Patent Grant
9404224
This non-provisional application is based upon U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/904,177, filed on Nov. 14, 2013, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
Our invention relates to paper products such as absorbent hand towels. Our invention also relates to processes of manufacturing paper products such as absorbent hand towels.
2. Related Art
It is desirable for many types of paper products to have diverse properties. For example, absorbent paper products must be able to mop up large amounts of liquid before becoming saturated. As another example, customers greatly prefer that absorbent paper products feel soft to the touch. Absorbency and softness, however, are contradictory properties when it comes to manufacturing paper products. Most techniques for increasing the absorbency of paper products will also have the effect of decreasing the perceived softness of the products. Conversely, most techniques for increasing the softness of paper products will have the effect of decreasing the absorbency of the products. For example, calendering basesheets that make up the paper products can increase the softness of the products. Calendering, however, also has the effect of reducing the caliper of the basesheets. And, as absorbency of paper products is generally proportional to the caliper of the products, calendering the basesheets will also have the effect of reducing the absorbency of the products. The use of wet and dry strength resins are examples of other techniques that improve the properties of paper products. Such resins are added to the furnish used in a papermaking process, and the resins have the effect of improving the underlying strength of the resulting paper products, e.g., the cross machine direction (CD) or machine direction (MD) wet tensile strength of the products. Wet and dry strength resins, however, also have the undesirable effect of reducing the perceived softness of the resulting products.
Another challenge in manufacturing paper products is that paper making is a relatively low margin industry, and, thus, there is a constant need to find more economically efficient products and processing. In terms of products, the basis weight or bulk of paper products are properties that are often studied in an attempt to devise more economical products. There is a constant search for paper products that have a lower basis weight or higher bulk, but still have comparable properties in all other aspects.
According to yet another aspect, our invention provides a method of making a paper product. The method includes forming an aqueous cellulosic web on a structuring fabric in a papermaking machine, non-compactively dewatering the cellulosic web on the structuring fabric, and drying the cellulosic web to form the paper product. A portion of the structuring fabric on which the cellulosic web is formed has an adjusted planar volumetric index of at least about 27.
According to a further aspect, our invention provides a method of making a paper product. The method includes forming an aqueous cellulosic web on a structuring fabric in a papermaking machine, non-compactively dewatering the cellulosic web on the structuring fabric, and drying the cellulosic web to form the paper product. A portion of the structuring fabric on which the cellulosic web is formed has an adjusted planar volumetric index of at least about 27 during (i) an initial period in which the cellulosic web is formed on the structuring fabric on the papermaking machine and (ii) after the structuring fabric is run for about 950,000 cycles of operation of the papermaking machine.
According to yet another aspect, our invention provides a papermaking machine for making a paper product using a through air drying process. The papermaking machine includes a headbox for supplying a furnish. The papermaking machine also includes a structuring fabric having a surface with a contact area, the structuring fabric being configured (i) to receive the furnish from the headbox on the surface to thereby form a cellulosic web from the furnish and (ii) to non-compactively dewater the cellulosic web. The portion of the structuring fabric on which the cellulosic web is formed has an adjusted planar volumetric index of at least about 27.
According to a still further aspect, our invention provides an absorbent cellulosic sheet. The sheet is made by a method that includes forming an aqueous cellulosic web on a structuring fabric in a papermaking machine, non-compactively dewatering the cellulosic web on the structuring fabric, and drying the cellulosic web to form the absorbent cellulosic sheet. A portion of the structuring fabric on which the cellulosic web is formed has an adjusted planar volumetric index of at least about 27.
According to yet another aspect, our invention provides process of determining features of a fabric. The process includes forming a representation of a portion of a surface of the fabric, the representation showing locations and sizes of knuckles and pockets in the surface of the fabric, and the representation being one of a print of the fabric surface and a photograph of the surface of the fabric. The process further includes generating an image of the portion of the surface of the fabric based on the representation, displaying at least a portion of the image on a screen associated with a computer having a processor, determining the sizes and locations of the knuckles in the display of the representation, and determining the sizes and locations of the pockets in the display of the representation. The process still further includes drawing a unit cell for the portion of the surface of the fabric in the displayed image, wherein the unit cell is defined by guidelines that (i) pass through the centers of the knuckles and (ii) form shapes that surround areas of the image that correspond to where the pockets are formed between the knuckles, and calculating a planar volumetric index of the fabric based on properties of the unit cell formed by the guidelines. The outline and guidelines are drawn using an image analysis program stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium.
