U.S. patent number 3,845,882 [Application Number 05/300,486] was granted by the patent office on 1974-11-05 for spring cage for use in a tablet dispensing receptacle.
Invention is credited to Eduard Hass.
United States Patent |
3,845,882 |
Hass |
November 5, 1974 |
SPRING CAGE FOR USE IN A TABLET DISPENSING RECEPTACLE
Abstract
A spring cage for use in a receptacle for receiving and
sequentially dispensing individual shaped bodies from a stack
received in a recaptacle housing having a dispensing end. The cage
comprises a structural unit consisting of a spring abutment, a
support bottom for carrying the stack of shaped bodies, and a
compression spring held between the abutment and support bottom.
The abutment and support bottom are releasably interlocked for
insertion as a unit into the receptacle housing. The compression
spring presses the stack of shaped bodies towards the dispensing
end to place sequential uppermost shaped bodies of the stack into a
dispensing position when the unit has been inserted and the
interlocking of the abutment and the support bottom has been
released.
Inventors: |
Hass; Eduard (Vienna,
OE) |
Family
ID: |
3616301 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/300,486 |
Filed: |
October 25, 1972 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
Current U.S.
Class: |
221/279; 221/229;
221/52 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B65D
83/0418 (20130101); B65D 2583/0481 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
B65D
83/04 (20060101); B65h 001/08 () |
Field of
Search: |
;221/151,229,279,52,198
;222/340,336,341 ;185/45 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Reeves; Robert B.
Assistant Examiner: Handren; Frederick R.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Kelman; Kurt
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A spring cage in combination with a receptacle for receiving and
sequentially dispensing individual shaped bodies from a stack of
like ones of said shaped bodies received in the receptacle, the
receptacle comprising a housing having a dispensing end, and the
spring cage comprising a structural unit consisting of a spring
abutment having an aperture, a support bottom for carrying the
stack of shaped bodies, a compression spring held between the
abutment and support bottom, and a hook having a head releasably
engageable with the aperture of the abutment and a stem extending
from the hook head through the aperture to the support bottom for
releasably interlocking the abutment and support bottom for
insertion as a unit into the receptacle housing, the hook being
deformable to disengage the hook head from the aperture and the
compression spring pressing the stack of shaped bodies towards the
dispensing end to place sequential uppermost one of the shaped
bodies of the stack into a dispensing position when the unit has
been inserted and the interlocking of the abutment and support
bottom has been released by disengagement of the hook head from the
aperture, and a click stop fixedly holding the spring cage in the
receptacle housing.
2. The spring cage in combination with a receptacle as defined in
claim 1, wherein the abutment and the support bottom are cup-shaped
and complement each other to form a hollow body containing the
compression spring when releasably interlocked.
3. The spring cage in combination with a receptacle as defined in
claim 1, wherein the aperture is arranged in the spring abutment to
permit passage of the hook head therethrough only when the hook
stem is elastically turned about its axis, and the bias of the
spring in the cage tends to turn the hook stem back about its axis
to permit the hook head to pass through the aperture into the cage
to release the interlocking of the abutment and support bottom.
4. The spring cage in combination with a receptacle as defined in
claim 1, wherein the abutment and the support bottom have
cooperating projections for properly aligning the abutment and
support bottom before the spring cage is inserted into the
receptacle housing.
5. The spring cage in combination with a receptacle as defined in
claim 1, wherein the aperture in the spring abutment is of a size
to permit lateral displacement of the hook in respect thereto, the
hook stem being elastically deformable for laterally displacing the
hook head from an engaged position in respect of the aperture to a
disengaged position to permit the hook head to pass through the
aperture into the cage to release the interlocking of the abutment
and support bottom.
Description
The present invention relates to improvements in receptacles for
receiving and sequentially dispensing individual shaped bodies from
a stack of like shaped bodies received in the receptacle.
Austrian Pat. No. 166,326 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 2,620,061
disclose a receptacle, one of the receptacle parts being a housing
having a dispensing end and the other receptacle part being a
pivotal cover at the dispensing end. Spring means in the housing
presses the stack of shaped bodies, such as tablets, towards the
dispensing end to place sequential uppermost shaped bodies of the
stack into a dispensing position, a spring bodies of the stack into
a dispensing position, a spring biases the pivotal cover into a
closed position, and the cover has a portion pushing the uppermost
shaped body and dispensing it from the receptacle when the cover is
pivoted against the spring bias.
