NZ264939A - Wrapper for paper roll; the wrapper extends circumferentially around the periphery of the roll and comprises a line of perforation to facilitate its removal - Google Patents

Description

264939 N Z No. 264939 NEW ZEALAND Patents Act 1953 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO PAPER PRODUCTS We, Carter Holt Harvey Limited, a New Zealand company, of 640 Great South Road, Manukau City, Auckland, New Zealand, do hereby declare this invention to be described in the following statement:- 3 ~ 2649 This invention relates to a paper product and, in particular, to a wrapper for rolled paper products and to a product including such a wrapper. More particularly, the invention relates to wrapped toilet tissues.

Rolls of toilet tissue are available in a wide variety of sizes. Particularly for industrial uses, large diameter rolls are now commonly used. Such rolls are, routinely, wrapped, at least about the outer peripheral surface, the wrapper being removed prior to use.

It is also common to load a plurality of such rolls into a dispenser, for example a tower dispenser, for sequential dispensing. In all known arrangements, it is necessary to remove the outer wrapper before loading rolls into such a tower dispenser. It is also necessary to dispose separately of the removed wrappers.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved wrapper for roll products and to provide an improved wrapped roll product.

In one aspect, the invention provides a wrapper for a roll product, the wrapper being adapted to extend circumferentially around the periphery of the roll, the wrapper comprising a line of perforation to facilitate removal of the wrapper.

In an alternative embodiment, the invention provides a wrapper for a roll product, which wrapper is adapted to extend circumferentially around the periphery of a roll product, the wrapper being formed from the flushable material. The term flushable material relates to material that may acceptably be flushed in a toilet.

In a particularly preferred arrangement, the invention provides a wrapper for a roll product, which wrapper is adapted to extend circumferentially about the periphery of the roll product, the wrapper being formed from a flushable material and having a line of perforation, extending across the wrapper, to facilitate removal of the wrapper from the roll.

Advantageously, the wrapper may be adhered to the outer tail of the roll product in order to facilitate unwinding of the roll, subsequent to removal of the wrapper.

It has been found that wrapped rolls produced in accordance with the preferred embodiment of this invention may be loaded, complete with wrapper, into a dispenser, 2 264939 the perforated wrapper being readily removable and providing an easy start to dispensing of the roll to which the wrapper is attached. Because the wrapper, itself, is flushable, disposal of the wrapper is also facilitated. Thus, the rolls may be kept wrapped until required for use, even when stacked in a multiple dispenser unit.

The invention is applicable to any roll product, and particularly to rolled paper products, such as toilet tissues.

The invention will be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing in which: Figure 1 is a schematic perspective view of a paper roll incorporating a wrapper of the invention.

The conventional method of producing roll products such as toilet tissue, is to unwind wide jumbo parent reels of absorbent paper and rewind the absorbent paper into logs having the required diameter, or length of paper for the product being produced. The logs produced are the same width as the parent paper reel.

This is done using a rewinder and the log can either be wound onto a spindle or between rolls as in a conventional surface winder. Also logs can be wound with and without a centre core tube.

In the present invention, a log is transferred into a Banding machine which wraps and secures a paper wrapper, in the form of a band to the log. Banded logs are then transferred to a log saw which cuts the log into individual rolls of the required length.

The type of Bander used is not critical. Typically the most efficient production method is to band the full width log but individual rolls can be banded if preferred.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described, with reference to Figure 1. A tissue roll I, which comprises a length of absorbent tissue paper wound about a central core tube 2 is covered with a wrapper band 3. As will be described further herein below, one end of the wrapper band 3 is secured to an outer end, or tail 4, of the tissue roll 1. The wrapper band 3 is wrapped circumferentially about the outer periphery of the tissue roll 1 and an underside 5, of the wrapper band 3 is secured 3 2649 to ail outside 6 of the wrapper band 3 to fix the wrapper in place.

