Cup Sleeve Dispenser
AssigneeSan Jamar, Inc.
InventorBrian Albrecht
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A dispenser for sequentially dispensing a plurality of collapsed cup insulator sleeves in manner that facilitates separation between adjacent collapsed cup insulator sleeves during each extraction or dispensing event. The dispenser includes a housing that defines a discharge opening that is constructed to accommodate dispensing of the collapsed cup sleeves from the dispenser in a singular and sequential manner and a manner that facilitates presentation of a subsequent single cup sleeve associated with a respective end of a stack of cup sleeves for subsequent removal of the respective cup sleeve from the dispenser.
Claims20
A cup sleeve dispenser comprising:
- a housing that is constructed to receive a plurality of cup sleeves to be dispensed incrementally at a point of use, the housing defined by a base and a cover that movably cooperates with the base;
- a biasing mechanism disposed in the housing, the biasing mechanism including a pressure plate configured to bias the plurality of cup sleeves toward a discharge opening defined by the housing;
- and
- the discharge opening being defined by cooperation of an end portion of the base and an end portion of the cover and configured to sequentially physically interact with each of the plurality of cup sleeves such that the cover does not interfere with lateral removal of a terminal one of the plurality of cup sleeves and prevents removal of the other of the plurality of cup sleeves from the housing during removal of the terminal one of the plurality of cup sleeves.
A method of forming a cup insulator sleeve dispenser, the method comprising:
- providing a housing that includes a base and cover that is connected to the base to define a cavity shaped to receive a stack of cup insulator sleeves;
- defining a discharge opening at one end of the housing, the discharge opening being shaped to accommodate removal of cup insulator sleeves from the housing in a sequential manner;
- and
- forming a separator proximate the discharge opening that is supported by the housing and which extends beyond a plane defined by a bottom of the cavity a distance that is at least as great as a thickness of a collapsed cup sleeve and offset from a rear surface of the cavity a distance sufficient to prevent translation of a second to a last cup sleeve during manual extraction of a last sleeve from the housing.
A cup sleeve dispenser comprising:
- a housing defined by a cover and a base and a discharge opening formed proximate a longitudinal end of the housing such that the housing defines a cavity shaped to receive a stack of collapsed cup sleeves;
- a biasing mechanism disposed in the cavity and configured to bias the stack of collapsed cup sleeves toward the discharge opening;
- and
- a retainer that is defined by a portion of the cover proximate the discharge opening and extends in a longitudinal direction a distance beyond a floor of the base sufficient to allow deflection of a pair of sides of a collapsed single cup sleeve in the longitudinal direction such that a subsequent collapsed cup sleeve cooperates with an interior facing surface of the retainer to restrict lateral translation of the subsequent collapsed cup sleeve during extraction of the collapsed single cup sleeve from the cavity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.