Manually Operable Herb Grinder

摘要

A manually operable herb grinder features a housing assembled from a plurality of detachable sections, including a drive section for housing drive components and one or more product chamber sections for containing a product. The product chamber is divided into input and output chambers for initially receiving unground product, and catching ground product falling from a grinding area intermediate the two chambers. Blades carried on a shaft in the grinding area are rotated by a planetary gear system, whose input is a rotatable cap installed over the drive section at a top end of the housing. The grinding area is situated between a spoked divider at an upper end of the input chamber, and a perforated divider at the upper end of the output chamber. The cap is rotatable by hand, or by frictional rolling contact against a surface.

主权项

1. A manually operable grinder comprising:
a housing comprising:
a drive chamber for housing drive components;a product chamber for containing a product; a rotatable upper cap at an upper end of the housing and rotatable relative thereto about a longitudinal thereof; a gear carrier comprising:
a drive end coupled to the rotatable upper cap for driven rotation of the gear carrier about the longitudinal axis under rotation of the upper cap; andinside the drive chamber, a plurality of stub shafts spaced angularly apart from one another about the longitudinal axis in orientations lying parallel thereto; a gear train comprising:
a respective planetary gear disposed about each stub shaft in a manner rotatable about an axis thereof;a sun gear disposed within the interior space of the drive section at a position centred on the longitudinal axis and in engagement with the plurality of planetary gears;a ring gear located inside the drive chamber at a position centered around the longitudinal axis with teeth of said ring gear facing inwardly toward the longitudinal axis in engagement with the plurality of planetary gears; a main shaft having an upper end coupled to the sun gear for rotation therewith and extending downward therefrom into the product chamber; and at least one blade coupled to the main shaft and radiating outwardly therefrom for rotation therewith, whereby rotation of the end cap rotates the gear carrier in order to drive rotation of the main shaft and the at least one blade via the gear assembly in order to perform a grinding operation on the product in the product chamber.