Patent ID: 7381008

Claim:
A pocket former for a disc dowel system adapted to minimize relative vertical displacement of adjacently disposed concrete slabs, the pocket former comprising: an interior compartment having at least one horizontally oriented outer surface with at least one former alignment rib being formed on the outer surface such that the former alignment rib is disposed on an exterior of the pocket former so that the former alignment rib supports the outer surface; wherein: the pocket former is adapted to be encapsulated within one of the adjacently disposed concrete slabs, and the pocket former being sized and configured to receive a dowel plate having a slidable portion and an embedded portion, the slidable portion being configured to be laterally slidable within the interior compartment and the embedded portion being configured to be encapsulated within the other one of the adjacently disposed concrete slabs; the interior compartment has an open, generally straight side and a taper-shaped compartment perimeter extending therefrom, the straight side being configured to slidably receive the slidable portion into the interior compartment, and the dowel plate being tapered complementary to the taper-shaped compartment perimeter; a perimeter flange extending around the compartment perimeter and having a generally vertically-oriented cross section with flared upper and lower flange portions.