Patent Publication Number: US-8523011-B2

Title: Refillable single-hand dispenser for tablets

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims priority to PCT/CH2007/000641 filed on Dec. 19, 2007, and CH 2073/06 filed on Dec. 19, 2006, the entirety of each of which are incorporated by this reference. 
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a dispenser, in particular a refillable single-hand dispenser for tablets. 
     STATE OF THE ART 
     A dispenser for candy disclosed in EP-A-1 292 512 contains a magazine for the receiving and individual dispensing of tablets with an essentially square case open on the longitudinal side which accepts a longitudinally fed sliding base and a coiled spring supported between the sliding base and a case base. A dispensing apparatus is provided on a case top opposite the case base. On the base side, the magazine is inserted up to the case top in a sleeve, which serves as a supply container and dispenser for refreshment tablets and lozenges which have a stackable basic form. 
     The tablets are placed in a stack through an open narrow side into the magazine case between the case top and the sliding base. Due to the pressure from the spring over the sliding base, the tablet stack is pressed against the case top and in the dispensing direction. Operating the dispensing device then pushes the upper tablet from the stack oblique to the direction of the stack out of the case, for removal. 
     The coiled spring engages with its base-side winding end in a clamping slot in the base area of the case. This prevents the spring from jumping out of the case in the event of improper operation of the magazine or if the sleeve is damaged or broken. 
     The fill the dispenser, the magazine must be withdrawn from the sleeve against the spring force of the coiled spring and the magazine filled with candy. To do this, the tablets packaging must be completely removed, which is not optimum from a hygienic perspective. 
     A pocket tablet container provided with a tilting lid is known from CH 278812. In a container shell of this pocket container the tablets are placed on top of each other prestressed with a spring. The upper tablet is held by a stop provided at the upper end of the container shell. The tilting lid has a feed element which presses laterally against the upper tablet when the tilting lid is opened, thus pushing it over the edge of the container shell oblique to the container axis. The container shell is designed in two layers. An outer sleeve is provided with a base. An inner sleeve forms a magazine for the tablets and carries the tilting lid. The inner sleeve can be pulled out of the outer sleeve together with the tilting lid in a telescoping fashion. 
     A spring is under pressure between a pressure part in tablet size, which is provided below the tablet stack, and the base. It presses the tablet stack against the stop. To fill the pocket container, the inner sleeve can be pulled out axially from the upper sleeve, whereby the distance between stop and base increases thereby decreasing the tension on the spring. The inner sleeve is open on a narrow side. By opening, tablets may now be placed into the inner sleeve. Then by inserting the inner sleeve into the outer sleeve, the spring is tensioned. 
     Anyone who has refilled such a dispenser knows that it is very difficult to maintain the drawer in the tensioned or untensioned open position while filling tablets. It is virtually unavoidable to touch individual tablets. The fact that the candy has to be filed on the narrow side of the withdrawn magazine makes refilling even more difficult. 
     The present invention provides a dispenser which avoids the disadvantages indicated above. It is particularly an advantage to provide a dispenser which is easy to fill. It would be another advantage to provide a dispenser which can be manufactured at low cost. It would be a further advantage to provide a dispenser which eliminates the risk of the spring jumping out. Yet another advantage would be to provide a dispenser which is flawless in terms of child safety. Yet another advantage is to propose a dispenser, a tablet package and a process which make it possible when filling the dispenser to leave the tablets as much as possible in a packed state so as to avoid direct contact, thus also meeting strict hygiene requirements. On the other hand, an advantage is to have as little packaging as possible in order to avoid needless trash. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     A dispenser according to the present invention is provided with a sliding base with so much play in the magazine that there is room between the sliding base and the magazine for a tablet packaging. This has the advantage that the tablets can be placed in the magazine in a banderole-like packaging tube, in which they can be pushed through the packaging tube and out of the packaging tube. 
     The cross-section dimensions of the sliding base in the magazine correspond roughly to the interior measurements of the magazine minus at least the double thickness of the packaging wall. 
     In other words, the invention relates to a dispenser or more precisely, a single-hand with a sleeve, which on the top side has an opening and the opening is opposite a base. This sleeve is provided with a magazine for tablets, which can be removed from the sleeve. A sliding base is received by the magazine by sliding. A spring device received by the magazine engages the sliding base. This dispenser solves the task by being provided with a tubular tablet packaging which can be placed in or received by the magazine and whose sliding base has outer dimensions which at most correspond to the interior dimensions of the tubular tablet packaging. 
