Ligature-resistant paper towel dispenser and method of employing the same

Abstract

A ligature-resistant, multifold paper towel dispenser has a housing having a top panel, a front panel, a rear panel, and a pair of side panels secured together to define a hollow, interior chamber. The housing has an open bottom end through which a stack of paper towels may be inserted into the interior chamber. The dispenser also includes a support and dispenser assembly for resiliently supporting the stack of paper towels and for permitting manual dispensing of successive individual paper towels from the open bottom end of the housing. The support assembly includes at least one resilient flexible member which permits the paper towels to be supported thereon and dispensed therebelow and which at the same time is ligature-resistant due to its flexibility.

Claims

1. A ligature-resistant, paper towel dispenser, comprising: a housing having a top panel, a front panel, a rear panel, and a pair of side panels secured together to define a hollow, interior chamber configured and dimensioned for receipt therein of a stack of paper towels, said housing having an open bottom end having a width greater than the entire a stack of paper towels to be inserted there-through into said interior chamber thereof; and means for resiliently and flexibly supporting a stack of paper towels from below the stack of paper towels in said interior chamber above said open bottom end of said housing and for permitting manual dispensing of successive individual paper towels from the bottom of said stack and from said interior chamber downwardly through and out of said open bottom end of said housing, said means for resiliently and flexibly supporting and permitting manual dispensing of successive paper towels comprises at least one resilient, flexible member having a fixed end secured in said housing adjacent to said open bottom end thereof and an opposite free end, said at least one resilient flexible member is mounted in said housing perpendicular to said front and rear panels and is disposed to transversely span a majority of said open bottom end of said housing to support from below a stack of paper towels disposed thereabove, and said free end of said at least one resilient flexible member is movable upwardly relative to said open bottom end to permit insertion of a stack of paper towels into said interior chamber with said free end of said resilient flexible member being movable downwardly to permit successive removal of paper towels one at a time through said open bottom end of said housing, wherein, at least one of said rear panel and said front panel has an inner surface having a recessed channel formed therein adjacent to said open bottom end of said housing which extends transversely of said at least one panel and along substantially the entire width of said at least one panel, and said fixed end of said at least one resilient, flexible member is slidably mounted in said recessed channel and is configured and dimensioned for forming a mechanical interlock with said channel for releasably locking said fixed end of said at least one resilient flexible member in said channel and, in turn, in at least one of said rear panel and said front panel.

2. The paper towel dispenser according to claim 1, wherein said housing front, top and side panels are made of metal.

3. The paper towel dispenser according to claim 1, wherein said rear panel is made of plastic and said front panel has an inner ply made of plastic.

4. The paper towel dispenser according to claim 1, wherein: said channel is substantially U-shaped and has a horizontally-extending, upper sidewall, a horizontally-extending lower sidewall, and a vertically-extending basewall joined to both of said sidewalls; and said lower sidewall of said channel is shorter than said upper sidewall thereof which permits greater downward flexing of said resilient flexible member.

5. The paper towel dispenser according to claim 1, wherein said at least one resilient, flexible member comprises a brush having bristles.

6. The paper towel dispenser according to claim 1, wherein said at least one resilient, flexible member comprises a blade.

7. A ligature-resistant, paper towel dispenser, comprising: a housing having a top panel, a front panel, a rear panel, and a pair of side panels secured together to define a hollow, interior chamber configured and dimensioned for receipt therein of a stack of paper towels, said housing having an open bottom end through which a stack of paper towels may be inserted into said interior chamber thereof; and means for resiliently and flexibly supporting a stack of paper towels in said interior chamber above said open bottom end of said housing and for permitting manual dispensing of successive individual paper towels from the bottom of said stack and from said interior chamber downwardly through and out of said open bottom end of said housing, wherein said means for resiliently and flexibly supporting and permitting manual dispensing of successive paper towels comprises at least one resilient, flexible member having a fixed end secured in said housing adjacent to said open bottom end thereof and an opposite free end, said at least one resilient flexible member spanning at least a portion of said open bottom end of said housing to support a stack of paper towels disposed thereabove, and wherein said free end of said at least one resilient flexible member is movable upwardly relative to said open bottom end to permit insertion of a stack of paper towels into said interior chamber and wherein said resilient flexible member is movable downwardly to permit successive removal of paper towels one at a time through said open bottom end of said housing; at least one of said rear panel and said front panel has an inner surface which has a channel formed therein adjacent to said open bottom end of said housing which extends substantially the entire width of said at least one panel; said fixed end of said at least one resilient, flexible member is slidably mounted in said channel and is configured and dimensioned to form a mechanical interlock with said channel to releasably lock said fixed end of said at least one resilient flexible member in said channel; and said channel being substantially U-shaped and having a horizontally-extending, upper sidewall, a horizontally-extending lower sidewall, and a vertically-extending basewall joined to both of said sidewalls, and wherein said lower sidewall of said channel is shorter than said upper sidewall thereof which permits greater downward flexing of said resilient flexible member.

