Abstract:
The present invention refers to a flexible container for dispensing wet wipes which has a stack of non-intertwined wet wipes inside it. In the described embodiments, the container has a lid that tightly seals an opening in the container. Further, the present invention has at least one fastening element which allows for the fastening at each time of the top wet wipe of the stack contained inside the flexible container. Thus, the present invention provides a flexible container with a system for dispensing non-intertwined wet wipes contained therein, wherein only the top wet wipe of the stack contained inside the container is dispensed.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application claims priority to Mexican Patent Application No. MX/u/2013/000514, filed on Oct. 11, 2013, the content of which is fully incorporated herein by reference. 
       TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present invention refers to the technical field of containers for storing personal hygiene products. Particularly, the invention refers to containers for storing, containing, transporting and dispensing wet wipes. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    There is currently a wide plurality of container devices for disposable hygienic products such as tissues, wet wipes, face towels and similar products. The known containers and dispenser devices may be manufactured in rigid or flexible plastic material, cardboard, heavyweight paper or other materials that provide the structural characteristics required to the container. Some of these containers have hinged lids with mechanical or adhesive sealing to keep the moisture of the liquid in which the wipes are. However, most of these containers have the disadvantage of not possessing elements for dispensing the products during its use. There is a wide plurality of patent documents in the prior art related to rigid and flexible containers with elements to dispense tissue-type paper products or wet wipes. 
         [0004]    For example, European patent application EP1090852 describes a flexible packing for intertwined wet wipes, which has a rigid hinged lid covering a top opening in the package which provides access to the wipes. The invention consists of a sealing element comprising micro-hooks placed at the periphery of the opening, and its complement (micro-loops) placed at the top of the packing, such that when the lid is closed, the micro-hooks attach to the micro-loops, sealing the packing. The sealing element may also have adhesive. However, the sealing system described herein, does not provide elements for dispensing the wipes one at a time. 
         [0005]    On the other hand, Japanese patent application JP2012001270 describes a packing, which can be flexible or rigid, for wet wipes, having a hinged lid. In addition, the packing has a wipe fastening element consisting of a hinged tab that is held by one of its ends through adherible means and contacts the stack of wipes inside the packing by its other end through fastening devices. The adherible end of the tab can be fastened both from a hinged lid and from the packing itself. This application has the disadvantage that the user must insert the finger with the tab into the packing so as to lift the top wipe from the stack, so with the use, the adherible means of the tab may detach or break due to the excessive pressure by the user. 
         [0006]    Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,952, U.S. Pat. No. 6,715,633, U.S. Pat. No. 7,934,597, U.S. Pat. No. 7,992,744 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,186,541, as well as international patent application under publication number WO1996017794, protect different inventions aimed to containers for tissue-type products, illustrated in a rigid container, but its use in a flexible packing is also mentioned in its scope. Moreover, these patents illustrate the tissue products in an intertwined manner, but its scope refers to its application to generally stacked products. All these inventions protect a non-hinged lid that has adhesive material to hold the first tissue of the stack. However, in all of them the lid is completely detachable, so its sole purpose is to pull the first tissue at the beginning of the opening of the container. Even patent U.S. Pat. No. 7,934,597 considers the first tissue as a sacrifice product when adding an adhesive deposit which interacts with the adhesive material of the lid. Therefore, these patent documents have the disadvantage that the lid is detachable and the adhesive fastening element is not useful to lift the subsequent tissues of the stack contained inside the container. Moreover, another disadvantage refers to the fact that the use of adhesives as the fastening element for lifting wipes does not provide the appropriate fastening strength in the wet wipes. 
         [0007]    Finally, international patent application under publication number WO2003024842 describes a container for tissues that are folded, but not intertwined, wherein the container has a hinged lid that covers all the top portion of same. The lid has a velcro-type fastening element that holds each tissue. However, the container has all of its top surface opened, totally uncovering the product when the hinged lid is in an opened position. Further, the cover has a tab for sealing when contacting the right side wall of the container. This application has the disadvantage that the sealing of the container is not completely tight, so a wet wipe product would lose its moisture contents inside same. 
         [0008]    Thus, there is the need for a system for dispensing non-intertwined wet wipes in a flexible container. Moreover, there is the specific need that the flexible container allows for dispensing one wet wipe at a time. Finally, there is also the need to include the necessary means to tightly seal the container so that the wet wipes do not lose the antiseptic liquid moisture. 
       OBJECT OF THE INVENTION 
       [0009]    The object of the present invention is to provide a flexible container with a system for dispensing the non-intertwined wet wipes contained inside it one at a time. 
         [0010]    Also, the object of the present invention is that the system allows for dispensing only the top wet wipe of the stack contained inside the container. 
         [0011]    Moreover, another object of the invention is to provide the appropriate sealing means to keep the container tightly closed. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
         [0012]    The following drawings are attached to provide a better understanding of the invention: 
           [0013]      FIG. 1  is a left front top perspective view of the flexible container of the system for dispensing non-intertwined  wet wipes of the present invention, with the lid in the closed position. 
           [0014]      FIG. 2  is a left front top perspective view of the flexible container of the system for dispensing non-intertwined wet wipes of the present invention, with the lid in the opened position. 
           [0015]      FIG. 3  is a view of the inner portion of the lid of the flexible container of the system for dispensing non-intertwined wet wipes of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0016]    The present invention consists of a flexible container ( 10 ) with a system for dispensing a plurality of non-intertwined wet wipes ( 30 ) contained inside said flexible container. 
