Abstract:
A disposable container for holding and dispensing one oral care, candy and/or medicinal strip at a time, without the need to open the package or to insert one&#39;s dirty fingers into the package, thereby eliminating the contamination of the remaining strips, and allowing the use of only one hand to dispense a strip directly on to the tongue, thereby eliminating the need to place ones dirty hand into the mouth.

Description:
This application is a formalization of and claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application 60/578,044 filed Jun. 8, 2004. 

   FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention is related to a disposable package which holds and ejects water soluble strips for various applications, (including but not limited to oral care, medicinal and/or vitamin dosing, dispensing of personal hygiene and/or grooming products, water miscible cosmetic products, and candy and/or food products), one at a time, without the need to open the package or to insert one&#39;s fingers into the package, thereby eliminating the contamination of the remaining strips, and allowing the use of only one hand to dispense a strip directly into the mouth, thereby eliminating the need to insert one&#39;s dirty hand into one&#39;s mouth. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   Containers for holding and dispensing water soluble strips for various applications, (including but not limited to oral care, medicinal and/or vitamin dosing, dispensing of personal hygiene and/or grooming products, water miscible cosmetic products, and candy and/or food products) are also well known. Such strips are commonly packaged in containers with access doors, which force the user to open the door with one hand while holding the container with the other, to reach into the container and grasp the topmost strip from the stack, to insert that strip into the mouth by hand, and to re-close the container door. Besides the number of actions that such containers require, such a procedure can lead to the contamination of strips by the insertion of dirty fingers into the container. To dispense a strip to someone other than the owner of the package, either the owner&#39;s fingers must touch the guest&#39;s strip, potentially contaminating it, or the guest&#39;s fingers must enter the owner&#39;s package, potentially contaminating the remaining strips. Additionally, the need for the use of both hands to dispense the strip can be troublesome while doing such activities as driving a car or when both hands are not free. Further, it is common to forget to close the container, thereby subjecting the remaining strips to further contamination. 
   There exists therefore a need for a dispensing container for water soluble strips that provides for a sanitary and less tedious dispensing procedure. 
   In particular, there is the need for a container that allows for the dispensing of a single strip from the container into the other hand without the need to insert any fingers into the container. 
   Additionally, there is the need for a container that allows for the dispensing of a single strip directly into the mouth with the use of only one hand and without the need to insert any fingers into the mouth. 
   Additionally, there is the need for a container that allows for reliable dispensing of one and only one strip per actuation, to serve as a dose-regulating container for medicinal strips. 
   Additionally, there is the need for a self-closing container. 
   Such needs are all fulfilled by a self-closing single strip dispensing container in accordance with the present invention. 
   SUMMARY 
   It is a first aspect of the present invention that a housing is provided for containing and protecting a stack of water soluble strips for various applications, (including but not limited to oral care, medicinal and/or vitamin dosing, dispensing of personal hygiene and/or grooming products, water miscible cosmetic products, and candy and/or food products) during shipping, display, and use. Such a housing is not only adapted to serve its intended purposes sufficiently, but is also pleasing to the eye, is inexpensive, uses a minimal amount of material, and is adapted to allow for simple assembly. For these reasons, the container of the present invention is at least as useful and practical as those containers of the prior art and suffers no disadvantages in comparison thereto. 
   In the preferred embodiment of the invention, an external actuator is provided which allows the user to partially eject a single strip from the container through a window, on a retractable carriage, without inserting a finger into the container. Such an operation can easily be accomplished by the same hand, be it the right or the left hand, that is holding the container. The partially ejected strip may be grasped by the other hand, without contaminating any of the remaining strips that are inside of the container, or may be placed directly from the container onto the tongue. The carriage is biased to retract into the container where it receives the next strip from the top of the stack, to be ready for the next cycle, and whereby it seals the window to avoid contamination of the remaining strips. 
   In addition to the housing, all of the internal elements of the container are inexpensive to manufacture, simple to assemble, materially minimal, sanitary and disposable. 
   According to the following description, a method is also disclosed for dispensing water soluble strips for various applications, (including but not limited to oral care, medicinal and/or vitamin dosing, dispensing of personal hygiene and/or grooming products, water miscible cosmetic products, and candy and/or food products) from the container. In general the method involves actuating a carriage to partially eject a strip as characterized above. 
   Also according to the following description, novel uses of material are provided, generally involving the combination of differing functions by single components, to take advantage of varying characteristics of the materials used in those components and to combine aesthetic and functional purposes, in a manner which provides several improvements over the prior art. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is a top perspective view of a container according to the preferred embodiment in its closed state, 
       FIG. 2  is a top perspective view of the container of  FIG. 1  in its ejecting state, showing a strip being partially ejected there-from, 
       FIG. 3  is an exploded view of the container of  FIG. 1 , including a full stack of strips, 
       FIG. 4  is a top view of the container of  FIG. 1  in its ejecting state, showing a strip being partially ejected there-from, 
       FIG. 5  is a side view of the container of  FIG. 1  in its ejecting state, showing a strip being partially ejected there-from, 
       FIG. 6  is a side sectional view of the container of  FIG. 1  in its closed state, including a full stack of strips, 
       FIG. 7  is a side sectional view of the container of  FIG. 1  in its ejecting state, showing a strip being partially ejected there-from, 
       FIG. 8  is a partial perspective view from the underside of the container of  FIG. 1  in its closed state, with the cover and strips removed, 
