Abstract:
A container for storing and dispensing pills is provided. The container has a housing with an upper end and a lower end and a plurality of compartments therein. The compartments have an open end adjacent the upper end of the housing and a lower end adjacent the lower end of the housing. The lower end of each compartment has an opening with a hinged door covering the opening. A cam having a cam surface is attached to the door so the cam rotates as the door opens and closes. A cam follower pin abuts the cam surface and the cam follower pin is constrained to move along a predefined path. The doors can be opened manually one at a time or all together by pushing downward on a centrally located handle at the top of the container. When opening all the door simultaneously the handle can be retained in the door open position by sliding two flanges beneath the handle into a slot and rotating the handle left or right. The housing is mounted to a rotatable lazy-Susan base.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     Not Applicable 
     STATEMENT RE: FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH/DEVELOPMENT 
     Not Applicable 
     BACKGROUND 
     Consumers who take vitamin pills often purchase larger quantities of pills to save money. These pills are usually contained in larger jars with screw caps. To dispense pills it is necessary to remove the jar from its storage location and unscrew the cap of each jar to pour out the required number of pills. Flip tops on the caps still require removing and replacing each pill jar from its storage location. If a consumer takes multiple types of pills this process becomes a cumbersome and time consuming procedure. Additionally, pharmacies dispense pills by opening a storage jar, selecting and counting out the required number of pills, and placing the selected pills in another smaller pill jar which is labeled with instructions related to the use of the pills. Again, this process is time consuming. Further, without the pharmacist opening the storage jar and looking inside the jar it is difficult to visually see how many pills remain. This complicates restocking and an uninterrupted supply of the pills to the customers. There is thus a need for an improved mechanism and method of storing and providing pills to person taking multiple pills. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY 
     To avoid the described problems with dispensing pills the present mechanism and method was devised. A pill dispenser is provided having a plurality of compartments, preferably six, each with a spring loaded door which can be opened individually, by lifting a selected door individually by hand, or all doors opened simultaneously by pushing down on the centrally located handle at the top of the container. 
     When a spring loaded door is operated individually, by hand, it returns to the closed position when the door is released, with a resilient member such as a spring closing the door. When all the doors are opened simultaneously, by pushing the centrally located handle downward, the handle can be locked in the down position thereby holding all the doors in the open position. The handle is secured in the down position by rotating the handle so that a flange beneath the handle is slid into a slot on the container. Further rotating the handle to align the flange with the slot releases the handle so that a handle return spring can return the handle to its extended position. When the handle moves upward the return springs on the doors close all the doors. A cam mechanism is located on a projection extending inward from the door. The cam engages a pin shaped cam follower which moves up or down according to the rotational position of the door from the open to the closed position. 
     Each compartment has a horizontal portion covered by the door, and also has a vertical portion extending upwards toward the top of the container. A removable lid at the top of the container allows the pills to be placed into each compartment where gravity urges them downward into the horizontal dispensing portion. Preferably, but optionally, the bottom of the container rests on a lazy-Susan type of base to allow rotation of the compartments. The dispenser, or at least the outer portion of the compartments, are preferably made of material that is sufficiently transparent, or translucent, so that a user can see the pills and thus more readily gauge the number of pills remaining for estimating usage and for restocking. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       These and other features and advantages of the various embodiments disclosed herein will be better understood with respect to the following description and drawings, in which like numbers refer to like parts throughout, and in which: 
         FIG. 1   a  is a sectional view taken along section  1 - 1  of  FIG. 2  with a door raised; 
         FIG. 1   b  is a sectional view taken along section  1 - 1  of  FIG. 2  with a door lowered; 
         FIG. 2  is a sectional view taken along Section  2 - 2  of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a sectional view taken along Section  3 - 3  of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4   a  is a partial view taken along section  4   a - 4   a  of  FIG. 2 , showing the entire door actuating mechanism, with the cam actuated portion enlarged; 
         FIG. 4   b  is a plan view taken along section  4   b - 4   b  of  FIG. 4   a;    
         FIG. 5   a  is a partial section view taken along Section  5   a - 5   a  of  FIG. 5   b , showing a side view of the operation of a door and cam mechanism with the door raised; 
         FIG. 5   b  is a partial section view showing a top view of the operation of the door and cam mechanism of  FIG. 5   a;    
         FIG. 5   c  is a partial section view taken along Section  5   a - 5   a  of  FIG. 5   b , showing a side view of the operation of a door and cam mechanism with the door lowered 
         FIG. 6  is a partial view taken from Section  6   a - 6   a  of  FIG. 4   a;    
         FIG. 7   a  is a partial view showing the handle actuating mechanism; 
         FIG. 7   b  is a sectional view taken along Section  7   b - 7   b  of  FIG. 7   a;    
         FIG. 7   c  is a sectional view taken along Section  7   c - 7   c  of  FIG. 7   a;    
         FIG. 7   d  is a sectional view taken along Section  7   d - 7   d  of  FIG. 7   a.    