     Since the magazine is provided with an opening on the base side and the spring means is supported on the base of the sleeve by the base side opening, the magazine is not prestressed when it is pulled out of the sleeve. This has the advantage that the magazine can be filled without running the risk of the magazine snapping back into the sleeve. 
     Advantageously, the sleeve and the base are two pieces. This has the great advantage that the spring means can be placed from the base into the sleeve and/or into the magazine. That creates the possibility to largely automate production. Advantageously, a clamping or latching device is provided on the base side of the sleeve and on the base part. This makes it possible to connect the base part and sleeve by interlocking insertion. The latch means can be designed in such a way as to make it impossible to destroy the base part through retraction. 
     The above is especially important if the dispenser is to be given to children. The latching means can be created by interacting latches and undercuts which are provided on the base part and the sleeve. However, the person versed in the art is aware of other kinds of snap connectors and welds which permit a permanent connection between base part and sleeve. 
     The spring means is a zigzag spring. A zigzag spring has a suitable characteristic curve across the desired area. Advantageously, the length and spring characteristics of the zigzag spring are selected in such a way that the sliding base lies in the area of the magazine top in the relaxed state of the zigzag spring. This makes it possible for all tablets in the magazine to stop. Basically, the spring can also be a coiled spring, whose cross-section is round or oval. An oval cross-section has the advantage that the coiled spring can press against the magazine or rather on the wall of packings placed in the magazine, so that the spring force is always applied to the longitudinal direction of the magazine. The zigzag spring however has the advantage that it does not cause a contortion of the sliding base. 
     According to a particular embodiment, a broad side of the magazine is used as a filling opening for the tablet or lozenge package. The tablets can be filled far more easily through the broadside of the magazine as through the narrow side. In the known state of the art, filling through the broadside is not possible because a guide slot ran virtually along the entire length of the magazine on the magazine&#39;s narrow side. The closed broadside lent the magazine the necessary rigidity. Filling from the broadside is disadvantageous is the fact that the dispensing opening formed on the narrow side cannot be part of the filling opening. For that reason, the mold for the magazine is more complex than if the filling opening and the dispensing opening were in the same direction. All the same, the disadvantages in manufacturing clear are outweighed by the advantages for the user. 
     Advantageously, the side of the magazine opposite the filling opening has one or more openings. It is easy to press the packaging remaining in the magazine through these openings with one finger. If the filling opening is provided on a broadside, even small lozenges are large enough to be pushed through the packaging with one finger. 
     The sliding base is advantageously designed as a cuboid with an opening in the base. The opening forms a cavity in which the top end of the coil or zigzag spring can engage. Preferably, the sliding base has a cone-shaped top end. The cone-shaped top end can be used to engage in a depression of the tablets stacked in the magazine. This can result in a guiding of the sliding base by the tablets. However, the main purpose of the tapered edges of the cone-shaped top end are to enable introduction of the sliding base into the packaging tube of the tablet packaging without resistance. 
     According to another independent aspect of the invention, a broad side of the magazine is provided as a filling opening. The use of a broadside as filling opening has the advantage of making the magazine much easier to fill than if the filling is done on the narrow side. Additional advantageous embodiments of such a dispenser have already been described above. 
     Another aspect of the invention relates to a process for the individual dispensing of stacked tablets of lozenges from a dispenser. In this process, the tablets, which are received in a stack in a magazine of the dispenser, are prestressed using a spring means acting in the longitudinal direction of the magazine. When a dispensing device is operated, a single tablet is dispensed oblique to the longitudinal direction of the magazine. The process is characterized in that the tablets which are received in a banderole-like packaging which is open on the opposite front side of the stack, are inserted with it into the magazine, and that the spring means engages on the end of the inserted stack opposite the dispensing position and dispenses the tablets from the packaging in the direction of the dispensing position. This process has the great advantage of being able to insert the tablets with packaging into the magazine without having to touch them. Advantageously, the tablets prior to placement in the magazine are wrapped in the banderole-like packaging with low play. This makes it easier to dispense the tablets from the packaging. Advantageously, for the tablets such packaging is used whose front can be removed from the packaging before inserting the tablet packaging in the magazine. This can, for example, be cone by providing perforations. The packaging can also be provided with a second coat closing the openings of the tube. The ends of the tube can also be closed with a removable lid, which latch in the tube or on the tube. 
