Patent Application
20080093497
Referring now in detail to the drawings, the overall configuration and operation of towel dispenser 10 is very similar to those disclosed and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,579,398 and 4,999,611, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein. The dispenser 10 of the present invention comprises a cabinet 12 adapted to be secured to a washroom wall at a suitable elevation to provide convenient access to the loop 14 defined by toweling 16. The cabinet includes a backing 18 adapted to be fixed to the washroom wall, opposed side walls 20 integrally formed with backing 18, a front cover 22 pivotally secured to side walls 20 by pivot mounts 24 and a lower towel bin 26 adapted to house a roll 16′ of clean toweling 16. A suitable latching mechanism 28 is operatively connected between one of side walls 20 and cover 22 to selectively secure the front cover 22 in the elevated open position to provide access to the towel bin 26 as well as the interior of cabinet 12. A suitable locking mechanism 29 is also provided to secure the cover 22 in the closed position.
Secured within cabinet 12 are a pair of opposed upper side plates 30 for supporting the various towel handling components and a pair of lower side plates 32 carried by plates 30 for supporting the towel bin 26 by means of integrally formed spaced tabs 34 which project laterally from the sides of bin 26 and ride on support surfaces 32′ defined by the lower side plates 32. Note that from the perspective of
In a paper towel dispensing apparatus, it is critical that the roll 16′ of clean paper toweling 16 be maintained in a “square” disposition in the towel bin and that it neither twists nor translates from side to side. While such movement can be tolerated in cloth towel dispensers, with paper toweling, such movement will result in the jamming of the dispenser. Accordingly, the towel bin used in a standard cloth towel dispensing apparatus requires modification before it can be employed in a paper towel dispenser. A standard towel bin, like bin 26 in the present invention, typically defines inclined front and rear walls 40 and 42, side walls 44, a bottom wall 46 and a pair of laterally spaced inclined stops 48 extending between a forward portion of the bottom wall 46 and adjacent lower portions of the front wall 40 so as to provide an inclined surface adjacent the roll of toweling so as to maintain the roll in a slightly rearward inclination within the bin 26. To provide and maintain the desired square alignment of towel roll 16 within the bin, it is important that side walls of the bin are parallel and spaced apart not more than about 8-10 mm more than the width of the toweling. As this is not the case with typical towel bins such as bin 26, shown in the drawings, a pair of blocks 50, which can be formed of a foam or other suitable lightweight and inexpensive material, are positioned adjacent the front, rear and side walls 40-44 of the bin. Blocks 50 are configured and sized so as to fit snugly against the walls of the towel bin and define a spacing between each of the blocks 50 and the ends 16″ of the towel roll 16 of no more than 5 mm. Accordingly, as the toweling 16 moves from roll 16′ through the dispenser 10, the roll 16′ is continuously maintained in a true horizontal axis within the towel bin 26.
As is discussed later herein, the towel bin could and will be designed to maintain the desired alignment of the toweling roll without the need of spacing members and as blocks 50. However, a significant feature of the present invention is the ease with which existing cloth continuous loop type dispensers can be converted to a disposable paper roll dispenser.
