1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to bed sheets and the like, and more particularly, to such items having indicators for distinguishing one size from another.
2. Description of Related Art
Facilities such as hospitals, hotels, other lodging facilities, and the laundries (either onsite or offsite) that serve these commercial facilities handle large volumes of launderable products, for example, sheets, pillow cases, towels, and blankets. Significant time and energy is expended in managing these types of linens, especially with respect to the sizes thereof. By way of example, differently-sized bed sheets typically look alike when mixed together in the laundry process, and therefore laundry workers spend a great deal of time separating and sorting the sheets by size. In addition, even though cleaned sheets may be stored by size, housekeeping workers spend a significant amount of time verifying sheet sizes—both at a given storage location and during the room-to-room housekeeping process.
To help reduce the time for those who use or handle the sheets, a size indicator has typically been added to the sheets. In this regard, a textile mill will weave a roll of fabric of a certain width. The width corresponds, generally, to the width of the bed sheets to be made therefrom. In a separate set of operations, each bed sheet is formed by cutting a length of fabric from the roll, and then sewing or hemming the edges as necessary to provide the appearance of the finished sheet. The size indicator is typically added as part of the forming process, which thus occurs long after the roll of fabric is woven. By way of example, one of the seams, such as along the head of the sheet, may be sewn with a colored seaming thread, rather than a white seaming thread, as is typically used for the seams. However, colored seaming thread is more expensive than white seaming thread. Also, errors often occur in the sewing machine setup, which result in the wrong colored thread being used. The result is costly waste.
The present invention provides a size-indicating system for linens, such as bed sheets and the like, which reduces or eliminates the waste involved in providing size indicators as part of the post-roll cutting or sewing operations. To this end, and in accordance with the principles of the present invention, the size indication is accomplished by including a yarn having a predetermined color as one of the warp or filling yarns during the weaving of the fabric, with the color being correlated to an intended size of the bed sheet to be made therefrom. The yarn is positioned so that it will be visible in the formed sheet, so as to indicate the size thereof to those who subsequently handle the sheet. However, colored weaving threads do not present a significant cost differential, nor are there likely to be setup errors that result in use of the wrong colored thread.
Typically, the selvage edge of the roll will correspond to the lengthwise edge of the bed sheet. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the colored thread will be a warp yarn in the selvage, although it may be in another portion of the roll generally parallel to the selvage. Alternatively, the colored yarn may be in the fill so as to be generally transverse to the selvage. The resulting bed sheet in that situation will have a colored thread running transverse to the lengthwise edge thereof, and may even be positioned so as to appear adjacent the hem where the prior colored seaming thread would have been placed.
By virtue of the foregoing, there is thus provided a size-indicating system for linens, such as bed sheets and the like, which reduces or eliminates the waste involved in providing size indicators as part of the post-roll cutting or sewing operations. These and other advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and description of the drawings.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in, and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention, and, together with the general description of the invention given above, and the detailed description of the drawings given below, serve to explain the principles of the invention. The drawings are schematic, and are not to scale.
With reference to
In accordance with the principles of the present invention, roll 10 is woven with at least one of the warp yarns 14 or filling yarns 18 being of a predetermined color corresponding, in this embodiment, to the width W1 of fabric 12 transverse to axis 16, which in turn will correlate to the width W2 of the bed sheet 24, as will be described. In the embodiment of
Although the fabric 12 shown in
As will be appreciated, the size-identification system of the invention may be achieved in any suitable fashion. Advantageously, a given woven fabric includes at least one colored yarn that is distinctly and visually different from the color of the remainder of the fabric. If desired, each fabric that correlates to a different sheet size may be woven with a differently-colored yarn. For example, a blue yarn may designate twin, a green yarn may designate full, and a red yarn may designate king. In addition, a plurality of like-colored- or differently-colored-yarns may be used in weaving a given fabric, to designate a particular sheet size. For example, in the weaving process, a yellow yarn may be aligned adjacent a blue yarn, with the blue yarn being aligned adjacent another yellow yarn. Also, colored yarn(s) in which a given yarn has a particular pattern, or spacing, of a color along the length of that yarn may be used. And, if desired, different weave patterns may be used. For example, a woven greige fabric having a first float pattern may be used to make sheets having a first size, and a woven greige fabric having a second (or no) float pattern may be used to make sheets having a second size. If different weave patterns are used, the different sizes of the resulting sheets may be distinguished even if an identically-colored yarn is used to form the fabric.
