Flexible sheet material dispenser
AssigneeGeorgia-Pacific Corporation
InventorJohn S. Formon
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A towel roll brake is not needed in this "grab and pull" dispenser to prevent the overspun towel from the roll from entering the nip region. An extra idler roll rests on the pinch roll and is counterrotated thereby, and any overspun web resting on the idler roll is kicked to the back of the dispenser. Fingers formed on the inside surface of the dispenser cover are positioned to derfine with the idler roll a gap which is only one-ply wide and through which the toweling must pass to reach the nip region, thereby preventing the overspun web from folding over onto itself. Without the brake tearing or "tabbing" of the soft towel in the user's (wet) hands as he pulls down on it is prevented.
Claims31
A flexible sheet material dispenser, comprising:
- a dispenser cabinet;
- holding means for holding a roll of flexible sheet material in said cabinet such that the roll can rotate within said cabinet and overspin as a user hand pulls a free end of the sheet of material therefrom;
- a roller positioned in said cabinet;
- gap means for defining with said roller and therebetween as essentially one-ply wide sheet material gap through which sheet material from the held roll passes;
- cutting means for cutting a length of sheet material hand pulled off of the held roll and passing through the gap;
- and
- counterrotating means for counterrotating said roller such that at least some of the time when an overspun web of sheet material, before passing through the gap, rests on said roller the resting web is kicked generally away from the gap.
The dispenser of claim 7 wherein said elongated opening is downstream of said cutting means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.