Article dispensing – With supply cartridge or container removable from enclosing...
Reissue Patent
2001-12-28
2003-12-30
Noland, Kenneth W. (Department: 3653)
Article dispensing
With supply cartridge or container removable from enclosing...
C221S212000
Reissue Patent
active
RE038368
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to devices capable of dispensing solid materials, specifically a device capable of enclosing one or more uniformly arrayed objects, temporarily adhered to or resting upon a cartridge belt, and subsequently separated from the cartridge belt, and presented through an exit opening, one measure or quantity of solid matter, at a time, through the use of a manual advancement arm.
2. Description of Prior An
Hardware manufacturers, battery manufacturers, confectioners, and pharmaceutical companies, and others, commonly package parts, batteries, confections, cord, tubing screws, wire, tablets or capsules, and other items. Various packages are designed to contain a continuous product or a number of identical items, and to ease the removal (or dispensing) of a single (or measured) quantity, at a time. Such packaging may also address issues of tamper-proofing, protecting and preserving or inactivating the contents.
Wire solder, for example, is commonly supplied, coiled on a spool or wound in a coil-shape. The user must pull and unroll a length of the solder for use. Frequent difficulties with the present art are having to constantly and awkwardly unroll more wire solder; as soldering continues, resulting in disruption of the soldering process Between the times of unrolling the wire solder, there is often either too much or too little wire solder available to the uses Support is lacking to hold the wire solder steady for the user.
Many other delicate or elastic continuous confections or materials require protection from distention or distortion. Therefore, the current art often distributes a product, affixed to a backing material. The art currently does not provide an adequate means for detaching and handling the often small and delicate products.
It is often difficult to open the packaging and remove or dispense a specific quantity of the objects, such as tablets and capsules, and many other uniformly-shaped objects. Vitamin tablets are often either packaged in a bubble-pack which requires peeling back or punching the tablet through a foil, paper, cardboard, or plastic membrane, in order to obtain the tablet. Alternatively, these tables may be distributed in jars, which require unscrewing a lid and shaking or pouring out the tablets, frequently dispensing more than the desired quantity. Both methods require several tasks which require two hands, may be difficult or cumbersome, and may be time-consuming. Both methods often result in tablets being dropped out of the user's hand, or other intended receptacle.
In the example of air-activated hearing-aid batteries, a particularly interesting, sophisticated, demanding, and challenging application, a number of methodologies have been applied to previous packaging efforts, in order to protect batteries from tampering and theft, prevent deterioration of the battery through premature energy loss, and allow the user to remove only one batter at a time, instead of having to handle or manage additional, unneeded batteries. Premature energy loss results when the inner cell is exposed to the atmosphere through built-in air holes in the flat bottom surface, prior to installation in the heating aid, when the air exchange is needed for optimal battery performance. Such loss is prevented by sealing the air-holes with pieces of specially-formulated, partially air-permeable sealant tape, called ‘tabs’.
These batteries range in diameter from approximately 5 cm to 8 cm, or more, and in height from approximately 2 cm to 6 cm, or more. Handling of such batteries includes picking them up, pulling them loose from the sealant tabs or tape, viewing and orienting them, and positioning and placing them in or out of a batter holder. These processes are difficult for most humans, particularly for the (largely geriatric or handicapped) target population of hearing aid wearers.
Past approaches to packaging hearing aid batteries to transport, seal, and dispense such batteries, have included enclosing a row of three or four batteries, placed upon, and retained by, a strip of specially-formulated partially air-permeable sealant tape, permanently affixed to the inside base of a hinged plastic box.
This design suffered from the need for expensive fabrication processes, limited capacity (only three or four batteries fit within the case), lack of protection against tampering or fraudulent replacement of new batteries with spent batteries (through realignment of battery tabs to be used for batteries and placing these batteries in the case), and a lack of space for informational and advertising materials on the package. Most significantly, though, was the need for the user to use his or her fingers to pull out or pry out a battery, hold the small battery, and then place the battery properly oriented) into a hearing and battery door/battery holder, from either the side or the top, depending on the design of the battery door.
A subsequent offering retained the hinged box U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,091), but displaced the strip of sealant tape with batteries having individual sealant tabs on their flat surface. The batteries (tab side up) were retained by pliable plastic vertical walls (on two opposite sides of each batter), integral to the base of the plastic box. Gould Corporation one of the earliest manufacturers of such batters, employed this packaging with its ACTIVAIR and ACTIVAIR II lines of zinc-air batteries. This design suffered from the same difficulties in use of Gould's previous design, except that the user was now required to also pull off the ‘tab’ from the flat side of the battery, gripping the ‘handle’ of the tab, which extended barely 0.5 cm beyond the edge of the battery, on one side, and dispose of the tab, before proceeding with battery insertion.
Presumably, the earlier Gould design suffered from awkwardness in separating the battery from the strip, and possibly, from a failure of the adhesive strip (while it was mounted in the case) to allow the battery to properly exchange air. The newer, current adhesive tab material has been designed (and accepted industry-wide) to maintain the necessary air-permeability. In addition, the original strip adhesive was known to degenerate with time, becoming messy, sticking (in part) to the battery, and potentially subsequently interfering with proper battery performance and functioning within the hearing aid.
As the popularity of zinc-air batteries, increased, and additional manufacturers entered the market, most manufacturers standardized on the design of the tabs used to seal the batteries. The prevalent shape is now a refinement of the tabs, originally used in the later Gould offering.
Some battery vendors, such as Starkey Laboratories, offer packages of a single batter contained loosely within a round plastic ‘bubble’ (raised cylindrical area), attached to a piece of cardboard. These are most commonly provided, along with a hearing aid, when the aid is returned from being repaired or serviced. The customer removes the battery by prying open flaps (perforated strips cut into the cardboard back) and shaking out the battery. This packaging does provide a means of identifying and reducing tampering and fraud (by making it necessary for the user to open the cardboard backing, in order to access the battery), and does provide a surface (on the cardboard) for labeling and advertising—However, it does nothing to help a user handle, orient, or insert the battery into his or her aid.
A variation employed in later ACTIVAIR, ACTIVAIR
2
, and ACTIVAIR II batteries (from Duracell), was to package three batteries, arranged in a triangle, on the cardboard backing, spaced 5 mm or more from each other, and covered by a single plastic bubble (comprised of three small battery-sized cylinders, retaining the three batteries) and contoured, reduced-area, plastic, connecting the three pod-like bubble regions.
Although this packaging addressed concerns of tampering and fraud, as in the single-battery bubble package, again it remained necessary for the user to tear ope
Bishop Lawrence
Bishop Lewis D.
Mersereau C. G.
Nikolai & Mersereau , P.A.
Noland Kenneth W.
Northeast Iowa Rehabilitation Agency
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