GB2418423A - Dispensing device - Google Patents

Abstract

A dispensing device comprising a housing having an upper loading chamber 12, a dispensing chamber 14 located beneath the loading chamber and a gate means (24) movable between a first, open position and second, closed position to allow selective communication of the loading chamber and the dispensing chamber, entry to the lower chamber being by means of door means 18, the device further comprising a locking means which prevents the door means from opening when the gate is in the open position and which prevents opening of the gate means when the door means is open.

Description

24 1 8423 t - 1

DESCRIPTION

DISPENSING DEVICE

The present invention relates to a container for dispensing articles, the container having more than one area so that reserves of the articles can be accessed in a systematic way and stock control monitored and managed effectively.

There are a number of containers currently available which permit several containers to be placed adjacent to one another in a modular fashion so as to 0 produce a "wall" of containers, each container housing different articles. Such walls of containers are often used in the automotive and aerospace industries to house a number of different articles such as nuts and bolts of varying sizes and such walls are often located close to or on a production or service site.

Commonly, each container has a bar code adhered to it in order to assist a stock s keeper in identifying the correct parts with which the container should be supplied. Whilst these containers have been used successfully in order to correctly locate stock and identify when new stock needs to be ordered, frequently, used stock is often dispensed at a rate greater than it is replenished and hold-ups in completing tasks often result whilst waiting for the new stock to be delivered etc. and/or old stock is placed back in incorrect containers.

In order to address problems associated with these walls of containers, some companies have two or more adjacent containers for dispensing the same articles, therefore ensuring a plentiful supply of the required articles. This method also - 2 allows for a storeman to easily identify those stocks which require replenishment.

These containers do, however, still have the problem in that there is no control over which container stock is dispensed from and frequently articles are taken from any adjacent container which can make the task of the storeman to replenish s required stocks rather difficult. Whilst some companies try to implement a system of dispensing articles from a predetermined row of containers prior to moving on to a further row of containers after the first row has been depleted, these systems are often ignored by engineers due to the pressure and other constraints under Additionally, when a wall of containers has been built with appropriate containers labelled corresponding to the articles which they house, it is often difficult to insert additional containers into the wall should extra articles need to be held close by. Commonly, should the need arise for new containers to be added to the wall, they are often tagged on the end of the wall and this may be inappropriate should an article logically be placed adjacent to another container(s) in the middle of the wall.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a container which alleviates one or more of the problems associated with containers that are currently available. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a container which is capable of housing two or more reserves of articles for dispensing, wherein each reserve can only be replenished in a sequential manner.

Furthermore, it is an additional object of the present invention to provide a r - 3 container which can be easily integrated into an existing wall of containers such that the labels can be altered in order to accommodate the additional containers.

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a dispensing device comprising a housing having an upper loading chamber, a dispensing chamber located beneath the loading chamber and a gate means movable between a first, open position and second, closed position to allow selective communication of the loading chamber and the dispensing chamber, entry to the lower chamber being by means of door means, the device further comprising a locking means which lo prevents the door means from opening when the gate is in the open position and which prevents opening of the gate means when the door means is open.

The present invention therefore provides for a dispensing device which prevents articles trom dropping into the dispensing chamber from the loading chamber Is when the gate is disengaged, in addition to preventing movement of the gate, when the dispensing chamber is being accessed. This dispensing device not only saves time in retrieving articles which have dropped in inappropriate locations within the device, but it also encourages the user into a systematic approach to taking articles from the device from the dispensing chamber first.

Preferably, the opening of the movable gate means permits articles from the upper loading chamber to drop into the lower dispensing chamber. The gate means may comprise a handle projecting from the housing. Furthermore, the movement of - 4 the gate means may be actuated by a handle situated between the door means of the upper loading chamber and the door means of the lower dispensing chamber.

The handle may simply be an aperture disposed in part of the gate which protrudes from the device and a hole to accommodate a finger or number of fingers.

The gate means and/or the door means may be operably coupled to the locking means. Furthermore, the device may further comprise a locking means which prevents the opening of the door means of the upper loading chamber until movement of the gate means has been actuated. The locking means may also lo prevent access to the loading chamber until the dispensing chamber has been accessed once and/or the gate has been disengaged once. Preferably, the movement of the gate is manually disengaged by hand by pulling a handle situated between the door of the upper loading chamber and the door of the lower dispensing chamber towards the user. The gate can then be re-engaged by pushing is it back into its original position so as to release the door of the upper loading chamber in order that it can be replenished. The movement may be along the horizontal plane and the gate may be received in slots disposed horizontally within the device.

