1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the fabrication of food containers and more particularly, to a container fabrication method, which is practical for making laminated wooden food containers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional disposable food containers include following five different type: Foamed Plastic Products, Degradable Plastic Products, and Paper Products. These products have drawbacks as outlined hereinafter:
In order to eliminate the aforesaid drawbacks, laminated wooden containers are developed. These products may be made by using a bonding glue to bond two wooden or bamboo sheet members together through a hot compression molding process, or bonding a wooden sheet member to a fiber layer and then molding the laminated structure into the desired product through a hot compression molding process. These laminated wooden containers meet environment awareness requirements, and have non-toxic, decomposable, hard and heat resisting characteristics. However, these two methods still have drawbacks as follows:
The former method which uses a bonding glue to bond two wooden or bamboo sheet members together through a hot compression molding process cannot eliminate the permeation of the bonding glue into the tissues of the wooden or bamboo sheet members. Therefore, the finished products will crack easily. After hot compression molding, a post-processing is required to polish the coarsen surface and edge.
A finished product made according to the later method which bonds a wooden sheet member to a fiber layer and then mold the laminated structure into the desired product through a hot compression molding will not crack easily due to the support of the fiber layer. However, a container made according to this method is not suitable for holding hot water or food because the fiber layer will decompose at high temperature. It may contaminate the contained food when the container starts to decompose. Further, a product made according to this method has a coarsen edge, which must be polished through a secondary processing process.
The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. It is therefore the main object of the present invention to provide a laminated wooden container, which is nontoxic, not harmful, strong, heat resisting, microwavable, freezable, decomposable, sturdy and rigid structure, and clean to the environment.
It is another object of the present invention to provide laminated wooden container fabrication method, which saves the manufacturing cost.
The method of making a laminated wooden container comprises the steps of: (a) preparing two wooden sheet members and a bonding layer; (b) laminating the two wooden sheet members and the bonding layer together to have the bonding layer be sandwiched between the wooden sheet members to form a laminated sheet material; (c) preparing a hot compression molding mold; and (d) heat compressing said laminated sheet material by using the hot compression molding mold to form a container.
Referring to
Step I: preparing two wooden sheet members 11, 12 and one bonding layer 13, where the wooden sheet members 11, 12 are respectively obtained from Albizia falcataria, each of the wooden sheet members 11, 12 having a thickness about 0.5 mm; the bonding layer 13 is obtained by covering the top and bottom surfaces of a base sheet material of recyclable natural long fibers with an eatable or biological glue by means of a coating or dipping technique;
Step II: using rollers 2 to carry the wooden sheet members 11, 12 and the bonding layer 13 forwards and to have the wooden sheet members 11, 12 and the bonding layer 13 be laminated with the bonding layer 13 sandwiched between the wooden sheet members 11, 12, as shown in
Step III: preparing a hot compression molding mold 3, which comprises a first die 31, which has a top wall 311, a cavity 312 formed in the top wall 311, and a groove 313 formed in the top wall 311 and spaced around the cavity 312, and a second die 32, which has a bottom wall 321, a press block 322 downwardly protruding from the bottom wall 321 corresponding to the cavity 312 of first die 31, and a cutting edge 323 downwardly protruding from the bottom wall 321 and spaced around the press block 322 corresponding to the groove 313 of the first die 31 (see
Step IV: placing the blank sheet material 1 on the first die 31 below the second die 2, and then closing the second die 32 on the first die 31 and employing a pressure to the second die 32 against the blank sheet material 1 and the first die 31 at a temperature about 150-180° C., so as to process the blank sheet material 1 into the desired finished container 1′ as shown in
The finished container 1′ thus obtained is sterilized by a UV (ultraviolet) sterilizer. When a number of finished containers 1′ are obtained and sterilized, they are arranged into stacks and packed by a vacuum packing machine for vending.
According to the above description, the fabrication method of the present invention and/or the laminated wooden container made therefore have the following advantages: nontoxic, not harmful, strong, heat resisting, decomposable, sturdy and rigid structure, and clean to the environment.
Although particular embodiments of the invention have been described in detail for purposes of illustration, various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, three wooden sheet members and two bonding layers may be used to make a relatively stronger container through one single hot compression molding process. Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited except as by the appended claims.