WO2004089125A1 - Portable container for extinguishing and provisionally storing cigarette butts - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a container for extinguishing and provisionally storing cigarette butts, comprising a drum (17) that can rotate about an axis (4), at least one recess (21) extending parallel to the axis (4) for provisionally receiving a cigarette butt and a chamber for storing the extinguished cigarette butts. The drum is (17) divided into several drum parts (18) which are separated by gaps (20). Elements (16) arranged in a side wall (6) of the container penetrate into the gap (20), said elements changing the cross section of the recess (21) when the drum (17) is rotated thereby transporting the cigarette butt from the recess (21) to the chamber.

Description

 Bescfereifoiaiig

PORTABLE CONTAINER FOR DELETE AND FOR

THE VQRUE STORAGE OF ZIGA-

SAVE romp

Technical environment

The invention relates to a portable container for extinguishing and for the temporary storage of cigarette ends of the type mentioned in the preamble of claim 1.

The present application claims the priority of European Patent Application No. 03100994.7, filed on April 11, 2003, the content of which is hereby explicitly included.

[003] A portable device for extinguishing cigarette ends is from WO

01/39618 known. The container contains four cylindrical blind holes. A burning cigarette butt can be inserted into each blind hole. The cigarette butt goes out automatically after several seconds.

An ashtray with such a device for extinguishing cigarette butts is also known from US 3840027. This ashtray consists of a container that is open at the top and holds the extinguished cigarette butts and the device for extinguishing the cigarette butts. The device for extinguishing the cigarette ends can be rotated 180 degrees around a horizontal axis so that the cigarette ends fall into the container. Because of its size and because the container is open, this ashtray is not suitable as a portable container.

[005] A portable container for extinguishing and disposing of cigarette butts is known from US 6321757. This container contains a compartment for holding un-smoked cigarettes, a compartment for holding ashes and cigarette ends, and a blind hole for holding a burning cigarette end. The cigarette butt must be inserted into the blind hole in question to extinguish it and, after it has been extinguished, removed from the blind hole by hand and placed in the compartment for the ashes and cigarette stub.

Is a container for extinguishing and for the disposal of

Known cigarette butts, which has a drum rotatable about an axis with elongate recesses for temporarily receiving a cigarette butt and a chamber for storing the extinguished cigarette butts. This container is relatively complicated and bulky and its shape does not make it suitable as a portable container that can be carried as a personal utensil can graze. A similar container with the same disadvantages is known from US 2661747.

Other containers are known for example from the patents DE 2604899,

US 1912598, US 3620225 and US 3695277. These containers, too, cannot be carried as personal utensils.

The invention has for its object a portable container for the

To extinguish burning cigarette butts and to develop the temporary storage of the deleted cigarette butts, which is easy to use and can be carried as personal utensils.

[009] According to the invention, the stated object is achieved by the features of

Claim 1. Disclosure of the invention

A container according to the invention for extinguishing and temporarily storing cigarette butts consists of a housing formed by two housing halves, the first housing half containing a drum rotatable about an axis with at least one recess running parallel to the axis for temporarily holding a cigarette stub, and wherein the second half of the housing forms a closed chamber from the surroundings for storing the deleted cigarette ends. The housing contains an opening through which a cigarette butt to be disposed of is introduced into one of the recesses in the drum. The opening of the housing is opposite one end of the drum. The drum is rigidly connected to a cover that either exposes or covers the opening of the housing. The drum is divided into at least two, preferably many, sub-bodies, with adjacent sub-bodies being separated by a gap running perpendicular to the axis. An element arranged on a side wall of the container, which protrudes into the associated gap, is assigned to each gap. When the drum is rotated, each element changes the cross section of the recess. This change in cross-section causes the cigarette butt to be transported out of the recess when the lid is turned, so that it is now in the chamber. Brief description of drawings

TOI 1] Below, exemplary embodiments of the invention are explained in more detail with reference to the drawing. Show it:

1 is an exploded view of a container according to the invention for extinguishing burning cigarette butts and temporarily storing the deleted cigarette butts,

2 shows the container disassembled into its individual parts in an exploded view, 3 shows the container in assembled form, with a small modification compared to the example according to FIG. 2,

4-6 shows a process of how a cigarette stub is transported within the container. The best way to take advantage of the invention

1 shows a container according to the invention for extinguishing burning cigarette butts and temporarily storing the deleted cigarette butts. The container consists of a two-part housing, the two housing halves of which are designated by the reference numerals 1 and 2, and a cover 3, which is rotatable about an axis 4 running in the longitudinal direction of the housing. The cover 3 contains at least one opening 5, preferably two openings as in the example shown. The diameter of the opening 5 is a little larger, for example 1.5 mm, than the diameter of a cigarette. The two housing halves 1 and 2 are detachably attached to each other. For example, they can be moved against each other in the longitudinal direction of the housing.