8. The paper towel dispenser according to claim 1, wherein said housing is rigid and has a fixed rectangular cross-sectional profile with said front and rear walls being parallel to one another and said side panels being parallel to one another, and wherein said hollow, interior chamber is bounded solely by the top, front, rear and side panels of said housing and at its open bottom end solely by said at least one resilient, flexible member to minimize the likelihood of creating a ligature attachment point in the housing or near the bottom open end thereof, thereby enhancing the ligature resistance of the paper towel dispenser.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, which disclose several embodiments of the invention. It is to be understood that the drawings are to be used for the purpose of illustration only and not as a definition of the limits of the invention. In the drawings:

(2) FIG. 1A is a top, front, and right-side isomeric view of a ligature-resistant, multifold, paper towel dispenser embodying the invention;

(3) FIG. 1B is a top, front and right side isomeric view of the rear panel of the housing shown in FIG. 1A;

(4) FIG. 2A is a bottom, front, and left-side isometric view of the dispenser shown in FIG. 1;

(5) FIG. 2B is an enlarged view of the circular detail 2B in FIG. 2A which illustrates a portion of the pair of brushes having bristles which serve as the paper towel support and dispensing assembly of the dispenser shown in FIG. 2A;

(6) FIG. 3A is a bottom, front, and left-side isometric view of another embodiment of the invention comparable to the dispenser shown in FIG. 2;

(7) FIG. 3B is an enlarged view of the circular detail 3B in FIG. 3A which illustrates a portion of the pair of solid and/or slotted blades which serve as the paper towel support and dispensing assembly of the dispenser shown in FIG. 3A;

(8) FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view, in part elevation, of the dispenser of FIG. 3A showing a stack of paper towels within the housing chamber disposed above its opening bottom end taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 3A;

(9) FIG. 5A is an enlarged, isometric view, with portions broken away, of the circular detail 5A in FIG. 3A with one of the pair of blades mounted in one of the housing panel's recessed channel;

(10) FIG. 5B is an enlarged, isometric front and left end view of the brush shown in FIG. 2A;

(11) FIG. 5C is an enlarged, fragmentally-illustrated front elevational view of one of the planar, rectangular brushes shown in FIG. 2A;

(12) FIG. 5D is an enlarged, fragmentarily-illustrated, side elevational view of one of the brushes shown in FIG. 2A;

(13) FIG. 6A is an enlarged fragmentally-illustrated, elevational view, in part section, and with portions broken away, of the open bottom end portion of the housing shown in FIG. 4, illustrating the free ends of the pair of resilient members abutting one another;

(14) FIG. 6B is a view similar to FIG. 6A, but showing the free ends of the pair of resilient members overlapping one another;

(15) FIG. 6C is a view comparable to FIGS. 6A and 6B, but showing the employment of only one resilient member, instead of two, with its free end spaced slightly short of the inner surface of the housing front panel;

(16) FIG. 6D is a view similar to that of FIG. 6C, but showing the bent free end of the resilient member abutting the inner surface of the housing front panel; and

