Patent Application
20070228208
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus for dispensing lengths of absorbent material from a roll or stack of absorbent material such as paper towels, toilet paper or other wiping materials.
2. Description of Related Art
In conventional sheet dispensing apparatus, material from a supply roll or stack of absorbent material is incrementally dispensed through a dispensing opening in a housing. In some dispensers, the sheets may pass between a drive roller and a pinch roller, while still connected to the supply roll and then are dispensed through the dispensing opening. A cutting device may be at the dispensing opening to separate the lengths of material from the supply roll upon dispensing.
A problem with conventional devices is that the material may become jammed in the nip area between the drive roller and the pinch roller. This requires the device to be serviced to remove the jam before the dispenser can properly continue dispensing material.
Several attempts have been made to solve the above-noted problem including a recent attempt shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,994,408 to Brunnel. The device of Brunnel is complicated in that it requires not only a specialized pinch roller, but a specialized housing as well.
An object of the invention is to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art, or to alleviate the shortcomings of the prior art at least in part.
Another object of the invention is to have a relative simple device for removing a jam that can preferably be used in existing housings.
The above and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following details description of preferred embodiments thereof, given with reference to the accompanying drawing figures, in which:
Within the housing is a roll of absorbent material R (see
As further seen in
In a preferred embodiment, a disengagement mechanism 19 may be a means for pivoting the pinch roller to effectuate movement of the first end 4 of the pinch roller 2 from the first position to the second position.
In the embodiment of
The support plate 13 may include an opening such as a slot or a circular hole, such as hole 24 that receives the first end 7 of drive roller 5. A second support plate 23, which is similar to the first support plate 13, but does not necessarily include the disengagement mechanism, has additional openings 32, 34 to receive the respective second ends 6, 9 of the pinch roller and the drive roller. The support plate 13 and the second support plate 23 may further include a pin 27 to pivotally receive cutting member 29. Bushings, such as bushing 26 may be on the first end 4 of the pinch roller to provide a bearing surface between the first end 4 and the support plate 13 as well as a spacer between the disengagement mechanism 19 and the support plate 13.
In a presently preferred embodiment, the dispensing apparatus 10 may be a hands-free dispenser that dispenses a length of material upon certain conditions being met, such as the activation of a sensor. Such an embodiment may include a motor 40 and an object detection device 50. The motor 40 drives the drive roller 5 when the motor 40 is triggered to activate, upon the object detection device 50 detecting an object. The object may be a user's hand. However, the type of sensing is not limited in this invention, and could be for example passive or active infrared sensing, or capacitive proximity sensing.
In addition, other embodiments are envisioned such as the “hands-free mechanical” type dispenser or a dispenser that is activated by a mechanical lever or the like.
The roll of absorbent sheet material R to be dispensed from the dispenser may either be a continuous imperforate roll, which is detached from the roll by the user pulling the dispensed sheet against a cutting blade, or may instead be a partially pre-cut web in which the force of the user pulling on the dispensed sheet serves to sever the tabs that connect the dispensed sheet to the next sheet to be dispensed, as is common in hands-free mechanical dispensers. Those pre-cuts can be made either during manufacturing converting of the roll, or in-situ by a blade in the dispenser that pre-cuts the tail of the sheet as it is being dispensed. It is also possible to employ the invention in a dispenser for discrete folded pieces of absorbent sheet material.
In a presently preferred embodiment, the motor 40, the object detection device 50, the drive roller 5, the pinch roller 2, the cutting member 29 and the disengagement mechanism 19 are part of a removable cassette 60. As seen in
Although description is made with respect to a disengagement mechanism being on the side of the cassette 60 opposite the gears 66 of the drive roller 5, it is contemplated that a disengagement mechanism could be on either or both sides of the cassette 60.
Returning to
As to the roll or stack of absorbent material, the term absorbent material as used herein embraces not only paper products such as paper towels and napkins, but also absorbent nonwoven materials not normally classed as papers or tissues. Such nonwoven materials include pure nonwovens and hybrid nonwoven/pulp webs whose properties are similar to those of tissue paper, but which are based for example on nonwoven or airlaid materials containing low amounts of synthetic fibers, binders, wet strength agents and the like. An example of such a material would be a wetlaid or foam-formed hydraulically entangled nonwoven material comprising at least 30% by weight pulp fibers and at least 20% by weight manmade fibers or filaments.
In operation, as seen in
When the sheets are not being dispensed from the dispensing apparatus because of a jam or other malfunction, a maintenance person or other person authorized to unlock the locking assembly 25 may unlock the locking assembly 25 and then rotate the front cover 15 toward him/her. This person would then manually depress the button 16 of the disengagement mechanism 19 to move the pinch roller 2 from the first position to the second position to relieve tension on the web of material. Once the tension on the web of material is relieved, the web of material may be readily dislodged from the nip area 11 to remove the jam.
The invention has been described in detail with respect to presently preferred embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those of skill in the art that changes or modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. The invention should not be limited by the disclosed embodiments and rather should be defined by the appended claims.
