The present invention relates to a box-shaped sheet storage container to store any kind of dry sheet such as tissue paper, kitchen paper, cooking sheets and vinyl bags by folding back and overlapping each sheet one above the other one by one.
A conventional removing opening of a box-shaped tissue-paper storage box, made of paper and the like, includes: that in which a tissue-paper fixing sheet which is formed of a high polymer such as a plastic and which has a cut for opening at the center is pasted on the opening of the sheet storage box; that which has an excessive gap at the center of the opening and which is line symmetric or point symmetric, without the above-described fixing sheet being pasted at a sheet-removing opening; and that in which projections forming the rims of the opening are protruded to substantially the center of the opening and which prevents smooth removal of the tissue paper.
Furthermore, normally, the tissue paper is fixed in such a way that half of the tissue paper comes out from the opening and if that tissue paper is pulled out, the next tissue paper underneath is pulled out and is repeatedly fixed in the same way as the previous tissue paper.
Hereinafter, a line formed by folding the tissue paper is considered as a folded line and as illustrated in (1′) of FIG. 1, the edge of the next tissue paper parallel to the folded line is considered as a joint line and when a plurality of tissue paper has been stored, the joint line and folded line are continued.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a sheet wherein, (A) is a diagram illustrating an expanded sheet, (B) is a diagram illustrating a half folded sheet along the folded line (1′), (1) is a sheet, (1′) is a folded line of the sheet, a dotted line circle (1R) is a portion near the right side facing the sheet and a dotted line circle (1L) is the portion near the left side facing the sheet.
Conventionally, two-ply tissue placed on top of each other is considered as one sheet. Furthermore, conventionally there are various methods of folding the tissue paper such as a one time folding method or a two time folding method, and the size of each folded side of the tissue paper and the position of the folded line is not always uniform. The shape of the tissue paper is arbitrarily determined by a manufacturer, and the tissue paper comes in many kinds of shapes.
FIG. 2 is a diagram of a conventional tissue-paper storage box seen from obliquely upward wherein, (2) is a surface on which the tissue paper storage container has a removing opening, (3) is the tissue-paper removing opening obtained after detaching a top lid along the perforated line, (2′) is the top lid removed from (3), (A-A′) is a breadth of the storage box, (B-B′) is a length of the storage box, (C-C′) is a height of the storage box and (d) is a portion near the center of the opening. In a further description, these will also be used as the breadth of the box, length of the box, the height of the box and the portion near the center of the opening.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the is tissue-paper removing opening wherein, (2) is a surface of the storage box with the tissue-paper removing opening, (a-a′) is a line passing through the center of the opening which is parallel or substantially parallel to the folded line (I′) of the sheet, (3′a) at the top and bottom are the rims of the opening present at the line symmetric position at the time of rotating them by considering (a-a′) as an axis and (3′b) is the rim of the opening perpendicular to (a-a′) as well as the rim of the opening present at the line symmetric position at the time of rotating it by considering (a-a′) as the axis.
As explained in the preceding paragraph 0008, (a-a′) is a straight line passing through the center of the opening which is parallel or substantially parallel to the average folded line of sheets from the sheets stored to be removed from the opening. However, (a-a′) is synonymous with (a-a′) of FIG. 3 in the following paragraphs and the following figures as well. Furthermore, the straight line passing through the center of the opening perpendicular to (a-a′) is considered as (b-b′) and also used in the explanations below.
Paragraph 0011 to 0013 and FIG. 4 mentioned below explain the portion of the sheet to be pulled out, to which force is likely to be applied, paragraph 0014 to 0015 mentioned below explain the size of a projection, paragraph 0016 to 0017 and FIG. 5 mentioned below explain the positional relationship between the storage box and the opening and paragraph 0018 to 0021 mentioned below explain the size of the opening.
FIG. 4 is an example illustrating a case of pulling out a tissue paper from the opening of the sheet storage box wherein, (x) is a hand pulling out the tissue paper, (e) and (e′) illustrate the portions of the tissue paper to which force from the hand (x) is likely to be applied, (e) is the portion to which force is likely to be applied at the time of beginning to remove the tissue paper, in other words, at the time when half of the tissue paper is lying inside the storage box, (e′) is the portion to which force is likely to be applied at the time of continuous pulling out, (e) and (e′) are the portions where wrinkled strings are inserted into the tissue paper at the time of pulling out and there are single or a plurality of places generating a resistance near the string caused by friction at the tissue paper and opening.
