Background of the Invention

When cooking or eating out-of-doors, for example when picnicking or having a barbeque, it may be desirable to provide throw away items which can be collected up for disposal after use, for example paper serviettes and paper plates.

Such items can of course be transported to the picnic or barbeque site in their original packaging, however once the packaging is opened, the contents can become spread around and become soiled before use. Paper products in particular may be blown away by any wind and become litter if not retrieved and if the weather turns to rain any exposed paper products may become damp and useless.

The present invention provides a portable dispenser for storage and dispensing small numbers of substantially flat items stacked one on top another, and which can protect the contents when left out-of-doors, and which is particularly useful for the carriage and storage of paper or cardboard items such as plates and serviettes for use at picnics and barbeques.

Statements of Invention

According to the present invention there is provided a portable dispenser having a hollow body with at least one compartment therein for the storage of a stack of substantially flat items, the hollow body having an upper opening which is closable by a removable lid, and the or each compartment is provided with an aperture in its sidewall for removal of stored items and the lid has a shutter thereon such when the lid is in one closed position the aperture(s) are closed by the shutter and when the lid is in other closed positions, the apertures are open.

Preferably, the dispenser is a two tier dispenser having two compartments arranged one above the other, preferably with the two apertures also arranged one above the other and the shutter on the lid closing both apertures. The two compartments may be formed as separable components which are mounted one on the other.

The compartments may have the form of substantially identical open fronted trays allowing a hand to be inserted into the tray . The tray fronts may be provided with side portions that act as retainers for the items in the trays.

The lid may be lifted completely from the hollow body and spun on its axis and replaced as is desired.

The hollow body may be substantially square in plan with the comers being radiused or chamfered. The lid has substantially the same shape in plan with

the shutter .overlapping the side wall along one side of the square , preferably including the radiused and chamfered side portions.

The two trays and lid, are preferably moulded from a suitable plastics material, which may be transparent to show the stored items or may be coloured as is desired.

Description of the Drawings

The invention will be described by way of Example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig.1 is an isometric exploded view of a dispenser according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is an isometric view of a lid shown in Fig. 1 from a different view point, and Fig.3 is an isometric view of a tray used in Fig.1

Detailed Description of the Invention

With reference to Figures 1 to 3, there is shown a portable dispenser 10 which is particularly suitable for the dispensing and storage of paper plates and serviettes and which may be carried to picnic of barque sites, or may be left out- of-doors in the vicinity of a permanent barbeque site.

The dispenser 10 comprises a hollow body 11 with a removable Hd 12 . The hollow body 11 comprises two compartments 13&14 arranged one on top of the other. The two compartment 13 & 14 are substantially identical to each other and therefore only one compartment 13 is shown in detail in Fig. 3.

The dispenser 10 may be any desired shape in plan, for example circular, elliptical and various regular and irregular polygonal shapes, depending on the shape of the two dimensional item to be stored. The preferred plan shape in the present example is a substantially square shape having either rounded or chamfered corners.

The hollow body 11 may be formed as separate components as is desired, that are then assembled together by for example welding, or the use fasteners, adhesives, or inter-engaging resilient clip portions. Typically the hollow body is formed from two separately formed compartments 13 & 14 mounted one on the other.

The compartment 13 is in the form of a substantially square open fronted tray having a base 16 about 220mm square , upstanding sidewalls 17 about 80mm in height. The corners of the tray 13 are chamfered having sidewall portions 21 extending at a 45° bias between main sidewalls 17. The tray front comprises an aperture 18 flanked by side portions 19 of the front wall, and the adjacent chamfered portions 21 at the front corners. The side portion 19 and chamfered portions 21 are lower in height than the sidewalls 17 forming a "T" shaped aperture 18. This allows a stack of flat items to be retained behind the portions 19,21 , and then removed simply by lifting above the retaining portions 19,21 and then withdrawing from the compartment.

The lid 12 has a planar top 22 shaped to the shape in plan of the compartment 13, in this example, square with chamfered corners, with a shutter 23 extending normally downwards of the top 22. The shutter 23 extends downwardly for a

sufficient distance D , of about 160mm in this example, to overlap both trays 13 &14. The shutter 23 also extends for the full length of one side of the compartment including two chamfer portions 24 which in use will overlap the chamfer portions 21 of the tray sidewall.

The lid 22 co-operates with the sidewall 17 of the tray to close the upper opening in the top tray 13 . With the lid 22 in the position shown in Fig. 1 the shutter is positioned to close the two "T" shaped apertures 18 and the overlapping chamfer portions 24 and 21 on the lid and body 11 respectively, lock the lid in place against sideways movements. The lid 22 is completely removable from the opening and can be indexed around to fit the top compartment in a new position which leaves the front apertures open for access but keeping the top opening into the upper compartment 13 closed.

The two compartments 13 & 14 of the tier portable dispenser 10 are intended for the storage and dispensing of paper plates and towels/serviettes, which are stacked each in arespective compartment. The two tier compartments may be filled by dismantling the dispenser into the two trays and lid, or alternatively the lower tray may be filled with relatively rigid items such as paper or cardboard plates by passing the items through the front aperture 18.

The lid 12 and trays 13 & 14 may be moulded from a suitable plastics material which may be transparent or coloured as is desired. Suitable material may be polypropylene, polystyrene, polycarbonate and various acrylic resins.