         [0017]      FIG. 1  shows the flexible container ( 10 ). Preferably, the flexible container ( 10 ) is substantially parallelepiped-shaped  with a top face ( 11 ), a front face, a rear face, two side faces and a bottom face. In the preferred embodiment, the flexible container ( 10 ) is made from a thermoplastic material which is attached by its two longitudinal ends ( 12 ). The top face ( 11 ) of the flexible container ( 10 ) has a lid ( 20 ) with an inner face and an outer face. In the preferred embodiment, the lid ( 20 ) has adhesive means in the entire inner face surface for its coupling to the top face ( 11 ) of the container and has an adhesive-free tab ( 21 ). In the illustrated preferred embodiment, the lid ( 20 ) is made of transparent material and a perforated portion ( 13 ) of the top face surface ( 11 ) of the flexible container ( 10 ) may be observed. 
         [0018]      FIG. 2  illustrates the flexible container ( 10 ) with the lid ( 20 ) in an opened position, wherein the perforated portion ( 13 ) adheres to the inner face of the lid ( 20 ) thus uncovering an opening ( 15 ) in the body of the top face ( 11 ). 
         [0019]    The opening ( 15 ) allows the access to the wet wipes ( 30 ) product contained inside the flexible container ( 10 ). The perforated portion ( 13 ) has one fastening element ( 25 ) in its bottom surface.  FIG. 3  shows a view of the inner portion of the lid wherein all the cited technical elements may be clearly seen. 
         [0020]    During normal operation, the user can lift the lid ( 20 ) by pulling up the tab ( 21 ). The first time, the perforated portion ( 13 ) will detach from the flexible container ( 10 ) forming the opening ( 15 ) and will remain adhered to the lid ( 20 ), so when the container is sealed again by the lid ( 20 ), the perforated portion ( 13 ) will match the opening ( 15 ). The fastening element ( 25 ) is permanently adhered to the inner surface of the perforated portion ( 13 ) as shown in  FIG. 3 , which illustrates the inner portion of the lid ( 20 ) detached from the container. In use, the fastening element ( 25 ) detachably adheres to the top wet wipe product ( 30 ) of the stack contained inside the flexible container ( 10 ), so when the container is opened by pulling the tab ( 21 ) upwards, the top wet wipe ( 30 ) is pulled up along with the lid, as shown in  FIG. 2 , for its easy removal. Subsequently, the lid ( 20 ) is positioned again in the closed position of  FIG. 1 , allowing the outer peripheral area of the lid ( 20 ), which is not in contact with the perforated portion( 13 ), to tightly seal the container ( 10 ) through its adhesives means, allowing for the fastening element ( 25 ) to contact the wet wipe that remained at the top of the stack, thus detachably attaching it. When the user needs to remove another wet wipe, he will again pull the tab ( 21 ) by partially lifting the lid to the opened position of  FIG. 2  and the fastening element ( 25 ) will pull up the top wet wipe, leaving it ready for the user to take it by detaching it from the fastening element ( 25 ). 
         [0021]    Wet wipes ( 30 ) are generally made of a non-woven material that can have different compositions, such as cellulose, cotton, rayon, polyolefins, viscose, among others. 
         [0022]    The non-woven material can be manufactured by different methods such as carding, hydroentanglement, extrusion, among others. During the manufacture of the wet wipes, the non-woven material is cut, folded, stacked and moistened with cosmetic, sanitary, cleaning and cleansing lotions, among others. As the wet wipes ( 30 ) are stacked one on top of the other inside the container, a cohesive strength is created between them, which can lead to pulling two or more wipes when trying to remove one wipe from the container. On the other hand, a common feature in most of the non-woven fabric types is that there are semi-loose fibers on its surface, which may serve as the loop elements of a mechanical bond system known in the field as the hook and loop system or the Velcro type system®. Thus, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the fastening element ( 25 ) is a mechanical fastening element, such as the hook element of the hook and loop system. In this way, the hooks of the fastening element ( 25 ) attach to the loops of the top wet wipe ( 30 ) of the stack and pull it upwards when opening the lid ( 20 ) of the container ( 10 ). Finally, as the container ( 10 ) is made of flexible plastic material, while the container is being emptied, the top portion ( 11 ) of the same will also go down when sealing the container, so that both, this top portion ( 11 ) and the perforated portion ( 13 ) which contains the fastening element ( 25 ), will always contact the top wet wipes ( 30 ) of the stack of wipes, so the fastening element ( 25 ) will be again attached to the subsequent top wet wipe ( 30 ) and so forth. 
         [0023]    In order for this dispensing system to be effective, it is necessary that the bond strength of the fastening element ( 25 ) to the non-woven fabric of the top wet wipe ( 30 ) is greater than the cohesion strength between the wipes. Therefore, the fastening element ( 25 ) must have a bond strength to the non-woven fabric of the wet wipes that is 20% greater than the cohesion strength between the stacked wet wipes. According to the measurement tests performed on several commercial wet wipes products, it was determined that the average cohesion strength between the wet wipes ranges between 100 and 240 grams, therefore, the fastening element ( 25 ) shall produce a fastening strength with the top wet wipe ( 30 ) between 120 and 290 grams. To obtain the operationally suitable bonding within this range, the shape, height, density and space among the hooks of the fastening element ( 25 ) may be modified. 
         [0024]    In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to consider the use of a rigid plastic lid. In this alternative embodiment, the flexible container has also the opening on the top face. A hinged rigid lid is placed on top of said opening, preferably with a mechanical sealing mechanism, which has at least one fastening element in its bottom surface, with the same technical features as those previously identified in the above described preferable embodiment. 
         [0025]    Based on the above disclosure, certain embodiments and details have been described in order to illustrate the present invention, and it will be obvious for those skilled in the art that variations and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.