IMPROVED CONTAINER

Abstract: A container (10), for dispensing pills, powders etc., comprising a body (11) and a lid (12) formed of a resilient material; said lid (12) is rotatably mounted on the body with its inside surface in juxtaposition with an end of the body; said end being of an annular shape and surrounded on its outer periphery by an outer side wall (15) and on its inner periphery by an inner side wall (14); at least one aperture being formed in the said end; said lid (12) shaped to closely correspond to the said end of the body and formed with at least one aperture which may be moved into and out of register with the aperture(s) on the end of the body (11); said container (10) is characterised in that the inner and outer side walls (14, 15) of the body (11) and the lid (12) are formed with cooperating arcuate inclined surfaces (18, 19) such that the end of the body (11) and the lid (12) are drawn into close juxtaposition by the action of the inclined surfaces.

Description: IMPROVED CONTAINER FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a container which includes a body having a product containing cavity and a lid rotatably mounted thereon which may be rotated between open and closed positions and will aintainin the container in a substantially airtight and moistureproof conditions when in the closed position. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is known to provide containers which include a body having at least one product containing cavity and a lid rotatably mounted thereon. Such containers have been used to contain pastes and powder in addition to solid objects as is disclosed in U.S. patent specifications 1,669,884; 1,996,493; 4,261,468 and 169,029. Such containers have also been proposed for use as containers for medicinal tablets and capsules. U.S. Patent specification 3,085,679 describes such a container in which a body portion includes a plurality of pill containing cavities and a lid rotatably mounted on the body. A separately formed spring is provided to urge into contact the lid and the face of the body into which the cavities open. Each cavity is surrounded by an upstanding lip into which * the planar inner face of the lid engages. The means used to cause the lid and body to enter into sealing engagement in these prior art arrangements have suffered from a number of disadvantages. In many cases sealing is not sufficient to render the container airtight while in other cases sealing is only achieved using parts additional to the body and the lid. The present invention provides, in preferred embodiments, good sealing efficiency using only the body and lid themselves. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention consists in a container comprising a body, and a lid which is formed of a resilient material and rotatably mounted with its inside surface in juxtaposition with an end of the body, the end being of substantially annular shape and being surrounded on its outer periphery by an outer side wall and on its inner periphery by an inner side wall, at least one aperture being formed in the end of the body, the lid having a shape closely corresponding to the said end of the body and being formed with at least one aperture which may be moved into or out of register with the aperture or one of the apertures in the said end of the body, characterised in that the inner and outer side walls of the body are each formed with an arcuate inclined surface which tapers inwardly towards its associated side wall and in a direction away from the end wall of the body, the lid being formed with its own inner and outer side walls which closely juxtapose with those of the body, the side walls of the lid being formed with arcuate inclined surfaces which abut against those of the body such that the end wall of the body and the lid are drawn into close juxtaposition by the action of the opposed inclined surfaces. The arcuate inclined surfaces are preferably all concentric frusto-conical surfaces. In this case the opposed inclined surfaces preferably act not only to draw the inside face of the lid into contact with the said end of the body but also themselves constitute an effective seal between the body and the lid. The contents of the container can thus be stored in a moisture proof, airtight, manner. The body of the container is preferably formed with an outer side wall which includes at least a portion of circular cross section which has a zone which reduces in diameter away from the end face of the body to form one of the inclined surfaces. The lid is then preferably made of a resilient material and has a side wall which closely surrounds the side wall of the body, including the zone of reducing diameter, to form the corresponding inclined surface. The resilience of the lid and the opposed conical surfaces of the lid and body will then constitute a part of the resilient means urging the OMPI lid and body together. The said end of the body, being annular, is formed with an aperture at its centre. This aperture may extend only part way into the body or may comprise a duct extending through the whole body of the container. The end of the aperture or duct distal to the said end of the body is preferably flared outwardly to form a further one of the inclined surfaces. The lid in this embodiment of the invention preferably includes a projection adapted to extend through the aperture. The free end of the projection is formed with a resilient boss or with a plurality of resilient tabs which splay outwardly to form the further corresponding inclined surface. The boss or tabs co-act with the flared end of the aperture to constitute a further part of the resilient means urging the lid and body together. If desired the or each aperture in the lid may be formed with a closure. This closure may be formed integrally with the lid or may constitute a separate entity pivotably or otherwise connected to the lid. In this embodiment