Georgia-pacific Corporation

Paul W Jespersen

Raymond F DeLuca

Holger Rasmussen

John Stephen Formon

Raymond F De Luca

A dispenser sequentially dispenses web material from a working web roll and then a reserve web roll. A web sensing mechanism senses the presence of the working web at a back side of the main feed roller and introduces the leading end of the reserve web roll to a feed nip defined by two feed rollers immediately after the trailing end of the working web roll passes over a back side of the feed roller. Web sensing, and controlled introduction of the leading end of the reserve web to the feed nip, are carried out by a simple and effective interaction of a grooved main feed roller, and a pair of pivotable lever arms&mdash;a web sensing arm mounted at the backside of the rollers, and a transfer arm mounted at the front side. The mechanism avoids double feeding of web by sensing the presence or absence of web at the back-side of the main feed roller. Transfer fingers of the transfer arm are movable against the reserve roll web and into corresponding grooves in the main feed roller such that a leading end portion of the reserve roll web is reliably moved into the vicinity feed roller nip, where serrations provided in the edges of the grooves facilitate a gripping of the leading end portion to pull the web through the nip. The feed path is arranged to extend away from the transfer fingers so as to avoid interference of the transfer fingers with the subsequent feeding of the web.

Web transfer mechanism for flexible sheet dispenser

A dispenser for cutting and feeding a web of flexible sheet material is described in which a feed roller carries a web cutting blade and a spring connected to an eccentric crank affixed to the feed roll. While initial movement of the web through the mechanism and actuation of the cutter to effect partial separation of the web material is produced by the user's pull on the web, such pull also loads the spring which, upon unloading, delivers the cut web material from the dispenser. The spring is designed to gradually arrest rotation of the feed roll and to be exhausted of stored energy at a predetermined position of the feed roll whereupon the uncut segments of web material are efficaciously severed and the leading end of the succeeding web material is automatically positioned where it can be readily grasped by a subsequent user.

Method and apparatus for dispensing flexible sheet material

A device for rotatably supporting a roll of flexible sheet material having trunnions at the ends is provided with structure forming a friction brake to effectively control overspin of the roll during dispensing of the sheet material. The device involves an end support particularly configured to provide a bearing surface formed of resilient, high friction material effective to engage a portion of an end cap forming a roll trunnion, whereby the braking action provided by the bearing surface is directly proportional to the weight of the roll.

Brake-type sheet material-dispensing roll support

A dispesner for a stack of fan-folded sheet material is disclosed. The dispenser housing has a pivoting brake at the rear wall and contains a major support roller at a height above the rear support rollers to minimize the weight of the stack on the rear support rollers. The major support roller is movably mounted in a pair of vertically-disposed slots and connected at either end to one of a pair of pivot arms. The pivot arms are connected across the width of the dispenser by a connector. The weight of the stack causes the major suport roller to move downwardly in the vertically disposed slots which causes the pivot arms to rotate in the clockwise direction. The clockwise rotation of the pivot arms brings the connector into contact with the pivoting brake which presses against the stack of sheet material in the lateral direction. The lateral pressure on the sheet material decreases the vertical pressure on the bottommost piece of sheet material making it easier for such piece to be removed intact from the dispenser. A piece of friction material may be placed along the inner surface of the front of the dispenser to provide additonal friction on the stack to further decrease the vertical pressure on the bottommost piece of sheet material. An alternative embodiment uses a flat spring in lieu of the pivoting brake, pivot arms and connector. Another alternative embodiment uses two pivoting rollers and a rear brake which forms part of the back wall and is pivotally connected to each side of the dispenser.

Variable support for fan-folded paper dispenser

A feed mechanism for feeding a web of rolled flexible sheet material, such as soft paper towels, out of a dispenser. The mechanism includes a feed roller within the dispenser and a web cutting blade in the feed roller and projectable and retractable therewith as the feed roller rotates. A contoured cam is attached to an end of the feed roller, and a spring-loaded cam follower presses against the contoured cam. The cam follower, through the cam, controllably assists in the rotation of the feed roller during the feed roller cycle when the blade cuts the web and thereafter to feed a free end of the material to an accessible position outside of the dispenser. The needed maximum pull forces by the user on the material to cut and withdraw the material from the dispenser are thereby significantly minimized, and the likelihood of the soft towel material tearing off in the user's wet hands is accordingly reduced.

Feed mechanism for flexible sheet material dispensers

A dispenser for rolls of flexible sheet material wound on cores is disclosed. The dispenser holds multiple rolls and includes guide tracks for guiding the rolls through the dispenser. A holding lever pivotably connected to each side of the dispenser selectively holds the rolls in position in the dispenser and has its pivoting motion controlled by a sensing plate which contacts a lower dispensing roll to sense when the sheet material is substantially depleted. The lower dispensing roll is always held out of contact with rollers of a dispensing mechanism. A shield is located between the roll surface of the lower dispensing roll and the rollers of the dispensing mechanism.

Flexible sheet material dispenser with automatic roll transferring

A dispenser for rolls of flexible sheet material wound on cores is disclosed. The dispenser holds multiple rolls and includes guide tracks for guiding the rolls through the dispenser. A holding lever pivotably connected to each side of the dispenser selectively holds the rolls in position in the dispenser and has its pivoting motion controlled by a sensing plate which contacts a lower dispensing roll to sense when the sheet material is substantially depleted. The lower dispensing roll is always held out of contact with rolls of a dispensing mechanism, in one embodiment initially by a transfer roller and thereafter at a constant vertical axis by the holding levers and, in another embodiment by the holding levers alone. A shield is located between the roll surface of the lower dispensing roll and the rollers of the dispensing mechanism.