According to a further aspect, our invention provides a process of determining features of a fabric. The process includes forming a representation of a portion of a surface of the fabric, the representation showing locations and sizes of knuckles and pockets in the surface of the fabric, and the representation being one of a print of the fabric surface and a photograph of the surface of the fabric, generating an image of the portion of the surface of the fabric based on the representation, displaying at least a portion of the image on a screen associated with a computer having a processor, determining the sizes and locations of the knuckles in the display of the representation, and determining the sizes and locations of the pockets in the display of the representation. The process further includes drawing a unit cell for the portion of the surface of the fabric in the displayed image, wherein the unit cell is defined by guidelines that (i) pass through the centers of the knuckles and (ii) form shapes that surround areas of the image that correspond to where the pockets are formed between the knuckles, and calculating an adjusted planar volumetric index of the fabric based on properties of the unit cell formed by the guidelines. The outline and guidelines are drawn using an image analysis program stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium.
Our invention relates to absorbent paper products and methods of making absorbent paper products. The absorbent paper products according to our invention have outstanding combinations of properties that are superior to other paper products that are known in the art. In some specific embodiments, the paper products according to our invention have combinations of properties particularly well suited for absorbent hand towels.
The term “paper product,” as used herein, encompasses any product incorporating papermaking fibers having cellulose as a major constituent. This would include, for example, products marketed as paper towels, toilet paper, facial tissues, etc. Papermaking fibers include virgin pulps or recycle (secondary) cellulosic fibers, or fiber mixes comprising cellulosic fibers. Wood fibers include, for example, those obtained from deciduous and coniferous trees, including softwood fibers, such as northern and southern softwood kraft fibers, and hardwood fibers, such as eucalyptus, maple, birch, aspen, or the like. Examples of fibers suitable for making the products of our invention include non-wood fibers, such as cotton fibers or cotton derivatives, abaca, kenaf, sabai grass, flax, esparto grass, straw, jute hemp, bagasse, milkweed floss fibers, and pineapple leaf fibers.
“Furnishes” and like terminology refers to aqueous compositions including papermaking fibers, and, optionally, wet strength resins, debonders, and the like, for making paper products. A variety of furnishes can be used in embodiments of our invention. In some embodiments, furnishes are used according to the specifications described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,080,130 (the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety). The furnishes in this patent include, among other things, cellulosic long fibers having a coarseness of at least about 15.5 mg/100 mm. Examples of furnishes are also specified in the product examples discussed below.
As used herein, the initial fiber and liquid mixture that is dried to a finished product in a papermaking process will be referred to as a “web” and/or a “nascent web.” The dried, single-ply product from a papermaking process will be referred to as a “basesheet.” Further, the product of a papermaking process may be referred to as an “absorbent sheet.” In this regard, an absorbent sheet may be the same as a single basesheet. Alternatively, an absorbent sheet may include a plurality of basesheets, as in a multi-ply structure. Further, an absorbent sheet may have undergone additional processing after being dried in the initial basesheet forming process in order to form a final paper product from a converted basesheet. An “absorbent sheet” includes commercial products marketed as, for example, hand towels.
The term “directly attached” when used in reference to a first ply and a second ply of products means that the two plys are attached to each other without any intermediate ply. The first ply thereby forms a first surface of the sheet, and the second ply thereby forms a second surface of the sheet. In this regard, a “ply” refers to a sheet structure made of papermaking fibers having cellulose as a major constituent, and does not encompass, for example, a glue used to directly attach two plys together. Those skilled in the art will recognize the numerous techniques for directly attaching two or more plys together into a paper product.
