The subject matter disclosed herein relates to the field of sheet product dispensing devices.
Previous sheet product dispensing devices include a spindle that defines an axis of rotation for a roll of sheet product. In operation a user pulls the sheet product to draw sheet product off of the roll and out of the dispenser. The force applied by the user rotates the roll. The force applied by the user to affect the rotation of the roll may vary depending on the mass and diameter of the roll.
In an exemplary embodiment, a sheet product dispenser for dispensing a roll of sheet product mounted thereto includes a housing portion and a load inducement portion. The housing portion defines a space operative to receive the roll of sheet product for rotation about an axis to dispense the sheet product. The load inducement portion is operative to induce a frictional force between the roll of sheet product and the load inducement portion during rotation of the roll of sheet product. The load inducement portion includes a guide member, and a load member slidably engaged with the guide member and operative to contact and apply a load to an outer surface of the roll of sheet product.
In another exemplary embodiment, a sheet product dispenser for dispensing a roll of sheet product mounted thereto includes a housing portion and a load inducement portion. The housing portion defines a space operative to receive the roll of sheet product for rotation about an axis to dispense the sheet product. The load inducement portion is operative to contact and apply a load to an outer surface of the roll of sheet product due to a force of gravity.
In a further exemplary embodiment, a method of dispensing a roll of sheet product mounted to a sheet product dispenser includes contacting and applying a load to an outer surface of the roll of sheet product with a load inducement portion of the sheet product dispenser due to a force of gravity. The method also includes rotating the roll of sheet product about an axis within a space defined by a housing portion of the sheet product dispenser to dispense the sheet product.
These and other advantages and features will become more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the drawings.
The subject matter, which is regarded as the invention, is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other features, and advantages of the invention are apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
The detailed description explains embodiments of the invention, together with advantages and features, by way of example with reference to the drawings.
Sheet product dispensing devices often include a spindle that provides support for a roll of sheet product that may rotate about an axis of rotation defined by the spindle. In operation, a user withdraws sheet product from the dispenser by drawing the sheet product from the roll. The force applied to the sheet product results in the rotation of the roll about the spindle. When the roll is full or un-depleted, the relatively large mass and outer diameter of the roll may result in an undesirable “overspin” due to inertia as the roll rotates about the spindle and the moment arm of the force applied by the user. The overspin may result in the dispensing of an undesired or unneeded amount of sheet product, which ultimately may result in higher sheet product consumption per usage occasion. Over time, the mass and outer diameter of the roll decreases as users remove more sheet product from the roll. The reduction in mass and the outer diameter of the roll reduces the propensity of overspin responsive to the force that a user may apply to the sheet product to remove sheet product from the dispenser. Thus, a dispenser that is less susceptible to overspin due to a force applied by a user to affect the dispensing of a sheet product as the roll of sheet product is depleted is desired.
The term “sheet products” as used herein is inclusive of natural and/or synthetic cloth or paper sheets. Sheet products may include both woven and non-woven articles. There are a wide variety of nonwoven processes and they can be either wetlaid or drylaid. Some examples include hydroentagled (sometimes called spunlace), DRC (double re-creped), airlaid, spunbond, carded, paper towel, and meltblown sheet products. Further, sheet products may contain fibrous cellulosic materials that may be derived from natural sources, such as wood pulp fibers, as well as other fibrous material characterized by having hydroxyl groups attached to the polymer backbone. These include glass fibers and synthetic fibers modified with hydroxyl groups. Examples of sheet products include, but are not limited to, wipers, napkins, tissues, rolls, towels or other fibrous, film, polymer, or filamentary products.
In general, sheet products are thin in comparison to their length and breadth and exhibit a relatively flat planar configuration and are flexible to permit folding, rolling, stacking, and the like. The sheet product may have perforations extending in lines across its width to separate individual sheets and facilitate separation or tearing of individual sheets from a roll or folded arrangement at discrete intervals. Individual sheets may be sized as desired to accommodate the many uses of the sheet products. For example, perforation lines may be formed every 10 cm, or other defined interval, to define a universally sized sheet. Multiple perforation lines may be provided to allow the user to select the size of sheet depending on the particular need.
The dispenser 100 includes a load inducement portion 110. The load inducement portion 110 includes a load member 112 and a guide portion that includes guide members 114. The load member 112 is slidably engaged with the guide members 114 such that the load member 112 may slide along a path defined by the guide members 114 due to the force of gravity. The load member 112 includes a contact portion 118 that is operative to contact and apply a load to an outer surface of a roll of sheet product.
The frictional force Ff affects the amount of force a user may use to draw sheet product from the roll 202 and overspin of the roll. In this regard, once allowing for other effective forces, such as, for example, frictional forces on the rotation of the spindle 106 (of
The embodiments of the sheet product dispenser described herein provide an improved configuration for reducing overspin of a roll of sheet product. As described above, the sheet product dispenser includes a load inducement portion operative to contact and apply a load to an outer surface of the roll of sheet product due to a force of gravity. In this manner, the load inducing portion is operative to induce a frictional force between the roll of sheet product and the load inducement portion during rotation of the roll of sheet product, which reduces overspin. Further, the frictional force generated affects the force applied by a user to dispense sheet product from the roll of sheet product, which may reduce sheet product consumption per usage occasion.
While the invention has been described in detail in connection with only a limited number of embodiments, it should be readily understood that the invention is not limited to such disclosed embodiments. Rather, the invention can be modified to incorporate any number of variations, alterations, substitutions or equivalent arrangements not heretofore described, but which are commensurate with the spirit and scope of the invention. Additionally, while various embodiments of the invention have been described, it is to be understood that aspects of the invention may include only some of the described embodiments. Accordingly, the invention is not to be seen as limited by the foregoing description, but is only limited by the scope of the appended claims.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/652,508, filed on May 29, 2012, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
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