Razor Blade Dispensers

Abstract

A razor blade dispenser including a body part and a lid part has a new-blade compartment and a used-blade compartment. The pack of blades in the new-blade compartment is biased by a spring so that the uppermost blade is aligned with a dispensing slot. The two parts are relatively slidable and movement in one direction causes one blade to be dispensed through the slot. In the preferred embodiment, the spring is only energized to bias the blade pack, when the dispensing movement is initiated, the energization being effected by cam followers rigid with the spring and cooperating with rams on the lid part.

Description

This invention relates to razor blade dispensers.

According to the present invention there is provided a razor blade dispenser comprising two interengaged relatively movable parts, and means for dispensing a blade by effecting relative rectilinear movement of the parts.

Further according to the present invention there is provided a razor blade dispenser having a body part, a lid part slideable relatively to the body part and means rigid with said lid part for dispensing a razor blade from the dispenser by sliding said lid part relatively to the body part.

Still further according to the present invention there is provided a dispenser according to any one of the preceding claims wherein a new blade compartment is defined, in part, by transverse bridge members rigid with the second or body part and two spaced angle-section members extending perpendicularly to the surface of one said bridge member.

Yet still further according to the present invention there is provided a razor blade dispenser comprising a body part having a base, a pair of upstanding longitudinally extending sidewalls integral with the base, a transverse bridge portion interconnecting with the sidewalls intermediate the ends thereof, a pair of upstanding angle-defining members integral with the transverse bridge portion, a second transverse bridge portion adjacent one end of the dispenser and having a pair of upstanding members, spaced slightly from respective said sidewalls and cooperating with the angle-defining members of the first-mentioned bridge portion to define a new-blade compartment, a resilient cantilever assembly extending from the second-mentioned transverse bridge portion and including an elongate tongue having at its free extremity a pair of semicircular upstanding projections and a pair of laterally extending cam follower parts, a further transverse bridge portion at one end of the body part and defining with an end wall of the body part a slot for dispensing new blade, a lid part slidable relatively to the body part over a limited range of movement, having a pair of sidewalls upstanding from a sheet member of the lid part, an end wall arranged at the end of the sidewalls remote from the corresponding end wall of the body part, a pair of cams mounted on projections from the sidewalls and arranged to engage the cam followers of the cantilever spring assembly whenever the parts are moved from an open to a closed position whereby the cantilever spring assembly is activated to bias a blade or blade pack in a direction to align the blade or the topmost blade of the pack with the dispensing slot of the body part and a transverse ridge integral with the inner face of the sheet part of the lid whereby the blade or the topmost blade of the pack is engaged to dispense through the slot by movement of the lid part relatively to the body part in a direction which closes the two parts together, said resilient cantilever assembly being deenergized at the end of said closing movement by disengagement of the cam follower from the cams.

Certain embodiments of razor blade dispensers in accordance with the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal section of a first embodiment of an assembled razor blade dispenser in accordance with the invention;

FIGS. 2 to 4 are longitudinal sections illustrating the operation of the first embodiment;

FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate two details;

FIG. 5 is a cross section of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a body part of the first embodiment;

FIG. 7 is an inverted plan view of a lid part of the first embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view in one condition of a second embodiment;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view in another condition of the second embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a longitudinal section of the second embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a front elevation of a lid part of the second embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a front elevation, partly cut away and sectioned, of a body part of the second embodiment;

FIG. 13 is a longitudinal section of the body part of FIG. 12; and

FIGS. 14 and 15 are perspective views illustrating two modifications to the lid part of the second embodiment.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 to 8 of the drawings, the razor blade dispenser 10 includes a lid part 11 of generally rectangular open box form and a body part 12 of similar form, the lid part 11 being slidable longitudinally with respect to the body part. A transverse stop in the form of a transverse ridge 13 is provided on the face of the upper portion 14 (as shown in the drawings) of the lid part 11 which lies opposite to the body part when assembled. A pair of longitudinal ridges 15 or other spacer means are integral with the lower face of the upper portion 14 of the lid part and have a depth appropriate to align blades about to be dispensed with a dispensing slot 37. The difference in depth of the transverse ridge 13 and the longitudinal ridges 15 is substantially equal to the thickness of a wrapped razor blade.

