Toothbrush container with twist vent-caps and integrated dental floss dispenser
For carry-on and storage, a combination toothbrush container providing features for selectively venting and sealing a dentifrice dispensing toothbrush for drying bristles and for preventing hardening of toothpaste in the spout opening of the brush head. The toothbrush container consists of a hollow vent-tubing with vent holes near the top and the bottom end, as well as a top vent-cap and a bottom vent-cap. Both vent-caps have corresponding vent holes and can be twisted to open or close the vent holes of the vent-tubing for air circulation or for sealing the toothbrush in the enclosed air environment. Optionally the top vent-cap is attached with a dental floss dispenser having a scissors-like two-blade cutter assembly for automatically severing a dental floss by the closing action of the cutter lid. Besides, the vent-caps may have dual walls for enhancing the sealing function.
It has been recognized that a dentifrice dispensing toothbrush provides portability and convenience for brushing teeth while away from home, in travel, in workplace or for carry-on in purse for brushing at any time any where. In these uses, a brush cover or a toothbrush container is needed for protecting the bristles and preventing the drying of the toothpaste in the spout opening of the brush head. A conventional toothbrush container having venting holes cannot prevent drying of toothpaste in the spout opening of the brush head. The use of a sealing rod inserted into the spout opening exposes the spout area to the open air environment that allows for slow hardening of the toothpaste. Therefore, it is desirable to have a toothbrush container that provides features for selectively enabling air circulation when the toothbrush is in active use and sealing the toothbrush in an enclosed air environment when placed in storage. Moreover, it is also desirable to have a combination toothbrush container that has integrated dental floss dispenser for providing additional portability and convenience of brushing and flossing while away from home.
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to toothbrush containers.
(2) Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 6,497,236 by Yates et al describes a cup-shaped toothbrush container having a cover with multiple circular holes for holding toothbrushes and a housing supporting a dental floss dispenser. The cover holder is for venting brush heads. It does not provide a mechanism for enclosing the brush head of a dentifrice dispensing toothbrush for preventing drying of toothpaste. The attached dental floss dispenser utilizes a fixed single-blade cutter assembly. The single-blade cutter requires three-steps operation in completing cutting of floss strand; the first step being placing floss strand in the cutter assembly, the second being manual pulling of floss strand against the single blade and cutting, and the third being enclosing the lid of the cutter assembly. The second step of manual pulling the dental floss for cutting presents great difficulty for persons lack of finger dexterity.
For sealing the spout of toothpaste tube, U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,706 by Grussmark provides a combination dental floss dispenser and a stand-up toothpaste container having a flip cap or a screw-on cap. The dental floss dispenser can be attached to either a flip-open cap or to a screw-on cap. For a flip cap type, the flip mechanism is used to selectively open and close the dispensing nozzle. For a screw-on type, the cap screws onto the nozzle to close the nozzle and prevent toothpaste dispensing. However, the described mechanisms are not applicable for sealing the spout of a dentifrice dispensing toothbrush. For the flip or a hinged type, the angular motion of the sealing element cannot provide full sealing contact with the straight spout wall. As for the screw type, the threaded sealing element requires extra clearance space in the spout area that reduces the effective bristle space for brushing. Its dental floss cutter assembly uses a single blade that requires aforementioned three-steps operation for cutting.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,129,090 by Pillar et al. discloses a combination toothbrush cap assembly having an upper portion for housing a dental floss dispenser and a lower portion for enclosing brush head while allowing the brush handle portion exposed for handling. The disclosed structure does not provide applicable sealing function for a dentifrice dispensing toothbrush. Also, its long and narrow cavity for storing the brush head is not easily accessible for cleaning. Similarly, the dental floss cutter uses a single blade that requires three-steps operation.
For sealing the spout opening in the brush head used in a dentifrice dispensing toothbrush, the U.S. Pat. No. 6,599,048 by Kuo uses a plug having a sealing rod shielded by an annular wall for engaging the spout wall of dispensing opening in the brush head. The outer annular wall for sealing takes extra space in the spout area that reduces effective bristle area for brushing. Besides, any defective sealing due to manufacturing tolerance at the spout area can significantly deplete the moisture from inside the spout area that causes drying and hardening of the toothpaste beneath the spout opening because of the exposure of the spout area to the open ambient air environment.
In view of the above prior art, there is lack of means for providing an enclosure for blocking air exchange in the vicinity of the spout area of a dentifrice dispensing toothbrush for preventing drying of toothpaste when in storage as well as selectively venting and drying the bristles of the toothbrush when in active regular use. Furthermore, the manual cutting with forceful pulling of floss strand is preferably replaced by an automatic means which cuts the floss strand by enclosing a cutter lid, a two-steps operation rather than the three-steps operation for a single-blade cutter.
