JP3779671B2 - Piezoelectric lighter - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a piezoelectric ignition type lighter, and more particularly to a small and lightweight piezoelectric ignition type lighter that can be carried in a pocket or a handbag.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Lighters generally referred to as disposable lighters also have various structures, such as those disclosed in publicly known documents such as JP-A-7-158852 and JP-A-2001-343122.
[0003]
Therefore, an example of a conventional piezoelectric ignition type lighter will be briefly described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7 (the reference numerals in the figure use the same reference numerals as in the description of the present invention). The piezoelectric unit 19 is operated by being pushed down directly by the operation cap 41 .
[0004]
That is, the piezoelectric ignition writer over directly press down the operation cap 41, actuates the piezoelectric unit 19, at the same time, one end portion 26a of the channel opening and closing lever 26 supported part is pushed down the other end portion 26b The fuel injection nozzle 17 is pulled up by raising the other end portion 26b. In conjunction with the raising of the fuel injection nozzle 17, the internal passage of the fuel supply unit 16 is opened, and the fuel gas in the liquid fuel filling chambers 6 a and 6 b is injected from the fuel injection nozzle 17. The fuel gas injected from the fuel injection nozzle 17 is ignited by the discharge from the discharge terminal 13 due to the operation of the piezoelectric unit 19 described above.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the conventional piezoelectric ignition lighter described above, because it was intended for igniting press directly piezoelectric unit 19 in the operating cap 41, not must held down ignition until in strong operating cap 41, the operation was heavy. Also, on windy days, the flame often blows out when ignited outdoors, and the tip of the thumb hurts if the operation cap 41 is repeatedly pressed many times. There was also the problem of getting tired.
[0006]
The present invention has been developed in view of such problems, and an object thereof is to provide a piezoelectric ignition type lighter that improves the operational feeling by reducing the force required to push down the operation cap. There is to do.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to effectively achieve the above object, the present invention has the following configuration. That is, the piezoelectric ignition type lighter according to the first aspect of the present invention operates the piezoelectric unit and fuel gas of the fuel supply unit by grasping the lighter body and pushing down the operation cap located above the lighter body with the thumb. In the piezoelectric ignition type lighter that operates the passage opening / closing lever that opens the passage , the inner cylinder member of the piezoelectric unit is moved between the operation cap, the piezoelectric unit, and the passage opening / closing lever by pushing down the operation cap. There is provided an operation lever that operates against the urging force and operates the passage opening / closing lever. The operation lever includes a U-shaped locking presser portion that includes both side portions and a connecting portion, and a locking presser foot. A protrusion projecting outward from the position of the lower end of the both side portions, which is a position substantially opposite to the position of the connecting portion of the portion, and locking The projecting part protrudes upward from the center of the upper part of the upper part of the hook part, and both protrusions of the locking and holding part of the operation lever protrude from the upper part of the lighter body so as to face each other with a predetermined interval. A connecting portion of the locking presser portion of the operation lever that is rotatably engaged with the projecting piece comes into contact with the upper end of the inner cylinder member of the piezoelectric unit, and by pressing down the operation cap, By pushing down the upper end of the working flange and using the projection as a fulcrum, the connecting part that acts as the working point pushes down the inner cylindrical member of the piezoelectric unit and operates the passage opening / closing lever at the side of the operation lever. The fuel gas passage of the fuel supply unit is opened, and the fuel gas injected from the tip facing the upper side of the fuel injection nozzle provided beside the operation cap is ignited by discharge due to the operation of the piezoelectric unit. Consisting of Unishi was constructed.
[0008]
[0009]
[0010]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a partially exploded perspective view of an example of a piezoelectric ignition type lighter according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a main part of FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the operation cap as seen from obliquely below, and FIG. 5 is a simplified explanatory view of the main part of the piezoelectric ignition type lighter of FIG.
[0011]
Reference numeral 1 in the figure is an example of a piezoelectric ignition type lighter. Reference numeral 2 denotes a lighter body, which is a bottomed elliptical cylinder shaped into a size that can be grasped by a hand with a transparent resin, and has an open top.
[0012]
The interior of the lighter main body 2 is divided into a left and right part by a vertical partition 3 at a substantially central portion, and one side is vertically divided by an upper horizontal partition 4 into a fuel supply unit storage chamber 5 and a liquid fuel gas filling chamber 6a. Further, the other side is partitioned vertically by an intermediate horizontal partition 7 into a piezoelectric unit storage chamber 8 and a liquid fuel gas filling chamber 6b.