The body part 12 has a transverse bridge portion 16 extending between longitudinally extending sides 41 of the body part, which transverse bridge portion is integral with a cantilever resilient assembly 17 including a tongue 18 and two lateral spring members 19 of generally trapezoidal form. The transverse bridge portion 16 is slightly inclined with respect to the upper portion 14 of the lid part 11 in a direction upwardly towards the transverse ridge 13 of the lid part, and when lightly stressed the cantilever resilient assembly 17 has a similar inclination. The tongue 18 extends towards, but does not reach the end of the body part 12 remote from the transverse bridge portion 16 and carries two semicircular projections 20, one on each of two laterally extending tips 21 of the tongue 18, the projections 20 themselves extending towards and lightly contacting a pack of blades 22 in the dispenser 10, when the lateral spring members 19 are not energized.

The pack of blades 22 rests partly on the ridges 15 to prevent horizontal movement and further restraint is provided by a further transverse portion 16A which, like the transverse portion 16 is inclined with respect to the upper portion 14, but is spaced therefrom. Any undue pressure by the pack on the projections 20 is avoided by the support given by the transverse bridge portion 16.

In a modification further support for the pack is provided by ribs or pips (not shown) on the upper face of the transverse bridge portion 16A.

The further transverse portion 16A extends between two upstanding angle section portions 16B of the body part, the internal faces of which are spaced from one another to form corners accommodating transversely opposite corners of the blade pack 22.

Each lateral spring member 19 is of generally trapezoidal shape and is connected by a smoothly curved neck 23 to one longitudinal edge of the tongue 18. At its free extremity each spring member 19 has a rectangular shape cam-engaging portion 24 which is arranged to engage a corresponding cam 25 rigid with a downwardly depending extension 26 of one side 52 of the lid part 11 of the dispenser. In the fully closed position of the dispenser the cam 25 and the extension 26 are both accommodated in a space provided between the fixed transverse bridge portion of the body part and one end of the rectangular cam-engaging portion 24 of the spring member 19.

Each cam 25 has a cross section in the form of a triangle. As can be seen from FIGS. 2 to 4 two short sides 30, 31 of the triangle extend respectively perpendicularly to the upper portion 14 of the lid part and inclined to the upper portion 14 of the lid part at a relatively shallow angle whereas a longer side 32 is inclined at a sharper angle to the upper portion of the lid part. The side 32 forms the operative rectilinear face of the cam. Although this form of cam as illustrated separately in FIG. 4A is preferred, it will be understood that the exact form of cam is immaterial, provided that the function described hereinafter can be satisfactorily performed. An example of an alternative cam form is illustrated in FIG. 4B. In this alternative the cam has two spaced parallel surfaces 33, 34 which are themselves parallel with the blade pack, a surface 35 perpendicular to the blade pack and two inclined surfaces 36, 37 which interconnect respectively the surface 33 with the surface 34 and the surface 34 with the surface 35. The surface 36 acts as an operative rectilinear face.

The body part 12 has an end portion 35 extending between the longitudinal sides 41 of the body part and a still further transverse bridge portion 36 extends between the longitudinal upper edges of the sides 41 of the body part and lies in a plane parallel to the plane of the upper portion 14 of the lid part 11. This transverse bridge portion 36 has only a small dimension in the longitudinal direction of the dispenser and at the edge adjacent the end portion 35 of the body part 12 it is spaced therefrom to define a blade-dispensing or delivery slot 37. An inner transverse edge 38 of this further transverse portion is chamfered to facilitate the dispensing of each blade as further described hereinafter.

The body part 12, has, in addition to the portions thereof hereinbefore described, a base 40 and two longitudinally extending sides 41 which join the base 40 along the longitudinally extending edges thereof. Both sides 41 are slightly inclined outwardly with respect to a plane perpendicular to the base (FIG. 5) and each has an inwardly facing shallow V-section groove 42, adjacent the upper edge (as shown in FIG. 5) thereof.

Below the cantilever assembly 17, the body part 12 has a compartment 43 for used razor blades and an entry 44 to this compartment is defined by a series of short longitudinally extending ridges 45 formed on the underside of the transverse bridge portion 16. The base 40 has a portion thereof cut away to enable access to the used-blade entry 44.

The lid part 11 includes a depending transverse portion 50 positioned approximately three-quarters of the length thereof from the dispensing opening 37 and a further depending transverse portion 51 at the end remote from the dispensing opening. The portion 50 which does not extend fully across the lid part width forms a part of the boundary of the new-blade compartment and also of the used-blade compartment 43. The lid part further comprises depending, longitudinally extending sides 52 and a longitudinally extending ridge 53 at the upper edge of each of these sides. Each ridge 53 is of a cross section complementary to that of the corresponding groove 42 of the body part, thus enabling easy sliding movement of the lid part 11 relative to the body part 12. It will be noted that the sides 52 extend to only approximately one-half of the depth of the dispenser and that longitudinally, each side stops short of the end of the portion 14 by an amount corresponding to the longitudinal dimension of the transverse bridge portion 36 of the body part.

