Patent Application
20210204727
This application is related to U.S. Design Patent Application No. ______, filed even date herewith. The disclosure of that design patent application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
This patent application describes a napkin that has been adapted to include a pocket for holding utensils.
Restaurants typically provide cloth or paper napkins and serving utensils to patrons. A significant portion of the server's time is spent wrapping the napkins around the serving utensils to create a place setting. The process is complicated by the requirement to wrap the napkin in a particular way to prevent the utensils from falling out of the place setting before placing a self-sticking paper band around the wrapped napkin and utensils. It is desirable to expedite the process of creating the place setting and keeping the place setting intact until ready to use.
Various details for the embodiments of the inventive subject matter are provided in the accompanying drawings and in the detailed description text below.
In accordance with a first embodiment, a method of forming a napkin having a utensil pocket includes folding a napkin in half along a first fold line, folding the napkin into quarters along a second fold line perpendicular to the first fold line to form a first quarter section and a second quarter section, inserting a food grade glue in a pocket pattern between the first quarter section and the second quarter section, the pocket pattern having an opening at one end, and folding the first quarter section over the second quarter section to engage the food grade glue to glue together the first quarter section and the second quarter section to form the utensil pocket between the first quarter section and the second quarter section. The napkin may also be folded into eighths along a third fold line parallel to the second fold line. A place setting may be formed by inserting utensils into the utensil pocket and optionally rolling or folding the napkin in a direction perpendicular to the second fold line. The napkin may be a paper or cloth napkin. When the napkin is a cloth napkin, the first quarter section may be stitched to the second quarter section to form the utensil pocket. The utensil pocket has an opening at one end, one side parallel to the second fold line, and a second side parallel to the first fold line. In sample embodiments, the pocket pattern is an L-shape to a form side and a bottom to the utensil pocket.
This summary section is provided to introduce aspects of the inventive subject matter in a simplified form, with further explanation of the inventive subject matter following in the text of the detailed description. This summary section is not intended to identify essential or required features of the claimed subject matter, and the particular combination and order of elements listed this summary section is not intended to provide limitation to the elements of the claimed subject matter. Rather, it will be understood that the following section provides summarized examples of some of the embodiments described in the Detailed Description below.
The foregoing and other beneficial features and advantages of the systems and methods described herein will become apparent from the following detailed description in connection with the attached figures, of which:
The inventive systems and methods may be understood more readily by reference to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying figures and examples, which form a part of this disclosure. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific products, methods, conditions or parameters described and/or shown herein, and that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments by way of example only and is not intended to be limiting. Similarly, any description as to a possible mechanism or mode of action or reason for improvement is meant to be illustrative only, and the systems and methods described herein are not to be constrained by the correctness or incorrectness of any such suggested mechanism or mode of action or reason for improvement.
A detailed description of illustrative embodiments will now be described with reference to
In sample embodiments, when the napkin sheet 10 is formed of paper, the food grade glue may comprise FDA approved food grade glues such as Master Bond brands EP 42HT-2FG, EP 30 HT, or EP 30 HV or Silicone brand RTV 4500 or NSF RTV silicone solvents. As would be apparent to those skilled in the art, other food grade glues that are safe to use with food products may be used.
On the other hand, when the napkin sheet 10 is formed of cloth, the food grade glue may he replaced by stitching that holds together the folds of the cloth.
In sample embodiments, the napkin sheet 10 having a utensil pocket 30 as described herein may comprise a paper napkin that is inserted into an automated folding machine adapted to provide glue from a glue gun after the first fold along axis A-A to form the L-shaped region including sides 22 and 24 before completing the remainder of the folds. For example, an automatic paper napkin machine of the type provided by Birla Hi Tech, Ean Machinery, or a number of other manufacturers may be used to form the paper napkins described herein. In addition to printing, embossing, counting, and folding, the automatic paper napkin machine may be adapted to insert glue between the folds to form a pocket as described herein. Plastic utensils may be inserted in an assembly line, or plastic or metal utensils may be inserted by a human to complete a place setting. In the case of a paper napkin and plastic utensils, the place setting may also be sealed in a thin plastic layer for sanitary purposes.
While various implementations have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. For example, any of the elements associated with the systems and methods described above may employ any of the desired functionality set forth hereinabove. Thus, the breadth and scope of a preferred implementation should not be limited by any of the above-described sample implementations.
