Tamper resistant apparatus for dispensing packaged products
OwnerThomas Beczeinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of dispensing ingestible units such as capsules, tablets and pills in such manner as to avoid tampering or adulteration comprises packaging such units in sealable containers, sealing the containers, and loading the sealed containers into a magazine at the factory where the units are produced. The sealed magazine is transported to the place of sale where it is inserted, while still sealed, into the housing of dispensing apparatus having an opening for introducing the magazine, a closure for the opening and a lock for securing the closure. Moreover, the apparatus includes blades for breaking the seal of the magazine when inserted to release the containers and mechanism for sequentially dispensing the containers in such manner as to prevent their reinsertion into the apparatus.
Claims12
Tamper resistant apparatus for dispensing packaged products comprising:
- an upright housing having, in an upper portion of said housing, magazine means for storing a plurality of packages to be dispensed, said housing having side walls and having at an upper end an entrance for introduction of said packages and in a lower portion an exit for discharge of packages, means for closing said entrance and securing means for preventing an unauthorized opening of said entrance closing means,
- discharge means at said exit for sequentially discharging packages from said exit, said discharge means comprising upper and lower horizontally slidable doors disposed one above the other with a dwell space between said doors, said doors being slidable between open position and closed position,
- a package delivery station disposed below said lower door and a delivery passage leading from said dwell space to said delivery station,
- customer operable means for opening and closing said doors to release a package from said magazine means to said delivery passage, said operable means comprising means for coordinating the operation of said doors to close said lower door and open said upper door to permit discharge of a package from said magazine means to said dwell space and then close said upper door and open said lower door to discharge said package from said dwell space to said delivery passage for passage by gravity to said delivery station, and
- means extending into said delivery passage and below said lower door for preventing passage of a package from said delivery station to said magazine means,
- said means for coordinating the operation of said upper and lower doors comprising lever means extending between and interconnecting said upper door and said lower door, said lever means being pivoted on a shaft extending between side walls of said housing between said upper door and said lower door.
Tamper resistant apparatus for dispensing packaged products comprising:
- an upright housing of rectangular cross section having vertical side walls and having at an upper end an entrance opening,
- a magazine of rectangular cross section for containing packages to be dispensed, said magazine being of a size and shape to be inserted into said entrance opening of said housing and to fit closely to said housing, said magazine containing packages to be dispensed and being closed at a lower end by tamper-resistant sealing means comprising plastic film sealed over said lower end,
- means in said housing for opening said sealing means of said magazine upon insertion of said magazine into said housing to thereby permit release of said packages, said opening means comprising means for rupturing said plastic film adjacent side walls of said housing,
- securing means for preventing unauthorized removal of said magazines from said housing,
- said housing having in a lower portion thereof a package delivery station, customer operable means for releasing packages sequentially from said magazine and a delivery passage for conducting released packages from said releasing means to said delivery station, and
- means for preventing reintroduction of packages through said delivery passage into said magazine
A method of dispensing ingestible units such as capsules, tablets and pills which comprises,
- packaging selected plural quantities of said units each of a plurality of sealable, individual containers, sealing said containers, introducing a selected plural number of said sealed containers into a prismatic magazine having integral side walls and bottom and an open top and sealing said magazine by bonding a rupturable plastic sealing film over the top of said magazine at a first location,
- transporting said sealed magazine to a second location and there inverting said sealed magazine and assembling said magazine while still sealed with dispensing apparatus having a top inlet for receiving said magazine, means for preventing unauthorized removal of said magazine from said dispensing apparatus, means for rupturing said sealing film of said magazine when said magazine is assembled with said apparatus to release said sealed containers to said apparatus, means for sequentially dispensing said sealed containers individually from said apparatus to a delivery station and means for preventing reintroduction of dispensed containers from said delivery station into said dispensing apparatus.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.