DE20021315U1 - Handle with inner printed image - Google Patents

Description

Handle with inner printed image

The present invention relates to a handle with an internally printed image, which is usable for dining knives, dining forks, spoons, combs or toothbrushes. The handle structure comprises a decorative sheet provided with a specific image, which is enclosed in a transparent handle to provide a beautiful eye-catcher.

Handles of existing dining knives, dining forks, spoons, combs or toothbrushes are often provided with attractive profile and colored stripes to attract consumers. The handles of such dining cutlery or hand tools can be made of highly or semi-transparent material. The material of the handles can be a combination of soft and hard material. Optionally, the surface of the handles can be provided with stripes or pictures.

No matter what plastic material the handles are made of, they are usually made by one-time injection molding. This does not allow any decorative sheet to be inserted into the handles of the dining cutlery or hand tools to create a new eye-catcher, increase the quality of the handle and increase appetite.

Some manufacturers have developed handles that contain a decorative item with a specific image. These handles consist of an upper and a lower block. After the decorative item with a specific image is enclosed in the two blocks, the surfaces of the two blocks are bonded or fused together using glue or ultrasonic waves, so that the two blocks enclose the decorative item without it falling out.

According to the bonding _or melting method described above, the mated surfaces of the two blocks form a _ϕ opaque

boundary layer at the contact surface. This means that the decorative items are hardly visible clearly and realistically, so that the decorative effect is weak.

In addition, handles for dining cutlery are known in which the transparent material of the handle is equipped with a cavity in which colored cards with stripes and pictures or dried flowers are arranged. A closure piece is placed on the open end of the cavity to enclose the colored cards or dried flowers in the handle. Such a structure is complicated and requires numerous components. This leads to high costs and low production efficiency.

It is the object of the present invention to provide an improved handle with an internal printed image, by means of which a high, lifelike viewing effect is achieved. This object is achieved by the invention specified in claim 1. An advantageous development of the invention is specified in a subclaim.

According to the present invention, the handle includes a sheet which is provided with a predetermined image by halftone or etching printing or laser profiling. The sheet is placed in a central recess of a lower mold. After the lower mold is assembled with an upper mold, a plastic material is injected and completely filled into the recess to cover one side of the sheet. In this way, an upper handle block is formed. The upper handle block is then combined in a second process with a lower handle block made of plastic of the same property. The plastic of the upper and lower handle blocks is melted and the handle blocks combined to form a one-piece body which encloses the sheet in a vacuum without bubbles. The injection plastics used in the first and second mold injection processes have the same properties and are thermoplastic so that they can be combined with each other when melted. The plastics used in the two mold injection processes can be used for

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the upper and lower handle blocks can be both transparent, or transparent for only one handle block and opaque for the other. If one of the handle blocks is opaque, the opaque handle block serves as the color substrate of a mirror surface. If both handle blocks are transparent, the transparent materials are integrally bonded with the demolding line as the bonding line. The decoration sheet is embedded between the upper and lower handle blocks accordingly. Through different color effects, the decoration sheet can be clearly seen through the transparent plastic material to achieve a strong visible decoration effect.

The present invention is described in more detail below with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 1 shows a sectional view of the first molding injection process for
Inclusion of the sheet of the present invention;

Fig. 2 shows a sectional view according to Fig. 1 with the

injected plastic to enclose the sheet of the present
Invention;

Fig. 3 shows a side view of one half of the handle of the present
Invention formed by the first injection molding;

Fig. 4 shows a sectional view of the second mold injection process for
Inclusion of the sheet of the present invention;

Fig. 5 shows a side view of a complete handle of the present
invention formed by the second injection molding;

Fig. 6 shows a dining knife with a handle structure according to the present
Invention;

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Fig. 7 shows a perspective exploded view of a dining knife
acc. to Fig. 6.

Referring to drawings 1, 3 and 7, a preferred embodiment of the dining cutlery handle of the present invention includes a sheet 10 which is provided with a predetermined image by halftone or etching printing or laser profiling. The sheet 10 is inserted into a central recess 31 of a lower mold block 3OA. After the lower mold block 3OA is assembled with an upper mold block 3OB, a plastic material is injected through a filling channel 32 of the upper mold block 3OB. At the same time, a core block 33 is advanced and the material is completely filled into the recess 31 to hermetically coat one side of the sheet 10. One half of the dining cutlery handle 12 is thus formed. The front end of the handle block 12 is provided with an insertion socket 34 for a blade.

Referring to drawings 4, 5 and 7, after the first manufacturing process, half of the handle block 12 is placed in a second lower mold 40. The lower mold 40 is provided with a recess 41 in which the handle block 12 is placed. After the lower mold has been aligned with the upper mold, the plastic is injected. The air is extruded by the high pressure of the injected plastic so that both sides of the sheet 10 are hermetically sealed by the transparent plastic. By the second injection, a second half dining cutlery handle block 13 is thus connected to the other side of the sheet 10 to form a complete dining cutlery handle 20.

Fig. 6 shows the complete construction of the cutlery handle. The internal colour printed or etched images are visible through the transparent plastic material enclosing the blade 10. This increases the

quality of the dining cutlery handle and a strong visible decorative effect is achieved which stimulates the appetite. The handle is provided with a steel ring 43 and a blade 44 to create a complete dining knife 50.

In the first and second mold injection processes, the plastic may be transparent on both sides or only on one side of the sheet 10. If only one side of the sheet 10 is transparent, the opaque handle block serves as a color substrate of a mirror surface. The injection plastics used in the first and second mold injection processes have the same property and are thermoplastic so that they can be combined with each other when melted. This allows the halves of the dining cutlery handle blocks 12, 13 to be integrally connected to each other via a bond line which represents the demolding line. The images enclosed in the plastic may represent a trademark or specific images.

The above embodiments are merely illustrative of the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope thereof. Many modifications to the above embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.

List of reference symbols

10 - Sheet

12 - one half of the handle block

13 - other half of the handle block 20 - dining cutlery handle

3OA - first lower fitting

3OB - upper fitting

32 - Filling channel

33 - Core

34 - Connection introduction

40 - second lower fitting

41 - Deepening

43 - Steel ring

44 - Blade

50 - complete dining knife

Claims (2)

1. A handle with an internal printed image comprising a sheet ( 10 ) and two halves of handle blocks ( 12 , 13 ), the sheet ( 10 ) being provided with an image and both sides of the sheet ( 10 ) being hermetically bonded by a first and a second mold injection process to upper and lower halves of handle blocks ( 12 , 13 ) made of plastic of the same property and the plastics being bondable in a molten state to form a one-piece body enclosing the sheet ( 10 ) with the image and at least one of the two halves of the handle blocks ( 12 , 13 ) being made of transparent plastic, whereby the colored image of the sheet ( 10 ) is visible through the transparent plastic to provide a strong eye-catcher and the halves of the handle blocks ( 12 , 13 ) are bonded along a bonding surface defining the demolding line are interconnected. 2. Handle with inner printed image according to claim 1, wherein one of the two halves of the handle blocks ( 12 , 13 ) is made of opaque plastic.