Patent Application
20130043268
This invention generally relates to folded sheet products, and more particularly to folded sheet products such as facial tissues dispensed from a pop-up type package.
In current packaging for boutique/cubed cartons of interfolded facial tissue, the entire clip (or stack) of rectangular-shaped interfolded tissue sheets is folded in half, to form a U-shaped clip, and then inserted into a cube-shaped box, in the manner disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,881,632 to Early; 5,415,320 to North; 6,202,889 to Veith; and 6,685,050 to Schmidt. This approach to packaging results in substantial wasted volume inside of the cube-shaped box, in areas such as around the outer corners and in the center of the U-shaped clip, because the sheets cannot be bent sharply enough to totally fill the box and still allow extraction.
A standard box size for current packaging techniques is approximately 4½ inches wide, 4½ inches long, and 5 inches high. Such a typical box generally holds 70-90 sheets when the clip is folded into a U-shape. It is desirable to provide an improved product having a larger number of sheets available in the same volume as existing packages.
Another problem with the current type of packaging is that, for tall cartons, some form of center support must be provided for the U-shaped folded clip of tissue in order to keep the center portion of the clip close enough to the opening in the top of the package so that the sheets will feed effectively all the way to the bottom of the stack. The necessity for such a center support significantly increases the complexity and cost of the box, the package and the labor and cost required to produce the package.
Having unusable space in the packages produced by current packaging methods and products is also environmentally not friendly in that resources in the package are not used to their full capability. Larger-than-necessary packages also undesirably increases shipping and storage costs, as well as undesirably increasing costs for recycling and/or disposing of the packaging once the contents are all dispensed.
U-shaped sheets are also somewhat difficult to pull from the package with one hand, particularly when the package is first opened and the sheets are tightly packed, and when the package is almost empty and doesn't weigh enough for the sheet to be pulled out without friction between the package and the sheet causing the package to be lifted off of the surface upon which it resting along with the tissue that the user is attempting to remove from the package. As a result, users often resort to a cover placed over the package to increase the weight of the combined cover and package, and thereby improve the dispensing characteristics. Such covers are also sometimes used primarily for decorative purposes.
An improved packaging approach and/or product addressing, among other things, one or more of the problems described above is desirable.
The invention provides a more efficient stacked product and packaging arrangement therefor, through the use of quarter folded and interfolded sheets forming a more-or-less square or cube shaped stack/clip of interfolded sheets closely matching the inside profile of a substantially cube-shaped package. This new folding arrangement substantially completely fills the package, and allows the same number of sheets provided by former packaging arrangements, which used rectangular sheets folded into U-shaped clips, in a package with a substantially square footprint and having only half the height of the previous packages. Alternatively, the new folding arrangement allows twice as many sheets to be provided in the same size package used in prior approaches requiring U-shaped folded clips of rectangular sheets.
By moving away from the prior rectangular-shaped tissue profile, and using instead a new quarter folded and interfolded approach, the same 70-90 sheets of interfolded facial tissue can be packaged into a package such as a cardboard or paperboard box or a polywrapped (e.g. cellophane wrapped) package that is half the height of current packaging utilizing the U-shaped folded clip. The new tissue folding pattern starts with an essentially square sheet of tissue which is folded in half a first time to form a rectangular shaped folded sheet, and then the sheet is folded a second time to form an approximately square folded sheet. The twice-folded sheets are interfolded with one another to form an interfolded stack of sheets.
The invention thus provides a number of potential advantages. For example, the same number of sheets currently provided in a package utilizing a U-shaped clip can now be provided in a package one half of that size, or alternately twice the number of facial tissues can be provided in the same size package as is currently utilized. This results in saving shipping costs for customers, shelf space required for retailers, and a potential savings in natural resources.
Furthermore, according to another aspect of the invention, existing decorative tissue dispensers can be used with the invention by simply inserting two boxes of tissue according to the invention into the dispenser, with one box on top of the other. When the tissue in the top box is exhausted, the top and bottom box are simply interchanged, and tissue is dispensed from the top box sitting on top of the lower empty box within the decorative dispenser. Another advantage of this approach is that the center supports utilized in prior packaging approaches to support the bight of the U-shaped clip of interfolded tissue are not required, thus saving on cost and conserving resources.
A particular embodiment of the invention provides a folded product and package arrangement that includes a stack of interfolded substantially square sheets of tissues and a package. The substantially square sheets of tissue are folded substantially in half a first time along a first fold line to form a rectangular-shaped, once-folded sheet having a double thickness, and then having the once-folded, double thickness rectangular sheet folded substantially in half a second time about a second fold line extending substantially perpendicular to the first fold line, to thereby form a twice-folded sheet having a substantially square periphery having four stacked panels of substantially one quarter the size of the sheet before folding. These sheets are then interfolded and the formed stack is not then U-shape folded. The package has a substantially square footprint encompassing the stack.
