Area thinned thin sheet materials
AssigneeKimberly-Clark Corporation
InventorsBernard Cohen, Lee K. Jameson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for forming thinned areas in a thin sheet material. The method includes the steps of (1) placing the thin sheet material on a pattern anvil having a pattern of raised areas wherein the height of the raised areas is generally less than the thickness of the sheet material; (2) conveying the sheet material, while placed on the pattern anvil, through an area where a fluid is applied to the sheet material; and (3) subjecting the sheet material to a sufficient amount of ultrasonic vibrations in the area where the fluid is applied to the sheet material to area thin the sheet material in a pattern generally the same as the pattern of raised areas on the pattern anvil. In some embodiments, the thinned areas may be micro areas.
Claims55
A sheet material, having an average thickness of less than about ten mils, with at least a portion thereof having a generally uniform pattern of at least 1,000 thinned areas per square inch, wherein each of the thinned areas has a thickness which is at least 25 percent less than the thickness of the surrounding sheet material.
A sheet material, having an average thickness of less than about ten mils, with at least a portion thereof having a generally uniform pattern of at least 1,000 thinned areas per square inch, wherein each of the thinned areas has a thickness which is at least 50 percent less than the thickness of the surrounding sheet material.
A sheet material, having an average thickness of less than about ten mils, with at least a portion thereof having a generally uniform pattern of at least 1,000 thinned areas per square inch, wherein each of the thinned areas has a thickness which is at least 75 percent less than the thickness of the surrounding sheet material.
A sheet material, having an average thickness of less than about ten mils, with at least a portion thereof having a generally uniform pattern of at least 1,000 thinned areas per square inch, wherein each of the thinned areas has a thickness which is at least 90 percent less than the thickness of the surrounding sheet material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.