At the time of beginning to pull the tissue paper, a resistance is generated near (e), which is nearest to the opening, just below the hand and as the tissue paper comes out of the storage box, the resistance with the opening shifts to the portion near both ends of the tissue paper and the shape of the string at that point in time becomes triangular having an apex near the hand.
Furthermore, at the time of pulling out the tissue paper, if the hand holding the tissue paper moves to the right or left, an apical position of (e) and (e′) also moves to the right or left.
As regards the size of the projection formed at the opening, when the projection is small or the width of the projection is narrow and sharp, it is easy to lose the smoothness of the tissue paper at a portion which contacts the rims of the opening due to an effect similar to the effect of spiked shoes depending on the portion of the opening wherein the projection is provided.
Furthermore, if a sharp projection exists at the position near (a-a′), it easily gets caught on a joint line of a newly appearing tissue paper and while pulling out the tissue paper, since the next appearing tissue paper lies over the pulling out tissue paper, if the joint line of the next tissue paper lies on the portion of the pulling out tissue paper where the largest force is applied, the tissue paper can easily fall into the storage box by getting caught.
FIG. 5 is an example illustrating the tissue-paper storage box wherein, (A) is a diagram of the tissue-paper storage box seen from obliquely upward, (B) is a cross sectional diagram of the storage box cut by a straight line parallel to (b-b′), (s) is the line on the surface with the opening parallel to (b-b′), (s) is the line passing through the apex of the projection of the opening, (t) intersects (s) at a right angle wherein, (t) and (s) become one straight line when the storage box is cut open and made flat.
In (B) of FIG. 5, if the angle formed by (s) and (t) is a right angle, the length of (f) is nearly equal to the square root of the sum of the square of (s) and square of (t), however, if (f) is shorter than the half of the length of the sheet, some portion of the sheet can come out of the opening and the sum of (s) and (t) become longer than the length of (f). If the length of the sheet is longer than the sum of (s) and (t), then “Sheet length >(f)” is established and although it is the last remaining sheet in the storage box, only the portion equal to the length of the sheet comes out from the opening.
As regards the structure of the projection in the opening, when pulling out a tissue paper, as the apex of the projection of the opening moves to the position away from the (a-a′) of the opening, the space of the opening becomes wider and it is hard to abut on the joint line of the next appearing tissue paper.
Furthermore, if the apex of the projection of the opening is near (a-a′) of the opening, the space forming a gap of the opening becomes narrow and the joint line of the next appearing tissue paper abuts on the apex of the opposite projection when appearing from the gap at that instant.
In other words, when the apex of the projection forming the opening is at the center of the opposite facing opening, the space between the two apexes of the opposite facing projections gets closer if the location to place the projection is not taken into consideration and the space of the opening becomes narrow, and as a result the probability of the tissue paper falling into the storage box becomes higher.
Furthermore, in a rectangular parallelepiped storage box with a long side and a short side, the long side becomes the straight line parallel or substantially parallel to the (1′) and (a-a′).
The paragraph 0023 to 0032 mentioned below explain the conventional common sheet storage box of FIG. 6 to FIG. 9.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the conventional tissue-paper storage box seen directly from above wherein, (4) is a fixing sheet pasted near the opening similar to (3) of FIG. 2, (5) is a crosswise cut (slit) provided in (4) to function as the opening for removing and fixing the tissue paper.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of the conventional tissue-paper storage box seen from above without a fixing sheet pasted on the tissue-paper removing opening wherein, (6) is the projection provided in (3) to fix the tissue paper, (3) is the line symmetric portion provided above and below the tissue-paper removing opening for fixing the sheet by the projection.
However, according to a method of fixing or removing the tissue paper illustrated in FIG. 7, as the protruding projection is small with a very sharp curve forming the projection and a position held at the time of pulling out the tissue paper is not always at the center, if the tissue paper is held above the projection, there is a possibility of the paper falling into the storage box due to the joint line of the next appearing tissue paper getting caught on the portion where the projection is overlapped with the portion where the strength is concentrated at the narrow range of the tissue paper.
FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of the conventional tissue-paper storage box without the fixing sheet pasted on the tissue-paper removing opening seen from above wherein, the upper and lower portions of the lateral opening (3) have become narrower in shape by the projection (6), as viewed toward the outer side. Due to this structure, a moving range of the tissue paper is reduced and the tissue paper is fixed to the opening by using a repulsive force when the tissue paper tries to restore to a flat shape.