[0013]
The lower end 9 (see FIG. 1) of the vertical partition 3 is located slightly above the bottom 10 of the lighter body 2. Therefore, the fuel gas filling chambers 6 a and 6 b communicate with each other below the vertical partition 3.
[0014]
A pair of rectangular protrusions 12 are formed on the upper portion of the lighter body 2 so as to face each other at the center of the upper outer peripheral edge 11.
[0015]
A hole 21 for swingably supporting an operation lever 20 to be described later is formed at a position facing each piezoelectric piece 12 on the piezoelectric unit storage chamber 8 side, and the piezoelectric unit storage chamber 8 side of each protrusion 12 is formed. On the inner end side, an engaging portion 22 is formed for supporting an operation cap 41, which will be described later, so as to be slidable in the vertical direction.
[0016]
Further, a concave portion (not shown) is formed in the center of the outer side of each protruding piece 12 for fitting the inner locking convex portion 24 of the metal cover 23 (see FIG. 1) covering the ignition portion.
[0017]
In addition, a locking hole (not shown) for swingably supporting a passage opening / closing lever 26 to be described later is formed in the root portion of each protruding piece 12 facing the inside of the fuel supply unit storage side 5.
[0018]
Further, a support portion 14 that supports the thin shaft-like discharge terminal 13 from the piezoelectric unit 19 is formed so as to protrude upward at the center of the upper end of the vertical partition 3. A recess 22 is formed at the center of the upper end of the support portion 14 (see FIG. 3), and the vicinity of the tip of the discharge terminal 13 is engaged with and supported by the recess 22. The tip 15 of the discharge terminal 13 is supported by the support 14 so as to face the direction of the fuel injection nozzle 17, and is positioned slightly above the tip 18 of the fuel injection nozzle 17.
[0019]
The piezoelectric unit 19 (see FIGS. 1 and 2) housed in the piezoelectric unit housing chamber 8 is a well-known one used in general disposable lighters, and its structure will be briefly described. An outer cylindrical member 28 having a bottomed cylindrical cylindrical portion 28a supported by the intermediate partition 7 when stored in the unit storage chamber 8, and a spring (FIG. (Not shown), the inner cylinder member 29 urged outward, a piezoelectric element (not shown) built in a predetermined position of the outer cylinder member 28, and a hammer (not shown) built in a predetermined position of the inner cylinder member 29 (Not shown), a spring (not shown) for operating the hammer toward the piezoelectric element, and a lock mechanism (not shown) for temporarily stopping the operation of the hammer by the spring.
[0020]
The piezoelectric element and the hammer usually face each other with a predetermined interval. When the piezoelectric unit 19 is stored in the piezoelectric unit storage chamber 8, the upper part 30 of the inner cylinder member 29 biased by a spring built in the outer cylinder member 28 protrudes from the upper opening of the lighter body 2.
[0021]
Next, the principle mechanism 31 of the illustrated example according to the present invention has a configuration in which the operating lever 20 is swingably locked to the protruding piece 12 described above.
[0022]
That is, the operating lever 20 is formed in a U-shaped locking presser portion 32 having a substantially L-shaped side portion 32a and a connecting portion 32b on both sides, and is formed to project from the locking presser portion 32 to the side. It consists of the protrusion part 34 and the substantially reverse square-shaped action collar part 35 formed so that it might protrude from the upper center of the connection part 32b.
[0023]
The protrusions 34 of the operation lever 20 are engaged with the holes 21 of the protrusions 12, and the inner side 36 of the connecting portion 32 b of the locking presser 32 is lowered from above, so that the inner cylinder member 29 of the piezoelectric unit 19 is lowered. It will be arranged in the position which hits the upper end part 37. Further, the above-described support portion 14 is located between the U-shaped locking presser portions 32.
[0024]
In the above-described principle mechanism 31, as shown in FIG. 5, the location of the hole 21 that locks each projection 34 is the fulcrum A, and the upper end 35 a of the working flange 35 that pushes the upper end 37 of the inner cylinder member 29. The location is the force point B, and the location on the inner side 36 of the connecting portion 32b is the action point C.
[0025]
The passage opening / closing lever 26 (see FIGS. 2 and 5) has an engagement portion 39 that engages with the fuel injection nozzle 17 at the center of one end by a thin metal piece, and is formed in a fork behind the engagement portion 39. Further, a projecting piece portion 38 (see FIG. 1) protrudes laterally from both sides near one end, and this projecting piece portion 38 is formed into a locking recess (shown in FIG. 1). It is supported so that it can swing freely.