The lower dispensing chamber may comprise a receptacle in the shape of a square or rectangular cup or similar shape that corresponds to the interior of the chamber which in turn may be attached to the door such that the draw or cup moves relative to the door when it is open. Preferably, the doors are pivotally mounted on the housing. r 5

The locking means may employ a number of mechanisms by which to prevent the door of the dispensing chamber from being opened unless the gate means has previously been disengaged and/or the gate is in an engaged position. Preferably, the locking means comprises a pin or latch. The pin or latch may be capable of being received in an aperture, depression or notch in the gate and/or the receptacle. The receptacle may further comprises curved inclined surfaces on which the pin or latch can travel over when the slidable gate is closed thereby allowing the door means to be opened. The gate means may also be slidable lo within two parallel orifices disposed within the interior of the housing. The door means may comprise handles. The doors of the chambers may have handles attached thereto and such handles may be located within the upper half of the door. The handles may further comprise a panel for receiving labels. Such a panel may be capable of receiving a label bracket with a label disposed thereon.

The provision of the handle having a panel for receiving labels will allow walls of devices to have additional devices inserted and the labels rearranged if necessary in order to incorporate new or different articles as and when required. Such a integration of new devices for articles will permit reordering of the articles to be relatively easy and accurate. Placing the labels on the handles themselves also so assists the storeman identifying stocks which require replenishment as the label is not obscuring the view of the interior of the device should the doors be transparent

unlike most prior art devices. - 6

The device may have two or more dispensing chambers and it will be apparent that multiple chambers may be provided such that the device is itself a wall of devices or a substantial part of one. Preferably, the devices have a connection means so as to permit a plurality of devices to be stacked adjacent to one another s (either horizontally or vertically). Thus, the present invention provides for a modular dispensing device system which can be easily adapted depending on the requirements of the user and further adapted as and when required.

The dispensing device may additionally comprise a second locking means for lo preventing the door of the loading chamber from being opened. The second locking means may comprise a tab which can be manually engaged and disengaged such that this tab is only disengaged manually when the articles contained within the loading chamber have been completely depleted. The provision of a tab also reminds users of the dispensing device that access to the IS loading chamber should only be gained if articles have been depleted in the dispensing chamber beneath. The tab may be a bar which "clips" over the handle and such a bar may be manufactured so as to be lockable by a key, but equally a bar or a wire spanning a number of horizontally disposed dispensing devices may also be employed so as to prevent access to multiple loading chambers should it be required. It is therefore envisaged that in certain situations, the storeman is the only person with a key and therefore only authorized to have access to the loading chamber. It would be evident to one skilled in the art, that preventing complete access to the loading chamber without authorization may be appropriate in circumstances such as the pharmaceutical industry were stock replenishment may - 7 require validation etc. Preferably, the tab or bar is brightly coloured and optionally has words disposed thereon stating that the locking means must not be disengaged unless there are no more articles in the lower dispensing chamber/without validating some form of documentation. Thus, the user's attention is brought to the existence of the second locking means and also to any system or steps required to gain access to the second chamber.

The movement of the gate means and/or a door may be sensed electronically so that "real-time" stock levels can be monitored and access to each container logged if appropriate. Furthermore, the presence of articles in a given chamber may also be sensed electronically and this may be implemented by a simple circuit which requires two contacts to be brought together if there is any weight in any chamber.

The electronic sensing may be relayed to a central processing unit for further analysis and/or stock ordering purposes. In order to assist the central processing unit in its ordering and analysis, it is preferable to assign individual devices and/or chambers of respective devices with an identification code such that the location and quantity of articles can be appropriately monitored.

A specific embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. I illustrates a perspective view of an embodiment of a dispensing device in accordance with the present invention; t, - - Figs. 2a and 2b illustrate a cross-sectional side view of the lower chamber of the dispensing device as shown in Fig. I with the door shown in a closed and open configuration respectively; s With reference to Fig. 1 and Fig 2, a dispensing device comprises a housing 10 in the shape of a rectangular box with two parallel, planar side walls 2,4 parallel upper and lower walls 6,8 extending perpendicular to the side walls 1,4 and a planar rear wall 9 extending perpendicular to the side walls 2,4 and to the upper lo and lower walls 6,8. The housing is divided into two discrete areas; a loading chamber 12 and a dispensing chamber]4, both of which can be accessed by means of hinged transparent doors 16 and 18 respectively, which are opened by means of a handle 20,22. Both doors 16 and 18 pivot about an axis towards the base of the doors extending in a direction perpendicular to the side walls. A slidable gate 24 is also provided in the device (which is shown in the engaged position in Fig. 1) which is disposed between the loading chamber 12 and the dispensing chamber 14. the gate 24 is received in two channels (not shown) provided on each opposed inner faces of the side walls 2,4 and can thereby slide in and out in direction 26 parallel to the upper and lower walls 6,8. The gate 24 also forms the base of the loading chamber 12 when engaged, and when disengaged permits communication between both chambers. The gate is slid into position by means of a handle 28 formed by a projecting portion of the gate which conveniently has a finger hole 30 disposed therein for a person to place a finger.

