NZ208791A

NZ208791A - Child resistant closure released by inward pressure on container body

Info

Publication number: NZ208791A
Application number: NZ20879184A
Authority: NZ
Inventors: Andrew Grant Irvine; Donald Grant Irvine; Peter John Irvine
Original assignee: Andrew Grant Irvine; Donald Grant Irvine; Peter John Irvine
Priority date: 1984-07-05
Filing date: 1984-07-05
Publication date: 1988-03-30

Description

<div class="application article clearfix" id="description"> New Zealand Paient Spedficaiion for Paient Number £08791 208791 N.Z. No. 208791 5 July 1984 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION A CONTAINER We, DONALD GRANT IRVINE of 20 Ihaka Street, Palmerston North, New Zealand, ANDREW GRANT IRVINE of 10 Gemini Avenue, Palmerston North, New Zealand and PETER JOHN IRVINE of 234 Grey Street, Palmerston North, New Zealand, all New Zealand citizens, do hereby declare the invention for which we pray that a Patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement - 1 - NEW ZEALAND Patents Act 1953 208791 This invention relates to a container. Medications in the form of tablets, pills, capsules, etc. are packaged in a wide variety of containers such as glass bottles, metal tubes, tin foil films, plastics films, etc. It is recognised that when such medications are being used or are stored where young children are present that the medications be contained in a container which is resistant to being readily opened. This is especially so when the medications concerned are those which take on the appearance of confectionery. The conventional glass bottle which has been utilised by pharmacists for the dispensing of tablets, pills, capsules, etc. provides only a limited form of security containment as young children usually have some difficulty opening a lid which is screwed firmly onto the bottle. With the high cost of glass and its manufacturing techniques, however, there is a need for a disposable container formed from a cheaper material. Such a material is plastics, however, it has hitherto been difficult to provide a plastics container of a straightforward construction which has a closure which is resistant to opening. The present invention has as its object the provision of a container formed from a plastics material which is useful for the containment of objects which are desirably stored or contained in a manner which is resistant to access. In one broad aspect the present invention provides a container comprising a resiliently deformable plastics material body having an opening, a cover engagable with the body to close said opening and a pair of catches disposed on opposite sides of the container which retain said cover on the body in the closed - 2 - , IDEClwa 208791 position, each said catch comprising a lip which projects inwardly from a lower inside surface of the cover and an associated projection which projects outwardly from the outer surface of a peripheral rim of the body and being releasable upon inward pressure being applied to the body in substantially the direction in which the catc^mcane are oppositely disposed. According to a preferred form of the invention the catch means are not readily observable from the external appearance of the container. Preferably there is also provided a second catch means which is readily visible but which can only be operated once the first catch means have been released. In the following more detailed description of the invention reference will be made to the drawings accompanying the provisional specification in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of the container, Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1 but with the cover of the container in the open position, Figure 3 is a plan view of the container as shown in Figure 2, Figure 4 is a detail cross-sectional elevation through the front catch of the container, Figure 5 is a detail cross-sectional elevation through a side catch of the container, and Figure 6 is a detail cross-sectional elevation through the hinge connecting the cover with the body. The container is formed by a body 10 and a cover or lid 11 with at least the body being formed of a plastics material but 3 1 DEC1987: 208791 expediently both the body and cover being of plastics. The body 10 and cover 11 are preferably formed in a single moulding by having an integral hinge 12. The body and its associated cover is formed in any required size and shape, however, in the preferred form of the invention where the container is designed for the containment of medication such as pills, tablets, capsules, etc. the body is of a substantially rectangular cross-sectional shape and is of a size commensurate with the volume required for the containment of a normal prescription of such drugs. The opening 13 of the body 10 is surrounded by an upstanding peripheral rim 14 which fits within the peripheral skirt 15 of the cover 11 when the cover is in the closed position on body 10 as shown in Figures 1, 4, 5 and 6. Disposed a distance below the upper peripheral edge of the peripheral rim 14 is a ledge 16 which projects outwardly from the side wall of the body 10. The peripheral skirt 15 of the cover 11 is of an overall dimension and shape such that it does not project beyond the outer peripheral edge of the ledge 16 (see Figures 4, 5 and 6). The only portion of the cover 11 projecting beyond the peripheral edge of the ledge 16 is a small projection 17 which forms a lip under which the finger or fingers of the user can be engaged to effect movement of the cover to an open position. The hinge 12 is formed in a conventional manner and consists of a thin cross-sectional portion of plastics material which is moulded integrally with the lower edge of the skirt 15 of cover - 4 - 208791 11 and the outer peripheral edge of the ledge 16. The construction of the integral hinge 12 is clearly illustrated in Figures 3 and 6 of the drawings. The cover 11 is latched in a closed position on the container 10 by two different sets of catches. Referring firstly to Figure 4 of the drawings the catch which is situated on the front of the container is formed by a substantially triangular cross-sectional shaped projection 18 which extends outwardly from the surface of the peripheral rim 14. This projection 18 provides a downwardly and outwardly inclined upper face 19 and a downwardly and inwardly inclined lower face 20. A projection 21 extends from the lower inside surface of the skirt 15 of cover 11 and as shown in Figure 4 it has an inclined surface 22 which is engagable with the lower surface 20 of projection 18 to thereby retain the cover 11 in its closed position. The catch can be released by pressure being applied to the underside of outwardly extending projection 17 causing surface 22 to move along surface 20 until the projection 21 is clear of projection 18. When the cover 11 is returned to its closed position the curved underside 23 of projection 21 engages along upper inclined surface 19 to cause a relative deform of the front portion of the peripheral skirt 15 and rim 14 until the surfaces 22 and 20 are in engagement and the catch thereby re-engaged to hold the cover 11 closed. A pair of second catches are also provided and these are oppositely disposed as is clearly illustrated in Figures 2 and 3. - 5 - 208791 These catches are situated on the short sides of the generally rectangular cross-sectional shape of the body 10. Each catch consists of a lip 24 which projects inwardly from the lower inside surface of the skirt 15 of cover 11. This lip 24 engages with a projection 25 which projects outwardly from the outer surface of the peripheral rim 14. This projection 25 incorporates a downwardly and outwardly inclined surface 26 which merges with a rearward surface 27 which projects substantially normally from the peripheral rim 14. With the cover 11 in the closed position lip 24 is firmly engaged beneath surface 27 of the projection 25. The second catches formed by the interengaging projections 25 and lips 24 prevent the cover 11 from being opened even if pressure is applied to the operating projection 17 of the first catch. To enable the cover 11 to be released an inward pressure is applied to each of the short sides of the body 10 to thereby cause a relative movement of lips 24 and projections 25 to take place such that surfaces 27 of projections 25 move to a position clear of the terminal edge of the lips 24. Once this has been achieved the cover can then be released by operation of the first catch. When the cover is returned to the closed position lip 24 during downward movement of the cover engages with the inclined surface 26 of projection 25 to enable lip 24 to clear the projection 25 and once again re-engage under the surface 27. In the preferred form of the invention the projections 25 and their associated lips 24 are not readily observable. - 6 - 208791 Accordingly it is preferred, but not essential, that the cover 11 and the upper portion of the body 10, especially peripheral ledge 16 and rim 14, are opaque. As a result the catches are not readily observable and a user not being aware of the catches would consider that the cover 11 was only held in place by a single catch indicated by the operating projection 17 on the front of the cover. A person grasping the container would normally grasp the front and back surfaces of the body 10 and any squeezing pressure applied to the surfaces will only serve to outwardly deform the side walls and in particular the side portions of peripheral rim 14 thereby producing an even greater locking effect between the projections 25 and lips 24. The body 10 must therefore be grasped so that pressure can be applied to the side walls so that they can be deformed in the aforementioned manner. When the container is being grasped by a young child the hand size of the child would normally be such that it could not readily grasp the body between the narrow sides thereof and apply the required squeezing pressure to release the catches. The ledge 16 projecting from the body 10 prevents access to the area between the skirt 15 of cover 11 and the peripheral rim 11 defining the opening 13 to ensure that the lid cannot be forced into the open position. The container preferably also incorporates a sealing arrangement so as to obtain a tight seal between the cover and the body when the cover is in the closed position. The sealing - 7 - </div>

