WO2007073244A1

WO2007073244A1 - Dispenser for and method of manufacturing a bundle of interfolded towels and bundle of towels manufactured by the method

Info

Publication number: WO2007073244A1
Application number: PCT/SE2005/001963
Authority: WO
Inventors: Anna MÅNSSON; Robert Kling; Andreas NORMÉN
Original assignee: Sca Hygiene Products Ab
Priority date: 2005-12-19
Filing date: 2005-12-19
Publication date: 2007-06-28

Abstract

The present invention relates to a dispenser (1) for interfolded towels in the form of sheets of hygienic paper or nonwoven, having a top wall, a rear wall (3), two side walls (4,5), a bottom wall and an openable front wall (6) defining a storing space for a bundle (2) of towels,. According to the invention at least a part of or an element of at least one side wall (4,5) is disposed inwardly of a vertical plane perpendicular to the rear wall (3) passing through the side edge of the rear wall.

Description

Dispenser for and method of manufacturing a bundle of interfolded towels and bundle of towels manufactured by the method.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a dispenser for interfolded towels in the form of sheets of hygienic paper or nonwoven, having a top wall, a rear wall, two side walls, a bottom wall and an openable front wall defining a storing space for a bundle of towels. The invention also relates to a method of manufacturing a bundle of interfolded towels of paper, the contour of the bundle has two parallel long sides and two short sides connecting the long sides to each other.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Dispensers for towels of paper are often used in public toilets, restrooms and the like. One common dispensing system is use of bundles of interfolded towels, i.e. sheets of hygiene paper and nonwoven, in which the end of the towel drawn out of the dispenser opening takes with it the trailing end part of the next towel in the bundle so that this towel is easy to grip for the user. In such bundles, the successive towels in the bundle are thus arranged overlapping each other. Known dispensers for interfolded towels usually have a top wall, a rear wall, two side walls, a bottom wall with a dispensing opening and an openable front cover or wall hinged to the bottom wall or a side wall, defining a storing space for a bundle of towels.

When a new bundle of towels has to be fed into the dispenser, the front wall is opened so that a bundle of towels can be placed in the storing space. The new bundle is usually provided with a wrapper to hold the interfolded towels in place during transport and handling and the bundle is somewhat compressed. This wrapper is taken off before the bundle is fed into the dispenser. After the bundle has been put in place in the storing space of the dispenser, the bundle will therefore expand a little. There is a great risk that the bundle will fall out of the storing space of the dispenser before the person feeding the dispenser with towels has closed the front wall of the dispenser. For this reason, the person feeding the dispenser must by one hand prevent the new bundle of towels fed into the dispenser to fall out of the storing space during the major part of the closing operation of the front wall.

An objective of the present invention is to facilitate feeding of new bundles of interfolded towels of paper into a dispenser by providing means for preventing such a bundle from falling out of the storing space when the front wall is opened.

US 2,823,089 discloses a continuous strip of tissues folded into a bundle having the shape of a trapezium and disposed in a box having the same shape as the bundle. The box has an opening having a width smaller than the greatest width of the strip of tissues in order to maintain the strip in the box when tearing off a tissue from the strip of tissues. The known folded strip of tissues and the co-operating box thus uses a different principle of dispensing than the present invention, and US 2.823,089 does not address the problem to be solved by the present invention SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This objective of the invention is achieved by a dispenser for interfolded towels in the form of sheets of hygienic paper or nonwoven, having a top wall, a rear wall, two side walls, a bottom wall and an openable front wall defining a storing space for a bundle of towels, characterised in that at least a part of or an element of at least one side wall is disposed inwardly of a vertical plane perpendicular to the rear wall passing through the side edge of the rear wall. Such a part or element will prevent a bundle of towels put into the dispenser from falling out of the storing space.

In a preferred embodiment at least one side wall and preferably both side walls converge towards the opposite side wall.

In a variant a separate element is protruding inwardly from at least one side wall, said element extending from the upper part of the dispenser to at least the middle part thereof.

Said inwardly disposed part or protruding element of the side wall is advantageously resilient.

The invention also relates to a method of manufacture a bundle of interfolded paper towels, comprising the steps of; providing a first lane of paper having a longitudinal direction and a cross direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, the longitudinal edges of said lane being cut into a regular wave form so that the wave crests C and wave troughs T thereof oppose one another seen in the cross direction of the lane, the distance between opposing wave troughs defining the narrowest part of said lane; characterised by providing a second lane of paper similar to said first lane; perforating the first and second lane in the cross direction; superposing one of the first and second lanes onto the other so that the lanes are displaced relative to one another in the longitudinal direction; folding the superposed lanes into a bundle.

In a first preferred embodiment the displacement between said superposed lanes is an integer number of the width of said bundle. Furthermore, folds are created along fold lines extending between every pair of opposing wave crests C and wave troughs T in said superposed first and second lanes. In a variant folds in the cross direction are also created halfway between adjacent pairs of wave crests C and wave troughs T.

In an advantageous variant the first and second lanes can be displaced relative to one another in the longitudinal direction by a quarter or a half of a wave length.

By a wave length is meant the longitudinal distance between two successive wave crests C. The width of a bundle is determined by the longitudinal distance between two successive folds in the cross direction, the portion of the lane between two successive folds in the cross direction is called a panel, and the length of a towel, i.e. the sheet of hygienic paper or nonwoven making up each individual towel, is the longitudinal distance between two successive perforation lines in a lane.

The invention further relates to a method of manufacture a bundle of interfolded paper towels, comprising the steps of providing an elongate log (L) of bundle blanks to be made into individual bundles of interfolded towels, characterised by providing a cutter S having an angle other than perpendicular to the length direction of said log L, making a first cut and moving the log in its length direction before the next cut.

In a preferred method embodiment, the log L is turned 180° between subsequent cuts.

In a second method embodiment, a second cutter having an angle complementary to the angle of the first cutter is provided and a second cut is made by said second cutter. It is of course possible to let the second cutter have an angle different than an angle complementary to the angle of the first cutter.

The invention also relates to a bundle of interfolded towels, the contour of which has, seen from above, two parallel long sides and two short sides connecting the long sides to each other, characterised in that at least one short side has at least a portion converging towards the opposite short side.

In a preferred embodiment at least one short side of the bundle and preferably both of the two short sides converge towards the opposite short side. The acute angle between a long side and such a converging short side is 45°-89°, preferably 60-85°.

In such a bundle, wherein one of the long sides of the bundle is shorter than the other, the free ends of the interfolded towels are preferably directed to the longest of the long sides of the bundle.

In a variant the contour of the bundle, seen from above, has a shape similar to an hour-glass. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described with reference to the enclosed figures, of which;

Fig. 1 schematically discloses a perspective view of dispenser according to a first embodiment of the invention filled with a bundle of interfolded towels according to a first embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 2 illustrates the interfolding of two lanes into a bundle of towels according to Figure 1,

Fig. 3 schematically illustrates a way of producing bundles of towels fitting into the dispenser according to Figure 1,

Fig. 4 schematically discloses a plan view from above of a dispenser according to a second embodiment,

Fig. 5 - 7 schematically illustrates a method of manufacturing a bundle of interfolded towels according to a second embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 8 schematically discloses a perspective view of a bundle of interfolded towels produced by the method of Figures 5-7,

Fig. 9 schematically illustrates a method of manufacturing a bundle of interfolded towels according to a third embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 10 discloses a plan view from above of a bundle produced by the method illustrated in Figure 9, Fig. 11 discloses a plan view of above of a dispenser for a bundle produced by the method illustrated in Figure 9,

Fig. 12 schematically discloses top views of bundles according to embodiments of the invention, and

Fig. 13 schematically discloses different folding of towels into a bundle.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

