Anti-static, anti-corrosion, and/or anti-microbial films, fabrics, and articles

A method of manufacturing anti-microbial film including the steps of:

• providing a quantity of a polymeric resin;
• providing a quantity of an anti-microbial agent comprising ionic silver;
• mixing the anti-microbial agent with the polymeric resin in a ratio of 3% by weight of anti-microbial agent to 97% polymeric resin;
• extruding the resulting mixture into an anti-microbial film;
• slitting the anti-microbial film into long, narrow strips comprising anti-microbial tapes to form an anti-microbial fabric;
• cutting the anti-microbial fabric in accordance with a predetermined pattern thereby forming a plurality of individual anti-microbial fabric pieces;
• and
• joining the individual anti-microbial fabric pieces edge to edge to form a flexible, collapsible anti-microbial container.

A method of manufacturing an anti-microbial flexible intermediate bulk container comprising the steps of:

• providing a flexible intermediate bulk container including at least one side wall, at least one bottom wall, and at least one top wall;
• the side, bottom, and top walls being joined together edge to edge to define a flexible intermediate bulk container having a predetermined capacity;
• providing a quantity of a polymeric coating material;
• providing a quantity of an anti-microbial agent comprising ionic silver;
• mixing the anti-microbial agent into the polymeric coating material in a ratio of 3% by weight anti-microbial agent to 97% polymeric resin to provide an anti-microbial coating material;
• applying the anti-microbial coating material to at least a portion of at least one of the walls comprising the flexible intermediate bulk container.

A method of providing anti-microbial protection for food items including the steps of:

• providing a quantity of a polymeric resin;
• providing a quantity of an anti-microbial agent comprising ionic silver;
• mixing the anti-microbial agent with the polymeric resin in a ratio of 3% by weight anti-microbial agent to 97% polymeric resin;
• extruding the resulting mixture into an anti-microbial film;
• cutting the anti-microbial film into anti-microbial sheets having predetermined dimensions;
• and
• positioning the anti-microbial sheets adjacent to food items to provide anti-microbial protection for the food items.

A method of manufacturing anti-microbial food containers including the steps of:

• providing a quantity of a polymeric resin;
• providing a quantity of an anti-microbial agent comprising ionic silver;
• mixing the anti-microbial agent with the polymeric resin in a ratio of 3% by weight anti-microbial agent to 97% polymeric resin;
• forming the resulting mixture into a film;
• slitting the anti-microbial film into long, narrow strips comprising anti-microbial tapes;
• weaving the anti-microbial tapes to form an anti-microbial fabric;
• cutting the anti-microbial fabric in accordance with a predetermined pattern thereby forming a plurality of individual anti-microbial fabric pieces;
• and
• joining the individual anti-microbial fabric pieces edge to edge to form a food container.