Reverse Actuated Nail Clipper with Mechanical Advantage

Abstract

A device for clipping fingernails and toenails of human beings that differs from other nail clippers by reversing the end of the clipper on which a user presses to perform nail clipping. Instead of the user pressing down on the end opposite the nail clipper's cutting edges, the current invention allows the user to press down directly above where the clipper cuts the user's nail. This invention also incorporates a roller on the primary lever that engages with the second lever that the user presses down on, in a manner that continuously increases the cutting force of the clipper as the second lever is pressed further down. These features make the nail clipper easier to use while also giving the user greater control, an easier and more powerful clipping force and greater accuracy, which are the objects of the invention. The invention is an extension of traditional nail clippers in that it adds a second lever assembly that pivots on a hinge located at the end of a common art nail clipper, opposite the end having the cutting edges. The second lever assembly is shaped so that a roller mounted on the free end of the first lever, and attached at its other end close to the cutting edges of the clippers, rolls along the inside back surface of the second lever starting near the underside of the second lever's thumb pad and continuing to roll towards the hinged end of the second lever as the second lever is pressed down towards the clipper cutting edges to execute clipping a fingernail or toenail. As the user presses down on the second lever the first lever also moves down towards the clipper cutting spring arms forcing the clipper cutting edges to close and clip a nail. The user operates the nail clipper by pressing a thumb pad, which is located at the free end of the second lever, down towards the cutting edges, which close together as the user executes this operation. When the user releases their downward pressure from the thumb pad, the nail clipper's cutting edges separate again as the two levers free ends move back up away from the clipper's cutting spring arms.

1 . The invention of a new and improved fingernail and toenail clipper comprised of two cutting arms with cutting edges at one end and joined at the other end where a cylindrical barrel is also attached to serve as hinge joint. At the front end close to the cutting edges, a support and pivot pin penetrates through both cutting arms and extends out the top where it engages a loose actuating lever, the primary actuating lever, which is shaped to seat in a notch in the support and pivot pin allowing it to rotate around the support and pivot pin and to lie in a somewhat flat position on the top cutting arm when closed and to close the cutting edges when in the open position. The primary actuating lever has a sharp upward bend, when in the open position, just back of the support and pivot pin and ending with a roller mounted at the free end of the primary lever. The primary lever and roller assembly end at a point above the cutting arms between two-fifths and two-thirds their overall length measured from the cutting edges. A second lever rotates about a pin running through the lever assembly at its rear end and through the hinge joint at the end of the cutting arms. The second lever assembly includes a horizontally oriented thumb pad at its free end, and includes an downward-facing, U-shaped channel along its length from where it hinges up to or including the portion that comprises the thumb pad. The primary lever and roller are sized in width to fit inside the second lever assembly channel and in length such that the roller rolls along the bottom side of the horizontally-oriented, top wall of the second lever. Together these all comprise a reverse-operated nail clipper equal in length to a common nail clipper of prior art, but easier to operate with greater accuracy and with less force required. 
     
     
         2 . The invention of  claim 1  comprising all the features and embodiments described above but to include an integrated nail file on one or both sides of the second lever.