Article dispensing – With recorder – register – indicator – signal or exhibitor – Dispenser operated register
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-28
2001-04-17
Noland, Kenneth W. (Department: 3651)
Article dispensing
With recorder, register, indicator, signal or exhibitor
Dispenser operated register
C221S082000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06216910
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, in general, to article dispensers and, specifically, to article dispensers for dispensing articles, such as pills, vitamins and the like, on a time basis at predetermined intervals.
2. State of the Art
Medication, such as pills, vitamins, and the like, is usually taken on a time basis, that is, one or more pills are taken every prescribed time interval, such as every two hours, throughout the day and/or night. Such medications when administered at home are done by the user himself.
Failure to take the specified dosage of medication at the required time intervals greatly diminishes the effectiveness of the medication. Conversely, taking more than the specified dosage at more frequent than prescribed intervals can also lead to undesirable health effects.
This problem is exaggerated when one or more different medications must be taken at different time intervals throughout the day and/or night. Individuals who are elderly or chronically ill frequently do not have sufficient mental capabilities to keep track of the different frequencies and dosages of the medications they are required to take over a sustained period of time. Since such people may be left alone for extended periods of time, a caretaker frequently does not know whether the proper amount and the type of medication was taken at the prescribed time intervals.
HIV and AIDS patients have complicated medication regimens which often involve taking 30 or more pills or capsules daily. Although such individuals do not have diminished mental capabilities, the daily, repetitious regimen of pill selection becomes a burden that frequently results in non-compliance which reduces the effectiveness of the potent drug “cocktails”.
Various devices have been developed to address these problems by properly dispensing the required dosage of medications, such as pills, vitamins, and the like, at the prescribed time intervals. One simple device makes use of a conventional mechanical timer to remind the user that it is time to take a particular medication. More complex devices provide the automatic dispensing of one or more medications at a plurality of different time intervals throughout the day and/or night. Such devices typically include a rotatable disk containing a plurality of spaced, individual compartments. Means are provided for successively opening each compartment or for discharging the contents of each compartment on a time basis at prescribed intervals.
Most of the automatic, time-based article dispensers, particularly those designed for dispensing medications such as pills, vitamins, and the like, have a limited amount of storage space, typically covering only one day or one day and night. If such devices are designed to dispense medications over a longer time period, i.e., one week, then the number of separate time intervals at which such medications may be dispensed during each 24-hour time period is reduced to a smaller number, such as four intervals in each 24-hour period.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,514 discloses an automatic medication dispenser containing a plurality of vertically stacked cylinders, each containing a plurality of spaced, individual compartments. Each cylinder is successively engaged from top to bottom in the stack by a drive means to bring successive compartments in each cylinder in line with a chute formed by aligned openings in the cylinders which extend from the top of the stack of cylinders to a lower disposed discharge tray. Thus, the medications, such as the pills, vitamins, etc., in the upper cylinder or cylinders, fall through the chute from the top to the bottom of the stack to reach the discharge tray. Since some pills and vitamins are fragile, such movement and abrupt impact on the discharge tray can cause breakage of such medications, making them difficult to take and interrupting the time dispensing of proper dosages of such medications.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,522,524 discloses a medication dispenser station which has a plurality of medication-containing cassettes arranged in a vertical stack. The cassettes have aligned discharge openings defining an open discharge chute. The discharge openings in each vertically stacked cassette are alignable with similar openings in adjacent, vertically spaced cassettes to enable a pill from one of the cassettes to fall through the aligned discharge opening of all of the lower cassettes to the article receiver. As in previously described pill dispensers, this length of travel can be considerable and can lead to breakage of the individual pills.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,593 discloses a similar apparatus for dispensing medication which includes a plurality of dose modules rotatably mounted in a vertical stack within a housing. Each disk has a plurality of apertures which are sealed on either side with a pierceable film. A microprocessor activates a dose signal means indicating that a dose of prescribed medication should be dispensed from the device. Manual intervention on the part of an operator is required to actuate an extractor which pierces the film and releases the dose lot contained therein.
It would be desirable to provide an automatic time-based article dispenser, particularly suited for dispensing medications, which overcomes the disadvantages of previously devised automatic article dispensers. It would also be desirable to provide an automatic time-based article dispenser which has extensive article storage for dispensing articles at prescribed time intervals over a long period of time. It would also be desirable to provide an automatic time-based article dispenser which is designed to minimize breakage of the articles during the dispensing of such articles. Finally, it would be desirable to provide an automatic, time-based article dispenser which is easy to load or refill.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is an automatic time-based article dispenser which dispenses articles, such as medications including pills, vitamins, and the like, at prescribed intervals over a long period of time.
The article dispenser comprises a plurality of modules which are vertically stacked in a co-axial column. Each module includes an article container magazine having a plurality of article-containing compartments. Each of the compartments has an open top and an open bottom. A disk is rotatably mounted in each magazine and has an aperture successively alignable with each compartment in the magazine as the disk rotates about a central axis through the module. Means are provided for rotating the disks in each of the modules in a timed relationship with each other to successively align the aperture in each disk with successive compartments in the associated magazine to transfer articles from successive compartments in each magazine to corresponding compartments in the immediate lower magazine from the top to the bottom of the stack. A discharge chute is disposed below the lowermost magazine. A means for moving articles from the lowermost magazine to the discharge chute is provided to transfer articles to the discharge chute on a timed basis.
In a preferred embodiment, the rotating means includes a first drive means, such as an electric motor. Means are provided for coupling the drive means, such as through the output shaft of the motor, to the lowermost disk. Timing lug means are mounted on each disk in each module and disposed at predetermined, initial angular positions about the central axis of the module stack for engaging the timing lug means of adjacent disks to cause a staggered, time-delayed advance and offset of the apertures in each disk as the drive means rotates the lowermost disk. This causes the articles to drop only from one disk to the next lower adjacent disk and not through the entire vertical stack of disks as in previously devised automatic article dispensers, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,514. This minimizes any potential breakage of such articles, particularly fragile pills and capsules.
The successive moving means also includes a second drive means, such as an elect
Fildes & Outland, P.C.
Noland Kenneth W.
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