Handtowel dispenser

A handtowel dispenser comprising a housing (1) having a top wall (2), a bottom wall (3), and first, second, third and fourth vertical walls (4-7), one of said second, third and fourth vertical walls being designed to be fixed to a vertical support surface (8), a partition wall (9) that separates an inside volume of the housing into an upper compartment (11) and a lower compartment (12), a roll of clean towel (28) disposed in the lower compartment, a pair of co-operating feed rollers (31,32) disposed in the lower compartment and engaging opposite faces, respectively, of a strip of clean towel from said roll of clean towel, first drive means (55, 58, 59, 63, 65, 66) connected to one of the two feed rollers (31,32) for rotating said one feed roller in response to a start signal so as to unwind a predetermined length of clean towel strip (29) from said roll of clean towel and to cause it to pass to the outside of the housing through a first slot (14) therein, take-up means, including a shaft rotatably mounted in the upper compartment, for taking up said strip of towel into the housing through a second slot (15) therein after said strip of towel has been used, and for causing it to be wound about said shaft (45) after a predetermined time lapse from the start signal, the housing (1) including at least one movable access portion (16) which is detachably fixed to the remainder of the housing and which, when detached and moved to an open position, enables the roll of used towel (46) wound around said shaft to be removed and enables a new roll of clean towel (28) to be installed, wherein said first vertical wall of the housing (1) includes a lower portion (4a) and an upper portion (4b) spaced from said lower portion;

• the first slot (14) is delimited by a top edge (4c) of the lower portion (4a) of said first vertical wall (4) and by an extension (9b) of the partition wall (9) which projects outside the housing (1), while the second slot (15) is delimited by a bottom edge (14) of the upper portion (4b) of said first vertical wall (4) and by said extension (9b) of the partition wall (9);
• said movable access portion (16) is formed at least in part by said upper portion (4b) of the first vertical wall (4);
• the take-up means comprise in addition to said shaft, a drive roller (49) having a non-smooth surface which is rotatably mounted above the partition wall (9), and a motor which is drivingly connected to said drive roller;
• said shaft (45) is made of a heavy material, is disposed above said drive roller (49) and has its ends slidingly and rotatably mounted in guide grooves (48) which are formed respectively in said second and third vertical walls (5 and 6) of the housing (1), said second and third vertical walls being adjacent to said first vertical wall (4), each of said guide grooves extending substantially vertically in the respective second or third vertical wall and having a lower end adjacent to a respective end of the drive roller (49);
• and the two feed rollers (31, 32) are located in the first slot (14) and are supported by two separate portions (9, 35) of the housing (1), one of which portions (9) forms another movable access portion that can be displaced from a first position in which, in operation, the two feed rollers (31, 32) are pressed against said opposite faces of the strip of clean towel (29), and a second position in which the two feed rollers (31, 32) are widely spaced apart from each other to give access to the lower compartment (12) of the housing (1).