A PROCESS FOR DISPENSING INDIVIDUAL PLANAR, RIGID THERMOPLASTIC ARTICLES

Abstract: A cartridge (3, 33) of individual thermoplastic articles (1, 21) are arranged in a dispensing relationship by fusion-­ bonding individual articles to one another so as to form a cartridge for dispensing purposes.

Description: DESCRIPTION TITLE: DISPENSING CARTRIDGE FOR INDIVIDUAL ARTICLES l This invention relates generally to the art of dispensing and more particularly to a novel dispensing cartridge for individual articles. Dispensing of articles in automatic fashion has been of significant interest in the transition from manual processing to machine processing of various items. Dispensing techniques have been particularly well-developed in the area of packaging. Examples of such technology include the automatic dispensing of plastic bags, one at a time, by having such bags arranged in a shingled relationship along a taped carrier. Additionally, such bags have been shingled to one another utilizing heat seals between individual bags. The overall object of such an arrangement is to facilitate the dispensing of such bags utilizing automated equipment. Associated with such technology in the packaging art are various items of rigid plastic material which must be dispensed one at a time in order to have some association with a bag or a packaged article. One such device is described in U.S. Patent No. 3,270,874 where individual plastic bag closures such as the type normally used on bread packages are arranged together in a unitary, side-by-side relationship with scores between individual articles to facilitate the severance of individual articles from the unitary strip. Such articles are severed by merely bending the strip at the point of score. This product is arranged primarily for manual dispensing. A dispensing mechanism is described in U.S. Patent No. 2,939,147 wherein curtain hooks are arranged for automatic dispensing, one at a time, such that the clips are stacked together and connected together by a spline which maintains the hooks in the stacked relationship, and facilitates loading into a magazine where they are dispensed one at a time from the stack. Another dispensing device is described in U.S. Patent No. 3,165,968 wherein a plastic nailing strip is utilized to connect together individual nail articles for the purposes of dispensing the articles one at a time with automated equipment. A similar device is described in U.S. Patent No. 3,357,761. In facilitating the marketing of retail items, it has been known in the prior art to utilize rigid thermoplastic hooks or hanger attachments to individual articles for displaying such articles in a retail environment. In the past such hooks have been dispensed from a loose cartridge for stapling or other means of attachment to a marketable item. Such individual hooks have been arranged with magazines manually in loose stacks. Such arrangement has required great skill on the part of the operator in order to ensure loading of large numbers of such hooks in a stacked relationship. Essentially, such loading requires movement of large numbers of hooks within a stack by utilizing only hand pressure at both ends to maintain the stack in alignment, while hoping that the central area of the stack did not collapse to produce a disoriented array of hooks which must be again manually restacked for purposes of loading into a dispensing magazine. According othe present invention there is provided a cartridge of individual articles arranged in stacked relationship and connected together for dispensing of individual articles, characterised in that the individual articles are formed from a thermoplastic material and are bonded together by a fusion bond to form a cartridge from which the individual articles may be dispensed. The cartridge in accordance with this inventin is thus essentially unified and fixed so as to facilitate movement and the loading thereof without any disarray created in the relationship by the operator. Additionally, the individual articles can be readily sheared from the cartridge without leaving behind extraneous matter to foul the dispensing mechanism or work area. In order that the invention may more readily be understood, the following description is given, merely by way of example, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 illustrates one embodiment of article suitable for use in a cartridge in accordance with this invention; Figure 2 is a perspective view of one embodiment of cartridge according to the invention, made up from several articles as illustrated in Figure 1; Figures 3 and 4 are schematic sectional side elevations illustrating a dispensing mechanism for dispensing individual articles from the cartridge illustrated in Figure 2; Figure 5 is a view, similar to Figure 1, of a modified form of individual article; and Figure 6 is a view, similar to Figure 2, of a cartridge, formed in a preferred way, of a stack of articles according to Figure 5. Figure 1 of'the drawings illustrates an individual thermoplastic article 1, which in this instance is a flat thermoplastic hook for use in the display and marketing of retail items. For example, the hooks can be secured, e.g. by stapling, to gloves, or other articles of clothing. Figure 2 of the drawings illustrates the individual thermoplastic article 1, arranged into a cartridge 3, for ultimate utilization within a magazine of a dispensing mechanism. It can be seen that the cartridge 3 is formed by a fusion bond 5 along the edges of individual thermoplastic articles 1. The cartridge is formed by a stacked relationship of the individual thermoplastic articles 1, such that individual thermoplastic articles 1 may be sheared from the cartridge in seriatim fashion. Figure 3 of the drawings illustrates a dispensing mechanism 11, which comprises means defining a magazine 13, a surface 15 upon which cartridge 3 rests, and a shear blade 17 for shearing individual thermoplastic articles 1 from cartridge 3. Figure 4 illustrates the mechanism of Figure 3 with shear blade 17 having severed an individual article 1 from cartridge 3. It is thus seen that the cartridge 3 may be readily loaded into the magazine 13 without great skill required