Receptacles – Closures – Having means for securing or retaining closure in its closed...
Patent
1996-09-23
1999-07-06
Cronin, Stephen K.
Receptacles
Closures
Having means for securing or retaining closure in its closed...
220836, 215206, 215237, 70 63, 70312, B65D 4500
Patent
active
059187581
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to containers, and in particular to security containers of the type requiring more than one operation to open them. Such containers include child-resistant containers that hold medicaments.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is these days common, and even a legal requirement, for certain types of container, such as pill boxes (that is to say, containers of pharmaceuticals or medicaments generally in solid dose form, such as pills or pellets), to be secure. More specifically, they should be child-proof (a term that usually means child-resistant) in that they must be difficult, and even impossible, to open, by a simple operation.
One known type of security container requires the (screw-on) lid to be pressed firmly down/on before it is unscrewed, while another requires the lid to be correctly aligned before it can be prised off. However, a press-down lid may be very difficult for the aged or arthritic to operate, while the most common container requiring alignment (of respective marks on the lid and on the container body) may be too easily opened by an intelligent child.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,903 describes a security container in which the lid includes a retractable member. When retracted, there is no evident means of opening the lid; manipulation of the member, through a window in the lid, allows it to be pushed out from the lid, only then providing an evident tab, for opening the lid. Although this device should be easy to operate without it being readily evident how it can be opened, it suffers from several practical disadvantages. These disadvantages include ease of opening, e.g. by a child using teeth, or accidental opening, even when the retractable member is retracted, and the difficulty of balancing ease of retraction/opening, e.g. for the infirm or those with large fingers, with desired security. Further, a bulky lid is required, especially if the retractable member is to be adequately durable, with attendant problems of plastic shrinkage, and difficulty in moulding and manufacture, e.g. non-suitability for ultrasonic welding. This also means that the container must be sufficiently large that it will not generally be considered portable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, a container of the type requiring more than one operation to open, comprises a hollow body, a lid for the body, means for releasably engaging the lid such that the body is closed, and a marked member. The marked member is moveable between a first position at which the mark is hidden and said means engages the lid and a second position at which the mark is visible and the lid is releasable.
The novel container can avoid all the disadvantages associated with the prior art, while retaining their advantages.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention proposes a variant of the alignment system. In a preferred embodiment, there is a knurled cylindrical knob sitting in a window-like aperture in the side of the container, and rotating this knob brings into view an alignment mark, the visibility of which indicates that the lid can now be prised open. More specifically, the invention provides a security container, perhaps for use as a pill-box, comprising a (conveniently hingedly) lidded container, the lid of which has a tongue reaching down into the body of the container; the tongue has a projecting lug that is detachably retained by physical interaction with a rotatable slotted wheel (or longitudinally-slotted, -grooved or -channelled cylinder) rotatably mounted in and projecting through the body wall; the wheel is turnable from without the body to bring the slot into or out of alignment with the lug, so as either to release the tongue, by permitting its lug to be withdrawn through the slot as the lid is lifted off the body, or to secure the tongue, by retaining the lug and thus preventing the lid being lifted off.
In one aspect, therefore, the invention provides a security container comprising a body with a lid fitting onto the body, wherein: the lid has a
REFERENCES:
patent: 3421347 (1969-01-01), Sotory
patent: 3610475 (1971-10-01), Gach
patent: 3901407 (1975-08-01), Mitchell
patent: 3930388 (1976-01-01), Barras
patent: 3988909 (1976-11-01), Catapano
patent: 4343163 (1982-08-01), Scelba et al.
patent: 5517836 (1996-05-01), Hong
BGF Health Care Products Ltd.
Cronin Stephen K.
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