ES2398217T3 - Improvements in hygienic rolls - Google Patents

Abstract

A hygienic roll in the form of an elongated continuous band (10) of material comprising a many individual portions (11) integrally connected to each other in series, in which each individual portion is formed so as to have an area that is smaller than the product of its total width across the continuous band multiplied by its length along the continuous band, the adjacent individual portions being connected to each other by means of a frangible zone of material (12) whose width through the continuous band is small with respect to the total width of the continuous band, so that it acts as a controlled breakpoint for when an individual portion of the contiguous one must be separated when it is removed, and in which the continuous band is folded taking the form of a stack of individual portions for its extraction, characterized in that each of the individual portions (11) have a generally circular shape, and each individual portion it is folded around a plurality of fold lines (B, C, D) that extend radially, so that a stack with a generally quadrant shaped section is produced.

Description

Improvements in hygienic rolls

The present invention is about hygienic rolls. As used herein, it is intended that the term "hygienic rolls" encompasses products of essentially disposable nature conceived

5 mainly, although not necessarily exclusively, for a cleaning or hygienic function, whether they are made of paper or other materials, whether absorbent or not, and are normally present in a dry, wet or wet condition and, for Therefore, they will include, for example, tissues, kitchen rolls, rolls of toilet paper, hand towels, face towels, cleaning wipes and baby wipes. The expression is also intended to cover products such as bibs and disposable notebooks.

A hygienic roll is known in the prior art as defined herein in the form of an elongated continuous web of material comprising many individual portions integrally connected to each other in series, in which each individual portion is formed so as to have an area that is smaller than the product of its total width across the continuous band multiplied by its length along the continuous band, in which the adjacent individual portions are connected to each other by means of a frangible zone of material whose

The width across the continuous band is small with respect to the total width of the continuous band so it acts as a controlled breaking point for when an individual portion of the contiguous one must be separated when removed.

An example of such a prior art hygienic roll can be seen in US 2823089. DE 19464484 discloses a hygienic roll comprising the features of the preamble of claim 1.

The hygienic roll of the present invention is characterized in that each of the individual portions has a generally circular shape, and each individual portion is folded around a plurality of radially extending fold lines, so as to produce a stack with a section generally shaped quadrant.

The invention also provides a distributor with such a hygienic roll, in which the distributor can be formed

25 with different configurations, for example, with a quadrant shaped section to contain a single stack, which would be suitable for mounting in a corner, a semicircular section to contain two individual batteries or with a circular section to contain four individual batteries.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which,

Figure 1 illustrates a hygienic roll form according to the invention,

Figures 2 and 3 illustrate a folding form of the continuous band of Figure 1 in a stack,

Figure 4 illustrates one way to form four of the continuous bands shown in Figure 1 at once,

Figures 5 and 6 illustrate alternative forms of toilet roll,

Figure 7 illustrates a distributor form for a continuous band similar to that shown in Figure 4,

Figures 8 and 9 illustrate an alternative form of folding the continuous web shown in Figure 1 and a distributor for the stack,

Figures 10, 11 and 12 show another alternative way of folding the continuous band shown in Figure 1 and a distributor for the stack, and

40 Figures 13 to 18 illustrate various shapes of the distributor.

The hygienic roll of Figure 1 is formed with a continuous length of material or continuous web 10. The material itself can have any suitable composition, but typically it can be paper based and consist of one or more layers. As can be seen in Figure 1, the continuous band 10 is formed so that it comprises many individual portions 11 with generally circular shape joined together in series. Each individual serving

45 11 is connected to each of its contiguous portions immediately behind and in front by means of a thin band of material 12. These band of material 12 are designed to have a significantly reduced width compared to the total width across the continuous band, so that they are frangible. In this way, frangible bands 12 act as controlled breakpoints for when each individual portion 11 must be separated from the adjacent one when removed.

50 Here, the width of the frangible bands 12 is approximately one sixth of the total width across the continuous band 10. Of course, this can be varied depending on factors such as the particular material used.

In addition, the individual portions may be connected to each other by two or more frangible bands that together form a frangible zone. It will be appreciated that the presence of frangible bands obviates the need for any perforation through the continuous band, the traditional method of assisting in the separation between successive individual portions in a conventional roll of paper towels.