In Figure 1 a dispenser 1 according to a first embodiment of the invention and a bundle 2 of interfolded towels according to a first embodiment of the invention are schematically shown. By the term "towels" is meant webs or sheets of hygiene paper or nonwoven used for hand wiping, bathroom tissue, napkins, kitchen towels, or object wiping. A bundle of interfolded towels contains about 80-200 such sheets folded into two or more panels, in which bundle each sheet has at least a portion of at least one panel lying in the fold between two panels in the next sheet and at least a portion of at least one panel being forward of the next sheet as seen in the direction of dispensing. The leading part of the next towel to be drawn out is held between the last panels of the preceding towel. The leading part has a width that is at least more than half a panel width, and preferably not more than two panels width. By "towel" is meant the unit dispensed from a dispenser which unit in the bundle can be connected to other towels via perforation lines.

The dispenser 1 comprises a rear wall 3, two side walls 4,5, a bottom wall (not shown in Figure 1) and a front wall 6 hinged to the bottom wall to constitute a lid swingable between an opened position , which is shown in Figure 1 and in which a storing space defined by the rear wall 3₅ the side walls 4,5 and the bottom wall is accessible for placing a bundle of towels into the storing space, and a closed position, in which the storing space is closed by the front wall 6. The dispenser 1 also comprises a top wall, which is not shown for the sake of clarity. The top wall can preferably be integral with the front wall. The bottom wall includes a dispensing opening, from which the towels one by one can be drawn out of the dispenser. Due to the interfolding arrangement of the towels, the trailing or leading part of a second towel, i.e. seen from the bottom, will also be drawn out of the dispenser when a first towel is drawn out. The dispenser 1 is preferably made of plastic material but can also be made of metal or a combination of metal and plastic. The dispenser 1 is mounted hanging vertically from a wall which is the normal mounting of a dispenser. The term "vertical" in claim 1 refers to such a mounting of the dispenser.

According to the invention, the side walls 4,5 of the dispenser 1 converge towards each other in a direction towards the front wall and the bundle 2 of towels has a cross section in the form of a trapezium, as is evident from Figure 1. By providing the bundle 2 and dispenser 1 with such a cross-section, the bundle can not fall out of the opened dispenser 1 but will be held in place by the converging side walls 4,5. In order to prevent the bundle from falling, the acute angle between the rear wall and the side walls need not differ much from 90° but can preferably lie between 60-85°. The acute angle can be as low as 45°.

The bundles for filling dispensers are usually surrounded by a wrapper, whereby the bundles are slightly compressed. Before the bundle is placed within the storing space of the dispenser this wrapper is taken off and when the operator, i.e. the person filling the dispenser, releases the bundle after it has been put into the dispenser, the bundle often will expand a little. The bundle is soft and fairly high, so the top of the bundle can easily fall of, or a middle part be pressed out, especially if the sheets are folded such that they are thicker in the middle than at the sides. In a conventional dispenser, in which the cross-section of the dispenser is rectangular, there is nothing to stop the top of the bundle or the middle part thereof to fall out of the dispenser in the time between the release of the bundle by the operator and the closing of the front wall. In a dispenser according to the present invention, such as the dispenser shown in figure 1, in which a bundle 2 placed in the storing space of the dispenser have a rear wall abutting the rear wall 3 of the dispenser and side walls parallel to the converging side walls 4,5 of the dispenser, the possible movement of the bundle 2 in a direction towards the open front of the storing space of dispenser will be stopped by the side wall or side walls of the bundle coming into abutment with the side walls 4,5 of the dispenser. The magnitude of the possible movement of the bundle 2 in a direction towards the open front of the storing space is determined by the respective clearance between the side walls of the bundle 2 and the side walls 4 and 5, respectively. Said clearance will normally not be more than a few millimetres.