Therefore, it is an objective of present invention to provide a toothbrush container for enclosing and sealing a dentifrice dispensing toothbrush for preventing drying of toothpaste in the spout when in storage as well as selectively venting the bristles when in active regular use. It is another objective of the present invention to have a combination toothbrush container integrated with a dental floss dispenser in one portable unit for the portability, and convenience of brushing and flossing teeth. It is a further objective of the combination toothbrush container of the present invention having a dental floss dispenser with an automatic cutter for severing floss strand with less number of steps.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONFor carry-on and storage, a toothbrush container is provided for selectively venting and sealing a dentifrice dispensing toothbrush for drying bristles and for preventing hardening of toothpaste in the spout opening in the brush head. The toothbrush container of the present invention consists of a hollow vent-tubing having vent holes near the top and the bottom end, as well as a top vent-cap and a bottom vent-cap. Both vent-caps have corresponding vent holes and can be twisted to align their vent holes with that of the vent-tubing for air circulation or for covering the vent holes for sealing the air paths for preventing drying of the toothpaste. In addition to having vent holes, the top vent-cap of a combination toothbrush container of the present invention is attached with a dental floss dispenser which is equipped with a scissors-like two-blade cutter assembly for automatically severing a dental floss strand when a hinged cutter lid having one blade is enclosing on a support wall having a mating blade. For enhancing the sealing function, a vent-cap having concentric dual walls with vent holes on each wall is used for doubling the length of sealing path for preventing drying of toothpaste.
In summary, key advantages of the toothbrush container of the present invention are selective venting and sealing functions of vent-caps for air circulation of bristles and for preventing drying of toothpaste, as well as the automatic cutting of dental floss by the action of closing the cutter lid.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Throughout the following detailed description, the same reference numerals refer to the same elements in all figures.
Referring to
The functions of the toothbrush container 1 of the present invention are illustrated in
For preventing drying of the toothpaste in the spout opening, the vent holes 7, 9 and 11, 13 in the vent-tubing 2 need to be fully closed and sealed. The most effective closing and sealing of these vent holes are illustrated in
In the sealed toothbrush container as described above, the air inside the toothbrush container is isolated from the outside open ambient air. The sealed toothbrush container limits the amount of moisture loss from the spout to the internal air volume. The moisture loss is a result of the evaporation and diffusion process. However, the amount of moisture loss is limited due to the fact that an equilibrium state is reached at Which the rate of moisture loss becomes asymptotically slow. Furthermore, any air leakage at the sealing area due to imperfect sealing at the tube wall will be diluted by the much larger volume of internal air, therefore, the equilibrium state is less affected in comparison with the case of sealing at the spout area, such as the case described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,599,048 by Kuo, which is immediately exposed to the open ambient air where no equilibrium state can be reached and its rate of moisture loss is high at the presence of any defective sealing. In other words, under the same degree of manufacturing imperfection for sealing, the air exchange rate at the sealing area of a vent hole on the vent-tube is much slower than that at the sealing area of the spout opening in the brush head.
For providing snug-fit for selectively sealing the vent holes of a vent-tubing, the top and the bottom vent-caps are made of flexible sealing material. In each vent-cap the inside diameter of the annular side wall being slightly smaller than the outside diameter of the vent-tubing for achieving slidable frictional fit when the vent-caps are mounted on the vent-tubing. For facilitating twisting of the vent-caps for on-off function in sealing the vent holes of vent-tubing 2, grip ribs 25 and 45 (as shown in
Optionally, for preventing drying of toothpaste in the spout of a brush head, a vent-cap of a toothbrush container may include two side walls.
Similar to the illustrations in
For the convenience of brushing and dental flossing while away from home, it is desirable to have a dental floss dispenser added on a toothbrush container.
Extended from the distal end of the housing cover 317 is cutter lid 331 with second hinge 333 that enables the cutter lid 331 to pivot to enclose the cutter support wall 359 when the housing cover 317 is enclosing the dental floss chamber 316. Furthermore, one section of the upper wall 314 is cutter support wall 359 having exit opening 361 for passing through a dental floss strand of the dental floss spool. The cutter support wall 359 has molded-in ribs forming a recess for inserting first cutter blade 355. The second cutter blade 357 is inserted in the recess formed between ribs molded on the inner surface of the cutter lid 331. The positions of the first and the second cutter blades 355, 357 are designed to form a cutting edge for severing a strand of dental floss placed between the two blades when the cutter lid 331 is enclosing on the cutter support wall 359.
