Oh, patents! OXO® Mixing bowl

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The iconic OXO® Mixing bowl that will not slip and is easy to grip, was awarded the US utility patent US5419454, titled Mixing bowl.

The OXO® mixing bowl invention arises as an improvement in mixing bowls. In particular,  the invention addresses the issue of kitchen bowls skidding on a work surface when the contents are mixed, or in general when the bowl is tilted for mixing purposes. The handle design of the OXO® mixing bowls  also offers a solution that prevents users from having to insert their thumb or fingers inside the mixing bowl cavity for the purposes of holding or titling the bowls.

Thus, the patent discloses an inner and outer bowl shell, where the outer shell, positioned on the lower outer surface of the inner shell, is made out of relatively high friction material, preventing the bowl from slipping on a contact surface. The relatively high friction material is rubber-like. In particular, the rubber-like material is made of Santoprene™. A special crescent-shaped handle, the top part of which forms a single piece with the inner shell,  is designed to facilitate lifting and grasping the bowl, while preventing thumb and fingers from being placed within the bowl. 

The handle is ergonomically designed with a top part that is convex, and a bottom part that is concave. The bottom recessed part is designed to receive fingers whereas the top convex part is designed to receive the user’s thumb. The easy-grasp handle thus facilitates single hand titling and lifting of the bowl, whereas the bi-lateral symmetrical design of the handle enables both left- or right-hand tilting and lifting. The OXO® mixing bowl is further designed with a pouring spout opposite the handle. Finally, the particular position of the handle additionally enables easy nesting of the bowls (see stack of OXO® bowls below).

The abstract of the OXO® mixing bowl invention is included below, together with the patent drawing Figure 1, and the image of a stack of marketed OXO® mixing bowls. Figure 1 shows the mixing bowl 10, with its inner shell 11 made of hard plastic, base 12, rim 17, and outer shell 20, made of rubber-like material on the lower portion of the outer surface 19 of the inner shell 11. The outer shell 20 extends to up to the peripheral shoulder 18 on the upper outer surface 16 of the inner shell 11.  The lower outer surface 19 of the inner shell is recessed to accommodate the outer rubber-like shell 20.

Figure 1 also shows the upper (top view) section 31 of the crescent-shaped handle 30, opposite the spout 29, the top section 31 of the handle 30  forming a single piece with the inner shell 11. The top section of the handle has two substantially convex portions 33 and 34, intersecting on an arcuate ridge 35. The convex portion 34 slopes down, away from the inside peripheral wall 15 of the inner bowl shell 11, whereas the convex portion 33 slopes down, towards the inside peripheral wall 15 of the inner bowl shell 11.

A mixing bowl has a unitary inner shell including a circular base and a peripheral side wall extending upwardly therefrom to an upper peripheral rim defIning the open mouth of the bowl, the side wall having a spout at one side thereof and, diametrically opposite thereto, a laterally outwardly extending two-part handle, including an upper part unitary with the inner shell of the bowl and a lower part fIxed thereto. The handle has a compound upper surface and a recessed lower surface to facilitate grasping. The base and the lower portion of the peripheral side wall have the outer surfaces thereof covered with an outer shell of frictional material. [Abstract US5419454]

Reference

OXO® website

www.oxo.com