Embossed absorbent paper having combined patterns

Details Embossed absorbent paper having combined patterns Embossed absorbent paper having combined patterns

1997-04-24

2000-08-22

Watkins, III, William P.

Stock material or miscellaneous articles

Structurally defined web or sheet

Continuous and nonuniform or irregular surface on layer or...

162113, 162117, 428166, 428178, 428156, 428172, 428153, 428154, 428161, 428162, 428163, B32B 328, B32B 330, B31F 107

Patent

active

061069280

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns absorbent paper for sanitary and domestic use and its object is a stratified sheet for such products as toilet paper, paper handkerchiefs, paper napkins or paper towels.


BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The sanitary and domestic paper industry uses a creped paper called cellulose cotton, also tissue paper, in the manufacture of products. The property of this paper to stretch due to its creping is used in embossing it, i.e., to permanently deform the paper at some locations and, in particular, to achieve projections on one side of the sheet.
Regarding sanitary products, the trend of the past years has been to make them softer, more velvety, more attractive while nevertheless preserving or improving their functional features of thickness and strength in particular. The latter features may be affected, whether improved or degraded, by the embossing procedure. Embossing is carried out either on a paper with a high moisture content, that is on a partly moist paper machine, or on low-moisture content paper, that is by transformation into a dry part. The present invention relates to embossing low moisture-content paper.
The most common embossing patterns are repetitive and geometrically based on elements of small cross-sectional protrusions and evincing simple geometric shapes (FIG. 1). One such embodiment is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,414,459.
The repeat frequency of the projections of these kind of patterns may be high, the density of the elements ranging from 5 to 60 per cm.sup.2 depending on the application being a paper towel or sanitary paper. The surface of the tops of the elementary protrusions may be less than 1 mm.sup.2. Such patterns affect mainly the properties relating to the sheet thickness on one hand and to its stiffness and strength on the other. These patterns offer a good tradeoff between the desired feature improvements when the semi-finished product is converted into a finished product and industrial operations, in particular, these patterns permit applying adequate embossing intensity.
On the other hand, much research has shown that these so-called technical patterns are hardly visually attractive to the consumer, in particular, when of low density. This negative perception is compounded by their pronounced diffuseness which makes them anonymous.
Solutions for increasing the visual impact of these sanitary products without thereby degrading the basic paper properties already have been elaborated.
One solution consists in printing decorative patterns before or after embossing. This solution offers the advantage of little affecting the embossing contribution and enhancing product visibility. However, it entails the drawback of putting on the market colored and decorated products whereas most consumers prefer solid colors. Moreover, this solution entails additional equipment and sometimes penalizes the efficiency of the production line.
Another solution of the prior art suggests providing embossing patterns enhancing the visual facet besides the predominant technical patterns. The visual patterns are of a repeat frequency much lower than that of the technical patterns and their unit surface is larger by an order of magnitude. FIG. 2 shows a pertinent sample from the disclosure of European Patent No. 265,298 and of U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,671.
The impact of these patterns on the physical paper properties is less. The rigidity and the thickness of the sheet are little modified. Their main advantage is the signature or at least the potential for differentiation which they offer. On the other hand, this major advantage is linked directly to their legibility or visibility.
To achieve the objective of visual attractiveness, two prior approaches may be noted. The first one employs high embossing density to ensure good marking while the second is restricted to patterns allowing good embossing under usual processing conditions. In the prior art, these two approaches perforce have been implemented simultaneously.
The more the appearance is emphasized, the mo

REFERENCES:
patent: 4307141 (1981-12-01), Walbrun
patent: 4320162 (1982-03-01), Schulz
patent: 4376671 (1983-03-01), Schulz
patent: 4483728 (1984-11-01), Bauernfeind
patent: 4759967 (1988-07-01), Bauernfeind
patent: 5328565 (1994-07-01), Rasch et al.
patent: 5562805 (1996-10-01), Kamps et al.
patent: 5597639 (1997-01-01), Schulz
patent: 5609725 (1997-03-01), Van Phan

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