Patent ID: 7270248

Claim:
A lid dispenser for sequentially dispensing flexible lids, the dispenser comprising: a housing having a lid stack area for storing a substantially vertical stack of flexible lids; a pair of indexing shafts positioned within said housing generally below said lid stack area, said pair of indexing shafts arranged to grip at least a bottom-most lid of said stack of flexible lids; a lid discharge area arranged to deliver a lid dispensed from said lid stack area to an operator accessible location; and a dispensing mechanism manually operable to cause said pair of indexing shafts to rotate in opposite directions a sufficient amount to pass said bottom-most lid of said stack of flexible lids into said lid discharge area; wherein: said dispensing mechanism comprises an adjustment control having a stop that allows a degree of rotation of said pair of indexing shafts to be adjusted so that for each manual operation of said dispensing mechanism, said rotation of said pair of indexing shafts is limited to an amount sufficient to pass said bottom-most lid of said stack of flexible lids into said discharge area, thus accommodating a variety of lid configurations.