US3506320A

US3506320A - Apparatus for dispensing towelling

Info

Publication number: US3506320A
Application number: US745719A
Authority: US
Inventors: Edward John Howlett
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1968-07-18
Filing date: 1968-07-18
Publication date: 1970-04-14
Anticipated expiration: 1987-04-14

Description

April 14, 1970' QJ. HowLETT 3,506,320

APPARATUS FOR D I S PENS ING TOWELLING Filed July 18, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Ml/twroe Era/APB Ja/f/Y 69:01.5

April 14, 1970 E. .i. HOWLETT 3,506,320

APPARATUS FOR DISPENSING TOWELLING Filed July 18, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I I 6 ii I I a i I H a i I I 4 4 r 1 4- .J I A I 5 I i i I 15 //YV/Y Toe Epwmb Ja/W $1045 United States Patent O 3,506,320 APPARATUS FOR DISPENSING TOWELLING Edward .Iohn Hewlett, 16 Hillway, Highgate, London N 6, England Filed July 18, 1968, Ser. No. 745,719 Int. Cl. B65h 19/00 US. Cl. 312--38 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Cabinet for dispensing towelling from a storage roll as a loop, which automatically returns the soiled towelling to the cabinet, when pulled by a user, via an assembly of parallel rollers, within the cabinet including a delivery roller, a take-up roller, and a spring-driven retraction roller, the latter being energised as and when the delivery roller is rotated, and held against rotation by ratchet-andpawl which is releasable as and when the towelling loop is pulled.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION This invention relates to apparatus of the cabinet kind for dispensing towelling from a continuous rolled web, said apparatus including an assembly of parallel rollers and mechanism for enabling the web to be delivered outside the cabinet, the user pulling on the web; one of the rollers is a delivery roller and usually the arrangement is such that this delivery roller is automatically locked after a predetermined length has been pulled and then automatically released after tension on the web has been relaxed, but this locking and releasing is not necessarily adopted by the present invention. In such a case (i.e. when locking and releasing), the delivery roller constitutes a measuring roller, because the amount of rotation permitted prior to locking determines the set length of clean towelling issued for each pull on the towel. Apparatus of this kind provides that each user will obtain a clean length of the web through a slot in the cabinet. The assembly of rollers includes a take-up roller around which the soiled portion of towelling is wound after each operation, the take-up roller being frictionally driven by reason of the roll of soiled web resting on a rough-surfaced take-up drive roller which in turn is driven by means such as chain-and-sprocket from the delivery roller. The foregoing apparatus is referred to herein as the kind described.

Usually the towel hangs underneath the cabinet, before and after use, in a loop including the previously used and soiled portion which is ultimately withdrawn into the cabinet, but only when a new clean portion (or portions) has been pulled out by the user; the loop is always left exposed. It has been proposed to retract the towel into the cabinet automatically after each use leaving merely a substantially taut length underneath and across the bottom of the cabinet so as to obviate the disadvantages of such a continuously exposed loop including a solid portion.

The present invention has for its object to provide an improved construction for producing automatic retraction of the towel.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the said invention apparatus of the kind described for dispensing towelling, includes means for automatically retracting the towel into the cabinet, said means comprising a towel-retraction roller for winding the used towel portion back into the cabinet, a power-operated driving mechanism to rotate said towel-retraction roller, means operated by the usual delivery roller to energise said power-operated mechanism simultaneously with the rotation of the delivery roller when clean towel is being pulled out of the cabinet by a user, in combination with locking means to hold the said retraction roller against rotation by the said power-operated mechanism when withdrawal tension is applied to the towel, and means actuated when tension on the towel is released to free said locking means.

The retracted soiled towel is delivered into a soiled towel compartment where it accumulates until the next operation of the delivery roller, whereupon the take-up drive roller for winding the soiled towel web onto the take-up roller performs its function on the previously accumulated soiled towel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In order that the said invention may be readily understood the accompanying drawings are referred to in the following description of an embodiment of the said invention by way of example, and in said drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a vertical section, more or less diagrammatic, of the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a plan thereof representing a section taken on the line IIII of FIGURE 1; and

FIGURE 3 is a sectional elevation to aid in the description of the spring-operated driving mechanism to rotate said towel-retraction roller.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Like reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts throughout the several figures.