The bundle 2 can be put into the storing space from above. In order to allow the bundle 2 to be loaded from the front side without having to deform the bundle too much, the acute angle between the rear wall 3 and the side walls 4,5 should be near 90°, preferably between 80-89°. If the top wall is integral with and removed when the front wall is opened, the loading can be done from the top. In such a case the angle can preferably be 60-85°, but angles down to 45° or even lower is possible. In a variant of the first embodiment of the dispenser and bundle, it is possible to let one of the side walls of the dispenser and the corresponding side wall of the bundle be perpendicular to the rear wall of the dispenser and bundle, respectively. Such a variant will facilitate placing of the bundle in the dispenser from the front side. The bundle 2 consists of interfolded towels. By the term "interfolded" is here meant sheets folded into two or more panels, each sheet having at least a portion of at least one panel lying in the fold between two panels in the next sheet and at least a portion of at least one panel being forward of the next sheet, as seen in the direction of dispensing. One way of manufacturing such a bundle is to lay two lanes onto each other with the two lanes displaced relative each other in the longitudinal direction of the lanes, and then folding the lanes, like an accordion, into a bundle. In Figure 2 a portion of two such lanes are schematically disclosed. The first lane comprises the towels I and III and the second lane comprises the towels II and IV, towels I and III are edge-to-edge at bottom and towels II and IV are edge-to-edge on top, displaced half a towel length (two panels) relative to towels I and III. The distal end of towel I is in Figure 2 shown by a dotted line. As can be seen by Figure 2, the longitudinal edges of the lanes have a regular wave form with successive wave crests C and wave troughs T. The wave crests on one longitudinal edge of the lane coincidence in the longitudinal direction with the wave crests of the opposite longitudinal edge and also the wave troughs on these edges coincidence in the longitudinal direction with one another. Both lanes have the same dimensions and shapes. The different towels I, III and II, IV, respectively, of the two lanes are connected to each other by very weak connections, so called tab bonds, which hold the lanes together during the superposing thereof, but which are much weaker than the friction forces between the lanes after these have been interfolded to a bundle and the friction force between the dispenser bottom and adjacent towel. The longitudinal extension of the towels I-IV is two wave lengths and the displacement between the lanes in the longitudinal direction is one wave length. Each towel is folded into four panels, the overlap between the superposed lanes thus being two such panels. Figure 3 illustrates schematically a preferred way to manufacture bundles 2 having a cross-section in the shape of a trapezium. A log L of two interfolded lanes is moved in the direction of the arrow. The interfolding of the lanes is accomplished by conventional apparatus and the log of interfolded lanes is surrounded by a wrapper. After wrapping the log is transported in its length direction to the cutting station schematically disclosed in figure 3. The log is then cut by a cutter or saw wheel S which is disposed at an angle in relation to the cross direction, i.e. a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the log. After each cut, and before the next cut, the log is rotated/turned 180° around its length axis and moved lengthwise a distance corresponding to the length of each bundle and then cut by the saw wheel S. The log is held steady during cutting . Thereby, individual bundles 21, 22, 23 are created having a cross-section in the shape of a trapezium. This means that the free edge of the bottom towel will be turned toward the long side of the trapezium in one individual bundle 21- 23 and turned to the short side of the trapezium in every second bundle of the successive bundles cut out of the log. Therefore, at least a portion of the bottom opening of the dispenser must allow access to the free edge of the bottom towel.

It is of course also possible to use two cutters converging towards each other for cutting logs into individual bundles having a cross-section in the shape of a trapezium. In such a case, the log need not be turned between each cut, the first cutter making the first cut and the second cutter making the second cut. The second cutter should be disposed at an angle in relation to the cross direction log which is complementary to the oblique angle of the first cutter. By this is meant that the second cutter should be oblique in relation to the cross-direction in a direction opposite to the first cutter. However, the acute angles formed between the cross-direction and the first and second cutter need not be the same. It is of course also possible to use the saw S in figure 3 without turning the log. In such a case, bundles having a rhombic cross-section (as shown in Figure 12d) are created.

