Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D83/00—Containers or packages with special means for dispensing contents
  • B65D83/04—Containers or packages with special means for dispensing contents for dispensing annular, disc-shaped, or spherical or like small articles, e.g. tablets or pills
  • B65D83/049—Containers or packages with special means for dispensing contents for dispensing annular, disc-shaped, or spherical or like small articles, e.g. tablets or pills the dispensing means forming a part of a removable closure, e.g. gripping teeth, cavity
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D83/00—Containers or packages with special means for dispensing contents
  • B65D83/04—Containers or packages with special means for dispensing contents for dispensing annular, disc-shaped, or spherical or like small articles, e.g. tablets or pills
  • B65D83/0409—Containers or packages with special means for dispensing contents for dispensing annular, disc-shaped, or spherical or like small articles, e.g. tablets or pills the dispensing means being adapted for delivering one article, or a single dose, upon each actuation

Definitions

• the invention relates to a pellet dispensing tube. It can be homeopathic granules or other drugs, but also confectionery of spherical shape, other spherical objects, such as hunting pellets for example, or even granules of products which one wants to avoid contact with the skin - caustic soda or pesticides -.
• Such dispensing tubes are used in particular, when the granule must not be touched before swallowing it - for a drug - or using it.
• This type of tube has the disadvantage that it is difficult to accurately count the granules. Often, too, more granules than desired exit the tube. They must then be carefully poured back into the tube.
• tubes with a dispenser There are also tubes with a dispenser. These tubes are in two parts: a lower part provided with a bottom serving as a reservoir, and an upper part, cooperating with a cover and serving as a distributor.
• the upper part comprises at least two parts: a first fitting on the lower part and a second movable in rotation relative to the first around the axis of the tube.
• This second part protrudes from the first on the side of the opening of the tube and is notched on its outer periphery on the projecting side.
• the cover is provided with internal ribs, cooperating with the notches of the moving part in rotation. So when the cover is in place on the tube, by turning the cover, the moving part is rotated.
• This moving part has a transverse wall, closing the tube and provided with an opening through which only one granule can exit at a time. A finger curved towards the axis of the opening and fixed on the transverse wall projects towards the inside of the tube.
• Compartments arranged in the fixed wall of the tube which can only contain one granule, are located between the curved end of the finger and the transverse wall.
• the granules are set in motion by the curved finger and fall into the compartments arranged for them.
• the opening of the transverse wall during rotation is facing a compartment, the granule which has fallen into the compartment may fall into the cover.
• the finger being curved towards the axis of the opening, it is not possible for other granules to borrow the passage thus opened. The granules therefore fall one by one into the cover. When there is enough in the lid, just stop the rotation.
• the object of the invention is therefore to provide a reliable granule distribution tube, comprising a minimum of parts, of a simple assembly, requiring no welding.
• the distributor tube which it offers is of the type comprising a circular cylindrical tube serving as a reservoir, a cover into which the granules can fall and at least one piece of flexible material, with good elastic memory, which cooperates with the cover.
• a distributor allowing the granules to exit one by one from the reservoir when the cover rotates around the axis of the tube, closing the tube, comprising at least one opening with a diameter slightly greater than that of the granules contained in the tube, at the edge of which protrude towards the outside of the tube at least two tongues offset radially, curved towards the axis of the opening, so that a granule can pass through the opening and take place between the tongues without power exit to the cover.
• the cover has at least one blade extending axially, on the one hand wide enough to be able to pass between the tongues, between which a passage is provided for the blade when the cover is rotated around the axis of the tube, in order to drive the granule towards the lid by elastic deformation of the tongues, and on the other hand acting during the rotation of the lid around the axis of the tube on means provided on the piece of flexible material to put in move the granules contained in the cylindrical tube.
• this distributor tube has only three parts. All these parts can be molded and the manufacture of the tube and its assembly are facilitated.
• the tube contains granules and you want to bring out a predetermined number, just turn it over so that the cover is down and drive the cover in rotation around the axis of the tube until that the desired number of pellets fell into the cover.
• a granule can pass through each opening of the piece of flexible material and be housed between the tongues.
• the cover blade passes between the tabs and drives out the granule which falls into the cover.
• the housing between the tabs is free and another granule can be accommodated there. It is therefore enough to pass the cover blade between the tabs quite often to dislodge the desired number of granules there.
• the granules may have trouble falling through the openings between the tabs. This is why means are provided for setting the granules in motion inside the cylindrical tube.
