Abstract:
A cookie cutter comprising (a) a silhouette formed in a desired shape and carrying a dough cutting shape at a front face; (b) a plaque formed to conform with the shape of the silhouette and positioned at a rear face of said silhouette, said plaque having an outer surface and an inner surface; and (c) a polymeric adhesive material positioned on an inside surface of the plaque and joining the silhouette and plaque together.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to the design and construction of cookie cutters of superior durability and aesthetic appeal. In particular, its unique construction provides a large flat surface which can be marked with text or artwork. This makes the article particularly useful as a promotional monogrammed item or as simply a kitchen utensil that is also an attractive decoration. The invention also relates to methods of making cookie cutters.  
         [0003]     2. Description of Related Art  
         [0004]     Cookie cutters are made of a wide range of materials including stainless steels, copper, plated steel, aluminum, and plastic. Their function is to simply cut a recognizable silhouette from rolled-out cookie dough. Most cookie cutters are inexpensive and are made from very light materials and are subject to damage or distortion during use or storage. One popular design is made by roll forming one edge of a strip of steel, and then cutting the strip to length and welding the two ends together to form a ring. The ring is placed into a multi-slide press such as a spring forming press and is bent into a shape. The roll formed edge helps retain the formed shape and provides a non-sharp edge to press against the hand when the cookie cutter is in use. These are simple, functional and inexpensive but are easily crushed or distorted if not handled and stored with great care. Although this design is not durable, the tooling and production are low cost and highly flexible over a wide range of shapes. It is not effective, however, on larger size cookie cutters, which tend to become very weak and distort easily.  
         [0005]     Another popular cookie cutter is the plastic injection molded type. These are very low cost to manufacture but require a considerable up-front investment in designing and machining the mold tooling. Plastic cookie cutters are sold at a very low retail price and tend to be offered in sets such as the shapes or letters or numbers or animals. These, too, are functional for cutting dough but not adaptable to specialized marketing and, again, are not durable.  
         [0006]     Aluminum cookie cutters have been deep drawn for many years. These feature a shape silhouette to cut dough but also have a solid top, which provides a good location to grip. The solid top also makes the drawn aluminum cookie cutters substantially stronger and far more crush resistant. Because of the nature of deep drawn parts, the range of shapes available with the aluminum cookie cutter is severely limited. And like the plastic molded type, these are very expensive to tool for production.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]     The present invention has been conceived to create a cookie cutter which is sturdy, durable, easy to clean, easy to use, aesthetically pleasing and easily adapted to specialty shapes. Its construction features a flat top surface which can be marked with texts such as recipes or holiday greetings or with illustrations. Briefly stated, the cookie cutter of my invention comprises a silhouette formed in a desired shape and carrying a dough-cutting shape at a front face; a plaque formed to conform with the shape of the silhouette and positioned at a rear face of said silhouette; and a polymeric adhesive material positioned on an inside surface of the plaque and joining the silhouette and plaque together. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0008]      FIG. 1A  is a perspective view of a formed ring in the first manufacturing step of the present invention;  
         [0009]      FIG. 1B  is a silhouette formed into a desired shape using the formed ring of  FIG. 1B  in a multi-sided press;  
         [0010]      FIG. 1C  is the finished silhouette shape of  FIG. 1B ;  
         [0011]      FIG. 2  depicts the tracing of the silhouette of  FIG. 1C  onto a plaque portion of the cookie cutter of the invention;  
         [0012]      FIG. 3  is a perspective view of a jig for use in making the cookie cutter of the invention;  
         [0013]      FIG. 4  is a cross-sectional view of the cookie cutter;  
         [0014]      FIGS. 5A and 5B  depict a wall-mounted holder for holding and displaying several exemplary cookie cutter shapes of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0015]     Referring to  FIG. 1A , a strip of metal is cut to a predetermined length and the two ends are welded together at  2  to form a ring  3 . This ring  3  does not need to have a roll formed edge. The width of the strip can range from ½″ to 2″ and the thickness can range from 0.010″ to 0.100″. The ring  3  is inserted into a multi-sided type press with horizontally sliding, pre-shaped dies  4  and bent into a silhouette  5  ( FIG. 1B ) by inward movement of the dies  4 . The silhouette  5  formed from the metal ring  3  is shown in  FIG. 1C  in the outline of a young girl. The multi-side tooling arrangement shown in  FIG. 1B  depicts three sliding dies  4 ; however, it will be understood that other die arrangements can be employed, for example, up to eight slidable dies  4  can be used to form more intricate shapes for the silhouette  5 . The silhouette  5  is then traced and the tracing is used as a template to cut a flat piece of material such as wood, metal or plastic ( FIG. 2 ). The cut image  8  can be slightly larger than the actual silhouette  5  but not smaller. The cut piece of flat material  7  is placed face down on a horizontal surface  9  and the metal silhouette  5  is placed on top of it ( FIG. 3 ). The flat material will hereafter be referred to as the “plaque” portion  10  of the cookie cutter  1 .  