The operation of the dispenser will now be described with particular reference to FIGS. 2 to 4 of the accompanying drawing.

When the dispenser is inoperative, the blades are held in their compartment by the transverse bridge portions 16 and 16A and by the angle section portions 16B.

As soon as the lid part 11 is moved longitudinally relatively to the body part 12, the cams 25 force the cam-engaging portions 24 of the spring members 19 downwardly and at the end of its travel which is the fully extended or open position of the dispenser, the cams trip beyond the edge of the cam-engaging portions 24 of the spring members 19. It will be noted that the pack of blades as a whole remains within the body part and in the fully open position the pack is spaced from the transverse ridge 13 of the lid part.

When the lid part 11 is moved forwardly, that is towards its closed position, the edges 32 of the cams 25 engage the lower faces of the cam-engaging portions of the spring member 19 thus causing the semicircular projections 20 to be forced against the lowermost blade of the pack 22 and the whole pack to move upwardly so that the uppermost blade engages the spacer ridges 15 of the lid part 11 and as the movement is continued, the uppermost blade also engages the transverse ridge 13 and is forced through the dispensing slot 37 with the guidance of the chamfer 38 on the further transverse bridge portion 36 of the body part 12, until, when fully retracted, a sufficient proportion of the uppermost blade projects beyond the slot to enable it to be fully removed. As can be clearly seen from FIG. 4, the spring member 19 is deformed both in a lateral and longitudinal sense. On completion of the reverse movement, the cams 25 again trip at the end of the cam-engaging portions 24 of the spring members 19 and the condition illustrated in FIG. 1 is resumed.

It will be appreciated, that by the use of the cams in conjunction with the cantilever resilient assembly, it becomes possible to use synthetic resins which, if continuously stressed, would otherwise take up a permanent set and thus be of little value as biassing means. It will further be appreciated that the invention can be employed in various forms of razor blade dispenser, wherever a spring bias is required on the pack of razor blades, such as those disclosed in the embodiments now to be described.

In a modification of the first embodiment the cam means and cam followers integral with the resilient cantilever assembly are omitted and the tongue is so shaped that it biases the blades continuously to a position in which the uppermost blade of a pack is aligned with the dispensing slot of the dispenser. The free tip of the tongue lies approximately opposite a detent formed on the inner surface of the lid part.

Referring now to the second embodiment as illustrated in FIGS. 8 to 13, the razor blade dispenser includes an inner or body part 150 and an outer or lid part 151 which is arranged to receive the inner part in nesting relationship. The outer part 151 is of generally flat rectangular shape and has a front portion 152, a rear portion 152, two sidewalls 154, 155 and a bottom 156. The front portion 152 carries four internal ribs 157 each of which has an inclined ramp portion 158, a step 159 or other detent end and a portion which has an exposed face 160 extending parallel to the outer face of the front portion 152. The rear portion 153 has an internal ridge 161 at the upper end thereof as illustrated in FIGS. 12 and 13.

The inner part 150 of the dispenser, includes a front portion 162, a rear portion 163, two sidewalls 164, 165 and an upper wall 166 having a slot 167 of a thickness corresponding to the thickness of one wrapped razor blade and of a length corresponding to the transverse dimension of the wrapped blade. The topmost blade is biassed into engagement with the ribs 157 of the outer portion and with the inner surface of the front portion 162 by a pad 168 of resilient expanded synthetic-resin plastics material or alternatively by a light spring (not shown). The inner part 150 has the front portion 162 thereof formed with four slots 170 which are arranged to mesh with the ribs 157 of the outer part. The normally exposed portion of the inner part 150 has a depression or recess 171 which is shaped for engagement by a thumb or a finger of the user.

When assembled, a stack of new blades is inserted into the inner part 150 and this is then nested in the outer part 151. A spring 172 (FIG. 13) biases the inner part to the position relative to the outer part as illustrated in FIG. 8 and when the dispenser is held in the user's hand by the thumb engaging in the depression 171 the inner part is caused to slide relatively to the outer part and one blade only engages the detent end surfaces 159 of the ribs 157 thus causing partial ejection of the blade through the slot 167. On release, the dispenser returns to the condition illustrated in FIG. 8, by means of the spring 172. Disassembly of the two parts is prevented by engagement of a ridge 174 on the outer surface of the portion 162 with the ridge 161 on the inner surface of the portion 153 of the outer part 151.

In a modification illustrated in FIG. 14 a portion 180 of the inner part 150 is made removable and in a modification illustrated in FIG. 15 a portion 181 of the inner part is hinged. The purpose of both modifications is to simplify the insertion of a new blade pack.

