FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a sheet material dispenser particularly, although not exclusively, envisaged for use in dispensing sheets of disposable material for use in personal hygiene

A sheet material dispenser of this general type is described and claimed in International Patent Application number PCT/AU96/00014 the whole disclosure of which is imported hereinto by reference

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is usual for women who are of menstruating age to take their handbag or the like with them to the toilet The reason for this is that they may find that when they are in the toilet that their periodic menstruation has started They usually have in their handbag a small supply of tampons or menstruation pads or the like for these times However, if they do not have their handbag or have exhausted their supply then they need to make do with out until they can get some

The present invention seeks to ameliorate this problem by providing a sheet material dispenser particularly envisaged for use in dispensing sheets of disposable material for use in personal hygiene, which also has the capacity to store one or more personal hygiene items such as tampons, menstruation pads, condoms or the like, so that in the event that a person does not have their supply with them they will be able to use items stored in the sheet material dispenser

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided a sheet material dispenser including a housing defining means for holding a supply of sheet material in an 5 accessible location and means for storing small items which can be accessed at the same time as the sheet material.

The sheet material to be dispensed may be in the form of a roll of toilet paper, a roll of pre-moistened sheet material or a supply of hand towels whether dry or pre-moistened l() The sheet material dispenser may be arranged to dispense a single type of sheet material or it may be arranged to dispense two or more different types of sheet material

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

15 The present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which -

Figure 1 is an upper perspective view of a sheet material dispenser according to a first embodiment of the present invention, 0

Figure 2 is a longitudinal, medial cross section of the dispenser of Figure 1 with a drawer partially closed,

Figure 3 is an exploded, upper perspective view of a sheet material dispenser according to 5 a second embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 4 is a longitudinal, medial cross section of the dispenser of Figure 3; and

Figure 5 is an upper perspective view of a sheet material dispenser according to a third 0 embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings, there is shown a first embodiment sheet material dispenser 10 arranged to dispense two rolls of sheet material 12 and 14 The roll 12 may be formed of dry toilet paper whilst the roll 14 may be formed of pre- moistened toilet paper

The dispenser 10 includes a housing 16 including a rear wall 18, side walls 20 and 22 disposed at right angles to the rear wall and a base 24. There is also an intermediate dividing wall 26 about halfway between the side walls 20 and 22 The intermediate wall 26 is generally parallel to the side walls 20 and 22 The side walls 20 and 22 and the intermediate wall 26 define a pair of compartments 28 and 30 which extend downwardly to a floor 32 which is located above and spaced from the base 24

The compartment 28 contains means 31 for retaining the roll 12 therein whilst the compartment 30 contains means 33 for retaining the roll 14 therein Typically, the means 31 and 33 are in the form of open ended generally u-shaped inward projections from the walls 22, 26 and 20 of the dispenser 10 arranged to receive cores 37 of the rolls 12 and 14

Further, a hinged lid 34 is pivotally mounted to the side walls 20 and 22 by means of pins 36 (only one of which can be seen in Figure 1) which extend through a respective side portion 35 of the lid 34 and a respective adjacent portion of the sidewall 20 or 22. As shown in Figure 1, the lid 34 can be raised to allow sheet material to be dispensed from the rolls 12 and 14. However, when the dispenser 10 is not in use the lid 34 can be lowered on the pins 36 so that it substantially closes off the compartments 28 and 30 This is especially important when one of the rolls 12 and 14 is pre-moistened as drying out of the pre-moistened roll is reduced by closure of the compartments 28 and 30.

Below the floor 32 the housing 16 contains a compartment 38 having an open end A drawer 40 is located in the compartment 38 The drawer 40 is slidably mounted in the compartment 38 and can be fully retracted so as to be closed or it can be extended as shown particularly in Figure 1 so as to be open The drawer 40 is arranged to receive small items of personal hygiene such as tampons, menstruation pads and condoms

The lid 34 may be transparent to show readily the amounts of the rolls 12 or 14 which remain to be used The remainder of the dispenser 10 is preferably opaque The dispenser 10 may be made of plastics material or powder coated metal material or the like Further, the dispenser 10 may be provided with means (not shown) for affixation to the wall

The rolls 12 or 14 may be formed of a plurality of sheets typically having a size of 100mm x 1 10mm The sheets may be joined by perforations so as to cause the sheets to separate upon hard pulling The sheets may be made of a biodegradable material of known type

In use, the rolls 12 and 14 are available for use Simultaneously, a user can open the drawer 40 to obtain therefrom articles of personal hygiene which may be required by that person

In Figure 3, there is shown a second embodiment 60 of the present invention which is similar to that of Figure 1 and like reference numerals denote like parts.

