Patent Application
20230346145
This disclosure relates generally to cutlery and, in particular, relates to uniquely shaped, fully functional cutlery with reduced transportation and shipping footprint.
Disposable cutlery, sometimes referred to as disposable flatware, utensils, tableware, etc., are a high-volume, lost-cost alternative to traditional metal cutlery. Disposable cutlery is often used in situations in which a large number of utensils are needed, such as parties or other gatherings, in situations where cleaning the cutlery is inconvenient or prohibitive, and/or as an accompaniment to fast-food or takeout food orders.
However, disposable cutlery is often manufactured from polystyrene and is typically disposed of in landfills. Plastic waste from food takeout is responsible for more than 20 million tons of plastic pollution, and more than 560 billion individual plastic utensils are used in the United States every year. Furthermore, these cutlery are grouped and packaged in boxes, such as in boxes of 25 or 50, which boxes are themselves grouped for distribution on, for example, skids or pallets. Thus, the emissions associated with manufacturing and distribution of the cutlery is related to the size and weight of the cutlery which affects the size and weight of boxes and pallets.
In order to reduce the amount of waste attributed to disposable polystyrene cutlery, manufacturers seek to minimize the amount of material used in each utensil. However, the utensil must retain sufficient structural integrity to withstand use when a user is eating food, including withstanding the weight of food, cutting with disposable knives, forces attributed to transfer of food to a user's mouth, and the like. Furthermore, the utensil must be able to withstand breakage if a user inadvertently bites the utensil so as to avoid a user ingesting shards of the disposable cutlery.
Reducing material usage in disposable cutlery has typically been achieved by thinning the cross-section of the cutlery and adding cutouts in the cutlery handle. However, these solutions typically come at the cost of cutlery aesthetics and manufacturability/moldability. Offsetting the compromised structural integrity that comes with thinning is typically achieved by creating regimes of increased thickness; the thickness in the neck section of a piece of cutlery is typically twice the thickness of the handle portion of the cutlery, and the skirt on typical cutlery is angled perpendicular to the body with a thickness that is around 1.5 times as thick. However, these regimes of increased thickness experience greater crystallization during molding and therefore shrink both during and after the molding process, forcing manufacturers to hold cutlery in the hold for longer cycle times to avoid shrinking and twisting.
Additionally, reducing disposable polystyrene cutlery waste may be achieved by forming the cutlery from compostable material. However, the effect of material reduction on structural integrity changes with the material used to form the cutlery, so unique challenges exist in achieving reduced material waste, increased compostability, and sufficient structural integrity. For example, selectively thinning portions of compostable cutlery has dramatic effects on the degradation of the cutlery, which may accelerate breakage in use.
Accordingly, improved disposable cutlery are needed for overcoming one or more of the technical challenges described above.
The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanying drawings. The use of the same reference numerals may indicate similar to identical items. Various embodiments may utilize elements and/or components other than those illustrated in the drawings, and some elements and/or components may not be present in various embodiments. Elements and/or components in the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale. Throughout this disclosure, depending on the context, singular and plural terminology may be used interchangeably.
Disposable cutlery are provided herein including cutlery having a common, uniform thickness across the entire body of the piece of cutlery. It has been unexpectedly discovered that forming the cutlery to have a common, uniform thickness from the handle portion to the utility portion, and including a skirt around the perimeter of the handle portion, the skirt also having the common, uniform thickness, the cutlery has sufficient structural integrity to withstand normal use. Furthermore, by forming the cutlery to have a common, uniform thickness and a shape that complements a second, identical piece of cutlery, the cutlery may be stacked in a way that the stacked height is less than the sum of the heights of each piece of cutlery, advantageously improving the storage and shipping footprint of the cutlery, along with the carbon footprint associated with storing and shipping the cutlery.
Throughout this disclosure, various aspects are presented in a range format. It should be understood that the description in range format is merely for convenience and brevity and should not be construed as an inflexible limitation on the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, the description of a range should be considered to have specifically disclosed all the possible sub-ranges as well as individual numerical values within that range. For example, description of a range such as from 1 to 6 should be considered to have specifically disclosed sub-ranges such as from 1 to 3, from 1 to 4, from 1 to 5, from 2 to 4, from 2 to 6, from 3 to 6, etc., as well as individual numbers within that range, for example, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. This applies regardless of the breadth of the range.
As used herein, the term “about” with reference to dimensions refers to the dimension plus or minus 10%.
