Many different forms of application bars, such as soap bars, have been described in the prior art. A significant disadvantage associated with the prior art soap bars is that the surfaces of the soap bars are often extremely slippery and may be hard to grasp firmly with the hands. It can be very frustrating to have to search for and pick up the soap that has slipped from one's hand into the bath tub when one is bathing or showering. Furthermore, it is desirable that the soap bar can be grasped by the user in such a fashion that the user may manipulate the soap bar in a brushing fashion having the largest flat area of the soap placed in physical contact with the body surface to be lathered.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,443 discloses a soap bar structure which comprises an internal soap bar insert and an external scrub brush. The soap bar insert can be slid into the scrub brush by an interlocking groove. The scrub brush has a high outside surface friction which affords easy handling by the hands.
Two other examples which also employ a different material than soap include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,741,852 and 6,190,079. Both patents teach a soap bar structure which contains a fabric or nylon portion to afford easy handling.
These structures all share some common disadvantages. First of all, the requirement of a second material in addition to soap adds to the difficulty and expense of manufacturing. Secondly, the additional material may not be resistant to the high temperature treatment entailed when the soap mixture is poured into the mold. Lastly, since an extraneous structure is included in the soap bar, it might fall off when a portion of the soap is inevitably eroded.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,583 discloses a soap bar comprising a projecting member which provides an aperture for receiving the user's fifth or little finger. This design has several disadvantages. Firstly, the irregular shape of the soap bar makes it more difficult to pack, transport and store. Secondly, this design puts too much strain on the little finger, which is of course, typically the smallest and weakest finger on someone's hand. Lastly, the addition of a projecting member off the soap bar makes it aesthetically less appealing to users.
Therefore, there remains a need for a substance application bar having a generally conventional cake form, but which is easily and stably held and manipulated by the user during bathing or showering.
Another well recognized disadvantage of soap bars is the deterioration which the soap undergoes when it is left in a soap holder. Water tends to remain on the cake soap or soap bar after use. If the soap is not dried quickly after it is put in a soap holder the surface of the soap will frequently soften and erode away. This results in undue waste and a much shorter lifespan of the cake soap or soap bar. The problem is even more acute when, for example, the container used to hold the soap does not have holes at the bottom to drain water that may be retained on the surface of the soap. Another factor that increases the waste occurs when a large area of the soap container's bottom touches the soap, thus preventing the ventilation and drying of the soap.
Numerous attempts have been made to reduce or eliminate this deterioration. Most of the prior attempts focus on the designing of a soap holder which would afford a small touching interface. One such example is a soap case with a ribbed bottom surface as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,529. Another extreme example of such an approach is an “X” shaped cord support of a soap bar wherein the bar is supported only by two lines.
Although these soap bar holders provide better ventilation, and thus faster drying of the soap bars, they may nevertheless shorten the lifespan of the soap by effecting a cut in the soap bar with the rib and the cords. Moreover, since all the above designs focus on the holder or case of the soap bars in order to preserve the soaps, they do not afford improvement in the soap bars themselves to achieve the preservation. The present invention eliminates the need for such specialized soap bar holders.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,007 does disclose an improvement of the soap bar itself in order to retard the deterioration of the soap bar from the bottom. In that patent, a base portion of the soap is made to be substantially water insoluble. The desired material for the water insoluble base portion may be plastics, metals, formed plastics and the like. One obvious disadvantage of this design is that when the soap is provided from a heated mixture into the mold, the material for the base portion might not be able to withstand the heat. The inclusion of another material in addition to the soap mixture will also raise the manufacturing cost of the soap bars.
Numerous patents have attempted to find other ways of preventing waste of soap by using the remaining fragments left of a soap bar. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,931,035 discloses a soap bar with a hollowed-out core. The core is filled with small remaining pieces of soap bars and a congealed mass of a soap solution. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,008 discloses a bar of soap having a recessed portion for receiving another used piece of soap. The used piece of soap may be adhered to a recessed portion of the bar by wetting the contact surface of the used piece of soap and the bottom surface of the recessed portion of the bar and depressing the used piece of soap into the recessed portion. U.S. Pat. No. 5,250,210 discloses a soap bar construction for incorporating partially used soap bars to avoid waste. These soap bars have a top cavity to accommodate a partially used soap bar or components thereof for reuse and remolding of the soap components. A modification of the invention includes an end cavity arranged for further receiving soap bar components and a cap member arranged to direct the components within the soap bar for reuse. The bar is not designed for easy handling and does not address the problem of waste associated with prolonged exposure to fluids.
Thus, there still remains a need for a substance application bar which has the advantage of preventing waste by minimizing contact between the substance application bar and fluids such as water. Preferably the feature is afforded by some structure that is an integral part of the substance application bar that does not employ another material that might be destroyed by heat.
Soap bar containers, soap dishes, and packaging for soap bars are also well-known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,604 discloses a small soap bar embedded in the cavity of another, larger soap bar. The bottom of the cavity has an imprinted design, preferably having a raised design. As a result of the construction of this soap, it is possible to maintain the imprinted mark visible throughout the usage period of the soap bar even when the original imprinted mark on the surface of the smaller bar has already been washed or worn away.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,757 discloses a combined package and dish structure for a soap bar product. A box is dimensioned to permit the soap bar product to be fitted therein. A plurality of rods extend between two opposing sides of the box near the bottom. When the box is used as a package, the soap bar product is positioned in the box resting on the rods, and a covering is provided for the top of the box. When used as a soap dish, the box is inverted to permit the soap bar product to rest on top of the rods.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,376 discloses a container for a soap bar where the container is formed from first and second mating sections that are hollowed out to form a soap bar-receiving chamber when the sections are mated. The container is constructed to minimize the chances of a wet soap bar sticking to the walls of the chamber and to facilitate air flow through the chamber.
These containers have not satisfactorily solved the above-mentioned problems because they do not aid in the grasping of the soap bar. Moreover, they do not provide the versatility of an application bar that may act as packaging, soap dish or the soap itself.