Patent Application
20100078444
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. It is desirable that compressed or concentrated products be sold at a unit cost, such as cost per sheet in the case of tissue products, which is equivalent to that of the bulkier, less concentrated products. However, shoppers may associate the lower volume of the product carton with there being less product in the carton and, upon seeing an equivalent cost for a smaller carton, assume that the product within the smaller carton is not a good value compared to the product within the larger carton. This is particularly true for facial tissue, which has relatively low shopper involvement in being selected at the shelf. Thus, it would be desirable to have a product that could take advantage of the lower shipping costs associated with a compressed or concentrated product, yet not have its presence be affected at shelf due to having a smaller carton volume.
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 discovered that a tissue product can be made which improves shipping cost efficiency while maintaining acceptable dispensing characteristics.
Hence in one aspect, the invention resides in a tissue product comprising a compressed stack of folded tissue sheets, particularly folded facial tissue sheets, constrained within an expandable dispensing carton, said expandable dispensing carton comprising: (a) a rigid lower portion having a bottom and four sidewalls; (b) a rigid upper portion having four sidewalls and a top with a dispensing opening through which the tissue sheets are dispensed, said upper portion and said lower portion slidably fitting past each other; and (c) a releasable constraining device, such as an adhesive tape or sticker, which maintains the upper and lower portions of the carton in a contracted position until released by a user, whereupon the compressed stack of tissue sheets decompresses and raises the upper portion relative to the lower portion. In a particularly suitable embodiment, the upper portion slides over the bottom portion. However, in another embodiment, the lower portion slides over the top portion. Also, because the upper and lower portions can slidably move relative to each other, as the tissues are removed from the carton by the user, the upper portion of the carton can adjust downwardly to eliminate or reduce the air space between the dispensing opening and the top of the tissue stack, thereby reducing the occurrence of fallback. In this aspect and all other aspects of the invention, the folded tissue sheets can be interfolded for pop-up dispensing, or the folded tissue sheets can be simply be independently stacked on top of each other for reach-in dispensing. Both forms of tissue products are well known in the art.
In another aspect, the invention resides in a method of making a tissue product comprising: (a) providing an expandable dispensing carton having an expanded position and a contracted position, said expandable dispensing carton comprising a rigid lower portion having a bottom and four sidewalls and a rigid upper portion having four sidewalls and a top with a dispensing opening through which the tissue sheets are dispensed, said upper portion sized to slidably fit over said lower portion; (b) inserting a stack of tissue sheets into the bottom portion of the carton; (c) vertically compressing the stack of tissue sheets within the carton by lowering the upper portion over the lower portion; and (d) sealing the carton in a contracted position, whereby the stack of tissue sheets is constrained within the carton in a compressed condition.
In another aspect, the invention resides in a method of making a tissue product comprising: (a) providing an expandable dispensing carton having an expanded position and a contracted position; (b) inserting a compressed stack of tissue sheets into the expandable dispensing carton while the expandable dispensing carton is in a contracted position; and (c) closing and sealing the expandable dispensing carton in the contracted position with a releasable constraining device, whereby the stack of tissue sheets is constrained within the expandable dispensing carton in a compressed condition.
In another aspect, the invention resides in a method of providing plurality of expandable dispensing cartons to a retailer comprising: (a) loading a plurality of expandable dispensing cartons into a shipping container, each expandable dispensing carton containing an uncompressed stack of folded tissues; (b) compressing the plurality of expandable dispensing cartons within the shipping container, whereby the stack of folded tissues within each of the expandable dispensing cartons is compressed; (c) closing and sealing the shipping container, whereby the plurality of expandable dispensing cartons are maintained in a compressed position by the closed shipping container; (d) shipping the shipping container to the retailer; and (e) opening the shipping container, whereby the plurality of expandable dispensing cartons expand to their expanded position and the stack of folded tissues within the expandable dispensing cartons is decompressed.
In another aspect, the invention resides in a method of providing plurality of expandable dispensing cartons to a retailer comprising: (a) compressing a plurality of expandable dispensing cartons, each expandable dispensing carton containing a stack of folded tissues and having an expanded position and a compressed position; (b) loading the plurality of expandable dispensing cartons into a shipping container and closing the shipping container, whereby the plurality of expandable dispensing cartons are maintained in the compressed position by the shipping container; (c) shipping the shipping container to the retailer; and (d) opening the shipping container, whereby the plurality of expandable dispensing cartons expand to their expanded position and the stack of folded tissues within the expandable dispensing cartons is decompressed.
In another aspect, the invention resides in a shipping container containing an assembly of expandable dispensing cartons containing a compressed stack of folded tissue sheets, said expandable dispensing cartons being constrained in a contracted position by the shipping container.
As used herein, “expandable dispensing cartons” are dispensing cartons for use by consumers, such as facial tissue cartons, which are made of a rigid material, such as cardboard or the like, which contain and dispense the unused portion of a stack of tissues until all of the tissues have been dispensed. Such cartons are specifically designed to be capable of expanding in the opposite direction to that in which the contained tissue stack is compressed and can be released from their contracted position to their expanded position by the user. As used herein, the “contracted position” is the position or state of the expandable dispensing carton when the stack of tissue sheets within the carton is compressed. Conversely, the “expanded position” is the position or state of the carton when the stack of tissue sheets within the carton is not compressed.
