Four-Way Pill Splitter

Abstract

A pill splitter that cuts circular pills into four quarters and prevents a user from having to split a single pill, rotate the split pill, and split the pill again in order to obtain a fourth of a dose. The four-way pill splitter is composed of an upper and lower housing. The upper housing contains blades that meet at a vertex and the lower housing contains an inverted cone-shaped insert that the blades from the upper housing fit into so that the vertexes of the blades and the inverted cone-shaped insert only touch in the closed position.

Claims

1) A device used to split circular pills into four congruent-sized quarters comprising: a. an upper housing with embedded blades that meet perpendicularly at a vertex to form four supplementary 90-degree angles, wherein the blades are thin flat surfaces approximately 0.010 in thickness and sharpened to a point on an edge used for splitting; b. a lower housing with two perpendicular slits to accommodate the blades; c. wherein the upper housing and the lower housing are each constructed of plastic; d. wherein the lower housing further comprises an embedded inverted cone-shaped insert made of a rubber, a plastic, or an elastomer that is medical-grade or food safe and holds a circular pill in place, wherein the pill has an upper flat surface, a lower flat surface, and a third surface which is a cone between the upper flat surface and the lower flat surface; and wherein either the upper flat surface or the lower flat surface is configured to rest parallel to the base of the inverted cone-shaped insert; e. wherein the upper housing and lower housing are joined at a hinge so that the vertex of the blades in the upper housing align squarely with the vertex of the slits in the inverted cone-shaped insert within the lower housing when the hinge is in a closed position, forcing the upper housing and the lower housing to be coincident.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] FIG. 1The Four-Way Pill Splitter made of constituent parts:

[0011] 1the upper housing which will be used as a lever arm [0012] 2the lower housing [0013] 3one blade placed parallel to the lever arm, a lengthwise blade [0014] 4one blade placed perpendicular to the lever arm, the transverse blade [0015] 5one blade placed parallel to the lever arm, a lengthwise blade [0016] 6the vertex of 3 blades [0017] 7the hinge/fulcrum made up of a peg from upper housing [0018] 8slots in the upper housing to accommodate the 3 blades [0019] 9an inverted cone-shaped insert into the lower housing made of a rubber-like elastomer [0020] 10a slit to accommodate the transverse blade [0021] 11a slit to accommodate the lengthwise blades

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0022] The Four-Way Pill Splitter device is made of out an upper housing 1 and a lower housing 2. Both housings are made out of plastic. Within the upper housing are three sharp blades: a first blade 3, a second blade 4, and a third blade 5. The first blade 3 and the third blade 5 are placed so that they are coplanar with their sharp edges colinear. The third blade 4 is placed in between the first two blades but is rotated to be perpendicular. The first blade 3 and the third blade 5 abut the second blade 4 at its midpoint. The edges of all three blades are coplanar and form a single vertex 6 containing four 90-degree angles. To make a convenient lever arm around the device's fulcrum 7, the first blade 3 and the third blade 5 are placed parallel to the lever arm while the second blade 4 is placed perpendicular to the lever arm. The blades sit in snugly designed pockets 8 within the upper housing 1. The vertex of the blades 6 is designed to strike the inverted cone-shaped insert 9 within the lower housing 2 (described below).

[0023] The lower housing is 2 contains an inverted cone-shaped insert 9. The insert is made out of a medically safe or food safe rubber-like elastomer material. The lower housing contains two slits: the short slit 10 which accommodates the second blade 4 and the long slit 11 which accommodates the first blade 3 and the third blade 5 when the device is in the closed position. Radiating out from the intersection of the slits is the insert 9 which is an inverted cone in shape. The shape of the insert allows any size pill to rest at the elevation where the diameter of the pill equals the diameter of the inverted cone. The insert is preferably made from a rubber-like elastomer material because these materials have a higher coefficient of friction than most plastics. This creates more friction between the pill and the device to hold the pill in place more securely during the splitting action. This leads to a cleaner cut from the blades.

[0024] The peg-and-hole hinge 7 is positioned on the housings so that 1) the collinear edges of the first blade 3 and the third blade 5 are also collinear to the center of the hinge 7 and 2) the intersecting vertex 6 of the blades will just strike the vertex of the inverted cone-shaped insert 9 at when the device is in a closed position. These constraints ensure the flattest approach for the blades toward the pill during the splitting action. This reduces uneven forces being applied to the pill which can cause it to shatter instead of split.