Importance

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Abstract

The dispenser is adapted to dispense different size cups, such as portion cups, and includes a housing for storing a plurality of cups in a nested stack and a flexible diaphragm covering the discharge end of the housing. The diaphragm includes a web section having a central discharge opening through which the bottom of the outermost cup of the stack extends to be grasped and withdrawn from the stack. The discharge opening preferably has a symmetrical polygonal shape, such as a hexagonal shape, and has an inner periphery configured to retain a stack of the smallest cups to be dispensed in the housing while permitting the outermost cup in the stack to be drawn from the housing. The web section also includes a plurality of circumferentially spaced apertures which are also spaced radially outwardly from the inner periphery of the discharge opening such that, when material between all circumferentially adjacent apertures is severed, the effective size of the inner periphery of the discharge opening is enlarged sufficiently to permit the outermost cup in a stack of a predetermined larger size to be withdrawn from the stack while retaining the stack in the housing. To provide the capability of dispensing up to five or more different size cups, circumferentially spaced, radially extending rows of these apertures can be provided.

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First Claim