drive housing, and thus requires a radically different approach which the present invention aims to provide. According to the invention there is provided a tool storage arrangement for a domestic appliance; the appliance having an electric motor contained within a housing and a plurality of tools attachable individually to the housing for performing respective tasks, wherein one at least of the tools is formed with or otherwise associated with a stable platform and supports a holder device provided with a support location for another tool; the said other tool and the motor housing being supportable, via the said at least one tool, on said stable base. Preferably the holder device is provided with support locations for a plurality of tools. This enables the tools of the appliance to be kept together in a convenient way. It is further preferable that the individual tools be releasably lockable to the holder device at the various support locations so that the tools may conveniently be carried as a unit. Still more preferably, the holder device is configured to permit the motor housing to be coupled to the supporting tool in a manner that releasably locks the motor housing to the supporting tool. By this means, the motor housing may be conveniently stored and carried along with the tools. Conveniently, the holder device may be releasably secured to the supporting tool by the attachment of the motor housing thereto . In further preferred arrangements, at least one individual tool has its own gearing system which is contained in a housing portion designed to blend visually with, and provide ready attachment to and release from, the drive output end of the motor housing. Typically the attachment is effected by means of co-operative components of a latching system such as a bayonet fixing. In these circumstances, the various housings and housing portions are preferably generally tubular and all of the tools are provided with identical latching components to interact with those provided at the outlet of the motor housing which, of course constitutes a common drive unit for all of the tools. Conveniently the support location or locations formed at the holder device replicate the latching components provided at the outlet of the motor housing. Still more conveniently, the holder device is provided with an aperture enabling it to fit over a tubular portion of the supporting tool, enabling the motor housing to be attached (as if for use) to the supporting tool . In a particular embodiment, the supporting tool comprises a mincer attachment intended for use in a bowl, and the bowl thus provides the aforesaid stable platform. In that embodiment, the holder device is formed with two support locations, each with identical, tool-receiving bayonet fixing components, and the tools to be supported thereby are a whisk and a blender respectively. In order that the invention may be clearly understood and readily carried into effect, one embodiment thereof will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which: Figure 1 shows, in general perspective view, a tool storage arrangement in accordance with one example of the invention, together with typical tools and a motor housing; and Figure 2 illustrates a detail of the motor housing. Referring now to Figure 1, the appliance represented comprises a hand-held food mixer/processor comprising an electric drive motor, contained in a generally tubular housing 1, and separate whisking, blending and mincing tools 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Each of the tools comprises an operative contrivance designed to have a desired mixing, whisking or comminuting effect upon foodstuffs, for example, and each of the tools 2 and 4 has a respective gear system contained within a respective, generally tubular, housing portion as shown at 12 and 14 respectively; the gear systems in this example comprising respective sets of epicyclic gears, each designed to reduce (by around a factor of nine or ten) the motor drive speed, which is typically in the region of 10,000 to 15,000 revolutions per minute. The wand-like housing 13 of the blending tool 3 contains no gearing, as the blender in this example runs directly at the motor's drive speed. The housing portions 12, 13 and 14 all contain identical latching components intended to co-operate with complementary components provided at the motor drive output end 5 of the motor housing 1 to enable the tools to be readily attached to and released from the motor housing. Conveniently, the cooperative latching components comprise bayonet fixings; this technique being robust and reliable as well as accommodating ready and rapid mounting and interchanging of tools, but alternative techniques can be used, if desired, without departing from the invention. In particular, the bayonet latches may be supplemented with an anti-rotation lock comprised of resiliently mounted pips (not shown) adjacent the bayonet latching components of the drive motor's housing 1 which can engage with respective