Patent ID: 6817164
Filing Date: 2004-11-16
Classification: B65B,B65F

Abstract:
An apparatus for packaging objects to be disposed of into pouches formed along a tube of plastic material, said apparatus comprising:a container having an upper portion with an opening having a vertical axis, and a lower portion; a ring-shaped cassette mounted into the upper portion of the container coaxially with the opening, said cassette storing the tube of flexible plastic material in a compacted form and allowing it to be pulled from the cassette and moved towards the lower portion of the container in order to receive and store the objects to be disposed of which are inserted into the opening in the upper portion of the container; a receiving area located below the opening and the cassette in the upper portion of said container, for receiving the objects to be inserted into the tube; and a plunging device mounted onto the upper portion of said container, for forcing said objects and a portion of said tube beyond said receiving area into the lower portion of said container, wherein said plunging device comprises: two opposite arms mounted laterally inside the container, said arms each having a top and a bottom portion and being adapted to move upwardly and downwardly along a predetermined course; two opposite flaps pivotably attached to the bottom of the arms, said flaps being orthogonal to the arms and each biased towards each other by at least one spring, said flaps also having interlocking edges abutting each other in a horizontal transverse manner relative to the arms, said flaps being opened when the objects are inserted into the opening and manually pushed down; and a pair of opposite slides, said slides being orthogonal to the arms and external to the flaps and each having a top portion and a bottom portion attached to said upper portion of said container a pivot allowing the bottom portions of the slides to move towards and away from each other, said pivot lying in a horizontal transverse axis relative to the arms, the bottom portions of said slides being biased towards each other by at least one spring and comprising an interlocking means, said interlocking means forming a hermetic seal and abutting in a parallel manner to the interlocking edges of the flaps, the bottom portions of said slides being kept away from each other by the bottom portion of the arms when said arms are moved upwardly or downwardly between the pivot and the bottom portions of the slides, said bottom portion of the slides being forced together to close and thus prevent objects from going beyond the interlocking means of the slides when the bottom portion of the arms are at a position higher than the pivot of the slides.