Display rack for displaying rolls of material and method of dispensing material therefrom

An apparatus for displaying rolls of material comprising:

• a carrier including a plurality of wheeled carrier units, each carrier unit including a substantially rectangular frame having vertical sides, said frame being pivotally mounted about a vertical axis extending substantially along a corresponding one of the vertical sides of said frame and a wheel mounted to a lower end portion of said frame and opposite from the vertical axis along which said frame is pivotally mounted,
• respective vertical axes of said plurality of wheeled carrier units being mounted along a common plane with a horizontal spacing defined between adjacent carrier units and in spaced relation to adjacent vertical axes along said carrier, said plurality of wheeled carrier units having a horizontal width and also being pivotably movable from a normal inward closed position wherein only a portion of each but one of the carrier units is exposed to an outward open position wherein each carrier unit is fully exposed, said plurality of wheeled carrier units further being spaced so as that the horizontal width of said frame of each of said carrier units is greater than the horizontal spacing between respective vertical axes of adjacent carrier units to thereby enable adjacent carrier units to overlap each other when said plurality of carrier units are pivoted about the vertical axes,
• a plurality of opposing vertical rows of cooperating roll supports positioned along said vertical sides of said frame of each of said plurality of wheeled carrier units and adapted to support a plurality of correspondingly spaced horizontally disposed rolls of material, said cooperating roll supports comprising openings positioned in and spaced along said opposing vertical sides of said frame, said openings being sized to receive end portions of rods.

A method of displaying rolls of material comprising:

• providing a first substantially rectangular frame pivotally mounted along one side thereof on a vertical axis;
• providing a second substantially rectangular frame pivotally mounted along one side thereof on a vertical axis so that the first and second frames are horizontally spaced at a distance which is less than each of a respective widthwise dimensions of the first and second frames, thereby enabling the frames to overlap when they are pivoted about their vertical axes;
• and
• mounting in vertically spaced relation on each of the frames a plurality of horizontally extending rolls of material with the mounting being such as to permit unwinding of the material from the rolls.

A method of displaying and dispensing rolls of material comprising:

• providing a substantially rectangular frame having rolls of material horizontally mounted thereon;
• providing a measuring device mounted to the frame and positioned to receive the material from the rolls;
• and
• feeding material from a roll to the measuring device for measurement thereof.