K-C Worldwide's US patent application for 'soft creped tissue' published online

Nevin Barich

WASHINGTON , April 24, 2014 (Politics & Government Week) – According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by VerticalNews journalists, a patent application by the inventors Rekoske, Michael John (Appleton, WI); Soerens, Dave allen (Neenah, WI); Druecke, Frank Gerald (Oshkosh, WI); Timm, Jeffrey James (Menasha, WI), filed on October 5, 2012, was made available online on April 17, 2014.

The assignee for this patent application is Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "In the manufacture of paper products, such as facial tissues, bath tissues, napkins, wipes, paper towels, etc., it is often desired to optimize various properties of the products. For example, the products should have good bulk, a soft feel, and should have good strength. Unfortunately, however, when steps are taken to increase one property of the product, other characteristics of the product are often adversely affected.

"For instance, it is very difficult to produce a high strength paper product that is also soft. In particular, strength is typically increased by the addition of certain strength or bonding agents to the product. Although the strength of the paper product is increased, various methods are often used to soften the product that can result in decreased fiber bonding. For example, chemical debonders can be utilized to reduce fiber bonding and thereby increase softness. Moreover, mechanical forces, such as creping or calendering, can also be utilized to increase softness.

"However, reducing fiber bonding with a chemical debonder or through mechanical forces can adversely affect the strength of the paper product. For example, hydrogen bonds between adjacent fibers can be broken by such chemical debonders, as well as by mechanical forces of a papermaking process. Consequently, such debonding results in loosely bound fibers that extend from the surface of the tissue product. During processing and/or use, these loosely bound fibers can be freed from the tissue product, thereby creating lint, which is defined as individual airborne fibers and fiber fragments. Moreover, papermaking processes may also create zones of fibers that are poorly bound to each other but not to adjacent zones of fibers. As a result, during use, certain shear forces can liberate the weakly bound zones from the remaining fibers, thereby resulting in slough, i.e., bundles or pills on surfaces, such as skin or fabric. As such, the use of such debonders can often result in a much weaker paper product during use that exhibits substantial amounts of lint and slough. As such, a need currently exists for a paper product that is soft, yet strong enough to prevent sloughing. Moreover, there is a need for a product that can be produced without the excessive use of debonders."

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, VerticalNews editors also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent application: "Typically to achieve a soft tissue the strength of the web is decreased and short, low coarseness fibers, treated with a chemical debonder, are disposed on the skin-contacting surface of the web. The softness levels achievable using such techniques, however, are limited by the user's desire to have a tissue that is strong enough to withstand use and to avoid large amounts of fibers sloughing from the tissue surface in-use. The present invention, however, overcomes these limitations to yield novel tissue webs that have improved softness, while maintaining sufficient strength.

"Accordingly, in one aspect the disclosure provides a creped tissue web having a TS7 value less than about 8.0 dB V.sup.2 rms.

"In other aspects the disclosure provides a creped tissue web having a TS7 value less than about 8.0 dB V.sup.2 rms and a TS750 value less than about 7.0 dB V.sup.2 rms.

"In yet other aspects the disclosure provides a creped tissue product comprising one or more plies, the tissue product having a geometric mean tensile (GMT) from greater than about 600 g/3'' and a TS7 value of less than about 8 dB V.sup.2 rms.

"In still other aspects the disclosure provides a creped tissue web having a GMT from about 300 about 1000 g/3'' and a TS7 value of less than about 8.0 dB V.sup.2 rms.

"In other aspects the disclosure provides a creped tissue web having a basis weight of greater than about 10 gsm and a TS7 value from about 4.0 to about 8.0 dB V.sup.2 rms.

"In still other aspects the present disclosure provides a multi-ply tissue product comprising two multi-layered creped tissue webs, the tissue webs having three superposed layers, an inner layer consisting essentially of softwood fibers and two outer layers consisting essentially of hardwood fibers, the inner layer being located between the two outer layers, wherein each web has a GMT greater than about 300 g/3'' and a TS7 value of less than about 8.0 dB V.sup.2 rms.

"These and other features and aspects of the present disclosure are discussed in greater detail below."

For more information, see this patent application: Rekoske, Michael John; Soerens, Dave allen; Druecke, Frank Gerald; Timm, Jeffrey James. Soft Creped Tissue. Filed October 5, 2012 and posted April 17, 2014. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=4886&p=98&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20140410.PD.&OS=PD/20140410&RS=PD/20140410

Keywords for this news article include: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide Inc.

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