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1-7 , the dispenser  100  ( FIG. 1 ) is preferably used for dispensing pills, but may be used to dispense other items. The dispenser  100  has a plurality of compartments  19  (FIGS.  1 , 3 , 5   a ), preferably six such separate compartments or chambers. The compartments can have various shapes and are shown as having a generally J-shape with a lower, generally horizontal portion  19  and a vertical portion  20  joined by an inclined or curved back wall  39  ( FIG. 1 ). The shape of the dispenser  100  can vary, but is preferably polygonal or cylindrical, and is shown as having cylindrical section  1  ( FIGS. 1 ,  2 ) formed largely by the vertical portions of the compartments  20  ( FIGS. 1 ,  2 ,  3 ) and horizontal compartments  19  ( FIGS. 1 ,  3 ,  5   a ). The dispenser  100  has a base  2  ( FIGS. 1 ,  3 ) which is generally flat and which rests on or is connected to a mounting plate  3  ( FIGS. 1 ,  5   a ). The mounting plate  3  is preferably, but optionally constructed like a lazy-Susan, with a lazy-Susan bottom plate  4  ( FIGS. 1 ,  5   a ) and rollers  9  ( FIG. 1 ,  5   a ) to allow rotation of the base  2  relative to the lazy-Susan and its bottom plate  4 . The lazy-Susan rotates around the centrally located spacer  11  ( FIG. 1 ) to maintain alignment and to secure the bottom plate  4  to the mounting plate  3 . 
     Each horizontal compartment  19  has an access door  5  ( FIGS. 1 ,  2 ,  5   a ) rotatably fastened at hinge  17  ( FIGS. 1 ,  2 ,  5   a ) in order to selectively cover an opening in the lower portion of the compartment  19  with which the door  5  is associated. The lower opening in the compartment  19  is located and sized to allow a person to easily remove items such as pills, from the compartment. 
     The upper end of the dispenser  100  has a lid  6  ( FIG. 1 ) which may be closed or alternatively removed in order to allow access to the compartments  20 . The upper portion of the compartments  20  thus open onto the top of the dispenser  100  and are covered by the lid  6 . Preferably the lid  6  comprises a flanged screw top having internal threads on the flange that mates with external threads at the top of the dispenser  100  to removably fasten the lid  6  to the dispenser  100 . 
     A centrally located handle  7 , preferably but optionally formed like a ball on the end of a shaft ( FIGS. 1 ,  6 ,  7 ) is used to open all the doors  5  simultaneously when the handle is pushed downward. It also acts as a lifting device. The handle  7  is retained by a retaining pin  32  ( FIG. 7 ) which is threaded into the handle by threaded rod end  40  ( FIG. 7 ). When the handle  7  is pushed downward flanges on the handle push against the tube support hub  12  ( FIGS. 6 ,  7 ) which is attached to three equally spaced plates  13  ( FIGS. 1 ,  2 ,  5   a ,  7 ) which move downward. The outermost edges of the plates  13  are attached to elongated members such as tubes  18  ( FIGS. 2 ,  4 ,  5 ,  6 ,  7 ) which move downward with handle motion. A compression spring  41  ( FIG. 7 ) returns the plates  13  and handle  7  to the extended position. The retaining pin  32 , spring  41 , tube support hub  12  and plates  13  are all supported by the central shaft  10  ( FIGS. 1 ,  6 ,  7 ) which is a part of the cylinder. The plates  13  slide within three equally spaced slots in the central shaft  10  ( FIG. 7   a ). Immediately beneath the handle  7  is a lower flange  33  ( FIG. 7   a ) which slides into a slot  34  ( FIG. 7 ) and when rotated to the left or right stops  35  ( FIG. 7   a ) prevents the handle  7  from returning to the extended position thereby holding the doors in their open positions. 
