Patent Application
20120223092
This disclosure relates to a tissue carton comprising a stack of compressed tissues. Various compressed tissue cartons are disclosed. By providing a carton with an oversized carton opening it has been discovered that the compressed stack of tissues may be dispensed normally by a user.
When shipping folded tissue products, such as cartons of facial tissues, a significant portion of the transportation costs incurred are due to shipping air because of the low density of the tissues. Consequently, when shipping by truck, for example, the volume capacity of the truck is reached before the weight capacity. Also, on the retailers' shelves, the bulkiness of the tissue products consumes shelf space and therefore limits the number of items the retailers can stock. Unfortunately, placing more tissues into a given carton to increase shipping cost efficiency and/or reduce consumption of retail shelf space creates compression within the stack of tissues and thereby makes it difficult for the user to remove the first few tissues from the carton without tearing them.
While the retailer often desires products which use less shelf space, there are disadvantages to using compressed or concentrated products. For example, one disadvantage is that compressed tissue stacks dispense poorly when packaged in traditional flat tissue cartons. Therefore, there is a need for tissue products that can be shipped more economically without sacrificing ease of dispensing or presence of the product on the retailer's shelf.
It has now been surprisingly discovered that compressed tissues may be dispensed with ease by packaging the tissues in a carton having an oversized carton opening. The preferred carton opening size is generally from about 110 percent to about 275 percent greater than the opening size found on traditional, non-compressed tissue cartons. Thus, in a preferred embodiment the present disclosure provides a carton for dispensing a compressed stack of tissues, the carton comprising a carton opening located on a top panel, the area of the carton opening comprising from about 50 to about 85 percent of the area of the top panel. In this preferred embodiment, tissues may be compressed significantly, reducing the overall height of the carton, without negatively impacting ease of dispensing.
In other embodiment the present disclosure provides carton comprising a top panel; a first and a second sidewall; a carton opening located in the top panel; and a dispensing window covering at least a portion of the carton opening; wherein the area of the carton opening is from about 50 percent to about 85 percent of the area of the top panel.
In still other embodiments the present disclosure provides A carton for dispensing a compressed stack of tissues comprising a top panel; a carton opening disposed on the top panel, the carton opening having an area that is from about 50 percent to about 85 percent of the area of the top panel; a pair of side panels; a dispensing window covering at least a portion of the carton opening and a portion of at least one side panel; a dispensing opening disposed on the dispensing window; a removable surfboard overlaying at least a portion of the dispensing window; a compressed stack of tissues; and a bottom panel.
In other embodiments the present disclosure provides a carton for dispensing compressed interfolded disposable sheets comprising a dispensing carton configured to house a stack of compressed interfolded disposable sheets and having a plurality of sides defining an interior space, the carton having a carton opening disposed on at least one side, wherein the area of the carton opening is from about 50 percent to 85 percent of the area of the side on which it is disposed.
In yet other embodiments the present disclosure provides a method of making a carton of compressed tissues comprising the steps of providing a dispensing carton having a top panel and a carton opening disposed thereon, wherein the ratio of the area of the top panel to the area of the carton opening is from about 50 to about 85 percent; compressing a stack of tissue sheets; and inserting the compressed stack of tissue sheets into the dispensing carton, whereby the stack of tissue sheets is constrained within the expandable dispensing carton in a compressed condition.
It should be noted that, when employed in the present disclosure, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” and other derivatives from the root term “comprise” are intended to be open-ended terms that specify the presence of any stated features, elements, integers, steps, or components, and are not intended to preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, integers, steps, components, or groups thereof.
As used herein, “tissue” generally refers to various paper products, such as facial tissue, bath tissue, paper towels, napkins, and the like. Normally, the basis weight of a tissue product of the present disclosure is less than about 80 grams per square meter (gsm), in some embodiments less than about 60 gsm, and in some embodiments, between about 10 to about 60 gsm.
As used herein the term “carton opening” generally refers to an opening formed in one or more walls of a carton.
As used herein the term “dispensing opening” generally refers to an opening through which tissues are dispensed such as, for example, an opening formed in a material covering a portion of the carton opening.
Generally, the present disclosure relates to a carton for dispensing compressed tissues. By enlarging the size of the dispensing opening, it has been discovered that the compressed tissues may be dispensed with ease. In addition, by extending the dispensing window along at least one of the sidewalls of the carton, dispensing of the compressed tissues may be improved. Thus, the carton of the present disclosure provides dispensing comparable to non-compressed tissue containers, while providing tissues in a compressed or concentrated product form that requires less shelf space.