if the body includes a plurality of product containing cavities the lid may include only one aperture and the number of sealing surfaces on the lid may equal the number on the body. The first tablet or like product may be released by lifting the closure on the aperture and removing the tablet from the cavity with which the aperture is in register. Further tablets may be removed by successively rotating the lid to bring the aperture into register with the other cavities. In another embodiment the body may be provided with a plurality of cavities with a space between two cavities, equal to one cavity width, left blank. The lid is in this embodiment formed with one more sealing surface than the number of cavities. The aperture may then be "parked" in the space which allows all of the cavities to be simultaneously sealed without providing a closure over the aperture in the lid. This embodiment of the invention is of particular utility when the container is to hold a number of pills or tablets one or more of which is stored in each of the cavities. In another embodiment which is more useful for the storage of powders a plurality of apertures are provided in the lid and an equal number of openings are provided in the body. In this embodiment there is a blind sealing face between each aperture on the lid such that adjacent positions of registration between the lid and the body correspond to the container being open or closed. The opening or openings in the end face of the body may be of any convenient shape. If the cavities are to contain pills or tablets the cavity will be of a size and shape to neatly accept some specified number of such pills or tablets. If the container is to contain a powder there may be provided a plurality of openings for the one cavity. If the container is to contain a paste the opening may be shaped to produce a ribbon like or square section extrusion of the paste by making the opening rectangular or square. In one embodiment of the invention the body is formed in a unitary form. In another embodiment the end face and the circular section of the body are formed in one part and the reminder of the body is formed separately. The parts may be joined by a screw threaded connection or by a snap-on connection. The end of the container may comprise a planar face on which the sealing surfaces are formed. Alternatively it may comprise a conical or frusto-conical end face. In a third alternative the sealing surfaces may comprise the upper ends of a plurality of parallel tubes in which case the end is notional in character and is represented by the upper end of these tubes. The apertures in the lid and the body are preferably surrounded by a frusto-conical sealing surface such that when the apertures are brought into register the corresponding sealing surfaces will nest within one another and form an airtight and moisture proof seal. Rotation of the lid relative to the body to bring the apertures into, or out of, register will cause the lid and the said end of the body to move apart slightly against the bias of the inclined surfaces. If desired blind frusto-conical sealing surfaces may be formed on the inside surface of the lid to nest with the corresponding surfaces surrounding the apertures in the end of the body. This ensures airtight sealing of the container when the lid is in a closed position. The sealing surfaces of the body may be raised up from the end face of the body in which case the sealing surface will slope upwardly from outside towards the inside of the surfaces and the sealing surfaces in the inner surface of the lid will be recessed. Alternatively the surfaces on the lid may protrude and those on the body be recessed. PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter given by way of example are preferred embodiments of the invention described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:- Fig. 1 is a vertical-sectional view of a container according to the present invention with the lid in sealing engagement with the body. Fig. 1A is a side elevational view of a locking pin for use in preventing unauthorised opening of the container of Fig. 1, Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the container of Fig. 1. with the lid separated from the body. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the lid of the container of Fig. 1, Fig. 4 is a vertical-sectional view through the upper end of a second embodiment of the container according to the present invention, and Fig. 5 is a vertical sectional view through the upper end of a third embodiment of a container according to the ΓORE O PI SAy IPO present invention. With reference to Figs. 1 to 3 the container 10 is adapted to contain tablets and comprises a base 11 and a lid 12. 5 The base 11 comprises an annular bottom plate 13, an inner cylindrical wall 14, and an outer cylindrical wall 15. Seven open topped cavities 17 are defined by the inner and outer walls 14 and 15, and by seven radial walls 16. The cavities 17 are spaced equally around the annulus defined by 10 the bottom plate 13. The inner wall 14 of the body 11 is provided with a flange 18 which slopes upwardly and radially inwardly. The outer wall 15 is formed with a corresponding flange 19 which slopes upwardly and radially outwardly. The upper edge of 15 the walls 14 and 15 are formed respectively on their radially inner and outer sides with a series of recesses 21 which have a cam-like action as will be hereinafter described. The lid 11 is formed of a resilient plastics material and comprises an annular top plate 22 which is formed about • 20 its radially outer edge with a flange 23. The flange 23 initially increases in diameter as it progresses away from the plate 22 and then decreases in diameter to its free edge. A series of slots 24 are formed in flange 23 extending axially of the container 10. The lid is also formed with a 25 flange 25 on its radially inner edge. The flange 25 initially decreases in diameter as it progresses away from the plate 22 and then increases in diameter to its free edge. This flange 25 is also formed with a plurality of slots 26 which slots extend axially of the container 10. 