EP0119314B1

EP0119314B1 - A re-sealable dispenser-container

Info

Publication number: EP0119314B1
Application number: EP19830112649
Authority: EP
Inventors: Kenji Nakamura
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1979-12-03
Filing date: 1980-12-02
Publication date: 1991-06-19
Also published as: EP0119314A3; EP0119314A2

Description

The present invention relates to a re-sealable dispenser-container containing wet and dry tissues made from natural or synthetic fibers, such as tissue, paper, woven or knitted fabric, non-woven fabric, sheeted and cut cotton layers (cotton balls) for make-up and the like. More particularly, the re-sealable dispenser-container of the present invention is suitable for containing sheets of fiber materials which are wetted with water, toilet water or a medicinal liquid.
Recently, tissues wetted with water, toilet water, medicinal liquid, e.g. disinfectant liquid, and the like have been utilized to clean hands or face, or to remove make-up. There are many kinds of containers for wet tissue, such as boxes and bags. Many conventional containers are plastic products made by injection moulding or vacuum molding, so that the containers are bulky and are not suitable for carrying. Further, the cost of producing such containers is comparatively high.
Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Publication No.49-47018(47018/74) discloses a flat container made of water-proofing sheet. The container is produced by folding the sheet into thirds, having a bottom part, a middle part and a top part and then bonding both side edges of the bottom part and the middle part. The middle part has an opening for taking out contents therefrom, whereas the top part acts as a lid for covering the opening and the top part has an adhesive layer coated on a surface of the top part facing the middle part, along the edges of the top part, in a U-shape. The top part is re-sealably adhered to the middle part by means of the adhesive layer. Such a container is portable and can be used to contain wet tissues. However, this container involves several difficulties. For example, odor of the adhesive infects contents because the air inside the container mixes with the air between the middle part and the top part, i.e. adhesive layer, because of the opening as a result the contents changed in odor or quality. It is difficult to automatically coat the inside surface of the part with adhesive in a U-shape. It is also difficult to form the adhesive layer at a constant position on each container, so that a reliably sealing of the top part and the middle part is not ensured. The container cannot be made in series production.
In US-A- 4 156 493 there is disclosed a re-sealable dispenser-container for containing sheet-like materials for cosmetic or toilet use comprising:
a container body made of an impervious sheet-like material which wraps around said sheet-like materials for cosmetic or toilet use;
the container body being formed in a rectangular shape and having at least one opening;
a flap one end of which is attached to the body at a position apart from an end of said opening and which has a pressure-sensitive adhesive surface; and
a non-adhesive member made of an impervious sheet-like material in a size at least the same as that of said opening formed on the container body and being adhered to the flap at a position corresponding to the opening.
A drawback of the dispenser-container of US-A- 4 156 493 consists in that it cannot be continuously manufactured. More specifically, the dispenser-container is formed from discontinuous and separate sheet-like material by folding the sheet-like material and sealing the three peripheral edges of the separate sheet-like material.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a dispenser-container which is able to repeatedly and reliably seal an opening of a main container body for taking out contents therefrom.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a re-sealable dispenser-container in which the odor of adhesive to be used for sealing does not infect contents in the main container body.
A further object of the invention is to provide a re-sealable dispenser-container which indicates whether or not the container has been opened.
It is another object of the invention to provide a re-sealable dispenser-container which can contain two kinds of contents without any risk of mutual contamination.
Still a further object of the invention is to provide sheet-like fiber materials for make-up or toilet articles, to be contained in a re-sealable portable container made of impervious material.
According to the present invention, a re-sealable dispenser-container for containing sheet-like materials for cosmetic or toilet use comprises:

an outer flexible container body (1) made of two rectangularly shaped sheets (1a,1b) of fluid impervious material;
an inner, flexible sheet of fluid impervious material (9), adapted to the size of each of said outer container sheets (1a,1b) said inner sheet being sealed at its peripheral edges to said outer container body to provide a container body having two separate chambers (11,12) being fluidly isolated from each other, one chamber (11 or 12) containing said wet tissues and the other chamber (12 or 11) containing said dry tissues;
said container body (1) comprising an opening formed centrally in each of said rectangularly shaped sheets (1a,1b) to provide separate access to each of said chambers respectively, each of said opening being covered by a flap (3,3') having dimensions greater than said openings (2,2') and having one end fixedly attached to said outer container body at a position adjacent to and spaced from said openings (2,2');
said flaps (3,3') each having a tab (7,7') at the end, opposite to its fixedly attached end; a pressure sensitive adhesive coating (4) on the surface which faces said container body and
a non-adhesive member (5) independent of the container body, permanently attached to said adhesive coating and made of a fluid-impervious sheet-like material, said non-adhesive member (5) being centrally aligned with and having dimensions at least equal to the dimensions of said openings (2,2').

