Article dispensing – Supply container movably mounted for dispensing – Vertical motion to separate articles
Patent
1994-06-01
1995-04-11
Skaggs, H. Grant
Article dispensing
Supply container movably mounted for dispensing
Vertical motion to separate articles
221289, B65G 5900
Patent
active
054050472
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to dispensers for pills or tablets in which dispenser pills or tablets are stored among each other in a non-ordered way, and from which they are dispensed one at a time when the dispenser is operated.
Such dispensers are well known and are usually based on a member having the shape of a drawer without a bottom, which drawer in its neutral position is upwards open but closed downwards by sliding along a wall. In this position the drawer accommodates just one pill or tablet. When the dispenser is operated, the drawer is passed with its upper opening under a separating wall to separate the drawer space from the reservoir, whereupon the drawer is passed over an opening in the bottom wall to dispense the pill or the tablet accomodated in the drawer through this opening.
The separation of the pill or tablet in the drawer is obtained by mechanically affecting the pill or tablet which is on its way into the drawer, but is stopped due to the fact that the drawer accommodates only one pill or tablet. The shearing affection provided by the separating wall may damage the edge of a tablet or make facets on a pill. When a pill or tablet damaged this way falls into the drawer, the next pill or tablet will reach a little further into the drawer, and the risk exists that this pill or tablet is directly crushed when the separating wall tries to shear it away from the drawer.
It is, therefore, the object of the invention to provide a dispenser in which one pill or tablet at a time is separated from a batch of tablets stored in a reservoir, without the above risk of crushing.
This is obtained by a dispenser of the kind mentioned in the beginning of this application, which dispenser is characterized in, that it comprises a first reservoir part forming at its one end a depending trough shaped to accommodate at least two tablets or pills adjacent to each other; a second reservoir part into which the first part fits with its trough end first, and having at its end a partition forming with the trough of the first part a channel for the accommodation of at least two pills or tablets adjacent to each other, the lower end of the channel being closed by an end wall carried by the first part and adjoining the lower end of the partition when the first part is in a neutral position in the second part; two fingers suspended at the outside of the first part and protruding into openings in the bottom of the trough perpendicular to this bottom and adjacent to the sides of the trough and positioned in the common tangent plane of two neighbouring pills or tablets in the channel; means being provided to pass the fingers through the openings into the free space between two pills or tablets in the channel when the first part from its neutral position is telescoped further into the second part.
In the dispenser according to the invention no shearing affection is exerted on the pills or tablets, and the risk of crushing the pills or tablets is consequently eliminated. The fingers pass into the space left between the pills due to their circular shape, and the pill or tablet adjacent to the one being dispensed is held back by being obstructed by the fingers which do not affect the tablets or pills mechanically.
The fingers may be provided at an end of a resilient beam secured to the outer surface of the first part, and a ramp may be provided at the inside of the second part to affect the fingers or their suspension to pass the fingers which are in the neutral position of the first part relative to the second part flush with the bottom of the trough, into the space left between two neighbouring pills or tablets when the first part is passed further into the second part.
To guide the pills or tablets to the dispensing channel the first part has a bottom wall inclining .downwards towards the upper end of the partition.
A spring may be provided to urge the first part towards its neutral position, and the first part inclusive the spring and the beam with the fingers may be moulded as one integral part.
When the dispenser according to
REFERENCES:
patent: 4230236 (1980-10-01), Boulter
patent: 4354619 (1982-10-01), Wippermann et al.
patent: 4418838 (1983-12-01), Gallina
patent: 4653668 (1987-03-01), Gibilisco
patent: 4767023 (1988-08-01), Hackmann et al.
patent: 4854478 (1989-08-01), Gyimothy
Novo Nordisk A S
Skaggs H. Grant
Zelson Steve T.
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