It may be possible to produce the continuous web with the particular shape shown in Figure 1 as it is actually forming, for example while it is in the wire of a papermaking machine. Alternatively, the shape can be achieved by means of a cutting operation in a normally formed continuous web. In that case, the trimmed waste can be easily recycled and can be returned to the continuous strip forming process at the manufacturing point.

Figure 4 illustrates how four continuous bands 10 can be formed at one time, side by side, through the continuous band. It can also be seen in this illustration how a saving of approximately 20% of the material can be made compared to a conventional rectangular roll.

It has been observed that typically only the central circular portion of a paper towel is the effective work area, the corner regions of a traditional square or rectangular paper towel are often left unused. Therefore, when making a paper towel with a circular shape, a better use is made of it with the minimum amount of material, and without compromising its effectiveness. The form is also aesthetically pleasing and profitable, as well as ecological.

It would be possible to store the continuous web 10 seen in Figure 1 in a roll, for example. Figure 7 illustrates a conveniently portable form of the distributor 70 for containing a toilet roll 71 which, here, has individual portions 72 with generally oval shape. As each individual portion 72 of the distributor 70 is drawn, remove the next individual portion halfway before the frangible band 73 is broken.

Alternatively, the continuous web 10 may be folded and stacked. The simplest form of folding arrangement would involve extending each successive individual portion 11 over the previous one by means of a single fold of the frangible band 12 that joins them together, that is, along each fold line A in the Figure 1. This would produce a stack of individual portions with a generally circular section. A battery 80 such as this is illustrated in Figure 8.

Figure 9 shows a distributor 90 suitable for containing the battery 80 shown in Figure 8, and is in the form of a generally round box. Conveniently, the box could contain the battery in a wet or wet condition to be used as wipes.

A more sophisticated folding arrangement would further imply folding each individual portion 11 around its diameter that extends through the continuous band 10, that is to say along the folding line B in the Figure

1. This would produce a stack of individual portions with a generally semicircular section.

An even more sophisticated folding arrangement would involve folding each individual portion 11 along three folding lines that extend diametrically. As can be seen in Figure 1, one of these is the folding line B that extends through the continuous band. The other two fold lines C and D are each offset approximately 45! with respect to the folding line B. Each individual portion 11 is folded down around its folding line B and is folded upward around its other two folding lines C and D, as can be seen in Figure 2. The result is that each individual portion 11 It is folded by adopting a flat multilayer configuration in the form of a quarter circle. If this folding action is applied to each individual portion 11 in succession, the result is a stack of folded individual portions having a generally quadrant shaped section, as can be seen in Figure 3.

Figures 5 and 6 illustrate possible alternative profiles, which are not within the scope of claim 1, for the shape of the individual portions of the continuous web. In Figure 5, the individual portions 11a of the continuous band 10a have an oval shape, while in Figure 5 the individual portions 11b of the continuous band 10b are diamond shaped. In each case, the individual portions are integrally linked together in series by means of frangible bands 12a, 12b, in the manner of the embodiment of Figure 1. If desired, the continuous bands 10a, 10b shown in the Figures 5 and 6 in similar ways to those set forth above with respect to the embodiment of Figure 1.

An alternative form of folding of the continuous band shown in Figure 1 is illustrated in Figure 10. Here, in addition to the folding lines A, B, C and D shown in Figure 1, an additional folding line E is used , the folding line E extending along the longitudinal axis of the continuous band. The folding form first involves folding each individual portion 11 around the folding line B. Then, the individual portion 11 is folded alternately up and down around the fan-shaped fold lines C, D and E, as can be seen in Figure 11. Then, the individual portions folded in this way in a shape fan are stacked on top of each other, folding the frangible bands 12 around the fold line A, to form a generally triangular shaped pile. Figure 12 illustrates a triangular shaped distributor 120 with an upper access opening 121 suitable for containing a folded stack in this way.

Depending on how exactly the continuous band is formed and folded, it will be suitable for distribution in several different ways. The distributor 130 shown in Figure 13, for example, has a quadrant-shaped section and, therefore, is suitable for distributing paper towels in the form of the stack 13 shown in Figure 3. The distributor could be mounted or put in a corner.

Figure 14 illustrates a self-supporting form of distributor 140 having a semicircular section, with two compartments 141, 142 with cover for containing two individual supplies of paper towels in the form of the stack 13 shown in Figure 3. This distributor could be used , conveniently, to contain dry paper towels in one compartment and wet or wet ones in the other.

