Kimberly-clark Worldwide, Inc.

Lindsay Wire, Inc.

B.i. Industries, Inc.

Kimberly-clark Corporation

Kai F Chiu

Mark Alan Burazin

Greg Arthur Wendt

Jeffrey Dean Lindsay

Theodore Edwin Farrington, Jr

David Alan Heaton

James S Rugowski

Antonius F Rietvelt

Bernhardt Edward Kressner

Kimberly K Underhill

David T Evans

Method of manufacture tissue products having visually discernable background texture regions bordered by curvilinear decorative elements

A highly absorbent tissue product is provided having a uniform density and a three-dimensional structure including at least first and second background regions separated by a visually distinctive transition region. The first and second background regions include a series of parallel ridges and depressions extending in the machine direction.

Absorbent tissue products having visually discernable background texture

Fabric for use in the manufacture of tissue products having visually discernable background texture regions bordered by curvilinear decorative elements

Tissue products such as facial tissue, bath tissue, paper towels and the like are wet molded and dried using a through-air-drying fabric which has a three dimensional, sculptured, textured background accentuated with decorative signature patterns. The textured background is woven into the fabric. The decorative patterns are created by using a smooth polymeric substance or by yarn stitches. The decorative patterns on the through air drying fabric provide enhanced aesthetics, while the textured background provides improved properties such as absorbent capacity, absorbent rate, stretch, flexibility, drape, bulk, and hand feel when used in tissue making.

Decorative wet molding fabric for tissue making

Throughdried tissue products such as facial tissue, bath tissue, and paper towels are made using a throughdrying fabric having from about 5 to about 300 machine direction impression knuckles per square inch (per 6.45 square centimeters) which are raised above the plane of the fabric. These impression knuckles create corresponding protrusions in the throughdried sheet which impart a significant amount of cross-machine direction stretch to the sheet. In addition, other properties such as bulk, absorbent capacity, absorbent rate and flexibility are also improved.

Method of making soft tissue products

A throughdrying fabric for the drying section of a papermaking machine is disclosed in several embodiments. In each embodiment, the fabric has a load-bearing layer and a sculpture layer. The sculpture layer is characterized by impression MD knuckles, in the present instance formed as warp knuckles floating over a plurality of shutes but positioned substantially above the tops of the lowest shute knuckles in the load-bearing layer so as to provide machine direction knuckles projecting in the sculpture layer. Methods of weaving the fabric are disclosed using a standard fourdrinier loom. The loom may embody an auxiliary jacquard mechanism which is effective to control the impression warps in the sculpture level to produce a wide variety of patterns of impression knuckles which, in turn, produce an image on the pulp web which the throughdrying fabric carries through the machine.

Apparatus for making soft tissue products

Multi-ply papermaking fabric with ovate binder yarns

A multi-ply forming fabric is provided for use at the wet end of a paper-making machine for receiving wet pulp having a substantial portion of recycled paper fibers. The forming fabric cannot be characterized as either a conventional double-layer or triple-layer fabric. The fabric has an independent top ply comprising a self-sustaining weave of warp yarns and shute yarns, and a bottom side comprising a series of dependent shute yarns interwoven with the top ply by binder warp yarns. The fabric has a reduced caliper, larger internal fiber interstices and substantial projected open areas which trap fewer contaminants and allow the fabric to be more easily cleaned than conventional fabrics.

Multi-ply papermaking fabric with binder warps

A forming fabric for use in papermaking machines for making tissue products in which the fabric is a three-ply fabric. The upper ply has its machine direction (MD) filaments arranged in groups so that wide channels are provided through the ply between the groups and narrow channels are provided through the ply within the groups. Cross direction (CD) filaments in the upper ply provide CD knuckles spanning across the channels to provide a gridwork for supporting fibers separated from the water of the slurry deposited on the forming fabric, the fibers having a greater density in bands overlying the wide channels than in the intermediate bands overlying the narrow channels. The lower ply is a porous fabric which further controls the flow of the water discharged from the pulp through the upper ply. The two plies are interconnected by integrated binder filaments which cooperate to maintain the groupings of the MD filaments in the upper ply. The predominant CD knuckles on the paper side of the fabric provide topographic lines crossing the MD channels diagonally in both directions.

Multi-ply forming fabric providing varying widths of machine direction

Creped tissues having improved perceived softness and appearance are made from tissue webs having at least a machine direction broken line pattern of individual densified areas containing higher mass concentrations of fibers. The broken line pattern of densified areas creates a pleasing appearance and influences the creping to provide a more uniform crepe and hence improved tissue softness.

Tissue webs having a regular pattern of densified areas

A wire former comprising a structural framework, a headbox for holding and dispensing the pulp slurry, a breast roll, a couch roll, a forming fabric belt extending endless between the breast roll and the couch roll in a straight run, and drainage elements and suction devices underlying said straight run for extracting liquid from the slurry. The forming fabric is a multi-ply fabric, the uppermost ply being a self-sustaining weave with monofilament warp yarns of a given diameter interwoven with shute yarns, the lowermost ply being a weave with a series of generally ovate warp yarns having a vertical dimension generally equal to the diameter of the warp yarns of the uppermost ply, interwoven with shute yarns. The ovate warp yarns have a horizontal width in the shute direction substantially greater than their vertical dimension. Binder shute yarns interconnect the upper and lower plies by being interwoven with the upper and lower plies so as to be contained within the body of the multi-ply fabric.

Growing community of inventors

Brandon, MS, United States of America

Kai F Chiu