LEAF SUPPLIER AND METHOD EXTRACT OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention This invention relates generally to certain new and useful improvements in the supply of flexible and foldable sheet material, and more particularly to sheet dispensers which are capable of passing a guide strip or sheet to an opening in the dispensary from a roll of alemantation --central in the dispensary. 2. Brief Description of the Related Art. For several years there have been dispensaries available in which flexible sheet materials such as paper towels are mounted on a long roll of such towels, each of the individual towels being dispensed from the roll through the dispensary. Rolls of similar-leaf materials such as facial towels that are capable of being supplied from centrally-fed rolls that have no core. There are several paper towel dispensers proposed and commercially available and all are based on supporting a roll of the paper towels on or with respect to a support plate which can be part of an outer box, and which has a supply opening in it. the plate member to allow a guide strip at the beginning or a guide portion of the roller of the paper towels to be supplied through the dispensing aperture, however, the aperture is usually small having a diameter of perhaps no more than 9.0mm However, the same small size of this supply opening makes it difficult for employees to install a new roll of paper sheets and have the guide strip pass through the supply opening. In addition, there are no means for adjusting the size of the supply opening to accommodate a particular leaf condition or a particular sheet thickness. Owing to the thickness of the sheet, it is desirable to vary the amount of friction force imposed on the sheets passing through the supply opening. Up to 6.} 1 present there is no effective means to adjust the size of this opening; representatives of the prior art devices that present centrally-fed paper towels are U.S. Patent Nos. 5,310,083 issued May 10, 199; 5,205,455, granted on April 27, 1993; 5,346,064 issued September 13, 1994. However, all of these suppliers clearly represent the prior art since they have a fixed size feed opening with no means to facilitate the feeding of a guiding strip of the sheet material to through the supply opening. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to a supplier for providing individual sheets of a sheet product from a roll of the centrally fed product; the roll of the centrally fed leaf product is necessarily a coreless roll that allows the removal of leaves - from the central portion thereof. All these sheets are formed of a flexible and foldable material and preferably, they are a fiber sheet that includes at least textile materials, both synthetic and natural, and materials of paper and cardboard products. Thus, the sheets, which are supplied from the dispenser of the invention, are not metallic; One of the most common types of sheet that is supplied with the dispenser of the present invention, is a sheet paper material, for example, paper towels for the hands, for the face, various so-called toilet paper, paper to clean the children and my home. The supplier of the present invention comprises a plate member for supporting or receiving the roll of the sheet product in selected positions, such as a stationary position. A supply opening is formed in the plate member and placed in alignment with the central opening of the roll, to receive the sheets of the product in a form where they are initially connected to each other. In this way, a user of the dispensing dispenser can pull out the guTa sheet fed through the opening of the dispensary, to obtain a sheet supply. In one of the important aspects of the present invention, an opening such as a recess is formed in the plate communicating with the opening. This allows the formation of a larger supply opening, so that the initial guide strip of sheet material can be fed through the opening and into it, in order to start a supply thereof. In effect, the elongated notch or otrß. opening and the initial opening in the plate member form an elongated supply opening. In addition, a me is provided with the support plate to selectively control the size of the supply opening; in this way, it is possible to allow to accommodate sheets of paper with different thickness or with different moisture conditions or other similar qualities. It is important to provide an adequate amount of friction on the individual sheets so that they can be pulled through the opening and allow one sheet of the sheet to separate from the next sheet. A means of controlling the opening allows the selective control of the size thereof.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE OUTS Having thus described the invention in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings in which. Figure 1 is a side elevational view partly in section of a supplier of centrally fed paper towels - constructed in accordance with and embodying the present invention; Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view somewhat similar to Fig. 1, and showing a cover forming part of the supplier in a partially closed position; Figure 3 is a vertical sectional view similar to Figs. 1 and 2, and showing the supplier in a completely closed position with a roll of paper towels supplied centrally there disposed; Figure 4 is a horizontal sectional view taken along the line 4-4, of Fig. 2; Figure 5 is a schematic perspective view showing a modified form of the supply of paper towels constructed in accordance with and embodying the present invention;
Figure 6 is a planar top view of a supplier part of Fig. 5, showing the posj_ tion of an opening control member to the left side; Figure 7 is a planar bottom view of the embodiment of Fig. 5, and shows a positioning of a rejection hand-opening control member. Figure 8 is a perspective view of a more modified form of a dispensing mechanism and particularly shows an opening control member; Figure 9 is a perspective view of another embodiment of a supplier according to the present invention and shows especially another modified form of an aperture control means. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED MODALITIES Referring now in greater detail, and by reference numerals to the drawings, A, designates a sheet dispenser to obtain individual sheets from a roll or R package, thereof. In the embodiment of the invention as illustrated, the roll R, has no core and contains a central perforation 20, through which the paper towels T, are initially supplied. Still further, and referring to the drawings 1 and 2, as can be seen that the roll is placed vertically, however, in the case of supplying diapers from a box thereof, the sheets will be pulled upwards. The dispenser of paper towels A, generally comprise an outer box 24, having a partially enclosed side wall 26, in this case, the side wall extends around three sides of the box; a closure member 28, is hinged to the top wall -30, from: a box by means of a 32, as best shown in Fig. 1. According to this construction the closure member 28, is movable upwards to an open position and down to a closed position, as best shown in Fig. 3. One of the important aspects of the supply A, is the fact that the box 24, includes a support plate 34, to support a vertically placed roll of paper webs T, which are centrally fed, since the plate 34 receives a roll vertically disposed of the material of the sheets, the plate will be designated as a support plate. However, it should be understood that the dispenser or supplier A of the invention functions equally well when the roll is positioned so that its elongated opening is arranged horizontally for lateral delivery, or when the sheets are delivered through an opening up and pulled up from the supplier. The support plate 34 is provided with an elongated open upper end 36, which constitutes a part of a downward opening 38, of supply shaped somewhat like a tunnel. The supply opening 38 may have a lower open end 40; in this respect and in a preferred fashion, the opening 38 has a somewhat conical shape and provides a circular-shaped opening 36., and a lower circular shape 40. However, the lower opening 40, has a basically reduced diameter compared to the open upper end 36, it can be seen that the box is constructed with an internally provided wall 42, somewhat in truncated cone shape forming the supply opening 38, as shown and which ends in a bottom wall 44, which forms the bottom end of the box. The wall 42, in the form of a truncated cone, is partially formed by a control member 44, on the lower end of the closure member 28, and which in effect forms the upper open end 36, and the lower open end 40. The aperture control member 44 also comprises a portion of and effectively completes the truncated cone-shaped wall 42. If the aperture control member 44 does not move to its fully closed position as shown in FIG. Fig. 3, then the aperture of its insulator 36, will not have a circular shape, but rather will remain attached to the ridge. It can also be seen that the support plate 34 is effectively provided with an opening such as a recess 50, in communication with the opening of the minister 38, and extending to the edge of the box 34.; -the size of this is controlled by the placement of the control member 44. Since the control member 44, of aperture is moved to the vicinity of the supply opening originally conical 36, in the plate 34, will be reduced the size of the opening 50, and the size of the opening 36, finally formed dispenser will also be reduced. AsT, when the closing member 28 is in the fully open position shown in the Big. 1, the paper towels T, of the roll R, can be initially inserted from the edge of the plate 34, into the elongated scrim 50. When the closing plate 28, moves towards the closed position, it will begin to reducing the size of the elongated notch and reducing the size of that aperture until the cover member 28 is in the fully closed position, and then, the supply aperture 36 will assume the shape and size shown in Fig. 3. It is possible to allow the guTa strip} n} The material of the sheet material is injected into the recess-or other form of opening 50, and moves laterally in the dispensing opening 36. Subsequently, the overall size of the dispensing opening formed by the recess 50, and the dispensing opening 36. , is controlled by the opening control means 44. In essence, the dispensing opening can be considered as having an opening on one side to allow the leading or leading edge of the sheet material, to be pushed laterally into the interior of the The dispensing opening and the opening control means 44 can constitute a hub for increasing or reducing the size of the dispensing or delivery opening. The F? Gs. 5-7, illustrate a modified embodiment of a supplier for providing individual sheets of a paper product or other sheet material from a centrally-fed roll and comprising a support plate -54, having an aperture 56, shape-supplying conical The opening 56, has an upper end -open 58, on the upper surface of the support plate -54, and another lower end deametrally 60, on the lower surface of the simple support plate 54, in this way the supply opening 56, becomes conical, an elongated sill 62, leads to the supplying opening and communicates with the side of the support plate 54, as shown in Figures 5-7.
The dispensing opening 56 can be made in an adjustable size by means of a first displaceable bar 64 on the right-hand side which is capable of moving in the elongated notch 62. The displaceable bar 64 also has a lower closure in the form of arched plate 66, capable of being below the lower open end 60, and reducing the size of the lower end 60, of the supply opening 56. Thus controlling the position of the displaceable bar 64, it is possible to control the overall or total size of the lower open end 60. Likewise the size of the open end 60 can also be controlled by a similar displaceable bar 68, which extends from the opposite side of the supply opening 56. In this case, the displaceable bar 68 cuts a arched end 70, which also slides along the underside of the plate 54, and controls the size of the lower open end 60, from the left, as illustrated better in Fig. 6 of the drawings. Fig. 8 illustrates another slightly-modified form of the sheet supplier and particularly the mechanism supplying it, in this case, the dispensing mechanism 72, of Fig. 8, would be mounted on the underside of a plate support such as the support plate 54, which has a large opening therein. The supply mechanism 72 comprises a conical-shaped wall 74, which has a beveled flange flush outwards 76, with recesses to beams 78, all formed therein. An arc-shaped closure plate is associated with the tunnel-shaped wall 74, and includes fingers 82 which are able to fit within the elongated notch 78, depending on the position of the fingers or detents 82, in the recess elongate 78, the total size of a delivery opening 84, formed by the tapered side wall 74, will be determined. Fig. 9 illustrates another modified form of a supply mechanism that is similarly mounted on one side of a support plate; in this case, the supplying mechanism 86, of Fig. 9, comprises a conical-shaped wall 88, which forms an aperture provided ra 90. Again, a first end of the conically shaped wall 88. , it is provided with an outwardly facing flange 92, which has a plurality of recesses 94 formed therein; a plurality of detents assembled with articulation and indicated by the numeral 96, are formed at the opposite end of the wall. conical shape 88, and are adapted to be inserted into the elongated recesses 88, of a similar flange 100, at the second end of the conical-shaped wall 88, as best shown in Fig. 4. Thus, when the fingers 96 , they are reinserted through each of the flange plates 92, 100, they will control the total size of the supplying aperture 90.