Bandage Dispensing Package

Abstract

An elongated strip carrier for a plurality of bandages serves as a clean storage package for the bandages and also aids greatly in the dispensing of individual bandages as they are needed. Bandages may be mounted on one or two sides of the carrier strip and the strip may be coiled or otherwise formed into a compact storage body. The awkward handling of individually wrapped small bandages is avoided.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Smaller size bandages for finger wounds and the like are customarily packaged individually in paper with or without a tear string to facilitate opening the single bandage package. The bandage contained in the package ordinarily has its adhesive coated ends masked or protected with gauze or plastic overlays which must be stripped off individually before the bandage is applied to the wound. A plurality of individually packaged bandages are usually contained in a paper or metal box having a hinged lid. With this conventional packaging arrangement, the small bandages are awkward to manipulate particularly in an emergency and frequently when an individual bandage is finally unpackaged for use its adhesive end portions will have become twisted or adhered together and the surgical pad between these end portions may have been contaminated through contact with soiled fingers or the like.

The prior art contains some teachings which are departures from the above-described conventional arrangement and two examples of the prior art and U.S. Pat. No. 2,068,703, Powdermaker, issued Jan. 26, 1937, and 2,133,609, Eustis, issued Oct. 18, 1938. Both of these patents disclose spooled bandages which involve a carrier strip wound on a spool body and an outer cover or sleeve into which the spool body is placed. While these patented disclosures bear a remote similarity to the present invention, they totally lack a number of significant features of construction and convenience embodied in the present invention, and the invention is deemed to be a great improvement on the known prior art in terms of economy of manufacturing, convenience of use and assuring that the bandage reaches the wound in a clean condition.

The essential idea of the present invention is to provide an elongate strip carrier for plural bandages which forms a sterile and secure storage container or package without the need for an additional outer wrap or outer container, such as a box. Additionally, the carrier strip allows for the most compact storage of a large number of bandages and the carrier strip itself greatly facilitates the dispensing of individual clean bandages to a user with maximum convenience and avoiding the inherent awkwardness or clumsiness of the most conventional prior art arrangements. Finally, the carrier strip forming the essential element of the invention in several different forms permits the total elimination of the customary protective masking strips on the adhesive portions of the bandage and the carrier strip itself serves this purpose and allows the bandage to be lifted with two fingers of one hand and to be applied to the wound without entanglement or difficult manipulation.

The invention possesses other features which will appear during the following detailed description and the many features and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a bandage package and dispensing aid in accordance with one preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary cross section taken through the coiled structure of FIG. 1 on a radial line.

FIG. 3 is a further enlarged sectional view similar to FIG. 2 showing a modification.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view showing a modified form of bandage package and dispensing means.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary radial cross section through the coiled package structure in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a side elevational view, partly in cross section, showing another modification of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a vertical section taken on line 7--7 of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a side elevational view showing a further modification of the invention.

FIG. 9 is a plan view of the invention as depicted in FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary perspective view of a bandage carrier strip employed in the form of the invention shown in FIGS. 8 and 9.

FIG. 11 is a fragmentary elevational view similar to FIG. 8 depicting the operation of the structure in dispensing individual bandages from the coiled packaging element.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 13 is a partly diagrammatic cross sectional view through the structure shown in FIG. 12.

FIG. 14 is an enlarged side elevational view of the bandage carrier strip employed in FIGS. 12 and 13.

FIG. 15 in an enlarged fragmentary elevational view showing a modification of the invention as depicted in FIGS. 12-14.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring first to the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3, the numeral 20 designates a bandage carrier strip or package body portion preferably formed of plastic but capable of being formed from paper or other suitable sheet material. The material of the strip 20 should be somewhat pliable so that it will remain in a coiled state without difficulty and it should have enough body and stiffness to constitute a secure packaging element for a multitude of sterile bandages 21 of the well known Band-Aid type. Certain plastics are well known and available which possess the desirable physical characteristics for the carrier strip 20. As shown, the carrier strip 20 is channel-like in cross section and possesses side longitudinal flanges 22 which overlap and interfit snugly as shown in FIG. 2 when the strip 20 is coiled to make a package for the bandages 21. The flanges 22 are notched at regular intervals as indicated at 23 to facilitate coiling the channel-like strip and to define individual holders for single bandages 21 which are adapted to be separated from the continuous carrier strip along transverse score lines 24 at the location of each pair of notches 23.