When describing our invention herein, the terms “machine direction” (MD) and “cross machine direction” (CD) will be used in accordance with their well-understood meaning in the art. That is, the MD of a fabric or other structure refers to the direction that the structure moves on a papermaking machine in a papermaking process, while CD refers to a direction crossing the MD of the structure. Similarly, when referencing paper products, the MD of the paper product refers to the direction on the product that the product moved on the papermaking machine in the papermaking process, and the CD of the product refers to the direction crossing the MD of the product.
Because the web still has a high moisture content when it is transferred to the structuring fabric 48, the web is deformable such that portions of the web can be drawn into pockets formed between the yarns that make up the structuring fabric 48. (The pockets in structuring fabrics will be described in detail below.) As the structuring fabric 48 passes around through dryers 60 and 64, the consistency of the web is increased, for example, from about 60% to about 90%. The web is thereby more or less permanently imparted with a shape by the structuring fabric 48 that includes domes that are formed where the web is drawn into the pockets of the structuring fabric 48. Thus, the structuring fabric 48 provides a three-dimensional shape to the web that results in a paper product having dome structures.
To complete the paper forming process, the web is transferred from the structuring fabric 48 to a Yankee dryer 68. The transfer can be accomplished without a major degradation of the properties of the web, by contacting the web with adhesive sprayed onto the Yankee dryer 68. After the web reaches a consistency of about 96% or greater, a further creping is used to dislodge the web from the Yankee dryer 68, and then, the web is taken up by a reel 70. The speed of the reel 70 can be controlled relative to the speed of the Yankee dryer 68 to adjust the further crepe that is applied to the web as it is removed from the Yankee dryer 68.
The basesheets on reel 70 may then be subjected to further processing, as is known in the art, in order to convert the basesheets into specific products. For example, the basesheets may be embossed, and two basesheets can be combined into multi-ply products. The specifics of such a converting are discussed below in conjunction with the specific trial examples of products according to our invention.
While
As also described above, softness, absorbency, and caliper are three important properties for many types of absorbent paper products. We have found that all three of these properties may be affected by the configuration of the structuring fabric used in the process to form the products. In particular, we have found that the softness, absorbency, and caliper of the absorbent paper products may be influenced by the amount of contact area of the structuring fabric, that is, the area formed by the knuckle surfaces of the structuring fabric that the web contacts in the papermaking process. The softness, absorbency, and caliper of the resulting paper products may also be influenced by the size of the pockets between the knuckles in the structuring fabric. With these findings in mind, we have found that a highly useful manner of characterizing a structuring fabric, such as the fabrics shown in
In order to calculate the planar volumetric index for a structuring fabric, the contact area ratio and the effective pocket volume must be measured. Those skilled in the art will recognize that different techniques may be used for measuring the parameters that make up the planar volumetric index of a structuring fabric. Examples of specific techniques that we use for calculating the contact area ratio and the effective pocket volume of structuring fabrics will now be described.
The contact area of a fabric may be measured by the technique described below. Further details of the following technique, which is also described in U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2014/0133734; 2014/0130996; and 2014/0254885 (the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety), will be described below.
The contact area ratio measurement begins with forming a representation of the knuckles and pockets of the web contacting side of the structuring fabric. One type of representation is a print of the structuring fabric. In this regard, an apparatus and a technique for forming a print of the contact surface formed by the knuckles of a fabric is shown in
The first plate 304 is operatively connected to a hand-operated hydraulic pump 308 for actuating movement of the first plate 304 towards the second plate 306. The pump 308 has a release valve for allowing the first plate 304 to be retracted from the second plate 306. The pump 308, however, can take many other forms so as to effect movement of the first plate 304. The pump 308 may be connected to a transducer and transducer indicator 310 for measuring the pressure applied by the pump 308 to the first plate 304 as the first plate 304 is pressed against the second plate 306. As a specific example, an ENERPAC® Hydraulic Hand Pump Model CST-18381 by Auctuant Corp. of Milwaukee, Wis., can be used. As a specific example of the pressure transducer, a Transducer Techniques Load Cell Model DSM-5K with a corresponding indicator, made by Transducer Techniques, Inc., of Temecula, Calif., can be used. Of course, in other embodiments, the pump 308, the pressure transducer, and the transducer indicator 310 may be combined into a single unit.
