Gel Soap Dispenser

Abstract

Personal gel soap dispensers include a container, for example, having a size similar to a bar of hand soap or body soap, a quantity of gel soap in the container in an interior hollow space of the container, and at least one through opening, for example, a plurality of through openings extending from an interior hollow space of the container through the container.

1 . A personal gel soap dispenser comprising:
 a container having a top wall, a substantially opposing bottom wall and a sidewall therebetween, the sidewall including a front sidewall and a back sidewall, the container having an interior hollow space between the top and bottom walls and the sidewall and a plurality of through openings from the interior hollow space through the container to outside the container, the container being sized to be held in one hand of a human user; and   a dispense assembly coupled to the container and structured to be activated to cause gel soap located in the interior hollow space to pass out of the interior hollow space through the plurality of through openings, wherein the dispense assembly comprising a movable inner wall located between and separate from the front sidewall and the back sidewall, the movable inner wall being movable between a first position in which the movable inner wall is located spaced apart from the plurality of through openings so as to not urge gel soap in the interior hollow space to pass out of the interior hollow space through the plurality of through openings, and a second position in which the movable inner wall is located closer to the plurality of through openings than with the movable inner wall in the first position, and gel soap in the interior hollow space is passed out of the interior hollow space through the plurality of through openings.   
     
     
         2 . The dispenser of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of through openings extend from the interior hollow space through the front sidewall. 
     
     
         3 . The dispenser of  claim 1 , wherein the dispense assembly comprises a manually operable mechanism. 
     
     
         4 . The dispenser of  claim 3 , wherein the mechanism comprises a plunger element positioned to be pushed by a human holding the container to move the movable inner wall to the second position. 
     
     
         5 . The dispenser of  claim 4 , wherein the movable inner wall is operatively coupled to the plunger element, the movable inner wall having a first side and an opposing second side, the first side defining a first portion of the interior hollow space which is structured to hold a quantity of gel soap, the plunger element being operable to move the movable inner wall to reduce the size of the first portion of the hollow space, and cause gel soap in the interior hollow space to pass out of the interior hollow space through the plurality of through openings. 
     
     
         6 . The dispenser of  claim 1 , wherein the dispense assembly includes a biasing component operatively coupled to the movable inner wall, and being effective to move the movable inner wall from the second position to the first position. 
     
     
         7 . The dispenser of  claim 1  wherein the dispense assembly includes a biasing component operatively coupled to the movable inner wall, the movable inner wall being manually movable from the first position to the second position, and being movable by the biasing component from the second position to the first position. 
     
     
         8 . The dispenser of  claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of through openings has a closed position effective to substantially prevent gel soap in the interior hollow space from passing out of the through opening and an opened position effective to allow gel soap in the interior hollow space to pass out of the through opening in response to activation of the dispense assembly. 
     
     
         9 . The dispenser of  claim 1 , which further comprises a plurality of valves, each valve being coupled to a different through opening of the plurality of through openings, each of the valves being operable to move from a first valve position effective to substantially prevent the gel soap in the interior hollow space from passing out of the coupled through opening and a second valve position effective to allow the gel soap in the interior hollow space to pass out of the coupled through opening in response to activation of the dispenser assembly. 
     
     
         10 . The dispenser of  claim 1 , wherein the container is refillable with gel soap. 
     
     
         11 . The dispenser of  claim 10 , wherein the container includes a passageway spaced apart from the plurality of through openings, the passageway being sized to allow gel soap from outside the container to be placed in the interior hollow space. 
     
     
         12 . The dispenser of  claim 1  which further comprises a scrubbing element secured to the container, and located outside the interior hollow space. 
     
     
         13 . The dispenser of  claim 1 , wherein the container has 2 to about 10 of the through openings. 
     
     
         14 . The dispenser of  claim 1  which further comprises one or more removable barrier elements located over or in the plurality of through openings, and effective to prevent the gel soap in the hollow space from passing through the plurality of through openings. 
     
     
         15 . The dispenser of  claim 1 , wherein the movable inner wall is configured so that gel soap in the interior hollow space is substantially prevented from passing out of the container across the movable inner wall. 
     
     
         16 . The dispenser of  claim 1 , wherein the movable inner wall and at least one of the top and bottom walls and the sidewall are structured to facilitate consistent movement of the movable inner wall between the first position and the second position. 
     
     
         17 . The dispenser of  claim 1  wherein the movable inner wall and at least one of the top wall and the bottom wall and the sidewall include complementary mating structures to facilitate the consistent movement of the movable inner wall between the first and second positions. 
     
     
         18 . The dispenser of  claim 1 , which is structured so that the movable inner wall maintains a substantially constant orientation relative to the front and back wall portions as the movable inner wall is moved between the first and second positions.