Patent Application
20170120565
The present invention was inspired by but is not limited to the identified consumer need gap between plastic food preparation cutting boards and solid wood food preparation cutting boards. This identified consumer need gap refers to the distance between consumers' desires to cut and prepare food for their meals on natural wood cutting boards and their need to keep themselves and their family safe from cross contamination that can occur with preparing certain foods such as poultry, meat etc. To mitigate this safety concern, consumers often use cutting boards and sheets made from plastic to prepare some or all of their foods as these plastic based products are often able to be placed in the dishwasher to be cleaned; a process that wood cutting boards typically are not able to be subjected to as a dishwasher will ruin them. Another advantage of plastic cutting sheets over solid wood cutting boards is that these plastic cutting sheets typically bend. This ability for sheets to bend and flex, allows consumers to easily pour their cut food into pots, pans or other receptacles rather than having to lift a heavy board with one and scrape the cut food into the receptacle with a utensil or their other hand. This process can be quite cumbersome and stressful on the user's wrist.
With all of the advantages of plastic cutting boards and sheets over solid wood cutting boards, there remains the problem that the experience of using a plastic cutting board or sheet is often undesirable due to the over all user experience, aesthetics etc. It has been found through ethnographic consumer research that cutting on plastic boards and sheets can undesirable, the plastic can slip easily on a counter creating a potential danger and these plastic boards and sheets can become easily stained and warped over time. Through research it was found that the desire to use a wood cutting surface was so great that consumers will often prepare poultry and other potentially dangerous foods on their wood cutting boards and assume the risk that comes with hand washing these boards in their sink with soap and water. It should also be noted that this process of washing wood cutting boards, especially larger ones can be quite challenging as most boards do fit into typical sized sinks.
Though the described invention's initial goal was to solve this experiential gap between plastic and wood cutting boards, the solution described in this patent has many more applications beyond this one problem. What is being described in this patent are two new related composite materials.
In one embodiment of the composite material being patented (referred from this point on as a “disposable veneer composite sheet”) consists of applying a repositionable adhesive, 2 & 5 & 17 to a wood, bamboo or other natural veneer 1 & 4 other than paper or paper like materials, with or without the further application of a release liner 3 & 6 & 15 on the exposed adhesive 17. This disposable veneer composite sheet may be used as a thin multi-use natural wood like cutting surface for food preparation. The adhesive 17, if used by the consumer, will keep the cutting sheet from moving during use while still allowing the user to easily pick the sheet up to pour its contents and re-adhere it to a counter or other surface. This action is similar to a 3M Post-It note. The disposable veneer composite sheet, preferably made of a bamboo veneer, may be used numerous times but may also be disposed of after any particular use such as cutting chicken on it to mitigate the chance of cross contamination of food born illness such as salmonella. The disposal of the disposable veneer composite sheet is more likely to occur if the disposable veneer composite sheet is made of a renewable material such as bamboo, palm leaves or the like. Other uses of this disposable veneer composite sheet could be to semi-permanently or temporarily cover flat or curved surfaces with a natural or wood veneer to obtain a natural wood look without the need to permanently apply a veneer to a surface as is normally done with wood veneers on furniture.
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This flexible durable veneer composite will be made by laser or die cutting or other similar method to cut and form the natural, preferably wood, veneer into a specific shape. The flexible substrate that can be made of a variety of materials but preferably a rubber and preferable silicone for kitchen applications will be cut to shape by a laser cutting, die cutting or similar process to a desired shape, preferably to the same shape as the veneer is cut to. However there may be reasons to make these shapes not match. Based on the substrate material 11 & 14, appropriate adhesive 10 & 13 that will adhere both to the natural veneer 9 & 12 and the flexible substrate 11 & 14 material will be applied to either the back of the veneer or to one of the surfaces of the flexible substrate or preferably both if the adhesive is in a spray or liquid or semi-liquid form. A double sided pressure sensitive adhesive 10 & 13 may also be used and applied to one or both materials. The veneer and substrate will be assembled to each other, preferably with the use of a jig or other manual or automated process that uses a registration system such as optical or physical registration marks or features to align the parts in the desired relative position. A post pressing or rolling process may then be used to remove air bubbles from the veneer and substrate assembly.
This flexible durable veneer composite has a variety of uses. The initial use case for this new material is to provide a new type of cutting board that is both made of a natural material such as wood and flexes like a plastic cutting sheet. This composite provides consumers with the desired ability to cut on a natural, preferable wood, cutting board while allowing them to easily pick up this cutting board, bend or flex this board and easily pour the food contents into a receptacle such as a pot or pan. In addition, this flexible durable veneer composite used as a cutting board and cut into a large shape similar to large solid wood cutting boards allows the user to easily clean it in a typical kitchen sink as it will bend and conform to the sink unlike large rigid solid wood or plastic cutting board. Other uses may be as temporary or semi-permanent removable surface coverings such as outdoor or older furniture, placemats etc. This composite may also be used as a building material for soft goods creating new soft wooden bags, purses, containers clothing etc.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62236106 | Oct 2015 | US |
