Apparatus for cleansing hands

Details Apparatus for cleansing hands Apparatus for cleansing hands

2001-06-26

2004-10-26

Mohandesi, Jila M. (Department: 3728)

Special receptacle or package

Combined or convertible

Packaged assemblage or kit

C206S216000, C206S494000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06808072

ABSTRACT:

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable
REFERENCE TO MICROFICHE APPENDIX
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to cleaning members, specifically to such as a pad or cloth which is preferably saturated with a wet cleansing solution and is retained within a sealed enclosure and attached to, embedded in, or in some way captured by, a food holding means to facilitate cleansing during and after consuming of said food.
2. Description of Prior Art
When eating snack food, or other food normally sold in a bag or other container to facilitate transport thereof, a consumer is often located remotely from conventional washing stations. Many of these foods such as potato chips and nuts tend to be very greasy or oily and the consumer's fingers, and possibly hands, also become frequently soiled or dirty with the residue from these foods which is both uncomfortable and should be cleaned as a matter of normal personal hygiene. In such a situation having a wet pre-moistened cleaning pad, or other similar device, readily available at such a remote location has not heretofore been possible. To maintain clean fingers and/or hands it is often preferable to wipe them on something such as a user's pants, shirt or cuff. Other times consumers often wipe their fingers and their hands on their jacket or, even worse, they lick their fingers and hands in the absence of any means of cleaning. This leads to the spreading of germs, especially viral germs such as cold germs, when shaking hands with or making personal contact with other individuals at that time or in the immediately subsequent time period. Also, the wiping of one's hands on their clothes produces an unsightly condition on the clothing and can require cleaning more often than otherwise necessary.
The unsanitary condition caused by such licking is definitely a health problem. Individuals are told to wash their hands as often as possible in order to minimize the spreading of viral germs and it is the contact of one's saliva to another's skin surface that often causes the spread of viral infections and also the transmitting of bacteria or other contagious diseases.
Consumers need to maintain clean fingers and hands at all times if possible. When their fingers and their hands become dirty, thus requiring cleaning, the use of their clothing or licking their fingers is not desirable due to the amount of dirt or material that may be wiped on the clothing or the unsanitary condition that may be created by licking their fingers as well as possibly their hands.
Many of those snack foods which are sold in bags, or other transportable containers, are made with oil or grease materials which are very difficult to completely remove from the fingers or hands by merely wiping on a dry napkin or towel.
A number of configurations have been patented for providing cleaning members at remote locations to facilitate cleaning of the hands of an individual. Examples of such patents are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,350 patented Nov. 20, 1984 to K. N. Gordon on a “Convertible Paper Bag And Doily”; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,992 patented Oct. 21, 1986 to J. K. LaGrotteria on a “Bag Convertible To Place Mat”; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,756 patented Jul. 17, 1990 to J. S. Price and assigned to John Sterling Price on a “Disposable Bag With Attached Napkin”; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,823 patented Sep. 4, 1990 to W. G. Sheaffer et al on a “Coaster And Wipe”; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,159 patented Oct. 15, 1991 to W. L. Zemke, Jr. on a “Combination Tray And Bib”; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,265 patented Jul. 12, 1994 to N. Clooney on a “Combination Bag And Napkin”; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,783 patented Jan. 7, 1997 to G. Capy et al on a “Device Combining A Disposable Napkin With A Fast Food Container, And Method For Continuously Producing Same”; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,705,212 patented Jan. 6, 1998 to P. J. Atkinson on a “Food Package With An Enclosed Eating Utensil”; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,808,175 patented Sep. 15, 1998 to S. Chang and assigned to Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation on “Solving Production Down Time With Parallel Low Pressure Sensors”; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,003,190 patented Dec. 21, 1999 to C. T. Knudsen on a “Cleaning Pad For Mounting On The Leg Of A Golf Player”.
Applying these configurations to readily address the problem inherent in removing residue such as oil or grease from a consumer's hands after eating snack food or other food normally sold in a bag or other containers is beyond their effective capability both in terms of their usage and manufacture.
Aside from their lack of application to the problems herein addressed, such applications suffer from a number of disadvantages when their role in the packaging manufacturing process is taken into consideration:
(a) Snack food or other food normally sold in a bag or other container is packaged at a very high speed. The above inventions are not compatible with such a high speed packaging process and will present great difficulties were they applied to this process.
(b) No packaging equipment currently exists that would permit either the attaching to or the embedded in of a cleaning member as would be required in the use of the above applications. The equipment that performs this function, known in the packaging industry as an “inserter”, has only limited capabilities that does not encompass the far more extensive processes that would be required to address the particular requirements of the above patents.
(c) Modifying the aforementioned inserter to accommodate the above applications would be practically, and economically, unfeasible.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention a cleaning member comprising a pad or cloth which is preferably saturated with a wet cleansing solution and is retained within a sealed enclosure and attached to, embedded in or in some way captured by a food holding means to facilitate cleansing during and after consuming of said food means to facilitate cleansing during and after consuming of said food.
Accordingly, the objects and advantages of the present are:
(a) to make use of a wet cleaning solution which is a solvent for such oil or grease to cause effective removal thereof.
(b) to permit the incorporation of an antibacterial agent within the wet cleansing solution.
(c) to enable a consumer to more effectively remove the oil and the other materials by placing the pad containing a wet cleaning solution where it can be quickly and easily used with minimal difficulty and no appreciable interruption in the normal ongoing activities of the consumer.
(d) to enable the company packaging the food to incorporate the cleansing pad in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. Inserters currently exist that can readily be adapted to place cleaning members in a food holding means. Thus, such a cleaning member can be incorporated within a package of snack food or other food at minimal cost and encumbrance.
(e) to provide a means for attaching of the sealed enclosure containing the cleaning member with respect to the food holding means. This can be achieved by applying a layer of adhesive material to the exterior of the sealed enclosure for the cleaning member or to the food holding means. Many other means can be conceived of retaining the sealed enclosure with the cleaning member therein with respect to the food holding means such as forming multiple layers in the food holding means outer surface or defining a pocket therein or even being clipped thereto or otherwise detachably secured such that the cleaning member is readily accessible once the food contained within the food holding means is consumed.
(f) to provide a cleaning member in a sealed enclosure which is attachable or insertible in some manner with respect to a food holding means wherein the cleaning member can be a wet towel or pad saturated with a moist cleansing solution.
(g) to provide a cleaning member in a sealed enclosure which is attachable or insertible in some manner with re

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