US3628696A

US3628696A - Dispenser for flexible wall tube containers

Info

Publication number: US3628696A
Application number: US58954A
Authority: US
Inventors: Marion A Duiker
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1970-07-28
Filing date: 1970-07-28
Publication date: 1971-12-21
Anticipated expiration: 1988-12-21

Abstract

A dispenser especially adapted for the controlled extrusion of relatively viscous materials from heavy-duty plastic tubes. The tube is simultaneously collapsed and wound upon a mandrel in such a manner that once collapsed, it will not expand; and once wound, it will not unwind. A tube-collapsing roller is mounted for planetary movement relative to a winding mandrel through the intermediary of a spring wire. The spring wire is formed with looplike projections on either end of the roller to bias the same toward the mandrel which has angularly offset turning lugs at either end of a tubeengaging periphery. Simultaneous counterrotative manual manipulation of one of the lugs and projections results in the collapse and winding of a tube about the mandrel. The offset relationship of the lugs insures that one or the other of the same will always be in position for ready manipulation and the loop projections impart a sufficient resilient bias to the roller to maintain the tube in a wound, collapsed position on the mandrel.

Description

United States Patent [72] Inventor Marion A. Duiker 1974 Collingswood Road, Columbus, Ohio 43221 [21] Appl. No. 58,954 [22] Filed July 28, I970 [45] Patented Dec. 21, 1971 [54] DISPENSER FOR FLEXIBLE WALL TUBE CONTAINERS 4 Claims, 3 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl. 222/99, 242/96 [51] Int. Cl 865d 35/32 [50] Field of Search 222/97-103,.

' 212,213,214,386.5, 206;22l/60; 254/186 I-IC; 242/85, 85.], 96, 85.5, 55

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,037,824 4/1936 Sachs 222/97 2,903,162 9/1959 Regan 222/99 FOREIGN PATENTS 78,392 2/1894 Germany 222/97 Primary Examiner-Stanley I-l. Tollberg Assistant ExaminerLarry Martin AttarneyColton & Stone ABSTRACT: A dispenser especially adapted for the controlled extrusion of relatively viscous materials from heavyduty plastic tubes. The tube is simultaneously collapsed and wound upon a mandrel in such a manner that once collapsed, it will not expand; and once wound, it will not unwind.

A tube-collapsing roller is mounted for planetary movement relative to a winding mandrel through the intermediary of a spring wire. The spring wire is formed with looplike projections on either end of the roller to bias the same toward the mandrel which has angularly offset turning lugs at either end of a tube-engaging periphery. Simultaneous counterrotative manual manipulation of one of the lugs and projections results in the collapse and winding of a tube about the mandrel. The offset relationship of the lugs insures that one or the other of the same will always be in position for ready manipulation and the loop projections impart a sufficient resilient bias to the roller to maintain the tube in a wound, collapsed position on the mandrel.

mamas new 1971 31628596 INVENTOR MARION A. DUIKER Fm 3 BY nJfil ATTORNEY5.

DISPENSER FOR FLEXIBLE WALL TUBE CONTAINERS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Collapsible tube containers have been in use for many years and have, in the past, consisted primarily of nonresilient, thinwalled metal structures which, when collapsed and/or wound on a dispensing mandrel, had no tendency to reassume their original tubelike form. The low rupture strengthof such tube constructions generally limited their use to the containment of low-viscosity materials such as dentrifice and the like. Many new tube container applications became feasible with the advent of the plastics age when tough, resilient plastics such asclear vinyl and opaque polyethylene, characterized by their high rupture strength, became readily available at low cost. The very characteristics that make these materials most desirable for the containment of relatively viscous materials in industrial and other heavy duty application, i.e. their tough, resilient nature, creates substantial problems in their dispensement and particularly where an extended, closely controlled extrusion rate is desired such as in the expression of a tubecontained caulking compound for example. Exemplary of the foregoing is the tendency of a tough, flexible wall tube container to reassume its original shape after being manually collapsed or to unwind, in a manner analogous to a coil spring, after being rolled either upon itself or on a conventional tube winding mandrel. Upon such an occurrence, a reverse flow toward the closed partially emptied end of the tube occurs which not only makes it necessary to again squeeze the full length of the tube during a subsequent extrusion operation but also makes it virtually impossible to obtain an even rate of extrusion. When extruding by hand, a point is reached at which a new grip must be taken on the tube to continue the extrusion and it is at this time when a back flow will occur accentuating the uneven extrusion rate that is characteristic of attempted hand-controlled extrusions. This problem is partially overcome by the use of a conventional winding mandrel, such as shown in US. Pat. No. 3,257,038, since it is unnecessary to release pressure on the tube during one continuous extrusion; however when one extrusion is finished and the tube released prior to a subsequent usage, the tube unwinds under its own inherent bias.

The tube-collapsing assemblies that have previously been used in conjunction with winding mandrels have not been capable of inducing complete tube collapse simultaneously with tight securement of the collapsed tube portion against subsequent enlargement which would produce an intake of air into the tube and consequent caking of the material. Exemplary are the disclosures in US. Pat. Nos. 1,941,631 and 3,371,823.

