Packaging and disposal system
AssigneePlaytex Products, Inc.
InventorsCharles J. Jacoby, John R. Hickman, Michael J. Gallo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A packaging and disposal system for sealing waste and related materials within flexible plastic tubing for odorless and sanitary disposal. Improvements in the latch, including the addition of a transverse mounted latch spring, and improvements in the support retention springs serve to increase the ability of the device to operate efficiently and effectively and reduce the potential of accidental spills or other exposure of the waste package. The latch requires two independent motions to actuate and incorporates a transversely mounted latch spring. The reduced cross-sectional area of the retention spring design concentrates force applied to the package to increase the effective holding ability of the system.
Claims13
Apparatus for packaging waste in a series of packages formed in a continuous length of flexible tubing, said apparatus comprising:
- a container having a removable cover at one end and an access door at the other end, said removable cover having an opening covered by a hinged lid, said container including a support located within the container for supporting a core containing a supply of the flexible tubing;
- a twist member adapted to be coupled to said core and capable of twisting said flexible tubing to close a package;
- a plurality of retention springs spaced around said container for holding the package substantially stationary while said twist member is twisting the flexible tubing;
- and
- a latch mechanism for latching said hinged lid to said removable cover, said latch mechanism including a latch spring, a button coupled to said latch spring for operating said latch spring between a latching condition in which said latch spring latches said hinged lid to said removable cover and an unlatching condition in which said hinged lid is unlatched from said removable cover, and a lifting handle coupled to said hinged lid to facilitate pivoting of said hinged lid relative to said removable cover to an open position when said latch spring is in its unlatching condition.
Apparatus for packaging waste in a series of packages formed in a continuous length of flexible tubing, said apparatus comprising:
- a container having a removable cover at one end and an access door at the other end, said removable cover having an opening covered by a lid, said container including a support located within the container for supporting a core containing a supply of the flexible tubing;
- a twist member adapted to be coupled to said core and capable of twisting said flexible tubing to close a package;
- a latch mechanism for securing said lid to said removable cover;
- said latch mechanism including a latch spring having first and second catches for coupling the lid to said removable cover, and a button for moving said first and second catches to release said lid from said removable cover to allow the lid to be moved to an open position relative to said removable cover.
Apparatus for packaging waste in a series of packages formed in a continuous length of flexible tubing, said apparatus comprising:
- a container having a removable cover at one end and an access door at the other end, said removable cover having an opening covered by a hinged lid;
- a support within said container for supporting a core containing a supply of the flexible tubing;
- flexible tubing stored in said tubular core;
- a twist member adapted to be coupled to said core and capable of twisting said flexible tubing to close a package when said twist member is rotated;
- and
- a plurality of retention springs spaced around said container for holding the package stationary while said twist member is rotated, each of said retention springs including a mounting portion for securing the retention spring to a wall of said container and at least one section extending inwardly toward the center of said container for engaging and holding the package, the at least one inwardly extending section having a cross-sectional area that decreases along the length of the section toward the center of said container.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.