DISPENSING CONTAINER
A first sheet material is easily taken out while sheet materials are prevented from being continuously taken out when a second sheet material and after are taken out. A dispensing container configured to maintain a sealed state has a longitudinal direction (front and back direction) and a lateral direction, and includes a container main body having an upper surface provided with a dispensing opening for taking out sheet materials contained and an upper lid mounted to the upper surface of the container main body via a hinge. The dispensing opening includes a first opening part positioned on the side of the hinge and a second opening part continuing from the first opening part extends toward the opposite side of the hinge in the lateral direction, and enables the sheet material to pass through. The first opening part has a length in the lateral direction longer than a length of the second opening part in the lateral direction.
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The present application is a National Phase of International Application Number PCT/JP2016/069259, filed Jun. 29, 2016, which claims priority to Japanese Application Number 2015-132227, filed Jun. 30, 2015.
TECHNICAL FIELDThe present disclosure relates to a dispensing container.
BACKGROUND ARTConventionally known dispensing containers that maintain a sealed state include a top surface and a lid attached thereto with a hinge. The top surface has a dispensing opening for taking out sheet materials in the container such as tissue paper in a pop-up style. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a dispensing container having an opening provided with a flexible sheet having a slit.
Sheet materials in such a container are taken out through the slit. The sheet materials receive resistance upon passing through the slit to be prevented from being continuously taken out through the opening.
CITATION LIST Patent Literature
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- PTL 1: Japanese Translation of PCT Application Publication No. JP-T-2003-529505
For the invention disclosed in Patent Literature 1, it may be difficult for the user to insert the fingers into the container through the opening for taking out the first sheet material, when the resistance received by sheet materials passing through the slit is set to be large to more effectively reduce a possibility of the sheet materials being continuously taken out.
In this context, when the resistance of the slit is set to be lower so that the first sheet material may be easily taken out with the fingers, sheet materials may be continuously taken out when the second sheet material and after are taken out.
The present invention is directed to an improvement in the conventional dispensing container, and an object of the present invention is to provide a dispensing container that enables the first sheet material to be easily taken out while preventing the sheet materials to be continuously taken out when the second sheet material and after are taken out.
Solution to ProblemA dispensing container according to the present invention has a longitudinal direction and a lateral direction, and includes a container main body configured to contain stacked sheet materials, a dispensing structure positioned in a top wall of the container main body, the dispensing structure having a dispensing opening through which the stacked sheet materials are taken out in a pop-up style, and an upper lid with which the dispensing opening is airtightly closed, the upper lid having a proximal edge and a distal edge, the upper lid being pivotally mounted to the container main body adjacently to the proximal edge via a hinge. The dispensing opening is defined by a first opening part and a second opening part, the first opening part being positioned adjacently to the proximal edge and expanding in the longitudinal direction and the lateral direction, the second opening part continuing from an approximately center part of the first opening part in the lateral direction and extending toward the distal edge, the first opening part having a length at least in the lateral direction longer than a length of the second opening part in the lateral direction.
Advantageous Effects of InventionIn the dispensing container according to one or more embodiments of the present invention, the dispensing opening includes the first opening part and the second opening part. The first opening part has the length in the lateral direction longer than the length of the second opening part in the lateral direction. This configuration enables a user to take out the first sheet material by inserting his or her fingers through the first opening part, while preventing the sheet materials from being continuously taken out when the second sheet material and after are taken out through the second opening part.
The drawings illustrate specific embodiments of the present invention, including optional and preferred embodiments as well as essential features of the invention.
The following describes details of the present invention on the basis of the embodiments including a dispensing container of wet tissues, serving as sheet materials, as an example of a dispensing container according to the present invention with reference to the attached drawings. The embodiments described below include both option and preferred embodiments as well as those features which are essential features of the present invention.