Each bandage 21 has its adhesive coated end portions adhered directly to one face of the carrier strip 20 and in this connection the customary protective masking elements of gauze, paper or plastic for the adhesive portions of the bandage are entirely eliminated and the carrier strip itself serves this protective function in addition to its other functions of enclosing the bandages in a secure and sterile manner and assisting in the dispensing and manipulation thereof from the package to the wound in the simplest possible manner. The overlapping shingled arrangement of the flanges 22 exclude dirt and moisture from the coiled package so that no outer package or box is necessary. The terminal end of the coiled strip may be releasably secured to the periphery of the coil with a small piece of adhesive tape prior to opening the coil for use.

In use, with the coiled package opened as in FIG. 1, a single segment or section 20' of the carrier strip 20 is torn off along the line 24 and the user sets the remainder of the package aside. Each bandage is preferably, although not necessarily, equipped with a small detachable lifting tab 25 which is utilized to lift and strip the bandage from the support element 20' so that the bandage may be applied directly to the wound without further manipulation, such as the removal of adhesive masks and with minimum chance for the bandage pad 26 to become soiled or contaminated. The support element 20' is then discarded into a wastebasket. A side benefit of the invention which fits into present-day ecological aims is a lessening of residue trash, due to the elimination of individual paper containers and tear strings for the bandages, the elimination of adhesive masking strips and the elimination of the outer box or wrapping. It may be seen that the device greatly facilitates the use of a small bandage and increases the speed with which the bandage may reach the wound. The increased convenience of the package over conventional means should now be very clear in view of the foregoing description. It should be pointed out, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, that the bandages 21 may be mounted on both sides of the carrier strip 20 to increase the capacity of the package. If preferred, the bandages need only be applied to one side of the carrier strip such as the interior side. The many advantages of the construction should now be apparent without the need for further description.

FIG. 3 depicts a slight modification of the invention wherein a carrier strip 20a for the bandages 21 has side flanges 22a provided with interior projections 27 adapted to snap into recesses 28 formed in the outer faces of the side flanges. The material of the strip 20a possesses sufficient resiliency for this detent arrangement to be effective for maintaining the carrier strip in coiled formation. When formed of plastic, the elements 27 and 28 may be produced by molding. These elements are optional and the simpler version of the invention in FIGS. 1 and 2 is fully satisfactory and the adjacent convolutions of the coiled package will tend to remain in place by friction forces between the overlapped side flanges 22. The arrangement in FIG. 3 is a bit more positive, however.

FIG. 4 and 5 show a modified embodiment of the invention wherein several coiled bandage packages 29 may be produced and then separated into individual packages by known means. Each such package 29 embodies an elongate carrier strip 30 adapted to carry a plurality of the conventional bandages 21 at least on the interior surface of the coil, as shown. At its longitudinal edges, the strip 30 may have continuous raised ledges 31 whose upper surfaces 32 are coated with a permanently tacky pressure-sensitive conventional adhesive coating. As depicted in FIG. 5, when the strip package is coiled up, the adhesive coated surfaces 32 of ledges 31 will adhere to the opposed exterior faces of the carrier strip 30 so that the package will remain closed and coiled with dirt and moisture excluded until manually uncoiled for dispensing of one or more bandages. As in the prior form of the invention, each carrier strip 30 is provided with equally spaced transverse score lines 33 to facilitate separating individual sections of the carrier strip 30 from the complete coil, each such separated section supporting one bandage 21. After separation from the coiled package, the bandage 21 is utilized in the same manner described above in connection with the first embodiment. As with the first embodiment, the package and dispensing aid for bandages in FIGS. 4 and 5 requires no outer package although the same may be provided if preferred to provide additional advertising space. It is thought, however, that adequate advertising including the usual trademark may be attractively imprinted directly on the exterior face of the carrier strip 20 or 30 constituting the body portion of the package in either form of the invention thus far described.

