Patent Application
20080115463
Understanding that the drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:
In the following description, numerous specific details are provided for a thorough understanding of the various embodiments of the invention. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, etc. In addition, in some cases, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail in order to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention. Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.
Disclosed herein are apparatus, methods, and systems for wrapping a soiled diaper. In one implementation of a method, a soiled diaper is placed on a sheet of material. The material may be configured to be adhered to itself without a secondary means for adhesion so as to create a seal around at least a portion of the diaper. The material may also include an adhesive side and a non-adhesive side, and the adhesive side may comprise a pressure-sensitive adhesive. One example of a suitable material is the commercially available product sold by The Glad Products Company under the trademarks “PRESS'N SEAL” and “GRIPTEX.” Details regarding this product, and other materials that may be suitable for use in connection with the methods, systems, and apparatus disclosed herein, can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,489,022 titled “Composite Material Releasably Sealable to a Target Surface When Pressed Thereagainst,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,421,052 titled “Method of Seaming and Expanding Amorphous Patterns,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,194,062 titled “Storage Wrap Material,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,193,918 titled “High Speed Embossing and Adhesive Printing Process and Apparatus,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,235 titled “Three-Dimensional, Amorphous-Patterned, Nesting-Resistant Sheet Materials and Method and Apparatus for Making Same,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,607 titled “Material Having a Substance Protected by Deformable Standoffs and Method of Making,” and U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,758 titled “Composite Material Releasably Sealable to a Target Surface when Pressed Thereagainst and Method of Making.” Each of the foregoing references is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
In accordance with the method implementation described above, the material is used to wrap the diaper. Because the material is capable of being adhered to itself, the material may then be pressed against itself at one or more portions of the material to create a seal around at least a portion of the diaper. In some implementations, the seal may fully extend around the diaper so as to seal in the odor from the soiled diaper. Of course, other messy or odorous items may be used in place of a soiled diaper in other implementations.
In some embodiments of products including one or more of the materials described above, a roll or other set of connected sheets of the material may be provided. The connected sheets may be provided with a plurality of perforation lines to define boundaries between the sheets and to facilitate separation of the sheets from one another. In some embodiments, the set of sheets may be provided with, for example, a plurality of tabs, each tab being connected with one of the sheets. The tabs may be configured such that pulling a tab allows for the sheet connected with the pulled tab to be separated from an adjacent sheet. In other embodiments, a plurality of non-adhesive spacer sheets or other spacer members may be positioned in between each of the adjacent adhesive sheets to facilitate separation of the adhesive sheets. Each of the foregoing structures may be considered means for facilitating separation of each of a plurality of sheets from an adjacent sheet.
Specific implementations and embodiments of the invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In some embodiments, the material used to form sheet 100 may comprise a flexible film. This flexible film may include a plurality of layers. In some embodiments, the flexible film may have an adhesive side and a non-adhesive side. These sides may each be formed from a separate layer in multi-layered embodiments. The adhesive side may also include a pressure-sensitive adhesive. In still other embodiments, a plurality of protrusions may be formed on the adhesive side to space the pressure sensitive adhesive until the sheet is pressed against itself. Various details regarding the aforementioned materials and features, along with other materials, features, manufacturing methods, etc. that may be suitable for various embodiments and implementations of the present invention can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,489,022, 6,421,052, 6,194,062, 6,193,918, 5,965,235, 5,871,607, and 5,662,758, each of which was previously incorporated by reference.
In still other embodiments, a means for facilitating separation may comprise a plurality of spacer members positioned in between each of the adjacent sheets. The spacer members may comprise a plurality of non-adhesive separation sheets. These separation sheets may be of the same dimensions as the sheets for wrapping diapers or, alternatively, the separation sheets may be of a different dimension. In some embodiments, the separation sheets may be larger than the diaper-wrapping sheets, such that at least a portion of the separation sheets extends beyond the periphery of the diaper-wrapping sheets, to further facilitate use of the separation sheets to separate the diaper-wrapping sheets from adjacent diaper-wrapping sheets.
The above description fully discloses the invention including preferred embodiments thereof. Without further elaboration, it is believed that one skilled in the art can use the preceding description to utilize the invention to its fullest extent. Therefore the examples and embodiments disclosed herein are to be construed as merely illustrative and not a limitation of the scope of the present invention in any way.
It will be obvious to those having skill in the art that many changes may be made to the details of the above-described embodiments without departing from the underlying principles of the invention. The scope of the present invention should, therefore, be determined only by the following claims.
