GB2375523A

GB2375523A - A dispenser for web material such as bags on a roll

Info

Publication number: GB2375523A
Application number: GB0111876A
Authority: GB
Inventors: John Alexander Clarkson
Original assignee: GLOBAL TRADING U K Ltd
Current assignee: GLOBAL TRADING U K Ltd
Priority date: 2001-05-15
Filing date: 2001-05-15
Publication date: 2002-11-20
Also published as: GB0111876D0

Abstract

A dispenser 10 for dispensing sections of a web material from a roll 22 in which adjacent sections of the web are separated by perforations 36, comprises a tongue member 28 which is offset from the centerline of a strip of material drawn off the web. The tongue may be planar, may be triangular and may have a point. The dispenser may comprise a support surface 18 and a recess 26a adjacent to one or both sides of the tongue which may serve to engage and retain a second portion of the web as a first is dispensed. The sections of web material may be bags. Each bag may have handles and be folded along its longitudinal axis and be connected by the uppermost part of its handles, using a row of perforations, to the bottom edge of the preceding bag. To aid the separation of bags from the web, each row of perforations may include a slot 38 which engages with the tongue as each bag is drawn off the roll. The perforations may extend across only part of the width of the web.

Description

DESCRIPTION DISPENSER The present invention relates to dispensers and in particular, but not exclusively, to dispensers suitable for dispensing lengths of web material from a roll of the material. The invention is particularly useful in dispensing plastic bags from a roll of such bags, wherein adjacent bags are separated by perforations in the web Devices for dispensing sheets of a web material from a continuous roll are increasingly used, particularly in supermarkets and grocery stores. In such premises, a roll of bags is kept in close proximity to loose (unpacked) vegetables, fruit and the like and are held in a dispenser to allow customers and/or staff to remove a bag and fill it with produce.

Typically, known dispensers take the form of a container for holding a generally cylindrical roll of bags, adjacent bags being separated by perforations in the web, and a tongue for engaging the perforations between two adjacent bags during dispensing, whereby engagement of the tongue with the perforations causes a bag to be severed from the rest of the web and thereby dispensed from the dispenser.

Such dispensers generally work very well with bags having no handles.

However, where loose produce is selected by a customer and taken to a check-out to be weighed, there is a desire for handles to be provided, mainly so that the bag can be tied closed in order to prevent produce from falling out of the bag. However, in order to minimise the space required for dispensing bags, the bags are produced in the form of a folded web which is then wound into a cylinder which can then be loaded into a suitable dispenser. If handles are required, currently the only way of providing them

in rolled-up web form is by producing the bags with the base of one bag adjacent to the top of the next bag, and vice versa, along the web. Not only does this increase the manufacturing cost of the bags, but it also require two handles to detach one bag from the web. Moreover, users of bags have shown a preference for bags which are dispensed"open-end-first", which only occurs with every other bag in this known arrangement.

In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, a dispenser for dispensing sections of a web material from a roll of the material in which adjacent sections of the web are separated by a row of perforations comprises a tongue member adapted to engage the row of perforations, the tongue member being offset from the longitudinal axis of the web.

Such a dispenser allows, in particular, a web of bags with handles to be wound into a roll to be dispensed. In such a web of bags, the top of the handle portion of each bag (which forms the top edge of the bag) is only connected to part of the bottom edge of the previous bag and thus the connection between adjacent bags is offcentre. By positioning the tongue member to be aligned with the approximate centre of the row of perforations (where a slot is preferably located) a bag can be detached from the web merely by pulling the outermost bag in the web, which causes engagement of the tongue member with the slot and eventual separation of the bag.

This would not be practical with existing dispensers, in which the tongue member is located centrally, since it would be necessary for a user to align the slot in the web manually with the tongue member whenever a bag is dispensed.

The dispenser may further comprise a support surface located on one or both

sides of the tongue member. This provides support for those portions of the bag which are not attached to an adjacent bag and helps to keep the slot correctly aligned with the tongue member as a bag is pulled from the dispenser.