It should also be mentioned in connection with FIGS. 4 and 5 that in some instances the raised ledges 31 may be eliminated and the adhesive coating will then be applied along the longitudinal edge portions of the strip 30, the latter having the same thickness across its entire width. By making the strip 30 somewhat wider, this alternate arrangement is rendered possible despite the presence of the bandages 21 whose collective bulk is the reason for the provision of the ledges in the first place.

FIGS. 6 and 7 show a simplified embodiment of the invention wherein a plurality of the described bandages 21 shown diagrammatically in FIG. 6 are mounted on at least one side of a coilable carrier strip 34 formed of suitable plastic, paper or the like. The carrier strip 34 may be a plain flat strip without the side flanges 22 or the ledges 31 of the previous embodiments because of the provision of a suitable outer box 35 having an outlet opening 36 at one corner through which the carrier strip and individual bandages may be withdrawn for separation along transverse score lines provided in the strip 34 as previously described. In this case, the outer box 35 is relied upon to maintain the integrity of the package and the sterile condition of the bandages prior to use. This embodiment of the invention possesses the same advantageous features as the prior embodiments in terms of economy and ease of manipulation of the bandages by hand without the need for unwrapping each bandage individually and then removing two adhesive protecting elements before applying a bandage to a wound.

FIGS. 8-11 show an important modification or embodiment wherein a plurality of the bandages 21 are adhesively mounted on a coilable carrier strip 37 having spaced transverse score lines 38 and radially inwardly projecting cell dividers 39 preferably slightly offset from the adjacent score lines as shown in FIG. 10. When the carrier strip 37 is coiled to form the package, FIG. 8, the divider elements 39 in contact with the next adjacent inward convolution of the carrier strip form separate closed cells or compartments 40 for the individual bandages 21 to maintain them secure and clean prior to separation and use. To complete the package structure and to hold the strip 37 tightly coiled prior to opening the package, the two end faces or the coil have applied thereto adhesively a pair of readily frangible cover sheets 41 of thin paper, cellophane or the like. These brittle sheets are adhered to the coiled longitudinal edges of the strip 37 on both sides of the package including the edges of the divider elements 39, so that the two cover sheets are well anchored to the package.

When it is desired to utilize a bandage 21 as depicted in FIG. 11, it is merely necessary to lift with one's finger the leading edge portion 42 of the carrier strip 37 projecting ahead of the first or leading divider element 39. The adjacent small sections of readily frangible paper 41 will tear away from the package as shown in FIG. 11 so that the section 43 of the carrier strip holding the first bandage 21 may be separated from the coiled carrier strip or broken off at the first score line 44. Once separated from the package, the bandage is utilized in the exact manner previously described and the remaining bandages of the package remain secure and fully enclosed in their compartments 40 until a further section 43 of the strip 37 is lifted and separated from the coil. It is believed that the construction and use of the package structure and dispensing means in FIGS. 8 through 11 should now be sufficiently clear without the need for any further description.

With reference to FIGS. 12 through 15, one additional embodiment of the invention is illustrated wherein the elongate bandage carrier strip 45 which may be formed of paper is folded back and forth upon itself in a zigzag manner to form a plurality of separable carrier sections each adapted to support at least one of the bandages 21. The individual support sections for the bandages 21 may be torn off on the folding lines 46 and these lines may be further weakened by scoring or the like, if preferred. The strip 45 may be made in any practical length of accommodate a large number of bandages and in some cases the bandages may be mounted on both sides of the strip between the zigzag folds thereof.