Referring to the drawings, an outer cabinet 1 is provided at the front with an upper door 2 and a lower door 3, the former being hinged at 4 to the top of the casing and the latter door 3 hinged at 5 to the bottom of the casing so that when these are opened the various rollers and mechanism (hereinafter described) are accessible from the front of the cabinet. In this embodiment a chassis 6 is included. In this chassis there is pivoted a delivery roller 7 which normally rotates clockwise and is held against reverse rotation by the pawl 8. This delivery roller 7 has a presser or nip roller 9 (omitted for clarity in FIG- URE 2) over which the issuing towel 10 (FIGURE 1) passes so that when pulled from outside the cabinet, it moves the said nip roller 9 in a counterclockwise direction turning the delivery roller 7 clockwise with the towel 10 pulling off from a roll of clean towelling housed in the base of the cabinet 1, and indicated by the dot-and-dash circle also designated 10, so that it can freely unroll in the trough formed therein by the inner trough member 11 and the front door 3 of the cabinet. The trough member 11 is pivoted to the chassis at 11a so as to be moved forward clear of the rear mechanism to facilitate threading the towel therethrough when inserting a new roll. There is a take-up drive roller 12 driven by a chain 13. The said delivery roller 7 also drives through the chain 13 a power-operated driving mechanism for the retraction roller unit designated generally by the numeral 14, the chain 13 thus extending around the three rollers 7, 12 and the driving unit 14 for the retraction roller 15 (which is included in the unit 14), 16 (FIGURE 1) representing a jockey pinion.

It will be apparent that when the towel 10 is pulled from outside the cabinet 1, the delivery roller 7 will be rotated and will drive the take-up drive roller 12 and also the, power-operated driving'mechanism for energising the retraction roller 15. The power-operated driving unit is preferably spring-energised but could be otherwise powered, e.g. by a suspended weight from a winding drum. A spring-energised driving mechanism (see particularly FIG- URE 3 now to be described) is preferred.

With reference to FIGURE 3, it will be seen that the towel retraction roller 15 is hollow and preferably covered by a strip of carding wire represented by the helical winding thereon (FIGURE 2). The retraction roller is mounted rotatably on a shaft 17 which has fast therewith, a tone end, a sprocket 18 to receive the drive via chain 13 from the delivery roller 7 on to the retraction roller unit 14. As the shaft 17 is rotated it energises a helical spring 19 inside the hollow roller 15, said spring being fixed at one end to the shaft 17 and at the other end to the retraction roller 15. The roller is held against rotation by the ratchet wheel 20 held by a pawl 21 (FIG- URE 1). By this means every time the delivery roller 7 is rotated by a pull on the towel it energises the retraction roller 15 ready for automatically pulling in the used towel, when the tension on the towel during the delivery operation ceases. During this period of tension on the towel the pawl 21 is holding the retraction roller 15 against rotation.

The pawl 21 is on one end of a two-armed lever 22 which is joined to one end of a link 23 extending from back to front of the cabinet, the other end of the link 23 being supported to the chassis by a short suspension link 24 On the outside of the cabinet there is a bar 25 forming the bottom of a U-shape operating member, the sides 26 of which terminate in respective flat cam plates 27 projecting into the sides of the cabinet and pivoted at 28. This plate 27 holds the link 23 against the action of tension spring 29 (FIGURE 1) which tends to pull the lever 22 into a position releasing the pawl 21 so as to free the retraction roller 15 to wind in the soiled towel. In FIGURE 1, the towel 10 is being withdrawn, which pulls out the U-shape

operating member

25, 26 about its pivot 28 so as to hold the pawl 21 in its locking position on the retraction roller 15. The issuing towel is passed over a fixed bar 30 so that, when pulled, it lifts the U-shape

member

25, 26 into the illustrated position, from the normal position when out of use depicted in broken lines. On releasing the tension on the towel, the

operating member

25, 26 drops by gravity (aided by a light spring, if desired) whereupon the cam plate 27 ceases to abut the end of the link 23, enabling the spring 29 to exercise its force on the lever 22, and release the pawl 21 from the retraction roller 15. The soiled towel is immediately drawn into the cabinet and deposited in the compartment 31; a succeeding operation of withdrawal will re-energise the spring 19 (FIGURE 3) and simultaneously cause the soiled towel accumulated in the compartment 31 to be wound on to the soiled towel take-up roller 32 driven frictionally by drive roller 12.

It is desirable to have a roller 33 lightly pressing on the retraction roller 15. In the example such roller 33 is carried between the respective ends of a pair of links 34 pivotally carried at 35 by the upper door 2. By linking these links 34 to the chassis as at 36, the light-weight roller 33 is raised clear of the retraction roller 15 when the upper door 2 is opened, and thus the presser roller 33 is moved clear to facilitate threading the towel when inserting a new roll of towel.

A second pawl 37 locks the ratchet wheel 20 when the door 3 is opened, being operated by the spring-urged sliding bar 38, and conversely released when the door is shut. The inner trough member 11 can be pulled forward by the bar 39 to give access to the driving unit 14 for threading a new towel, or for other purposes.

I claim:

1. Apparatus of the kind described for dispensing towelling, including means for producing automatically the retraction of the towel into the cabinet, said means comprising a towel-retraction roller for winding the used towel portion back into the cabinet, a power-operated driving mechanism to rotate said towel-retraction roller,

means operated by the usual delivery roller to energise said power-operated mechanism simultaneously with the rotation of the delivery roller when clean towel is being pulled out of the cabinet by a user, in combination with locking means to hold the said retraction roller against rotation by the said power-operated mechanism when withdrawal tension is applied to the towel, and means actuated when tension on the towel is released to free said locking means.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which the delivery roller has a sprocket around which passes an endless chain driving sprockets on the take-up drive roller and the power-operated mechanism of the towel-retraction roller.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 characterised in that the power-operated mechanism is spring-energised.

4. Apparatus of the kind described for dispensing towelling, including means for producing automatically the retraction of the towel into the cabinet, said means comprising a towel-retraction roller for winding the used towel portion back into the cabinet, a power-operated driving mechanism to rotate said towel-retraction roller, means operated by the usual delivery roller to energise said power-operated mechanism simultaneously with the rotation of the delivery roller when clean towel is being pulled out the cabinet by a user, in combination with locking means to hold the said retraction roller against rotation by the said power-operated mechanism when withdrawal tension is applied to the towel, and means actuated when tension on the towel is released to free said locking means, said delivery roll being provided with a sprocket around which passes an endless chain driving sprockets on the take-up drive roller and the power-operated mechanism of the towel-retraction roller, said power-operated mechanism being spring-energised and the retraction roller being hollow and mounted rotatably on a shaft which has fast therewith, at one end, a sprocket to receive the chain drive from the delivery roller, said hollow roller being held against rotation on the shaft by a ratchet wheel fast on the roller, said shaft being connected to one end of a helical spring within the hollow roller, the said spring being connected by its other end to the roller, said ratchet wheel being held by a pawl constituting the locking means to hold the roller against rotation by the spring when withdrawal tension is applied to the towel, said pawl being released to free the locking means through linkage actuated when withdrawal tension is released.

5. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which the locking means for holding the retraction roller against rotation by the power operated mechanism comprises a ratchet wheel fast with the retraction roller, and a pawl engaging the said ratchet wheel, said pawl being carried on one end of a two-armed lever, the other end of which is pivoted to a link operably associated with a member which is movable as and when tension on the towel is applied or relaxed, which, respectively, causes said pawl to engage or disengage the ratchet wheel.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,853,705 4/1932 Steiner 3l238 1,946,997 2/1934 Addler 3 l238 2,265,875 12/1941 Simpson 3 l238 2,899,251 8/1959 Birr 31238 3,214,226 10/1965 Bahnsen 31238 3,323,848 6/1967 Bahnsen 3 1238 2,909,402 10/1959 Howlett 3 l238 3,265,454 8/1966 Scanland 3 l2-38 NILE C. BYERS, 111., Primary Examiner