indents (not shown) formed adjacent the bayonet latching components of the housings 12, 13 and 14 when the bayonet components are fully inter-engaged. In any event, the provision of individual gear systems, where necessary, for the various tools enables their speed and torque characteristics to be optimised for their respective primary tasks, and also permits the motor housing and its contents to be simplified and made more compact when compared with more conventional appliances of the kind described in relation to the aforementioned patent application. As mentioned previously, the overall arrangement is such that, in appliances of the kind shown in Figure 1, the relative dimensions of the motor housing and the tools are much closer to one another than are those in more conventional appliances. The previously held concept of attaching the tools to the motor unit for storage is thus no longer as attractive in these circumstances and a different approach is needed. In accordance with this example of the invention, a suitable arrangement is founded upon the use of one of the tools as a support tool. In this case, the mincing tool 4 has associated therewith a bowl 6 in which chopping blades 7 can rotate when the tool is in use. The mincing tool, in this example, comprises, in combination, a body portion 14 which serves in operation as a lid for the bowl 6 and houses the aforementioned epicyclic gearing, as well as mating with the output drive of the motor 1 as previously described. The blades 7 are attached to a shaft which is removable from the body portion 14, enabling the cutting component to be cleaned separately from the housing. Bowl 6 provides a stable platform that conveniently forms the basis of this example of a storage arrangement in accordance with the invention. The other element essential to this embodiment is a holder device 8, which is formed of a rigid plastics material, as it must be self-supporting, and comprises a generally flat platform 9 formed with a central aperture 10 dimensioned to fit loosely over the upstanding end of the housing portion 14 of the tool 4. The outer surface of the housing portion 14 is made slightly conical so the holder device 8 may be readily designed to sit at an appropriate height merely by choosing an appropriate diameter for the aperture 10. A suitable anti-rotation device, such as cooperative pip and notch 11a, lib, may be provided if necessary on the housing portion 14 and on the edge of the aperture 10 in the holder device 8. Upstanding from the platform 9 of the holder device 8 are, in this example, two support locations 22 and 23 for the remaining tools 2 and 3. Each support location comprises a suitably shaped protrusion, conveniently replicating the bayonet latching components formed at the output end 5 of the motor housing 1, so that either of the tools 2 and 3 can be placed on either of the support locations 22 or 23 and releasably latched thereto by means of its own bayonet fixing components . Finally, the motor housing 1 is coupled to the up-standing housing portion 14, as if for use of the tool 4, and the entire appliance can then be lifted, transported and/or stored as one. In this respect, it will be appreciated that it is desirable for the portion 14 of tool 4 to latch securely to the bowl 6 to ensure that the entire assembly may be lifted as one when desired. This latching can be achieved in any convenient manner, such as bayonet fixings, multi-start screw threadings and/or resiliently mounted pip/indent fixings. Instead of the motor housing being mounted as for use on the tool 4, it may be laid in a suitable cradle mounting formed in a suitably dimensioned upstand around the aperture 10 in the holder device 8 and/or in the housing portion 14. There may or may not be a latch to hold the motor housing in place in its cradle, depending upon whether or not it is desired to lift the entire assembly as a whole or merely the tools. In this case, of course, a suitable detent mechanism may be provided to releasably latch the holder device 8 to the housing portion 14. As a further alternative arrangement, the platform area 9 of the holder device 8 may be extended and configured to provide a separate and dedicated support location for the motor housing 1; such dedicated location being formed either with a replica of the bayonet fixing components used in the tools 2, 3 and 4, or comprising merely an aperture of sufficient size into which the motor housing 1 can be lowered to a desired depth and retained by contact, by interference fit or by positive latching as desired. In another alternative form of location for the motor housing 1, the aperture 10 in the platform 9 is made "blind" so that there is a depression that fits over the housing portion 14, but this is covered by a web which supports an upstand formed with the necessary bayonet components to co-operate with those in the drive output end 5 of the motor housing 1. This locates the motor housing 1 centrally relative to the stable platform