Patent ID: 6789700
Filing Date: 2004-09-14
Classification: B65D

Abstract:
A dispenser apparatus for dispensing a material from a squeezable and collapsible tube, which tube has a first closed end and a second end having a mouth, and which tube is structured in such a manner that when a portion of said tube has been compressed, that at least a portion of said tube remains in the compressed state, said dispenser apparatus comprising:a housing unit having a front wall, a rear wall, first and second side walls, a bottom plate having an opening defined therein, a top end, a bottom end, and a longitudinal axis extending from said top end to said bottom end; a storage portion, within said housing, having a first end through which squeezable and collapsible tubes can be added to said storage portion, and a second end through which squeezable and collapsible tubes can exit said storage portion, and having storage room for at least one squeezable and collapsible tube; a dispensing portion having: a first end and a second end, wherein said first end of said dispensing portion is operatively connected with said second end of said storage portion so that a squeezable and collapsible tube can be moved from said storage portion to said dispensing portion; a dispensing means in the region between said storage portion and said dispensing portion in said housing unit, which dispensing means is capable of moving a squeezable and collapsible tube from said storage area to said dispensing area; a compressing member which, when in use, is located at least partially within said dispensing portion of said housing unit; and a port defining an opening on the front wall of said housing, at said second end of said dispensing portion; wherein when said squeezable and collapsible tube is in said dispensing portion, it is oriented such that the mouth of the squeezable and collapsible tube is aligned with said opening in said bottom plate of said housing unit; whereby when said dispenser apparatus is in use, said compressing member compresses said squeezable and collapsible tube so as to dispense the material from the squeezable and collapsible tube through its mouth, and transform said squeezable and collapsible tube from a full shape to a collapsed shape; and wherein said port is dimensioned to have a size similar to said collapse shape so that only a squeezable and collapsible tube in a collapsed shape may be removed from said dispensing portion through said port.