Claims

<div class="application article clearfix printTableText" id="claims"> 208791 arrangement is achieved by the upper peripheral edge of the peripheral rim 14 being chamfered as at 28. The inside portion of the cover 11 is moulded with an inclined surface 29 such that the contour of the peripheral edge of the rim 14 is closely followed by the internal contour of the cover 11. Surfaces 28 and 29 are firmly squeezed together when the cover is in place due to the downward pressure applied by the interengagement of the respective surfaces of the catches. The body and lid is moulded from a suitable plastics material such as, for example, polypropylene. The plastic should be such that the body and cover is elastically deformable though it is a requirement that whilst the body not be too stiff it should not also be easily deformable. 208791 WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A container comprising a resiliently deformable plastics material body having an opening, a cover engagable with the body to close said opening and a pair of catches disposed on opposite sides of the container which retain said cover on the body in the closed position, each said catch comprising a lip which projects inwardly from a lower inside surface of the cover and an associated projection which projects outwardly from the outer surface of a peripheral rim of the body and being releasable upon inward pressure being applied to the body in substantially the direction in which the catches are oppositely disposed.

2. A container as claimed in claim 1 wherein said cover is opaque.

3. A container as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein said projection incorporates a downwardly and outwardly inclined surface intersecting with a further surface which projects substantially normally from said peripheral rim.

4. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1-3 wherein a f vww ledge projects outwardly around the froriphory of the body, said bein4 ledge bring disposed adjacent to and projecting to or beyond a lowermost periphery of the cover when said container is closed.

5. A wherein container as claimed in any one of the preceding claims a further catch is disposed substantially intermediate of 9 208791 the oppositely disposed catches, said catch comprising a substantially triangular cross-sectioned shaped projection extending outwardly from the outer surface of said peripheral rim of the body and an associated projection extending from said lower inside surface of the cover.

6. A container as claimed in claim 5 wherein said substantially triangular cross-sectioned projection has a downwardly and outwardly inclined upper surface and a downwardly and inwardly inclined lower face, said associated projection on the cover being provided with an inclined surface which is engagable with said lower face.

7. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein a terminal surface of tho ond portion of the peripheral rim of said body is sealingly engagable with an associated surface provided around fehe periphery of the inside surface of the cover. claim 4. o< claw* 6 , ©v 1 uAw.v» Jkpcocloj- on ckjiVfi;

8. A container as claimed inl any ono of olaim^ 4—to > wherein the cover and body are moulded together as one piece, said cover being adjoined to said body by hinging means moulded integrally lobuewMOst* with the -lower peripheral edge of the cover and the outer peripheral edge of said ledge.

9. A container as claimed in any one of claims 5 to 8 wherein the body is of substantially rectangular cross-sectional shape, said oppositely disposed catches being located on short sides, 4 said further catch located on one longer side and -eaid- hinging 10 JAN 19855] A 208791 means ao. defined in claim 0 being located on the other longer side.

10. A container as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the container and cover are made of a polypropylene.

11. A container substantially as herein described with reference to drawings accompanying the provisional specification, DONALD GRANT IRVINE, ANDREW GRANT IRVINE and PETER JOHN IRVINE By Their Attorneys HENRY HUGHES LIMITED </div>