Now with reference to
The carton may be constructed from any rigid materials, for example, cardboard, carton stock, paper board, polypropylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, ABS plastic, plastic, metal, wood, and glass amongst other suitable alternatives.
With reference to
The initial heights of the compressed tissue stack (h3) and the carton (H) may vary depending upon the number of sheets within the stack, the caliper of the individual sheets and the nature of the folding of the sheets. In general, the height of the un-compressed stack (h1, discussed further below) will be from about 140 to about 220 percent of the height of the carton (H), more specifically from about 160 to about 200 percent of H, and still more specifically from about 170 to about 190 percent of H. In the compressed state, h3 will be approximately equal to H or slightly less, for example from about 90 to 100 percent of H. Suitably, h3 is from about 95 to about 100 percent of the height H, more specifically from about 97 to about 100 percent of H.
The relatively large surface are of the carton opening 30, relative to the top panel 20, effectively provides an area for the compressed stack of tissues to expand into when the compression of the tissues within the carton is released by removal of the surfboard. Under this condition, the expanded stack of tissues has raised the flexible dispensing window, effectively increasing the volume of the carton. In a particularly preferred embodiment, upon release of the surfboard by a user the compressed tissue stack expands from a compressed height (h3) to a dispensing height (h4), where the dispensing height (h4) is from about 100 percent to about 150 percent greater than h3. As used herein, the dispensing height (h4) refers to the maximum height of the tissue stack measured after the surfboard is removed and before the first tissue dispensed. In should be noted however, that while it is preferable that the stack height expand with the release of the package compression, it is not a requirement of this invention. Therefore, in certain embodiments h3 may equal h4.
In those embodiments where the dispensing height (h4) is greater than the height of the compressed tissue stack (h3), the carton may be configured such that the total volume of the carton, and not just the stack height of the tissue stack, increases when the carton is opened. The volume of the carton generally increases as a result of the flexible dispensing window material expanding in response to pressure exerted by the stack of tissues. Thus, in certain embodiments the carton may have a volume (V1) prior to removal of the surfboard and dispensing of the first tissue and second volume (V2) upon removal of the surfboard and dispensing of the first tissue, such that V2 is 0.1 to 5 percent greater than V1 and more preferably from 0.5 to 3 percent greater than V1.
According, in particularly preferred embodiments, the volume of the carton necessary to achieve satisfactory dispensing may be provided by a relatively large carton opening relative to the top panel of the carton. Thus, in one embodiment, the area of the opening 30 preferably comprises at least about 50 percent of the total area of the top panel 20. In a particularly preferred embodiment the area of the carton opening 30 comprises from about 50 percent to about 85 percent and still more preferably from about 55 percent to about 70 percent of the total area of the top panel 20. Accordingly, with reference to
Preferably the carton opening 30 is covered, at least in part, by a dispensing window 35. The dispensing window 35 may be selected from a moisture impervious material and more preferably from a flexible moisture impervious material that can bend or flex with minimal applied forces. Suitable flexible materials can include paper, polyethylene, polyester, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyamide, acetate, cellophane, rubber, elastomeric materials, or metal foils, amongst other suitable alternatives. The dispensing window can be a single layer, or a laminate of the above materials.
As illustrated in
As further illustrated in
It must be noted that while the general shape of the carton 10 can be rectangular as shown; other shapes can also be employed, such as hexagonal, triangular, square and the like. Similarly, while the general shape of the top panel 20 and carton opening 30 is illustrated as rectangular, other shapes can also be employed, such as square, oval, and the like. In such cases, all that is required is that the area of the opening comprises at least about 50 percent of the total area of the top panel 20.
Accordingly, the top and bottom sidewalls of the carton can be any shape or size. Suitable shapes can include triangular, square, rectangular, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, oval, circular, star shaped or fluted. The overall size of the carton and the shape of the sidewalls can be designed as needed to properly dispense the sheet material placed within the carton. The size and shape of the carton can be influenced by the size of the sheet material being dispensed, how the sheets are folded prior to placement in the dispenser, the number of sheets placed into the dispenser, the orientation of the stack, configuration of the stack within the dispenser, and the characteristics of the material being dispensed. Often more than one acceptable shape will work to properly dispense the sheet material.