Articles of disposable cutlery are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the article of disposable cutlery includes a handle portion, a utility portion, and a skirt. As used herein, a “handle portion” refers to the portion of a piece of cutlery designed to be grasped by a user. As used herein, a “utility portion” refers to the portion of a piece of cutlery designed to interact with food, such as the cupping portion of a spoon, the tines portion of a fork, or the blade portion of a knife. As used herein, a “skirt” refers to the portion of the piece of cutlery that “hangs” from the handle portion and/or the utility portion and is responsible for providing structural integrity to the piece of cutlery.
In some embodiments, the handle portion, utility portion, and the skirt have a common, uniform thickness. In other words, the cross-sectional shape of the cutlery is in the shape of a line having a single thickness, the line shaped cross-section having curves or angles as necessary to form the handle portion or the utility portion. In some embodiments, the common, uniform thickness is about 30 mil. Manufacturing variability often introduce small, uncontrollable variability in the thickness across an article of disposable cutlery. Therefore, as used herein, a “uniform” thickness refers to a thickness with less than about 15% variability, i.e., a thickness between about 85% to about 115% of a target thickness.
In some embodiments, the handle portion has a continuous, uninterrupted surface. In other words, the handle portion does not have cutouts, characterized by “holes” or portions where material has been removed such as to reduce the weight or material usage of the article of cutlery, and does not have ribs, characterized by regimes of increased thickness such as to reinforce the structural integrity of the article of cutlery.
In some embodiments, the skirt extends from the handle portion and/or the utility portion by way of a single angle, such as the skirt depicted in
In some embodiments, the skirt extends from the handle portion and/or the utility portion by way of two or more angles, such as the skirt depicted in
In some embodiments, the handle portion has exactly one line of symmetry about a longitudinal axis. In other words, the article of cutlery has a longitudinal axis extending from a first end of the article of cutlery (i.e., at the end of the handle portion that is distal to the utility portion) to a second end of the article of cutlery (i.e., at the end of the utility portion that is distal to the handle portion). The article of cutlery may have one line of symmetry along the longitudinal axis such that a “left” and “right” portion of the article of cutlery are mirrored. However, in embodiments in which the article of cutlery has exactly one line of symmetry, the “top” and “bottom” portions of the article of cutlery may not be symmetrical. In other embodiments, the handle portion may have no lines of symmetry, but may instead have rotational symmetry of order two about the longitudinal axis, e.g., the skirt on a “left” side of the handle portion may have a “V” shape but the skirt on the “right” side of the handle portion may have a “A” shape. In other words, the cross-sectional shape of the handle portion is the same after rotating 180°.
In some embodiments, as illustrated in
The carbon footprint associated with boxes of disposable cutlery, the external bulk packaging containing boxes of disposable cutlery, wrapping skids or pallets loaded with boxes of disposable cutlery, skid storage, transportation of boxes or skids within a warehouse, transportation of skids to a distribution center, storage of skids at a distribution center, transportation of skids or boxes from a distribution center to a store, storage of the skid or boxes at a store, and storage of the boxes of disposable cutlery on shelves in stores accounts for 30-50% of the overall carbon footprint of the box of disposable cutlery. Thus, forming the disposable cutlery as described herein so as to reduce the space necessary to store and ship the cutlery can significantly reduce the carbon emissions associated with storing and shipping disposable cutlery.
In some embodiments, the article of disposable cutlery is a fork, a spoon, or a knife.
In some embodiments, the article of disposable cutlery is formed from one or more of polystyrene, polypropylene, polyhydroxyalkanoate, cellulose acetate, and polylactic acid. In some embodiments, the article of disposable cutlery is compostable. It has been unexpectedly discovered that forming the article of disposable cutlery as described herein to have a uniform thickness through the handle portion, skirt, and at least part of the utility portion advantageously improves compostability by ensuring every part of the article of disposable cutlery is equally susceptible to microbial degradation. Furthermore, by forming the article of disposable cutlery to lack cutouts or ribs, the article of cutlery can more swiftly pass compost studies that measure compostability at the point that less than 10% of the test material is retained on a sieve with 2 mm openings.
Although the mechanical properties and critical thickness necessary to form a usable article of disposable cutlery may vary for each material, the benefits described herein of less storage space, less shipping space, and less carbon emissions are realized regardless of the material.
