Wipes dispenser with a wide-mouthed dispensing aperture

Abstract

Provided is a wipes dispenser including a dispenser having a wide-mouthed dispensing aperture, a pouch containing an interleaved stack of wipes or a rolled perforated web of wipes contained within the dispenser and accessed through the dispensing aperture, and a mounting element for mounting the dispenser to a mounting surface. The wipes dispenser may further include a pivotable dispensing lid that closes against the refill door and seal the dispensing aperture to protect the wipes from the outside environment when the wipes dispenser is not in use.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part application of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 870,656, filed Jun. 16, 2004.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] This invention relates generally to wipes dispensers, and, more particularly, to an improved wipes dispenser that includes a wide-mouthed dispensing aperture through which a front wipe of a stack or roll of wipes, disposed within the dispenser, may be easily grasped by a user. [0004] 2. Description of the Related Art [0005] Dry, wet or partially wetted cleaning wipes are known in the art. Other similar sheet-like substrates such as towels, sponges, pads, napkins, diapers etc are also known in the art. Such items have been packaged in a number of different ways. [0006] For example cleaning wipes, tissues, napkins, etc. were often packaged in a standard dispenser box, sometimes with a removable or hinged lid. Such packaging, however, presented...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0016] In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a wipes dispenser having a wide-mouthed dispensing aperture is provided. In one embodiment, the wipes dispenser includes a dispenser that defines an interior pouch space configured to receive a pouch containing a stack or perforated web of wipes. In one embodiment, the stack or web of wipes is directly disposed within the interior space and the pouch containing the wipes is eliminated.

[0017] With the present invention, there is no need to first separately pre-thread the front wipe through the dispensing aperture before dispensing. The wipes dispenser provides for easy pop-up dispensing of wipes, without wipes “roping”, i.e. unintended dispensing of multiple wipes, or “fall-back”, i.e., failure of the next wipe to pop-up or return of an exposed portion of a wipe to the space within the dispenser behind the dispensing aperture. Further, the wipes dispenser of the present invention aids in mininizing gathering, knotting and bunching of the wipes, sometimes referred to as roving of the wipes, during dispensing. Further still, the wipes dispenser of the present invention aids in minimizing drying of wet wipes during dispensing through moisture squeeze-out.

[0021] In one embodiment, the dispenser includes a wide-mouthed dispensing aperture that is oriented substantially parallel to the attachment surface of the dispenser, and which is configured to provide easy and reliable pop-up dispensing of single wipes from a stack of wipes contained in the dispenser. The dispensing aperture may be covered by a dispensing lid that pivots opens for easy access through the dispensing aperture to the interior of the dispenser.

[0022] In one embodiment, a pop-up stack of wipes, which is typically packaged in a flexible pouch, is placed within a pouch space at the inside of the dispenser. The pouch includes a pouch aperture through the front of the wipes pouch to the stack of wipes. A removable adhesive label covers the dispensing aperture to prevent contamination of the wipes prior to use and to prevent dryout of wet wipes. In other embodiments, wipes can be provided on a roll, where the wipes are connected consecutively in a perforated web. Wipes, either stacked or rolled, may also be disposed directly within the interior of the dispenser without the use of a pouch.

[0023] In use, in one embodiment, the pouch of wipes is inserted into the interior pouch space of the dispenser via the refill door that pivots open from the base of the dispenser. In one embodiment, the refill door is configured with a refill door holder that limits the extent to which the refill door can open. The refill door holder allows a user to place the pouch into the container using only one human hand, i.e., there is no need to hold the front face of the door open while placing the pouch into the dispenser.

[0025] Thus, by the present invention, a user may conveniently place, load, and extract wipes wherever and whenever generally needed or useful. Further, the wipes dispenser may be releasably mounted such that wipes may be dispensed from any direction and from a variety of orientations chosen by the user. Finally, the wipes dispenser system may be easily removed or relocated when desired.

Problems solved by technology

Such packaging, however, presented the problem of locating, grasping and removing the first or front wipe or other substrate from a relatively small, narrow dispensing aperture at the front of the dispenser package through which the wipes were typically dispensed.

However, these prior art “pop-up” dispensing systems could only be successfully used when the substrate was sufficiently flexible to clear the restricting narrow dispensing aperture and where the dispensing aperture offered sufficient resistance to avoid “roping” of the interleaved wipes or perforated wipes.

Further, if the dispensing aperture offered insufficient resistance, the exposed lead edge of the front wipe could fall back into the interior of the dispenser through the dispensing aperture.

Roping and fall-back in a rolled web of perforated wipes was also likely when insufficient frictional dispensing aperture force at the dispensing aperture allowed multiple wipes to dispense without singulation by separation of the wipes at the wipes perforations.

On the other hand, if the dispenser offered excessive resisting dispensing aperture force, the exposed leading edge of the next wipe to be dispensed could fail to pop-up, thereby necessitating re-threading of the leading edge of the front wipe through the dispensing aperture.

Wide-mouthed dispensing apertures have not been attempted on pop-up wipes since they provided insufficient dispensing aperture force to avoid wipe roping.

Thus, dispensing aperture force did not overcome the interleaving force between wipes in the stack of interleaved wipes and roping resulted.

However, with a narrow slit-type dispensing aperture, a user could not easily grasp the front wipe to extract it through the narrow dispensing aperture.

In addition, if the wipes were insufficiently flexible, the wipes bunched and knotted when extracted through the narrow slit-type dispensing aperture.

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