GB2168684A - Tower dispensing mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

In a towel dispensing mechanism of the type in which a length of towel may be pulled from a roll of fresh towel and after it has been used is rewound onto a used towel roll, as a fresh piece of towel is pulled down it winds up a clockwork mechanism (not shown) and sets a timer mechanism (34). When the timer mechanism releases after a predetermined time interval it winds up the used or soiled towel onto used towel roller 14 which is in contact with rear roller 16 driven by the clockwork mechanism through a chain and sprocket drive (not shown). The gear ratios are such that the trailing end portion of the towel is fully wound up after use and not left hanging. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Towel dispensing mechanism This invention relates to a towel dispensing mechanism and is particularly concerned with the type of mechanism in which a length of towel may be pulled from a roll of fresh towel and after it has been used is rewound onto a used towel roll.

A disadvantage of existing mechanisms is that when a piece of towel has been pulled down by the user and has been used it is not automatically rewound and consequently the same piece of towel may be used several times. This particularly occurs where the soiled towel dries out between one user and the next and it is not obvious that the towel is soiled.

According to the present invention a towel dispensing mechanism comprises a clockwork device which is wound up by the user pulling a fresh length of towel down, and a timing device which releases the clockwork device after a predetermined time, whereby a used portion of towel is automatically wound up onto a used towel roll when said predetermined time has elapsed.

From another aspect the invention comprises a towel dispenser in which a used portion of towel is automatically rewound onto the used towel roller by a clockwork mechanism after a predetermined time, and in which the clockwork mechanism is so arranged that pulling a new piece of towel down stores sufficient energy in the clockwork mechanism to ensure that when the end of the towel is reached the clockwork mechanism will automatically wind up the towel end after a predetermined time has elapsed.

Preferably the arrangement is such that pulling the fresh piece of towel down drives a roller which in turn drives the clockwork mechanism to wind it up, the drive to the clockwork mechanism being geared so that it will cause the clockwork mechanism to wind up to and extend greater than that required merely to wind up the length of used towel.

The roller which drives the clockwork mechanism may also be arranged to rotate a cam plate which bears against a latch bar which is pivoted and arranged so that as the roller rotates and the cam plate in turn rotates a timing mechanism is closed to a timing position, means being provided to hold the clockwork mechanism against unwinding until such time as the timing mechanism releases the holding means and allows the clockwork mechanism to wind up the used towel and, if the towel has reached its end, to wind up the tail end of the towel.

The cam plate may perform two functions.

Firstly it may engage the pivoted latch bar to move it until it sets the timing mechanism.

Secondly it may have a stop which limits the amount of new towel which may be pulled out by the user.

The latch bar may also be arranged to move a catch into engagement with a pinion or other stop mechanism to prevent one portion of the clockwork mechanism from rotating whilst another portion of the clockwork mechanism is rotated to wind up the clockwork.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic transverse section through the rollers of a supporting main frame of a towel cabinet to show the run of a towel and with the exterior casing shown in chain line and the operating mechanism omitted for clarity; Figure 2 is an elevation in detail of the right hand end plate of the supporting main frame and with the exterior casing omitted for clarity; Figure 3 is a front elevation of the main frame and mechanism shown in Figure 2; Figure 4 is an elevation in detail of the left hand end plate of the supporting main frame with the exterior casing omitted for clarity; and Figure 5 and 6 are end elevations similar to Figure 2 but showing portions of the mechanism in different operative positions.

As seen in Figure 1 the towel cabinet 10 has a top and front cover 11 and a towel bin 12. The towel bin supports an unused towel 13. There is a take-up roller 14 supported at its end journal in slots 15 provided in supporting frame end plates 1 and 2 so as to be vertically slidable and rotatable. The take-up roller is adapted to be driven by a rear roller 16. There is also a front roller 17 and a drive roller 18 supported on a shaft journalled in guide slots provided by flanges 19 at each side of the cabinet.

The run of the towel is shown in Figure 1.

The towel leaves the unused towel roll 13 at 20 and is wound over the front roller 17 and round the drive roller 18 and then hanges down below the cabinet. At the rear of the cabinet at 21 the towel comes up and is wound onto the wooden take-up roller 14 where it is in contact with the rear roller 16.