In one embodiment, the top panel and bottom panel comprised rectangles having an approximate size of 21.5 cm long by 11.5 cm wide. The sidewalls in this embodiment comprise two pairs of opposing panels attached to the top and bottom panels as illustrated in
The stack of tissues may be interfolded, prefolded interfolded, or non-interfolded. As used herein, the phrase “prefolded interfolded” or “interfolded” tissues means that the tissues are folded and interleaved with neighboring tissues immediately above and/or below in the clip of tissues. The tissues can be interleaved by any suitable means, including the use of an interfolder as employed in the papermaking arts. If an interfolder is used, consecutive tissues may be attached to each other at perforation lines. In such cases, the unperforated segments of the perforation lines should be sufficiently weak to permit the consecutive tissues to separate from each other upon removal from the carton. This can be controlled by the degree of perforation of the tissue sheet. Tissues that may be employed in a non-interfolded clip which are not interleaved with neighboring tissues are releasably attached to neighboring tissues so that upon dispensing one tissue, the next adjacent tissue is ready for dispensing. Particularly preferred folding patterns include interfolding patterns that provide somewhat less friction, which tend to avoid tearing of the tissue when extracted from the container.
Webs or sheets may be folded in a stacked arrangement. Each web or sheet, when laid flat, may assume a square or rectangular shape, in many instances. Many different folds may be employed, and several embodiments of the invention are shown in the attached Figures. Folds are defined as first folds, second folds, third folds, and the like by reference to their respective position on the sheet. That is, a sheet or web having four folds, for example, typically would have a first fold, second fold, third fold, and fourth fold in that order, respectively, as when moving from one edge of the sheet to the opposite edge of that sheet.
A folded sheet, for example, would have four panels or folds and three creases. One crease appears at the junction of each fold. For example, a first crease is at the junction of the first fold and a second fold, as will be further described below. A bifolded sheet, for example, would have two folded panels and one crease, while a trifolded sheet would have three folded panels and two creases.
It should be understood that the term “web,” as used herein, is meant to include a sheet material made of one or more plies of material so that a multiple-ply sheet material is considered to be a “web” of sheet material, regardless of the number of plies.
As shown in
In certain embodiments the non-compressed height (h1) of the stack may be, for example, from about 45 to about 95 mm. The compressive force preferably reduces the height of the stack by about 70 to about 85 percent, such that the compressed height (h2) is from about from about 1 to about 3 cm. After the compressive force is removed the stack may decompress, regaining some of its original height, such that the memory compressed height (h3) is from about 30 to about 60 percent less than the non-compressed height (h1). Accordingly, in certain preferred embodiments the height of the memory compressed height (h3), which is loaded into the carton, may be from about 30 to about 50 mm.
Likewise, the memory compressed stack height (h3) can be expressed in terms of the difference between the original uncompressed stack height (h1) and the compressed stack height (h3), such that h1=h3+β(h3−h2), where β is the recovery coefficient of the stack of tissue sheets. Thus β can be from about 0 to about 1.5, more preferably from about 0.2 to about 1, and still more preferably from about 0.3 to about 1.
In order to further illustrate the invention, a tissue carton, similar to the carton illustrated in
The tissue carton was loaded with a compressed stack of 88 sheets of three ply tissue measuring 247.25 cm2. The total sheet area (i.e., area of a tissue sheet multiplied by the number of sheets multiplied by the number of plies) was 210276 cm2. The 88 sheets had an uncompressed height (h1) of 6.5 cm. The stack was compressed by 78 percent to a height (h2) of 1.4 cm. The compressive force was then removed and the stack was allowed to decompress to a memory compressed height (h3) of 3.2 cm. The compressed clip, having a height of 3.2 cm, was then loaded into the carton.
The surfboard was removed from the top of the dispensing carton in order to dispense the tissues. Despite the stack of tissues being compressed dispensing was achieved without tearing the tissues.
A carton volume reduction of approximately 53 percent was achieved compared to traditional cartons used to dispense similar sized non-compressed tissue. Cardboard packaging required was reduced by 28 percent. As a result, the cost savings associated with the material and shipping costs for such a product would be significant.
It will be appreciated that the foregoing example, given for purposes of illustration, is not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention, which is defined by the following claims and all equivalents thereto.
