Paper straw manufacture

Abstract

A method of manufacturing a bendable paper straw and a paper straw made in accordance with the method, the method including the steps, in any convenient order, of coating plies of flexible material, such as paper, with a generally liquid adhesive, such as food grade glue, forming on a mandrel having a generally smooth outer surface a tube composed of a plurality of plies of such coated flexible material, such as helically-wound plies, if necessary, cutting the tube into lengths suitable for forming finished straws, and before the adhesive has set, mounting the or each tube on a respective mandrel having a smooth outer surface and thereafter forming a series of generally concentric grooves on the outside the tube, such as by rolling, pressing or crimping the grooves, and thereafter moving one end of the tube towards the other end along its major axis, such as by pushing or pulling, whereby to axially compress the series of grooves to form a set of annular corrugations, and thereafter allowing the adhesive to set, whereby to form a straw bendable around the corrugated region into a temporarily deformed shape.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.