However, according to the method of removing or fixing the tissue paper as illustrated in FIG. 8, at the time of pulling out the tissue paper, the next tissue paper is pulled out in such a way that it is placed above the tissue paper which is being pulled out from the storage container; however, as mentioned above, at the time of beginning to pull the tissue paper, the next appearing tissue paper falls into the storage box as the apex of the projection gets caught at the portion to which force is likely to be applied near the joint line where the next appearing tissue paper has reached.
According to the preceding paragraph 0027 mentioned above, if the amount of the tissue paper in the storage box decreases, the position of the next appearing tissue paper becomes relatively lower as compared to the position of the rim of the opening and thus the probability of tissue paper falling into the storage box becomes higher as the joint line of the tissue paper can easily abut on the projection of the rim of the opening.
Furthermore, the tissue paper from the box illustrated in FIG. 8 is removed from the wider openings on the right and left of the projection. At the time of removing the sheet, since the paper is drawn by inserting a finger from either the left or right side hole, it is obviously more difficult to take the paper out, because it is not possible to take the paper out evenly from the right or left, than a case where the center and its surrounding area are drawn, and the opening has to be reduced to some extent to fix the sheet, otherwise it is difficult to remove the tissue paper.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the conventional tissue-paper storage box without the fixing sheet pasted at the tissue-paper removing opening seen from above wherein, (6′) is the projection provided in (3) for fixing the tissue paper, (6″) is the projection provided in opening (3) for fixing the tissue paper by narrowing its moving range.
However, according to FIG. 9, the tissue paper is fixed by narrowing the moving range but, similar to the preceding FIG. 8, the opening has a shape having the apex of the projection near its center, and the same problem described above occurs.
Furthermore, in conventional sheet storage boxes, the projection is raised by inserting the folded line near the bottom of the projection opposite the apex of the projection but, if the projection is raised, the resistance at the time of removing a sheet is reduced and when a sheet falls into the storage box, it takes quite a bit of effort to pull it out since the projection abuts on the finger and if the shape of the projection is complicated, it requires even greater effort.
Paragraph 0034 to 0047 and FIGS. 10 to 16 mentioned below explain the tissue-paper storage box with a point symmetrical opening.
If the projection is placed at the point symmetric position of the opening, although the sheet is pulled from the front side of the sheet or back side of the sheet which is present above the opening, a wide space and narrow space are generated in the opening space of either the right side ((1R) of FIG. 1)) or left side ((1L) of FIG. 1) of one sheet and it is possible to provide the portion that easily makes contact with the opening and the portion that easily appears from the opening on one sheet. Furthermore, if the shape of the projection is a smooth protruding curve, the sheet to be pulled out can be easily made to slide.
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a sheet-removing opening wherein, (7) is the sheet-removing opening which is of a point symmetric shape and nonlinear symmetric shape with respect to the (a-a′) axis, (7a) is the long side of the opening and (7b) is the short side of the opening.
Furthermore, the opening illustrated in FIG. 10 can be considered to be of the shape such that it can be moved in the clockwise or counterclockwise direction by considering the center of the opening as the axis and the length or inclination of (7a) and (7b) can be considered to be changed.
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of the sheet-removing opening, the shape of which has become line symmetric with four sides of equal length illustrated in FIG. 10 wherein, the opening has a point symmetric shape and the rim of the opening with an equal length of upper and lower (7R) and upper and lower (7L) is line symmetric with respect to (a-a′).
FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example wherein, the rim of the opening placed point symmetric with respect to the point has formed a curve on the basis of FIG. 11 and is a point symmetric opening with nonlinear symmetry.
Similar to FIG. 10, the opening illustrated in FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 may be set in such a way to rotate it in the clockwise direction or counterclockwise direction by considering the center of the opening as the axis and the length or inclination of the rim of the opening can be changed.
FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of the sheet-removing opening wherein, an intersection of (a-a′) and (b-b′) is (d), (d′) is the circle near the center of the tissue-paper removing opening, an opening (7) has a depression (10) between the rims of the opening (9) and outside from the apex of the projection (8), the line symmetric rim of the opening has the nonlinear symmetric shape (11) by considering (a-a′) of (8) as the axis with the point symmetric sheet-removing opening.
Similar to the above opening, the opening having the shape so that the opening can be rotated in the clockwise direction or counterclockwise direction by considering (d) as the axis can be considered.
FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of the projected portion of the sheet-removing opening wherein, (12) shows that the apex of the projection does not exceed (a-a′), (12′) shows that the apex of the projection is of the same height as that of (a-a′) and (12″) shows that the apex of the projection exceeds (a-a′).
If the shape of the opening is point symmetric with nonlinear symmetry with respect to (a-a′), then a projection that exceeds (a-a′) can be used.
FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of the sheet-removing opening wherein, the opening is such that the height of the projection is perpendicular to the folding line of the sheet i.e., perpendicular to (a-a′) and the projection is formed from the two straight lines (13) and (13′).
Furthermore, the opening illustrated in FIG. 15 can be considered to be the opening the same as mentioned above wherein, the opening is set at the position to rotate it in the clockwise direction or counterclockwise direction.
FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of a cover made of a cloth to cover the sheet storage box wherein, (14) is the cover main body, (14′) is the sheet-removing opening provided on (14), and there is an opening designed to insert the storage box with rubber forming a ring at the bottom of (14). When the storage box is inserted at any position from the opening designed to insert the storage box, rubber of the opening designed to insert the storage box is shrunk and the cover is fixed but, many other styles also exist.
According to the point symmetric opening with nonlinear symmetry, the spatial gap between the projection of the opening and the rims of the opening opposite the projection across (a-a′) becomes wide and the sheet holding power by the rims of the opening becomes weak since the sheet moves too far away from the rims of the opening.
Hereinafter, “paragraph 0049 explains Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2008-137686,” “paragraph 0050 to 0053 explain Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2003-040361,” “paragraph 0054 explains Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2005-225563,” “paragraph 0055 to 0057 explain Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2006-016069,” “paragraph 0058 explains Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2006-027648,” “paragraph 0059 and 0060 explain Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2008-162623,” “paragraph 0061 and 0062 explain Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2002-104549” and “paragraph 0063 to 0065 explain Domestic Republication WO2005/108238.”
In Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2008-137686, it has been explained that a pair of projections are provided near the point symmetric position of the opening and the projections allow the sheets to be fixed and smoothly removed. However, the form mentioned in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2008-137686 has drawbacks mentioned in the preceding paragraph 0047 hereof wherein, the opening has only single direction inclination with respect to the front side or back side of the sheet and the opening needs to be extremely inclined to reduce the space of the opening. When the cover made of cloth, etc., is used to cover the sheet storage box as illustrated in FIG. 16, the central portion of the sheet becomes difficult to remove from the opening and the sheets again slide and fall into the storage box due to the poor method of removing the sheets.
In Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2003-040361, it has been explained that the two pairs of flaps are provided wherein, these two pairs of flaps are intended to be different in shape when facing opposite each other and similar in shape when placed diagonally and forms the point symmetry with respect to the center point of the opening in the planar view (Refer to page 4, left column, line 1 to line 5, and FIG. 2 of the publication). Furthermore, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2003-040361 also explains that, the space to insert the finger tips is formed by a half space to insert the finger tip positioned at one side and a half space to insert the finger tip positioned at the other, side across a horizontal central line passing through the center of the opening and the half spaces to insert the finger tips are formed by displacing them by a specified distance respectively toward alternate sides (Refer to the page 4, left column, line 15 to line 20 of the publication).
According to Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2003-040361, it is understood that picking sheets one after another needs to be made easy by providing different projections for the opening of a wet tissue storage box wherein, a convex surface and a concave surface face each other and elastic deformation must be made easy by partially thinning the projection to pull out the sheets easily, since wet tissues tend to stick to each other because of moisture and also tend to slip at the opening of the storage box because of moisture.
In other words, according to Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2003-040361, a total two pairs of projections having different shapes are formed at two opposite corners of the opening wherein, one pair of projections has a sharp angle and another pair of projections has a depression. The main method for fixing the sheets is determined by partially pushing the sheet by the projections and since the four projections are not formed by convex curves, tissue paper cannot be fixed or moved without rendering too much resistance to the tissue paper.
Furthermore, as regards the finger tip insertion space present in the opening with the flap mentioned in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2003-040361, the opening with a flap mentioned in the “prior art in the specification and FIG. 11 of Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2003-040361” also has the finger tip insertion space and it is understood that the finger tip insertion space mentioned in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2003-040361 is present only in the opening with a flap mentioned in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2003-040361.
In Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2005-225563, it has been mentioned that the sheet-removing opening has a slit and the shape is point symmetric with nonlinear symmetry. However, if the sheet is inserted too much into the slit depending on the shape, the sheet is torn at the time of removing and the space for removing the sheets become too large if a slit is not used and this resulted in a drawback similar to the drawback mentioned in paragraph 0047 hereof.
In Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2006-016069, it has been mentioned that “the slit on the nonlinear line consists of a substantially circular curve formed substantially at the center of the upper plate and a straight line of specified length toward a substantially corner portion of the upper plate from both ends of the curve (Refer to page 3, line 50 to page 4, line 3 of the publication). However, this opening has a shape such that it always comes in contact when projections are formed on the same plane.
In Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2006-016069, it has been mentioned in paragraph 0027, page 6 of the publication that the flap is closed when the tissue paper is pulled out and it has been mentioned in paragraph 0029, page 7 of the publication that if the flap loses resistance it does not work properly. There are two apexes of projections on one side rim and one apex on the opposite side rim and if the flap does not work properly, the tissue paper may get caught near the apex of the projection.
In Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2006-016069, it has been mentioned in paragraph 0025, page 6 of the publication that the flap is slightly opened and fingers are inserted inside. However, the flap of the opening is like a covering lid and the flap may get in the way of fingers at the time of removing tissue paper in the storage box which makes it difficult to remove the tissue paper. Care must be exercised so as not to open the flap excessively and lose return of the flap.
According to Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2006-027648, a pair of point symmetric projections is present near the center of the opening; however, the tissue paper must be removed from either the right opening space or left opening space due to the narrow center of the opening. Furthermore, the central projection may hinder movement of the tissue paper.
In Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2008-162623, it has been mentioned on the page 2, claim 1, line 10 to line 12 of the publication that “the rim of the removing opening has . . . a pair of first rim portions facing each other across a longitudinal central line.”
In other words, the opening is such that, at the time of beginning to pull out the sheets from the storage box, the next sheet is likely to get caught as the apex of the projection is present near the portion to which force is likely to be applied on the sheet and since the wide finger tip insertion space cannot be provided in the center of the opening as it is not point symmetric, it requires quite a bit of effort to insert fingers in the storage box from the opening when the sheet falls into the storage box.
In Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2002-104549, it has been mentioned on page 2, left column, claim 1, line 10 to line 12 of the publication that “Each rim portion facing the opening, has a plurality of curve shape convex portions formed by flat surfaces projecting toward inside the opening” and according to the diagram, it is understood that the plurality of projections present in the opening are present at the position the same as or similar to the line symmetry.
In other words, if there are two pairs of projections opposite each other with acute angles, the shape similar to or the same as that mentioned in the preceding FIG. 7 is formed and the same problems as that mentioned in the preceding FIG. 7 occur. If there are more than two pairs of projections, although there is no problem with wet sheets, the movement of the next appearing dry tissue paper is readily hindered.
In Domestic Republication WO2005/108238, it has been mentioned on page 2, claim 1, line 7 to line 11 of the publication that “the removing opening has . . . a pair of supporting portions to support . . . and the rim of each of the support portions is facing toward the center in the longitudinal direction and forms a uniform bulge with a gentle curvature.” From this description it is understood that, this portion is the same as or similar to the projections described in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9.
Furthermore, in Domestic Republication WO2005/108238, it has been mentioned on page 2, claim 8 and FIG. 7 of the publication that, a pair of projections has a wavy line shape and this portion has problems the same as or similar to the problems described in paragraph 0061 and 0062 hereof.
Furthermore, in Domestic Republication WO2005/108238, it has been mentioned on page 2, line 12 to line 14 of the publication that “can be raised . . . of the rim of the supporting portion” and it has been mentioned on page 2, line 48 to line 50 of the publication that “at the outer location in the width direction of the rim of the supporting portion, . . . , the supporting portion can be raised upward respectively by considering a compressed line designed for raising as the raising line.” From this description it is understood that although it is indicated to raise the projection, it takes quite a bit of effort to take the tissue paper since the projection abuts on a hand or a finger when the tissue paper decreases in number and falls into the storage box if the projection is raised.
As mentioned above, although pasting the sheet-fixing sheet on the sheet-removing opening is suitable for removing the sheets, it is wasteful from the point of view of resources.
As mentioned above, when the sheet-fixing sheet is not pasted on the opening of the sheet storage box, the fixing of sheets becomes weaker as the opening itself becomes larger due to the excessively wide rim of the opening and when the rims of the opening are made too close, the rim of the opening partially becomes smaller and the resistance to remove the sheets becomes too large.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional sheet storage boxes, an object of the present invention is to effectively configure a portion by which the sheet can be stuck smoothly and a portion where the sheet can be easily taken from the opening by making the shape of the rim of the sheet-removing opening of the sheet storage box such that the movement of the sheet is reduced by adequately reducing the spatial area of the opening and converting the rim of the opening to a convex shape smooth curve so as to slide the sheets easily and by changing the height of the projection of similarly shaped face-to-face rims of the opening of two pairs of main rims of the opening at opposite corners.