     A close-out plate  15  ( FIG. 2 ) is preferably, but optionally, provided to cover any open areas between the doors  5  as shown in  FIG. 2 . The shape of the close-out plate  15  will vary with the shape of the compartments  19 ,  20 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , six webs  24  ( FIGS. 2 ,  3 ) are formed inside the cylinder  1  to form and define the sides of at least a portion of the upper compartments  20  and also preferably define the sides of the horizontal compartments  20 . The number of webs will vary with the number of compartments  19 ,  20 . The lower portion of each compartment  19  is preferably, but optionally, rectangular in shape rather than pie shaped, and thus pie-shaped sections are formed between the lower portions of each compartment  19 . Attachment lugs  14  ( FIG. 2 ) are located in these pie-shaped locations and attach cylinder  1  to the base  2  by posts  21  ( FIG. 3 ) on the base  2 . The base close-out plate  15  covers any open areas of the base  2  and is secured by any suitable fastener. The depicted embodiment uses screws threaded into posts  22  ( FIG. 3 ) on the base  2 . 
       FIG. 3  shows a cross-section through the container beneath the base close-out plate  15  and illustrates the six compartments  19  and the attachment points  21  on the base to connect the base to the cylinder  1  and attachment points  22  to connect the close-out plate  15 . A base-to-cylinder screw  36  ( FIG. 1 ) can also be used to attach the base  2  to the cylinder  1 .  FIGS. 4   a  and  4   b  shows a cross-section through the container depicting the entire door actuation mechanism in the door  5  open and closed positions, shown in a flat plane to illustrate its features for individual operation and simultaneous operation of the doors  5 . 
     During use the lid  6  is removed or opened and pills or other items are placed in the upper, vertical portion of the desired compartment  20 . The doors  5  are preferably closed during the loading process. The upper compartments  20  are preferably large enough that an entire container of pills or other items can be emptied into one of the compartments. The pills are guided into the lower horizontal portion of the compartment  19  by the curved or inclined back wall  39 . As more pills abut the inclined back wall  39  the pills are urged toward the front of the lower portion adjacent to door  5 . The lid  6  is then closed or refastened. After loading, the container is placed in its storage location for usage. When it is desired to dispense pills from the container  100 , the container is rotated on its base  2  to the appropriate compartment door  5 . The door  5  is opened by manually engaging a portion of the door. The door  5  could extend over the compartment  19  or could have a specifically shaped tab, both of which are included herein when referring to projecting tab  16  ( FIGS. 1 ,  2 ). The projecting tab  16  is preferably located along the distal edge of the door but could be on a side of the door if it is manually accessible. As the door is opened the cam  8  ( FIGS. 1 ,  2 ,  4 , 5   a ,  6 ) bears against the cam follower  37  ( FIGS. 1 ,  2 ,  4 ,  5 ,  6 ) moving it downward compressing the spring  28  ( FIGS. 1 ,  4 ,  5 ,  6 ) which is retained by upper retainer  27  ( FIGS. 4 ,  5   a ,  6 ) and lower spring guide  29  ( FIG. 4 ). The upper spacer  26  ( FIGS. 1 ,  4 ,  5 ,  6 ), lower spacer  38  ( FIGS. 1 ,  4 ,  5 ,  6 ), spring  28 , upper retainer  27  ride along guide shaft  30  ( FIGS. 4 ,  5   a ,  6 ) which is retained by threads in the base  2  at the shaft attach points  23  ( FIG. 3 ). When the door is opened the pills or other items are then removed from the compartment  19  by fingers or spoons, etc. Once the pills are dispensed the doors  5  are closed by releasing the door tab  16  allowing the return spring  28  to close the doors. 