2 shows the container disassembled into its individual parts in an exploded view and FIG. 3 shows the assembled container, but all individual parts are shown transparently. 3, the reference numerals have been omitted with one exception for the sake of clarity of the drawing. (The example in FIG. 3 contains a small modification compared to the example in FIG. 2. The reference number 26 relating to the modification was entered, its meaning will be explained later.) The two housing halves 1 and 2 each consist of a side wall 6 and 7, a bottom 8 or 9 and a top wall 10 or 11. The top wall 10 of the first housing half 1 has a bore 12 for receiving a rod 13 fastened to the lid 3 and an opening 14 which is in certain rotational positions of the lid 3 one of the two openings 5 of the cover 3 is aligned. The bottom 8 of the first housing half 1 contains a recess 15 for the axial mounting of the rod 13. On the side wall 6 of the first housing half 1 there are several, for example four, elements 16 arranged at a distance from one another, the function of which will be explained later. A cylindrical drum 17 is attached to the rod 13. The drum 17 comprises a bore 18 for receiving the rod 13. The drum 17 is provided with at least one recess 21. There are preferably two recesses 21 which lie opposite one another with respect to the bore 18. The number of recesses 21 is equal to the number of openings 5 in the cover 3 and the recesses 21 are aligned with the openings 5 in the cover 3. The recesses 21 are dimensioned in such a way that a cigarette can be accommodated therein. The drum 17 is divided in the longitudinal direction into a number of n identical drum parts 19, the are separated by a gap 20 each. The number n of drum parts is 1 greater than the number of elements 16. The drum parts 19 preferably form a single body, ie the drum 17 is preferably formed in one piece. The second housing half 2 preferably contains an inner floor 22 which is curved such that the distance from the floor 9 increases with increasing distance from the rod 13. The inner floor 22 can either be arranged on the floor 9 as shown or on the top wall 11. When the container is assembled, the elements 16 are in the columns 20. The elements 16 have approximately the shape of a triangle, with, optionally, one side of the triangle being curved. In the assembled state of the container, the opening 14 of the container is located opposite an end face 25 of the drum 17. In certain rotational positions of the drum 17, one of the openings 5 of the cover 3, the opening 14 of the container and one of the recesses 21 of the drum 17 are aligned. so that a cigarette butt can be inserted and temporarily received by the recess 21.

The elements 16 are preferably very thin and the gaps 20 between the

Drum parts 19 are correspondingly narrow in order to keep the air circulation between the chamber with the cigarette stubs and the recesses 21 in the drum 17 as small as possible, so that a cigarette stub brought into the recess 21 extinguishes as quickly as possible due to a lack of air supply. The height of a drum part 19 can be approximately the same size as the filter piece of a commercially available cigarette, that is to say approximately eight to twelve millimeters. The height of a gap 20 should be less than the diameter of a cigarette to prevent the cigarette butt from clogging the gap 20 and possibly blocking the whole mechanism. The height of the drum parts 19 and the gaps 20 is preferably 1 to 3 millimeters.

[019] The first housing half 1 essentially serves to accommodate and

Extinguishing a cigarette butt, the second housing half 2 forms a chamber that is closed to the environment for storing the deleted cigarette butts. The drum 17 and the elements 16 serve to convey an extinguished cigarette stub from the first housing half 1 into the second housing half 2. The assembled container works as follows:

- The lid 3 is rotated to a position in which one of the

Openings 5 exposes the opening 14 in the top wall 10 of the first housing half 1. A burning cigarette butt or even a cigarette that has just been lit can now be pushed into the first housing half 1 through the opening 5.

