An exemplary counter mounted dispenser is known from US 2004/0206769 A1. In this document, a container is described for holding and dispensing individual paper sheets, such as 400 to 1000 paper sheets. The container is installed in a countertop or other suitable substantially planar surface. The container has a housing including four sidewalls and a bottom wall to define an interior space defining an interior area.
The container includes a cover that includes a dispensing opening through which the paper products pass as they are dispensed. The cover is hingedly attached to one of the sidewalls so that the cover is flush with the counter top. The cover is openable for insertion of paper products into the interior area to replenish the supply of paper products. A fastener is provided that is openable when it is desired to reopen the cover.
In this prior art container, the cover is openable to provide access to the stack of paper sheets in the interior by simply pressing a button and rotating the cover about the hinge. This design can tend to promote misuse of the dispenser. Further, the hinge is disposed at a side of the cover and the container, which is visible and which limits design flexibility to produce more aesthetically pleasing containers. Also, if the container is mistakenly mounted so that the cover is blocked from fully opening by a perpendicular wall surface next to the counter, the whole housing will need to be remounted. Yet further, the hinge mechanism of the prior art is a component that is liable to breakage, which would necessitate replacement of the whole container.
The present disclosure aims to overcome these problems and provides various aspects to address one or more of these problems.
In the prior art paper sheet container for holding and dispensing paper sheets, the housing is supported within the counter top by flanges that extend outwardly from the sidewalls. When the housing is inserted in an opening in the countertop slightly larger than the cross-section of the housing, the housing is supported within the countertop by the flanges. The flanges are fastened to the countertop by screws, nails, adhesive, etc.
These manners of securing the housing to the countertop are all methods that damage the countertop, which is not desirable for customers. It is a further aim in at least one aspect to overcome this problem.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds