Abstract:
A paper towel dispensing apparatus and an assembly for converting a cloth towel dispensing apparatus into a paper towel dispensing apparatus wherein the assembly is of the type employing a wall-mounted cabinet, a roll of toweling carried in a towel bin from which the toweling is withdrawn and directed upwardly between a first drive roller and a pinch roller, about the pinch roller and downwardly, forming a depending loop from which the toweling is directed upwardly between a second drive roller and a take-up roller and is rolled about the take-up roller. As the user dries his hands on the loop of toweling and pulls downwardly on the toweling, a limited amount of clean paper toweling is pulled from the roll and an equal amount is wrapped about the take-up roller. To provide the proper handling of the paper toweling, the take-up roller is constructed of solid steel, the drive rollers are provided with flexible rubber coverings and the towel bin is sized to precisely maintain the proper alignment of the towel roll therein.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to towel dispensers of the type commonly used in public restrooms that employ a roll of toweling in which the toweling is withdrawn from a supply roll in a cabinet and forms a dependent loop accessible to the user drying his or her hands. The toweling is dispensed from the cabinet in successive portions in response to a pulling action by the user and the toweling is likewise continually taken up into the cabinet. The use of such dispensers in public restrooms is quite common and efforts to improve the working mechanisms employed therein are ongoing. Examples of such mechanisms are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,579,398 and 4,999,611. In these devices as in most other hand drying devices in which a towel is dispensed from a roll, the toweling is formed of cloth. As a result, the cloth roll is sufficiently expensive that it is not generally economically feasible to simply discard the soiled roll. As a result, when the entire length of the roll has been used, it must be collected from the apparatus, cleaned and re-rolled and a new, fresh roll of cloth installed in the dispensing apparatus. The cost of maintaining such towel dispensing devices could be significantly reduced if disposable paper rolls could be employed in lieu of the cloth rolls. Efforts to substitute paper rolls for cloth rolls, however, have heretofore proved unsuccessful due to the inability of the cloth take-up mechanisms employed in such dispensing devices to properly handle rolls of paper. It has been found that far better control of a paper roll is required in such a dispensing mechanism than is required with conventional cloth rolls. While some twisting and lateral movement of the roll of toweling can be accommodated with such mechanisms when the toweling is formed of cloth, such movement cannot be accommodated using paper rolls. The device will jam. Also, if the mechanism employed to more precisely handle a paper roll is appreciably more expensive than those employed with cloth roll dispensers, the economic advantages of using a paper roll are lost. It would be highly desirable to provide a towel roll dispenser which can accommodate disposable paper towel rolls in which the handling mechanism is not appreciably more costly than that employed with paper rolls. It would also be highly desirable if existing cloth roll dispensers could be easily and economically modified so as to be able to handle disposable rolls of paper as opposed to cloth. The present invention achieves both these results. 
     It is therefore the principal object of the present invention to provide a towel dispenser of the type employing a roll of toweling in which the toweling is withdrawn from a supply roll in a cabinet and forms a dependent loop accessible to the user drying his or her hands wherein the toweling is formed of paper. 
     It is another object of the present invention to provide such a towel dispenser that is of simple construction and economical to manufacture. 
     It is a further object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for converting a towel dispenser of the type employing a roll of cloth toweling in which the toweling is withdrawn from a supply roll in a cabinet and forms a dependent loop accessible to the user to dry his or her hands into a dispensing apparatus capable of handling a roll of paper toweling. 
     It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a mechanism that is of simple construction and economical to manufacture and install. 
    
    
     These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
     IN THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a towel dispensing apparatus of the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a side view of the towel dispensing apparatus of the present invention with the front cover shown in the elevated position. 
     FIG. 3 is a side view taken along the line  3 — 3  of FIG.  2 . 
     FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a portion of the towel dispensing apparatus of the present invention with the cover removed so as to illustrate the mechanisms employed therein. 
     FIG. 5 is a schematic side view of the towel dispensing apparatus of the present invention illustrating the path of the toweling therethrough. 
     FIG. 6 is a schematic side view of the towel dispensing apparatus of the present invention illustrating the towel bin in a lowered tilted position. 
     FIG. 7 is a schematic side view of the towel dispensing apparatus of the present invention illustrating the path of the toweling therethrough wherein the dispensing apparatus is provided with a guide and tensioning assembly for handling longer paper rolls for improved guidance and friction. 
     FIG. 8 is a partial perspective view showing the interior of the dispensing apparatus provided with the guide and tensioning-assembly for handling longer paper rolls. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring now in detail to the drawings, the overall configuration and operation of towel dispenser  10  is very similar to those disclosed and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,579,398 and 4,999,611, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein. The dispenser  10  of the present invention comprises a cabinet  12  adapted to be secured to a washroom wall at a suitable elevation to provide convenient access to the loop  14  defined by toweling  16 . The cabinet includes a backing  18  adapted to be fixed to the washroom wall, opposed side walls  20  integrally formed with backing  18 , a front cover  22  pivotally secured to side walls  20  by pivot mounts  24  and a lower towel bin  26  adapted to house a roll  16 ′ of clean toweling  16 . A suitable latching mechanism  28  is operatively connected between one of side walls  20  and cover  22  to selectively secure the front cover  22  in the elevated open position to provide access to the towel bin  26  as well as the interior of cabinet  12 . A suitable locking mechanism  29  is also provided to secure the cover  22  in the closed position. 
     Secured within cabinet  12  are a pair of opposed upper side plates  30  for supporting the various towel handling components and a pair of lower side plates  32  carried by plates  30  for supporting the towel bin  26  by means of integrally formed spaced tabs  34  which project laterally from the sides of bin  26  and ride on support surfaces  32 ′ defined by the lower side plates  32 . Note that from the perspective of FIG. 4, only the supporting tabs  34  and support surfaces  32 ′ on the right side of the towel bin  26  are visible. It is to be understood that the opposed sides of the bin and lower side plates are of identical configuration. Through this configuration, the towel bin  26  can be tilted forwardly to receive a fresh new roll  16 ′ of toweling as illustrated in FIG.  6  and can be readily removed and replaced as needed. Other means of securing the towel bin in place could also be employed. 
     In a paper towel dispensing apparatus, it is critical that the roll  16 ′ of clean paper toweling  16  be maintained in a “square” disposition in the towel bin and that it neither twists nor translates from side to side. While such movement can be tolerated in cloth towel dispensers, with paper toweling, such movement will result in the jamming of the dispenser. Accordingly, the towel bin used in a standard cloth towel dispensing apparatus requires modification before it can be employed in a paper towel dispenser. A standard towel bin, like bin  26  in the present invention, typically defines inclined front and rear walls  40  and  42 , side walls  44 , a bottom wall  46  and a pair of laterally spaced inclined stops  48  extending between a forward portion of the bottom wall  46  and adjacent lower portions of the front wall  40  so as to provide an inclined surface adjacent the roll of toweling so as to maintain the roll in a slightly rearward inclination within the bin  26 . To provide and maintain the desired square alignment of towel roll  16  within the bin, it is important that side walls of the bin are parallel and spaced apart not more than about 8-10 mm more than the width of the toweling. As this is not the case with typical towel bins such as bin  26 , shown in the drawings, a pair of blocks  50 , which can be formed of a foam or other suitable lightweight and inexpensive material, are positioned adjacent the front, rear and side walls  40 - 44  of the bin. Blocks  50  are configured and sized so as to fit snugly against the walls of the towel bin and define a spacing between each of the blocks  50  and the ends  16 ″ of the towel roll  16  of no more than 5 mm. Accordingly, as the toweling  16  moves from roll  16 ′ through the dispenser  10 , the roll  16 ′ is continuously maintained in a true horizontal axis within the towel bin  26 . 
     As is discussed later herein, the towel bin could and will be designed to maintain the desired alignment of the toweling roll without the need of spacing members and as blocks  50 . However, a significant feature of the present invention is the ease with which existing cloth continuous loop type dispensers can be converted to a disposable paper roll dispenser. 
     As seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, the roll  16 ′ of clean toweling  16  is contained in the bottom of towel bin  26  adjacent stops  48  and the toweling  16  extends upwardly from roll  16 ′ and into the nip  52  between a first floating cylindrical pinch roller  54  and a first cylindrical drive roller  56 . The toweling then passes counterclockwise about floating roller  54  and downwardly, exiting cabinet  12  between the depending tongue  58  on the bottom of cabinet cover  22  and the front wall  40  of towel bin  26 . The toweling  16  then passes rearwardly through a slot  60  in a pivotally mounted protective plastic flap  62  depending from the underside of towel bin  26  and forming towel loop  14  where a user dries his or her hands on the towel (see arrows in FIG.  5 ). From slot  60 , the toweling passes upwardly about the back side of the towel bin  26  and back into the cabinet. It then passes in a counterclockwise direction around a second floating cylindrical roller  64  and into the nip  66  between roller  64  and a second cylindrical drive roller  68 . The toweling is wrapped about roller  64  so as to wind up thereon during use as illustrated in phantom lines in FIG.  2 . Eventually the entire length of toweling  16  is wound onto roller  64 . The direction of rotation of the rollers is shown by arrows in FIG.  5 . Thus, roller  64  defines a take-up roller. To enable roller  64  to accommodate the entire length of toweling thereon, the roller is provided with axial projections  70  that extend from the opposed ends thereof and are slidably disposed within slots  72  inside plates  30 . Thus, as the take-up roller accumulates more toweling thereon, the roller can slide upwardly along slots  72 . The first floating roller  54  similarly moves within guide slots  73 . 
     In a conventional towel dispenser using cloth toweling, the floating take-up roller is formed of a lightweight material such as wood or plastic. However, in dispenser  10 , the take-up roller  64  is formed of steel, is about 0.75 in diameter and weighs approximately 2.2 lbs. so as to press more heavily against the second drive roller  68  and thereby maintain the proper alignment and tension in the paper toweling as it wraps about the take-up roller  64 . Without the added weight of the steel in roller  64 , paper toweling will not feed properly through the dispenser  10 . In addition to take-up roller  64 , the first and second drive rollers  56  and  68  are provided with a neoprene rubber surface as opposed to a sandpaper or other rigid rough roller surfaces used to grip cloth toweling. It has been found that the surfaces of the conventional drive rollers do not adequately engage the paper toweling which causes slippage. By providing the drive rollers with a somewhat flexible outer gripping surface having a relatively high coefficient or friction, the contact with the paper toweling is significantly enhanced so as to precisely move the toweling through the dispensing device. The rubber surface can be provided on the main drive rollers in several ways, e.g., a rubber sock which can be heat-shrunk and glued in place on the surface of the cylindrical rollers. While materials other than rubber may prove viable on the drive roller surfaces, a somewhat flexible surface having a sufficiently high coefficient of friction so as to be somewhat tacky to the touch as opposed to or somewhat slick or slippery surface or a rigid surface such as sandpaper has proved highly successful in the operation of dispenser  10 . 
     Conventional end sprockets  80  and  82  are provided at the ends of the drive rollers  56  and  68 , respectively. The sprockets are connected by means of a chain  84  whereby a downward pull on the loop  14  formed by the toweling  16  causes the first floating roller  54  to press against the first drive roller  56  so that the toweling is firmly gripped between rollers  54  and  56  and drive is transmitted to roller  56  and thence via chain  84  to the second drive roller  68 . The drive towel roller frictionally engages the take-up roller  64  causing the take-up roller to rotate and wrap the used toweling about its surface at the same rate that it is dispensed from roll  16 ′, whereby the loop  14  of toweling remains at a constant length throughout the period of use. A limiting mechanism (not shown) is provided to limit the length of towel which can be obtained by a user at a single pull on the towel loop portion  14 . Any conventional limiting mechanism can be employed and a variety of such mechanisms are in common use on conventional cloth roll towel dispensers. An example of such a mechanism is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,398. 
     With the exception of the toweling  16 , the remainder of the dispenser, including the limiting mechanism, is identical to that found in a cloth towel roll dispenser. The roll of paper toweling preferably employed with the present invention is comprised of 125 feet of 6×2 scrim, a minimum of about 150 denier, 4-ply white embossed paper (although 2 and 3 ply paper could be employed), preferably about 9.75 inches wide, has a core of about 1.5 inches and an outer diameter of about 4.3-4.5 inches. Thus, the toweling roll  16  is somewhat more loose and wider than conventional paper rolls. While narrower rolls could be employed, the wider rolls is more conventional for the user. Suitable paper for dispenser  10  can be obtained from SRH, Inc. of Clearwater, Minn. under the name of Nature&#39;s Linen. 
     Thus, by replacing the lightweight take-up roller found in a conventional cloth roll dispenser with the heavier steel take-up roller  64  of the present invention, eliminating the rough surfaces on the drive rollers  56  and  60  and substituting therefor rollers with softer rubber surfaces, and providing the spacing blocks  50  in the towel bin  26  as described above to provide the desired minimal clearance between the ends of the roll of toweling and side walls of the towel bin, the resulting dispenser  10  will dispense and handle paper toweling in the same manner as conventional dispensers provide a continuous loop of cloth toweling for the drying of one&#39;s hands. The resulting economic savings is substantial. 
     In the embodiment of the present invention described above and illustrated in FIGS. 1-6, the length of the roll of paper toweling is preferably about 125 feet. To accommodate longer rolls in the nature of 200 feet, additional tensioning must be provided to enhance further the guidance of the roll through the dispenser and to provide additional friction for the roll as it moves through the dispenser. The additional guidance and friction is provided by the roller insert assembly  100  seen in the embodiment of the dispenser illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8. As seen therein, the insert is secured to the backing  18  of the cabinet and comprises a mounting plate  102 , side walls  104 , a lower forward cylindrical steel roller  106  and a rear cylindrical steel roller  108 . Roller  106  and  108  are about 0.025 inches in diameter and define a spacing of about ⅞ inches therebetween. As the toweling moves upwardly within the rear portion of the cabinet, the toweling passes counterclockwise about the rear upper roller  108  of the assembly, downwardly about forward lower roller  106  and about the steel take-up roller  64 . Other mounting assemblies could, of course, be utilized to secure rollers  106  and  108  in place. The remainder of the path of travel of the toweling is identical to that described in the prior embodiment. Through the addition of guidance and friction device, the longer rolls of paper toweling can be accommodated. 
     While the above description of the present invention was directed to modifying an existing cloth towel dispenser to accommodate paper rolls, it is to be understood that the above components could be provided in a dispenser designed and built to handle paper toweling. In such a design, the towel bin would be configured so as to be more of a “V”-shaped configuration having side walls spaced apart 8 to 10 millimeters more than the width of the toweling which presently is 9.75 inches wide. Such a configuration would maintain the roll in the desired true longitudinal disposition. 
     Various changes and modifications can be made in carrying out the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. Insofar as these changes and modifications are within the purview of the appended claims, they are to be considered as part of the present invention.