This type of dispensing receptacle has found wide commercial
acceptance for use with a great variety of tablets. The receptacle
disclosed in the indicated patents carries a laterally open drawer
within the receptacle housing, a spring-biased bottom for the
drawer which presses the stack of tablets towards the dispensing
end of the housing, and the side walls of the receptacle housing
have extensions at the dispensing end which support the cover.
Other parts of the receptacle are the cover spring and the spring
which biases the bottom. All the parts of the receptacle are
assembled manually, the assembly of the springs being particularly
cumbersome and time-consuming. The receptacles have also been
filled by hand. Considering the steady increase in wages for manual
labor, this has made the manufacture of these receptacles
correspondingly more expensive.
It is the primary object of this invention to overcome these
disadvantages in the manufacture and filling of receptacles of the
indicated type, and to simplify the assembly of the receptacle
parts, as well as making the automatic filling of the receptacles
with stacks of shaped bodies possible.
The above and other objects are accomplished in accordance with the
invention with a spring cage which is a structural unit consisting
of a spring abutment, a support bottom for carrying the stack of
shaped bodies, and a compression spring, such as a helical spring,
held between the abutment and the support bottom. The abutment and
the support bottom are releasably interlocked for insertion as a
unit into the receptacle housing. The compression spring presses
the stack of shaped bodies towards the dispensing end of the
housing to place sequential uppermost shaped bodies of the stack
into a dispensing position when the unit has been inserted and the
interlocking of the abutment and the support bottom has been
released.
To make the automatic filling of the receptacle possible, it is
preferred to provide a click stop for fixedly holding the spring
cage in the receptacle housing, the abutment and support bottom
being cup-shaped and complementing each other to form a hollow body
containing the compression spring when releasably interlocked.
Advantageously, the support bottom and abutment may be releasably
interlocked by a hook extending from the support bottom and
penetrating through an aperture in the abutment, the hook being
deformable to release the interlocking. In this manner, after the
receptacle housing has been filled automatically with the stack of
tablets, the spring cage may be inserted into the housing, snapped
into position by the click stop, and the hook deformed simply by
turning it about its axis to release the support bottom from the
abutment, thus releasing the spring in the cage to act upon, i.e.
press against, the support bottom. This concludes the assembly
operation.
The above and other objects, advantages and features of the present
invention will be more fully understood by reference to the
following detailed description of certain now preferred embodiments
thereof, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing
wherein
FIG. 1 is a longitudinal section along line I--I of FIG. 2 of an
embodiment of a receptacle with a spring cage according to this
invention;
FIG. 2 is a transverse section along line II--II of FIG. 1 to
illustrate the spring cage;
FIG. 3 is a section along line III--III of FIG. 2, showing the
spring cage in elevational side view;
FIG. 4 is a section along line IV--IV of FIG. 2, the receptacle
housing being omitted; and
FIG. 5 illustrates a modification of the spring cage, the spring
being omitted.
Referring now to the drawing, the receptacle shown in FIG. 1 is of
particularly simple and, inexpensive construction. Such a
receptacle may be used as a disposable unit for a single use. This
type of receptacle comprises a housing 1 directly receiving a stack
of like tablets 2 which are sequentially dispensed from the
receptacle, no open drawer within the housing being provided for
holding the tablets, as in the receptacles disclosed in the
above-mentioned patents. In this way, the assembly has one less
part.
A spring means to be described hereinafter and including a tablet
stack support bottom 6 presses the stack of tablets 2 towards the
dispensing end of the receptacle housing to place sequential
uppermost tablets 2' of the stack into a dispensing position
delimited by transverse ledge 4 against which the uppermost tablet
is pressed.
The present invention is not concerned with the dispensing end of
the receptacle and the illustrated structure includes a cover 26
which is pivotal about pins 10 from a closed position into an open
position, as indicated by the arrow in FIG. 1. The cover is held in
closed position by spring 8 which biases the cover down in a
counterclockwise direction while the cover portion pushes the
uppermost tablet 2' forwardly and dispenses it from the receptacle
when the cover is pivoted in a clockwise direction against the
spring bias. The cover pivots 10 are mounted on side walls 11
extending upwardly from ledge 4.