To facilitate manipulating the strip 45 in the dispensing of individual bandages, the folded or collapsed strip is placed snugly into an open-ended rectangular dispensing tube 47 which will retain the strip as shown in FIG. 13. Preferably, each folded section 48 of the strip 45 has opposite side depending flanges 49 formed by folding and these flanges, being somewhat resilient, tend to move outwardly as shown by the two arrows at the top of FIG. 13. Hence the flanges 49 react against the opposing side walls of the dispensing tube 47, FIG. 13, to hold the zigzag folded strip 45 snugly therein until it is desired to dispense one or more bandages. At this time, finger pressure is applied upwardly on the folded strip 45 through the open bottom of the tube or sleeve 47 as indicated by the single arrow at the bottom of FIG. 13. Such upward finger pressure will force the topmost one or two folded sections 48 outwardly at the top of the tube 47 as shown in FIG. 12 so that such sections 48 may be separated from the strip 45 at the transverse folding lines 46. When this is done, the bandage 21 on the section 48 is utilized in the exact manner described in all prior forms of the invention and with the advantage of not having to unwrap the bandage and remove two adhesive masking strips therefrom. It will be seen that the invention in all forms or species possesses the common features of having plural bandages held and enclosed in a secure and sanitary manner for easy dispensing at required times and application to the wound by one hand and with greatly reduced likelihood of soiling or contaminating the bandage prior to application to the wound. In all forms of the invention, manipulation of the bandages is much less awkward than in the conventional prior art and in all forms the invention is economical in construction and well adapted to mass production.

FIG. 15 shows a slight modification of the embodiment in FIGS. 12 through 14, which allows the elimination of the dispensing sleeve 47, if desired. In FIG. 15, each hingedly connected pair of strip sections 48' is detachably secured to the next underlying part of sections by a separable snap fastener means 50 and 51 arranged as shown in FIG. 15. This connecting arrangement will retain the zigzag folded strip 45 in folded form without the use of sleeve or tube 47 and will still allow easy separation of the individual strip sections which carry the bandages 21. The feature of the invention shown in FIG. 15 is an optional one and may be adopted economically when the carrier strip is made of molded material, such as plastic.

It is to be understood that the forms of the invention herewith shown and described are to be taken as preferred examples of the same, and that various changes in the shape, size and arrangement of parts may be resorted to, without departing from the spirit of the invention or scope of the subjoined claims.

Claims

I claim:

1. A package and dispensing aid structure for bandages of a type having two adhesive coated end portions and a gauze pad between said end portions comprising in combination an elongated unitary carrier strip for a multiplicity of said bandages, said carrier strip formed of a non-textile smooth-surfaced sheet material possessing enough flexibility and formability to be shaped into a compact package form and subsequently to have one of its ends extended from the package form to facilitate dispensing said bandages one at a time, a plurality of said bandages mounted on at least one face of said carrier strip in substantially equidistantly spaced tandem relationship with their adhesive coated end portions adhered directly to the opposing surface of the carrier strip and being strippable therefrom, said unitary carrier strip comprising plural individual bandage support sections of substantially equal length and being separable from the carrier strip on transverse lines of separation, each support section being somewhat longer than one of said bandages and one bandage being mounted on each support section, whereby the one bandage may readily be stripped from its support section for application to a wound following separation of the support section from the carrier strip, and means holding the carrier strip and bandages releasably in said package form, said carrier strip comprising a flat body portion and a pair of opposite side flanges projecting from the surface of the carrier strip on which the bandages are mounted, said side flanges interfitting in said package form and enclosing and protecting the bandages along the longitudinal edges of the carrier strip, said side flanges being interrupted at regular intervals along the carrier strip to produce a pair of said side flanges on each individual bandage support section of the carrier strip, said support sections being separable from said strip between adjacent pairs of the side flanges, said carrier strip having transverse score lines formed therein to define the separable bandage support sections, said score lines being disposed between adjacent pairs of said side flanges, and interlocking detent means on at least some of said side flanges releasably holding the carrier strip in said compact package form.

