Disposable sheet style dispensers are well-known in the art for dispensing individual folded sheet products such as facial tissues, hand sheets, wet wipes, or the like. In general, disposable sheet dispensers typically include a container and a stack or clip of pre-folded, interfolded sheets disposed within the container. The sheets may be C-folded, V-folded, or flat so that once the top sheet in the clip is withdrawn, the underlying sheet is individually presented for subsequent use.
One of the common problems among disposable sheet dispensers involves the issue of xe2x80x9cdouble pullxe2x80x9d. This occurs when more than one sheet comes out of the container when the leading sheet is withdrawn. Additionally, the problem of xe2x80x9cstreamingxe2x80x9d can occur in disposable sheet dispensers. Streaming occurs when the user pulls the first sheet out, and subsequent sheets are also withdrawn, with the separation of the following ones never occurring.
To overcome some of these problems, disposable sheet dispensers have been designed where the dispensing slot is a slit. The use of slits has worked well in eliminating some of the above problems. Narrow slits are also well-suited to presenting tissue sheets for subsequent removal. In some applications, however, it is sometimes difficult to remove the initial sheet from the stack when a slit is present. For instance, the slit can interfere with the ability of a user to grab the leading edge.
In order to overcome some of these problems, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,952 to Masui, a box containing facial tissues is disclosed in which a tape or strings are attached to the undersurface of the top sheet of the box and, in turn, attached to the upper most of the facial tissues. In this manner, when the box is opened, and the top sheet is removed along a perforated line, the upper most facial tissue is automatically removed from the container along with the top sheet.
Although the top facial tissue is automatically removed from the box when the box is opened, the tissue may not be usable since it is attached to the removable top sheet of the box. Further, many times tissue boxes are opened for display purposes where a tissue is not initially needed. In these instances, removal of the first tissue by automatically opening the box can lead to waste of the leading sheet. In view of these drawbacks, the present invention is directed to further improvements in interfolded sheet dispensers.
In general, the present invention is directed to a dispenser for dispensing interfolded disposable sheets. A stack of interfolded disposable sheets are housed within a container. The sheets are arranged to be withdrawn from the container one after another. The sheets can be various paper products, including facial tissues, paper towels, industrial wipers, laboratory wipers, wet wipes, and the like. The dispensing container includes a removable panel that, once removed, uncovers an opening for withdrawing the sheets.
In accordance with the present invention, the removable panel is attached to a first sheet in the stack of interfolded sheets. In particular, the removable panel is attached to the first sheet such that when the removable panel is removed from the dispensing container, the first sheet is partially pulled through the opening of the dispensing container without being completely removed from the container.
An attachment device is used to attach the first sheet in the stack to the removable panel. The attachment device can be, for instance, a mechanical structure or an adhesive. In one embodiment, the attachment device is a strip of double-sided adhesive tape. For example, in one embodiment, the double-sided adhesive tape has a first side that is adhered to the removable panel and a second side that is adhered to the first sheet. In this embodiment, the first side can have a greater adhesive strength than the second side.
In one embodiment, the first sheet has a first end that is interfolded with another sheet in the stack. The second end of the sheet, however, is attached to the removable panel and is folded upon itself in an amount sufficient for the first sheet to be partially removed from the dispensing container when the removable panel is removed. In this manner, resistance to being removed from the container is increased as the first sheet is pulled through the opening by the removable panel.
The dispensing container can be made from various materials and is generally not critical to the present invention. For instance, the dispensing container can be made from paperboard or from a flexible polymer film. The dispensing container can be in the shape of a rectangular box, a square box, or in the form of any other suitable shape.
Other features and aspects of the present invention are discussed in greater detail below.