According to this invention, the spring means is incorporated into
a structural unit constituting a spring cage which may be inserted
as a unit in receptacle housing 1. The spring cage consists of
spring abutment 7, support bottom 6 for carrying the stack of
tablets 2 and helical compression spring 3 held between the
abutment and the support bottom. These three parts are
pre-assembled into a structural unit, as shown in FIG. 4.
Preferably and as illustrated, the abutment and the support bottom
are cup shaped and complement each other to form a hollow body
containing the compression spring when releasably interlocked.
The interlocking is accomplished with a hook extending from support
bottom 6 and penetrating through abutment 7, the hook being
deformable to release the interlocking. In the illustrated
embodiment, the hook consists of a stem 12 projecting from the
support bottom 6 towards the bottom 15 cup-shaped abutment 7 and a
head 13 received in aperture 14 of abutment bottom 15. To interlock
the support bottom and the abutment, the aligned hook head 13 and
aperture 14 are mutually offset, as shown in FIG. 2, i.e., the head
13 does not fit through the aperture 14 without first turning the
stem about its axis. Thus, during assembly, the stem is slightly
turned to lead the head through the aperture, whereupon it is
released to permit the head to assume its undistorted position and
become locked in the aperture, as illustrated in FIG. 2. The
material of the stem has sufficient elasticity to permit the
turning and to snap back automatically when the turning force is
released. Since the compression spring 3 in the spring cage biases
the support bottom and the abutment apart, they will remain locked
after the turning force has been released from stem 12 so that the
structural unit remains in the position shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, in
which condition it is ready for insertion in the receptacle
housing.
To hold the support bottom 6 and abutment 7 in their proper
relative positions, they carry cooperating stops or lugs enabling
suitable alignment of the two parts of the spring cage. In the
illustrated embodiments, these include lugs 17 at the four corners
of abutment 7 and cooperating stops 18 on support bottom 6. The
assembly of the two parts will be further facilitated by provision
of additional bosses 19 on support bottom 6 for guiding the support
bottom in respect of the abutment.
The spring cage is held in the receptacle housing by a click stop
illustrated to consist of laterally extending lugs 20 mounted on
the side walls of abutment 7 for co-operation with conforming
apertures 21 in the side walls of receptacle housing 1. When the
pre-assembled spring cage unit is inserted into the housing through
its open bottom in the direction of the vertical arrow shown in
FIG. 3, the lugs 20 come to rest in apertures 21 to hold the spring
cage in position in the receptacle, thus concluding the
assembly.
Before the insertion of the spring cage, the receptacle housing is
filled with the stack of tablets 2, a small space remaining between
the lowermost tablet of the stack and the support bottom 6 of the
spring cage after assembly, as can be seen in FIGS. 1 and 3. At
this point, the head 13 is turned slightly so that it becomes
aligned with aperture slot 14, the head being forced through the
slot under pressure of spring 3 to release the interlocking of
abutment 7 and support bottom 6. The spring pressure will move the
support bottom through distance a so that the support bottom
contacts the lowermost tablet and thus carries the stack of
tablets. The receptacle is now in operative condition, with the
spring 3 pressing the stack of tablets upwardly against ledge
4.
Insertion of the stack of tablets and of the spring cage through
the open bottom of the receptacle housing, as well as the turning
of hook head 13, may be effected automatically, i.e., by
machine.
In the modification of the spring cage shown in FIG. 5, the stem
12' carries a hook-shaped head 24 which is in alignment with
aperture slot 23 in abutment bottom 15'. During assembly, the head
24 is passes through slot 23 and the head engages one edge of the
slot to interlock the support bottom 6' and the abutment 7'. When
it is desired to release these two parts, the stem 12' need not be
turned but the head 24 is simply laterally displaced in direction
of the horizontal arrow in FIG. 5 so that it slips through the
slot.
It will be useful to make the receptacle, the cover and the spring
cage parts of a thermoplastic synthetic resin of suitable rigidity,
such as rigid polystyrene, which may be injection molded and thus
produced very inexpensively. A certain rigidity is required
particularly for part 6 since the stem 12 or 12' must have some
elasticity to give it the property of a spring action during
assembly in the above-described manner.
While the spring cage has been described in use with a simple
receptacle, it will be useful also in combination with receptacle
housings containing a drawer holding the tablets.
* * * * *