Tissue Dispenser Having Resiliently Biased Follower

Abstract

A carton of cardboard or the like for a stack of tissues having a tissue-dispensing opening in its top panel and having a central portion of its bottom panel detachable from the rest of the bottom panel due to a perforation line ringing the bottom panel portion, with a rubber band attached on its ends adjacent the upper edges of the side panels of the carton and connected to the bottom panel portion at its edges by staples so that the rubber band pulls the bottom panel portion upwardly and thereby pulls the tissues upwardly in the carton when the perforation line is broken.

Description

The invention relates to cartons for facial tissues or the like and more particularly to cartons of the type having openings in their top panels allowing the tissues to be dispensed out of the carton.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved carton of this type having folded tissues therein which is provided with resilient means in the carton for moving the tissues upwardly in the carton toward the dispensing opening in the top panel so that the tissues may be easily grasped by the user, and more particularly it is an object to provide a carton of this type having the resilient means attached to a portion of the carton which is removable from the rest of the carton due to a perforation line ringing the carton portion so that the resilient means is not so effective until the user breaks the perforation line whereby the resilient means does not compress the tissues and reduce the bulk of the tissues while the assembly of tissues and carton is in storage or on the dealer's shelf.

In a preferred form, the carton of the invention is provided with a central portion of the bottom panel of the carton ringed by a perforation line so that the bottom panel portion may be easily detached from the remainder of the bottom panel just before the tissues are to be used. A rubber band is attached at its ends to the side panels of the carton adjacent their upper edges and is connected to the bottom panel portion at its edges by means of staples so that, when the user detaches the bottom panel portion from the rest of the bottom panel, the bottom panel portion and the rubber band are effective to pull the tissues upwardly in the carbon to make them readily available through a tissue-dispensing opening in the top panel of the carton. The staples have loop portions loosely encircling the rubber band so as to allow the rubber band to slide therethrough as the rubber band contracts so as to cause the same tension to exist in the rubber band from end to end and allow the rubber band to give maximum upward movement to the tissues.

The invention consists of the novel constructions, arrangements and devices to be hereinafter described and claimed for carrying out the above-stated objects, and such other objects, as will be apparent from the following description of preferred forms of the invention, illustrated with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a tissue carton assembly incorporating the principles of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a blank laid out flat from which the carton may be made, with the surface of the carton blank visible in this figure being the inside surface of the carton in its finished form;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view on an enlarged scale taken on line 3--3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view on an enlarged scale of the inner surface of the carton showing the manner in which a rubber band, which is a part of the assembly, may be fixed with respect to the carton; and

FIG. 5 is a side view of a stack of interfolded tissues which may be used with the carton.

Like characters of reference refer to like parts in the several views.

Referring now to the drawings, the illustrated tissue carton assembly may be seen to comprise a carton 10 having a stack of tissues 12 therein. The carton may be made of cardboard or the like, and the tissues 12 may be of dry creped tissue paper, for example, intended to be used on the face or as a towel. As shown in FIG. 3, each of the tissues 12 is C-folded, that is, each of the tissues has a central portion 12a, which is nearly as wide as the width of the carton 10, and has two side, return-folded portions 12b and 12c.

The carton may be made from a single blank of cardboard as shown in FIG. 2 which comprises a top panel 10a; a bottom panel 10b; side panels 10c and 10d; flaps 10e, 10f, 10g, and 10h on one end of the carton; flaps 10i, 10j, 10k and 10m on the other end of the carton; and a top flap 10n. The top panel 10a has an oval perforation line 14 struck therethrough defining an oval central portion 16. The bottom panel 10b and side panels 10c and 10 d have a rectangular perforation line 18 struck therethrough defining a rectangular portion 20 located principally on the bottom of the carton 10. The panels and flaps of the carton are defined by fold lines 22 and 24 and by fold lines 26, 28, 30 and 32 extending transversely to the lines 22 and 24, in which the carton blank is compressed and reduced in thickness so that the carton blank will bend and fold readily along these lines. The flaps 10e-10h and the flaps 10i, 10j, 10k and 10m are separated by through-cut lines 34, 36 and 38 and through-cut lines 40, 42 and 44.

