Patent ID: 7591439

Claim:
A condiment grinder comprising: a motor having a motor shaft that rotates about a central axis; a grinding rotor mounted to rotate about the central axis relative to a grinding stator, the rotor and stator cooperating for grinding the condiment therebetween; a plurality of sour gear epicyclic gearsets connected for transmitting torque from the motor shaft to the grinding rotor, each gearset comprising planet gears meshed with a sun gear, the planet gears of each gearset support upon a planet carrier, the gearsets stacked within a common ring gear with the sun gears coaxial, adjacent sun gears and planet carriers of adjacent gearsets being rotationally fast for transmitting torque between the adjacent gearsets; and a housing having a battery receiving compartment in an upper portion thereof, a condiment reservoir in a lower portion of the housing adjacent the grinding rotor and stator, an intermediate compartment between the condiment reservoir and battery compartment, a pair of coupling parts receiving the motor and gearbox, the coupling parts being joined to form a module in which the motor and gearbox are in drivingly connected, at least one of the coupling parts having a jaw slidably mounted thereto for movement between an extended position in which the jaw extends from an outer surface of the at least one coupling part to be received in a recess in the housing for holding the module in position within the Intermediate compartment; and a retracted position in which the jaw is retracted within the outer surface wherein the gearsets are formed from a melt processable polymer, the adjacent sun gears and planet carriers of adjacent gearsets being integral, the planet carriers having a disc portion with first and second opposing parallel faces extending perpendicularly to the central axis, a plurality of axle portions protruding from the first face for supporting planet gears, with the sun gear protruding from the second face; and wherein the gearsets are held between an end wall and a closure at axially opposing ends of the ring gear to form a gearbox, the end wall being formed integrally with the ring gear and the closure being fixed to the ring gear.