As shown in detail in the exploded portion of Figure 1, the wrapper band 3 is secured to the tail 4 of the tissue roll 1 by a line of adhesive 7. The outer end of the wrapper band is secured to the inner end of the wrapper band by a second line of adhesive 8 which is, preferably, situated substantially above the line of adhesive 7 conveniently a tail of wrapper band 9 extends outwardly of the line of adhesive 8 and provides a starting flap 9.

A line of perforation 10 is formed to extend transversely across the wrapper band 3 at a position close to the line of adhesive 8.

Thus, the edge of the paper band forming the inner tail of the band is attached to the outer ply of the wound log to anchor the band. The band is then wrapped around the log so that the inner tail is overlapped and the second glue line secures the starting flap to the inner tail. It is preferable that the location of the two glue lines are adjusted so that they are adjacent to or overlay one another when the band is wound around the log. It is important that the perforation line is positioned behind the second glue line.

The preference is to use a cold adhesive but hot melt adhesive is also acceptable.

The method of applying the adhesive is not important and one of several proprietary systems can be used such as extrusion units or spray guns. However, the glue application should be controlled so that adhesive does not penetrate through several plies of paper and thus prevent the roll unwinding. The degree of penetration can be controlled by either, varying the characteristics of the adhesive, or the quantity of spread of adhesive applied.

Preferably means should be provided to control the location of the roll tail relative to the inner edge of the paper band.

The perforation line 10 in the wrapper band 3 can be produced either:- During the rewind operation to produce parent reels of wrapper band paper; or During the paper banding operation by incorporating 4 2649 perforating equipment in the equipment which applies the paper band.

The preferred method of producing the perforation line 10 is to use a notched crush cutter to apply a continuous perforation line approx. 30mm from the edge of the paper band. The perforation line preferably should be continuous or alternatively can be intermittent.

There are several alternative methods of producing the perforation including:- Rotary notched shear cutter. This is a useful method on equipment where the paper band is applied to individual narrow rolls; Needling similar to the process used for postage stamps.

It is desirable to ensure that when it is required to start unwinding the roll and tension is applied to the starting flap, that the paper band will break along the perforation line before the glue line separates band starting flap tears. A wide range of perforation strengths are found to produce an acceptable result. The strength of the perforation is dependent on the thickness and tensile strength of the band paper and can be adjusted by changing the length of gap in the perforating cutter, or the number of perforation points.

The length of the starting flap 9 is not critical. It needs to be of sufficient length to enable the flap to be gripped firmly to start the roll. Typically 5 to 40mm is found to provide an adequate flap.

The wrapper band 3 may be manufactured from any material currently used in normal papermaking practice, but is best characterised by three main attributes.

The first requirement of the paper is that it must readily and rapidly absorb water. To achieve this requirement, the paper should be substantially free from additives such as modified or unmodified rosin, glue, gelatin, starch, modified celluloses, synthetic resins, latices and waxes, which are commonly used to control the absorption properties of paper. 2649 The second requirement of the paper is that it must readily and rapidly disintegrate following contact with water. This attribute is best achieved by using a paper of low Grammage and high Bulk to facilitate rapid penetration of water throughout the entire fibre matrix which comprises the paper. In addition, no additives such as polyamines, polyamide/epichlorohydrin copolymers, melamine formaldehyde polymers, modified or unmodified starches, commonly used to impart wet strength properties to the paper should be present.

The third requirement is that the paper must have sufficient strength to withstand the conversion process and to provide product protection, but the inter-fibre bonding should be limited to the extent that disintegration is not impeded.

In one preferred embodiment, a light weight paper whose grammage is in the range 12 to 60 grams per square metre (as measured by AS 1301.405s-92) with a Bulk greater than 1.5 (as measured by AS 1301.427s-88), and with Tensile Strengths measured in the Machine Direction and Cross Machine Direction (as measured by AS 1301.448s-9;) in the range of 0.6 to 3.0 kN/m, and 0.3 to 2.0 kN/m respectively, is recommended as the wrapping medium, provided that the absorption and disintegration characteristics are suitable. In practice a paper with the above characteristics and whose water adsorptiveness, as measured by the Cobb Test (AS1301.441s.89), exceeds 500 grams per square metre, and which, on vigorously shaking 1.0 grams of paper in a conical flask with 150 mL water, disintegrates in less than 30 seconds, is found to be suitable. The paper may or may not contain fillers such as clay, calcium carbonate, or titanium dioxide which are commonly added to improve the opacity and printing performance of the paper.