The frame 302 of the contact surface printing apparatus 300 includes wheels 311 adjacent to the front end of the frame 302, as well as a mount 313 that may be used to hold the pump 308 and/or transducer indicator 310. One or more wheels 311 provided to the frame 302 make the frame 302 easier to move. An advantageous feature of the contact surface printing apparatus 300, according to embodiments of the invention, is its portability. For example, with a configuration as shown in
While the contact surface printing apparatus 300 shown in
Pressure measurement film is a material that is structured such that the application of force upon the film causes microcapsules in the film to rupture, producing an instantaneous and permanent, high-resolution image in the contacted area of the film. An example of such a pressure measurement film is sold as Prescale film by Fujifilm Holdings Corporation of Tokyo, Japan. Another example of pressure measurement film is Pressurex-Micro® by Sensor Products, Inc., of Madison, N.J. Those skilled in the art will recognize that other types of pressure measurement films could be used in the printing techniques described herein. In this regard, it should be noted that for the analysis techniques described below, the pressure measurement film need not provide an indication of the actual pressure applied by the fabric to the film. Instead, the pressure measurement film need only provide a print image showing the contact surface formed by the knuckles of a fabric.
The pressure applied to first plate 304 when forming a print of fabric 312 on pressure measurement film 314 can be selected so as to simulate the pressure that would be applied to a web against the fabric 312 in an actual papermaking process. That is, the pump 308 may be used to generate a pressure (as measured by the transducer) on the first plate 304 that simulates the pressure that would be applied to a web against the fabric 312 in a papermaking process. In the papermaking process described above in conjunction with
Referring again to
The strip of rubber 318 creates a level contact surface for supporting the fabric 312. In embodiments of the invention, the plates 304 and 306 are made of a metallic material, such as steel. A steel plate most likely has imperfections that reduce the quality of the print of the knuckles of the fabric 312 formed in the pressure measurement paper 316. The paper 316 and the rubber 318 that are used between the plates 304 and 306, and the pressure measurement film 314 and the fabric 312, however, provide a more level contact surface than do the surfaces of the metallic plates 304 and 306, thereby resulting in better images being formed in the pressure measurement film 314. Those skilled in the art will recognize that other alternative materials to the paper 316 and rubber 318 may be used as structures to provide the level surfaces between the plates 304 and 306 of the printing apparatus 300.
In other embodiments, a print is made of the knuckles of a fabric in materials other than pressure measurement film. Another example of a material that can be used to form prints of a fabric is wax paper. A print of the contact surface of a fabric may be made in a wax surface by pressing the contact surface of the fabric against the wax paper. The print in the wax paper can be made using the plates 304 and 306 in the print apparatus 300 described above, or with other configurations of the plates. The wax paper print can then be analyzed in the same manner as a pressure measurement film print, as will be described below.
Next, a system for analyzing the prints of knuckles, such as those shown in
As a first step in the analysis, a print of the contact area of the knuckles of a fabric is converted to a computer readable image using a photoscanner. Any type of photoscanner may be used to generate the computer readable image; however, a photoscanner having at least 2400 dots per inch (dpi) has been found to provide a good image for analysis. With the resolution of the scan of the image, an imaging analysis program can apply an exact scale to the image, and the exact scaling will be used in the calculation of the surface characteristics of the structuring fabric (as will be described below).
The scanned image may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium in order to facilitate the analysis described below. A non-transitory computer readable medium, as used herein, comprises all computer-readable media except for a transitory, propagating signal. Examples of non-transitory computer readable media include, for example, a hard disk drive and/or a removable storage drive, representing a disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, etc.
The scanned image, as well as characteristics of the contact surface scanned image that are determined according to the techniques described below, may be associated with a database. A “database,” as used herein, means a collection of data organized in such a way that a computer program may quickly select desired pieces of the data that constitute the database. An example is an electronic filing system. In some implementations, the term “database” may be used as shorthand for a “database management system.”
