Locked bottle holder

• US 5,322,668 A
• Filed: 07/01/1993
• Issued: 06/21/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Clinical Diagnostic Systems Inc.
• Original Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
• Inventors: Tomasso, David A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Housel, James C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): EDWARDS, LAURA ESTELLE
• Application Number:
  US08/086,408
• Time in Patent Office: 355 Days
• Field of Search: 422/102, 422/104, 422/64, 422/65, 206/446, 211/74, 211/76
• US Class Current: 422/561
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 9/00 Supporting devices; Holding devices
• CPC Class Codes: B65D 71/50 comprising a plurality of articles held together only partially by packaging elements formed otherwise than by folding a blank
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/0427 nestable or stockable
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/1002 Reagent dispensers

Abstract

A bottle holder for restrictively holding two bottles in prescribed positions, comprising a base, a top member, and a side wall, the bottles being mounted between the base and top member. The holder is improved in that there are provided a rail and groove sliding fit of the top member and side wall, and an interlock fit wherein a tooth on one of the top member and side wall slides over a ledge until it fits under the ledge in a locking manner to prevent disassembly.

Claims

1. In a bottle holder for holding at least two bottles of differing substances in prescribed positions, each bottle having a bottom end and an access end, the holder comprising a base with at least one recess therein shaped to retain the bottom end of the bottles, a top member disposed above and opposite said base and having at least one recess therein shaped to retain the access end of said bottles, and a side wall extending between and joining together said base and said top member,

the improvement wherein said top member and said side wall further comprise an interlock shaped to substantially permanently secure said top member to said side wall with said bottles within recesses, said interlock further including a) on one of said top member and said side wall, at least one locking tooth biased to project out beyond a portion of said one of said top member and said side wall, and b) on the other of said top member and said side wall, a recess bounded by a ledge, said recess being shaped and sized to capture said at least one locking tooth under said ledge,

said top member and said side wall further including sliding means for sliding one onto the other so that said at least one tooth flexes sufficiently to slide past said ledge and after passing said ledge flexes back into said recess into a substantially permanent locked configuration and said bottles cannot be re-positioned.

2. A holder as defined in claim 1, wherein said sliding means comprise a rail on one of said top member and side wall, and a groove on the other of said top member and side wall, said groove being dimensioned so as to receive said rail therein.

3. A holder as defined in claim 2, wherein said side wall further comprises a cylindrical aperture extending the full height of said side wall.

4. A holder as defined in claim 3, and further including a plurality of reaction cuvettes stacked within said aperture, a seal being provided at one end of the aperture to protect said cuvettes from the environment.

5. A holder as defined in claim 1, wherein said side wall further comprises a cylindrical aperture extending the full height of said side wall.

6. A holder as defined in claim 5, and further including a plurality of reaction cuvettes stacked within said aperture, a seal being provided at one end of the aperture to protect said cuvettes from the environment.

7. A holder as defined in claim 1, wherein said at least one tooth is on said top member.