Patent Publication Number: US-2015069691-A1

Title: Rotary cutting mat

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED U.S. APPLICATIONS 
     Not applicable. 
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
     Not applicable. 
     NAMES OF PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT  
     Not applicable 
     REFERENCE TO AN APPENDIX SUBMITTED ON COMPACT DISC 
     Not applicable. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates generally to a rotary cutting mat, and more particularly to an innovative one which is designed to avoid disengagement or peeling-off during rotary adjustment. 
     2. Description of Related An Including Information Disclosed Tinder 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98. 
     When cutting objects on a table (e.g. cutting paper by an art cutter), a cutting mat is often cushioned to avoid damage of the table surface and facilitate the cutting action. 
     Traditionally, the cutting mat is often formed by a board of a certain thickness, and some marking lines showing the dimension and meshes are often drawn on the surface of the cutting mat as a benchmark for cutting objects. In response to diversified user demands, a cutting mat for flexible adjustment of angle has been developed. Referring to  FIG. 1 , the cutting mat  01  comprises an upper board  02  and a lower board  03 , of which an axle hole  04  is opened at the center upper board  02 , and a flanged shaft  05  is set on the lower board  03  opposite to the axle hole  04 , so that the axle hole  04  of the upper board  02  is sleeved onto the flanged shaft  05  of the bottom board  03 . In this way, the upper and lower boards  02 ,  03  can be superimposed in a rotary state. When the object is placed on the upper board  02  and supported by the lower board  03 , the angle can be adjusted by rotating the upper board  02 . 
     Despite the available adjustment functions of said cutting mat  01 , the upper board  02  is sleeved onto the flanged shaft  05  of the bottom board  03  only via the axle hole  04  without any limitation structure, so the superimposition state of the upper and lower boards  02 ,  03  is not very stable. When rotating the upper board  02  or removing or fetching the objects during the cutting process, the upper and lower boards  02 ,  03  are vulnerable to disengagement and peeling-off, leading to great inconvenience and much lower applicability. 
     Thus, to overcome the aforementioned problems of the prior art, it would be an advancement if the an to provide an improved, structure that can significantly improve the efficacy. 
     Therefore, the inventor has provided the present invention of practicability after deliberate design and evaluation based on years of experience in the production, development and design of related products. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention allows the coupling portion to penetrate the axle hole of the bottom board, and the end surface of the coupling portion is mated with the mating surface of the cutting mat, such that the expanded portion is located into the expanded opening of the bottom board, and also abutted onto the abutting wall. In this way, the bottom board is securely limited at one side of the cutting mat, such that the bottom board and cutting mat are abutted tightly. Hence, no disengagement or peeling-off may occur no matter how the user intends to adjust or overturn the cutting mat, thus improving greatly the stability of rotary adjustment, ease-of-operation and applicability. 
     Although the invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that many other possible modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is an exploded perspective view of a conventional cutting mat. 
         FIG. 2  is an exploded perspective view of the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a perspective view of the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a partially enlarged view of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  is a rotary adjustment view of the present invention. 
         FIG. 6  is a schematic view of the present invention wherein the cutting mat is overturned. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       FIGS. 1-5  depict preferred embodiments of the rotary cutting mat of the present invention, which, however, are provided for only explanatory objective. 
     Said rotary cutting mat  06  comprises a cutting mat  10 , fabricated into a faceted pattern to define a mating surface  11 . A marker of predefined pattern is set on the surface of said cutting mat  10  as a reference for cutting. 
     A bottom board  20  is fabricated into a faceted pattern. An axle hole  21  is opened on the predefined position of the bottom board, and vertically connected to two side surfaces of the bottom board  20 . Said axle hole  21  is opened on the center of the bottom board  20 . 
     An expanded opening  30  is formed on one side surface of the bottom board  20  opposite to the mating, surface  11  of the cutting mat  10 , and located coaxially with the axle hole  21 , such that the expanded opening  30  and axle hole  21  are sectionally formed into a stepped pattern. Of which, the external diameter of the expanded opening  30  must be bigger than the axle hole  21 . 
     An abutting wall  40  is formed on the wall surface between the expanded opening  30  and axle hole  21 . 
     A rotary mating member  50  comprises of an expanded portion  51  and a coupling portion  52 . Of which, the external diameter of the expanded portion  51  must be bigger than that of the coupling portion  52 , such that the rotary mating member  50  is sectionally formed into a stepped pattern. Of which, the coupling portion  52  can penetrate the axle hole  21  of the bottom board  20 , and the end surface of the coupling portion  52  is mated with the mating surface  11  of the cutting mat  10  (by means of adhesion, ultrasonic fusion, infrared, fusion or vibration frictional fusion), such that the expanded portion  51  is located into the expanded opening  30  of the bottom board  20 , and also abutted onto the abutting wall  40 . In this way, the bottom board  20  is securely limited at one side of the cutting mat  10 , such that the bottom board  20  and cutting mat  10  are abutted tightly. Next, the cutting mat  10  and bottom board  20  could rotate correspondingly by taking the coupling portion  52  of the rotary mating member  50  as a rotary pivot. Besides, the thickness of the expanded portion  51  of the rotary mating member  50  must be smaller than the soft lower board  23  of the bottom board  20 . When the end surface of the coupling portion  52  is mated with the mating surface  11  of the cutting mat  10 , the expanded portion  51  can be embedded into the expanded opening  30 , and a spacing is kept between the expanded portion Si of the rotary mating member  50  and the bottom of the bottom board  20 . 
     Based upon the above-specified structural design, the present invention allows one to place a preset object onto the cutting mat  10  with the support of the bottom board  20 . As the expanded portion  51  of the rotary mating member  50  can be abutted onto the abutting wall  40  formed between the expanded opening  30  and axle hole  21 , the bottom board  20  is securely limited at one side of the cutting mat  10 . Hence, no disengagement or peeling-off may occur no matter how the user intends to adjust the cutting mat  10 . Referring also to  FIGS. 4 ,  6 , the cutting mat  10  is not disengaged from the bottom board  20  even if the cutting mat  10  (indicated by arrow L 1 ) is overturned when removing or fetching the object; as a spacing is kept between the expanded portion  51  of the rotary mating member  50  and the bottom of the bottom board  20 , when the bottom board  20  is placed on the table surface, the space between the expanded portion  51  and the table surface could generate a vacuum pressure. When the cutting mat  10  is overturned by the user, the rotary mating member  50  is pulled upwards from the center of the bottom board  20 (shown in  FIG. 6 ). In such a case, vacuum adsorption effect could be generated between the bottom board  20  and table surface in the same way of sucking disc, so that the rotary cutting mat  06  could be placed more robustly to improve greatly the stability of rotary adjustment, ease-of-operation and applicability. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 2 and 4 , the bottom board  20  comprises of a solid upper board  22  and a soft lower board  23 , of which the solid upper board  22  can be located correspondingly with the mating surface  11  of the cutting mat  10 . Said axle hole  21  is opened on the solid upper board  22 , while the expanded opening  30  is formed coaxially opposite to the soft lower board  23  and axle hole  21 . 
     Of which, the solid upper board  22  is made of PVC, PP or PS solid plastics. The soft lower board  23  is made of soft foamed material such as soft foam, such that the bottom board  20  could be placed with non-sliding effect via the help of the soft lower board  23 .