In order to perform quantitative analysis of the scanned print image, an image analysis program is used with the scanned images of the knuckles of a fabric. Such an image analysis program is developed, for example, with computational software that works with graphical images. One example of such computational development software is MATHEMATICA® by Wolfram Research, Inc., of Champaign, Ill. As will be described below, the image analysis program will be used to specifically identify the knuckles in the fabric print image of the structuring fabric, and, with known scaling of the fabric print image, the image analysis program can calculate the sizes of the knuckles and estimate sizes of the pockets.
When analyzing the scanned image, any size area that includes a plurality of knuckles and a pocket could be used for the analysis described below. In specific embodiments, it has been found that a 1.25 inch by 1.25 inch area of an image of a fabric allows for a good estimation of properties, such as pocket sizes using the techniques described herein. In particular, it has been found that when an image is formed with a 2400 dpi resolution (discussed above), and using a 1.25 inch by 1.25 inch area of image for the analysis, a good characterization of the contact surface can be conducted. Of course, other resolutions and/or area may also provide good results.
As shown in
After the guidelines 610 and 612 are drawn, as shown in
It should be noted that, as shown in
As shown in
As will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, any or all of the steps shown in
After the selected knuckle has been identified, and after the guidelines established through the knuckles, multiple properties of the fabric may be calculated using knuckle sizes and positions determined by the analysis program. To perform such calculations, the knuckle size and positioning data can be exported from the analysis program to a conventional spreadsheet program to calculate the properties of the fabric. Examples of the determinations made by the analysis program and the calculations that follow from such determinations are shown in TABLE 1.
The fabric from which image 600 was obtained only included knuckles 602 on the warp threads. Other fabrics, however, may include knuckles on the weft threads, such as the fabrics that formed the prints in
While the contact surface of a fabric may be characterized by using a print of the knuckles of the fabric that is formed, for example, by the contact surface printing apparatus 300, in other embodiments, an image of the contact surface of the fabric may be obtained in a different manner. An alternative to forming a print of the knuckles of the fabric is to photograph the knuckles of a fabric, and then use the above-described procedures and techniques for analyzing an image formed from the photograph. In this regard, a photograph with 2400 dpi has been found to provide sufficiently high and low resolution so as to be analyzed by the techniques described herein.
An example of a photograph 700 of the portion of a papermaking fabric with knuckles is shown in
To identify the sizes and locations of knuckles in an image obtained from a photograph of the fabric, the same techniques described above using an image from a print of the fabric, may be used with the photograph. For example, an outlined knuckle 702A and guidelines 710 and 712 are shown on the image 700A in
The above-described techniques provide a good estimate of the properties of a fabric, particularly when the shapes of the unit cells formed by the guideline segments are substantially rectangular. In cases, however, when the shapes of the unit cells formed by the guidelines are non-rectangular, parallelograms, an alternative technique may be used to provide more accurate estimates of the properties of the fabrics. An example of this alternative technique is shown in
UCA=(DIST 1/sin θ)×DIST 2 (1)
UCA=(DIST 2/sin θ)×DIST 1 (2)
Formulas (1) and (2) are derived from the standard formula for calculating the area of a parallelogram, namely Area=base length×height, where DIST 1 or DIST 2 is used as the height of the parallelogram, and then base length is calculated from the sine of the angle θ and the other of DIST 1 or DIST 2.
Table 2 shows examples of determinations made by the analysis program and the calculations that follow from such determinations when using the alternative technique based on a non-rectangular, parallelogram unit cell area calculation.
It should be noted that, while some of the characteristics in TABLE 2 are determined or calculated in the same manner as those described above in TABLE 1, the knuckle density, the total warp or weft knuckle contact area, the contact area ratio, the percent area contribution, the pocket area estimate, and the pocket density characteristics are calculated differently in TABLE 2 than in TABLE 1. By accounting for the non-rectangular, parallelogram shape of the unit cells, these different calculations provide for more accurate estimations of the characteristics of fabrics that have non-rectangular, parallelogram shaped unit cells.
