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US 7,922,035 B2Granted
Tissue stack and dispenser
AssigneeKimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
InventorsLeslie Thomas Long, Jon Christensen, Craig A. Blodgett
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Abstract
By controlling the profile of a folded stack when placed into an oval dispenser, it is possible to reduce the compression of the folded stack by the dispenser's sidewall, thereby reducing or eliminating sheet tears when dispensing the sheet-material from the dispenser. In particular, by making the folded stack thicker in the middle and thinner at the edges, as a result of providing a variable width flat stack prior to folding the flat stack, the folded stack will better fit into an oblong or circular dispenser.
Claims10
A product comprising:
- a flat stack of a plurality of interleaved V-folded sheets formed from a sheet-material, the flat stack having a variable width and a substantially uniform length, the flat stack having at least an upper portion and a lower portion, wherein the upper portion of the flat stack has a width, Wu, and the lower portion of the flat stack has a width, WI, which is approximately equal to Wu, wherein the upper portion of the stack contains from 6 to 30 folded sheets and wherein the upper portion is offset from the lower portion by an offset distance 0 which is from about 10 percent to about 60 percent of the width Wu;
- and
- the flat stack folded about a transverse fold axis adjacent the lower portion to form a folded stack having an arched stack top and a stack bottom comprising two legs;
- and
- a dispenser comprising:
- an oval-shaped top, an oval-shaped bottom and a sidewall;
- a dispensing opening located in the top;
- and wherein the dispenser is oblong having a longitudinal axis and having a maximum width, Wd, that is less than the maximum length, Ld;
- wherein the folded stack is placed into the dispenser with the transverse fold axis of the folded stack substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the dispenser and with the arched stack top adjacent to the dispensing opening.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.