This invention relates to flexible packages and more particularly to hand held dispensing systems for dispensing flowable materials from a flexible pouch.
Some fast food businesses make use of a hand-held dispenser to dispense flowable viscous food products, such as condiments, to the fast food that they offer. The viscous food product, e.g., sour cream, is held within a paperboard tube that is inserted into what amounts to a “caulking gun” type of dispenser to dispense metered amounts of the product onto the food served. While such a caulking gun-paperboard tube dispensing system is generally suitable for its intended purpose, it is desired to replace the paperboard tube with a flexible pouch to reduce the packaging costs and the amount of used packaging waste.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,373 (Christine) discloses a portable dispensing system making use of a dispenser for receipt of a fitmentless pouch holding a flowable material, e.g., a condiment. The pouch includes a main body made of a flexible material and a discharge portion which is integral with the main body. The dispenser is in the form of a hollow body with two ends. A head is removably mounted on one end of the body and has an opening therethrough. A piston mechanism is removably mounted at the other end of the body. A valve mechanism for opening in response to pressure created by the piston mechanism is mounted on the head adjacent the opening. The valve mechanism includes a casing, a jaw slidably mounted on the casing for movement between an opened and closed position, and a spring mechanism urging the jaw to the closed position and yielding to pressure increases in the body. The discharge portion of the pouch is arranged to pass through the opening of the head of the dispenser for engagement with the jaw to dispense a metered amount of the flowable material.
Other dispensing systems making use of hand-held dispensers in which flexible pouches containing viscous materials, e.g., condiments, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,931 (Robards, Jr. et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,572 (Lane, Jr. et al.)
While the above identified systems are generally suitable for their intended purposes, they are rather complex.
Thus, a need exists for a simple hand-holdable dispensing system which is easy to use and suitable for dispensing precise metered amounts of a viscous material, e.g., a condiment, from a flexible pouch upon each actuation of the dispenser's trigger and without dripping or oozing of the material from the pouch after each dispensing operation. Moreover, the system should be capable of enabling the ready opening of the pouch for the initial dispensing operation without any portion of the pouch becoming loose and entering the food being prepared. The subject invention addresses those needs.