The dispenser may further comprise a recess located adjacent to one or both sides of the tongue member. In one embodiment, the or each recess is sufficiently narrow for it to engage and retain a portion of the next bag of the web as a first bag

is dispensed. This presents the next bag in a convenient manner to be grasped by user.

In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a roll of material comprising a plurality of sections of a web, adjacent sections of which are separated from each other by a row of perforations which extends only partly across the width of the web.

Preferably, the sections comprise bags. In this way, a roll of bags having handles can be formed from a folded web comprising bags and in which adjacent bags are connected to each other by a row of perforations located between the top edge of the handles (which extends only partly across the width of the web) and a portion of the lowermost edge of the previous bag. This allows bags with handles to be used with dispensers in which pulling of the outermost bag causes a tongue to engage with the row of perforations in order to separate the bag from the next bag.

Preferably the row of perforations extends from one edge of the web.

In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a dispenser in accordance with the first aspect of the present invention in combination with a roll of material in accordance with the second aspect of the present invention.

By way of example only, specific embodiments of the present invention will

now be described, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which :- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of dispenser in accordance with the present invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the dispenser of Fig. 1, shown dispensing a web of bags from a roll; Fig. 3 is a plan view of a section of the web of bags being dispensed from the dispenser in Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a detail view of a portion of the dispenser, looking in the direction of arrow Ill-Ill in Fig. 1; and Figs. 5 to 7 are variations of the portion of the dispenser shown in Fig. 4.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 4, a dispenser 10 comprises a casing having two opposed, generally planar, parallel side walls 12,14, a generally planar vertical rear wall 16 extending substantially perpendicularly between the rearmost edges of the side walls 12,14 and a generally planar base wall 18 extending substantially perpendicularly to the side walls 12,14 and the rear wall 16. The opposed inner faces of the side walls 12,14 are provided with inclined guide tracks 20 (only one of which is visible in the drawings) for receipt of a cylindrical core (not illustrated) on which a cylindrical roll of bags 22 is wound.

As best seen in Figs. 1 and 4, the front edge of the planar base wall 18 is bent back on itself through an abtuse angle to form a generally planar detachment portion 24 which extends generally upwardly and rearwardly. The detachment portion comprises a generally straight upper edge 26 which extends parallel to the plane of the base wall 18 but the two ends 26a, 26b of the upper edge are interrupted by a

generally triangular tongue 28 which projects above the level of the upper edge 26 and which merges smoothly into a recess 30 having a V-shape with a rounded apex.

As illustrated in Fig. 3, the cylindrical roll of bags which is intended for use with the dispenser 10 comprises a rolled-up web of identical bags 32. Each bag is a star-seal bag having two handles 34 and as shown in Fig. 3 the bags are folded before being wound onto the bag so that one handle 34 lies on top of the other. Adjacent bags in the web are separated by a line of perforations 36 between the free end of the handle 34 of one bag and part of the base of the previous bag. The line of perforations 36 is formed into an elongate slot 38 at its centre portion.

In use, a roll of bags 22 is loaded into the dispenser 10 by locating the cylindrical core of the roll in the guide tracks. The first bag 32 is then pulled forwardly from the roll 22 in order to detach it. In view of the construction of the web of bags, the line of perforations 36 between adjacent bags does not extend across the whole width of the web. As shown in Figs. 1,2 and 4, the apex of the triangular tongue 28 of the detachment portion 24 is positioned so that it is aligned with the elongate slot 38 in the line of perforations 38. In the embodiment illustrated, the folded width of the handle 34 extends across approximately half the width of the web of bags and the apex of the triangular tongue is located approximately one quarter of the width along the detachment portion 24 so that it is aligned with the centre of the line of perforations 36, where the elongate slot 38 is located.

As shown in Fig. 2, as the first bag 32 is pulled from the roll the triangular tongue 28 engages the elongate slot 38. Further pulling of the bag 24 causes the tongue 28 to project further through the slot 38 and the bag 24 is eventually separated

from the adjacent bag and is then available for use. As shown in Fig. 2, the portion of the lowermost edge of the bag which is not attached to the handle of the adjacent bag is supported on the portion 26a of the upper edge 26 of the detachment portion 24 adjacent the recess 30. This reduces the tendency of the bag to hang loosely and assists in keeping the slot 38 of the line of perforations 36 aligned with the tongue 28.

