Dispenser of rolled-up sheet materials

Abstract

Device that enables a person to separate from a roll any length of flexible sheet material, typically toilet paper or paper kitchen towel. The moving parts of the device consist of a rotor, to which the roll is firmly attached, and an L-shaped braking arm that has a limited freedom of movement around a peg that can be added to any conventional roll-holding device. The free end of the roll is slid through a slit in one leg of the L. Directing the pull on the roll's free end up or down, the arm will bend slightly upward or downward. When bent upward, a smooth section of an opening in the other leg of the L becomes engaged with a section of the rotor consisting of a sprocket or gear (Variant A), or with a cylindrical surface of the rotor (Variant B), and thus the rotor/roll assembly is allowed to turn unimpeded under the effect of pull on the end of the roll. When bend downward, the sprocket or gear of the rotor becomes engaged with a protrusion in the same opening of the arm (Variant A), or the said cylindrical surface of the rotor becomes engaged with a braking surface in the same opening (Variant B), and thereby the rotor/roll assembly will stop turning. Increasing the pull, a piece of the roll outside slit will tear off.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.