Another problem that has, apparently, gone unrecognized in connection with the controlled collapse of tough, resilient tubes containing highly viscous materials relates to the magnitude of physical strength required to extrude the contents, even at an uncontrolled rate.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention is directed to an improved combination of winding mandrel and tube-collapsing assembly which are mounted for counterrotative movement. The mandrel and tube collapsing assembly have projecting portions, at opposite ends thereof, providing lever arms which may be grasped and squeezed to produce a mechanical advantage in the expression of the tube contents. The lever arms on opposite ends of the mandrel are angularly offset so that one or the other of these arms is constantly in an advantageous position for a manual squeezing action in conjunction with one of the projecting portions on the tube-collapsing assembly.

The tube-collapsing assembly is formed from a spring wire whose opposite intumed ends are joumaled on the axis of mandrel rotation so that the aforesaid squeezing action of the lever arms results in counterrotative movement of the parts and a tube-collapsing roller joumaled on the spring wire undergoes a planetary movement with respect to the mandrel.

The wire is so bent, in the formation of the projecting portions, as to produce a bias on the roller to maintain the tube collapsed thereby in the wound collapsed position at all times.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the tube dispenser and partially collapsed tube;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIG. I; and

FIG. 3 is a part sectional and part elevational view as taken along the line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In the drawings are illustrated a flexible wall container 10 whose closed end 12 has been inserted in a slot 14 formed in the central tube-engaging portion 16 of awinding mandrel 18 having angularly offset lever arms or turning

lugs

20, 22 at either end thereof. A tube-collapsing assembly 24 consists of tube-collapsing roller 26 joumaled on the central portion of a spring wire 28 whose intumed ends 30 are joumaled in blind bores 32 formed on the axis of mandrel 18. Intermediate the roller 26 and each of the intumed ends, wire 28 is formed with projecting

loop portions

34, 36 which have a greater radial extent, relative to the axis of mandrel 18, than do the

corresponding mandrel lugs

20, 22 so that the lugs and projections may undergo relative rotation.

The initial formation of spring wire 28 is such that, in the initial unflexed condition of

loops

34, 36, roller 26 will engage the surface 16 of mandrel 18. It will be apparent that as a tube is wound about periphery 18, as shown in the drawings,

loops

34, 36 will flex to accommodate the increased effective radius thereof and exert a centrally directed radial bias on roller 26 that increases as the effective radius of the tube-engaging portion of the mandrel increases. This bias clamps roller 26 against the collapsed tube portion and is sufficiently strong to resist the tendency of the collapsed tube wall to reassume its original shape. Similarly, the clamping force applied is sufficient to resist that force component derived from the collapsed resilient tube wall acting to move roller 26 counterclockwise as viewed in FIG. 3.

In operation, the closed end 12 of a flexible wall tube 10 is inserted in slot 14 and assembly 24 is rotated, relative to the mandrel, to initially clamp the tube end between surface 16 and roller 26. Thereafter, the thumb and forefinger of both hands are alternately used to impart relative counterrotation to the mandrel and the tube collapsing assembly. Thus, with reference to FIG. 3, when it is desired to extrude material from tube 10 loop 36 and lug 22 are simultaneously counterrotated by the left thumb and forefinger, respectively, in the directions indicated by arrows 38, 40. After approximately of relative rotation, the lug 22 and projection 36 will have moved into substantial alignment as indicated by the relative positions of lugs 20 and projection 34 in FIG. I so that any further squeezing action applied by the left thumb and forefinger would be ineffective to impart further relative counterrotation. At this time, however, lug 20 will be positioned substantially at right angles to projection 34 so that the right thumb and forefinger may be used to continue the relative counterrotation. Thus it will be seen that a continuous and unvarying collapsing force may be applied to tube 10 by the alternate application of squeezing action at the opposite ends of the dispenser since it will be obvious that squeezing pressure should be commenced at one end of the dispenser before the squeezing action is completed at the other end thereof. When the dispenser and/or tube are released, the roller-clamping force applied by the bias of

loops

34, 36 is sufficient to retain tube 10 in the wound, collapsed position prior to a subsequent use.

What is claimed is:

1. A dispenser for flexible wall tube containers, comprising; a winding mandrel having a central tube-engaging periphery and angularly oflset lugs at opposite ends thereof, a tube-col- 2. The dispenser of claim 1 wherein said mandrel includes means for restraining the closed end of a tube against circumferential movement relative to the tube-engaging periphery of the mandrel.

3. The dispenser of claim 1 wherein said means comprises a spring wire having opposite ends thereof joumaled on the rotational axis of said mandrel.

4. The dispenser of claim 3 wherein said projections comprise wire loops.

Claims

1. A dispenser for flexible wall tube containers, comprising; a winding mandrel having a central tube-engaging periphery and angularly offset lugs at opposite ends thereof, a tube-collapsing assembly mounted on said mandrel and rotatable relative thereto for concomitantly collapsing, winding and retaining the collapsed portion of a tube on said tube-engaging periphery, said tubecollapsing assembly including means biasing a tube-collapsing roller toward the tube engaging periphery of said mandrel, and said means including upstanding projections at opposite ends of said roller and adjacent said lugs whereby counterrotative motion may be imparted to the mandrel and tube-collapsing assembly by the simultaneous manipulation of one of said lugs and the adjacent projection.

2. The dispenser of claim 1 wherein said mandrel includes means for restraining the closed end of a tube against circumferential movement relative to the tube-engaging periphery of the mandrel.

3. The dispenser of claim 1 wherein said means comprises a spring wire having opposite ends thereof journaled on the rotational axis of said mandrel.

4. The dispenser of claim 3 wherein said projections comprise wire loops.