Tube key

Dispensing – Collapsible wall-type container – With wall-collapsing means

Patent

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Details

B65D 3532

Patent

active

043524419

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a tube key for exuding by a rotating movement products which are packed in collapsable exuding tubes.
The exuding tube is a hygienic, practical and economical package which is used for many different products. However, depending on several facts such as the stiffness of the product, the present relatively stiff tube materials which are difficult to roll etc. the tubes are used to a relatively restricted extent. Tubes made of metal such as aluminium or any light metal alloy are so stiff, that problems arise for many people when exuding the product by rolling the tube up from the end thereof. Either the said persons do not manage to exude the product from the end and therefore the tube is squeezed somewhere closer to the opening or the tube is folded or shrivelled during the attempts to roll up the tube. In both cases a substantial amount of the contents of the tube gets lost and the tube obtains a non-essential appearance. When exuding by hand of products contained in tubes of plastic material, which are generally somewhat elastic the additional problem is met with in that it is difficult to exude the content of the tube from the end. Also the additional problem is met with that the tube regains its initial form as soon as the tube is let free so that the air is sucked into the tube. Such air which is introduced into the tube may contaminate the content of the tube or provide a precipitation of liquid or any other substance of the packed product.
Previously tube keys were often used consisting of a piece of metal plate having a punched groove or a key of a metal wire in the form of a sling likewise providing a groove in which the end of the tube can be introduced. Such keys, however, normally are far too weak to withstand the stiff tubes nowadays appearing on the market or tubes containing stiff products. Further the said keys are supplied separately but as non-reusable keys which many times provide problems in handling a supply and which often get lost. Even if the keys actually might be reused this involves some trouble in that the tube, after the content is exuded must be unrolled, so that the end of the tube can be released from the groove of the key. The said previously known keys generally are formed so that the groove, with a fairly good fit, is adapted to the end of the tube, and the keys have such a small outer diameter that the tube, at least during the first turns, must be rolled onto the key with a very little radius of curvature. For this reason the material is easily folded or shrivelled and the tube may move sideways when being rolled up so that finally a longitudinal end of the tube is left un-exuded.
A basis of the invention is to provide a tube exuding key which is intended to be re-used and by means of which different types of tubes can easily be exuded, which can easily be released without unrolling when the tube is emptied, and which by its special form actually contributes to the exuding of the product packed in the tube.
According to the invention the tube key is formed with a handle which carries two parallel legs of a springy material which are free at the ends opposite the handle, so that the legs can resiliently be bent inwards and outwards respectively, and in which the free distance between the legs is at least twelve times as large as the thickness of the material from which the tube is made.
According to a special embodiment of the invention the free distance between the freely supported parallel legs is 0.25 to 0.75 of the average diameter of the legs, and the diameter of the legs should be at least 16-48 times as large as the thickness of the tube material, the "tube material" of course being one of the two plies of a flattened tube.
Further characteristics of the invention will be evident from the following detailed specification in which reference will be made to the accompanying drawings.
In the drawings
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a tube key according to the invention,
FIG. 2 shows the tube key of FIG. 1 used in conne

REFERENCES:
patent: 1669247 (1928-05-01), Johnson
patent: 1894152 (1933-01-01), Bolz
patent: 2035713 (1936-03-01), McMackin

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