Pulling down on the towel will cause it to be removed from the unused towel roll and at the same time will cause the front drive roller 18 to exert pressure on the towel where it runs over the front roller 17 so as to rotate the front roller 17 in a clockwise direction as seen in Figure 1.

The take-up of the towel is effected by rotation of rear roller 16 which drives the takeup roller 14 through the medium of the towel which is being wound onto the roller 14.

As will be explained in detail hereafter pulling down on the towel, in driving the front roller 17, winds up a clockwork mechanism.

A point is reached at which no more towel can be pulled down, due to a stop mecha nism. A timing device is then operative for a period of say 15 seconds or 30 seconds after which the clockwork mechanism winds up the used towel onto the take-up roller so that the next person using the towel has to pull a fresh piece of towel. The clockwork mechanism and the timer are operated by the rotation of the front roller 17 as will be described hereinafter.

A feature of the invention is that when the towel reaches its end and the timer operates to cause the clockwork mechanism to wind the used towel up, there is sufficient energy in the clockwork mechanism to wind up the whole of the tail end of the towel. To ensure this the front roller 17 is of slightly smaller diameter than the rear roller 16 and this ensures that the clockwork mechanism is in effect slightly over wound so that when the used towel is wound up normally the clockwork mechanism free-wheels once the used piece of towel has been wound up onto the take-up roller.

Reverting now to the drawings, and particularly to Figure 2, each of the rollers described above is carried by a shaft. Thus there is a drive roller shaft 22 supporting the drive roller 18, a front roller shaft 23 supporting the front roller 17, a rear roller shaft 24 supporting the rear roller 16 and a take-up roller shaft 25 supporting the take-up roller 14. Pivoted on the front roller shaft is a latch bar 26 and pivoted on the framework of the cabinet is a catch bar 27. The catch bar has at one end a flange 28 and at the other end is connected by a spring 29 to a fixed part of the cabinet.

The flange 28 is seen to be in engagement with one end 30 of the latch bar 26. A stop 26A prevents the latch bar going any further in a clockwise direction which it would tend to do otherwise because it is pulled by a spring 31. At the other end 32 of the latch bar 26 is mounted one cup 33 of a timing mechanism 34 which comprises a second cup 35 and an adjustment device 36. The two cups are rubber suction cups and this type of mechanism is known in itself. When the cups 33 and 35 are brought together under pressure the cups hold the mechanism in a fixed position but air is allowed to leak into the cups through a valve mechanism 36A controlled by the timing adjustment 36 to allow the cups to open after a predetermined time.

Fixed on the outer end of the rear roller shaft 24 is an outer sprocket 37. Also mounted on the shaft 24 is a freely rotatable inner sprocket 38 carrying a cam and stop plate 39. The cam and stop plate 39 has a cam member 40 and a stop bar 41. The catch bar 27 carries a catch bar pin 42 engageable in the teeth of the outer sprocket 37. The inner sprocket 38 is connected by a chain 43 passing over a chain adjustor 44 to small sprocket 45 carried by the front roller shaft 23.

The arrangement of these sprockets, timing mechanism, free wheel etc. can also be seen in Figure 3 and the arrangement of the sprockets and chains at the other end of the cabinet will now be described with reference to Figures 3 and 4. Fixed to shaft 23, as seen in Figure 4 is a sprocket 46. Also fixed to the shaft is a toothed camming wheel 47 engageable with a pawl 48 pivoted at 49. Sprocket 46 is connected by a chain 50 to the inner sprocket 51 of a pair of sprockets 51 and 52.

The inner sprocket 51 is connected to a casing 53 of a spring winding mechanism. The casing 53 is freely rotatable on a shaft 54 and one end of a spring 58 is connected to the shaft 54 and the other end to the casing 53. The shaft 54 in turn is connected through a free wheel 55 to sprocket 52. Sprocket 52 is in turn connected by a chain 56 to another sprocket 57 fixed on shaft 24 carrying roller 16.

It will be appreciated that the spring 58 will be wound up when the sprocket 46 through chain 50 drives sprocket 51. When this is happening the sprocket 52 is prevented from rotating by a stop mechanism which will be described later.

The spring 58 housed within its rotatable spring housing 53 is in turn housed inside a fixed cover 59.