In Figure 4 is schematically disclosed a dispenser 1 ' according to a second embodiment of the present invention. The dispenser 1 ' differs from the dispenser 1 in Figure 1 in that it has elements 7, 8 protruding inward from the side walls 4', 5' and in that the side walls are perpendicular to the rear wall. The protruding elements 7, 8 can preferably be wings of resilient material, for example rubber or an appropriate plastic material, in order to facilitate filling of the dispenser 1 ' from the front side. However, it is not necessary to use resilient material for the elements 7, 8 even if this is preferred. The elements 7, 8 need neither be extended along the whole height of the dispenser, it is enough that elements 7, 8 extend from at least the middle part into in the upper part of the storing space. However, the extension of elements 7, 8 should be at least so large that they reach over the top of the bundle 2 both when the bundle is placed in the dispenser in a compressed state and after the bundle had been released and allowed to expand. Preferably, the elements 7, 8 extend over at least the top two thirds of the height of the dispenser.

In the embodiment illustrated in Figure 3 the individual bundles having a cross-section in the shape of a trapezium was made by cutting a log of folded blanks of towels into individual bundles. In Figures 5- 8 an alternate way of manufacturing such bundles by performing the cutting step before the folding step is illustrated.

Figure 5 discloses a web of paper of towel quality in which lanes 10- 13 are cut out by wave shaped cutting lines 14- 18. These cutting lines are identical and have wave crests C and wave troughs T. The cutting lines 14-18 are displaced relative each other half a wave length seen in the longitudinal direction, which is indicated by an arrow in Figure 5 and which also is the machine direction MD, i.e. the direction of running for the lanes 10- 13. Thereby, the wave crests C and wave troughs T in each lane are opposed to each other in a cross direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction.

The lanes are then separated from each other and perforated in a direction perpendicular to the machine direction (MD), preferably along lines passing through the successive wave troughs T. This could be done by displacing the lanes half a wave length in the longitudinal direction and thereafter making the perforation of the lanes, as illustrated in Figure 6 for the lanes 10 and 11. It is of course also possible to separate the lanes 10- 13 from each other by leading the lanes 10 and 12 to a plane below or above the plane of the lanes 11 and 13 or vice versa and thereafter make the perforations. By the perforations individual towels 19_ls 19₂ and 2O₁, 2O₂ are made in the lanes 10 and 11, respectively and also in the lanes 12 and 13 (not shown in the Figure).

After the perforation step, the two lanes in the pairs of lanes 10, 11 and 12,13 are superposed on each other, as illustrated in Figure 7. The lanes 10 and 11 are superposed on each other displaced relative each other half a wave length in the longitudinal direction, as is illustrated in Figure 7. Thus, towel 2O₁ overlaps half of towel 19^ in the longitudinal direction, half of towel 19₂ overlaps towel 2O₁, towel 2O₂ overlaps half of towel 19₂, etc. The superposed lanes 10 and 11 are then fed into a folding apparatus of conventional type in which the superposed lanes are folded together in the accordion way, to make the sheets interfolded. This results in towels of four panels with two panels overlap so that each towel 19 is folded into four panels having equal extension in the longitudinal direction and whereby towels 19 and 20 overlaps each other by two such panels. When the folding step is finished the two lanes 10, 11 of towels 19 and 20, respectively have been folded into a bundle 24 of interfolded towels.

Such a bundle is schematically shown in Figure 8 in a perspective view from above disclosing the two panels 19_n and 19n in the bundle 24 being on the top of the bundle. Such a bundle contains normally 80-200 towels. As is evident from Figure 8, the bundle 24 also has a cross section in the shape of a trapezium. Each free start end of the respective towels 19, 20 are directed to the long sides of said trapezium like the free edge of panel 19π shown in

Figure 8. The bundle 24 can thus be put into a dispenser according to Figures 1 and 4.