A dispensing container 10, illustrated in
As illustrated in
For example, the flange 20 may be made of hard thermoset synthetic resins. The circumference wall 22 is made of soft elastic materials, such as silicone rubber or thermoset elastomer, to be easily elastically deformable, and has lower rigidity than the flange 20 and the inner lid 23. The flange 20, the circumference wall 22, the inner lid 23, and the flap 26 may be molded with a technique known as double mold, which is one of the injection molding techniques. The flange 20 has four engagement holes 60 disposed more on the outer side than the circumference wall 22 around the dispensing opening 24. The engagement holes 60 each include a circular large diameter part 60a positioned on the upper side and a circular small diameter part 60b positioned on the lower side (see
The length f1 of the small diameter part 60b of the engagement hole 60 in the radial direction is smaller than a length d2 of an outermost circumference surface of the heads 56a and 57a of the engagement claw 55 in the radial direction. Thus, when the dispensing structure 17 is pressed against the container, the outer circumference surface of the heads 56a and 57a of the engagement claw 55 comes into contact with the inner circumference surface of the small diameter part 60b of the engagement hole 60. When the dispensing structure 17 is further pressed, the circumference edge of the small diameter part 60b presses the outer circumference surface of the heads 56a and 57a, and thus the first claw 56 and the second claw 57 move toward each other. Then, when the dispensing structure 17 is further pressed, the protrusion 32d of the dispensing structure 17 comes into contact with the protrusion 35 of the recessed surface 15. The protrusion 35 of the recessed surface 15 has higher rigidity than the protrusion 32d of the dispensing structure 17. Thus, when the dispensing structure 17 is further pressed, the protrusion 32d of the dispensing structure 17 deforms but the protrusion 35 of the recessed surface 15 does not deform.
Then, when the dispensing structure 17 is further pressed, as illustrated in
Projections 33 are provided at four corners of the bottom lid 13 to prevent the package 8 contained in the container 10 from moving out of place.
In
The latch 46 extends downward from the inner surface 29 of the upper lid 12 in the closed state on the left side in
The dispensing container 10 is one type of containers having the upper lid 12 known as a push lock/push open lock mechanism. Thus, the upper lid 12 that has been closed relative to the dispensing container 10 is opened relative to the dispensing container 10 by being pressed.
The wet tissues 9 are initially used as follows: First of all, the package 8 is placed on the bottom lid 13, the bottom lid 13 is attached to the container main body 11, and the upper lid 12 is opened. Then, the topmost one of the wet tissues 9 is pinched by a user's fingers inserted through the first opening part 24a of the dispensing opening 24, and is taken out through the second opening part 24b. The first wet tissue 9 is betaken out with the fingers inserted through the first opening part 24a having the long length e3 in the lateral direction B. The flap 26 positioned in the circumference edge of the dispensing opening 24 has flexibility/elasticity, and has lower rigidity than the inner lid 23. Thus, the fingers may be prevented from hitting the inner lid 23 with high rigidity when taking out the first wet tissue 9. The length e4 of the second opening part 24b in the lateral direction B is smaller than the length e6 of the package opening 8b in the lateral direction B. This ensures the first wet tissue 9 to be taken out while preventing the second wet tissue 9 and after are from being continuously taken out.
The dispensing container 10 has the dispensing opening 24 formed to extend in the front and back direction C, and has the first opening part 24a through which the fingers are inserted to take out the first wet tissue 9 and the second opening part 24b preventing the wet tissues 9 from being continuously taken out. This ensures the first wet tissue 9 to be easily taken out with a lower possibility of the next wet tissue 9 being continuously taken out.
The first opening part 24a is positioned closer to the hinge 38, and the second opening part 24b is positioned on the opposite side of the hinge 38 in the front and back direction C (closer to the latch 46). The package opening 8b and the first opening part 24a do not overlap with each other in plan view. This ensures that the wet tissues 9 passing through the dispensing opening 24 pass through the second opening part 24b.
The flange 20 with high rigidity is positioned in longitudinally and laterally outer circumference edges of the dispensing structure 17. Thus, the outer circumference edges of the dispensing structure 17 may be prevented from deforming.
The container main body 11 in the illustrated example may have the flange 20 and the supporting surface 18 integrated by being mechanically fit to each other, by using a fastener of an appropriate shape by being joined to each other through welding, ultrasonic joining, or the like, or by using adhesives such as hotmelt adhesives.
In the embodiment described above, the wet tissues 9 are described as an example of the sheet materials. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a nonwoven fabric including liquid such as water or alcohol may be used as the sheet materials. The top wall 14 does not necessarily need to be provided with the recessed surface 15.