By way of example, particularly suitable expandable dispensing cartons can comprise a rigid lower portion and a rigid upper portion that can move (slide) relative to each other. Suitably, the rigid upper portion is sized to be slightly larger than the lower portion so that the upper portion can slide over the lower portion. The difference in the dimensions of the upper and lower portions to enable relative movement can vary, although a snug fit is desirable, provided any frictional resistance does not prevent the compressed tissue stack from expanding. The individual expandable dispensing cartons can be constrained or temporarily immobilized (sealed) in the contracted position by tape, stickers, plastic overwrap, straps or any other suitable means that can be manipulated by the consumer to allow the expandable dispensing carton to expand to its expanded position. In the expanded position, the compression of the tissue stack within the carton is relieved to enable the first several sheets to be dispensed from the carton without tearing. A further advantage of expandable dispensing cartons of this type is the ability of the upper portion of the carton to automatically lower itself, or be lowered by the user with slight downward pressure, from the expanded position as tissue sheets are removed from the carton. As a consequence, the distance between the dispensing orifice and the top of the tissue stack within the carton is minimized, which in turn reduces the tendency for fallback to occur. (“Fallback” occurs during pop-up dispensing when the next sheet within the carton fails to be partially withdrawn through the dispensing opening upon removal of the preceding sheet and is facilitated by a large distance between the top of the stack of interfolded sheets and the dispensing opening. Fallback necessitates the need for the consumer to reach back into the box, grab the leading sheet and pull the leading sheet through the dispensing orifice.)
As used herein, “tissue sheets” includes paper sheets suitable for use as facial tissue, bath tissue, table napkins and/or paper towels.
In the interests of brevity and conciseness, any ranges of values set forth in this specification contemplate all values within the range and are to be construed as written description support for claims reciting any sub-ranges having endpoints which are whole number or otherwise of like numerical values within the specified range in question. By way of a hypothetical illustrative example, a disclosure in this specification of a range of from 1 to 5 shall be considered to support claims to any of the following ranges: 1-5; 1-4; 1-3; 1-2; 2-5; 2-4; 2-3; 3-5; 3-4; and 4-5. Similarly, a disclosure in this specification of a range from 0.1 to 0.5 shall be considered to support claims to any of the following ranges: 0.1-0.5; 0.1-0.4; 0.1-0.3; 0.1-0.2; 0.2-0.5; 0.2-0.4; 0.2-0.3; 0.3-0.5; 0.3-0.4; and 0.4-0.5. In addition, any values prefaced by the word “about” are to be construed as written description support for the value itself. By way of example, a range of “from about 1 to about 5” is to be interpreted as also disclosing and providing support for a range of “from 1 to 5”, “from 1 to about 5” and “from about 1 to 5”.
Referring to
As mentioned above,
For purposes of this embodiment, ht+hb=hc1, provided the face of the top cover, when lowered, can contact the top of the stack and compress the stack before its downward travel is stopped. In other words, if the height of the top cover is too great, i.e. (hc) is greater than (hs1), the carton will close before the stack can be compressed. Also, the stack height of the non-compressed stack of folded tissues (hs1) (see
In the embodiment of
Upon release of the restraint, the compressed carton expands to height (hc3) (see
While the concept of this invention is suitable for single cartons of tissue to be expanded by the ultimate user, it can also be suitable for retailers. This aspect of the invention can be advantageous because consumers do not always pay attention to the number of sheets in a box and often times they use the volume or height of the box as a visual means for perceiving which product on the shelf contains more units of product. Hence a compressed carton of tissues, while on the shelf, may be perceived by the consumer as containing less product than a non-compressed carton even when the compressed carton may have a significantly greater number of sheets. For this reason, at times, it may be desirable for the decompression and expansion of the expandable dispensing carton to be done by the retailer prior to the carton being placed on the retailer's shelf. In this manner, the benefits of lower shipping and storage costs are still realized while mitigating perceptual issues regarding quantity of product in the carton by the consumer.
When the decompression is done by the retailer, it is preferable to not have to release the compression of each expandable dispensing carton individually. For example, multiple expandable dispensing cartons can be provided in a shipping container, such as a corrugated box. The number of cartons within such shipping containers can be any number, but is typically from about 20 to about 40, normally assembled in a cube. The expandable dispensing cartons, each containing a stack of folded tissues, are collectively compressed either before or after they are loaded into the shipping container, which is then closed or otherwise sealed while the expandable dispensing cartons are in a compressed state. The interior of the shipping container thus serves as the constraining device to maintain the all of the individual expandable dispensing cartons in the compressed condition. When the shipping container is opened, such as at the retailer location, the individual expandable dispensing cartons of tissue expand to their expanded position to give them a normal appearance on the shelf. In this manner, consumer appeal on the retailer shelf is maintained while still achieving lower transportation and storage costs. Alternatively, instead of using a corrugated box, the multiple compressed expandable dispensing cartons can also be maintained in a compressed state with plastic wrap, such as shrink wrap.