     The invention also relates to a tablet packaging with a stack of tablets in a packaging tube with openings on both of its ends. The openings with provided with a removable closure of the openings. Such a tablet packaging is suited to be inserted into an inventive single-handed dispenser and thus to be filled or refilled with tablets. 
     In order to be able to sell the tube as a refill pack, the openings must be closed and the closures must be removable on both ends. This can be achieved by placing a sleeve around the tube. A perforation can also be present on the end of the tube, along which the openings can be torn open, The openings can also be closed with a lid. The packaging tube can be made of paper or cardboard, or also of plastic. Both of these are suited for packaging in a sleeve. This sleeve can be wound around perforated opening closures or around a lid. It can however also directly close the openings, thereby being its own closure for the openings. 
     The packaging tube can also be provided with a longitudinal continuous slot on a broadside, so that it forms a C-shape when viewed in cross-section. This slot makes it possible to guide the sliding base in the slot and/or through the slot to the sleeve. This has the advantage of reduced canting risk when sliding the sliding base inside the packaging tube. Such a C-shaped tube requires, for example, a thick and easily removable sleeve around the tube which also advantageously closes slot and the ends. 
     When inserting, the packaging can be opened on one end and be inserted with the opened end facing the sliding base. The sleeve closing the ends of the packaging tube or a lid on the other end can now be removed, while the packaging tube is inserted wholly or partially into the magazine. This prevents the tablets from loosening the packaging while they are being inserted and being lost or having to be touched. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The invention is described in detail below using figures in an embodiment. The same numbers are used for the same parts in the various figures. It shows: 
         FIG. 1  is an exploded summary of the individual parts of the inventive dispenser with a tablet stack in a banderole-like packaging; 
         FIG. 2  is a top view of the tablet stack and the dispenser in which the magazine is removed to be refilled; 
         FIG. 3  is a top view of the dispenser with a closed magazine; 
         FIG. 4  is a side view of the dispenser; 
         FIG. 5  is a longitudinal section of the filled dispenser; 
         FIG. 5A  is a longitudinal section according to  FIG. 5 , but during the dispensing of the last tablet; 
         FIG. 6  and  FIG. 7  are two different perspective views of the magazine; 
         FIG. 8 through 10  are a bottom view, a side view and a top view of the magazine; 
         FIG. 11  is a partial perspective sectional view of the sleeve of the dispenser with detailed views of the base and top areas. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENT 
     The figures show the inventive dispenser, whose important components are a sleeve  13 , a magazine  15  received in the sleeve from which it can be removed, and a zigzag spring  19  which works in conjunction with a movable sliding base  21 .  FIGS. 1 ,  2  and  5  also show a tablet packaging  20  with a plurality of stackable tablets  22 , which tablet packaging can be received by magazine  15 . The sleeve  13  is designed as a cuboid longitudinal case with a top opening  23  and a based opening  25  ( FIG. 1 ). The base opening  25  is closable using a base part  27 . The base part  27  has one or more rails  28  ( FIGS. 5A and 11 ) on its interior, which, as described below, stop the base-side end of the zigzag spring  19 . A latching device is provided interlocking on the base part  27  and in the interior of sleeve  13 . This latching device, as shown in the embodiments, comprises a latch  29  and an undercut  31  formed around the sleeve (see detailed view,  FIG. 11 ). 
     The magazine  15  is also cuboid in shape, in which however a broadside and the base side are omitted. While the open broadside of the magazine serves as filling opening  33  for the tablet packaging, the base-side magazine opening  35  provides access to zigzag spring  19 , as will be described below in greater detail. 
     The magazine  15  is provided with a magazine top  37  ( FIGS. 1 ,  8  through  10 ), which protrudes from the sleeve  13  in the magazine  15  inserted in the sleeve  13  ( FIGS. 3 and 4 ). The head wall of the cuboid magazine  15  forms a stop front  39 , which stops the upper tablet of the dispenser in an operation and filled state. The stop front  39  is situated with an inserted magazine roughly one tablet thickness outside the upper edge of the sleeve  41 . The distance between the stop front  39  and the edge  41  of the magazine  15  defines the dispensing position for the uppermost tablet in the magazine. 
