Strapping material dispenser with integrated cutter
AssigneeCase-N-Cut, Inc.
InventorJeffrey M. Jones
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A dispenser for dispensing a selectable amount of material from an amount of stored material. The dispenser includes a housing having a material track and material storage area, a material-advancement mechanism disposed within said housing, a material-cutting, mechanism, and an actuator. The actuator has a first end being operatively engaged with said first mechanism and an opposing second opposing end being operatively engaged with said second mechanism. The actuator is spring-biased to a non-compressed position via at least first and second springs and is also selectably shiftable to a selectable, material-advancement position and a selectable, material-cutting position.
Claims11
A dispenser for dispensing a selectable amount of material from an amount of stored material, comprising:
- (a) a housing having a material track and a material storage area;
- (b) a material-advancement mechanism disposed within said housing, said material-advancement mechanism including a dispensing roller having a toothed inner surface, a pawl wheel having a pawl operatively engaged with said toothed inner surface, a pinion wheel drivingly engaged with said pawl wheel, and a rack plate drivingly engaged with said pinion wheel;
- (c) a material-cutting mechanism disposed within said housing;
- and
- (d) an actuator movably disposed with respect to said housing and having a first end operatively engaged with said material-advancement mechanism and an opposing second end operatively engaged with said material-cutting mechanism and spring-biased to a stand-by position via at least a first spring, said actuator being selectively movable to a material-advancement position, thereby engaging said material-advancement mechanism, and selectively movable to a material-cutting position, thereby engaging said material-cutting mechanism.
A dispenser for dispensing a selectable amount of material from an amount of stored material, comprising:
- (a) a housing having a material track and material storage area;
- (b) a material-advancement mechanism disposed within said housing and including a dispensing roller having an engageable inner surface, a pawl wheel having a pawl operatively engaged with said engagable inner surface, a pinion wheel drivingly engaged with said pawl wheel, and a rack plate drivingly engaged with said pinion wheel;
- (c) a material-cutting mechanism including a blade guide assembly, said blade guide assembly including a guide plate having an opening communicating with an end of said material track, and a blade movable along a path defined by said blade guide assembly;
- and
- (d) an actuator having a first end operatively engaged with said rack plate and an opposing second end operatively engaged with said blade, said actuator being spring-biased to a non-compressed position by first and second springs and selectively movable to a material-advancement position, thereby moving said rack plate, and being selectively movable to a material cutting position, thereby moving said blade;
- (e) wherein:
- (i) while said actuator is moving toward said material-advancement position, said rack plate rotates said pawl wheel in a loading direction without said pawl engaging said engageable inner surface;
- (ii) while said actuator is moving away from said material-advancement position, said rack plate rotates said pawl wheel in an advancement direction and said pawl engages said engageable inner surface, causing said dispensing roller to rotate in said advancement direction;
- and
- (iii) while said actuator is moving toward said material-cutting position, said blade moves along said path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.