The dispensing chamber 14 comprises an upwardly open receptacle having a 9 - planar front wall 18a, a parallel, shorter rear wall 18b, a planar base wall 18c extending perpendicularly between the front and rear walls and two planar side walls 18d,18e extending perpendicularly to the front, rear and back walls. The uppermost edge SO of the side walls of receptacle are curved convexly and at its front most portion the uppermost edge of one side wall 18d terminates in a locking recess 48, for engagement with a locking pin, as will be explained. The front of the receptacle forms the door 18. The loading chamber 12 is not attached to a receptacle and the gate 24 forms the base of the chamber 12, however the loading chamber has a door 16 which permits access to the chamber.

The uppermost front edge of the front face of each of the doors 16,18, is formed into a downwardly projecting handles 20,22 extending across the width of the door and a label 32 is attached to the handle 22 of the dispensing chamber 14. The IS label 32 contains information pertaining to the contents of the device and is supplied in addition to a bar code or similar tag. The label 32 can be placed or adhered to the handle 22 and may itself be capable of being fixed onto other handles either by means of a "snap fit', mechanism or alternatively the label may be inserted into an elongate aperture disposed within the handle 22 capable of So receiving a label.

The locking chamber of the device is also provided with a locking bar 34 that is used to maintain the closure of the door 16 of the loading chamber 12 until opening is required. The locking bar consists of an elongate member 35 that is " - 10 attached at either end to parallel arms 37 that are in turn pivotally connected to the side walls 2,4 by means of a pivot 39. The inner surface (not shown) of the elongate member 35 closely corresponds to the handle 20 of the door 16 such that the locking bar 34 (that may be brightly coloured with words or symbols disposed s therein in) can clip over the handle 20 and therefore prevent entry to the loading chamber 16 without first un-clipping the locking bar and pivoting the arms 37 to a position such that the locking bar does not impede the movement of the door 16.

As shown in Figs 2a and 2b (which includes reference number that correspond to lo those of Fig 1) gate 24 is provided with a hole 46 or depression of non-circular cross-section which slidably receives a locking pin 42Of the same cross-section.

The lower end of the locking pin engages the curved upper edge 50 of the side wall 18d of the receptacle and is complementarily shaped with the notch 48 in the upper edge of the side wall as described previously. The door 18 forms an integral part the receptacle and pivots about an axis 40. When the door 18 is in the closed position (Fig. 2a) the pin 42 drops by gravity into the notch 48. The notch 48 has an inclined surface corresponding to the base of the pin 42 and therefore the pin is received in the notch to allow the gate 20 in Fig. 2a to be moved freely in and out in the horizontal plane 44. When the gate 24 is slid outwardly, as shown in Fig 2a, the hole 46 in the gate is no longer aligned with the pin 42 and as a result the upper end of the pin abuts the undersurface of the gate and is thereby held in engagement with the notch 48. Consequently, the door 18 is presented from pivoting about the axis 38 by its engagement with the pin 30. ! - 1 1

When the gate 24 is in the closed position (as shown in Fig. 2b), the pin 42 is aligned with the orifice and is free to move through the aperture 48 in the gate 20.

As the door 18 is pivoted forwardly, the inclined surfaces of the pin 42 and notch 48 cause the pin to be displaced upwardly, into the orifice 46 thereby both locking the gate in position and enabling the doors to continue to pivot about the axis 40.

I he lower end of the pin 42 can then slide over the curved inclined upper edge 50 of the side wall 18d of the receptacle to allow the door 18 to open. In this way the gate 24 is prevented from being slid when the door 18 is open.

0 In use, articles of the same or similar goods are placed in both the loading chamber l 2 and the dispensing chamber 14 in preparation for dispensing. The bar 34 is clipped over the upper handle 20 to prevents the inadvertent opening of the door 16. The articles are readily identifiable by means of the label 32 disposed on the handle 22 and the articles held within the lower dispensing chamber 14 are removed by opening the dispensing chamber door 18. When the lower chamber 14 is empty and requires refilling, the dispensing chamber door 18 is closed, which causes the locking pin 42 to drop into the notch 48. This allows the gate 24 to be slid outwards and at the same time engagement of the pin 42 in the notch 48 prevents the door 18 from being opened while the gate is open. Opening the gate 24 causes articles in the holding chamber 14 to drop into the dispensing chamber 14. The gate can then be slid shut, which causes the locking pin 42 to drop into the notch 48 but since the pin is aligned with the article 46 in the gate, the pin can be displaced upwardly into the orifice to allow the door 18 to be opened. - 12