For further illustration,
Alternatively, a single blade cutter 480 may be mounted on the cutter support wall 459 for cutting dental floss strand as illustrated in
In the forgoing preferred embodiments as illustrated in
The invention has been described in detail with reference to preferred embodiments thereof. However, it is understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention.
Claims
1. A toothbrush container for enclosing a dentifrice dispensing toothbrush comprising:
- a. a vent-tubing having an annular wall with a top opening edge and a bottom end, said annular wall having two opposing vent holes positioned at a first distance from the top opening edge;
- b. a top vent-cap mounted on the top opening edge of said vent-tubing, said top vent-cap having a first annular side wall with an opening edge and a closed wall, said first annular side wall having two opposing vent holes being located at the same first distance from the enclosed wall such that said top vent-cap being selectively positioned with its opposing vent holes in matching with the two opposing vent holes of said vent-tubing and selectively positioned in closing the two opposing vent holes of said vent-tubing.
2. A toothbrush container of claim 1 wherein the bottom end of said annular wall of vent-tubing having a bottom opening edge and said annular wall having two opposing vent holes being located at a second distance from the bottom opening edge and the bottom opening edge being mounted with a bottom vent-cap, said bottom vent-cap having a first annular side wall with an opening edge and an closed wall, said first annular side wall having two opposing vent holes being located at the same second distance from the closed wall such that said bottom vent-cap being selectively positioned with its opposing vent holes in matching with the two opposing vent holes of said vent-tubing.
3. A toothbrush container of claim 1 wherein said top vent-cap having second annular side wall, said second annular side wall being concentric to said first annular side wall with a gap between said two annular walls for inserting the annular wall of said vent-tubing, said second annular wall having two opposing vent holes with their centers aligned with centers of the opposing vent holes of the first annular wall.
4. A toothbrush container of claim 1 wherein said top vent-cap being a combination vent-cap having an upper wall extended from said first annular side wall forming a dental floss dispenser housing having a chamber with a hinged housing cover for enclosing a spool of dental floss in said chamber, and said upper wall including a cutter support wall mounted with a first cutter blade, and said housing cover including a hinged cutter lid, said cutter lid being mounted with a second cutter blade aligned at a cutting position with respect to the first cutter blade for severing a dental floss strain placed between the first and the second cutter blades when said cutter lid being closing on said cutter support wall.
5. A toothbrush container of claim 4 wherein said combination vent-cap having a second annular side wall, said second annular side wall being concentric to said first annular side wall with a gap between said two annular side walls for inserting the annular wall of said vent-tubing, said second annular side wall having two opposing vent holes with their centers aligned with centers of the opposing vent holes of the first annular side wall.
6. A toothbrush container of claim 1 wherein said top vent-cap being a combination vent-cap having an upper wall extended from said first annular side wall forming a dental floss dispenser housing having a chamber with a hinged housing cover for enclosing a spool of dental floss in said chamber, and said extended side wall including a cutter support wall mounted with a cutter blade assembly.
7. A toothbrush container of claim 6 wherein the cutter blade assembly including a blade element and a mounting base, said blade element and the mounting base forming a V-shape bent for lodging a strand of dental floss for manual severing of a dental floss strand.
8. A toothbrush container of claim 2 wherein said top vent-cap being a combination vent-cap having an upper wall extended from said first annular side wall forming a dental floss dispenser housing having a chamber with a hinged housing cover for enclosing a spool of dental floss in said chamber, and said extended side wall including a cutter support wall mounted with a cutter blade assembly.
9. A toothbrush container of claim 8 wherein said cutter blade assembly including a blade element and a mounting base, said blade element and the mounting base forming a V-shape bent for lodging a strand of dental floss for manual severing of a dental floss strand.
10. A toothbrush container of claim 8 wherein said combination vent-cap having second annular side wall, said second annular side wall being concentric to said first annular side wall with a gap between said two annular walls for inserting said annular wall of said vent-tubing, said second annular wall having two opposing vent holes with centers of vent holes aligned with centers of the opposing vent holes of the first annular wall.
11. A toothbrush container of claim 10 wherein the cutter blade assembly including a blade element and a mounting base, said blade element and the mounting base forming a V-shape bent for lodging a strand of dental floss for manual severing of a dental floss strand.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 23, 2004
Publication Date: Sep 29, 2005
Inventor: Youti Kuo (Penfield, NY)
Application Number: 10/806,329