Product housing stacked body of wet tissues

Details Product housing stacked body of wet tissues Product housing stacked body of wet tissues

1999-08-17

2001-03-06

Sewell, Paul T. (Department: 3728)

Special receptacle or package

For folded sheetlike article

C206S812000, C206S205000, C221S048000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06196390

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a wet tissue product having a stacked body of folded wet tissues housed in a container or package.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In general, wet tissues are sealed and housed in a container or package so as to keep their wet state before use or when unused. These wet tissues are stacked, such that they have overlapping portions between the upper and lower wet tissues, so that they are consecutively and sequentially pulled out of an outlet provided in the container or package. When the wet tissue at the uppermost position is pulled out, a portion of the succeeding wet tissue is protruded from the outlet of the container. This is generally called the “pop-up type”. The conventional wet tissue stacked body of this “pop-up type” will be described with is reference to the drawings.
One example of the conventional wet tissue stacked body, as shown in
FIG. 14
, is formed in the following manner. First, a wet tissue
61
A is folded in two along its center line
64
as a folding line, as shown in FIG.
12
(A), such that a wet tissue
61
B having such a shape as shown in FIG.
12
(B) is produced. In
FIG. 14
, the wet tissues
61
B are stacked such that a lower half
63
of the upper wet tissue
61
B is sandwiched between an upper half
62
and a lower half
63
of the lower wet tissue
61
B.
When the upper wet tissue
61
B is pulled out, the upper half
62
of the lower wet tissue
61
B, which is put on the lower half
63
of the upper wet tissue
61
B, is pulled up together toward the outlet (not shown) to be pulled out from the outlet. Thus, the upper half
62
of the lower wet tissue
61
B comes out of the outlet so that the wet tissues can be pulled out consecutively one by one.
However, in the wet tissue stacked body shown in
FIG. 14
, the overlapping area between the lower half
63
of the upper wet tissue
61
B and the upper half
62
of the lower wet tissue
61
B is as large as about one half of the area of the wet tissue
61
A before being folded. Therefore, when the upper wet tissue
61
B is pulled out, the length of the protrusion of the succeeding lower wet tissue
61
B becomes as large as about one half of the length of the wet tissue
61
A before being folded.
If the protrusion of the wet tissue is too large, it can not be confined within the area of a cover which is usually provided with the container or package to cover the outlet. As a result, the protrusion partially extends out of the cover. Then, the wet tissue dries up at this portion extending out of the cover. Moreover, when the protrusion partially extends out of the cover, it is difficult to close the cover reliably. This lowers the sealability of the container or package, so that the overall wet tissue stacked body is liable to dry up.
FIG. 15
shows another example of the conventional wet tissue stacked body. The wet tissue stacked body shown in
FIG. 15
is formed in the following manner. A wet tissue
71
A, as shown in FIG.
13
(A), is folded back at its end portions toward the opposite faces along the folding lines
75
and
76
which divide the wet tissue
71
A substantially in three such that a wet tissue
71
B having such a shape as shown in FIG.
13
(B) is formed. As shown in
FIG. 15
, the wet tissues
71
B are stacked such that a lower portion
72
of the upper wet tissue
71
B is sandwiched between an upper portion
74
and an intermediate portion
73
of the succeeding lower wet tissue
71
B.
In this construction, the overlapping area between the lower portion
72
of the upper wet tissue
71
B and the upper portion
74
of the lower wet tissue
71
B is as large as about one third of the area of the wet tissue
71
A before folded. Therefore, the length of the protrusion of the succeeding lower wet tissue
71
B becomes shorter than that of the example shown in FIG.
14
. However, since the wet tissue
71
B is folded in three, the stacked body composed of a plurality of wet tissues
71
B becomes too thick.
Disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 213453/1995 (which corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 5,497,903) is a wet tissue folding structure which allows the wet tissues to be consecutively pulled out. This wet tissue folding structure is shown in FIG.
16
. In this folding structure, the lower half
63
of the wet tissue
61
B shown in FIG.
12
(B) is further folded in two along a folding line
65
to form a wet tissue
61
C shown in FIG.
12
(C). As shown in
FIG. 16
, the wet tissues
61
C are then stacked such that the upper half
62
of the lower wet tissue
61
C is sandwiched between the upper half
62
and an intermediate portion
66
of the upper wet tissue
61
C.
Here, as shown in
FIG. 16
, the wet tissue
61
C is further indicated by
61
C
1
,
61
C
2
and
61
C
3
, in order from the top. When the wet tissue
61
C
1
is pulled out, the righthand half of the upper half
62
of the wet tissue
61
C
2
is pulled up together with the intermediate portion
66
of the wet tissue
61
C
1
and protruded from the outlet. In this folding structure, therefore, the length of the protrusion of the succeeding lower wet tissue
61
C is optimized to about one quarter of the length of the wet tissue
61
A before being folded. Moreover, the stacked body does not become too thick.
However, the folded wet tissue
61
C composing the wet tissue stacked body shown in
FIG. 16
is formed by folding the wet tissue
61
A along the widthwise center line
64
and then by folding only the lower half
63
along the folding line
65
. As a result, the widthwise center line of the folded wet tissue
61
C is not identical to that of the unfolded wet tissue
61
A. Therefore, the wet tissue has to be supplied to the folding step while being guided such that its center is widthwise shifted. This makes it difficult and seriously troublesome to adjust and stabilize the folding line at a correct position on the supply line.
At the folding step, moreover, because the center of wet tissue is liable to be offset, the center line
64
or the folding line
65
is liable to move out of position. With this discrepancy in the folding size, the overlapping area between the upper half
62
of the lower wet tissue
61
C and the intermediate portion
66
of the upper wet tissues
61
C fails to take one quarter of that of the unfolded wet tissue
61
A accurately, so that the length of the protrusion of the wet tissue cannot be fixed. In addition, there may be such a case that the folding line
65
of the upper wet tissue and the folding line
65
of the lower wet tissue overlap each other. As a result, the central portion of the stacked body may become thick.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention has been conceived to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art and has an object to provide a wet tissue product in which when a wet tissue is pulled out, the protrusion of the succeeding wet tissue is appropriately small.
Another object of the invention is to provide a wet tissue product in which the protrusion of the wet tissue can always be constant.
The present invention provides a wet tissue product comprising: a stacked body of folded wet tissues; and a container or package housing the stacked body,
wherein each of the folded wet tissues is formed by folding a plane wet tissue with one edge thereof upward and the other edge thereof downward along folding line portions to have an upper folded portion, a lower folded portion and an intermediate portion between the upper and lower folded portions, and
the folded wet tissues are so consecutively combined such that the folding line portion forming the lower folded portion of the upper wet tissue is sandwiched between the upper folded portion and the intermediate portion of the succeeding lower wet tissue.
In the present invention, it is preferred that each of the folded portions has an area about one quarter as large as that of the unfolded wet tissue, or that the upper folded portion has an area about one fifth as large as that of the unfolded wet tissue whereas the lower folded portion has an area about two fifths as large as that

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