Patent Application
20100108706
Disposable towels or wipes may be used in a variety of applications including, but not limited to, personal care for cleaning or wiping a portion of a person, medical applications such as in a hospital, testing or care facility, and agricultural applications such as in the farming industry. The towels or wipes may be either moistened or dry and may be used on the body of a person, on an animal, or on a surface.
Disposable towels or wipes are often formed as a continuous strip of material that is adapted to be separated into individual wipes by perforations extending laterally across the strip. Such traditional wipes are generally provided in a cylindrical roll and are dispensed by pulling the wipes from the inside or center of the roll. The roll is typically housed in a cylindrical container such as a 5-gallon plastic bucket. The container typically has an opening on one end through which the wipes are pulled. As the perforations clear the opening, the individual wipes can be separated from the strip by tearing the roll along the perforation.
However, there are several problems with such wipes and wipe dispensers. For instance, when a wipe is pulled from the container and separates from the roll at the perforation, the next wipe in the roll may not remain exposed through the opening in the container and instead may fall back into the container. This causes a user to have to open the container (e.g., by removing the lid from the plastic bucket) to retrieve the free end of the roll and thread it back through the opening in the container. It can often be difficult and time consuming to open the container and rethread the wipes through the cover. Additionally, the roll of wipes are often used repeatedly throughout the day; having to rethread the roll of wipes can represent a substantial amount of lost time for a worker and frustration. It would be advantageous to provide a wipe dispenser that addresses one or more of the problems described above.
One embodiment relates to a closure mechanism for a wipe dispenser including a generally circular body having a plurality of tabs located on an exterior diameter of the body and configured to be removably coupled to a wipe dispenser. The body also has at least one opening located on an interior portion of the body. The at least one opening is configured to receive a wipe. A lid is hingedly coupled to the body and the closure mechanism is configured to be easily removed from the wipe dispenser to provide access to the roll of wipes.
Another embodiment relates to a cover for a wipe dispenser including a cover configured to be removably coupled to a wipe dispenser. A closure mechanism is removably coupled to the cover. The closure mechanism includes a generally circular body having at least one opening located on an interior portion of the body. The at least one opening is configured to receive a wipe. A lid is hingedly coupled to the body. The closure mechanism has a plurality of tabs provided on an exterior diameter of the body that are received within an opening in the cover. The closure mechanism can be easily removed from the cover to provide access to the interior of the wipe dispenser.
Another embodiment relates to a wipe dispenser having a closure mechanism including a bucket. A cover is removably coupled to the bucket and closure mechanism is removably coupled to the cover. The closure mechanism includes a generally circular body having at least one opening located on an interior portion of the body. The at least one opening is configured to receive a wipe. A lid is hingedly coupled to the body and the closure mechanism has a plurality of tabs that are received within an opening in the cover. The closure mechanism can be easily removed from the cover to provide access to the interior of the bucket.
Referring to
According to various exemplary embodiments, the wipe dispenser 10 may include wipes for a wide variety of applications, such as, for example, medical applications, industrial applications, institutional applications, or household applications. For example, the wipe dispenser 10 could be used in dispensing wipes used for cleaning and sanitizing portions of a person in a hospital, a food service facility, a medical testing facility, a nursing home facility and the like. Additionally, the wipe dispenser 10 could be used for dispensing wipes used in cleaning and sanitizing objects in a hospital such as medical equipment, examination rooms, patient treatment rooms and the like. Furthermore, the wipe dispenser 10 may be used in cleaning or sanitizing operations for hotels, public bathrooms or industrial manufacturing operations.
Still other applications for the dispenser 10 could include grocery store applications, such as, for example, the dispenser 10 could be provided adjacent to the source of available shopping carts so shoppers could clean and/or sanitize the shopping cart before use. The dispenser 10 could also be mounted in a home adjacent to a diaper changing table for a baby to provide easy access to suitable wipes to be used in cleaning a baby or the surfaces in and around the baby changing table. The applications for a dispenser 10 according the invention are near limitless: the dispenser 10 can be mounted or used anywhere ready access to a dry or moistened wipe would be beneficial.
The size of the wipe dispenser may vary depending on the intended application. For example, a wipe dispenser for a household use may be configured with twenty wipes per roll while a wipe dispenser for an industrial application, such as dairy farming, may be configured with 700 wipes per roll. According to an exemplary embodiment, the bucket 12 is configured to receive a roll of between 250-700 wipes.