The loading chamber door 16 is further locked by the bar 34 which may have words disposed thereon to the effect that it may only be opened by authorised personnel etc. In its closed position, the pin 42 permits the gate 20 to move about the plane 26,44 and releasably locks the door 18 so that articles held in the loading s chamber 12 can drop into the dispensing chamber 14 without becoming lodged in the space 49 formed by the receptacle which is attached to the lower door 18. The bar 34 can be unlocked to replenish stocks in the loading chamber as and when required.

lo Therefore, articles from the loading chamber cannot fall into the space 49 formed when the door 18 is opened (as shown in Fig 2b).

The device can be used either singularly or placed adjacently to other devices.

Structures on the exterior of the housing 10 can also be provided (not shown) thus assisting the device to the releasably attached to other device of a similar design.

The door 16 and 18 can be produced from a substantially transparent material such that a storeman or similar personnel may assess the quantity of articles contained within either the upper chamber 12 or the lower chamber 14. The device 10 may also have two or more loading chambers, whereby entry to the top chamber is only by means of actuating one or more gates below. The housing 10 can also have structures on the exterior such that it can be releasably attached to other devices so as to form a modular dispensing device. The label 32 may have a bar code or information relating to which articles are contained within device and it is - 13 envisaged that this label can be used for pre-ordering or tracking of stock.

Multiple dispensing devices may be joined to one another by a range of methods and structures may be provided on the exterior of the housing may permit the s devices to be joined to one another in a modular fashion. The movement of the gate can be linked to electronic switches, so that its movement can be detected and relayed to a computer such that the ordering of stock can be automated or semi automated. Should more than one device be used, each device can have an identification code assigned to it, so that the correct part or product is ordered. - 14

Claims (24)

1. A dispensing device comprising a housing having an upper loading chamber, a dispensing chamber located beneath the loading chamber and a gate means movable between a first, open position and second, closed position to allow s selective communication of the loading chamber and the dispensing chamber, entry to the lower chamber being by means of door means, the device further comprising a locking means which prevents the door means from opening when the gate is in the open position and which prevents opening of the gate means when the door means is open.

I o

2. A device as claimed in claim 2, wherein opening of the movable gate means permits articles from the upper loading chamber to drop into the lower dispensing chamber.

3. A device as claimed in either claim I or 2, wherein the gate means comprises a handle projecting from the housing.

4. A device as claimed in claims 2 or 3, wherein the movement of the gate means is actuated by a handle situated between the door means of the upper loading chamber and the door means of the lower dispensing chamber.

5. A device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the gate means and/or the door means are operably coupled to the locking means.

6. A device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the locking means further prevents the opening of the door means of the upper loading chamber until movement of the gate means has been actuated.

7. A device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the lower dispensing chamber comprises a receptacle. ) -

8. A device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the door means are pivotally mounted on the housing.

9. A device as claimed in any preceding claims, wherein the locking means comprises a pin or latch.

s

10. A device as claimed in claim 9, wherein the pin or latch is capable of being received in an aperture or notch in the gate means and/or the recepticle.

1 1. A device as claimed in either claim 9 or 10, wherein recepticle comprise an inclined surface on which the pin or latch can travel over when the slidable gate is closed thereby allowing the door means to be opened.

0

12. A device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the gate means is slidable within two parallel channels disposed within the interior of the housing.

13. A device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the door means further comprises a handle.

14. A device as claimed in claim 13, wherein the handles further comprise a panel for receiving labels.

15. A device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the panel is capable of receiving a label bracket with a label disposed thereon.

16. A device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the doors are transparent.

17. A device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein there are two or more loading chambers.

18. A device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the device has a connection means to allow a plurality of devices be connected to one another. ) - 16

19. A device as claimed any preceding claim, wherein the device further comprises a second locking means for preventing the door of the upper loading chamber to be opened.

20. A device as claimed in claim 19, wherein the second locking means comprises a tab with a clip that releasably engages the door means.

21. A device as claimed in claim 20, wherein the tab is brightly coloured.

22. A device as claimed in either claim 20 or 21, wherein the tab has

23. A device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the movement of l o the gate means can be sensed electronically.

24. A device as substantially herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying Figures.

24. A device as claimed in claim 23, wherein the pressure of articles in a loading chamber can also be sensed electronically.

25. A device as claimed in either claim 23 or 24, wherein the electronic sensing is relayed to a central processing unit.

26. A device as claimed in any of claims 23 to 25, wherein the device has an identification code assigned to it.