- The cover 3 is then marked with an arrow 23 (FIG. 1)

Direction rotated until the cover 3 covers the opening 14. The burning cigarette butt extinguishes within a very short time due to the lack of oxygen. The container now remains in this state until the next burning cigarette butt is to be picked up. Then the cover 3 is rotated further in the direction marked by the arrow 23 until the next opening 5 opens the opening 14 in the cover 10 of the first housing half 1 again. When the lid 3 is turned, the first cigarette butt, which is located in the recess 21, runs onto the elements 16. The elements 16 act like a comb which moves the cigarette stub away from the axis of rotation, ie they cause the cigarette stub to be conveyed out of the recess 21 into the second housing half 2. Because the inner bottom 22 rises towards the outside, the cigarette end is also moved in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the drum 17. This movement supports the detachment of the cigarette butt from the body 17 and ensures that even a cigarette butt adhering or sticking to the body 17 is detached without problems.

4 to 6 illustrate how the cigarette butt is increasingly conveyed out of the recess 21 in the body 17 when the lid 3 is rotated due to the action of the elements 16. These figures show a top view of one of the elements 16, one edge of which is attached to the side wall 6, one of the drum parts 19 and a cigarette end 24.

[024] The size of the container is sized to be comfortable from a human

Hand can be held. The side walls 6 and 7 of the two housing halves 1 and 2 have two parallel walls, which are connected by a semicircular arch, so that the shape of the container is similar to the shape of a 4.5 V flat battery. The length of the container in the direction of axis 4 is dimensioned so that there is room for an entire, just burned-in cigarette. The chamber formed by the second housing half 2 offers space for about ten to twenty cigarette ends. The number of course depends on the size of the cigarette ends. The second housing half 2 can also be made wider than the first housing half 1.

To facilitate handling, for the positions in which the openings

5 in the lid 3, the opening 14 of the container is released, with advantageous snap-in positions provided. Likewise, snap-in positions are advantageously provided for the intermediate positions in which the cover 3 covers the opening 14 of the container. In the example with two openings 5 in the cover 3, four latching positions offset by 90 ° are therefore provided.

[026] The elements 16 can be realized in different ways. They can, for example, be formed in one piece with the first housing half 1 or can be inserted into the side wall 6 of the first housing half 1 from the outside or from the inside as individual elements or elements connected by a web, for example by means of a snap mechanism. Another variant, which is shown in FIG. 3, is the end of the

To limit recesses 1 on the end face of the drum 17 facing the base 8 by a closing base surface 26, so that a cigarette butt inserted into the recess 21 at most reaches this base surface 26 and has no contact with the base 8. This is advantageously omitted Variant of the inner floor 22.

A further variant consists in using a single-part or multi-part housing instead of a two-part housing, in which the two housing halves 1 and 2 are detachably fastened to one another, in which either the top wall 11 or the base 9 is designed in such a way that that the chamber with the cigarette butts can be emptied. In a preferred embodiment, the bottom 9 comprises a hinged lid, so that the container can be emptied easily.

Claims

Expectations 1. Container for extinguishing and for the temporary storage of cigarette butts, the container having an axis (4) rotatable drum (17) with at least one parallel to the axis (4) recess (21) for temporarily receiving a cigarette butt and a chamber, closed to the environment, for storing the deleted cigarette ends, characterized in that the container has an opening (14) which is arranged opposite an end face (25) of the drum (17) and in certain rotational positions of the drum (17 ) is aligned with the at least one recess (21) of the drum (17) such that the container has a lid (3) connected to the body (17) with at least one opening (5) for the introduction of a cigarette butt, the lid (3 ) either opens or covers the opening (14) of the container, that the drum (17) is divided into drum parts (19), with adjacent drum parts (1 9) are separated by a gap (20) running perpendicular to the axis (4), and that elements (16) are arranged on a side wall (6) of the container, each element (16) being associated with a gap (20) and in projects into the associated gap (20) so that the element (16) changes the cross section of the at least one recess (21) when the drum (17) rotates. 2. Container according spoke 1, characterized in that the chamber has a curved inner bottom (22). 3. Container according to claim 1, characterized in that one of the end face (25) the end of the at least one recess (21) opposite the drum (17) is closed off by a bottom surface (26). 4. Container according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the number of drum parts (19) is at least four.