A rubber band 46 is stretched condition extends substantially from the line 26 to the line 32 in the flat condition of the carton blank as shown in FIG. 2 and is fastened at points adjacent the lines 26 and 32 by means of staples 48 and 50 extending through side panels 10c and 10d. Staples 52 and 54 extend through the carton blank and are disposed along the lines 28 and 30 and within the rectangular portion 20. Each of the staples 52 and 54 has a straight portion a which lies flush on the outer surface of the carton 10 (the underside of the blank as it is shown in FIG. 2) and has inwardly extending loop portions b and c with ends d that contact the inner surface of the carton (the surface of the blank exposed and showing in FIG. 2) and that hold the loop portions b and c out of contact with this inner surface of the carton. The rubber band 46 passes through one of the loops b of each staple 52 and 54; and, since the loop b is out of contact with the inner surface of the carton, the rubber band 46 may freely slip within the loop b of each staple 52 and 54.

In assembling the carton and tissues, a stack of the tissues is prepared in any suitable manner. Each of the tissues is C-folded with the central portion 12a and the return-folded portions 12b and 12c. The carton is made from the blank shown in FIG. 2, with the fold lines 22, 24, 26, 28, 30 and 32 and the through-cut lines 34, 36, 38, 40, 42 and 44 being provided by any suitable cutters and dies; and the perforation lines 14 and 18 are provided using any suitable perforation equipment. The rubber band 46 is then stretched into place as shown in FIG. 2 and is stapled at its ends in a tensioned condition by means of staples 48 and 50. The rubber band 46 is then stapled to the bottom portion 20 by means of the staples 52 and 54, and the loop portions b of these staples are held out of contact with the inner surface of the carton blank by means of the staple ends d so that the rubber band 46 may freely slide through the loop portions b. The carton blank is then bent along the lines 26, 28, 30 and 32 so that the top panel 10a and bottom panel 10b are parallel and so that the side panels 10c and 10d are parallel, as is shown in FIG. 3; and the flap 10n is then glued on the under surface of the top panel 10a as is shown in FIG. 3. The flaps 10j and 10m are then folded in, and the flaps 10i and 10k are next folded in and are glued to the flaps 10j and 10m so as to close one end of the carton. The stack of folded tissues 12 is then slid into the carton from its open end, and preferably this is done with the carton being inverted (with the top panel 10a being on the bottom) so that the stack of tissues 12 is not impeded in its motion by the rubber band 46 which stretches across the bottom panel 10b of the carton. With the tissues 12 being in the carton, the carton is then closed at its other end by first folding the flaps 10f and 10h inwardly and then folding the flaps 10 e and 10g inwardly and gluing the latter flaps in place.

In order to put the tissues into use, the perforation line 14 is broken and the oval portion 16 of the top panel 10a is removed to provide a tissue-dispensing opening in the top panel 10a. The perforation line 18 is broken either before or after the line 14 is broken, and the rubber band 46 is thus activated so as to pull the stack of tissues 12 upwardly in the carton toward the top panel 10a and so that the tissues protrude slightly from the tissue-dispensing opening in the top panel provided by removal of the oval portion 16; and the individual tissues 12 may then be easily grasped by the user and withdrawn from the carton through the oval tissue-dispensing opening formed by removal of the oval portion 16. The rubber band 46 and the rectangular carton portion 20 bear on the bottom of the stack of tissues so as to move the stack of tissues upwardly as just described. As the tissues are used, the rubber band moves the remainder of the tissue stack upwardly in the carton, and the rubber band slips through the loops b of the staples 52 and 54, so that the tension of the rubber band 46 remains constant throughout its length and so that it is the full length of the band 46 that contracts rather than only the parts of the band 46 between the staples 48 and 52 and between the staples 50 and 54.

FIG. 5 shows a stack of tissues 56 which are interfolded rather than C-folded and which may be used instead of the tissues 12. Each of the tissues 56 has a portion 56a that is nearly of the same width as the carton 10 and a portion 56b which is folded back and extends for nearly one-half the width of the portion 56a. Each of the portions 56b of all of the tissues except the uppermost one overlies the portion 56a of the tissue just above it in the stack, as shown in FIG. 5. As is well known in connection with interfolded tissues, as one tissue is withdrawn from a stack of the tissues, it tends to pull a part of the succeeding tissue upwardly so that the succeeding tissue may be next grasped by the user.