       FIG. 9  is a partial perspective view from the underside of the container of  FIG. 1  in its ejecting state, with the cover and strips removed, 
       FIG. 10  is an end sectional view of the container of  FIG. 1 , 
       FIG. 11  is a perspective view of the container of  FIG. 1  in the process of ejecting a strip directly onto the user&#39;s tongue, 
       FIG. 12  is a perspective view of the container of  FIG. 1  in the process of ejecting a strip for removal by the user&#39;s other hand, and 
       FIG. 13  is a perspective view of the container of  FIG. 1  in an alternate process of ejecting a strip for removal by the user&#39;s other hand. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
   The preferred embodiment of the present invention is herein described, with reference to the accompanying figures, in which a self-closing water soluble strips for various applications, (including but not limited to oral care, medicinal and/or vitamin dosing, dispensing of personal hygiene and/or grooming products, water miscible cosmetic products, and candy and/or food products) dispensing container is shown in  FIGS. 1-10 , and the preferred methods of dispensing such strips from this container are shown in  FIGS. 11-13 . 
   Referring first to  FIGS. 1-10 , container/dispenser  100  includes a polymeric housing  102 , and cover  104 , which are affixed together by the snap fitting of ribs  103  of the cover into grooves  105  of the housing. The housing and cover thus define a generally rectilinear shape and hollow interior chamber  106  for containing a stack of water soluble strips for various applications, (including but not limited to oral care, medicinal and/or vitamin dosing, dispensing of personal hygiene and/or grooming products, water miscible cosmetic products, and candy and/or food products)  108 , disposed within the lower portion of the chamber. 
   Housing  102  and cover  104  are preferably injection molded of polypropylene, which is chosen for its sanitary properties and low cost. Numerous other materials can be substituted with nearly equal efficacy, including but not limited to; polystyrene, ABS, styrene-butadiene and HDPE. 
   Carriage  112  is disposed within the upper portion of chamber  106  and vertically positioned between longitudinal ribs  114  so that the carriage  112  is transversely affixed to housing  102 , but longitudinally movable relative thereto. Carriage  112  is also preferably injection molded of polypropylene, which additionally has lubricious properties that lend well to such sliding contact between the carriage and housing. 
   Carriage  112  includes actuator  118 , which protrudes upwardly through slot  120  of the upper wall  124  of the housing  102  and is thereby accessible to a user so that by pushing the actuator  118  forward longitudinally within the slot  120 , the carriage  112  is moved equidistantly forward relative to the housing  102 . The range of this motion is sufficient to allow the carriage  112  to partially protrude from the forward end  128  of the housing  102  though window  132  formed between the housing  102  and cover  104  at their forward ends, as shown in  FIGS. 2 ,  4 ,  5  and  7 , so that finger notch  116  is exposed, and to return to a fully retracted state, as shown in  FIGS. 1 ,  6  and  8 , wherein the forward end  136  of the carriage closes and seals the window  132  so that chamber  106  is fully enclosed whenever the actuator is not being forced forwardly. 
   Leaf  138  is disposed between carriage  112  and the housing&#39;s upper wall  124  and is adapted to slide longitudinally to cover the exposed posterior end of slot  120  as carriage  112  is moved forwardly. 
   Retraction spring  140  is affixed to the housing  102  within the chamber  106  by a pair of holes  142  at the posterior end of the spring  140  which fit over posts  144  of the housing  102  near to the housing&#39;s posterior end  146 . Posts  144  are then heat-staked to permanently affix the spring to the housing. The spring is also affixed near to the posterior end  150  of the underside of carriage  112  by posts  152  of the spring which protrude through holes  154  of the carriage. Posts  152  are then heat-staked to permanently affix the spring to the carriage. 
   Retraction spring  140  is preferably injection molded of a highly plasticized thermoplastic rubber, such as those compounds based on Shell&#39;s Kraton™. This material&#39;s high modulus of elasticity allows the spring to strongly bias the carriage toward is retracted state. This biasing is accomplished by the stretching and constricting of arms  156  of the spring. 
   Retraction spring  140  also includes integrally molded push-bar  160 , which hangs downwardly and presses against the top of the oral care strip stack  108 . It should be noted that the thermoplastic rubber material of the spring also has a high friction modulus, which results in the frictuous engagement of the push-bar to the top most strip being stronger than the inherent adherence between the individual strips of the stack  108 , to allow the push-bar  160  to grasp and pull the uppermost strip  164 , and only that strip, and carry that strip  164  with the carriage  112  as the carriage is forced from the housing  102  so that strip  108  is partially ejected through window  132  and from the container  100  as the actuator  118  is moved towards the housing&#39;s forward end, as shown in  FIGS. 2 ,  5 ,  7 ,  11 ,  12  and  13 . The forward end  164  of cover  104  is tapered upwardly to assist in guiding the ejecting strip  164  towards window  132  as it is being ejected. 
   Referring now to  FIG. 11 , it is shown how strip  164  may be ejected directly onto the user&#39;s tongue  170 , by using only one hand  172 , to avoid the need to put the strip into the mouth by a dirty hand as is required by the prior art. 
   Referring to  FIGS. 12 and 13 , it is shown that the strip may alternatively be taken by the second hand  174 , without the need to insert any dirty fingers into the container and contaminate the remaining strips of the stack, as is required by the prior art. For right handed users ( FIG. 12 ), or left-handed users ( FIG. 13 ), the fingers of the receiving hand  174  can grasp the strip  164  through finger notch  116  and the dispensing hand  172  pushes the actuator  118 . 
   There are also alternative embodiments anticipated by the inventor, which are within the scope of this invention, such as;
         1) A gravity-based embodiment, similar to but upside-down from the preferred embodiment, wherein the strips engage the push-bar by the forces of gravity,   2) An embodiment similar to the preferred embodiment but wherein the preferred spring is substituted with two springs, one to provide the retracting force, and one to exert the grasping force against the strips.       

   It should be obvious to those skilled in the art that the afore-described are merely some of many possible embodiments of the invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way. The invention is therefore best characterized by the following claims;