Easily folded and squeezed plastic paste tube

Abstract

This invention relates to a technique to make soft plastic paste tubes, popular consumer products of daily life, foldable and easily squeezed. The feature is to apply adhesive material in segments with protection films in an adhesive zone on the external surface of a plastic paste tube, from the head to the tail. The central line of the adhesive zone intersects the middle point of the tail end of the paste tube. When paste is consumed to a certain point, flatten the tail end, push the remaining paste toward the head, tear off a protection film to reveal an adhesive segment nearest to the tail end, and then fold up the flattened section forward 180 degree so that the flattened tail is glued onto the tube surface where the adhesive segment is located. Thus it prevents the folded section from stretching back out due to the plastic's tendency and squeezing pressure of consumers. As the amount of remaining paste decreases, keep flattening and folding repeatedly. The paste is, therefore, pushed forward and as a result, squeezing paste becomes easy and smooth from the beginning to the end, until the tube is depleted. The purpose of this invention is to make the usage of existing paste products with plastic tubes as easy and convenient to use as malleable metal tubes, which are now rarely manufactured.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

Not Applicable

FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH

Not Applicable

SEQUENCE LISTING OR PROGRAM

Not Applicable

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

This invention relates to soft plastic paste tubes that can be easily folded, allowing the paste inside to be conveniently squeezed out.

2. Prior Art

Many current paste products, such as toothpaste, Silicone Sealant, Adhesive Caulk, etc., are contained in soft plastic tubes. Compared to the malleable metal tubes often used in the past, the soft plastic tubes have obvious advantages, but one disadvantage is that it is inconvenient to fold a tube made out of soft plastic from its tail end and have it keep the internal pressure high enough to push paste out when the tube is partially filled.

SUMMARY

This invention is to solve the said disadvantage by applying adhesive material on surface of a soft plastic paste tube and make it easy to fold up and hold its shape; therefore, allowing the paste inside the tube to be conveniently squeezed out until the tube is expended.

DRAWING—FIGURES

FIG. 1 is the external structure of a paste tube.

FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a folded paste tube.

DRAWING—REFERENCE NUMBERS

• 1 Adhesive segments, covered with adhesive material and normally in the shape of a square
• 2 Protection films on 1
• 3 Surface of paste tube
• 4 Adhesive zone where 1 is located
• A Indicates the side view direction

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The technical scheme of this invention is illustrated in FIG. 1 to 3. Adhesive material is applied, in multiple segments called adhesive segments 1, on the tube's outer surface 3 in adhesive zone 4 along the axis of the central line of zone 4, from head to tail. The central line of 4 intersects the middle point of the tube tail end as shown in FIG. 1. Adhesive segments are covered with protection films 2 as shown in FIG. 2. When paste is consumed leaving the tube partially filled, flatten the tail section of the tube by pushing paste forward and tear off one of 2 that is near the tail to reveal a 1, and then fold up the flattened tail by 180 degrees toward the head onto 1 so that the folded section is attached onto 3, thus preventing the folded section from stretching back out due to the plastic's tendency and squeezing pressure of consumers. It keeps the tube in a state that is similar to that of a full tube. Repeat above steps, until all the paste is consumed.

This invention makes the use of present plastic tubes as convenient as malleable metal tubes in the past. As the amount of paste remaining decreases, continue flattening and folding repeatedly starting from the tail so that all of the paste can be squeezed out easily and smoothly from the plastic tube.

FIG. 3 demonstrates an example of a plastic paste tube after the first folding. The number of folds, adhesive segments and protection films, as well as the sizes and shapes of adhesive segments and protection films, need to be adjusted based on the dimensions of the particular paste tube, stiffness of plastic that the tube is made of, type of material for protection films, convenience of usage and external design of the tube.

There are two possible implementations: One is that the adhesive material with protection films are manufactured on the tube surface; the other is that dual-sided adhesive bandage with protection films are provided separately and consumers can apply them on the outer surfaces of a paste tube at their own will.

(1) Adhesive Material Manufactured on Tube Surface

An example of manufacturing adhesive material directly onto the tube surface is shown in FIG. 1. Four adhesive segments are used to fold a paste tube up to four times. Protection films are used for protecting the four adhesive segments accordingly. Tear off a protection film before folding it up. As shown in FIG. 2, the torn edge of the first protection film is near the tail of the paste tube. The torn edge of the second protection film holds down the torn edge of the first one so that the torn edge of the second one is automatically lifted when the first one is torn off, and therefore, the second protection film can be easily torn off later. The same process is applied to the third and forth protection films. The purpose of the square shape of the adhesive segments is to enhance the effectiveness of adhesive material and to reduce the amount of adhesive material used.

(2) Dual-Sided Adhesive Bandage

Different from implementation (1), the adhesive material is not manufactured directly onto the tube, but an adhesive bandage is provided separately. Consumers can put them on the tube before using the paste. More specifically, one full side of the bandage is filled with adhesive material and covered with a full protection film, and the other side is covered with the said adhesive segments. This can then be put onto the tube's surface. Before using the paste, tear off the full protection film and then glue the adhesive bandage in the said adhesive zone on the surface of the paste tube. After this point, the process is the same as described in implementation (1).

Claims

1. An easily folded and squeezed plastic paste tube comprised of a tube and the contained paste, adhesive segments 1 which are applied in the adhesive zone 4 on the external tube surface 3, and protection film 2 that covers the adhesive segments.

2. The adhesive segments and protection films of claim 1, wherein said segments 1 and films 2 are located between head to tail of the said tube 3 and along the axis of central line of said adhesive zone 4 intersecting the middle point of the tail end of the said tube.

3. The adhesive zone of claim 2, wherein the width of said zone 4 is less than ½ perimeter of tube section, its length is shorter than that of the whole tube.

4. The protection films of claim 2 wherein films 2 can be made into multiple segments along the axis of said tube, but said segments should be limited to 50.

5. The adhesive segments and protection films of claim 1, wherein said segments 1 and said films 2 are either manufactured on said tube surface 3, or attached onto said tube surface 3 by a consumer before using the paste.