The tissues 12 and 56 are preferably dry creped off of a drier drum of a papermaking machine so as to render the tissues softer and more liquid absorbent. It is desirable that the creped paper be allowed to remain uncompressed during the times that the carton assemblies are stored in the warehouse or on the dealers' shelves so that the crepes are not compressed and squashed and so that none of the absorbency and softness of the tissues due to the creping is lost; and the carton of the invention is thus constructed so that the rubber band 46 may be activated only just before usage when the user breaks the perforation line 18 so as to separate the rectangular portion 20 of the carton from the remainder of the carton. The rectangular portion 20 also with no separate or additional cardboard material provides a relatively broad support for the stack of tissues at the bottom of the stack.

Although I prefer that the carton portion 20 shall be used for semirigidly supporting the stacks of tissues 12 and 56 on the bottom, the perforation line 18 and the use of the separated portion 20 may be dispensed with; and, instead, the staples 52 and 54 may be released, opened and removed by the user of the tissues so as to release the rubber band 46. In this case, the rubber band 46 alone acts on the bottom of the stack of tissues and urges the stack upwardly for easy dispensing from the opening defined by the perforation line 14. Whether or not the perforation line 18 and the separable portion 20 are dispensed with, the stapled 52 and 54 may be used in the form of pins in which the portions b and c are bent outwardly instead of inwardly as shown in the drawing; and, in this case, one of the portions b and c of each staple 52 and 54, outwardly bent in this modification, overlies the rubber band 46 similarly as one of the portions b and c overlies the band 46 in the illustrated form of the invention. An ordinary mechanical stapler may be used for applying the staples 52 and 54 regardless of the manner in which the staples are used, since, as is well known, such a stapler by a simple adjustment may be used to bend the end portions b and c either inwardly as shown in the drawing or outwardly.

Claims

I claim:

1. A carton for a stack of sheets of sheet material and including a top panel and a bottom panel and two side panels connecting said top and bottom panels, means for defining a sheet-dispensing opening in said top panel, a band of elastic material which is fixed at its ends to said side panels and adjacent to the edges of said top panel to be effective on a stack of sheets in the carton for forcing the stack toward said sheet-dispensing opening, means fixed to the carton for holding said band of elastic material in inactive position until released by the user to be effective on the stack of sheets including a portion of said bottom panel which is defined by a perforation line allowing the portion of the bottom panel to be detached with respect to the remainder of the bottom panel, said elastic band being connected intermediate its ends to said bottom panel portion adjacent the edges of said side panels so that, when said bottom panel portion is detached from the remainder of said bottom panel, said elastic band and bottom panel portion apply force on the stack of sheets to move them toward said sheet-dispensing opening.

2. A carton as set forth in claim 1, said elastic band being connected to said bottom panel portion by staples extending through said bottom panel portion and providing a slip connection of the elastic band to said bottom panel portion so that the elastic band may slip with respect to said bottom panel portion and said staples.

3. A carton as set forth in claim 2, said staples extending through said carton substantially on the lines defining the junctions of said bottom panel and said side panels.

4. In combination, a carton having a top panel and a bottom panel and two side panels connecting the top and bottom panels, means for defining a sheet-dispensing opening in said top panel, a stack of sheets of sheet material disposed in said carton with the sheets extending substantially parallel with said top and bottom panels, a band of elastic material which is fixed at its ends adjacent the junctions of said side and top panels so as to thereby be effective on the stack of sheets for forcing the stack toward said top panel so that the sheets may be easily dispensed through said opening, and means for holding said elastic band in inactive condition until released by the user to be effective on the stack of sheets to force them toward said top panel and comprising a pair of staples connecting said elastic band adjacent the junctions of said bottom and said side panels and a perforation line encircling said staples and defining a portion of said bottom panel which is removable by breaking the perforation line so that said elastic band and said bottom panel portion bear against the stack of sheets and urge them toward said top panel.

5. In combination, a carton having a top panel and a bottom panel and two side panels, means for defining a sheet-dispensing opening in said top panel, a stack of sheets of sheet material disposed in said carton with the sheets extending substantially parallel with said top and bottom panels, a band of elastic material which is fixed at its ends adjacent the junctions of said side and top panels and which has connections intermediate its ends to the carton adjacent the junctions of said bottom and said side panels, and a perforation line encircling said last-named connections of said elastic band adjacent the junctions of said bottom and side panels and defining a portion of said bottom panel which is removable by breaking the perforation line so that said elastic band and said bottom panel portion bear against the stack of sheets and urge them toward said top panel.