Importance

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Abstract

A device for dispensing flexible sheet material, such as paper toweling, from a roll has a feed mechanism including a crank- or lever-operated roller having a drive section and a pressure element engageable with toweling extending around a portion of the roller. The pressure element is spring-biased toward the outer surface of the roller drive section and provides sufficient friction between the roller drive section and the toweling to cause it to be unwound from a roll and advanced for dispensing with out the need for an idler roller which can cause jamming. In one embodiment, a transfer assembly is provided for sequentially dispensing toweling from a primary roll and a reserve roll, after all the toweling has been dispensed from the primary roll. The transfer assembly is mounted for movement between a non-transfer position, where a sensing arm is biased into engagement with the outer surface of toweling on the primary roll to effectively sense the thickness of both the toweling on and the roll core of the primary roll and a pair of transfer legs on a transfer arm are spaced outwardly from the outer surface of the roller, and a transfer position, where the sensing arm engages the outer surface of the primary roll core and the transfer legs push toweling from the reserve roll against the outer surface of the roller and cause it to be fed between the dispensing surface of the pressure element and the roller drive section.

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First Claim