The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 11, 1988
Filed:
Jun. 11, 1986
William R Maclay, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Slide Management Systems, Inc., Los Gatos, CA (US);
Abstract
A slide receptacle comprised of a bin (8) and hopper (11) for receiving the bin. The bin is of substantially parallelepipedic shape, having an upper end, a lower end opposite the upper end, and four sidewalls. A pair of stop means including outwardly protruding tines (26, 28) are located on first and second opposing sidewalls at the lower end. Each of the stop means includes inwardly protruding tabs (22, 24) for partially closing the lower end, such that slides in the bin are prevented from dropping out of the lower end. The stop means are flexible such that pressure on tines (26, 28) causes tabs (22, 24) to open to allow slides to pass through the lower end. The hopper (40) has four inner walls, the dimensions of which conform to the outer dimensions of the bin. Two opposing inner walls (44, 46) are provided with grooves (48, 50, 52, 54), a bottom portion (70) of each groove bending outwardly. The grooves receive tines (26, 28), each groove bending outwardly to urge the tines and hence the tabs outward to release slides from the bin.