Patent Application
20080179443
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tape dispenser, and more particularly to a tape dispenser that may dispense various sizes of tape rolls.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional tape has a reel and a cutter. A roll of a tape may be mounted on the reel, and the tape of the roll may be drawn out and cut by the cutter. The reel has a fixed size so that only one size of the roll may be mounted on the reel. In other words, the conventional tape dispenser only dispenses one size of tape.
An earlier invention of the present inventor discloses a tape dispenser with two reels, a big reel and a small reel. The tape dispenser may dispense a big tape roll by mounting the big reel on the small reel and then mounting the big tape roll on the big reel. The tape dispenser also may dispense a small tape roll by taking the big reel off and mounting the small tape roll on the small reel directly. The tape dispenser has to assemble or disassemble the big reel whenever various tape rolls are switched.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a tape dispenser, which may switch various sizes of tape roll for dispensing without have to switching the elements thereof.
According to the objective of the present invention, a tape dispenser includes a main member and a cutter on the main member. The main member includes a first tape roll mount and a second tape roll mount. The first tape roll mount includes a gap and the second tape roll mount is within the first tape roll mount and a space is formed between the first tape roll mount and the second tape roll mount. A big tape roll may be mounted on the first tape roll mount or a small tape roll may be mounted on the second tape roll mount and received in the space with a tape of the small tape roll being drawn out through the gap.
As shown in
A main member 10 includes a base member 12 and a shield member 14 the base member includes two axles 16 and 18, on each of which a roller 20 and 22 is mounted. The base member 12 is provided with a first tape roll mount 24 behind the axles 16 and 18. The first tape roll mount 24 is a hollow cylinder projected from the base member 12 with a U-shaped turning portion 26 at a distal end thereof. The shield member 14 is pivoted on the base member 12 with a slot 28 at a front end thereof, in which a cutter 30 and a plate 32 are provided.
Above elements are as same as the conventional tape dispenser. The characters of the present invention are described hereunder:
The first tape roll mount 24 has three holes 34 on the turning portion 26, a guiding rail 36 on an interior side thereof and a gap 38 and two brake devices 40 thereon.
A tape roll mount device 42 includes a second tape roll mount 44 and a connecting member 46. The second tape roll mount 44, which is a hollow cylinder with a diameter small than that of the first tape roll mount 24, includes three hooks 48 at a distal end thereof. The connecting member 46, which is an annular wall around the second tape roll mount 44 with a diameter greater than that of the second tape roll mount 44 and smaller than that of the first tape roll mount 24, includes three hook devices 50 on a distal end thereof, a guiding device 52, which is two parallel rails, on an exterior side thereof and a gap 54.
The tape roll mount device 42 is inserted into the first tape roll mount 24 via a back side of the base member 12 with the guiding device 52 aligned with the guiding rail 36 and engaged with it that may keep the tape roll mount device 42 in a desired condition into the first tape roll mount 24. After that, the tape roll mount device 42 is pushed into the first tape roll mount 24 to let the hook devices 50 entering the turning portion 26 and engaging the holes 34 respectively that the tape roll mount device 42 is coupled to the base member 12 with the gap 54 of the tape roll mount device 42 aligned with the gap 38 of the first tape roll mount 24. An annular space 56 is formed between the first tape roll mount 24 and the second tape roll mount 44, or it could be said that the space 56 is between the second tape roll mount 44 and the connecting member 46.
In operation, user may mount a big tape roll 58 on the first tape roll mount 24, as shown in
As shown in
It is obviously that no element should be switched or disassembled when user switches the tape rolls with different sizes.
The idea of the present invention may be incorporated in any type of tape dispenser, it is not limited in the embodiment described in specification. In addition, the second tape roll mount may be molded on the base member directly, it may be not a part of an independent element.
The description above is a preferred embodiment of the present invention and the equivalence of the present invention is still in the scope of the claim of the present invention.