In another aspect, articles of disposable cutlery are provided herein that include a handle portion, a utility portion, and a skirt. In some embodiments, the handle portion and at least part of the utility portion have a common, uniform thickness, and the skirt has a skirt thickness that is around 70% that of the common, uniform thickness. It has been unexpectedly discovered that reducing the thickness of the skirt can advantageously improve compostability of the article of disposable cutlery without appreciably impacting the structural integrity. For example, an article of disposable cutlery in which the skirt thickness is 70% that of the common, uniform thickness may pass ASTM D6400 30% faster than when the skirt is the same thickness as the common, uniform thickness.
In another aspect, methods of producing articles of disposable cutlery are provided herein including molding the article of disposable cutlery. Conventional molding processes may be used to form the articles of disposable cutlery described herein. It has been unexpectedly discovered that forming the article of disposable cutlery to have a common, uniform thickness as described herein advantageously reduces molding cycle times by 20% to 35% compared to molding conventional disposable cutlery.
Disposable knives, forks, and spoons were manufactured as described herein. Stacks of 24 pieces were formed and the height of these stacks measured and compared against conventional heavy-duty disposable cutlery. The results are displayed in Table 1.
As shown in Table 1, stacks of the inventive design were significantly smaller in height. This experiment was subsequently scaled up to 48-Piece Combination cartons and 48-Piece Fork cartons. The box size necessary to accommodate 48 pieces of conventional heavy duty cutlery was compared to the box size necessary to accommodate 48 pieces of the inventive cutlery. The corresponding number of cases on a skid, the weight of the product on the ski, and the number of boxes on a typical 52-foot truck (assuming 60 skids per truck) were also compared. The results are displayed in Table 2 for the 48-Piece combination cartons and in Table 3 for the 48-Piece fork cartons.
As depicted in Table 2, 48-piece combination cutlery formed in the shape described herein require a smaller box, which translates to a 71% increase in the number of cases that may be placed on a skid and a 71% increase in the number of boxes on a typical 52′ truck. Despite this dramatic increase in the number of cases, the weight on the skid is only 11% greater, again due to the improved shape of the cutlery. Although the carbon footprint associated with shipping the invented design is expected to increase by about 11% per truck due to the increased weight, the number of trucks needed to ship a given number of cutlery boxes is reduced by nearly half.
Table 3 demonstrates that for 48-Piece fork cartons, 29% more cases can be placed on a skid, but the weight actually decreases by 4%. Thus, not only are fewer trucks needed to ship a given number of cutlery boxes, each truck is responsible for less carbon emissions.
Various cutlery was formed as described herein. Spoons, forks, and knives were formed from polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP), cellulose acetate (CA), and polylactic acid (PLA) and compared to conventional heavy duty (HD) cutlery formed from the same materials. The results are displayed in Table 4.
As shown in Table 4, forming spoons as described herein enables a weight reduction of around 36%; forming forks as described herein enables a weight reduction of around 46%; and forming knives as described herein enables a weight reduction of around 47%.
Forks were formed as described herein from polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) having a uniform thickness and standard heavy-duty cross-section (such as the cross-section characteristic of Great Value® Premium Disposable Plastic Forks). The forks were molded on a 100 ton molding machine equipped with a hot-to-cold runner. Two thickness modalities were tested, one fork that had a uniform thickness of 30 mils, and another resembling conventional disposable forks with a thickness ranging from 30 mil to 100 mil: 100 mil at the neck and a skirt of 60 mil. The cycle time was optimized for flat parts with the same melt conditions (300° F.). The clamping, injection, and ejection portions of the molding cycle were identical, but the cooling step was adjusted from an initial 18 second set point and reduced by 1 second until the fork was observed to warp. It was unexpectedly discovered that the cooling step can be reduced from 22 seconds for the thick-and-thin fork by 2 seconds, or about 10% of the overall cycle time, to only 20 seconds for the uniform thickness fork, without impacting the quality of the mold.
While the disclosure has been described with reference to a number of embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the disclosure is not limited to such embodiments. Rather, the disclosure can be modified to incorporate any number of variations, alterations, substitutions, or equivalent arrangements not described herein, but which are commensurate with the spirt and scope of the disclosure. Conditional language used herein, such as “can,” “could,” “might,” or “may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, generally is intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features, elements or functional capabilities. Additionally, while various embodiments of the disclosure have been described, it is to be understood that aspects of the disclosure may include only some of the described embodiments. Accordingly, the disclosure it not to be seen as limited by the foregoing described, but is only limited by the scope of the appended claims.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/363,826, filed Apr. 29, 2022, which is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63363826 | Apr 2022 | US |
