Soft goods formed from a fiber liquid slurry having surface features, and methods for making the same
AssigneeSimplifyber, Inc.
InventorsMaria Intscher-Owrang, Philip Cohen, Joseph Miller, Juliana Marangon Jardim
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Abstract
The present invention discloses a molded article having a surface feature created by a light reactive agent interacting with light from a light source, and a method for making the same. The article is molded from a slurry comprised of an aqueous solution that includes a plurality of fibers and a light reactive agent. The slurry is molded into a three-dimensional solid fibrous molded part. The solid fibrous molded part is exposed to a light source such that the light reacts with the light reactive agent to create at least one surface feature. The surface feature can be, for example, a texture or a color change.
Claims9
A method for producing a solid fibrous molded article, comprising:
- providing a slurry that contains at least an amount of water, a plurality of fibers and an interacting ingredient, the interacting ingredient includes a light reacting agent;
- providing the slurry into a molding form that defines a three-dimensional void;
- draining at least some of the water from the slurry and applying at least one of heat and pressure to cause at least one of fiber to fiber bonding and chemical cross-linking between the plurality of fibers such that the slurry is transformed to the solid fibrous molded article;
- removing the solid fibrous molded article from the molding form;
- and
- exposing the solid fibrous molded article to a light source such that light from the lights source reacts with the light reactive agent to create at least one surface feature;
- wherein the at least one surface feature includes at least one of a pattern, texture and color change.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.