Claims

I claim:

1. A razor blade dispenser comprising:

two interengaged cover parts slidable relatively to one another between an open position in which there is only partial engagement of the two cover parts and a closed position in which the parts together form a box;

means on one of said cover parts for engaging an uppermost blade of a pack of blades in the second part to dispense said blade by relative rectilinear sliding movement of the two parts to a closed position;

resilient means arranged to bias the pack of blades in a direction to facilitate engagement of said uppermost blade by said engaging means; and

means for energizing the resilient means to bias said pack only on initiation of the relative movement which serves to dispense a blade and for deenergizing said resilient means on completion of said movement.

2. A dispenser according to claim 1, wherein:

said resilient means comprises a cantilever spring and the means on one of said cover parts includes a sheet member with a detent forming a portion of said one of said cover parts; and

the free end of the spring lying approximately opposite the detent which detent serves to move said uppermost blade of the pack to the dispensing slot.

3. A razor blade dispenser comprising:

two interengaged cover parts movable relatively to one another between a first position in which there is only partial engagement of the two cover parts and second position in which the parts together substantially form a box;

means for dispensing a blade by effecting relative rectilinear movement of the cover parts, movement of the cover parts to the second position thereof serving to eject an uppermost blade of a blade stack;

means defining a dispensing slot;

a resilient pad of foam synthetic-resin; and

a blade or a pack of blades in the dispenser being biased towards a position in which the blade or the uppermost blade is aligned with the dispensing slot by the resilient pad of foam synthetic-resin.

4. A dispenser comprising:

a first cover part;

a second cover part slidable with respect to the first cover part between an open position in which there is only partial engagement of the two cover parts and a closed position in which the parts together form a box;

means rigid with said first part for engaging an uppermost blade of a pack of blades in the second part to dispense said blade by relative rectilinear sliding movement of the two parts to a closed position;

a resilient cantilever assembly integral with said second part including:

cam follower means; and

cam means rigid with said first part to effect energization of the resilient means by engagement with said cam follower means; and

said cam means serving to energize the resilient means to bias the pack only on initiation of the relative movement which serves to dispense a blade and for deenergizing said resilient means on completion of the relative movement.

5. A dispenser according to claim 4, wherein said cantilever assembly includes an elongate tongue.

6. A dispenser according to claim 4, wherein said resilient cantilever assembly includes a pair of laterally extending members of generally trapezoidal form constituting said cam follower means.

7. A dispenser according to claim 5, wherein said tongue carries:

a pair of semicircular projections at its free extremity; and

said projections being adapted to rest against one blade of a pack of blades in the dispenser.

8. A dispenser according to claim 3 wherein one said part has longitudinally extending ribs each having a detent end arranged to engage a blade to be dispensed.

9. A dispenser according to claim 8 wherein the other said part has a recess arranged to be engaged by the thumb of a user and disposed laterally of the dispensing slot.

10. A razor blade dispenser comprising:

a body part having:

a base;

a pair of upstanding longitudinally extending sidewalls integral with the base;

a first transverse bridge portion interconnecting with the sidewalls intermediate the ends thereof;

a pair of upstanding angle-defining members integral with the transverse bridge portion;

a second transverse bridge portion adjacent one end of the dispenser; and having

a pair of upstanding members spaced slightly from respective said sidewalls and cooperating with the angle-defining members of the first-mentioned bridge portion to define a new blade compartment; and

a resilient cantilever assembly extending from the second-mentioned transverse bridge portion and including:

an elongate tongue having at its free extremity:

a pair of semicircular upstanding projections,

a pair of laterally extending cam follower parts, and

a further transverse bridge portion at one end of the body part; and

an end wall of the body part, said further transverse bridge portion and said end wall together defining with an end wall of the body part a slot for dispensing new blades; and

a lid part slidable relatively to the body part over a limited range of movement, having:

a pair of sidewalls upstanding from the sheet member,

a sheet member,

an end wall arranged at the end of the sidewalls remote from the corresponding end wall of the body part,

a pair of cams mounted on projections from the sidewalls and arranged to engage the cam followers of the cantilever spring assembly whenever the parts are moved from an open to a closed position whereby the cantilever spring assembly is activated to bias a blade or blade pack in a direction to align the blade or the topmost blade of the pack with the dispensing slot of the body part,

a transverse ridge integral with the inner face of the sheet part of the lid whereby the blade or the topmost blade of the pack is engaged to dispense through the slot by movement of the lid part relatively to the body part in a direction which closes the two parts together, and

said resilient cantilever assembly being deenergized at the end of said closing movement by disengagement of the cam follower from the cams.