As seen in
On typical towel dispensers that utilize a roll of cloth toweling, the horizontal and vertical tolerances on the mountings for the two drive rollers 56 and 62 are such that each end of the roller can move with respect to the mounting plates about 1/16 of an inch or more. Similarly, the rollers can translate laterally about 1/16 of an inch or more. It has been found that these mounting tolerances are largely responsible for the inability of such dispensers to handle paper toweling—at least in shorter rolls. By reducing the mounting tolerances at both ends of the two drive rollers 56 and 62 such that the relative movement of each end of each roller is limited to ±0.010 in. with respect to the opposed upper side plates 30, and similarly limiting any transverse movement along the axes of the drive rollers 56 and 62 between the two side plates to ±0.010 in., such dispensers can accommodate rolls of paper toweling up to about 125 feet in length without the additional modifications to a standard cloth towel dispenser that are disclosed herein and in Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 6,736,466. To enable such dispensers to accommodate rolls of paper toweling of over about 125 feet in length and up to about 200 feet in length, a guidance and friction plate assembly 100 is provided. As seen in
As seen in
Bar 110 is preferably secured in place between the laterally-spaced guide flanges 108 by means of a pair of threaded or other suitable fasteners 114 that extend through apertures in the guide flanges and threadably or otherwise suitably engage the opposed ends of bar 110. Bar 110 is preferably about ⅜ of an inch in diameter, formed of aluminum and rigidly affixed between the guide flanges 108 so as to be positioned such that its central axis is 0.62 inches along surface 104 from the upper end thereof and 0.70 inches from inclined surface 104 along a line normal to surface 104. Guide surface 104 is preferably 2.50 in. long. These measurements are illustrated in
After the toweling passes upwardly over edge 106 of plate assembly 100, it passes over inclined surface 104 and about bar 110 and in a counterclockwise direction about the second floating cylindrical roller 64 and into the nip 66 between roller 64 and a second cylindrical drive roller 68. The toweling is wrapped about roller 64 so as to wind up thereon during use as illustrated in phantom lines in
In a conventional towel dispenser using cloth toweling, the floating take-up roller is formed of a lightweight material such as wood or plastic. However, in dispenser 10, the take-up roller 64 is formed of steel, is about 0.75 in diameter and weighs approximately 2.2 lbs. so as to press more heavily against the second drive roller 68 and thereby maintain the proper alignment and tension in the paper toweling as it wraps about the take-up roller 64. Without the added weight of the steel in roller 64, paper toweling will not feed properly through the dispenser 10. In addition to take-up roller 64, the first and second drive rollers 56 and 68 are provided with a neoprene rubber surface as opposed to a sandpaper or other rigid rough roller surfaces used to grip cloth toweling. It has been found that the surfaces of the conventional drive rollers do not adequately engage the paper toweling which causes slippage. By providing the drive rollers with a somewhat flexible outer gripping surface having a relatively high coefficient or friction, the contact with the paper toweling is significantly enhanced so as to precisely move the toweling through the dispensing device. The rubber surface can be provided on the main drive rollers in several ways, e.g., a rubber sock which can be heat-shrunk and glued in place on the surface of the cylindrical rollers. While materials other than rubber may prove viable on the drive roller surfaces, a somewhat flexible surface having a sufficiently high coefficient of friction so as to be somewhat tacky to the touch as opposed to or somewhat slick or slippery surface or a rigid surface such as sandpaper has proved highly successful in the operation of dispenser 10.
Conventional end sprockets 80 and 82 are provided at the ends of the drive rollers 56 and 68, respectively. The sprockets are connected by means of a chain 84 whereby a downward pull on the loop 14 formed by the toweling 16 causes the first floating roller 54 to press against the first drive roller 56 so that the toweling is firmly gripped between rollers 54 and 56 and drive is transmitted to roller 56 and thence via chain 84 to the second drive roller 68. The drive towel roller frictionally engages the take-up roller 64 causing the take-up roller to rotate and wrap the used toweling about its surface at the same rate that it is dispensed from roll 16′, whereby the loop 14 of toweling remains at a constant length throughout the period of use. A limiting mechanism (not shown) is provided to limit the length of towel which can be obtained by a user at a single pull on the towel loop portion 14. Any conventional limiting mechanism can be employed and a variety of such mechanisms are in common use on conventional cloth roll towel dispensers. An example of such a mechanism is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,398.
With the exception of the toweling 16, the remainder of the dispenser, including the limiting mechanism, is identical to that found in a cloth towel roll dispenser. While the above described towel dispenser of the present invention could be used with a variety of types of durable paper toweling such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,736,466, a stronger and significantly less expensive paper toweling has been developed for use with the dispenser. The new toweling 16, available from SRH, Inc. of Rice, Minn., is comprised of conventional 4-ply tissue 140 bonded about a (3×3) scrim 150 (see
An alternate embodiment of the new paper toweling 216′ is illustrated in
While the description herein of the dispensing apparatus of the present invention was directed to modifying an existing cloth towel dispenser to accommodate paper rolls, it is to be understood that the above components could be provided in a dispenser designed and built to handle paper toweling. In such a design, the towel bin would be configured so as to be more of a “V”-shaped configuration having side walls spaced apart 8 to 10 millimeters more than the width of the toweling which presently is 9.75 inches wide and the ±0.010 in. tolerances discussed earlier herein preferably would be maintained. Such a configuration would maintain the roll in the desired true longitudinal disposition.
Various changes and modifications can be made in carrying out the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. Insofar as these changes and modifications are within the purview of the appended claims, they are to be considered as part of the present invention.
