INVENTORS: Richard A. Leichter and William S. Blake

TITLE: CASSETTE FILM ROLL DISPENSER SPECIFICATION

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a cassette type manually operated dispenser for medicated or non-medicated orally dissolving strips provided in roll form. The dispenser cuts portions of the roll to a predetermined size in the manner of the strips currently available in single sheets and housed in the vial shown in patent Des. 423,302. The roll of orally dissolving strips is stored on in a cassette. Manually operable spring loaded means causes the roll in the cassette to advance thereby presenting material of a predetermined strip length to a cutting blade, then slicing the strip from the roll.

DESCRIPTIONOFTHERELATEDART

Haner, et al. Des. 423,302 is the vial housing the strips currently on the market.

Wise, Re. 22,827, is one of many patents showing a stripping finger used to contact a rotatable cylinder to remove paper from the cylinder.

Carriero, 3,598,395, automatically feeds cards from a stack of cards by the use of detents 12-15. Van Der Does, 3,627,307, dispenses film from a stack one sheet at a time by clipping the top sheet of the stack after the top sheet is raised by pinching the stack.

Stephens, et al, 4,269,403 show a feed roller with a plurality of fingers thereon.

Pressure by the fingers on the stack is variable.

Haber, 5,119,969, discloses a pill strip dispenser where the package is advanced by toothed wheels.

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Cotilletta, 5,566,829, presents sequentially cosmetic samples stored on a perforated tape.

Wade, et al., 5,881,350, represents a number of structures using two feed rollers one on the top and the other on the bottom of a stack. Simpson, 6,550,636 dispenses single sheet from a spring-loaded structure having no moving parts.

Solovay, et al., 6,755,321, show a dispenser for adhesive backed articles.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a dispenser for the orally dissolving strips currently marketed under the trademark POCKETP AKS, for example. The strips, which may be medicated or non-medicated, are currently packaged and sold in a vial shown in DES. 423,302. The strips rapidly dissolve in the mouth thereby acting as an oral delivery system for drugs, breath freshener, etc. The present invention and the invention of our prior co-pending use a roll of such strip material and cuts portions of the roll to a desired length. The invention of our prior co-pending application required excessive user handling of the roll in order to place it hi its operable position. The present invention first secures the roll in a cassette thereby avoiding the need to handle the roll. The present invention maintains a higher level of cleanliness than the structure shown in our prior co-pending application.

The roll is formed of the strip material plus a base layer serving as a carrier and as a separator. Unlike the invention of the prior co-pending application, the base layer/separator does not require use of an apertured edge engaging the advancing mechanism for delivering a portion of the strip material to a separating and cutting location. The base layer of the present invention has no apertures therein. In both the prior application and the present invention, the base layer serves to minimize the

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adverse effects of temperature and humidity on the strip material by preventing portions of the strip material from contacting other portions of the strip material. For example, the aforesaid POCKETP AKS vial is marked for storage between 59°F- 77°F and to avoid humidity. Temperature and humidity cause the strip material to become too brittle or too soft or permits portions of the strip material to stick together.

A principal object of the invention is to provide a dispenser for a roll of medicinal strip material. Another object of the invention is the provision of a dispenser, which separates the medicinal material from a carrier/separator and then cut the medicinal material to a desired length. A further object is the provision of dispenser of the class described which minimizes the need to handle the strip material to maintain cleanliness. A further object of the invention is the provision of cassette storage of the medicinal material where the cassette has two storage compartments; one for the material, and the other where the waste base layer/separator is stored after the medicinal strip is peeled therefrom. The foregoing, as well as further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a review of the following detailed description of my invention, reference being made to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the assembly of the preferred embodiment of our invention; and

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the preferred embodiment of our invention shown in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Reference Numeral Part 1 plate

2 cassette cover

3 swing latch

4 actuating lever

5 cam surface

6 . pawl spring 7 cassette support block

8 main housing block

9 spring mounting block

10 plate

11 moving blade 12 stationary blade

13 cutting aperture

14 cutting aperture

15 strip driver wheel

16 cassette housing 17 support block

18 support block

19 bow spring

20 transfer linkage

21 actuator spring 22 housing for roll product

23 take up housing for waste

24 boot seal

25 ledge on blade

26 movable pawl 27 end portion of linkage

28 swing latch spring

Like reference numerals have been used to designate like parts in FIGS. 1-2. FIGS. 1 is a perspective view of the cassette type dispenser of our invention. FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the dispenser of FIG. 1. A roll of medicinal strip material mounted on a carrier/separator is stored in housing 22 of cassette housing 16. A portion of this strip is peeled off the carrier/separator and the carrier separator free of the strip is connected beneath strip driver wheel 15. Rotation of wheel 15 counterclockwise, causes the medical strip to advance from the housing 22 for separation from the base layer and cutting. The waste strip is then stored in cassette housing portion 23.

The cassette is lifted into position beneath the driver wheel 15. The cassette is held in place by pivoting swing latch 3. Spring 28 applies force to swing latch 3. The latch is pivoted into and out of the cassette holding position to permit the cassette to be

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removed and a new cassette inserted. The cassette may be pre-wound with a leader portion of carrier material disposed to engage the driver wheel 15. In this manner, depression of the actuating lever against the spring force exerted by bow spring 19 causes the roll to advance within the cassette. . The driver wheel 15 is advanced by actuating lever 4. Transfer linkage 20 causes moveable cutting blade 11 to move upwardly relative to stationary blade 12. The end

27 of transfer linkage 20 is connected to the ledge 25 in blade 11 to move the blade up and down.

The film material is separated at the mouth of the cassette 2 in the manner shown and described in out aforementioned co-pending application. Boot seal 24 is provided in proximity to the mouth of the cassette to seal the cassette against humidity. The boot seal 24 also applies a low level of tension-tautness to the roll material to optimize operation.

Pawl spring 6 rides on the top of the wheel 15 to control the rotational force applied by the wheel to the roll material. A curved cam surface 5 is provided for cooperation with portion 26 of actuating lever 4. More particularly, portion 26 rides on a series of serrations or latches (not shown) on cam surface 5 when the lever 4 is depressed. When fully depressed, portion 26 acts as a tooth and is held in place by the last of the latches or serrations on cam surface 5 and is released from that position by the force of compression spring 21 on transfer linkage 20. .

As will now be seen, medicinal film material in a roll package with a separator layer beneath the film is stored in a cassette. The cassette is pre-packaged with a leader portion of separator layer extending outwardly from the cassette and positioned beneath the film advancing mechanism. The cassette is pivoted into place and held in

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position by a pivoting latch. Depression of a lever causes the leader to advance thereby drawing a predetermined length of medicinal film and separator layer through the peeler where the film is peeled from the separator and presented to a cutting blade. A further lever is attached to the first named lever to move the cutting blade up and down so that the predetermined length of medicinal film is cut from the roll.

The separator layer is fed to a take up compartment in the cassette for disposal.

Further modifications to the apparatus of the invention may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention; accordingly, what is sought to be protected is set forth in the appended claims.