provided by the bowl 6, for good stability, but does not require direct coupling of the motor housing 1 to the tool 4 as in use, thereby providing a safety feature in the event that the appliance as a whole is stored in reach of children and where it is connected to, or readily connectable to, mains electricity. It is convenient for the bowl 6 to be provided with a flexible, discoidal member 15 that can be fitted either to the base of the bowl, as shown in Figure 1, to provide a non- scratch, non-skid base, or to the top of the bowl 6, as a lid therefor, to contain and/or protect product therein when the lid/housing 14 is removed. With regard to the motor housing 1, Figure 2 illustrates a particularly advantageous arrangement whereby a cord grip 16, comprising a suitably dimensioned and shaped slot, is formed in a material such as that sold under the trade mark Santoprene and mounted or formed in a recess 17 of the motor housing 1. It will be appreciated that the holder member 8 can be removed from the supporting tool 4, when the appliance is to be used, with the tools 2 and 3 in situ, and that these tools can conveniently be left attached to the holder device if they are not required for use; the holder device, with the tools 2 and 3 attached, being free-standing on a flat surface. It will be appreciated that the invention can be implemented in many alternative ways, depending for example on the nature and design of the motor housing 1 and/or the tools such as 2, 3 and 4, and that the detailed profile, shape and/or configuration of the holder device and the support locations and other features thereof can take any form convenient for its intended application.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A tool storage arrangement for a domestic appliance; the appliance having an electric motor contained within a housing (1) and a plurality of tools (2, 3, 4) attachable individually to the housing for performing respective tasks, wherein one at least of the tools (4) is formed with or otherwise associated with a stable platform (6) and supports a holder device (8) provided with a support location (22 or 23) for another tool (2 or 3); the said other tool (2 or 3) and the motor housing (1) being supportable, via the said at least one tool (4) , on said stable base ( 6) . 2. An arrangement according to claim 1 wherein said at least one tool (4) is intended for use within a bowl (6) and includes a housing portion (14) constituting a lid for said bowl (6) ; said bowl (6) providing said stable platform. 3. An arrangement according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the holder device (8) is provided with support locations (22, 23) for a plurality of tools (2, 3) . 4. An arrangement according to claim 3 wherein means are provided for releasably locking the individual tools to the holder device at the various support locations so that the tools may be carried as a unit. 5. An arrangement according to any preceding claim wherein the holder device (8) is configured to permit the motor housing (1) to be coupled to the supporting tool (4) in a manner that releasably locks the motor housing to the supporting tool . 6. An arrangement according to claim 5 wherein the holder device (8) is releasably securable to the supporting tool by the attachment of the motor housing (1) to said supporting tool (4) . 7. An attachment according to any preceding claim wherein at least one individual tool (2 or 4) has its own gearing system; said gear system being contained in a respective housing portion (12 or 14) and each such housing portion comprising connector means providing ready attachment of the tool to, and release of the tool from, the motor housing (1) . 8. An arrangement according to claim 7 wherein the connector means comprises co-operative components of a bayonet fixing. 9. An arrangement according to either of claims 7 or 8 wherein all of the connector means comprise identical latching components to interact with complementary components provided at the drive output end (5) of the motor housing (1). 10. An arrangement according to claim 9 wherein a replica of the said complementary components is provided at the or each support location (22, 23) of the holder device (8). 11. An arrangement according to any of claims 7-10 wherein the holder device (8) is provided with an aperture (10) enabling it to fit over the housing portion (14) containing the gear system of the supporting tool (4), and enabling the motor housing (1) to be attached (as if for use) to the supporting tool (4) through said aperture . 12. An arrangement according to claim 11 wherein the holder device (8) is formed with two support locations (22, 23), and the tools (2, 3) to be supported thereby are a whisk and a blender respectively.

Inventors: HARDING JOHN, SANTER JOHAN, HARDING, JOHN, SANTER, JOHAN
Applicants: HARDING JOHN, KENWOOD MARKS LTD, SANTER JOHAN, HARDING, JOHN, KENWOOD MARKS LIMITED, SANTER, JOHAN
Application year: 2000
Main classification: A47J43
IPC codes: A47J43