As stated before, the towels in each lane 10, 11 are separated from each other by the perforations made therein before the superposing of the lanes. The connections between the successive towels in the lanes left after the perforation step should be strong enough to hold for the feeding of the lanes and the superposing of these onto each other, but be weaker than the friction forces between the lanes after these have been interfolded to a bundle and the friction force between the bottom of the dispenser and lowermost towel in the bundle so that the towel drawn out of a dispenser easily will break this frangible connection to the next towel in the lane without moving the trailing edge of this next towel in the lane. From a practical point of view these frangible connections left after the perforation step have no influence of the behaviour of the separate towels 19 respective 20 in a bundle placed in a dispenser.

The same process steps that have been described for lanes 10 and 11 are also used on lanes 12 and 13 to produce a bundle 24 also from these lanes. The wave shape disclosed in Figures 5- 7 is made by straight cutting, which is preferred. It is, however, possible to instead cut sinusoidal curves in the web 9 or cutting part of the wave in any curved shape, for example in regions on both side of the wave crests and wave troughs. The amplitude and wave length can also be different from what is shown in these Figures.

The shape of towels 19 and 20 is such that the towels are widest in the middle and taper toward the ends. This is a very favourable shape since studies of used towels of rectangular shape have shown that used towels usually are mostly unused and dry in corner portions. By taking away such dry portions, as is done by the manufacturing process described with reference to Figures 5- 8, a towel functioning as well as a rectangular towel but containing less paper is produced. Thereby paper can be saved which is favourable both with respect to manufacturing costs and from an environmental point of view.

The perforation lines, defining the length of a towel, do not have to be done at the folding points, often the perforation is a little bit offset by e.g. 10-15 mm. But in such a case the towel will still be an integer number of panels. However, the perforations can be independent of folding width, i.e. panel width. In such a case the towels can be a non-integer number of panels. The wave-length will still be an integer number of panel widths.

In the embodiment described with reference to Figures 5- 8 the lanes 10, 11 were superposed on to each other with a longitudinal displacement of half a wave length. It is of course possible to use another longitudinal displacement than half a wave length when superposing the lanes. In Figure 9 is shown a longitudinal displacement of a quarter of a wave length of the towels 19, 20. The bundle 24' resulting from folding lanes 10', 11 ' so that each towel 19, 20 is folded into four panels in the same way as described with reference to figures 7 and 8₅ is shown in Figure 10. The bundle 24' has as shown in Figure 10 a shape similar to the shape of an hour-glass, i.e. the shape of two truncated triangles sharing the truncated side with each other. The same hour-glass shape will also occur if the overlap between lanes is three quarters of a wave length instead of one quarter.

The bundle 24' having an hour-glass shape can not be used in a dispenser constructed in accordance with Figure 1. However, it can be used in a dispenser in accordance with the construction of Figure 4. It is also possible to construct a dispenser having a cross-section corresponding to the hour-glass shape of the cross-section of bundle 24'. A plan view of such a dispenser 25 is disclosed in Figure 11. The dispenser 25 has a rear wall 26, two side walls 27, 28 and a front wall 29. The side walls 27, 28 have V-shape with the apexes of the V:s opposing each other so that a storing space having a cross-section in the shape of an hour-glass corresponding to the shape of the bundle 24' is formed. Furthermore, the side walls 27, 28 are preferably resilient in order to allow filling the bundle 24' into the storing space from the front side when the front wall is swung down around its hinged connection to the bottom wall.

It is possible to provide for the insertion of a bundle 24 ' into the dispenser 25 from the front side by other means than having side walls of resilient material. For example, the side walls 27, 28 can be attached to the opposite edges of the rear wall by an articulation allowing the side walls to be swung aside during insertion of bundle 24'. In such a case the side walls should also be biased towards the position shown in Figure 11 by suitable spring devices. The term "resilient" in the claims is intended to cover all elements that can be moved away from a rest position by the application of a force, but will tend to return to the rest position when said force is removed, i.e. elements being resiliently biased towards a rest position. In the described embodiments, the towels are folded into four panels. It is of course possible to let the towels be folded into other integer numbers of panels, the overlap between successive towels in a bundle or the longitudinal displacement between superposed lanes being a multiple of the longitudinal extension such panels. If the towels are folded into two panels, the overlap should correspond to the longitudinal extension of one panel. It is, however, not preferred to have more than four panels in each towel.