In all embodiments, suitable mechanical means for collectively compressing the assembly of multiple expandable dispensing cartons and loading them into the shipping container, or loading the multiple expandable dispensing cartons into the shipping container and thereafter collectively compressing them, can be determined by those skilled in the packaging arts. For example, the assembly of cartons can be inserted into an open shipping box from the top and pneumatically compressed by a platen while the cartons are in the shipping box. The platen is gradually removed as the top flaps are closed, one by one. Alternatively, a flat rectangular piece of cardboard can be placed on top of the cartons prior to compression in order to assist maintaining the cartons in the compressed state as the top flaps are closed. This cardboard would remain inside the closed shipping box. Alternatively, the assembly of multiple expandable dispensing cartons can be vertically compressed in any suitable manner, such as between two large, thin plates placed above and below the assembly, and inserted sideways into an open shipping container. The two plates are slidably removed and the shipping container is thereafter closed. Alternatively, the shipping containers can be loaded by hand.
If an expandable dispensing carton of the kind disclosed in
In still another embodiment, a multi-unit vertical bundle of expandable dispensing cartons can be compressed as described above. The multi-unit bundle is held in the compressed condition by a plastic film wrap as conventionally used today to package bundle packs. The number of expandable dispensing cartons within the bundle can be two, three, four or more.
When the stack of tissues is interfolded for pop-up dispensing from the expandable dispensing carton, a detachable “surfboard” may be present on the top face F1 (such as represented by the oval opening of
The initial heights of the stack (hs1) and the carton (hc1) 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, (hs1) will be from about 60 to about 120 percent of (hc1), more specifically from about 70 to about 110 percent of (hc1), and still more specifically from about 80 to about 100 percent of (hc1). In the compressed state, (hs2) will equal to (hc2). Suitably, (hc2) is from about 20 to about 80 percent of the height (hc1), more specifically from about 30 to about 70 percent of (hc1), and still more specifically from about 40 to about 60 percent of (hc1).
The expanded height of the carton (hc3) can be expressed in terms of the difference between the original carton height (hc1) and the contracted carton height (hc2), such that (hc3)=(hc2)+α(hc1−hc2), where “α” is the recovery coefficient of the carton. The recovery coefficient “α” can range from about 0.3 to about 1, more particularly from about 0.5 to about 1, and still more specifically from about 0.7 to about 1. When α=1, (hc3)=(hc1). Likewise, the expanded stack height (hs3) can be expressed in terms of the difference between the original uncompressed stack height (hs1) and the compressed stack height (hs2), such that hs3=hs2+β(hs1−hs2), where “β” is the recovery coefficient of the stack of tissue sheets. While it is preferable that the stack height expand with the release of the package compression, it is not a requirement of this invention. Thus “β” can be from 0 to 1, more preferably from about 0.2 to 1, and still more preferably from about 0.3 to 1.
A feature of this invention is that the total volume of the product, and not just the stack height of the tissue stack, must be reduced when the tissue stack is compressed, i.e., a 3-dimensional shrinkage is required for the invention to be cost-effective for shipping purposes. Thus the volume (V2) of the compressed package must be less than the volume of the original non-compressed package (V1) prior to compacting as well as less than the volume of the decompressed package (V3) after the restraining means is removed.
As previously mentioned, another advantage of the expandable dispensing carton design as illustrated in
In order to further illustrate the invention, the bottom panel was removed from a 160 count KLEENEX® facial tissue box (Box 1) having dimensions of 9.375 inches long, 4.75 inches wide, and 3.25 inches high. The 160 sheets had a height of 3.25 inches in an uncompressed state. The sheets were removed from the box. The top panel was removed from a second identical box of facial tissue (Box 2). Two slits were cut on each long side panel of the second box. The slits were cut approximately ½ inch from the end panels and were cut down to within ½ inch of the bottom face. These cuts allowed the first box, which had the bottom panel removed, to fit over the second box, which had the top panel removed. The resulting carton was similar to that of
The surfboard was removed from the top of the expandable dispensing carton in order to dispense the tissues. No tissue could be dispensed from the box as the tissue tore immediately due to compression of the clip of tissues.
The tape strips holding the sides together were then slit using a knife to allow the carton to expand and relieve the compression of the stack of tissues. The top of the carton rose such that the expanded carton height was 4.5 inches. The tissues could now be dispensed without tearing. While pulling out the first tissue, the carton top rose to 5.375 inches and stayed at that height. Subsequent tissues were removed from the carton without incident. The top component did not fall during dispensing, but could be lowered with gentle pressure on the top face. With proper sizing of the bottom and top components of the expandable carton, the top could be made to fall on its own as the clip is used up.
A carton volume reduction of approximately 37% was achieved: ((5.125−3.25)/5.125)). Cardboard packaging required was reduced by 4% from 34.6 grams per 100 sheets of tissue to 33.2 grams per 100 sheets. 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.