• the piece of flexible material comprises at least one cap of substantially hemispherical shape projecting towards the cover and in which, on the tube side, is a finger, extending substantially axially when the cap is not deformed, and the cover blade is quite long and the cap placed so that, during the rotation of the cover around the axis of the tube, the cover blade deforms the cap, pushing it towards the inside the tube.
• the cover blade deforms the or the caps, causing the cap finger to move, which then sets the granules in motion. In this way, the latter fall more easily through the openings.
• each cap finger extends from the top of the corresponding cap towards an opening of the piece of flexible material.
• the cap fingers then push the granules towards the corresponding opening.
• the granules are not only set in motion, but also directed towards the opening. If moreover between a cap having a finger and
• the opening towards which the finger is oriented are two studs, on either side of the finger of the cap, spaced enough apart from one another to allow a granule to pass, then the granules are further guided towards the openings.
• the piece of flexible material has at least one finger substantially parallel to the axis of the cylindrical tube projecting from one side towards the inside of the tube and the other side towards the cover and placed so that, when the cover rotates around the axis of the tube, the blade meets each finger.
• the fingers are moved directly by the blade of the cover and this movement is transmitted to the granules by the end of the finger located inside the cylindrical tube.
• each finger of the piece of flexible material is mounted in the wall of this piece closing the tube and having the openings and at the level of each finger this wall has a thinning of material.
• the wall of the piece of flexible material on which the fingers are fixed can flexibly deform and does not disturb the transmission of the movement given by the blade of the cover.
• the piece of flexible material has two diametrically opposite openings alternating with the means provided to set the granules in motion inside the tube, the latter, the center of the openings and the blade of the cover being located at the same distance from the axis of the tube. It is preferable that the cover closes the tube tightly. To avoid a complex part shape,
• the invention proposes to make use of the sealing properties of the flexible material and that the plastic part comprises a tubular part engaging in the tube containing the granules ending in a flange bearing on the upper edge of the tube and d an outside diameter substantially equal to the inside diameter of the cover.
• the material constituting the flexible material part is advantageously a mixture of polyethylene and elastomer.
• the tube has a tab which snaps irreversibly into a pawl secured to the cover and not accessible.
• the piece of flexible material and the cover are put in place, by snapping the tab into the ratchet of the cover.
• the latter is not accessible, the only way to open the tube is to break the tongue. The user who breaks the tongue is then guaranteed that the tube has not been opened since it was filled.
• Figure 1 shows in exploded perspective a dispensing tube according to the invention.
• Figure 2 is a sectional view along the line
• Figure 3 is a sectional view along the line
• FIG. 5 shows in exploded perspective a second embodiment of a dispensing tube according to the invention.
• Figure 6 is a view corresponding to Figure 4 for this second embodiment.
• the distributor tube shown in Figure 1 consists of three parts:
• the cylindrical tube 1 serves as a reservoir. It has a bottom and is open at its upper end. It has at its upper edge an external shoulder 4, intended to serve as a stop for the cover 3.
• the piece of flexible material 2 is intended to close the tube 1. It comprises a cylindrical tubular part intended to engage in the tube 1 with a slight tightening, and a circular transverse wall 6 in which are arranged two openings 7 and are formed two 8 hemispherical caps.
• the flexible material used is a mixture of polyethylene and elastomer.
• the two openings 7 and the two caps 8 are located at the same distance from the axis of the tube 1 and are regularly distributed over the circular wall 6, alternating an opening 7 with a cap 8.
• the openings 7 are of a diameter slightly greater than that of a granule 9 that the tube 1 is intended to contain. Thus only one granule can pass at a time through the opening 7.
• Two tongues 10 offset radially project at the edge of each opening 7 towards the outside of the tube. They are curved towards the axis of the opening 7, forming above this opening a vault, without however joining at the top of this vault.
• the tabs 10 are curved above the opening at a height substantially equal to the diameter of a granule 9.
• the tongues 10 even if they do not meet, are however such that, not deformed, they retain the granule 9 and prevent it from going out towards the outside the tube.
• the hemispherical caps 8 are concave on the side of the circular transverse wall 6 situated towards the tube 1.
• a finger 11 extending axially, is integral with each cap 8. It is fixed to the cap 8 on the concave side thereof.
• the base of the finger 11 extends from the top of the cap 8 towards an opening 7 and the finger is located in the half of the cap 8 located on the side of this opening 7.
• Pads 12 are fixed on the circular transverse wall 6, on the side of the tube 1. They extend axially. In the embodiment shown in the drawing, there are three of them. On each side of each finger 11, between the cap 8 and the opening 7, there is a stud 12. A stud 12, placed at the center of the transverse wall 6, is common to the two fingers 11, the other two are diametrically opposed.