Referring to
As shown in
The top of the bucket 12 is preferably closed by a cover 14 (e.g., cap, closure, lid, etc.). Cover 14 is complementary in shape to the bucket 12 and is removably coupled to the open end of the bucket 12. To create a generally air-tight seal, a sealing member such as a gasket or o-ring may be included between the cover 14 and the bucket 12. The sealing member may be provided as a separate element, or may be molded as a single integral body with either the cover 14 and/or the bucket 12. According to an alternative embodiment, the sealing member may be a coating applied to the cover 14 and/or the bucket 12. According to an exemplary embodiment, the cover 14 is semi-permanently coupled to the bucket 12 and may be difficult to remove. For example, such covers for plastic buckets are often removed by prying up on the edge of the cover with a tool such as a screwdriver.
Referring to
The lid 34 of the closure mechanism 30 is retained in the closed position with a coupling mechanism. As shown best in
It should be understood that the coupling mechanism for closing the closure mechanism 30 shown here is illustrative of one embodiment only. According to other exemplary embodiments, the cover 34 may engage the base 32 with a wide variety of mechanisms or devices. For example, the cover 34 may have a protrusion that engages a recess in the base 32 or the base 32 and the cover 34 may have opposing protrusions that engage each other, or other suitable arrangement.
Referring to
Referring to FIGS. 3 and 6A-6B, a rim or lip with upper tabs 60 and lower tabs 62 extends radially outwardly from an external diameter of the base 32. The rim is configured to engage the cover 14 to removably couple the closure mechanism 30 to the cover 14. The upper tabs 60 and lower tabs 62 are provided in an alternating pattern about the edge of the base 32 such that lower tabs 62 cooperate with recesses or cutouts 18 around the circumference of the opening 16 in the cover 14. The lower tabs 62 are coupled to the upper tabs 60 on one end with generally vertical walls 64 that provide rotational stops. The upper tabs 60 and lower tabs 62 are offset vertically from one another by a distance approximately as large as the thickness of the cover 14.
Referring now to
In operation, a user opens the lid 34 and pulls on the wipe away from the bucket cover 14. As the perforation 24 of the wipe passes through the opening 40, the roll 20 of wipes begins to tear. Once the perforation 24 is fully through the opening 40, the wipe will preferably be completely separate from the roll 20 and a portion of the next wipe will be protruding through the opening 40 for the user to grasp when another wipe is desired. If a user pulls a wipe 22 protruding from the opening 40 in the closure mechanism 30, and the wipe 22 that is grasped separates prematurely from the rest of the roll 20, the next wipe 22 on the roll 20 may not be pulled through the opening 40 and may instead fall back into the interior of the bucket 12. To retrieve the next wipe 22 from the container 12, the user may simply uncouple the closure mechanism 30 from the cover 14. The closure mechanism 30 is uncoupled from the cover 14 by rotating the closure mechanism 30 so that the lower tabs 62 are aligned with the cutouts 18 and then pulling the closure mechanism 30 upward and out of the opening 16 in the cover 14. The user may then reach into to the interior of the bucket 12 through the opening 16 to pull the end of the wipe 22 on the end of the roll 20 through the opening 16. The wipe may then be threaded through the opening 40 in the closure mechanism 30 before the closure mechanism 30 is again coupled to the cover 14. Removing the closure mechanism 30 from the cover 14 is substantially quicker and easier than removing the cover 14 from the bucket 12.
According to one exemplary embodiment, the opening 40 in the closure mechanism 30 is an X-shaped opening that comprises two intersecting slots or slits. The opening 40 may be generally centered on the base 32 as shown in
As shown in
According to an exemplary embodiment, the closure mechanism 30 may be used with wipe dispensers 10 that are stacked upon one another. The closure mechanism 30 is configured to have a relatively low profile to facilitate the stacking of multiple dispensers 10 and reduce the chance of any interference between the closure mechanism 30 on a first dispenser 10 and the bottom of the bucket 12 of a second dispenser 10 stacked on top of the first dispenser 10.
According to an exemplary embodiment, the closure mechanism 30 may include a sealing element (such as an o-ring or a gasket) provided on the body 32 of the closure mechanism 30. The sealing element may be provided between the closure mechanism 30 and the cover 14 to seal the wipe dispenser 10 so that the moistened wipes 22 do not dry out.
It is also important to note that the arrangement of the wipe dispenser, as shown, is illustrative only. Although only a few embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail, those skilled in the art who review this disclosure will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible (e.g., variations in sizes, dimensions, structures, shapes and proportions of the various elements, values of parameters, mounting arrangements, materials, colors, orientations, etc.) without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of the subject matter recited herein. Many modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the invention unless specifically recited in the claims. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present disclosure as described herein. The order or sequence of any process or method steps may be varied or re-sequenced according to alternative embodiments. Other substitutions, modifications, changes, and/or omissions may be made in the design, operating conditions and arrangement of the preferred and other exemplary embodiments without departing from the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure as expressed herein.
