Claims
- 1. A method of forming a package of a strip of sheet material comprising:providing a strip of material having a first side edge, a second side edge defining a width therebetween, a first surface and a second surface, the strip having a width across the strip which varies along the length of the strip such that the width of the strip varies from areas of minimum width to areas of maximum width; forming a plurality of stacks of the strip by folding the strip in each stack repeatedly back and forth to form a plurality of folded strip portions of the strip, with each folded strip portion of the strip being folded relative to one next adjacent folded strip portion about a first fold line transverse to the strip and relative to a second next adjacent folded strip portion about a second fold line transverse to the strip and spaced from the first fold line; arranging the folded strip portions of each stack to form a plurality of first fold lines arranged at one of two opposed ends of the stack and a plurality of second fold lines arranged at the other of the ends of the stack with the fold lines at one end of the stacks of all the stacks being aligned so as to lie in a first common plane at one end of the package and the fold lines at the other end of the stacks of all the stacks being aligned so as to lie in a second common plane at the other end of the package; arranging the folded strip portions of each stack superimposed each on the previous strip portion with the side edges thereof directly aligned such that the areas of maximum width of the folded strip portions are superimposed and areas of minimum width of the folded strip portions are superimposed and such that the fold lines of each stack at each end of the stack are aligned to lie in common planes; arranging the stacks side by side in a common package structure such that the ends of the stacks lie at respective ends of the package, with the side edges of the folded strip portions of one stack adjacent to the side edges of the folded strip portions of a next adjacent stack, with the stacks being nested such that the areas of minimum width of each stack lie alongside areas of maximum width of the next adjacent stack; wherein the strip in each stack is continuous from an end connecting portion at one end of the stack to an end connecting portion at an opposed end of the stack and including splicing one end connecting portion of the strip from each stack to an end connecting portion of the strip of a next stack by a splice connecting portion of the strip to form a strip that is continuous along its length through the package.
- 2. The method according to claim 1 including arranging the stacks substantially upright with a bottom and a top, two sides parallel to the edges of the strips of the stacks and two ends containing the fold lines of the stacks, and connecting the end connecting portion of the bottom of a stack to the end connecting portion of the top of a next stack to form the splice connecting portion which extends along one end of the stack.
- 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the end connecting portion of the bottom of a stack is connected to the end connecting portion of the top of a next adjacent stack to form the splice connecting portion.
- 4. The method according to claim 1 including compressing the package downwardly to decrease the height of the stacks from a rest height to a compressed height, and engaging the package by packaging material which maintains the compression.
- 5. The method according to claim 4 wherein the compression is sufficient to reduce the thickness of each strip portion of said stacks.
- 6. The method according to claim 5 wherein the strip is fibrous.
- 7. The method according to claim 4 including wrapping the package by a flexible packaging material to form a closed bag, withdrawing air, and sealing against ingress of air.
- 8. The method according to claim 1 including the steps of: applying to the strip of each stack a series of machine readable markings each located at a longitudinal location on the strip which is arranged to identify a longitudinal location of a respective one of the fold lines; unfolding the strip; scanning the unfolded strip to locate the machine readable markings; and cutting the unfolded strip by using the machine readable markings to locate cut lines transverse to the strip at or adjacent the fold lines.
- 9. A method of forming a package of a strip of sheet material comprising:providing a web of a sheet material; forming longitudinally extending, transversely spaced slit lines in the web by which the web is divided longitudinally into a plurality of side by side strip elements; arranging the dividing lines such that each strip element is longitudinally continuous through the length of the web and such that the dividing lines diverge from a parallel straight condition such that each strip element varies in shape along the length of the strip element; folding the web repeatedly back and forth so as to define a stack of web portions wherein each web portion is folded relative to one next adjacent folded web portion about a first fold line transverse to the web and relative to a second next adjacent folded web portion about a second fold line transverse to the web and spaced longitudinally from the first fold line; and connecting an end connecting portion of each strip element by a splice connecting portion to an end connecting portion of a another strip element to form a strip that is continuous along its length through the package.
- 10. The method according to claim 9 including arranging the stacks substantially upright with a bottom and a top, two sides parallel to the edges of the strip elements of the stacks and two ends containing the fold lines of the stacks, and connecting the end connecting portion of the bottom of a stack to the end connecting portion of the top of another of the stacks to form the splice connecting portion which extends along one end of the stack.
- 11. The method according to claim 9 including compressing the package downwardly so as to decrease the height of the stacks from a rest height to a compressed height, and engaging the package by packaging material which maintains the compression.
- 12. The method according to claim 11 wherein the compression is sufficient to reduce the thickness of each strip portion of said stacks.
- 13. The method according to claim 12 wherein the strip is fibrous.
- 14. The method according to claim 11 including wrapping the package by a flexible packaging material forming a closed bag, withdrawing air and sealing the packaging material against ingress of air.
Parent Case Info
This application is a continuation in part of application Ser. No. 08/948,258 filed Oct. 9, 1997, now abandoned; and is a continuation in part of application No. 08/975,037 filed Nov. 18, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,775 issued May 30, 2000.
This application is related to copending applications on this subject matter:
Ser. No. 08/876,402 filed Jun. 16, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,064 issued Jul. 13, 1999;
Ser. No. 08/878,826 filed Jun. 19, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,035,608 issued Mar. 14, 2000;
Ser. No. 08/906,291 filed Aug. 5, 1997, now abandoned;
Ser. No. 08/939,815 filed Sep. 29, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,926 issued Sep. 28, 1999;
Ser. No. 08/939,444 filed Sep. 29, 1997, now abandoned;
Ser. No. 08/939,881 filed Sep. 29, 1997, now abandoned.
The disclosure of each of the above application is incorporated herein by reference.
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Continuation in Parts (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
08/948258 |
Oct 1997 |
US |
Child |
09/370240 |
|
US |
Parent |
08/975037 |
Nov 1997 |
US |
Child |
08/948258 |
|
US |