     When it is desired that all doors open and stay open simultaneously the centrally located handle  7  is moved to activate a linkage mechanism ultimately engaging cams  8  as best seen in  FIGS. 1 ,  4 ,  6  and  7 . The handle  7  and its shaft are pushed downward causing the three plates  13  to move downward within the three slotted webs  43  (FIGS.  2 , 7 ). The plates  13  have one end fastened to a tube support hub  12 . The shaft portion of handle  7  passes through the center tube of the hub  12  so that a flange on the handle  7  abuts and pushes downward on the hub  12  and thus moves the plates  13  downward. The plates  13  extend outward from the hub with the other end of the plates being fastened to elongated members  18 . The plates  13  extend laterally outward from the central handle  7 . The plates  13  are preferably rectangular in cross section. While referred to as plates  13 , they could take any form sufficient for the purpose. There is one plate  13  for each two compartments  19 , so the number of plates will vary with the number of compartments. The three plates thus have elongated members  18  attached to their distal ends which move downward as the handle  7  is moved down. The elongated members  18  preferably comprise tubular members and referred to as such hereinafter. 
     The tubes  18  slide vertically along a retaining rod  44  ( FIG. 6 ) which extends through the tubes. A bottom end of the rod  44  rests against and is preferably fastened to the mounting plate  3  ( FIG. 1 ). 
     The tubes  18  bear against the crosspiece  31  ( FIGS. 1 ,  2 ,  4 ,  5   a ,  6 ) pushing it downward against a resilient member such as compression spring  42  ( FIG. 6 ) which optionally encircles the retaining rod  44  to provide a captive spring. The crosspiece  31  comprises several laterally or outwardly extending members each of which has an opening through which passes one end of the guide shaft  30 . The downward motion of the crosspiece  31  in turn causes the crosspiece  31  to bear against upper spacer  26  ( FIG. 6 ) on the guide shaft  30  causing the spacer  26  to move downward and bear on the lower spacer  38  which in turn moves downward. The lower spacer  38  is resiliently urged upward  26  by a resilient member such as coil spring  28  which encircles the guide rod  30 . The lower spacer  38  contains the cam follower  37 . The cam follower  37  is optionally in the shape of a pin  37  extending from opposing sides of the lower spacer  38 . 
     The spacers  26  and  38  are preferably tubular sleeves through which the guide rod  30  extends so the spacers  26 ,  38  move along the length of the guide shaft. The guide shaft  30  is vertically oriented, parallel to the retaining rod. Thus, movement of the handle  7  and its single shaft move the plates  31  to move one or more cross-pieces. Each cross-piece moves two cam followers  37 . Each cam follower  37  moves one door  5 , with the cam follower  37  moving along the vertical axis of guide shaft  30  while the cam  8  (and door  5 ) rotates as it moves past the follower  37 . 
     The cam  8  is preferably a part of the door  5  and integrally molded or formed therewith and thus the cam  8  and door  5  rotate around the door hinge  17  to open and close the door over the horizontal compartment  19 . The cam  8  shown in the door  5  open and closed positions preferably comprises two parallel cams ( FIGS. 5   b  and  5   a ) spaced apart so the guide shaft  30  passes between the cams. That construction helps prevent the cams  8  from sliding laterally off the cam follower pin  37  since the parallel cams are constrained to move along the length of the guide shaft  30  which extends between and preferably abuts and slides along the parallel cams  8 . The downward motion of the cam follower  37  acts against the cam  8  and rotates the doors to the open position. Release of the handle  7  allows the return springs  42  to close all doors simultaneously because the springs  42  move the cross-pieces  31  upward and as the force from the cross-pieces  31  are removed the springs  28  move the lower spacer  38  and its cam follower  37  upward. The spring  28  provides a resilient force to urge cam follower  37  and thus cam  8  and door  5  toward a closed position. 
     The above description is given by way of example, and not limitation. Given the above disclosure, one skilled in the art could devise variations that are within the scope and spirit of the invention disclosed herein, including various ways of configuring the shape of the compartments  18  and of varying the number of compartments. Moreover, while the springs  28 ,  41 ,  42  are shown as compression coil springs initially affecting movement of the cam pin  30 , the springs could be located to primarily act on or contact the cam  8 . Further, the various features of the embodiments disclosed herein can be used alone, or in varying combinations with each other and are not intended to be limited to the specific combination described herein. Thus, the scope of the claims is not to be limited by the illustrated embodiments.