         [0016]     The silhouette  5  and the plaque  10  are now clamped together using a clamping tool  11  and a continuous layer of a polymeric material or polymer  12  such as a food grade polymer adhesive is cast into the cup formed by the clamped silhouette and plaque ( FIG. 4 ). The food grade polymer  12  (such as EP4000, Marsh Laboratories) should contact 100% of the surface area of the back side of the plaque 10 and 100% of the edge of the silhouette  5 , which is adjacent to the plaque. The assembly remains clamped in clamping tool  11  for the recommended cure time for the selected polymer  12 . The plaque  10  may be marked with text or artwork before or after the assembly process. The above method of manufacture may also be used with a silhouette ring  3  of any material, which will adhere to the food grade polymer, including a wide range of metals, plastics, glass, or ceramics. The polymer  12  used should be of a viscosity that is self-leveling and can penetrate the joint between the silhouette and plaque. The clamping process should be tight enough to prevent the free flow of polymer to the outside of the assembly.  
                                                                           The table below comprises characteristics       of various cookie cutters:                    Formed   Drawn   Ring &amp;           Molded Plastic   Metal   Aluminum   Plaque                        Functionality   Good   Good   Good   Good       Comfort to hold   Fair   Fair   Good   Good       Crush strength   Poor   Poor   Fair   Good       Cost to Manufacture   Low   Low   Medium   High       Tooling Costs   High   Low   High   Low       Flexibility of shapes   Fair   Good   Poor   Good       Text and illustration   N/A   N/A   Poor   Good       Larger shapes   Poor   Poor   Fair   Good                  
 
         [0017]     The cookie cutter made by the method of the present invention provides the following desirable characteristics: 
        (1) Strength—Will not distort with use or storage.     (2) The plaque  10  provides a safe and comfortable grip. The plaque also forces the cutting edge of the utensil to conform to a flat plane, making it easy to use.     (3) The assembly does not involve a roll formed edge. The roll formed edge may present cleanliness issues.     (4) The top surface of the plaque  10  offers an opportunity to work with text or illustration. This may be done by processes such as laser marking, silk screening, rubber stamping, block printing, or decaling. This feature allows the cookie cutter to function as a greeting card, recipe card or decorative home ornament in addition to its basic intended function of cutting cookie dough into desired shapes.     (5) The method of construction of the invention allows for the cookie cutter to be made much larger than by other available methods. These can be made large enough to cut sheet cakes into custom shapes.        
 
       EXAMPLE  
       [0023]     A strip of stainless steel which is 0.020″ thick, 1″ wide and 15″ long was made into a ring  3  by welding the two ends together at weld bend  2 . The ring  3  was formed into a silhouette  5  of a bell shape (not shown) on a multi-slide press. A piece of basswood, measuring ⅛″ thick, 3″ wide and 4″ long, was cut into the shape of a bell forming the plaque  10 . A laser marking system was used to cut the wood and mark the surface of the wood with a holiday greeting phrase. The wood plaque  10  was placed on a horizontal surface with the text facing down, and the bell-shaped silhouette  5  was placed on the back surface of the plaque  10  so that the perimeters of the wood plaque  10  and silhouette  5  closely matched. The two pieces were clamped together and a food grade polymer  12  was poured into the metal silhouette  10  to a depth of approximately 0.050″. The polymer  12  sealed the surface of the wood plaque  10  and formed a filet joint to the steel around the perimeter. The resulting cookie cutter  1  provided a sturdy, attractive item which is appealing for its decorative nature and highly functional as a kitchen utensil. The cookie cutter  1  doubles as a holiday ornament or can be sent as a greeting.  
         [0024]     A further embodiment of the present invention is depicted in  FIGS. 5A and 5B . A decorative wall-mounted cookie cutter holder  14  is shown with three cookie cutters  16 ,  18  and  20  of the invention mounted therein. The cookie cutters  16  and  18  are respectively formed in the shapes of a young boy and a young girl and the cookie cutter  20  is formed in the shape of a heart. The boy and girl cookie cutters  16  and  18  have decorative markings in the form of eyes and buttons formed on the plaque portion  10  of each while the heart-shaped cookie cutter  20  has text inscrib4ed thereon, all done by laser, for example. As shown in  FIG. 5B , the wall-mounted holder  14  has cut-out portions  16 ′,  18 ′ and  20 ′ formed therein to closely receive and hold the respective cookie cutters  16 ,  18  and  20  for mounting and display as depicted in  FIG. 5A .  
         [0025]     While specific embodiments of the invention have been described in detail, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications and alternatives to those details could be developed in light of the overall teachings of the disclosure. The presently preferred embodiments described herein are meant to be illustrative only and not limiting as to the scope of the invention which is to be given the full breadth of the appended claims and any and all equivalents thereof.