In this case, the rolls 12 and 14 are mounted on a hollow spindle 50. Further, the side walls 20 and 22 contain upwardly facing open ended recesses 52 and the intermediate wall 26 contains an aligned upwardly facing open ended recess 54. The spindle 50 is arranged to rest in the aligned apertures 52 and 54 and to be retained in place in the housing 16

When the rolls 12 and 14 have to be replaced the spindle 50 is removed forwardly of the housing 60 so that the old rolls 12 and 14 can be removed from respective ends of the spindle 50 and new rolls 12 and 14 put in place. Further, the spindle 50 contains a pair of spaced circumferential ribs 58 (see Figure 4) When the spindle 50 is in place the ribs 58 are disposed in opposite sides of the wall 26 so that the spindle 50 is not easy to remove inadvertently

In this case the spindle 50 receives slidably a drawer 62 which has a curved shape in cross section so as to fit snugly in the spindle 50 Also, the drawer 62 has an open top 64 Further, the drawer 62 has a stop 66 at one end to prevent the drawer 62 from entering the spindle 50 completely. It is also envisaged that the spindle 50 could receive a pair of short drawers 62 inserted from opposite ends thereof As can be seen in Figure 3 the drawer 62 is in addition to the drawer 40 described above in relation to Figure 1

Also, the side portions 35 of the lid 34 have recesses 55 so that the drawer 62 can be opened and closed without having to raise the lid 34.

Also, the lid 34 contains a partition 68 midway between the side portions 38 for engaging with the wall 26 when the lid 34 is closed so as to separate substanially the compartments 28 and 30

The spindle 50 has to be removed forwardly to replace the rolls 12 and 14 as described hereinabove. However, the small items of personal hygiene are located in the drawer 62 which is retractably mounted in the spindle 50 and in the drawer 40.

In use, when an item is to be retrieved the drawer 62 is opened by being pulled by means of the stop 66 and the required items are retrieved through the open top 64. Alternatively, or additionally the drawer 40 can be opened to remove an item as described hereinabove.

In Figure 5, there is shown a sheet material dispenser 80 which is similar to that shown in Figure 1 and like reference numerals denote like parts The dispenser 80 contains a single roll 82 such as a roll of hand towels in a single compartment 84 In use, hand towels are dispensed from the roll 82 in known manner The hand towels may be dry or pre-moistened

Typically, the sheets of the rolls 12 and 14 may be chemically treated with a) Canestan which is recommended by the medical profession for patients suffering with thrush in the vaginal area, b) Aloe Vera, c) Lanolin, d) Vitamin E, e) Other ingredients relating to moisturised material for the purposes of perfumery or softening agents, and f) Other solutions suitable for people suffering from haemorrhoids

Also, the sheets are preferably made from a biodegradable material The sheets could be made of material such as cellulose wadding, cotton, rayon, viscose, paper, non-woven material or the like

Further, it is envisaged that the container, such as the drawer 40 or the drawer 62 could be partitioned into two parts. One part could be for the storage of items of personal hygiene exclusively for women and the other part could be for the storage of items of personal hygiene used more commonly by men such as condoms. In this case the container could be inscribed with the words "HIS" and "HERS" or with the symbol for men and the symbol for women. This is to indicate which part of the container has which type of emergency supply. Also, in the embodiments of Figures 1 to 4, the lid 34 could be inscribed with the words "dry" and "wet" so as to indicate which roll 12 or 14 is which However, it is to be understood that the dispenser of the present invention could contain two pre-moistened rolls or two dry rolls

Also, the sheet material dispenser of the present invention could be arranged to house multiple rolls of material such as three dry and three wet on top of each other or side by side As a first roll is used and pulled out a next roll could be presented for use and so on

It is also envisaged that there may be some form of heating for the rolls especially pre- moistened rolls In addition, means may be provided for humidifying pre-moistened rolls

Also, the sheets could be available in single flat form with a suitable dispenser Alternatively, the sheets could be available in a leaflet form or a concertina form in a suitable dispenser

In addition, the items of personal hygiene stored in the dispenser of the present invention could be wrapped specifically for a certain resort or hotel. Further, a dry toilet roll in particular could have a rubber stopper or the like so that once as much paper as required was pulled out the stopper would rest on the roll and enable the paper to be torn off without leaving any excess hanging down The stopper would be attached to the dispenser of the present invention

Further, the dispenser could have a cutting device attached to it so as to cut the sheet material at the desired length.

Also, the rolls 12 and 14 are not necessarily toilet roll size but could be any convenient size Further, the core may be made out of a waxed cardboard material or a plastics material or foil.

It is envisaged that the dispenser of the present invention will be marketed under one or more of the product names "Royal Flush Dispenser", "Touch of Paradise" or "Touch of

Elegance" Also, the lid 34 may contain one or more thumb holes to enable a roll to be manually turned if the end of the roll is not readily accessible

Modifications and variations such as would be apparent to a skilled addressee are deemed within the scope of the present invention