Nonwoven abrasive material roll

Details Nonwoven abrasive material roll Nonwoven abrasive material roll

1999-11-23

2001-03-27

Thomas, Alexander S. (Department: 1772)

Stock material or miscellaneous articles

Sheet, web, or layer weakened to permit separation through...

C428S143000, C428S906000, C451S532000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06207246

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to surface conditioning products, and specifically to surface conditioning sheets comprising a lofty, non-woven abrasive article. The abrasive article can be provided to the user in roll form. The roll material has surfaces which interengage sufficiently to maintain the roll in a spirally wrapped configuration, yet are separable to allow roll unwinding. The roll is perforated to permit sheet separation and removal therefrom.
The low density abrasive products of the type defined in U.S. Pat. No. 2,958,593 and sold under the registered trademark “SCOTCH-BRITE” by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company of St. Paul, Minn., have found significant commercial success as surface treatment products. This type of abrasive product is typically formed of crimped staple fibers which have been formed into a mat and impregnated with resinous binder and abrasive. This material is made available commercially in a wide variety of types to provide many functions. It can be formed as a disc or wheel for mounting on a rotating axis, a belt, a pad for finishing equipment, such as floor treating pads or in sheet form for use as a hand pad. In this latter regard, cut sheets have been provided for use as hand pads in surface finishing applications, such as stripping, scuffing, cleaning or finishing work. Such sheets were provided to users in pre-cut form, sold individually or packaged in stacked form. Such nonwoven abrasive material has also been available in roll form, typically wound on a support core (such as a cardboard core), and then lengths of nonwoven material could be cut to length as desired and removed from the roll.
In use, nonwoven abrasive material hand pads have displaced (in many instances) steel wool pads as the desired surface conditioning product. Steel wool pads shed metallic particles during use, which can lead to numerous problems (e.g., finish imperfections, rust stains, annoying or injurious splinters in a user's fingers, etc.). In addition, steel wool pads tend to snag or tear during use, becoming non-uniform in terms of abrasive qualities and handling characteristics. One advantage that steel wool pads had over the prior art nonwoven abrasive material hand pads, however, was their conformability. The user was able to shape (e.g., fold or configure) a steel wool pad to desired configurations, depending upon the particular application, and the pad would retain that general shape. Prior art nonwoven abrasive material hand pads, while avoiding the problem of shedding particles, have not been suitably conformable for the end user, and could not retain a folded or wadded shape. Even though the faces of the prior art nonwoven abrasive material pads are rough (i.e., abrasive) in nature, they do not engage or adhere on contact with one another. This feature, in combination with the thickness, stiffness and weight of the prior art nonwoven abrasive material prevented such material from maintaining a folded or wadded configuration. Another advantage that steel wool pads had over the prior nonwoven abrasive material hand pads was the ability to achieve a fine surface finish while providing a desired Bearing Ratio on the abraded surface.
As mentioned above, prior nonwoven abrasive material has been provided to end users only in discrete hand pad or roll form. In the course of manufacturing such nonwoven abrasive materials to form discrete hand pads, it has been known to form a longitudinally extending web of nonwoven abrasive material (such as web
11
in
FIG. 1
) which is sequentially cut laterally, as at
13
, into a plurality of intermediate web sections
15
. Each web section
15
is then subjected to a longitudinally-disposed severing, along a plurality of separation lines
17
, to form a plurality of pad members
19
therefrom. The severing at each line
17
is not complete (a few strands of the nonwoven material are left uncut between adjacent pad members
19
), so the pad members
19
remain connected as a web section
21
. Each web section
21
may be further processed for one or more manufacturing steps, including the stacking of several web sections
21
, as illustrated at
23
. Adjacent stacks
25
of pad members
19
are separated by relative vertical movement (see, e.g., arrows
17
and
29
) to break the few strands of nonwoven material that connect adjacent pad members
19
of the same web section
21
, into in-process stacks
25
. Each separate stack
25
of pad members
19
is then further processed and packaged for distribution to end users, where each pad member
19
thus constitutes a discrete, nonwoven abrasive hand pad.
Mirka, a Finnish company, has sold prior art nonwoven abrasive material in roll form, under the mark “MIRLON”, where the roll of material (which is not self-engaging) is encased in a shrink-wrap material as delivered to the end user. The nonwoven abrasive material is removed from this roll by unwinding it off of the innermost wrap of the roll, from adjacent the central axis of the roll, and cutting a piece to whatever length is desired.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an improved means for packaging, delivering and dispensing lofty nonwoven abrasive surface treatment material. A longitudinally extending web of such material is improved by providing a plurality of longitudinally spaced and laterally disposed weakened areas along the web to permit a user to readily and successively separate the web into a plurality of sheets of abrasive surface treatment material. In a preferred embodiment, each weakened area is defined by perforations formed through the web.
A roll of lofty, nonwoven abrasive surface treatment material is improved by forming a roll to be self-binding, with successive wraps of the nonwoven material having opposed surfaces which interengage sufficiently to maintain the nonwoven material in a spirally-wrapped configuration, yet are sufficiently disengageable to permit unwinding of material from the roll. A nonwoven material having such surface characteristics can be folded or wadded into a desired shape and will hold such shape, without immediately springing open to a more flattened state. Thus, a single sheet of such a material can be conformed to a shape as desired by the end user.
In a preferred embodiment, the nonwoven abrasive material is wrapped spirally about itself to form a roll which is coreless. The material is unwound or removed from the roll from adjacent its innermost wrap, and a protective sheath is disposed about an outermost wrap of the roll. Preferably, the sheath is formed from a shrink-wrap process and, if desired, may bear product identifying indicia thereon.
In another preferred embodiment, the nonwoven abrasive article has an abrasive particle size and distribution which imparts a surface finish having values of Ra less than 10 microinches and a Bearing Ratio of between 15 and 60 percent, more preferably between 15 and 50 percent, and still more preferably between 15 and 40 percent. Such a nonwoven abrasive article is especially well-suited for scuffing automotive finishes prior to the application of subsequent coatings, for example.


REFERENCES:
patent: 2958593 (1960-11-01), Hoover et al.
patent: 3688453 (1972-09-01), Legacy et al.
patent: 4227350 (1980-10-01), Fitzer
patent: 4437271 (1984-03-01), McAvoy
patent: 5025596 (1991-06-01), Heyer et al.
patent: 5370338 (1994-12-01), Lewis
patent: 5712210 (1998-01-01), Windisch et al.
patent: 85 12 084 U (1985-07-01), None
patent: 0 287 286 (1988-10-01), None
patent: 0 480 848 (1992-04-01), None
3M brochure entitledScotch-Brite™ Surface Conditioning Hand Pads, 3M Abrasive Systems Division, Saint Paul, MN; document No. 61-5000-9159-2(428)ii (Dec. 1991).
3M brochure entitledScotch-Brite™ Cutting and Polishing Rolls, 3M Abrasive System Division, Saint Paul, MN; document No. 61-5001-0410-6(42.3)R2 (1992).
3M brochure entitled3M Grindline Express Surface Conditioning Products1993, 3M Abrasive System Division, Saint Paul, MN; document No. 60-4400-2475-4 (33.75)VP, Dec. 1993.
3M brochu

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