     A swiveling part  43  is hinged on the magazine top  37 . The swiveling part  43  has an extension  45  ( FIGS. 4 ,  5 ,  5 A), which can engage in a slot  47  (see  FIGS. 5 ,  9 ) provided in a narrow side of the magazine top  37 . A spring  51  engaged on magazine top  37  provides automatic resetting of the swiveling part  43  to its normal position. The swiveling part engages using two pivots  52  on the inside in corresponding round holes  53  on the magazine top  37  ( FIG. 1 ). 
     The sliding base  21  is received longitudinally in the magazine  15 . The sliding base  21  has a tub-like shape with a cavity which is used to receive the top end of the zigzag spring  19 . The top end of the zigzag spring  19  can be latched on a rail  56  ( FIG. 56 ). The top end  57  of the sliding base is preferably provided conically or with rounded corners. The base-side end of the zigzag spring is, as already stated above, is latched in the operating state of the dispenser in the slot between the base part  27  and the rail  28 . 
     Outside on the narrow sides of the magazine  15 , there are provided in the top area front and back latches  59   a ,  59   b  and in the foot area only one back latch  59   b  ( FIG. 1 ). Latches  59   a ,  59   b  act together with grooves  61 , which are provided opposite each other at a short distance from the top-side edge on the flat interior of sleeve  13  (see detail in  FIGS. 5 and 11 ). In a close state, the latches  59   a  lock in place, and when the magazine is removed the latches  59   b  lock in grooves  61 . A snap-on connector guarantees that the magazine remains in the inserted position and cannot slip out of the sleeve, or remains in the open position when filling. Preferably, the latches lock into the grooves with an audible click. 
     In a particular embodiment of the lock between sleeve  13  and magazine  15  (or vice-versa on sleeve  13 ), a spring tongue is provided which engages in an interlocking fashion with a latch in the wall of the sleeve  13  (or vice-versa in the wall of magazine  15 ). By pressing on the flexible tongue (or pulling on the flexible tongue) the latch can be released from the opening in the wall receiving the latch, making the magazine movable. In the relaxed position, the flexible tongue is in contact with the latch in the opening and in the tensioned position it is out of contact. The base part  27 , on the other hand, is engaged in the sleeve  13  in such a way or linked to the sleeve that it cannot be detached from this sleeve without being damaged. 
     Both of these measures have the advantage that they do not unintentionally free the base part from the sleeve, thereby opening the magazine. The spring force of the spring means can therefore only relax in a controlled fashion. 
     The interior of the base area of the magazine is provided with protruding tracks  63  or stop fronts. The magazine edge  41  protrudes on the interior of the magazine into the interior of the magazine. In  FIG. 5 , the tubular tablet packaging  20  is inserted between the protruding magazine edge  41  and the stop fronts of the tracks  63 . The distance between these tracks  63  and the magazine edge  41  is chosen in such a way that a packaging tube of a tablet stack is received in the magazine  15  with a low amount of play. The tracks  63  and the magazine edge  41  prevent the packaging tube from sliding in the direction of the spring fore of the coil spring  19 . 
     According to a particular embodiment, the distance between the narrow sides of the magazine  15  is such that a tablet stack can be inserted with packaging  20  (see  FIG. 5 ). To remove the tablets, the sliding base  21  presses the tablets  22  from the tubular packaging  20 , and the empty packaging remains in the magazine. The packaging can be made of paper, cardboard or plastic.  FIG. 5  shows a tablet  22  in the dispensing position. The empty packaging  20  can be removed from the magazine by pushing with the fingers through the openings found in the base of the magazine. The thickness of the walls  65  of the packaging  20  and the dimensions of the magazine and the sliding base are selected in such a way that the packaging  20  fills the magazine in cross-section and the sliding base  21  fits in the tubular packaging. The size difference between the sliding base and the magazine therefore equals at least the double thickness of the walls  65  of the packaging  20 . 
     The inventive dispenser is filled by removing the front packaging parts and placing the tablet stack with the remaining tubular packaging  20  between the tracks  63  and the magazine edge  41  into the withdrawn magazine  15  of the dispenser  11 . The magazine is then pushed back into the sleeve  13  against the spring force until the latches  59   a  audible engage in the grooves  61 . Using the spring  19  the sliding base presses against the packaging and the tablets  22  are expelled from the packaging along with the sliding base. 
     By tilting the swiveling part  43 , the tablet  22  is pushed out of the magazine by the extension  45  oblique to the stack direction. As soon as the tablet is removed and the swiveling part  43  has returned to its original position, the next tablet is moved into place.