(17) FIGS. 7A and 7B are fragmentally-illustrated, side sectional views of the lower end portion of the housing, showing in FIG. 7A the maximum downward effective deflection of the brushes or blades utilizing the housing and channel configuration as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 and showing a greater maximum deflection utilizing a modified housing and channel configuration as shown in FIG. 7B.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(18) Turning now in detail to the drawings, therein illustrated is a ligature-resistant, multifold paper towel dispenser embodying the present invention. As shown in FIGS. 1A, 1B and 4, the paper towel dispenser generally designated 10, comprises a dispenser housing generally designated 11 having a top panel 12, a front panel 14, a rear panel 16, and a pair of side panels 18, 20 secured together to define a hollow, interior chamber 22 having an open bottom end 24. Bottom end 24 is suitably configured and dimensioned to accommodate a stack of multifold paper towels 26 inserted in said interior chamber 22 via said open bottom end 24. More specifically, the housing interior chamber 22 is suitably dimensioned and configured to permit a conventional and standard 250 sheet, rectangular, multifold paper towel bundle 26 to be inserted via the housing open bottom end 24 and supported therein, as hereinafter discussed. The housing front panel 14, top panel 12 and side panels 18, 20 are preferably made of metal, such as aluminum. Top panel 12 and front panel 14 are preferably made from one bent metal sheet. Preferably, the metal panels are provided with an anti-microbial powder coat. The rear panel 16 is preferably a plastic (e.g., PVC) panel and the front panel is provided with a similar plastic panel 15 secured to the inside surface thereof, the purpose for which will also be discussed in more detail below.

(19) As seen best in FIG. 4, the dispenser 10 may be mounted to a vertical surface, including a wall (not shown), via screws, preferably flat head screws, or the like inserted through screw holes 28 formed in rear panel 16. For surface-mounted dispensers, the top panel 12 of the dispenser 10 is advantageously sloped 30 degrees from horizontal (or other appropriate angle) so that any ligature tie will slide off the top panel 12 and dispenser 10, The dispenser 10 may be recessed in the wall surface (not shown) so that a sloped top panel 12 is not required.

(20) FIGS. 2A, 2B and 3A, 3B illustrate alternate embodiments, respectively, of the paper towel support and dispensing assembly 30 for resiliently and flexibly supporting a stack of multifold paper towels 26 in said interior chamber 22 above said housing open bottom end 24 and for permitting successive manual dispensing of the lowermost individual multifold paper towel 27 from said open bottom end 24 of said interior chamber 22 of said housing 10 (FIG. 4). The paper towel support and dispensing assembly comprise a pair of elongated, resilient, flexible planar rectangular members 30 each having a free end 33 and an opposite fixed end 38. In FIGS. 2A and 2B, members 30 comprise brushes 32 having level or straight bristles and, alternatively, in FIGS. 3A and 3B, assembly 30 comprises a pair of elastomeric rectangular blades 34. Both pairs are designed to support the stack of paper towels 26 and permit dispensing of successive individual paper towels 27 one at a time from said open bottom end 24 of the dispenser 10.

(21) The brushes 32 are preferably straight nylon bristle brushes (FIG. 2B) and the preferably solid elastomeric rubber blades 34 (FIG. 5A) may be slotted 36 (FIG. 3B) to provide more flexible fingers which would function in a manner more comparable to the brushes 32 of FIGS. 2A and 2B. As seen best in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the brushes 32 and blades 34 each comprise a generally C-shaped, preferably metallic, spine or ferrule 38 which is clamped or crimped onto the heal end 39 of the brush 32 or blade 34. The heal ends 39 of the brushes 32 and blades 34 and the associated ferrule 38 are each slidably mounted into a recessed channel 40 in either the PVC inner substrate wall 15 or front panel 14 and/or the PVC rear wall 16, respectively, provided adjacent to the open bottom end 24 of the housing 10.

(22) As can be appreciated, the ferrule 38 of the brush 32 or blade 34 can be slid into either recessed channel 40 of the front PVC inner panel 15 or the PVC rear panel 16, respectively, before the housing parts are assembled so that it is held in place by the mechanical interlock of the enlarged ferrule 38 of the brush 32 or blade 34 and the recessed channel 40 of the respective front and rear panels 15, 16 when so installed and in use. The brushes 32 and blades 34 can likewise be removed and replaced, when needed, by simply sliding them off one end of the channels 40 after the housing 10 is dismantled.