[0026]
The pressing collar 40 has a shape extending to both sides of the inner cylinder member 29 of the piezoelectric unit 19. The passage opening / closing lever 26 is bent slightly in the longitudinal direction as a whole, and the fuel injection nozzle 17 side is raised and the inner cylinder member 29 side is slightly lowered by supporting the convex piece portion 38. Further, the side portions 32 a of the operation lever 20 are positioned above the both pressing collar portions 40 of the passage opening / closing lever 26.
[0027]
Reference numeral 41 in the drawing is a resin-molded operation cap (see FIGS. 1, 4, and 5), which is attached to the upper opening of the lighter body 2 on the piezoelectric unit 19 side.
[0028]
The operation cap 41 includes a half-elliptical finger placement portion 42 that can be pressed with a thumb, a U-shaped engagement portion 43 formed below the finger placement portion 42, and an end of the finger placement portion 42. An engaging projection 44 that projects from both sides of the projection 12 and slidably engages with the locking portion 22 of the projecting piece 12, and a convex portion 45 formed at the center of the back side of the finger placement portion 42.
[0029]
The engaging portion 43 is slidable along the inner surface from the upper opening of the lighter body 2 into the piezoelectric unit storage chamber 8 while engaging the engaging protrusion 44 with the engaging portion 22 of the protrusion 12. It is stored together. In this case, the convex portion 45 abuts on the upper end portion 35a of the action lever portion 35 of the operation lever 20 described above.
[0030]
Next, the fuel supply unit 16 stored in the fuel supply unit storage chamber 8 is a known one like the piezoelectric unit 19, and the operation of the passage opening / closing lever 26 whose one end is locked to the fuel injection nozzle 17. As a result, the fuel injection nozzle 17 constituting the fuel gas passage is slightly lifted against the spring of the spring built in the fuel supply unit main body 47, and the valve seat placed on the bottom of the fuel injection nozzle 17 and closed is closed. The fuel gas is injected from the tip 18 of the fuel injection nozzle 17 through a tube 46 ( fuel gas passage) that is opened and placed in the liquid fuel filling chamber 6a.
[0031]
Reference numeral 48 denotes a gas injection amount adjusting ring for adjusting the size of the flame, and the gas injection amount can be adjusted via a valve mechanism in the fuel supply unit main body 47 by turning.
[0032]
In the piezoelectric ignition type lighter 1 (see FIG. 4) according to the present invention configured as described above, the operation cap 41 is held by holding the lighter body 2 and pushing the finger placement portion 42 of the operation cap 41 downward with the thumb. The convex portion 45 on the back surface of the operating lever 20 abuts against the upper end portion 35 a of the operating lever portion 35 of the operation lever 20 and is pushed down.
[0033]
As a result, the operating lever 20 is pushed down to the fulcrum A at the location of the hole 21 that holds each projection 34, and the connecting portion 32 b of the operating lever 20 hits the upper end portion 37 of the inner cylinder member 29 of the piezoelectric unit 19. The inner cylinder member 29 is pushed down against the spring of the spring built in the piezoelectric unit 19.
[0034]
As a result, the side portions 32 a on both sides of the operation lever 20 come into contact with the pressing collar portion 40 of the passage opening / closing lever 26 from above. By further depressing the operation cap 41, the pushing lever 40 of the passage opening / closing lever 26 is lowered and the engaging portion 39 on the opposite side is raised, and the fuel injection nozzle 17 is slightly raised. By this operation, the fuel gas passage inside the fuel supply unit 16 is opened, and the fuel gas is injected from the tip 18 of the fuel injection nozzle 17.
[0035]
Almost simultaneously with the injection of the fuel gas, discharge is made from the tip 15 of the discharge terminal 13 of the piezoelectric unit 19, and the injected fuel gas is ignited as described above. That is, when the operation lever 20 is pushed down to the position where the passage opening / closing lever 26 is operated by the operation cap 40 as described above, the lock mechanism in the piezoelectric unit 19 is released and the hammer strikes the piezoelectric element. As a result, a high voltage pulse is generated, and discharge occurs between the tip 15 of the discharge terminal 13 and the tip 18 of the fuel injection nozzle 17 that is electrically connected to the piezoelectric unit 19, and is injected from the tip 18 of the fuel injection nozzle 17. Ignite the fuel gas.
[0036]
If the pressing of the operation cap 41 is released, the inner cylinder member 29 is also returned to the original state by the spring spring, and the operation of pulling up the fuel injection nozzle 17 of the passage opening / closing lever 26 is also released, and the operation from the fuel gas filling chamber 6a is released. The supply of fuel gas to the fuel injection nozzle 17 is shut off.