If the manufacturing method described with reference to Figure 3 is used for a log having a blank of towels folded into two panels, the resulting towels will have different shapes, the towels from one lane of the interfolded lanes having the same shape as the towels disclosed in Figures 6, 7, and 9, i.e. a shape tapering towards the opposite ends from the middle of the towel, and the towels from the other of the interfolded lanes having an hour-glass shape. If the lanes 10, 11 in Figure 7 are folded so that the towels 19, 20 comprise only two panels, the bundle produced by such a folding will have a cross-section of hour-glass shape.

From the foregoing it is evident that by changing displacement of lanes and folding of towels in the lanes bundles of interfolded towels having cross- sections in the form of a trapezium or having hour-glass shape can easily be produced starting from a web 9 of paper shown in figure 5. Both types of bundles have sides that wholly or partly converge towards each other and can thus be placed in a dispenser having side walls or protruding elements that prevent a bundle put into the dispenser from falling out thereof. The towels produced from the web 9 in accordance with the present invention also have a shape that is advantageous from a practical point of view, i.e. these towels do not contain more paper than is necessary for a proper function. The shape of bundles obtained by the method according to the invention can be varied by varying the overlap between the lanes, by varying the number of panels in relation to the wave length and of course also by varying the shape of the wave. In Figure 12 a few examples of bundle shapes a-e that can be obtained in such a way is disclosed in schematic top views in order to illustrate this. A way of obtaining the shapes a and b has already been described with reference to Figures 5-8 and 9-10, respectively. The shape c can be obtained in the same way as shape a if only one longitudinal edge of the first and second lane is given wave shape, the opposite longitudinal edge being straight. The shape d can be obtained in the same way as shape a with the difference that the wave crests in one longitudinal edge is opposed by a wave trough in the opposite longitudinal edge instead of by a wave crest (the wave crests and troughs being defined as in Figure 5, i.e. as seen from the longitudinal axis of the lane towards the respective longitudinal edge). The shape e can for example be obtained by a 3 -panel fold of the towels in the superposed lanes for a wave length of 3 such panels and an overlap of one panel or by a 4-panel fold of the towels in the superposed lanes for a wave length of 3 such panels and an overlap of one panel.

In Figure 13, very schematic side views of folded sheets, where the folds have been drawn out to clarify the sequence of the sheets, making up a part of a bundle are shown. In Figure 13 (a) a f olded part of a bundle of 4-panel sheets having an overlap of 2-panels is shown. Such a folding corresponds to the folding of the superposed sheets I-IV shown in Figure 2. Figure 13 (b) shows a partly interfolded part of 3-panel sheets having an overlap of alternating one and two panels. These figures are only shown to facilitate an understanding of the interfolding process. Figure 13 (c) discloses a partly multi-folded 3-panel lane with one panel overlap. In a multi-folded bundle, the sheets are completely cut from each other.

The described embodiments can be modified in several ways without leaving the scope of the invention. For example, the acute angle between the rear side and the lateral sides of the bundle 24 according to Figure 8 can be smaller than 80 degrees according to other changes, this angle being dependent on how much the towels in the bundle should taper from the middle thereof in order to have an optimal shape for the user. Furthermore, it is possible to have a wave of another shape than disclosed in the Figures in order to optimise the shape of the towel, for example the wave troughs can be flattened so a region between adjacent wave crests have parallel opposed edges. Moreover, the front wall of the dispenser could be hinged to a side wall instead of the bottom wall as disclosed in Figure 1. The present invention should therefore only be limited by the wording of the enclosed patent claims.

