Kimberly-clark Worldwide, Inc.

Kelly Steven Lehl

Wen Zyo Schroeder

Greg Arthur Wendt

Stephen John McCullough

Gary Vance Anderson

The invention consists of soft, bulky tissue products that result from the presence of a debonder/softening agent in the outer layers of the tissue and creping under 'closed' pocket conditions. The debonder/softening agents belong to a group of organic chemicals that include several imidazolinium quaternary compounds. These chemicals do not adversely interfere with adhesion, unlike most debonders, to the drying surface of the tissue machine. They can, therefore, be placed in the outer layers of the tissue that contact the dryer surface and improve creping. The tissue can then be creped off of the drying surface using a closed pocket, that is a pocket angle of less than 80 degrees. The closed pocket creping normally produces a thicker, less dense tissue but with coarse crepe. Closed pocket creping and the presence of most debonders in the dryer side layers would be expected to also produce coarse crepe structures. However, the interaction of debonder adhesive properties and the closed pocket creping conditions produces a bulky tissue with sufficiently fine crepe structure that results in high overall softness.

Growing community of inventors

Appleton, WI, United States of America

Kelly Steven Lehl