In the embodiment of Figs. 1 to 4, the lowermost edge of the bag is also supported at its opposite side on the portion 26b of the upper edge 26 of the detachment portion 24 adjacent the tongue 28.

The elongate slot 38 and the tongue 28 which engages the slot are thus offset from the central longitudinal axis 44 of the web of bags. This allows each of a series of folded star-sealed bags to be dispensed as a web which is paid out from a roll of such bags.

This procedure is then repeated in order to dispense further bags.

The embodiments of Figs. 5 to 7 are identical to that of Figs. 1 to 4 with the exception of the profile of the detachment portion 24 and thus only the detachment portions are illustrated in Figs. 5 to 7 and the same reference numerals are used to denote corresponding features.

In the embodiment of Fig. 5, the detachment portion differs from that of the first embodiment in that the upper edge 26b of the detachment portion adjacent the tongue 28 is omitted, such that the outer inclined edge 42 of the tongue 28 is lengthened and extends to one lateral edge of the detachment portion.

In the embodiment of Fig. 6, the upper edge 26 is omitted completely, such that only the tongue 28 is folded back towards the base wall 18 to project upwardly

and rearwardly. This is, in effect, equivalent to the embodiment of Figs. 1 to 4, with the omission of the recess 30.

In the embodiment of Fig 7, the recess 30 of the first embodiment has been omitted but instead two smaller recesses or nicks 42 are provided in the upper edge 26 of the detachment portion 24, a respective one at the base of each inclined edge of the tongue 28. The smaller recesses or nicks 42 are dimensioned such that as one bag is detached from the web, each of the laterally outermost portions of the handles 34 of the next bag of the web engages with, and is thereby retained in, a respective one of the recesses or nicks 42, thereby presenting and retaining the handle portion 34 of the next bag 24 conveniently for a user.

The invention is not restricted to the details of the foregoing embodiments.

Claims

1. A dispenser for dispensing sections of a web material from a roll of the material in which adjacent sections of the web are separated by a row of perforations, the dispenser comprising a tongue member adapted to engage the row of perforations, the tongue member being offset from the longitudinal axis of the web.

2. A dispenser as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a support surface located on one or both sides of the tongue member.

3. A dispenser as claimed in claim 2, comprising a support surface located on both sides of the tongue member and wherein the support on each side of the tongue member is at substantially the same level.

4. A dispenser as claimed in any of the preceding claims, further comprising a recess adjacent to one or both sides of the tongue member.

5. A dispenser as claimed in claim 4, wherein the or each recess is arranged to engage and retain a portion of the next section of the web as a first section is dispensed.

6. A dispenser as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the tongue is planar.

7. A dispenser as claimed in claim 6, wherein the tongue is inclined towards the direction from which the web is dispensed.

8. A dispenser as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the tongue comprises a point.

9. A dispensed as claimed in claim 8, wherein the tongue is generally triangular in shape.

10. A roll of material comprising a plurality of sections of a web, adjacent sections of which are separated from each other by a row of perforations which extends only partly across the width of the web.

11. A roll of material as claimed in claim 10, wherein the sections comprise bags.

12. A roll of material as claimed in claim 11, wherein the sections of the web comprise bags having handles, the web is folded and adjacent bags are connected to each other by a row of perforations located between the top edge of the handles and a portion of the lowermost edge of the previous bag.

13. A roll of material as claimed in any of claims 10 to 12, wherein the row of perforations extends from one edge of the web.

14. A roll of material as claimed in any of claims 10 to 13, wherein the row of perforations comprises an elongate slot.

15. A roll of material as claimed in claim 14, wherein the slot is located at the centre of the row of perforations.

16. A dispenser substantially as herein described, with reference to, and as illustrated in, the accompanying drawings.

17. A roll of material substantially as herein described, with reference to, and as illustrated in, the accompanying drawings.

18. A dispenser as claimed in any of claims 1 to 9 or 16 in combination with a roll of material as claimed in any of claims 10 to 15 or 17.