• the cover 3 is cylindrical tubular, of the same outside diameter as the tube 1. This tube is closed at one end by a bottom and has a shoulder on the side opposite the bottom, on its inner wall. Thus the cover 3 can fit onto the tube 1.
• the circular transverse wall 6 of the piece of flexible material 2 has at its periphery a flange of diameter substantially equal to the largest inside diameter of the cover, so as to ensure a tight closure when the cover is in place on the tube 1 provided with the piece of flexible material 2.
• the collar of the piece of flexible material 2 rests on the upper edge of the tube 1.
• the cover 3 comprises a blade 13 extending axially towards the tube 1. This blade 13 of the cover is placed at the same distance from the axis of the tube as are the caps 8 and the openings 7.
• the base of the blade 13 is in an arc of a circle and its length is such that, when the cover 3 is in place on the tube 1, provided with the piece of flexible material 2, the blade 13 of the cover arrives substantially at the level of the circular transverse wall 6.
• the tongues 10 are placed so that around the openings 7 that the blade 13 of the cover can pass between them when the cover 3 is rotated about the axis of the tube.
• the tube 1 serving as a reservoir is filled with granules 9. It is then closed with the piece of flexible material 2 and the cover 3 covers the assembly while ensuring the tightness of the tube.
• the tube 1 To take out the granules 9 one by one from the tube 1, the tube 1 must be turned over so that the cover 3 is at the bottom. The piece of flexible material 2 prevents these from falling into the cover 3. A granule 9 then falls through an opening 7 and is found between two tongues 10. Then turning the cover 3 around the axis of the tube while maintaining the tube 1 fixed, the blade 13 of the cover will pass between these two tongues 10 and dislodge the granule 9 which then falls into the cover. Continuing the rotation, the blade 13 presses on a cap 8 and deforms it, then causing finger 11 of the cap to move towards an opening 7. In its movement, finger 11 of the cap causes a granule 9 which is then directed towards this opening 7 and guided towards it by the studs 12.
• the blade 13 of the cover by deforming the caps 8 allows the granules 9 to exit through the openings 7 and to be housed between two tongues 10 and passing between the tongues 10, it dislodges the granules 9 which fall into the cover. It is important that the flexible material used has a good elastic memory, so that after deformation, the tongues 10 and the caps 8 return to their initial position. When a sufficient number of granules 9 has fallen into the cover 3, it suffices to stop the rotation of the cover 3, to remove the latter. Then, without touching them, the desired number of granules 9 was removed from the tube 1.
• the tube 1 proper is provided on its outer wall with a latching tab 14 which snaps in in a pawl 15 fixed on the cover.
• the pawl 15 is covered by a protective cover 16 so that it is not possible to click the tab 14 of the pawl 15.
• the only solution for removing the cover 3 is then to break the click tab 14.
• the user if he breaks this tab himself, then he is sure that he is the first user of the dispensing tube.
• This inviolability system could be replaced for example by a self-adhesive label which would overlap the tube 1 and the cover 3.
• the advantage of the solution with the latching system is that, when the tube is overturned, the protrusion formed by this system prevents the tube from rolling.
• the cover 3 can be brought to the mouth of the user. It is therefore preferable not to have glue on it.
• FIG. 5 A second embodiment for the piece of flexible material 2 is shown in Figures 5 and 6.
• the cylindrical tube 1, the cover 3 remain unchanged.
• the general shape of the piece of flexible material 2 is not changed.
• the caps 8 and the fingers 11 are replaced.
• the circular transverse wall 6 in which the openings 7 are arranged has, alternately with the latter, two thinned zones 17. Parallel to the axis of the cylindrical tube 1, and therefore orthogonally to the transverse wall 6, extend on either side of this wall, at each thinned zone 17, a finger 18.
• the fingers 18, the openings 7 and the blade of the cover 13 are all placed at substantially the same distance from the axis of the tube 1.
• the operation of the distributor tube remains unchanged.
• the cover 3 rotates around the axis of the tube, the cover blade 13 meets the fingers 18 and tilts them.
• the thinning of material produced at the areas 17 allows good transmission of the movement to the granules 9 and by elasticity recalls the fingers 18 in their initial position. All this effectively sets the granules 9 in motion thus ensuring the proper functioning of the dispensing tube.
• the invention is not limited to the embodiment described above by way of example. On the contrary, it embraces all the variant embodiments according to the same principle.
• the number of caps or fingers and openings can be different from two. There may also be more openings than caps / fingers or vice versa.
• the cover can also include several blades.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Closures For Containers (AREA)
• Containers And Packaging Bodies Having A Special Means To Remove Contents (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=9461318

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (4)

Families Citing this family (4)

Family Cites Families (2)

• 1994
  • 1994-03-17 FR FR9403374A patent/FR2717453B1/fr not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 1995
  • 1995-03-13 WO PCT/FR1995/000295 patent/WO1995025050A1/fr not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1995-03-13 EP EP95913192A patent/EP0750571A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 1995-03-13 AU AU20751/95A patent/AU2075195A/en not_active Abandoned

Non-Patent Citations (1)

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events