With reference to
With reference to
In accordance with the principles of the invention, roll 36 is woven with a plurality of colored filling yarns, as at 44′, being of a predetermined color which corresponds, in this embodiment, to the width W3 of fabric 38 transverse to axis 42, which in turn will correlate to the width W4 of the bed sheet 50, as will be described. Each colored filling yarn 44′ is spaced a predetermined distance from an adjacent colored filling yarn along the length of the fabric 38, so as to have one of the yarns located in a preselected section of a bed sheet 50 made from the fabric 38. In addition, each colored filling yarn 44′ extends from the first selvage 46 to the second selvage 48. For the sake of illustration, warp yarn 44′ is shown as having a green color.
The fabric 38 may have any weave pattern desired, and may be made using any suitable method(s) and materials. Also, the size-identification system may be achieved in any suitable fashion, as discussed above in connection with the fabric 12 of
With reference to
In another embodiment (not shown), a flat bed sheet made from a fabric substantially similar to that of
In use, a fabric may be woven, in which at least one of the warp and/or filling yarns has a predetermined color correlated to an intended size of bed sheets to be made from the fabric. Individual sheets may be made from the fabric, with each of the sheets including at least a portion of the colored yarn, the portion being visible to the naked eye. In this fashion, a person readily may distinguish between bed sheets of different size by looking at the particular colors of the visible portions of the colored yarns.
Each of the woven greige fabrics and bed sheets described above provides several benefits and advantages. For example, a laundry- or housekeeping-worker quickly and easily may see the color coding on a particular bed sheet, and immediately know the size of the item—thereby resulting in reduced handling time, which translates to greater worker productivity and reduced labor costs. Also, because the color-coded yarn is an integral part of the woven fabric, the color-coding system is more durable, and the color-coded products may be made without additional steps. Accordingly, the color-coded products are less expensive to make.
By virtue of the foregoing, there is a size-identification system for bed sheets and the like which has advantages over prior bed-sheet size indicators.
While the present invention has been illustrated by a description of embodiments, and while the illustrative embodiments have been described in considerable detail, it is not the intention of the inventor to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. Additional advantages and modifications readily will appear to those skilled in the art. For example, although several of the drawings illustrate bed sheets, the fabrics of the invention may be used to form blankets, towels, pillow cases, and other sized-specific flat-goods. The invention in its broader aspects is therefore not limited to the specific details, representative apparatus and methods, and illustrative examples shown and described. Accordingly, departures may be made from such details without departing from the spirit or scope of the inventor's general inventive concept.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
835083 | Strahi | Nov 1906 | A |
1907393 | Tooley | May 1933 | A |
2059092 | Donovan | Oct 1936 | A |
2059096 | Goodchild | Oct 1936 | A |
2272229 | Tucker | Feb 1942 | A |
2546831 | Newell | Mar 1951 | A |
2738746 | Maclsaac, Jr. et al. | Mar 1956 | A |
3477397 | Hawley | Nov 1969 | A |
3489113 | Flanagan | Jan 1970 | A |
3580198 | Teed et al. | May 1971 | A |
3926227 | Takada et al. | Dec 1975 | A |
4191221 | Boyer | Mar 1980 | A |
4269130 | Burton et al. | May 1981 | A |
4271767 | Burton et al. | Jun 1981 | A |
4287841 | Rovin | Sep 1981 | A |
4473373 | Weiss | Sep 1984 | A |
4802250 | Farr | Feb 1989 | A |
4934939 | Bonneville | Jun 1990 | A |
5208926 | Stackhouse | May 1993 | A |
5424117 | Heiman et al. | Jun 1995 | A |
5655236 | Murray | Aug 1997 | A |
5697329 | Bell et al. | Dec 1997 | A |
5807794 | Knox et al. | Sep 1998 | A |
5855991 | McLarty, III | Jan 1999 | A |
5913277 | Resta | Jun 1999 | A |
6230341 | Dudley | May 2001 | B1 |
6263816 | Codos et al. | Jul 2001 | B1 |
6772530 | Nennig | Aug 2004 | B1 |
20050132493 | Lauderman | Jun 2005 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20050132493 A1 | Jun 2005 | US |