The stacked state of the wet tissues 9 contained in the package 8 is not limited to that described above.
In the embodiment described above, the wet tissues 9, contained in the dispensing container 10 may be made of a fibrous nonwoven fabric and may be perforated along the lateral direction B. Such a fibrous nonwoven fabric web partially comes into contact with the second opening part 24b when passing through the dispensing opening 24, so that one wet tissue 9 is separated from the fibrous nonwoven fabric web. Thus, the next wet tissue 9 may be prevented from being continuously taken out.
In the embodiment described above, the dispensing container 10 including the supporting surface 18 having the opening 25 and the dispensing structure 17 having the dispensing opening 24 is described as an example. Alternatively, the supporting surface 18 and the dispensing structure 17 may be integrally formed with the opening 25 not formed and only the dispensing opening 24 may be formed.
The embodiments of the present invention according to the present disclosure described above may be arranged as follows.
A dispensing container has a longitudinal direction and a lateral direction defined, and includes a container main body configured to contain stacked sheet materials, a dispensing structure positioned in a top wall of the container main body, the dispensing structure having a dispensing opening through which the stacked sheet materials may be taken out in a pop-up style, and an upper lid with which the dispensing opening may be airtightly closed, the upper lid having a proximal edge and a distal edge, the upper lid being pivotally mounted to the container main body adjacently to the proximal edge via a hinge. The dispensing opening is formed of a first opening part and a second opening part, the first opening part being positioned adjacently to the proximal edge and expanding in the longitudinal direction and the lateral direction, the second opening part continuing from an approximately center part of the first opening part in the lateral direction and extending toward the distal edge, the first opening part having a length at least in the lateral direction longer than a length of the second opening part in the lateral direction.
The present disclosure described above may at least include the embodiments described below, which may be taken in isolation or in combination with one another.
(1) The first opening part has a convex shape, and the second opening part has a generally slot shape with a cervix curved from both sides of the first opening part.
(2) The dispensing structure includes an elastic flap and a rigid inner lid, the elastic flap surrounding and defining the dispensing opening, the rigid inner lid surrounding the flap.
(3) A rigid flange is integrally formed with an outer circumference of the inner lid via an elastic circumference wall having a packing function.
(4) The circumference wall has a top part including an annular groove that comes into airtight contact with an annular protruding edge positioned on an inner surface of the upper lid.
Claims
1. A dispensing container having a longitudinal direction and a lateral direction, the dispensing container comprising:
- a container main body configured to contain stacked sheet materials;
- a dispensing structure positioned in a top wall of the container main body, the dispensing structure having a dispensing opening through which the stacked sheet materials are taken out in a pop-up style; and
- an upper lid with which the dispensing opening is airtightly closed, the upper lid having a proximal edge and a distal edge, the upper lid being pivotally mounted to the container main body adjacently to the proximal edge via a hinge,
- the dispensing opening is formed of a first opening part and a second opening part, the first opening part being positioned adjacently to the proximal edge and expanding in the longitudinal direction and the lateral direction, the second opening part continuing from an approximately center part of the first opening part in the lateral direction and extending toward the distal edge, the first opening part having a length at least in the lateral direction longer than a length of the second opening part in the lateral direction.
2. The dispensing container according to claim 1, wherein the first opening part has a convex shape, and the second opening part has a generally slot shape with a cervix curved from both sides of the first opening part.
3. The dispensing container according to claim 1, wherein the dispensing structure includes an elastic flap and a rigid inner lid, the elastic flap surrounding and defining the dispensing opening, the rigid inner lid surrounding the flap.
4. The dispensing container according to claim 1, wherein a rigid flange is integrally formed with an outer circumference of the inner lid via an elastic circumference wall having a packing function.
5. The dispensing container according to claim 1, wherein the circumference wall has a top part including an annular groove that comes into airtight contact with an annular protruding edge positioned on an inner surface of the upper lid.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 29, 2016
Publication Date: Jul 5, 2018
Applicant:
Inventors: Takeshi BANDO (Kanonji-shi, Kagawa), Yusuke NAKAMURA (Kanonji-shi, Kagawa)
Application Number: 15/740,830