2. A package and dispensing aid structure for bandages of a type having two adhesive coated end portions and a gauze pad between said end portions comprising in combination an elongated unitary carrier strip for a multiplicity of said bandages, said carrier strip formed of a non-textile smooth-surfaced sheet material possessing enough flexibility and formability to be shaped into a compact package form and subsequently to have one of its ends extended from the package form to facilitate dispensing said bandages one at a time, a plurality of said bandages mounted on at least one face of said carrier strip is substantially equidistantly spaced tandem relationship with their adhesive coated end portions adhered directly to the opposing surface of the carrier strip and being strippable therefrom, said unitary carrier strip comprising plural individual bandage support sections of substantially equal length and being separable from the carrier strip on transverse lines of separation, each support section being somewhat longer than one of said bandages and one bandage being mounted on each support section, whereby the one bandage may readily be stripped from its support section for application to a wound following separation of the support section from the carrier strip, and means holding the carrier strip and bandages releasably in said package form, said carrier strip being shaped into a generally circular coil form to produce said compact package form, and a pair of side longitudinal flanges on each support section of the carrier strip extending beyond the surface of the carrier strip on which the bandages are mounted, the side flanges of adjacent convolutions of said coil form being overlapped in shingled relationship to produce substantially annular enclosing chambers for said bandages.

3. A package and dispensing aid structure for bandages of a type having two adhesive coated end portions and a gauze pad between said end portions comprising in combination an elongated unitary carrier strip for a multiplicity of said bandages, said carrier strip formed of a non-textile smooth-surfaced sheet material possessing enough flexibility and formability to be shaped into a compact package form and subsequently to have one of its ends extended from the package form to facilitate dispensing said bandages one at a time, a plurality of said bandages mounted on at least one face of said carrier strip in substantially equidistantly spaced tandem relationship with their adhesive coated end portions adhered directly to the opposing surface of the carrier strip and being strippable therefrom, said unitary carrier strip comprising plural individual bandage support sections of substantially equal length and being separable from the carrier strip on transverse lines of separation, each support section being somewhat longer than one of said bandages and one bandage being mounted on each support section, whereby the one bandage may readily be stripped from its support section for application to a wound following separation of the support section from the carrier strip, and means holding the carrier strip and bandages releasably in said package form, said carrier strip being arranged in a coiled formation in said package form with said bandages, and a pair of end cover sheets of frangible material applied adhesively to the opposite edges of the coiled carrier strip to thereby enclose and protect the bandages in said package form.

4. The structure of claim 3, and said carrier strip being constructed to include a plurality of readily separable support sections with each support section carrying one bandage, the support sections defined by transverse score lines in said carrier strip at regularly spaced intervals, and divider elements on said carrier strip substantially normal to the surface thereof on which the bandages are secured and being offset somewhat longitudinally of the carrier strip from said score lines, adjacent pairs of the divider elements defining along the carrier strip closed compartments for the bandages therein, the removal of one support section with one bandage from the carrier strip causing the removal of only one divider element and thereby leaving the next adjacent compartment secure.

5. A package and dispensing aid structure for bandages of a type having two adhesive coated end portions and a gauze pad between said end portions comprising in combination an elongated unitary carrier strip for a multiplicity of said bandages, said carrier strip formed of a non-textile smooth-surfaced sheet material possessing enough flexibility and formability to be shaped into a compact package form and subsequently to have one of its ends extended from the package form to facilitate dispensing said bandages one at a time, a plurality of said bandages mounted on at least one face of said carrier strip in substantially equidistantly spaced tandem relationship with their adhesive coated end portions adhered directly to the opposing surface of the carrier strip and being strippable therefrom, said unitary carrier strip comprising plural individual bandage support sections of substantially equal length and being separable from the carrier strip on transverse lines of separation, each support section being somewhat longer than one of said bandages and one bandage being mounted on each support section, whereby the one bandage may readily be stripped from its support section for application to a wound following separation of the support section from the carrier strip, and means holding the carrier strip and bandages releasably in said package form, said unitary carrier strip being folded back and forth upon itself in zigzag sections while in said compact package form, each folded section of the carrier strip carrying one bandage adhered thereto.

6. The structure of claim 5, and said means holding said carrier strip and bandages in said compact package form comprising an open-ended rectangular sleeve into which the zigzag folded carrier strip and bandages are snugly inserted removably.

7. The structure of claim 6, and side flanges on each folded section of the carrier strip and being biased outwardly to frictionally contact opposing side walls of said sleeve.

8. The structure of claim 5, and said means holding said carrier strip and bandages releasably in said compact package form comprising releasable interlocking detent means on the carrier strip adjacent the transverse folds thereof.