Special receptacle or package – For a tool – Brush
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-16
2001-07-31
Foster, Jim (Department: 3728)
Special receptacle or package
For a tool
Brush
C206S363000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06267231
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed, in general, to portable storage units and, more specifically, to a cotton swab storage unit having an automatic swab extraction and retention structure and a method of manufacturing the same.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
You are in the sales business. This means that you have spent and will continue to spend a substantial amount of your time away from home shuttling between airports and office buildings. Nights are spent at local hotels or motels in the city where you end the day. You have learned to live out of a small suitcase and garment bag. You have searched for and purchased luggage that allows for the maximum degree of organization of the essentials needed to live on the road. Everything has its place and everything is in its place.
One benefit of your lifestyle is that you do get to spend weekends at home with your family. Your home life is kept as normal as possible and you spend as much time with your children as you can. In fact you are one of the assistant coaches for your son's baseball team. Last weekend they were practicing sliding into second base, and you were asked to demonstrate.
Now you have a nasty abrasion on your leg and your physician has prescribed a liquid antibiotic to be applied twice a day with a cotton swab. That means that you need to pack cotton swabs for your travels next week. Your organizational system for life on the road does not envision carrying cotton swabs.
What is the best way for a traveler to carry cotton swabs? Of course, he or she could grab a handful and toss them into the same case that houses his or her shaving or makeup kit, as the case may be. When time comes to use one, however, it has to be fished out of the bottom of the kit. The swab's fiber-tip has, more than likely, become contaminated from a leaky shampoo container, from debris that has accumulated in the bottom of the case or from the mere act of touching it. It certainly is not a satisfactory, much less a sanitary, way to carry a useful supply of swabs. Another solution is to grab a sandwich bag from the kitchen and toss in a few swabs, but they still become entangled with each other and difficult to extract when needed. Another prior art solution is to use an old medicine container. This, however, is a less than satisfactory solution, even if an appropriately sized one can be found, because the swabs may become wedged in the container and therefore difficult to remove.
Similar storage and transportation problems for handling fiber-tipped swabs in small quantities are encountered when small first aid kits or medical kits are being assembled. How can the swabs be maintained in a fresh usable condition without being contaminated by the surrounding environment?
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a container that can store a small quantity of fiber-tipped swabs that is convenient to use and does not require undue effort to extract a swab therefrom.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To address the above-discussed deficiencies of the prior art, the present invention provides a cotton swab storage unit that has an automatic swab extraction and retention structure and a methods of extracting a swab and manufacturing the unit. In one embodiment, the unit includes: (1) a container adapted to receive at least one swab having a fiber-tipped head and maintain the head proximate an opening thereof and (2) a cap, adapted to mate with and cover the opening, that has barbs coupled thereto to engage fibers of the fiber-tipped head and exert an extraction force to withdraw the swab from within the container as the cap is separated therefrom.
The present invention therefore introduces a container having a novel structure whereby swabs are removed as the cap is removed, thereby advantageously presenting the swabs for use and increasing a likelihood that they remain sanitary.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the cap has a sleeve defining a receptacle in the cap so that the container maintains the fiber-tipped head of the swab within the receptacle and constrains any rotation of the swab as it is being withdrawn by the cap. In another embodiment of the invention, the barbs are located on at least one finger that extends from an inner surface of the cap. In still another embodiment of the invention, the container is elongated to maintain the swab parallel to the major dimension of the container. This is a beneficial embodiment, in that the swabs do not splay out after removal, thereby rendering them difficult to reinsert into the container.
One embodiment of the present invention provides for the container to be composed of a transparent plastic in order to allow the swab to be seen within the container. In yet another embodiment of the invention, the cap is composed of plastic. A particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, provides for the container to have a bent channel proximate the opening and the cap to have a protrusion that mates with the channel. This is an advantageous feature of the invention to assist in retaining the cap in a closed position with respect to the container.
The invention also provide for a method of extracting a swab. The method, in one embodiment, calls for grasping a container containing at least one swab having a fiber-tipped head, where the container maintains the head proximate an opening thereof, and separating a cap from the container. Because the cap has barbs coupled thereto to engage fibers of the fiber-tipped head removing the cap thereby exerts an extraction force to withdraw the swab from within the container. The invention also provides for other embodiments of methods of extracting a swab from a container.
The invention also introduces methods of manufacturing a swab storage unit. One embodiment of a method of manufacturing a swab storage unit calls for forming a container adapted to receive at least one swab having a fiber-tipped head, the container configured to maintain the head proximate an opening thereof. The method also calls for forming a cap adapted to mate with and cover the opening, the cap having barbs coupled thereto to engage fibers of the fiber-tipped head and thereby exert an extraction force to withdraw the swab from within the container as the cap is separated therefrom. The invention also provides for other embodiments of methods to manufacture a swab storage unit, which methods are applicable to any type of swab storage unit that is described herein.
The foregoing has outlined, rather broadly, preferred and alternative features of the present invention so that those skilled in the art may better understand the detailed description of the invention that follows. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter that form the subject of the claims of the invention. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they can readily use the disclosed conception and specific embodiment as a basis for designing or modifying other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. Those skilled in the art should also realize that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention in its broadest form.
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patent: 4903708 (1990-02-01), Saint-Amand
patent: 4952204 (1990-08-01), Korteweg
patent: 5096062 (1992-03-01), Burkardt et al.
patent: 6089391 (2000-07-01), Abelbeck et al.
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