Article dispensing – Concurrent separation and distortion of flexible article – Deformation by non-coextensive outlet opening
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-13
2002-10-08
Noland, Kenneth W. (Department: 3653)
Article dispensing
Concurrent separation and distortion of flexible article
Deformation by non-coextensive outlet opening
C206S449000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06460727
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
1. Field of Invention
This invention is directed toward dispensing systems for sheet products, more specifically to an improved system for pop-up dispensing of perforated sheet material.
The invention is also directed toward a method for dispensing individual sheets from a web of perforated material.
2. Description of Prior Art
Disposable sheet products, from paper towels to toilet paper to baby wipes, have become nearly ubiquitous in present day society, and both durable and disposable dispensers for such sheet products are well known and numerous in the prior art.
Developments in dispensing sheet products have focused on two primary goals which typically run counter to one another: (1) reducing cost; and (2) increasing user convenience.
Sheet products sold in continuous-web formats are typically the least costly and thus would initially seem to be the most desirable. Since most disposable sheet products are formed as a continuous web, fed in their processing from roll to roll, they require the least further processing and are least expensive when sold as a continuous web on a roll (though accordion folding the web in a container is also somewhat common).
Unfortunately, such continuous web formats are relatively inconvenient for users since the users themselves must perform the work of tearing off discrete units of the material, a task which often requires two hands and a moderate level of attention, even with pre-perforated web material. Many users are already engaged in other activities, such as holding a bottle of spray cleaner or changing a Ms baby, and not only don't have a free hand, but don't have the opportunity to pay much attention.
To address these issues of convenience, relatively inexpensive “pop-up” dispensers have been developed to dispense pre-perforated continuous web material. In such systems, the user need only grasp and pull the portion of an individual sheet protruding from an aperture in the dispenser to dispense that single sheet, such action leaving a portion of the next sheet held in the aperture and similarly presented for the next use.
Unfortunately, these pop-up systems for perforated continuous webs have proven to be inconvenient and unreliable. They require a relatively high dispensing force, since they rely on the aperture to continuously constrict, frictionally engage and grasp the sheet material with sufficient force to cause the perforated region to separate once it emerges from the container. Such higher force requirements are not only added work and inconvenience for the consumer, but they also often necessitate the use of both hands (one to pull the sheet and one to restrain the package) negating the convenience of the pop-up feature. Additionally, because the sheet is so tightly gripped by the opening, and because apertures are typically shaped such that they compress and distort the sheet as it passes through, dispensed sheets end up wrinkled or crumpled, which is not only aesthetically undesirable, but also limits the usability of the sheet when the user might have preferred or required a flat sheet. Furthermore, because there is no definite discrete point at which sheet separation occurs, separation tends to be haphazard. Frequently, sheet separation occurs early, late, or not at all, leaving the consumer with too little of the next sheet protruding to conveniently grasp, too much of the next sheet hanging out of the dispenser, or too many sheets dispensed. Finally, in order to work at all, such systems require careful fine-tuning of aperture and perforation design and anticipate only a certain range of average consumer interaction (i.e., how fast or slow and with what regularity a consumer will pull a sheet out). However, such fine-tuning may be disrupted by variations in either the manufacturing, shipping, or storage process, or variations in the manner in which consumers pull the sheets out (too slowly, too quickly, or at irregular speeds), thus increasing the likelihood that the various aforementioned separation failures will occur.
Since simple pop-up dispensers for continuous web material haven't worked reliably, numerous more complicated mechanisms and dispensers have been developed to dispense continuous web material, especially rolls, more conveniently. But such systems are invariably relatively complicated mechanical devices compared to the simple rolls being dispensed. Heavy casings, rollers, magnets, gears and the like drive up cost dramatically, create maintenance hassles, and ultimately create the major new inconvenience of disallowing mobility, since such heavy devices are inconvenient to carry from room to room and usually have to be fixably mounted to a surface. Additionally, such systems are rarely retrofittable to fit within existing dispensing systems or racks-usually, the consumer must throw out the old system to use the new one. Further, such systems tend to be very rough on the delicate softer grade of sheets preferred by most consumers, and many such systems only work with the tougher but rougher and less preferred commercial grades of sheet material.
Because it has not been previously possible to conveniently, reliably and inexpensively provide pop-up dispensing from a continuous web, the majority of inexpensive pop-up packaging has focused on dispensing of discreet, interleaved sheets.
Although interleaved pop-up systems typically do work better than prior continuous web systems, interleaved systems still have many drawbacks. Only a narrow range of reliable pop-up action exists between “chaining” and “fallback” failures. Chaining occurs when product separation fails as a sheet is removed and multiple sheets are accidentally withdrawn; fallback occurs when sheets separate prematurely before the dispensing opening and the next sheet accidentally falls back inside the package where it is difficult to reach and rethread through the opening. Finally, in order to fit within the narrow operating window that occurs between various failures, such interleaved pop-up systems require carefully fine-tuning and balancing the design of the dispensing opening size and/or shape, the extent of product overlap, compression during manufacture, shipping and/or storage, substrate properties, and in the case of pre-moistened sheets, product moisture loading. Further, such systems anticipate only a narrow range of average consumer interaction (i.e., how fast and with what regularity a consumer will pull a sheet out). Thus, the required level of fine-tuning to fit within the narrow operating window may be disrupted by variations in either the manufacturing, shipping, or storage of such packages, or variations in the manner in which consumers pull the sheets out, thus increasing the likelihood that chaining or fallback will occur.
Recent improvements in interleaved sheet dispensing have proposed to reduce the likelihood of failure, but to do so rely on irregular sheet shapes, which not only provide less versatile sheets to consumers, but also drive up scrap produced and manufacturing complexity, ultimately driving up cost as well.
Finally, such interleaved sheet systems never overcome their inherent cost disadvantage vs. continuous web systems. Discreet sheets which must be separated, folded, interleaved and stacked simply require more processing and invariably are fundamentally more expensive.
Therefore, the prior art has not demonstrated pop-up systems which are simultaneously as cost-effective as perforated continuous webs and as convenient as interleaved sheet pop-ups.
Thus, where convenience is the primary motivator, cost is sacrificed and we find pop-up interleaved facial sheets to be much more expensive than a very similar material in a less expensive format, rolled toilet paper. As a result, many consumers would admit to using the less expensive toilet paper as facial tissue and saving the more expensive facial tissue for guests.
Conversely, where cost is the primary motivator, convenience is sacrificed, and we find most consumer-grade paper towels and toilet paper on perforated, continuous web rolls.
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