Baxter Travenol Laboratories, Inc.

Leonard A White

James L Cabernoch

Peter C Carveth

A disposable container is provided that has a semi-rigid generally concave body and a collapsible panel sealing an open mouth of the semi-rigid body. An access assembly is mounted to the outside surface of the semi-rigid body. Liquid sealed within the semi-rigid body by the collapsible panel is removed through the access assembly, during which removal the collapsible panel collapses to generally conform to the generally concaved shape of the body. Space efficient assemblies of these disposable containers are also provided.

Disposable containers having collapsible panel

A disposable, ready-to-use container such as a nursing container is provided which includes a protection compartment separating the nipple or other dispensing member from the infant formula or other stored substance until the time of use. The protection compartment is partially defined by and is separated from the storage compartment by a breakable line of securement extending across the interior of the container. When the line of securement is manually broken from the container-exterior, the stored infant formula is allowed to enter the now open protection compartment for open communication through the nipple. An enclosure chamber about the nipple may also be provided in combination with the protection compartment, to separate the nipple from the environment. Alternatively to the enclosure chamber, a nipple cover including two flexible tabs interposed and secured between the container sheet material and the nipple may be provided. The tabs are sealed together with a frangible seal which may be opened to access the nipple.

Container such as a nursing container, having protection compartment for

A container such as a nursing container, and packaging arrangement are disclosed of the type employing a rigid outer sleeve or holder and a flexible inner container. The inner container is pre-filled and sterilized and attached to an access assembly such as a nipple assembly for dispensing the contents. The access assembly, in one embodiment, is attached to and closes one end of the sleeve. In another embodiment, the access assembly is enclosed by the outer sleeve, one end of which is frangibly removable to access the access assembly. A flexible sheet may also be provided to simultaneously seal the ends of a plurality of containers and join them together in an integral packaging arrangement.

Container such as a nursing container, and packaging arrangement therefor

Infant nurser or similar article

A nipple assembly is disclosed for attachment to sealed nursing containers which includes accessing means for accessing the container contents by manipulating the nipple assembly. In one embodiment, the accessing means is disposed within a flexible nipple and is movable to pierce the container wall upon lateral compression or squeezing of the nipple. Other embodiments access the container contents by axially compressing or rotating the nipple assembly. Protective covers for the nipple assemblies are disclosed which cooperate to permit the particular manual manipulation needed to access the contents without direct human contact with the nipple surface. Also shown are particular features of a flexible container to which the nipple assemblies may be attached.

Self-opening nipple construction and nursing container

An improved disposable liquid container adapted for infant nursing is provided for maintaining nursing liquid in a sterile or aseptic condition until dispensed therefrom. Rigid penetrating means carried by a semirigid support member penetrate a compartment closing diaphragm to allow nursing liquid to flow from the compartment to a communicating, attached nipple. The semirigid support member is integral with the liquid compartment and substantially preserves its shape as the fluid is dispensed therefrom. Flexible walls of the container are allowed to collapse together as the fluid is dispensed to prevent excessive ingestion of air by a nursing infant. The attached nipple is maintained in a clean, uncontaminated, sterile, or aseptic condition until use by means of separable sealing tabs or a discardable cover. Additional embodiments provide a flexible container which may safely be placed upright on cannula adjacent said generally sharpened tip portion to allow fluid to flow through said flow passageway when said tip portion penetrates said penetrable means.

Liquid container with integral opening apparatus

An artifical nipple is disclosed which is interactive with an infant to provide a stimulus/response operation. The nipple portion has a generally cylindrically shaped, but undulated deformable outer wall closed at one end and a resilient elongated member disposed interior of the outer wall, depending from the closed end. The elongated member is spaced from the interior of the outer wall to define an annular chamber such that an infant will meet two levels of resistance to lateral compression of the nipple and a plurality of dispensing apertures provided communicating with said annular chamber, so that fluid flows through certain of said apertures in a manner responsive to infant suckling action. A nursing container utilizes the artificial nipple and a flexible fluid container is sealed to the nipple portion along a tapered shoulder. The nursing container may be made by injecting molten elastomeric material into a mold cavity defining a nipple including a radially extending base portion with a tapered annular shoulder. A plastic sheet with an aperture is situated with peripheral edge of the aperture adjacent the portion of the mold defining the tapered shoulder. The nipple is simultaneously molded and sealed to the plastic sheet, and the sheet is subsequently formed into a fluid container.

Nipple and nursing container

A container is disclosed having a semi-rigid or rigid shell, a co-extensive flexible liner weakly or temporarily adhered to the shell and an access site defined in the container wall to which an access assembly may be attached. The access site is preferably defined by an annular fold in the container wall which tightly captures the liner to provide a mechanical peripheral seal between the shell and liner around the access site to prevent leakage of liquid, into the area between the shell and liner. The container is particularly useful as a nursing container, including a nipple access site with an attached nipple assembly.

Container such as a nursing container, with flexible liner and access

A generally non-transparent substrate is rendered substantially transparent, for example at a particular location or locations thereon, by electrostatically depositing finely divided transparentizing particles onto the substrate and then heating those particles to facilitate their flow into the intersticies of the substrate. The transparentizing particles have an optical refractive index that is substantially the same as that of the substrate, and these transparentizing particles have a melting point greater than that encountered during handling and storage and less than the temperature at which the substrate would be damaged.

Transparentizing

A cellular seal coating is provided for uses such as assembling composite packages, which cellular seal coating is formed by electrostatically depositing finely divided, electrostatically chargeable bonding agent particles onto a preassembly member. Such bonding agent particles include a chemical blowing or foaming agent or system which forms gas bubbles when heated or otherwise energized in order to alter the thickness and strength of the seal coating so that it may, for example, fill gaps along assembly locations of a package or other article.

Cellular seal coating

A unitary, thermoformed container having an undercut or re-entrant seal flange is provided. The container is made in a molding method and apparatus in which a flange-forming portion thereof has a short-stroke gate assembly that opens after the unitary, thermoformed container has been formed in order to provide an exit path away from the molding cavity to permit ready removal of the thermoformed container out of the molding cavity and its flange-forming portion.

Method for forming container having re-entrant flange

A child-proof pill dispenser sealed against contamination is disclosed in the illustrative embodiments. The dispenser includes a pair of relatively rotatable members, which are normally prevented from rotation by axially biased teeth. A force applied against the bias disengages the teeth and permits the members to rotate. Rotation of the members opens a passage for automatic delivery of a pill. The pill is delivered from a storage compartment through an encircled passage into one of the hands required for operating the dispenser. The dispenser has a compression seal between the members for preventing contamination.

Pill dispenser

A system for indicating the presence of water in a sterile package is shown in the illustrative arrangement by the use of a water soluble pattern of ink or dye behind a gas permeable barrier provided to such package to enable sterilization of the package contents. The pattern is printed either on the paper of the barrier or on the sealing coating provided on the barrier paper for attachment to the package shell or it is printed on a separate member deposited in the package.

Growing community of inventors

Gurnee, IL, United States of America

Leonard A White