The distributor 150 of Figure 15 has a circular section, with four compartments to contain four individual supplies of paper towels, each in the form of the stack 13 shown in Figure 3. This distributor may be wall mounted and may be profitably combined with an integral soap dispensing device 151 fed from a reservoir 152 by means of a passage 153 that descends along the central axis of the distributor. The distributor may contain a single opening 154 to access the individual portions through its housing, with an indexing mechanism to align the next successive compartment with the opening as each battery is depleted.

The distributor 160 of Figure 16 is self-supporting, with two individual stacks of paper towels 13 being spring loaded towards a central access opening 161.

The distributor 170 of Figure 17 is in the form of a partially spherical rotating drum shaped to receive a stack of towels around its axis, to be distributed through a groove 171. This distributor is suitable for containing supplies of towel towels. paper in the form of the stack shown in Figure 3.

In the distributor 180 of Figure 18, a stack of paper towels is stored in a generally annular shaped housing, the paper towels being pushed into an access opening 181 by means of a spring loaded pallet 182.

In all these distributors, the idea of the design is to contain the stack so that the next individual portion is presented to the user. When the user draws an individual portion of the distributor, this causes the next successive individual portion to begin to be pulled from the distributor, because the two are connected by the frangible band. However, the frangible band is designed to break before the next individual portion is completely removed, leaving a sufficient portion of the portion exposed to be ready for the next user. When the individual portions are folded and distributed from a stack, the particular way in which they are folded can help in this procedure.

It will be appreciated that the techniques and forms described herein could be used to produce hygienic rolls for many different purposes, not necessarily for cleaning or hygiene. For example, the toilet roll can be plain paper and have the shape of a notebook. In that case, it may be possible to add a layer of adhesive to the frangible bands that separate each individual portion that can be used to fix the individual portion after it has been separated from the stack, in the same way as a “post- it "conventional.

Claims (11)

1. A hygienic roll in the form of an elongated continuous web (10) of material comprising a many individual portions (11) integrally connected to each other in series, in which each individual portion is formed so as to have an area that is smaller that the product of its total width across the band 5 continues multiplied by its length along the continuous band, the adjacent individual portions being connected to each other by means of a frangible zone of material (12) whose width across the continuous band is small with respect to the total width of the band continues, so it acts as a controlled breaking point for when an individual portion must be separated from the adjacent one when it is removed, and in which the continuous band is folded in the form of a stack of individual portions for its extraction, 10 characterized in that each of the individual portions (11) have a generally circular shape, and each individual portion is folded around a plurality of fold lines (B, C, D) that extend radially, so that a stack is produced with a section generally shaped like a quadrant. 2. A hygienic roll as claimed in claim 1, wherein said frangible zone (12) has a width across the continuous band (10) less than half of the total width of the continuous band. A hygienic roll as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein said frangible zone (12) is in the form of a single band of material in the central section of the continuous band (10).

Four.

A hygienic roll as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the continuous web (10) is folded in the frangible areas (12) between adjacent individual portions (11).

5.

A hygienic roll as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein a first (B) of

20 said fold lines (B, C, D) that extend radially are arranged to extend through the center of each individual portion (11). A hygienic roll as claimed in claim 5, wherein the second (C) and third (D) radially extending fold lines are arranged at an angle of 45! with respect to both sides of said first fold line (B) in each individual portion (11), each individual portion being folded 25 around the second and third fold lines in the same direction, while it is folded around said first fold line in the opposite direction. A hygienic roll as claimed in claim 6, wherein each individual portion (11) is arranged to have a fourth fold line (E) extending radially aligned with the longitudinal axis of the continuous web ( 10), thereby allowing each individual portion to be folded with 30 a pattern similar to a fan.

8.

A distributor with a hygienic roll as claimed in any preceding claim to contain a single stack, wherein the distributor (130) is configured with a quadrant shaped section and is suitable for mounting in a corner.

9.

A distributor with a hygienic roll as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7, in the

35 that the distributor (140) has two or more individual compartments (141, 142), each to contain a battery. 10. A dispenser as claimed in claim 9, wherein one compartment (141, 142) contains a dry cell and the other contains a wet or wet cell. 11. A distributor as claimed in claim 9 or 10, wherein the distributor (140) is configured with a semicircular section. 12. A distributor with a hygienic roll as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the distributor (150) has four compartments (13), each for containing a battery and the distributor is configured with a section circular.