Example 1.

A paper suitable for this application having the following characteristics 6 Fibre Furnish: Softwood Pulp g.6 4 9 3 9 100% Kraft Bulk Machine Direction Tensile Strength Cross Machine Direction Tensile Strength 0.5 kN/m Cobb Water Adsorptiveness Disintegration time Grammage: 21.0 g/m2 1.66 1.0 kN/m 1500 g/m2 15 s Thus, in differing embodiments, the invention provides for a self dispensing flushable wrapper that provides the unique benefit of being able to load dispensers without removing the wrapper. Alternative toilet tissue products currently have paper wraps that need to be removed prior to loading dispensers. The additional benefit provided with the flushable wrapper is that there is no need to dispose of the wrapper and the roll is protected from dust or dirt. The flushable nature of the wrapper provides customers with additional savings through reduced servicing.

The perforation line positioned after the tail seal of the wrapper ensures that there is no difficulty with the removal of the wrapper. The outer layer of tissue is connected to the paper band to enable the toilet roll to dispense with the removal of the wrapper. An "easy start" feature is provided by the combination of the perforation line and the connection to the first (outermost) layer of tissue. 9 S?P 1997 I, r ' i

Claims (15)

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 269 939

1. A wrapped rolled paper p/oduct, comprising a rolled paper product and a wrapper adapted to extend circumferentially around the periphery of the rolled paper product, the wrapper being removable to enable dispensing of the rolled product, the wrapper comprising a line of perforation to facilitate removal of the wrapper.

2. A wrapped rolled product, which wrapper is adapted to extend circumferentially about the periphery of the rolled product, the wrapper being formed from a flushable material and having a line of perforation, extending across the wrapper, to facilitate removal of the wrapper from the rolled product.

3. A product according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the wrapper is adhered to the outer tail of the rolled product in order to facilitate unwinding of the roll, subsequent to removal of the wrapper.

4. A product according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the wrapper is made from a paper material.

5. A product according to claim 4, wherein the said paper material is able readily and rapidly to absorb water.

6. A product according to claim S, wherein the paper material is substantially free from additives such as modified or unmodified resin, glue, gelatin, starch, modified celluloses, synthetic resins, latices and waxes.

7. A product according to any one of claims 4 to 6, wherein the paper material has a grammage in the range of 12 to 60 g/m2.

8. A product according to any one of claims 4 to 7, wherein the paper material has a bulk greater than l.S.

9. A product according to my one of claims 4 to 8, wherein the paper material has a tensile strength, measured in the machine direction and cross rrmrhinp direction, in the range of 0.6 to 3.0 kN/m and 0.3 to 2.0 kN/m, respectively^ | N.Z. PATENT O-g I ?. (! SFP W 269939

10. A product according to any one of claims 4 to 9, wherein the paper material includes a filler material selected from clay, calcium carbonate or titflnhim oxide.

11. A product according to any one of claims 4 to 10, wherein the paper is a paper having the characteristics: Fibre Furnish: 100% Kraft Softwood Pulp Grammage: 21.0 g/m2 Bulk 1.66 Machine Direction Tensile Strength 1.0 kN/m Cross Machine Direction Tensile Strength 0.5 kN/m Cobb Water Absorptiveness 1500 g/m2 Disintegration time 15 s

12. A rolled paper product according to any one of claims 1-11, wherein the product is a rolled toilet tissue.

13. A wrapper substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawing.

14. A wrapped rolled paper product substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawing. HZ. PMENT OFFICE ?■ G SEP 1997 26 9 9 3 9

15. A method of preparing a wrapper substantially as herein described or exemplified. CARTER HOLT HARVEY LIMITED By Their Attorneys HENRY HUGHES Per: I end of claims N.2. PATENT OrT'CE 2 6 SEP 1997