In one embodiment, the interfolded substantially square sheets of tissue have a single-fold configuration wherein first and second panels of a sheet are positioned within an upstream sheet and third and fourth panels of the sheet are positioned within a downstream sheet.
In one embodiment, the second fold lines of the interfolded sheets are parallel to one another.
In one embodiment, each sheet has an unfolded width and an unfolded length of between about six and ten inches and each panel has a length and a width of between three inches and five inches.
In one embodiment, the package has a substantially square bottom defining the substantially square footprint, the panels of the sheets are substantially parallel to the substantially square bottom.
In one embodiment, a width of the panels is substantially equal to a width of the bottom of the package and a length of the panels is substantially equal to a length of the bottom of the package. In one more particular embodiment, the dimensions of the panels are no less than 85%, no less than 90% or no less than 95% of the corresponding dimensions of the bottom of the package. In embodiments where the package is provided entirely by a thin wrapper, the dimensions of the stack are substantially equal to the dimensions of the package.
In one embodiment, the entire stack is not U-shape folded within the package such that the panels of each sheet remain parallel to the bottom of the package, the bottom being opposite the side having the opening through which the sheets are dispensed from the package.
In another embodiment, a product and packaging arrangement including two or more folded product and package arrangements and a cover is provided. Each folded product and package arrangement includes a stack of interfolded substantially square sheets of tissue folded substantially in half a first time along a first fold line to form a rectangular-shaped, once-folded sheet having a double thickness, and then having the once-folded, double thickness rectangular sheet folded substantially in half a second time about a second fold line extending substantially perpendicular to the first fold line, to thereby form a twice-folded sheet having a substantially square periphery having four stacked panels of substantially one quarter the size of the sheet before folding; and a package having a substantially square footprint encompassing the stack. The cover is adapted to sit over the stacked product and package arrangements and has an opening in a top end thereof for access to tissues dispensed from a top one of the stacked product and package arrangements.
In one embodiment, a lower one of the stacked product and package arrangements has dispensed substantially all of the product enclosed therein and supports at least one of the stacked product and package arrangements as the product is dispensed therefrom.
In one embodiment, the package of each folded product and package arrangement has rigid sidewalls to support the upper one of the stacked products after all of product enclosed therein has been dispensed as the product is being dispensed from the supported one of the product and package arrangement. The rigid sidewalls may provide self-supporting characteristics to the package.
In one embodiment, the cover has a bottom opening sized larger than the square footprint of the packages, the bottom opening being on in a bottom end opposite the opening in the top end.
A method for using a product and package arrangement as described above is provided. the method includes sequentially performing the steps of: a) covering a stack of the two or more product and package arrangements; b) dispensing tissue through the top of the cover from an uppermost one of the stacked product and package arrangements; c) exchanging placement in the stack or the uppermost one of the product and package arrangements with another one of the product and package arrangements in the stack; and d) dispensing tissue through the top of the cover from the another one of the stacked product and package arrangements.
Other aspects, objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the written description herein and the accompanying drawings.
The accompanying drawings illustrate several aspects of exemplary embodiments of the present invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the invention. In the drawings:
While the invention is described herein in connection with certain exemplary embodiments, there is no intent to limit it to those embodiments. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents as included within the spirit and scope of the invention.
Exemplary embodiments of the invention are described above and shown in the accompanying drawings.
The sheet 100 has a width W and a length L in its unfolded state as illustrated in
The sheet 100 generally has four edges 106A-106D. The first and second edges 106A, 106B extend between the third and fourth edges 106C, 106D while the third and fourth edges 106C, 106D extend between the first and second edges 106A, 106B. The first and second edges 106A, 106B are generally parallel to one another and extend generally perpendicular to the third and fourth edges 106C, 106D, which also extend parallel to one another
The first fold line 102 runs substantially perpendicular to first and second edges 106A and 106B of sheet 100, which are on opposite sides of sheet 100. The first fold line 102 runs substantially parallel to third and fourth edges 106C and 106D of sheet 100, which are on opposite sides of sheet 100 and that run perpendicular to first and second edges 106A and 106B. In
Due to this folding step, the first edge 106A, now overlaps the second edge 106B and the third and fourth edges 106C, 106D are now folded in half. Further, first fold line 102 forms one side of the peripheral shape of the quarter folded sheet 100 and second fold line 104 forms another, perpendicular, side of the peripheral shape of the quarter folded sheet 100.
