Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D83/00—Containers or packages with special means for dispensing contents
  • B65D83/76—Containers or packages with special means for dispensing contents for dispensing fluent contents by means of a piston

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a dispenser for flowable materials such as toothpaste.
• the conventional manner of dispensing toothpaste is to provide a tube wherein the remote end can be rolled or squeezed to force the toothpaste from the dispenser.
• Recently there has been a trend away from such conventional techniques such as by the utilization of rigid tubes with, for example, a pump device for effecting the dispensing operation.
• the invention in its broadest sense may be used for dispensing flowable materials other than toothpaste, preferably non-food materials such as soap, creams and pharmaceuticals.
• An object of this invention is to provide a dispenser for flowable materials such as toothpaste which can be operated in a simple and convenient manner.
• a further object of this invention is to provide such a dispenser which can be economically mass produced due to its simple construction.
• a yet further object of the invention is to provide such a dispenser which effectively dispenses substantially all of the contents thereof with minimum waste of the remaining contents.
• a still further object of this invention is to provide such a dispenser which would be particularly desirable for use by children and may function as a toy after the material has been dispensed.
• the dispenser includes a rigid sleeve or barrel having a dispensing spout at the closed end thereof.
• a cap selectively closes the spout Slidably mounted within the dispenser is a rigid piston. In operation the cap is removed from the spout and the barrel may be pushed downwardly whereby the relative motion between the barrel and piston forces the material to flow through the spout.
• the rigid materials used for making the dispenser reduce breakage and its attendant mess as with soft dispensers such as conventional tubes.
• the closed end of the barrel may have ornamentation thereon such as resembling a face to enhance its appeal to children.
• ornamentation such as resembling a face to enhance its appeal to children.
• FIGS 1-5 show a dispenser 10 in accordance with this invention.
• Dispenser 10 may be used for dispensing any flowable material and preferably non-food contents such as cleaners, soaps, creams and pharmaceuticals or ointments.
• dispenser 10 is intended to dispense toothpaste.
• the dispensing of toothpaste particularly lends itself to be the contents of dispenser 10 since dispenser 10 is designed in such a manner as to particularly appeal to children. Thus parents would find that the use of dispenser 10 would particularly lend itself to a dental care program because the children would look forward to using dispenser 10. After all of the contents have been dispensed from dispenser 10, the dispenser could function as a toy.
• dispenser 10 includes a rigid sleeve or barrel 1 2 of any suitable shape and preferably in the form of a hollow cylinder.
• Barrel 12 has a closed upper end 1 4 and is open at its lower end provided with a set of spring fingers 16.
• a rigid piston 18 Slidably mounted within and extending from barrel 12 is a rigid piston 18 of a shape conforming to the shape of barrel 12.
• the upper end of piston 18 has a closed end which functions as a piston head 20.
• the lower end of piston 18 is outwardly flared about its periphery as indicated by the reference numeral 22. Flared end 22 provides stability whereby dispenser 10 may stand upright on the flared end 22.
• Piston or plunger 18 is preferably hollow to minimize manufacturing costs and complications. It is it be understood, however, that the invention may be broadly practiced with piston 18 being solid. Similarly although the flared end 22 is preferred, the flare may be omitted.
• Closed end 14 of barrel 12 includes a dispensing spout 24 which communicates with the interior of barrel 12.
• a cap 26 is removably mounted on dispensing spout 24.
• Piston head 20 includes a grooved peripheral wall 28 having a sealing gasket or O-ring 30 snapped in the groove.
• the length of piston 18 along its cylindrical surface from the upper portion of flared end 22 to the tower edge of grooved rim or wall 28 is longer than the length of barrel 12 from the lower surface of upper end 14 to the upper surface of fingers 16.
• piston head 20 would contact the tower edge of closed wall 14 before stop or finger 16 contact flared end 22 during relative movement of the piston and barrel.
• fingers 16 actually comprises four equally spaced fingers. Alternatively any number of fingers may be used.
• Piston 18 and barrel 12 may be made of any suitable materials such as known rigid plastic materials having sufficiently resiliency that piston head 20 may be snapped over fingers 16 and into barrel 1 2. Such assembly, however, would, of course, take place after the contents T ( Figure 5) have been placed into barrel 12.
• dispensing spout 24 is outwardly tapered and is provided with a peripheral groove 32 at any suitable location such as mid-way of the length of dispensing spout 24.
• Cap 26 may take any suitable form such as being generally ball-shaped with an internal opening conforming to the outer surface of spout 24 as best shown in Figure 4 so that the cap 26 may be snapped off the dispenser spout
• upper wall 14 of barrel 12 is preferably provided with some ornamentation such as a happy face wherein cap 26 is the nose of the face.
• dispenser 10 In the preferred operation of dispenser 10 the child would pull the nose of the happy face to remove cap 26 while dispenser 10 is in an upright position on its flared end 22. The child would then gently push downwardly either along the sides of barrel 12 as shown in Figure 5 or at the cheeks of the happy face so as to cause the toothpaste T to be dispensed from spout 24. Altematively the plunger can be pushed upwardly into the barrel 1 2. In such alternative piston 18 may be of shorter length than barrel 12. Because of the ornamentation of dispenser 10, the dispenser could be used as a toy after all of the contents have been dispensed. Thus the sides of dispenser may include other omamentations carrying out the theme of the ornamentation on upper face 14 and different ornamentations may be used to create a set of toys. A different omamenta- tion may at the same time distinguish between different types of contents such as regular, mint flavor, etc., types of toothpaste.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Tubes (AREA)
• Closures For Containers (AREA)
• Containers And Packaging Bodies Having A Special Means To Remove Contents (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (2)

Family

ID=24831549

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (5)

Cited By (2)

Families Citing this family (4)

Family Cites Families (3)

• 1986
  • 1986-02-21 AU AU53873/86A patent/AU5387386A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1986-02-24 BR BR8600763A patent/BR8600763A/pt unknown
  • 1986-02-24 EP EP86102354A patent/EP0194494A3/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 1986-02-24 JP JP1986025608U patent/JPS61175165U/ja active Pending
  • 1986-02-24 CN CN198686201643U patent/CN86201643U/zh not_active Expired - Lifetime

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