Numerous paste, gel, viscous fluids and some slippery powders are packaged in flexible tubes of metal, plastic or other material. Common examples are toothpaste, caulking materials, artist's paints, automotive greases, cosmetics and medical ointments.
Metal tubes hold the various bumps and wrinkles caused by manual squeezing so that it is difficult to completely evacuate the contents resulting in large amounts of waste. Plastic tubes are resilient and tend to spring back so that complete evacuation of contents is difficult.
Over the years keys have been used for winding metal tubes but these do not work well for plastic tubes. Wall mounted roller devices have been employed but these are clumsy and expensive.
Recently others have invented structures designed for portable application in dispensing products from tubes. Examples are U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,636 to Drancourt and No. 4,159,787 to Wright. The Drancourt device employs a roller and ratchet mechanism while the Wright device is slid along the tube. The ratchet mechanism is fairly complex and expensive while the sliding device does not hold its advance along the tube but must be slid manually. In addition, the sliding device does not apply sufficient pressure to completely dispense the tube contents.
It is accordingly desirable that a dispensing device for tube packages be provided in the way of a portable accessory that is simple, inexpensive, simple to use and providing fairly complete tube contents evacuation.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds