Currently rolls of photographic film and paper are packaged in several different ways to facilitate room light loading into cooperating apparatus which dispenses or otherwise uses the film or paper. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,148,395 (Apr. 10, 1979, by Syracuse et al., and entitled "Roll Package") and 5,515,970 (May 14, 1996, by Ritchie et al., and entitled "Light-Tight Package") each discloses a package which includes a pair of flexible opaque end disks or covers attached to the ends of the core of the roll and an attached leader attached to the leading end of the length of film or paper forming the roll. A peripheral portion of each disk is folded over and adhered to the edge of an underlying convolution of the leader.
Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,171 (Jul. 28, 1992, by Chase et al., and entitled "Light-Tight Packaging Method For Photosensitive Web Roll") discloses a package that includes a pair of similar end disks and a leader. After a first convolution of the leader is wrapped onto the roll, peripheral portions of the end disks are folded over the first convolution. A second convolution is then wrapped onto the roll to capture the folded-over peripheral portions between the first and second convolutions and to make the package light-tight.
An existing practice for installing end disks on light-tight packages of the sort described above include manually grasping an end disk from a stack and then fastening it to the ends of the core. Another practice includes using a vacuum suction device to pick out a single end disk and then transfer it to the core of the roll. Each of the above practices, however, has numerous shortcomings that the present invention solves. In particular, an operator will invariable damage thin, flimsy, end disks when handling them manually. Moreover, multiple end disks are dispensed although only one is intended.
Although not particularly related to the problem encountered by the inventors, U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,076 (Apr. 22, 1980, by Brown and entitled, "Cup Dispenser") discloses a dispenser of cups that has a slidable plate for supporting a stack of cups and an end plate having a cavity through which the cups are dispensed one at a time. The patent does not provide means for storing and dispensing thin, substantially flat objects.
Therefore a need persists in the art for a method of storing and dispensing thin flimsy objects that is simple to use, protects the fragile objects from damage and is cost effective to manufacture.