A technique for calculating the effective volume of the pockets of a structuring fabric will now be described. The effective volume of a pocket is the product of the cross-sectional area of the pocket at the surface of the structuring fabric (i.e., between the knuckle surfaces) and the depth of the pocket into which cellulosic fibers in the web can migrate during the papermaking process. The cross-sectional area of the pockets is the same as the estimate of the Pocket Area, as described in TABLES 1 and 2 above. The depth of pockets of a structuring fabric can be determined, as follows.
With the depth determination line DL drawn, the digital microscope can then be instructed to calculate the depth profile of the pocket along the depth determination line DL, as is shown in the bottom portion of
It should be noted that the measured pocket depth will slightly vary from pocket to pocket in a fabric. We have found, however, that an average of five measured pocket depths for a structuring fabric provides a good characterization of the pocket depth. Accordingly, the measurements of pocket depth herein, and the measurements that follow from the measurement of the pocket depth, such as planar volumetric index, are an average over five measured pockets for the structuring fabric.
Using the foregoing techniques, the planar volumetric index for structuring fabrics may easily be calculated as the contact area ratio (CAR) multiplied by the effective pocket volume (EPV) multiplied by one hundred, where the EPV is the product of the pocket area estimate (PA in TABLE 1 above) and the measured pocket depth. Further, an adjusted planar volumetric index can be calculated as the contact area ratio (CAR) multiplied by the effective pocket volume (EPV) multiplied by one hundred, where the CAR and EPV are calculated using the non-rectangular, parallelogram unit cell area calculation technique described above (the EPV being the product of the pocket area estimate PA in TABLE 2 above and the measured pocket depth). The planar volumetric index and adjusted planar volumetric index for structuring fabrics used to form absorbent paper products according to the invention will be described below. The planar volumetric index and adjusted volumetric index for comparative structuring fabrics will also be described below.
Durability is another important aspect related to the structuring fabric used in a papermaking process. In particular, the web contacting surface formed by the knuckles in a structuring fabric is worn as the structuring fabric is used on a papermaking machine. The wear has the effect of increasing the size of the knuckles, which, in turn, has the effect of increasing the contact area of the structuring fabric. At the same time, the wear also has the effect of decreasing the pocket volume by decreasing the pocket depth. It follows that as the contact area increases and the pocket depth decreases, the planar volumetric index and adjusted planar volumetric index for the structuring fabric change. The changes in planar volumetric index and adjusted planar volumetric index will affect the properties of the resulting paper products, for example, by changing the size of the dome structures formed in the resulting paper products.
Sanding the contact surface of a structuring fabric is an effective way to simulate the wear on the structuring fabric that occurs during a papermaking process. Specific amounts of the contact surface can be sanded off to simulate the wear on the structuring fabric after different amounts of operation on a papermaking machine. A sanding experiment was conducted on a fabric shown in
As can be seen from the data in TABLE 3, the contact area did not significantly increase as sanding was applied to the structuring fabric. Without being bound by theory, it is believed that the relatively constant contact area can result from warp yarns of a structuring fabric having a substantially flat shape, as is the case with the particular fabric tested for TABLE 3. The data shown in TABLE 2 also demonstrates that the pocket depth did not significantly decrease as the contact surface of the fabric was sanded. With the contact area and pocket depth remaining relatively constant, it follows that the planar volumetric index also remained relatively constant as the fabric was subjected to more sanding. The constant planar volumetric index indicates that the fabric will be likely to produce paper products with consistent properties through the life of the fabric on a papermaking machine. Along these lines, it has been found that the 0.109 mm of surface removed in the sanding trial with Fabric Reference B closely corresponds to about 950,000 cycles of operation during a TAD process on a papermaking machine having the configuration shown in
It should be noted that even though the unsanded fabric shown in
The calculated planar volumetric index and adjusted planar volumetric index for the structuring fabric in References A to D is shown in
The data in
Notably, the planar volumetric and adjusted planar volumetric indexes for the fabric in References A to D are within a narrow ranges described above. As discussed above, References A to D simulate the wear on the fabric during its operation on a papermaking machine as shown in
The fabric that is shown and characterized in
As generally discussed above, one significant aspect of any paper product is the caliper of the product. Generally speaking, the more caliper the better. In some embodiments of the invention, two-ply paper products, such as absorbent sheets, have a caliper of at least about 255 mils/8 sheets. In still further embodiments of the invention, the two-ply paper products have a caliper of at least about 260 mils/8 sheets, and further, the two-ply products have a caliper of at least about 265 mils/8 sheets. It should be noted that the two plies of these products are directly attached without an intermediately ply, as discussed above. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that such calipers for two-ply products are, in and of themselves, outstanding.