The dispenser-container can be used to contain a variety of items, i.e. paper, tissue, candy, nailes cotton balls etc.. More particularly, the dispenser-container of the invention is very useful as it can contain sheet-like fiber materials such as tissue, gauze, paper, woven or knitted fabric, non-woven fabric, cotton balls for make-up, and so on, and especially suitable for wetted sheet-like fiber materials.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is a perspective view, partly broken away to show the interior construction of the dispenser-container according to the invention, said container having two interior compartments.
Fig. 2 is a perspective sectional view of another embodiment of the dispenser-container as shown in Fig. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The present invention will now be described in detail referring to the accompanying drawings. As shown in Fig. 1, a re-sealable dispenser-container according to the present invention comprises a main container body 1 made of impervious sheet-like material and provided with openings 2 and 2', flaps 3 and 3' positioned to cover the openings and attached to the main body at one end of the flap, which flaps have pressure-sensitive adhesive surfaces 4 and 4' facing the main body 1, and non-adhesive members 5 and 5' adhered to the surfaces 4 and 4' at positions corresponding to the openings 2 and 2' in the main body 1.
The non-adhesive member 5 has the same or a larger area than the opening 2 and is positioned so as to substantially cover the opening 2 when the flap 3 is closed, that is, when the whole of the flap 3 contacts the main body 1 and the pressure-sensitive adhesive surface 4 adheres to the main body, so that the non-adhesive member 5 can close the opening 2. Therefore, the non-adhesive member, i.e. closing member 5 prevents the adhesive surface 4 from directly contacting the contents accomodated in the main body 1. The contents can be kept clean and the odor of the adhesive does not infect the contents. The dispenser-container of the invention can be used to contain various things, and the container is very suitable for containing things which should be kept clean or hygienic, such as something to eat, wetted gauze or tissue or cotton balls used for disinfecting or for make-up or for removing make-up and so on.
The shape of the openings 2 and 2' can be appropriately modified, such as circle, rectangle, diamond shape, ellipse, and the like.
A main container body 1 is a film made of synthetic resins such as polyethylene, polyester, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyamide, acetate, cellophane, and etc., and the film may be single layer or a laminated layer. The film may be a laminated layer of the above-mentioned film materials and aluminium sheet. The main container body as shown in Fig. 1 is a flat bag. Such bag is made of three superimposed sheets by bonding longitudinal edges 10 of the sheet and then bonding both transverse end edges 6. Bonding edges of film may be carried out by heat-sealing, ultrasonic sealing or high-frequency sealing.
The flaps 3 and 3' may be made of the same material as mentioned-above in connection with the main container body. The flaps 3 and 3' may be fixed to the main body 1 by means of heat-sealing, ultrasonic sealing, high-frequency sealing, or adhesive bonding. The fixing means is appropriately selected in accordance with the material used for the main body 1. The flaps 3 and 3' have larger areas than the openings 2 and 2' in the main body 1 in order to completely cover the opening. The flaps 3 and 3' may be in various shapes such as a circle, a rectangle, an ellipse, a racing track shape, and so on. The inside surfaces of the flaps 3 and 3' facing the main container body 1 are coated with a pressure-sensitive adhesive such as a acrylic adhesive, rubber adhesive, polyester adhesive, polyolefin adhesive, and the like, which adhesive may be coated by means of roller coating, knife coating or or spray coating. The flaps 3 and 3' and the closing member 5 can be transparent, so that the contents of the container can be seen.
The flaps 3 and 3' may be provided with projecting parts 7 and 7' at the free end and thereof in order to easily pick up the flap with the fingers to open the flap. Preferably the projecting parts 7 and 7' are not coated with adhesive.
The closing member 5 is preferably made of a comparatively flexible film or synthetic resins such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyamide, polyvinyl chloride, and the like.
The main body 1 is provided with a partition 9 in its interior. The partition 9 divides the interior of the main body 1 into two spaces 11 and 12, each space 11, 12 having an opening 2. A flap 3 with a non-adhesive closing member 5 is provided to cover each opening 2. The partition 9 is made of a film of synthetic resins as used for a main body 1, and preferably the circumference of the partition 9 on both sides may be coated with a hot-melt adhesive having a lower melting point than the main body.
Fig. 2 is a perspective sectional view of a dispenser-container as shown in Fig. 1, and illustrate the state of the main body before use, a flap 3 being provisionally opened. In this embodiment a non-adhesive closing member 5 is located within the main body 1.
Regarding the embodiments as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, contents to be accomodated in the interior of a main container body 1 are preferably contained before completion of the forming of the dispenser-container from one or more sheet-like materials, i. e. before sealing the edges of a sheet or sheets longitudinally and transversely.
According to the present invention, a re-sealable dispenser-container can be produced according to a method as described in detail in European patent specification 80 107 516.9

Claims

A re-sealable dispenser-container containing wet and dry tissues, said container comprising:
- an outer flexible container body (1) made of two rectangularly shaped sheets (1a,1b) of fluid impervious material;

- an inner, flexible sheet of fluid impervious material (9), adapted to the size of each of said outer container sheets (1a,1b), said inner sheet being sealed at its peripheral edges to said outer container body to provide a container body having two separate chambers (11,12) being fluidly isolated from each other, one chamber (11 or 12) containing said wet tissues and the other chamber (12 or 11) containing said dry tissues;

- said container body (1) comprising an opening formed centrally in each of said rectangularly shaped sheets (1a,1b) to provide separate access to each of said chambers respectively, each of said opening being covered by a flap (3,3') having dimensions greater than said openings (2,2') and having one end fixedly attached to said outer container body at a position adjacent to and spaced from said openings (2,2');

- said flaps (3,3') each having a tab (7,7') at the end, opposite to its fixedly attached end; a pressure sensitive adhesive coating (4) on the surface which faces said container body and

- a non-adhesive member (5) independent of the container body, permanently attached to said adhesive coating and made of a fluid-impervious sheet-like material, said non-adhesive member (5) being centrally aligned with and having dimensions at least equal to the dimensions of said openings (2,2').