Heated embossing and ply attachment

A process for producing a ply bonded paper product comprising:

• providing a base sheet comprising at least two plies, said base sheet comprising pulp fibers, each said ply having a basis weight of from about 6 lb/ream to about 50 lb/ream;
• guiding said base sheet through an embossing nip, said embossing nip being formed between a pattern roll and a backing roll, said pattern roll comprising raised bonding elements, said embossing nip being heated to a temperature of between about 100° F. and about 500° F., wherein the residence time of said base sheet within said embossing nip is between about 2.5 milliseconds and about 25 milliseconds;
• and
• subjecting said base sheet to sufficient temperature and pressure within said embossing nip such that said pulp fibers bond where said base sheet contacts said raised bonding elements resulting in a well defined embossed pattern having a glassine appearance and bonding between said at least two plies, said contact area comprising between about 2% and about 60% of the total surface area of said base sheet.

A multi-ply paper product comprising:

• a first ply comprising pulp fibers;
• a second ply also comprising pulp fibers, the first ply being positioned in an overlapping relationship with the second ply;
• rows of perforation spaced apart along the length of the multi-ply paper product, each of the rows being substantially perpendicular to the length of the paper product;
• and
• bond areas attaching the first ply to the second ply, the bond areas being located adjacent to the perforations, the bond areas comprising areas where pulp material from the first ply has been glassined together with pulp material from the second ply.

A method of contemporaneously perforating and attaching a plurality of pulp fiber plies together, the method comprising:

• arranging the plurality of pulp fiber plies in an overlapping configuration;
• perforating the plurality of pulp fiber plies;
• and
• pressing and therein fusing the plurality of pulp fiber plies together adjacent to the formed perforations under a pressure sufficient to cause said plies to glassine and fuse together.

An apparatus for simultaneously perforating, glassining, and attaching two or more paper plies comprising:

• a plurality of perforator blades, the perforator blades defining a generally rectangular plate with a plurality of teeth arranged along a principal plane, the teeth having chamfered flat surfaces, the chamfered flat surfaces being configured so as to define an oblique with respect to the principal plane;
• a rotatable perforator head, the perforator head defining a circumference, the perforator head configured so as to securely hold the perforator blades about the circumference;
• and
• an anvil, the anvil defining a flat surface disposed adjacent to and at an angle to the perforator head and configured to intersect the path of the perforator blades as the blades are rotated by the perforator head.