on the part of the operator to maintain the essentially card pack array of individual thermoplastic articles, since the fusion bond 5 maintains the array without adding extraneous matter to the cartridge and thus eliminating the need for somehow disposing of such extraneous matter once dispensing has occurred. The dispensing cartridge in accordance with this invention may be formed from individual articles of essentially any thermoplastic materials which are capable of being fusion-bonded together. The more prominently useful thermoplastic materials currently utilized for commercial applications include the polyolefins and copolymers of olefines with polyethylene, polypropylene and copolymers of ethylene and propylene with ethylene vinyl acetate being extensively utilized material because of the low cost thereof. This invention is, however, applicable to virtually any article formed from a thermoplastic material. Cartridges of the type illustrated in Figure 2 of the drawings may be formed utilizing literally hundreds of individual thermoplastic articles which is significantly more than any skilled operator could manually handle in one loading operation. The increased operator efficiency brought about by utilization of this invention is surprising and unexpected. The heat seal 5 illustrated in Figure 2 of the drawings is formed by merely contacting a stack of individual articles with an object which is heated to substantially the softening point of the thermoplastic material or slightly higher so as to effect the fusion bond. Figure 1 of the drawings illustrates a relic 5' of the fusion bond after the individual thermoplastic article 1 has been dispensed from the cartridge. Preferably, the fusion bond 5 is effected by the placement of a heated, tefloncoated, metallic rod along the length of the stack of individual items 1. The fusion bond, however, may be brought about by means other than a heated rod, such as ultrasonic welding. A particularly preferred embodiment of this invention is illustrated in Figures 5 and 6 wherein an individual thermoplastic article 21 is formed having notches 23 and 25 in the edge 27 thereof. It is seen that notches 23 and 25 define a generally triangular cross-section tongue 29 having an apex 31 thereon. A heat seal may thus be effected along the lines of apices 31 thereof which results in the flattening of the triangular tongue 29 of each article into notches 23 and 25. The strength of the bond may thus be determined by the degree of flattening of tongue 29. Figure 6 illustrates the appearance of the thus formed cartridge 33 after a heat seal 35 has been effected by attaching the individual triangular tongues of adjacent thermoplastic articles 21. Great control over the strength of the bond is thus brought about by this arrangement while permitting the heat seal to be effected without affecting the extra perimeter area of the cartridge 33. Preferably, the individual articles of this invention are formed by stamping the individual thermoplastic articles from a sheet of rigid or semi-rigid material. The stamped item is loaded into a magazine which is adjacent the cutting die such that no disorientation occurs between individual articles during the forming process. The heat seal is thus effected while the individual articles are still within a magazine associated with the cutting dies. Complete cartridges in accordance with this invention may be thus unloaded from the magazine associated with the forming process, and shipped to remote locations for utilization on automated equipment. It is understood, however, that the articles of this invention may be formed by other processes, such as injection moulding. It is thus apparent that the invention disclosed herein provides a cartridge of individual thermoplastic articles attached together without-extraneous material thus to facilitate the loading of dispensing magazines without requiring extensive operator skill, and permitting the loading of a significantly greater number of individual articles than could heretofore be carried out by human operator.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A cartridge of individual articles (1, 21) arranged in stacked relationship and connected together for dispensing of individual articles, characterised in that the individual articles (1, 21) are formed from a thermoplastic material and are bonded together by a fusion bond (5, 35) to form a cartridge (3, 33) from which the individual articles may be dispensed. 2. A cartridge according to claim 1, characterised in that said articles (1, 21) are formed of rigid or semi-rigid thermoplastic material. 3. A cartridge according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that each article (1, 21) is in the form of a hook for use in retail drsplay of a marketable item. 4. A cartridge according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterised in that each individual thermoplastic article (21) has notches (23, 25) in at least one edge portion (27) thereof, to form a generally triangular tongue (29) therebetween, and in that the fusion bond (35) is formed by heating and flattening the apex (31) of each tongue to displace a portion of said tongue into said notches. 5. A cartridge according to claim 4, characterised in that the strength of said bond (35) is controlled by the degree of flattening of said apex (31). 6. A process for the dispensing of individual articles from the cartridge of any preceding claim, characterised in that it comprises shearing the individual articles (1, 21) from the cartridge (3, 33) by displacing the individual articles from one end of the cartridge in a direction transverse to the length of the stack. 7. A process according to claim 6, characterised in that the cartridge (3, 33) is arranged in a dispensing mechanism (11) with the connecting fusion bond (5, 35) arranged substantially vertically and thus with said one end forming the bottom of the cartridge and in that a dispensing blade (17) is moved to abut and displace the bottom article of the cartridge.

Inventors: ROBERTS, JOHN THOMAS
Applicants: ROBERTS, JOHN THOMAS
Application year: 1983
Main classification: B65D69
IPC codes: B29C65, B65H3, B65B41, B32B37, B65D69