Each of the four panels has a substantially rectangular periphery, square in the illustrated embodiment, having a width W1 that is one-half of the width W of the original sheet 100, due to the first folding operation about first fold line 102, and a length L1 that is one-half of the length L of the original sheet 100, due to the second folding operation about the second fold line 104.
Because the sheets are interfolded along the second fold lines 104, the second fold line 104 of the sheets form the left and right sides of the stack of sheets. In this configuration, the second fold lines 104 of all the sheets are parallel to one another. The sheets that open to the right have their second fold line forming the left side of the stack and the sheets that open to the left have their second fold line forming the right side of the stack. It should be noted that left and right as used herein are merely used to describe relative orientation only.
In an alternative embodiment, the package 202 could be provided solely by a wrapper formed from cellophane or other thin polymeric material, also referred to as a polywrap. In such an embodiment, the thin wrapper will include an opening in the top thereof. The opening could be provided by a die-cut or perforated slit or panel that can be opened by the user to access the sheets stored therein.
In some embodiments, an attachment device may be placed to the outside of the package 202 to secure the entire product and packaging arrangement 200 to an object such as the dashboard of a car, a wall in a bathroom, under a desk, etc. For instance, the attachment device could be double sided non-marring tape, could be hook or loop material, or other adhesive type material or mechanism.
The package 202 includes an opening 204 in a top 206 thereof through which sheets are dispensed from the package 202. When one sheet is pulled through the opening 204 a portion of the next sheet in the stack 120 is drawn out of the opening due to the interfolded relationship between adjacent sheets. The foot print of the package 202 generally defined by the bottom 208 and top 206 of the package is substantially the same as the foot print of the stack 120 when the stack 120 is not positioned within the internal cavity 212 of the package 202. With reference to
Due to the relative size and shape of the foot print of the package 202 and the dimensions of the quarter folded sheets, the panels of the individual sheets remain substantially horizontal within the package 202. This is unlike the prior art product and packaging arrangement 300 illustrated in
Due to the better use of space within the package 202, each package 202 has a height H that is approximately one half the height H1 of package 302 of the prior art.
First, the height between the bottom 208 of the package 202 and the top of the package 206 for the particular product and package arrangement 200A from which product is being dispensed is reduced in half such that there is no need to provide any internal support for keeping the end portion of the sheets of the stack close enough to the opening in the top of the package so that the sheets will feed effectively from the package 202 all the way to the bottom of the stack, such as illustrated in
Additionally, twice as many sheets may be loaded into a single cover 400. More particularly, as illustrated in
Once, the sheets in the top product and package arrangement 200A have all been or substantially all been dispensed from the package 202A, such as illustrated in
An embodiment of the present invention also relates to the use of such an arrangement. One such method includes covering a stack of one or more product and package arrangements 200 with a cover 400. Next, sheets are dispensed through the top 404 of the cover 400 from the upper most one of the stacked product and package arrangements 200. Once all or substantially all of the sheets of the upper most one of the stacked product and package arrangements 200 is exhausted, the package 202 of that upper most product and package arrangement 200 is exchanged with another one of the product and package arrangements 200 in the stack of product and package arrangements 200, and particularly one of the product and package arrangements 200 whose sheets have not been exhausted. Thereafter, sheets 100 are dispensed from other one of the product and package arrangements 200.
While the method and embodiments using stacks of product and package arrangements uses two product and package arrangements, alternative embodiments may utilize more than two product and package arrangements in the stack.
All references, including publications, patent applications, and patents cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and were set forth in its entirety herein.
The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in the context of describing the invention (especially in the context of the following claims) is to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. The terms “comprising,” “having,” “including,” and “containing” are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning “including, but not limited to,”) unless otherwise noted. Recitation of ranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each separate value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention unless otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice of the invention.
Preferred embodiments of this invention are described herein, including the best mode known to the inventor for carrying out the invention. Variations of those preferred embodiments may become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the foregoing description. The inventor expects skilled artisans to employ such variations as appropriate, and the inventors intend for the invention to be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein. Accordingly, this invention includes all modifications and equivalents of the subject matter recited in the claims appended hereto as permitted by applicable law. Moreover, any combination of the above-described elements in all possible variations thereof is encompassed by the invention unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.
This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/524,558, filed Aug. 17, 2011, the entire teachings and disclosure of which are incorporated herein by reference thereto.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61524558 | Aug 2011 | US |