Also discussed above is the importance of the absorbency of paper products, particularly in products such as absorbent hand towels. The paper products of our invention have exceptional absorbency, as quantified by saturation (SAT) capacity. SAT capacity is measured with a simple absorbency tester. In this test, a sample product 2.0 inches (5.08 cm) in diameter is mounted between a top flat plastic cover and a bottom grooved sample plate. The sample is held in place by a ⅛ inch (0.32 cm) wide circumference flange area. The sample is not compressed by the holder. Deionized water at 73° F. (22.8° C.) is introduced to the sample at the center of the bottom sample plate through a three mm diameter conduit. This water is at a hydrostatic head of minus five mm. Flow is initiated by a pulse introduced at the start of the measurement by the instrument mechanism. Water is thus imbibed by the sample from this central entrance point radially outward by capillary action. When the rate of water imbibation decreases below 0.005 g water per five seconds, the test is terminated. The amount of water removed from the reservoir and absorbed by the sample is weighed and reported as grams of water per gram of sample or per square meter of sample. The absorbed amount (g/m2) is used for purposes of calculating SAT converting loss. When testing a basesheet for multi-ply towel, the number of plies used in the towel is tested. For example, two plies of basesheet are stacked and tested, then compared with two-ply finished product made from the basesheet for purposes of determining SAT converting loss. In practice, a Gravimetric Absorbency Testing System manufactured by M/K Systems Inc. of Danvers, Mass. is used. Water absorbent capacity (SAT) is actually determined by the instrument itself. SAT is defined as the point where the weight versus time graph has a “zero” slope, i.e., the sample has stopped absorbing. The termination criteria for a test are expressed in maximum change in water weight absorbed over a fixed time period. This is basically an estimate of zero slope on the weight versus time graph. The program uses a change of 0.005 g over a five second time interval as termination criteria, unless “Slow SAT” is specified, in which case, the cut off criteria is one mg in 25 seconds.
In embodiments of our invention, two-ply paper products have an SAT capacity of at least about 650 g/m2. In further embodiments of our invention, the two-ply paper products have an SAT capacity of at least about 675 g/m2. As with the calipers for the two-ply products described above, these SAT capacities for two-ply paper products are, in and of themselves, outstanding. In fact, as will be demonstrated with the specific examples described below, the combination of caliper and SAT capacity for the two-ply paper products according to our invention is not found in conventional paper products.
Another significant aspect of paper products according to our invention is related to the tensile and stretch ratios of the products. Dry tensile strengths (MD and CD) and stretch at break are measured with a standard Instron® test device or other suitable elongation tensile tester that may be configured in various ways, typically, using 3 inch (76.2 mm) or 1 inch (25.4 mm) wide strips of tissue or towel, conditioned in an atmosphere of 23°±1° C. (73.4°±1° F.) at 50% relative humidity for 2 hours. The tensile test is run at a crosshead speed of 2 in/min (50.8 mm/min). The tensile ratio of a paper product is the ratio of the tensile strength of the product in the MD of the product to the tensile strength of the product in the CD. Similarly, the stretch ratio of a paper product is the ratio of the MD stretch at break to the CD stretch at break of the product.
In embodiments of our invention, paper products are provided that have a tensile ratio of less than about 1.1, and in still further embodiments, paper products are provided that have a tensile ratio of less than about 1.0. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, these tensile ratios are less than the tensile ratio for other products known in the art. It follows that paper products according to our invention exhibit more CD tensile than other paper products known in the art. The result is that paper products according to our invention have a more consistent tensile strength in all directions, i.e., the tensile strength is about the same in the MD and CD directions of the products.