(23) As also shown in FIGS. 2B and 3B, the free ends or toes 33 of the generally planar, thin brushes 32 or blades 34 can be slightly spaced apart to define a discharge opening 35 therebetween. As can further be seen in FIGS. 6A 6B, the resilient, flexible members 30, whether a pair of brushes 32 or the blades 34, can also be arranged side-by-side, with their inner free ends 33 abutting one another (FIG. 6A) or slightly overlapping one another (FIG. 6B). Due to the flexibility of the brushes 32 or blades 34, a stack of multifold towels 26 can be inserted into the inner chamber 22 of the housing 10 by simply pushing the flexible brush bristles of brushes 32 or blades 34 upwardly until the entire paper towel stack 26 is completely raised into the inner housing chamber 22 above the free ends 33 of the brushes or blades, at which point the flexible brushes 32 or blades 34 then are free to resiliently return to their original horizontal supporting position to block or span the open bottom end 24 and also resiliently support the stack 26 in the inner chamber 22 with the bottom of the stack being resiliently supported atop the upper face of the brushes 32 or blades 34. To then permit successive individual dispensing of the multifold stack of paper towels 26, the installer would reach through the bristles 32 or blades 34 and grab the edge of the lowermost sheet 27 of the stack of paper towels (FIG. 4) and pull it downwardly so that it is free and projects through and below opening 35. Following manual removal by the user grabbing and pulling down the free end of the lowermost sheet 27 from the open bottom end 24 of the dispenser 10, the next sheet of the multifold stack 26 should be automatically pulled down at the same time so that its free end is partly exposed below the bottom lower face of the bristles 32 or blades 34, just like the former lowermost sheet 27 to thereby continue dispensing of the sheets one at a time,

(24) FIGS. 6C and 6D show two alternative arrangements of the invention where the paper towel support and dispensing assembly 30 comprises instead of a pair of brushes 32 or blades 34, only one brush 32 or blade 34. In these embodiments, the assembly 30 in the form of either brush 32 or blade 34 spans a majority or the entirety of the open bottom end 24 with its ferrule 38 received in the recessed channel 40 of only one of the PVC panels 15 or 16, such that its free end 33 is spaced from the opposite or front wall panel 15 (FIG. 6C) or such that it slightly overlays the opposite PVC panel 15 (FIG. 6D) so that it may flex upwardly for insertion of the stack 26 into the inner housing chamber 22, and, in turn, flex downwardly so that it is in position to allow for dispensing of a single paper towel between the opposite front or rear wall 15, 16 and the free end 33 of the brush 32 or blade 34, as otherwise heretofore described.

(25) It is important that the resilient flexible member(s) 30, 30 whether it be a brush 32 with individual bristles, or a solid or segmented blade 34 having separate blade-like fingers or any other suitable resilient flexible member(s) sufficiently spans the rectangular bottom opening 24 to a degree necessary to support the stack of paper towels and permit individual dispensing of the towels one-by-one through the open bottom end 24. For ease of construction and efficient operation, it is preferred that the brush 32 or blades 34 span the entire span or substantially the entire span of the open bottom end 24 of the housing.

(26) As shown schematically in FIGS. 7A and 7B, the degree of downward flexure of the resilient, flexible member 30, whether brushes 32 or blades 34, may be increased by reducing the width of the inside face of the front or rear wall, 15, 16 below the horizontally-extending channels 40. FIG. 7A shows the degree of flexure permitted by the housing 11 shown in FIGS. 1-7. Due to the fact that the walls of the front panel 15 and rear panel 11 are uniform, the flexure of the brush 32 or blade 34 must necessarily bend downward in a manner that restricts or reduces the effective width of the dispensing opening 24 to the distance between the two downwardly extending members 30 which is less than the width of the opening 24. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 7B the resilient members 30 can flex almost vertically downwardly, due to the inner bottom ends of the front or rear walls, 15, 16 being reduced in width to thereby present a wider lower open bottom end 24. As a result, there is no constriction or reduction of the effective width of the open bottom end 24 to interfere with the loading and dispensing of the stack of paper towels and the individual dispensing thereof. This is critical because the point of the invention is to avoid a restrictive opening.

(27) For example, in a preferred embodiment, the width of the open bottom end is 3.5 inches to accommodate loading and dispensing of a standard paper towel stack of 250 sheets. Since each brush 32 or blade 34 preferably has a width of 0.1 inches, the housing configuration shown in FIG. 7A results in a narrowing of the opening from 3.5 inches to 3.3 inches. However, the housing configuration in FIG. 7B maintains the opening at 3.5 inches due to its greater degree of downward flexure.