[0037]
By pressing the operation cap 41 as described above, the upper end portion of the working flange portion 35 that presses the upper end portion 37 of the inner cylinder member 29 with the position of the hole 21 that holds the projection portion 34 of each protruding piece 12 as the fulcrum A. Since the point 35a is a force point B and the point 36 inside the connecting portion 32b of the operation lever 20 is the action point C, the inner cylinder member 29 of the piezoelectric unit 19 is pushed down. As a result, the piezoelectric unit 19 can be operated to discharge and ignite with a weaker force (half the force in the example shown in the figure) than before. Of course, by changing the distance (the length of the positional relationship) between the points A, B, and C, the piezoelectric unit 19 can be operated and discharged by a force less than half that of the prior art, and ignition can be performed.
[0038]
[0039]
Furthermore, this principle mechanism is not limited to the example shown in the drawing, and the design can be freely changed to any configuration as long as the force for pushing down the piezoelectric unit can be reduced. Therefore, the shape of the operation lever 20 is not limited to the example shown in the figure, and can be freely changed to other shapes .
[0040]
【The invention's effect】
As is apparent from the above description, the piezoelectric ignition type lighter according to the present invention does not directly operate the piezoelectric unit with the operation cap as in the prior art, but has a configuration such as an operation lever as described in claim 1. Therefore, the push-down force of the operation cap can be further reduced as compared with the conventional case, and the cigarette can be easily ignited during smoking. In addition, when the fire is ignited many times due to the strong wind, it is possible to reduce fatigue of the thumb even if the operation cap is repeatedly pushed down.
[0041]
Further, by operating the operation cap, the piezoelectric unit and the fuel supply unit are lightly operated via the operation lever and the like as set forth in claim 1 to ignite the fuel gas injected from the fuel injection nozzle in a timely manner. be able to.
[0042]
Further, when the piezoelectric unit is operated through the configuration of the operation lever as described in claim 1 and the passage opening / closing lever is directly operated by the operation cap, the pressing force of the operation cap is reduced as described above. It can be reduced and can be ignited in a timely manner.
[0043]
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a partially exploded perspective view of an example of a piezoelectric ignition lighter according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a main part of FIG.
FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of the upper part of the piezoelectric ignition type lighter as viewed from the side.
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an operation cap as viewed from below.
FIG. 5 is a simplified explanatory view of a main part of the piezoelectric ignition type lighter of FIG. 1 ;
FIG. 6 is a partially exploded perspective view of a conventional example of a piezoelectric ignition type lighter.
7 is a simplified explanatory view of a main part of the piezoelectric ignition type lighter of FIG. 6. FIG .
[Explanation of symbols]
1 Piezoelectric lighter
2 Lighter body
12 Projection piece 16 Fuel supply unit 17 Fuel injection nozzle ( fuel gas passage)
19 Piezoelectric unit
20 Control lever 26 Passage opening / closing lever
29 inner cylinder member 31 lever mechanism
32a side
32b Connecting part
32 Locking presser
34 Protrusion
35 Working part 41 Operation cap
46 Tube (fuel gas passage)

Claims (1)

In the piezoelectric ignition type lighter that operates the passage opening / closing lever that operates the piezoelectric unit and opens the fuel gas passage of the fuel supply unit by operating the piezoelectric unit by holding down the lighter body and pushing down the operation cap located above the lighter body with the thumb .
Between the operation cap, the piezoelectric unit, and the passage opening / closing lever, the inner cylinder member of the piezoelectric unit is operated against the elastic urging force of an internal spring by pushing down the operation cap, and the passage opening / closing lever is operated. Provide an operating lever to operate,
The operation lever has a U-shaped locking presser portion formed from both sides and a connecting portion, and a lower end position of the both side portions that is substantially opposite to the position of the connecting portion of the locking presser portion. It consists of a protruding part that protrudes outward, and a working collar part that protrudes upward from the upper center of the locking presser part,
Both protrusions of the locking press portion of the operation lever are rotatably engaged with both protrusions protruding so as to face the upper part of the lighter body with a predetermined interval,
The connecting portion of the locking press portion of the operation lever is in contact with the upper end of the inner cylinder member of the piezoelectric unit,
By pushing down the operation cap, the upper end portion of the action lever portion of the operation lever serving as the power point is pushed down, the projection portion is used as a fulcrum, and the inner cylinder member of the piezoelectric unit is pushed down at the connecting portion serving as the action point. The passage opening / closing lever is operated at the side of the operation lever to open the fuel gas passage of the fuel supply unit, and the fuel gas injected from the tip of the fuel injection nozzle provided on the side of the operation cap is directed to the fuel gas. A piezoelectric ignition type lighter characterized in that it is configured to be ignited by electric discharge caused by operation of a piezoelectric unit .

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