A dispenser and dispensing method for flexible web material that is wound into a roll on a readily deformable hollow core has a housing carrying opposed parallel guide tracks to guidingly receive roll core supports projecting from the roll ends and a spring biased lever pivoted on such housing, the lever applying an axial force to the hollow core at one roll end and being maintained in a roll retaining condition by the presence, in a roll dispensing position, of a hollow roll core that is held against downward displacement from such position. An axial force is applied against the other end of the hollow core. The lever serves to retain a reserve roll in a reserve roll position remote from the roll dispensing position with the lever being released from such retaining condition when the web material is exhausted and the hollow core is deformed downwardly, assisted by the axial forces applied to the hollow core ends, to enable removal of this core from the roll dispensing position whereupon such reserve roll moves to the dispensing position.

Core-buckling tissue dispenser and dispensing method

A dispenser and dispensing method for flexible web material that is wound into a roll on a transversely split core utilizes a housing having opposed parallel guide tracks to guidingly receive roll core supports projecting from the roll ends and a pivoted control lever providing a lever sensing end to detect the presence of an intact roll core in a roll dispensing position and an upper support end to retain a roll in a reserve roll position. The lever has its sensing end biased toward the intact roll core thereby tending to buckle the split core into sections upon exhaustion of web material from the intact roll core whereupon the core sections with their roll core supports are disengaged from the tracks and the reserve rolls is freed from the lever support end to move to the roll dispensing position.

Method and apparatus for dispensing web material from split core rolls

A dispenser for multiple rolls of web material such as paper toweling that is provided with dispensing mechanism to lead a web of material out of the dispenser to the user has supports for rotatably supporting rolls in primary and reserve positions, respectively, with transfer mechanism interactive with such roll supports and the dispensing mechanism to automatically transfer web feed from one roll to the other under predetermined sensed conditions. The transfer mechanism includes a pivotally mounted transfer frame swingable to be out of the way to facilitate dispenser loading with the dispenser cabinet cover open, the transfer frame being releasibly retained out of the way in conjunction with dispenser loading, and movable to a sensing location upon closure of the cabinet cover whereat depletion of web material supplied from the roll in the primary position is sensed whereafter the frame again shifts for tucking fingers on the transfer frame to press a web end portion of the reserve roll web material into the dispensing mechanism to thereafter feed web material from such reserve roll. A keeper bracket loosely receives this web end portion incident dispenser loading with the action of cabinet cover closing causing the bracket to firmly grip such portion until the transfer mechanism coacts with the dispensing mechanism to thereafter feed web material supplied from the reserve roll.

Roll transfer mechanism for web material dispenser

A dispenser for flexible sheet material having a reserve roll that automatically moves in the dispensing position when the dispensing roll is almost exhausted. The sides of reserve roll guide tracks are angled inwardly to engage the reserve roll spool at an off center point, so the spool is pushed downwardly into contact with a driving roller during rotation. The leading edge of the reserve roll towel engages the remaining portion of the almost exhausted dispensing roll and is moved therewith to be threaded through the dispensing mechanism. The perforating mechanism is assisted through the perforating stroke by a spring mechanism. The sensing roll is halted by a roll stop mechanism including a pivoted stop link and an anti-reverse pawl.

Method of dispersing flexible sheet material

Dispensing flexible sheet material involves mounting at least one roll on dispensing arm means pivotally connected to a dispenser near the lower end of the chassis so that as material on the roll is depleted the concomitant diminishing diameter roll will swing down on the dispensing arm means for the roll axis to move through an arc spaced from the axis of the feed roller to wedge the roll surface firmly against the surface of the feed roller as the axis of the roll moves toward a line extending through the feed roller axis and the pivotal axis where the dispensing arm means is connected to the chassis. When the roll is essentially depleted it swings past the line and the feed roller into a discard area. Dispensing from multiple rolls in succession utilizes an initial roll mounted as above described and a reserve arm means connected to the chassis through means which permits the reserve arm means to move down vertically relative to the chassis as the initial roll is depleted to a lower position where the reserve arm means thereupon pivots relative to the chassis and the reserve roll engages with the feed roller when the essentially depleted initial roll swings into the discard area to swing through an arc similar to that which the initial roll moved through as the roll diameter diminished.

Flexible sheet material roll dispensing

A dispenser for flexible sheet material having a reserve roll that automatically moves into the dispensing position when the dispensing roll is almost exhausted. The sides of the reserve roll guide tracks are angled inwardly to engage the reserve roll spool at an off center point, so the spool is pushed downwardly into contact with a driving roller during rotation. The leading edge of the reserve roll towel engages the remaining portion of the almost exhausted dispensing roll and is moved therewith to be threaded through the dispensing mechanism. The perforating mechanism is assisted through the perforating stroke by a spring mechanism. The sensing roll is halted by a roll stop mechanism including a pivoted stop link and an anti-reverse pawl.

Dispenser for flexible sheet material

A dispenser for flexible sheet material having a reserve roll that automatically moves into the dispensing position when the dispensing roll is almost exhausted. The sides of the reserve roll guide tracks are angled inwardly to engage the reserve roll spool at an off center point, so the spool is motivated to move downwardly toward the dispensing position whenever it is rotated. The leading edge of the reserve roll towel engages the remaining portion of the almost exhausted dispensing roll and is moved therewith to be threaded through the dispensing mechanism. The perforating mechanism is assisted through the perforating stroke by a spring mechanism and is halted by a roll stop mechanism including a pivoted stop link and an anti-reverse pawl.

Growing community of inventors

Houston, TX, United States of America

Paul W Jespersen