(28) Most desirably, the brushes 32 comprise 0.014 inch diameter nylon bristles mounted in a galvanized or stainless steel ferrule 39. The use of flexible, resilient brushes typically guide attempted ligature anchor points to pass between the bristles in addition to deflecting them downward. Nylon bristles are a relatively soft material that is comfortable for fingers and hands. The maximum width of the flexible member or membrane 30 is therefore the thickness of the bristles themselves.

(29) The length of the bristles or blades is preferably the same so that they form an openable or dispensing slot in the middle of the bottom end opening, but their length could be different to move the operable slot 35 either forward or rearward section relative to the bottom open end 24. Most desirably, each brush or blade may have a 9.5 inch length and may have a 2 inch overall height. In accordance with some embodiments, a single 3.75 inch tall brush can be used so that the dispensing slot or openable slot is against the front wall 14, 15 or the back wall 16. As mentioned above, the mat of bristles are preferably straight and level and are preferably in the general range of about 0.05 to 0.1 inches thick.

(30) In a preferred embodiment, the overall dimensions of the dispenser housing is 11.5 height9.5 width. The exterior of the housing is made preferably from an 11 gauge aluminum sheet with a white anti-microbial coating. The interior PVC panels are preferably about thick. Preferably, the rectangular dimensions of the dispensing cavity in the horizontal plane are 3.5 inches9.5 inches to accommodate the size of standard multifold paper towels (approximately 3.25 inches9.25 inches when folded). In some embodiments, the minimum inside height of the dispensing cavity is 9 inches to accommodate the height of a standard stack of multifold paper towels (6 inches) plus an additional clearance space to allow the stack of paper towels to be pushed past the ends of the upward deflected bristles during the loading process.

(31) The dispenser may be mounted to a surface using screws (not shown), securing said rear panel 16 to a surface as a first step. Said surface may include pre-drilled holes. Securing said rear panel 16 to said wall surface may include installing preferably six flat head screws (not shown) through said pre-drilled screw holes 28 formed through rear panel 16. The front panel 14 and top panel 12 are preferably made from one metal sheet bent to integrally form and join both panels 12 and 14 together. The inner PVC panel 15 of front panel 14 are secured to side panels 18, 20 via button head screws 29.

(32) As can be readily appreciated, this dispenser advances the state of the art by employment of a flexible resilient material to serve simultaneously as the resilient support for the stacked paper towels, as well as a movable, flexible gate for the loading/dispensing bottom opening. Consequently, an object inserted into the dispenser 10 as a ligature attachment point would necessarily lie upon this flexible gate and when weight or force is applied to it, it would deflect downwardly causing the object to slip off this flexible gate and off the dispenser to prevent it from serving as a ligature attachment point. Use of a brush enjoys the additional benefit of flexible bristles which cannot easily be punctured or tied so they afford greater ligature resistance than the use of solid or slotted rubber blades. The degree of flexure is primarily dependent upon the thickness of the flexible material, whether a brush or blade and both are still therefore much less likely to act as a ligature attachment anchor point than paper towel dispensers currently in existence.

(33) While the preferred embodiment of the ligature-resistant, paper towel dispenser has been described in detail, it should be apparent that modifications and variations thereto are possible, all of which fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention. With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum functionality for the components of the invention, to include variations in dimensions and functionality are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art.

(34) For example, the outer exposed surfaces of the dispenser may be stainless steel or powder-coated aluminum with no sharp corners, edges, or seams. In some embodiments, tamper-proof security style fasteners may be used. Security caulk may be used around sides of the dispenser as an added form of limiting exposure of the outer surfaces of the dispenser.

(35) Descriptions of technical features or aspects of an embodiments may be described using the United States customary units, which include, inter alia, inches. Accordingly, technical features or aspects of embodiments described herein should be interpreted to include both the corresponding conversion of United States customary units to the metric system units, which include, inter alia, centimeters and millimeters.

(36) While particular embodiments of the invention have been described, it is not intended that the invention be limited thereto, as it is intended that the invention be as broad in scope as the prior art will allow and that the specification be read likewise. It will therefore be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other modifications could be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.