Background
Do you think only highly technical features will get you a patent? The following patent might prove you wrong.
This year, the Indian Patent Office granted a patent (Application Number: 202221057032) to a Compressible Mortar and Pestle.
The set of instruments known as a mortar and pestle has been in use since the stone age. it is used to prepare materials or substances by crushing and grinding them into a fine paste or powder. Kitchens and laboratories are two common places which use a mortar and pestle.
The mortar is a bowl made up of hardwood, metal, ceramic, or hard stone (such as granite) and the pestle is a blunt, club-shaped object. The material to be crushed is placed in the mortar and the pestle is pressed and rotated into the mortar in order to get the desired fine powder. No significant changes have been made in the design for ages.
In this invention the applicant had made the humble mortar and pestle compact, lightweight and portable, which in turn has increased the utility of the conventional model of mortar and pestle.
The Invention
The mortar in the present invention is a cup like structure having a narrow bottom with broader top, also it consists of a number of chambers, the number being determined by the size of the mortar. Each subsequent chamber has a lesser diameter as compared to the chamber above it. When collapsed, each chamber is properly stacked over one another.
Each of these concentric segments have a switch at the bottom and a slot and the top. When the mortar is closed, these elements are independent of each other. But when the mortar is opened, the switch and the slot of adjacent segments fit and lock into each other, forming the fully expanded mortar, which is locked and will not be re-collapsed by additional movements.
The design of the mortar is such that if the switches are in the “off” position, the mortar comes into a compressed state. If the switches are in the on position and slotted into the split the mortar is decompressed. Each segment is rotatable, and when the chamber is rotated again in order to make a fitted connection between the switch and the slot, the mortar achieves the decompressed, expanded state.
The construction of the pestle is similar to that of the mortar, with the difference lying mainly in the size of the concentric circles.
Advantages
The present patent has ousted the disadvantage of the traditional one by making it compact and portable so that it can be helpful during travelling or easy to transport as it requires lesser space.
Author: Lakshya Chauhan, Legal Intern at PA Legal.
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