Protective carrying case

May 29, 1962

R. E. HUBER

PROTECTIVE CARRYING CASE

3,036,699

Filed Jan. 2, 1958

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Robert E. Huber

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Attys.

3,036,699

Patented May 29, 1962

United States Patent Office

3,036,699 PROTECTIVE CARRYING CASE

Robert E. Huber, Pforzheim, Germany, assignor to Nordette, Inc., Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Filed Jan. 2, 1958, Ser. No. 706,729

Claims. (CI. 206—16.5)

The present invention relates to carrying cases for small, portable elongated objects or articles and more particularly to a protective case for fragile medical instruments, such as thermometers.

It is the general aim of the invention to provide a protective carrying case for a medical thermometer that resiliently supports and completely shields the thermometer while permitting instant access to the instrument. It is a related object to provide such a case that exposes the contained and protected thermometer upon operating a simple push button.

It is another object to provide a protective case of the above type that is compact and attractive and which may be easily and conveniently carried in the pocket of the user.

It is a further object to provide a protective case as characterized above that is economical to manufacture and which lends itself readily to rapid and efficient commercial production.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the attached detailed description and upon referring to the drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side view of a protective carrying case constructed in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows an instrument, such as a medical thermometer, being withdrawn from the carrying case shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken longitudinally through the carrying case shown in FIG. 1.

While the invention will be described in connection with a preferred embodiment, it will be understood that I do not intend to limit the invention to that embodiment. On the contrary, I intend to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Turning now to the drawings, there is shown a carrying case 10 embodying the present invention being utilized to support and protect an elongated object such as a medical thermometer 11, only a portion of which is shown. It will be noted that in outer configuration the case 10 preferably resembles superficially a writing instrument of the retractable writing point type. Thus, the case 10 comprises a pencil-shaped barrel having a tapered end portion 12« with a bottom opening 13, a pocket clip 14, and an upper cap 15 from which a push button 16 projects.

Pursuant to the invention, a carrier 17 adapted to resiliently grip a thermometer-like instrument is slidably supported in the barrel 12 and is biased away from the barrel opening 13, and a manually operated control is coupled to the carrier so that by operating the control the carrier may be slid against its biasing force toward the barrel opening. In this way the end of a thermometerlike instrument gripped by the carrier is projected from the opening 13 in the barrel so that the instrument may be grasped by the user and withdrawn. In the illustrated embodiment, the carrier 17 takes the form of a gripping tube 18 which is provided with inwardly bent end portions 19 effective to snugly and resiliently grip the thermometer 11. The tube 18 is hollow and is proportioned to closely surround the thermometer 11 so that when the latter is slid into the tube through the split end portions 19, the thermometer is restrained from potentially harmful vibration.

In order to bias the gripping tube 18 away from the barrel opening 13, a helical spring 21 is disposed within the barrel 12 so as to surround the lower split end of the tube 18. The spring 21 is slightly compressed between the tapered end portion 12a of the barrel 12 and an annular grommet 23 fixed securely to the gripping tube 18. The carrier 17 is thus resiliently urged away from the opening 13 and against the end of the cap 15 which serves as an abutment stop for the carrier.

It should be noted that the helical spring 21 not only resiliently biases the carrier 17 in the desired direction, but also is effective to floatingly mount the lower end of the carrier. The floating mounting of the carrier results from the spring 21 being interposed between the lower end of the carrier and the surrounding barrel 12, and the fact that the spring urges the carrier upwardly against the cap 15. Movement of the carrier is, therefore, restricted to movement toward the barrel opening 13, and, since this movement is resiliently opposed by the spring 21, the effect is one of a floating, spring mounting for the carrier. This minimizes the likelihood of shock damage to an instrument supported by the carrier 17, even in the event the case 18 is inadvertently dropped.

In the present embodiment, the manually operated control for sliding the carrier 17 when it is desired to withdraw the thermometer 11 from the case 10, takes the form of a push button 16 which slidably extends through an aperture 25 in the top of the cap 15 and is directly coupled at 26 to the upper end of the gripping tube 18. It can thus be seen that by manually depressing the push button 16, the carrier 17 is slid downwardly along the barrel 12 toward the barrel opening 13. Releasing the push button 16 permits the helical spring 21 to reposition the carrier 17 in its withdrawn position abutting the end of the cap 15.

Preferably, the extended length of the push button 16, that is the length of this member which extends from the barrel 12, is selected so that it may be easily grasped by the tips of a person’s fingers. In this way, the thermometer 11 may be fully inserted within the barrel 12 so that no portion extends outwardly through the opening 13 to be exposed to possible damage. When it is desired to withdrawn the thermometer 11 from the case 10, the push button 16 is fully depressed so as to extend the thermometer 11 from the barrel opening 13 a distance equalling the extended length of the push button. By selecting the length of the push button as stated above, it can be seen that the thermometer 11 will be projected from the barrel opening 13 a distance permitting it to be readily grasped by the tips of a person’s fingers.

In order to facilitate economical, rapid and efficient production of the case 10, the cap 15 is screw-threaded onto the top of the barrel 11 and the pocket clip 14 is formed with an integral, annular mounting ring 31 which is adapted to be sandwiched between the barrel 12 and the cap 15 when they are assembled. It can thus be seen that assembling the case 10 is simply a matter of dropping the helical spring 21 down into the barrel 12 through the latter’s top opening, sliding the gripping tube 18 with the annular grommet 23 and the push button 16 secured thereto into the barrel 12, placing the mounting ring 31 of the clip 14 over the top end of the barrel and screwing the cap 15 firmly down onto the mounting ring. Not only are the parts making up the case 10 readily adapted for rapid and efficient assembly, but it will be appreciated! by those skilled in the art that the parts taken individually may be quite economically formed.

As is apparent in FIG. 1, the case 10 presents a trim, attractive outer appearance and its shape, together with the pocket clip 14, permits it to be readily and easily carried.

The complete shielding and resilient support of the thermometer 11 assures that the instrument is carried with the

3,036,699 minimum danger of possible damage. Despite the complete protection of the instrument, the thermometer is instantly available for use by simply holding the case 10 and pressing the push button 16 (see FIG, 2), whereupon the thermometer 11 can be directly grasped and put into use. 5