Patent Abstract:
There is disclosed an adapter for a lighter with a button and a body, the adapter including two casing halves engageable with each other for substantially enclosing the lighter while exposing at least part of a first end of the lighter at which a flame is adapted to be produced, and when the casing halves are engaged with each other and enclosing the lighter, the casing halves are movable relative to each other to move the button of the lighter relative to the body of the lighter to produce a flame. A lighter incorporating such an adapter is also disclosed.

Full Description:
[0001]    This invention relates to an adapter for a lighter, which may convert a lighter into a child-resistant lighter, and a lighter incorporating such an adapter.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    There are in existence a wide variety of lighters. In order to prevent or at least hinder children from operating such lighters, various safety mechanisms have been devised. Such safety mechanisms are usually structurally complicated, and thus costly to manufacture. On the other hand, there are still manufactured lighters which are not child-resistant. There is thus a demand for mechanisms suitable for converting such lighters into ones which are child-resistant.  
           [0003]    It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an adapter for a lighter, and a lighter incorporating such an adapter, for mitigating the aforesaid shortcomings, and/or meeting the aforesaid demand.  
           [0004]    It is a further object of the present invention to provide an adapter suitable for converting an otherwise non-child-resistant lighter to a child-resistant lighter, thus assisting in preventing undesired use of lighters by children.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0005]    According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an adapter for a lighter with an actuator and a body, said adapter including at least first and second body members engageable with each other for substantially enclosing said lighter while exposing at least part of a first end of said lighter at which a flame is adapted to be produced, wherein when said body members are engaged with each other and enclosing said lighter, said body members are movable relative to each other to move said actuator of said lighter relative to said body of said lighter to produce a flame.  
           [0006]    According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a lighter with an actuator, a body, and an adapter, wherein said adapter includes at least first and second body members engageable with each other and substantially enclosing said lighter while exposing at least part of a first end of said lighter at which a flame is adapted to be produced, wherein said body members are movable relative to each other to move said actuator relative to said body of said lighter to produce a flame. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0007]    Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of examples only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:  
         [0008]    [0008]FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a lighter incorporated with an adapter according to a first embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0009]    [0009]FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the lighter shown in FIG. 1, in an un-ignited configuration;  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the lighter shown in FIG. 2, in an ignited configuration;  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of the lighter shown in FIG. 2;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 4A is an enlarged view of the encircled part in FIG. 4A;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a lighter incorporated with an adapter according to a second embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of the lighter shown in FIG. 5;  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the lighter shown in FIG. 5, partly assembled;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 8 is a further perspective view of the lighter shown in FIG. 5, partly assembled;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the lighter shown in FIG. 5, fully assembled;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 10 is a back view of the adapter shown in FIG. 5;  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 11 is a side view of the adapter shown in FIG. 10;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 12 is an enlarged sectional view of the adapter taken along the line A-A in FIG. 10;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 13 is a sectional view of the adapter taken along the line B-B in FIG. 10;  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 13A is an enlarged view of the encircled part in FIG. 13;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 14 is a sectional view of the adapter taken along the line C-C in FIG. 11;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 14A is an enlarged view of the encircled part in FIG. 14;  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 15 is a back perspective view of a lighter incorporated with an adapter according to a third embodiment of the present invention, partly assembled;  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 16 is a front perspective view of the lighter shown in FIG. 15, partly assembled;  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 17 is a front perspective view of the lighter shown in FIG. 15, fully assembled;  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 18 is a back perspective view of the lighter shown in FIG. 15, fully assembled;  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 19 is a front view of the adapter shown in FIG. 15;  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 20 is a sectional view of the adapter taken along the line D-D in FIG. 19;  
         [0031]    [0031]FIG. 20A is an enlarged view of the encircled part in FIG. 20;  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 21 is a sectional view of the adapter taken along the line E-E in FIG. 19; and  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 21A is an enlarged view of the encircled part in FIG. 21. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0034]    A lighter assembly incorporated with an adapter according to a first embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1, and generally designated as  100 . The lighter assembly  100  includes a lighter  102 , two plastics casing halves  104   a ,  104   b , and a clip  106 . The lighter  102  is a conventional lighter with a body  108  for containing fuel under pressure. A flame is produced when a button  110  is pressed to move in the direction indicated by the arrow M, which is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the lighter  102 , relative to the body  108  of the lighter  102 .  
         [0035]    On the lateral edges of the casing half  104   a  are two narrow protruding rims  112  (of which only one is shown in FIG. 1), which co-operate with two troughs  114  (of which, again, only one is shown in FIG. 1) along two lateral edges of the casing half  104   b , to allow the casing halves  104   a ,  104   b  to slide relative to each other when they are engaged with each other. In particular, the protruding rims  112  are received in the respective trough  114  for relative sliding movement. The rim  112  is shorter than the trough  114 , at least by the distance required to be travelled by the button  110  for producing a flame. To enhance sliding movement of the body  108  of the lighter  100  relative to the inner surface  116  of the casing half  104   b , two elongate smooth pieces  118  are fixed to respective correspondingly shaped and sized parallel recesses  120  (of which only one is shown in FIG. 1) in the inner surface  116 .  
         [0036]    As shown in FIG. 4, and more clearly in FIG. 4A, the clip  106  has two oppositely spaced ledges  122  (of which only one is shown in FIG. 1) received within a rectangular aperture  124  of the casing half  104   b , for fixing the clip  106  to the casing half  104   b . The clip  106  also has two hooks  126  (of which only one is shown in FIG. 1) which, when the casing halves  104   a ,  104   b  are engaged with each other, are received within a respective channel  128  on an outer surface  130  of the casing half  104   a , thus effecting engagement between said casing halves  104   a ,  104   b , while allowing relative lengthwise sliding movement between the casing halves  104   a  and  104   b.    