In addition to the caliper, absorbency, and tensile properties, there are other properties that are important to paper products. For example, as discussed above, the perceived softness of paper products such as absorbent hand towels is highly desirable. But, at the same time, softness is usually inversely proportional to the absorbency and caliper of paper products. While the paper products according to our invention have higher absorbency and caliper than comparative paper products, the paper products do not have a greatly reduced softness in comparison to other paper products. This can be seen in sensory softness tests conducted on the paper products. Sensory softness of the paper products can be determined by using a panel of trained human subjects in a test area conditioned to TAPPI standards (temperature of 71.2° F. to 74.8° F., relative humidity of 48% to 52%). The softness evaluation relies on a series of physical references with predetermined softness values that are always available to each trained subject as they conducted the testing. The trained subjects directly compare test samples to the physical references to determine the softness level of the test samples. The trained subjects then assign a number to a particular paper product, with a higher sensory softness number indicating a higher the perceived softness. As will be demonstrated in the specific examples of paper products according to our invention described below, the sensory softness of our inventive paper products is very good, even though the inventive products have a higher caliper and absorbency than other known paper products.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that there is a variety of other important properties of paper products, such as the basis weight or bulk, stretch, tensile modulus, SAT rate, geometric mean (GM) break and tensile modulus, etc. In particular, the importance of basis weight or bulk to the economics of paper manufacturing is discussed above. Additional properties of the paper products according to our invention are given for the specific examples described below.
In order to demonstrate the excellent properties of the paper products according to our invention, trials were conducted wherein the products were manufactured using a TAD process on a papermaking machine having the general configuration shown in
The basesheets produced in Trials A to E were converted into two-ply absorbent sheets using standard conversion equipment. The conversion process included embossing using the pattern shown in U.S. Design Pat. No. 648,137 (the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety). The emboss penetration was set at 0.075 inches for some trials, and at 0.120 inches for other trials. The specific converting process parameters are shown in TABLE 5.
The converted, two-ply absorbent sheets from some of the trials were then tested to determine characteristics of the sheets, including SAT capacity, caliper, tensile ratio, stretch ratio, and sensory softness. The determined characteristics are shown in TABLES 6 and 7. Note that the indication “N/D” in TABLES 6 and 7 is an indication that the parameter was not measured for the particular trial.
The combination of high caliper and good absorbency of the paper products according to our invention is not found in other paper products known in the art. Evidence of this can be seen in
As discussed in detail above, the absorbency and caliper of paper products, are, in general, inversely related to the perceived softness of the paper products. The data in TABLES 6 and 7, in combination with the data shown in
Further distinct properties of the products according to our invention can be seen in
Although the foregoing specific examples of products had a generally narrow range of parameters such as basis weight, absorbency, caliper, etc., that are conducive to specific commercial products, such as hand towels, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the techniques and methods disclosed herein can be used to produce a variety of products. To demonstrate the broad scope of our invention, a variety of basesheets was produced using the techniques described above, including a TAD process on a papermaking machine having the configuration shown in
The results in TABLE 8 demonstrate the wide range of properties, including basis weight, caliper, and CD wet tensile, that can be imparted to products according to our invention. Without being bound by theory, it is believed that these properties are at least partially made possible through the unique nature of the structuring fabric used to form the products. For example, as discussed above, the planar volumetric index of the structuring fabric has a significant effect on the properties of the products, and the planar volumetric index of the structuring fabric is much different than the planar volumetric indexes of other structuring fabrics known in the art.
Although this invention has been described in certain specific exemplary embodiments, many additional modifications and variations would be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of this disclosure. It is, therefore, to be understood that this invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described. Thus, the exemplary embodiments of the invention should be considered in all respects to be illustrative and not restrictive, and the scope of the invention to be determined by any claims supportable by this application and the equivalents thereof, rather than by the foregoing description.
The invention can be used to produce desirable paper products such as hand towels. Thus, the invention is applicable to the paper products industry.
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