Article dispensing – With orienting – Selective separation from supply
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-28
2003-09-02
Noland, Kenneth W. (Department: 3653)
Article dispensing
With orienting
Selective separation from supply
C221S255000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06612463
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a toothpicks dispenser which is made up of a top cover, a box embodiment, a bottom board, a holder plate, a pair of pivotal dispensing plane units jointly engaged with the holder plate by a shaft pin and retractably operable by a bias spring. The holder plate and the two symmetric dispensing plane units are integrally housed in the box embodiment which is provided with a rectangular cut at each longitudinal side wall and a flanged top opening with which the top cover is registered. The holder plate of a roof shape is made up of two symmetric oblique planes on which toothpicks are piled up. The two dispensing plane units placed under and in pivotal engagement with the holder plate are provided with a horizontal pressing tab and a vertical toothpick shooting edge on the longitudinal outer side thereof respectively. On a shoulder of each longitudinal side of the box embodiment is disposed a dispensing slot for distribution of an obliquely raised toothpick in each operation after the horizontal press wing tab of each dispensing plane unit is pressed and released wherein a toothpick on the oblique planes of the holder plate will drop into contact with one of the toothpick shooting edges and be popped out of one of the dispensing slot as the downwardly pressed dispensing plane unit retracts by the bias spring.
Conventionally, toothpicks are housed in a tubular container
10
, as shown in
FIG. 1. A
top cover
11
in threaded engagement with the container
10
has a through hole
111
and another rotary cap
12
having an oval opening
121
is rotatably registered with the top cover
11
. To dispense a toothpick, the cap
12
is rotated to make the oval opening
121
in alignment with the through hole
111
so as to permit the toothpicks inside the container
10
to be taken out by slightly make the container toppled in an up-side-down manner.
There are several disadvantages associated with such a prior art toothpicks dispensing means, given as below:
1. The top cover
11
with the cap
12
is in threaded engagement with the container
10
, and the top cover
11
must be removed to refill the container
10
with toothpicks. Such an operation is tedious and inconvenient.
2. To take one toothpick out of the container
10
, the cap
12
on the top cover
11
is rotated to make the oval hole
121
of the cap
12
aligned with the through hole
111
of the top cover
11
, and then the container
10
is slightly toppled. The toothpicks are easily excessively dispensed more than what desired in number.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a toothpicks dispenser which adopts a roof-shaped holder plate and two dispensing plane units in pivotal engagement with one another. The toothpicks consecutively accumulated on the holder plate are sequentially dropped into a position when each spring biased dispensing plane unit is pressed down to be dispensed in a slant manner out of one of the slots disposed on a shoulder at each longitudinal side of the box with ease and speed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a toothpicks dispenser which is equipped with a pair of symmetric dispensing plane units that can be actuated separately or simultaneously to get one or two toothpicks at one time with convenience and speed.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4522314 (1985-06-01), Nelson
patent: 6102249 (2000-08-01), Sjoboen
Noland Kenneth W.
Troxell Law Office PLLC
Welter's Co., Ltd.
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