Assuming that the mechanism is in the position shown in Figure 2 and the user now pulls down a fresh piece of towel, this action will cause rotation of front roller 17 in a clockwise direction as seen in Figure 2.

Initial rotation of roller 17 will not wind up the clockwork mechanism because both ends of the spring 58 are free to move at this time. As the roller 17 rotates it will turn sprocket 45 which, via chain 43 will drive sprocket 38 clockwise as seen in Figure 2.

Sprocket 38 carries with it cam and stop plate 39. As cam 40 travels round it engages roller 32A on latch bar 26 causing the latch bar 26 to pivot anti-clockwise and eventually to close the cups 33,35 which will hold the latch bar in the position shown in Figure 5.

As seen in Figure 5, in this position the pin 42 engages and holds the sprocket 37. This locks the sprocket 37, shaft 24, roller 16 and sprocket 57. As sprocket 57 is connected to sprocket 52 via chain 56 this action locks sprocket 52 and via free wheel 55, locks shaft 54 attached to the inner end of spring 58.

Further rotation of roller 17 will now rotate sprocket 46 and cause sprocket 47 to ratchet over pawl 48. Sprocket 46 will, through chain 50, drive sprocket 51 which is joined to the outer, rotatable section 53 of the spring housing. The inner end of spring 58 is held on shaft 54 which is prevented from rotating at this time, as described above, because of the engagement of pin 42 in the teeth of sprocket 37 which holds the shaft 24 of rear roller 16 stationary and therefore holds sprocket 57, chain 56 and sprocket 52 stationary thus locking shaft 54, via free wheel 55.

Thus the spring will now start to wind up and will continue winding until the stop bar 41 reaches the position shown in Figure 6 where the stop bar is up against the right-hand end of latch bar 26.

This position will be held until the timer mechanism reaches the end of its pre-set time when the cups 33,35 will release allowing the latch bar 26 to pivot clockwise, as seen in Figure 5. As it turns latch bar 26 engages catch bar 27 to pivot the catch bar 27 anticlockwise thus releasing pin 42 from sprocket 37. This frees shaft 24 and roller 16 thus freeing the hitherto locked end of the clockwork spring 58. The spring now drives shaft 54 and via sprocket 52, chain 56 and sprocket 57, drives rear roller 16 which engages the towel take-up roller 14 to wind up the used or dirty towel. The mechanism thus returns to the position shown in Figure 1.

Because of the ratio of the diameters of front roller 17 and rear roller 16 there is sufficient energy wound up in spring 58 to ensure that the final end piece of towel is automatically wound up when the end of the towel is reached. No special mechanism or indication is required to show when the towel end is reached as is required in prior art arrangements.

Claims (5)

1. A towel dispensing mechanism comprising a clockwork device which is wound up by the user pulling a fresh length of towel down, and a timing device which releases the clockwork device after a predetermined time, whereby a used portion of towel is automatically wound up onto a used towel roll when said predetermined time has elapsed the towel arrangement being such that pulling the fresh piece of towel down drives a roller which in turn drives the clockwork mechanism to wind it up, the roller which drives the clockwork mechanism also being arranged to rotate a cam plate which bears against a latch bar which is pivoted and arranged so that, as the roller rotates and the cam plate in turn rotates, a timing mechanism is closed to a timing position, means being provided to hold the clockwork mechanism against unwinding until such time as the timing mechanism releases the holding means and allows the ciockwork mechanism to wind up the used towel.

2. A towel dispensing mechanism according to claim 1 and in which the drive to the clockwork mechanism is geared so that it will cause the clockwork mechanism to wind up to an extent greater than that required merely to wind up the length of used towel so that when the towel has reached its end, the mechanism will wind up the tail end of the towel.

3. A towel dispenser according to claim 1 or claim 2 and in which the cam plate performs two functions, firstly it engages the pivoted latch bar to move it until it sets the timing mechanism and secondly it has a stop which limits the amount of new towel which may be pulled out by the user.

4. A towel dispenser according to any preceding claim and in which latch bar is arranged to move a catch into engagement with a pinion or other stop mechanism to prevent one portion of the clockwork mechanism from rotating whilst another portion of the clockwork mechanism is rotated to wind up the clockwork.

5. A towel dispensing mechanism substantially as hereinbefore particularly described and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.