         [0037]    In order to enhance, during use, gripping of a user finger of the outer surface  130  of the casing half  104   a , a corrugated finger pad  132  is provided on the outer surface  130  of the casing half  104   a , for frictional engagement with the user finger, e.g. thumb.  
         [0038]    The casing half  104   a  has a bent lower end  136  which, when the lighter assembly  100  is properly assembled, constitutes a stopper that acts on a lower end of the body  108  of the lighter  102 . The casing half  104   b  also has a bent upper end  138  which, when the lighter assembly  100  is properly assembled, constitutes a stopper that acts on an upper surface of the button  110  of the lighter  102 .  
         [0039]    Turning now to FIGS. 2 and 3, it can be seen that when the casing halves  104   a ,  104   b  and the lighter  102  are assembled to form the lighter assembly  100 , most of the lighter  102  is enclosed by the casing halves  104   a ,  104   b , except that an end  134  of the lighter  102  at which a flame is produced is exposed to the outside environment. When the casing half  104   a  is pushed upwardly relative to the casing half  104   b , because of the stopping function of the bent lower end  136  of the casing half  104   a  and the bent upper end  138  of the casing half  104   b , the bent lower end  136  and the bent upper end  138  will be moved towards each other, such that the button  110  of the lighter  102  will be pushed downwardly relative to the body  108  of the lighter  102 , along a path parallel to the longitudinal axis of the body  108 , to produce a flame, as shown in FIG. 3.  
         [0040]    A lighter assembly incorporated with an adapter according to a second embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, and generally designated as  200 . The lighter assembly  200  includes a lighter  202 , two casing halves  204   a ,  204   b , and an engagement member in the form of a closed loop  206 . The lighter  202  is a conventional lighter with a body  208  for containing fuel under pressure. A flame is produced when a button  210  is pressed to move downwardly relative to the body  208  of the lighter  202 , and parallel to the longitudinal axis of the lighter  202 .  
         [0041]    As can be seen in FIG. 7, on an outer surface  210  of the casing half  204   a  are a number of short protrusions  212  for enhancing frictional engagement of a user finger with the casing half  204   a . Similarly, as can be seen in FIGS. 8 and 9, an outer surface  214  of the casing half  204   b  is corrugated, again for enhancing frictional engagement of a user finger with the casing half  204   b . FIGS.  7  to  9  also show the way in which the lighter assembly  200  is assembled.  
         [0042]    The lighter  202  is firstly placed in the cavity of the casing half  204   b , as shown in FIG. 7. The casing half  204   a  is then engaged with the casing half  204   b , as shown in FIG. 8. The engagement loop  206  is then placed over the engaged casing halves  204   a ,  204   b  until the engagement loop  206  is engaged with the casing half  204   b , as shown in FIG. 9, in a manner to be discussed below.  
         [0043]    FIGS.  10  to  14 A show various views of the casing halves  204   a ,  204   b  and engagement loop  206  as engaged with one another, in the absence of the lighter  202 , for clarity purpose. As can be seen in FIG. 12, when the engagement loop  206  is engaged with the casing halves  204   a ,  204   b , a protrusion  218  of a lip portion  220  of the engagement loop  206  is received within a hole  222  of the casing half  204   b . FIGS. 13 and 13A show the dovetail engagement between the engagement loop  206  and the casing half  204   b . FIGS. 14 and 14A show the engagement between the casing halves  204   a ,  204   b , which allow the casing halves  204   a ,  204   b  to exhibit relative sliding movement.  
         [0044]    A lighter assembly incorporated with an adapter according to a third embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 15 and 18, and generally designated as  300 . The lighter assembly  300  includes a lighter  302 , two casing halves  304   a ,  304   b , and two engagement members, each in the form of a closed loop  306 . The lighter  302  is a conventional lighter with a body  308  for containing fuel under pressure. A flame is produced when a button  310  is pressed to move downwardly relative to the body  308  of the lighter  302 , and parallel to the longitudinal axis of the lighter  302 . As can be seen in FIG. 16, there are two pairs of holes  312  on the casing half  304   b , each pair to be engaged with one of the loops  306 , in a manner to be discussed below.  
         [0045]    FIGS.  19  to  21 A show various views of the casing halves  304   a ,  304   b  and the loops  306  as engaged with one another, in the absence of the lighter  302 , for clarity purpose. As can be seen more clearly in FIGS. 20A and 21A, each of the loops  306  has two protrusions  316 , each to be received within one of the hole  312  on the casing half  304   b , for engaging the casing halves  304   a ,  304   b.    
         [0046]    It is found in practice that the movement of the hand and fingers required to effect relative movement between, respectively, the casing halves  104   a  and  104   b ,  204   a  and  204   b , and  304   a  and  306   b  cannot be performed by small children, e.g. ones under the age of three. The lighter assemblies  100 ,  200  and  300  are thus effectively child-resistant lighters at least hindering unwanted operation by small children. The casing halves  104   a  and  104   b ,  204   a  and  204   b , and  304   a  and  304   b  also respectively collectively act as adapters suitable for converting an otherwise non-child-resistant lighter into a child-resistant lighter.  
         [0047]    It should be understood that the above only illustrates examples whereby the present invention may be carried out, and that various modifications and/or alterations may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the invention.  
         [0048]    It should also be understood that certain features of the invention, which are, for clarity, described in the context of separate embodiments, may be provided in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features of the invention which are, for brevity, described in the context of a single embodiment, may also be provided separately or in any appropriate sub-combinations.

Technology Classification (CPC): 5