30 The lid 13 is formed with a recess (not shown) which is sealingly closed by a flap 28 which is formed integrally with the lid 13 and connected thereto by a flexible hinge portion. Lifting the flap 28 provides access through the aperture in the lid 12 to the one of the cavities 17 over 35 which the flap 28 is positioned. The top plate 22 is formed on its underside with an array of projecting lugs 27. The lugs co-operate with recesses 21 in the walls 14 and 15 of the body 11 to index the rotation of lid 12 relative to body 11 such that as the lid is rotated it will be biased into one of seven positions corresponding to the seven cavities 17. In each of these positions the flap 28 will be positioned directly over one of the cavities 17. As shown in Fig. 1A a locking cap 29 may be inserted in the hole defined by the inner side wall 25 of the lid 11. This locking cap 29 serves to maintain the flap 28 in a closed condition and to prevent relative rotation between the lid and the body. The container 10 of Fig. 4 is similar in many ways to the container of Figures 1 to 3 and similar parts will be given the same numeric designation. The container 10 of Fig. 4 differs from that of Fig. 1 in that it is adapted to contain a powder rather than tablets. The bottom plate 13 is omitted from the body 11 and the outer wall 15 is provided with a downward extrusion 40 having an inwardly directed lip 41 adapted to clip behind an outwardly directed circumferential lip 42 on a jar-like container body extension 43. The upper ends of each of the cavities 17 is closed by a web 44. Every second web around the body 11 is perforated and similarly every second one of recesses 45 in the lid 12 is also perforated. This allows a one increment rotation of the lid 12 to move the container from a closed to an open condition and vice versa. The webs 44 closing the recesses 16 in the container 10 are surrounded by a frusto-conical surface 46 and the recesses 45 on the lid 12 are provided with complimentary frusto-conical surface 47. These frusto-conical surfaces 46 and 47 enter into sealing engagement when the webs 44 and the recesses 45 come into register. The container 10 of Fig. 5 is similar to that of Fig. 4 except that the end face 51 of the body 11 is frusto-conical and the sealing surfaces 46 are formed on the outer ends of short tubular projections 52 extending from the end face 51 of the body 10.

Claims: 1. A container comprising a body, and a lid which is formed of a resilient material and rotatably mounted with its inside surface in juxtaposition with an end of the body, the end being of substantially annular shape and being surrounded on its outer periphery by an outer side wall and on its inner periphery by an inner side wall, at least one aperture being formed in the end of the body, the lid having a shape closely corresponding to the said end of the body and being formed with at least one aperture which may be moved into or out of register with the aperture or one of the apertures in the said end of the body, characterised in that the inner and outer side walls of the body are each formed with an arcuate inclined surface which tapers inwardly towards its associated side wall and in a direction away from the end wall of the body, the lid being formed with its own inner and outer side walls which closely juxtapose with those of the body, the side walls of the lid being formed with arcuate inclined surfaces which abut against those of the body such that the end wall of the body and the lid are drawn into close juxtaposition by the action of the opposed inclined surfaces. 2. A container as claimed in claim 1 in which the arcuate inclined surfaces are all concentric frusto-conical surfaces. 3. A container as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 in which the body is formed of a substantially rigid material and the lid is formed on a resilient material. 4. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3 in which the, or each, aperture in the lid is formed with a closure. 5. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4 in which the, or each, aperture in the lid and in the body are surrounded by a frusto-conical sealing surface such that when the apertures are brought into register the corresponding sealing surfaces will sealingly nest within one -another. 6. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 in which the body and the lid are each of an annular shape. 7. A container as claimed in claim 6 in which a locking member is releasably engaged in the opening defined by the inner side wall of the lid, which locking member serves to prevent access to the aperture in the lid while it is engaged in the said opening and/or prevent relative rotation between the body and the lid. 8. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7 in which the body is formed on its face distal to the said one end with means for connection to a bottle, jar or like necked vessel in such a manner that when the body and the necked vessel are so connected that the interior of the body is in communication with the interior of the vessel. 9. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8 in which cam means are provided to separate the inside face of the lid from the said one face of the body as the lid is rotated relative to the body at least on either side of a position in which an aperture in the lid and an aperture in the body are in register. 10. A container substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figs. 1 to 3 or Fig. 4 or Fig. 5.

Inventors: CROOKS HAROLD, CROOKS, HAROLD
Applicants: PRECISION VALVE AUSTRALIA, PRECISION VALVE AUSTRALIA PTY. LIMITED
Application year: 1984
Main classification: B65D83
IPC codes: B65D83