Claims

1. Dispenser ( 1 ; 1 ';25) for interfolded towels in the form of sheets of hygienic paper or nonwoven, having a top wall, a rear wall (3;3 ';26), two side walls

(4,5;4',5';27,28), a bottom wall and an openable front wall (6) defining a storing space for a bundle (2;24') of towels, characterised in that at least a part of or an element of at least one side wall (4,5;4',5';27,28) is disposed inwardly of a vertical plane perpendicular to the rear wall (3 ; 3 ' ;26) passing through the side edge of the rear wall .

2. Dispenser according to Claim 1, wherein at least one side wall (4,5) converges towards the opposite side wall.

3. Dispenser according to Claim 2, wherein the side walls (4,5) converge towards each other.

4. Dispenser according to Claim 1, wherein a separate element (7,8) is protruding inwardly from at least one side wall (4', 5'), said element extending from the upper part of the dispenser to at least the middle part thereof.

5. Dispenser according to 1 or 4, wherein said inwardly protruding part or said separate element (7,8) is resilient.

6. Method of manufacture a bundle of interfolded paper towels, comprising the steps of; providing a first lane (10) of paper having a longitudinal direction and a cross direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, at least one of the longitudinal edges of said lane being cut into a regular wave form; characterised by providing a second lane (11) of paper similar to said first lane; perforating the first and second lane in the cross direction; superposing one (11) of the first and second lanes (10,11) onto the other

(10) so that the lanes are displaced relative to one another in the longitudinal direction; folding the superposed lanes into a bundle (24).

7. Method according to claim 6, wherein both of the longitudinal edges of the first and second lanes are cut into a regular wave form so that the wave crests (C) and wave troughs (T) thereof oppose one another seen in the cross direction of the lane, the distance between opposing wave troughs defining the narrowest part of said lane

8. Method according to claim 7, wherein the displacement between said superposed lanes (10,11) is an integer number of the width of said bundle (24).

9. Method according to claim 8, wherein folds are created along fold lines extending between every pair of opposing wave crests (C) and wave troughs (T) in said superposed first and second lanes (10,11).

10. Method according to claim 9, wherein folds in the cross direction also are created halfway between adjacent pairs of wave crests (C) and wave troughs (T).

11. Method according to claim 10, wherein the first and second lanes (10,11) are displaced relative to one another in the longitudinal direction by a quarter of a wave length.

12. Method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the first and second lanes (10,11) are displaced relative to one another in the longitudinal direction by half of a wave length.

13. Method of manufacture a bundle of interfolded paper towels, comprising the steps of providing an elongate log (L) of bundle blanks to be made into individual bundles (21-23) of interfolded towels, characterised by providing a cutter (S) having an angle other than perpendicular to the length direction of said log (L), making a first cut and moving the log in its length direction before the next cut.

14. Method according to claim 13, wherein the log (L) is turned 180° between subsequent cuts.

15. Method according to claim 13, wherein a second cutter having an angle complementary to the angle of the first cutter is provided and a second cut is made by said second cutter.

16. Bundle (2;24;24') of interfolded towels (I-III; 19,20), the contour of which has, seen from above, two parallel long sides and two short sides connecting the long sides to each other, characterised in that at least one short side has at least a portion converging towards the opposite short side.

17. Bundle according to Claim 16, wherein at least one short side converges towards the opposite short side.

18. Bundle according to Claim 17, wherein the two short sides converge towards each other.

19. Bundle according to Claim 17 or 18, wherein the acute angle between a long side and a short side is 45-89°, preferably 60-85°.

20. Bundle according to any one of claims 16-19, wherein one of the long sides of the bundle is shorter than the other and the free ends of the interfolded towels are directed to the longest of the long sides of the bundle.

21. Bundle (24 ') according to claim 16, wherein the contour of the bundle, seen from above, has a shape similar to an hour-glass. (Fig. 10 and 12b).