Other

Micrex Corporation

Kimberly-clark Corporation

Richard C Walton

George E Munchbach

Richard R Walton

Robert W Young

Peter R Smith

J Drew Horn

Drew Horn

A stationary working surface of a one roll microcreper member is of plastic resin having low wear and friction properties. As a primary pressing member subject to concentrated force it is 0.040 inch thick. One or both opposed retarder members of a bladed microcreper are of the plastic. Thermoplastics meeting wear and friction limits, e.g. ultra high density polyethylene, are employed. Primary extensions, some having openings, slots or holes serve as flexible retarders to engage treated material. By a load-spreading surface, the thermoplastic primary member is restrained without distortion. By this surface being linear it slideably inserts into a mounting. By this surface being parallel to the roll axis the primary member is free for cross-machine thermal expansion. A primary member shown is sheet form, mounted between sheet metal members, one with a restraint surface. Sheet materials of polyolefins, wood pulp, etc. are dry microcreped at improved rates and materials not heretofore capable of being processed can now be processed.

Microcreping traveling sheet material

Wet wipe products are made from continuous wet wiping web material having thermoplastic fibers of type, concentration and dispersion capable of being heat-set to set the overall web material in a reformed shape. A succession of ridges and grooves is formed by passing the performed material through a dry creper apparatus in absence of adhesives, the action characterized by pressing the material with a stationary pressing surface to engage an advancing drive surface, the driven material bodily collapsing into a succession of adjacent ridges and grooves that increase the volume of the material. The wet wiping material is heat set in the ridge and groove configuration, enabling the ridge and groove configuration to be preserved when the wet wiping material is wetted and when squeezed and released. The self-restoring ridge and groove configuration provides stress concentrating edges and improves liquid delivery and wet wiping in a number of respects.

Non-woven wet wiping

Apparatus for longitudinal compressive treatment of a continuous web of material. The apparatus comprises a cylindrical drive roll for advancing the web, a smooth-surfaced primary member to press the web against the drive roll, and a generally-stationary retarder downstream of the primary member to engage and retard the web before the web has left the drive roll. The retarder surface has a large multiplicity of parallel ridges and grooves set on a diagonal, and effective to cause longitudinal compression of the web and to cause the web to flow at an angle to the original direction of drive. The retarder surface also has a reorienting retarding surface, effective after the web advances incrementally at the angle, to effect further compression and to reorient the travel of the web to be generally parallel to the original direction of drive.

Compressively treating flexible sheet materials

Apparatus for compressively treating flexible sheet materials

Absorbent and cushioning products and their manufacture

Machines and methods for longitudinal compressive treatment of a web are shown. A retarder blade disposed adjacent a roll provides a web-contacting slide surface to which the longitudinally compressed web transfers and upon which it slides as it leaves the roll. This retarder blade has two spaced-apart roll-contacting regions disposed toward the roll, one of the roll-contacting regions being at the forward tip of the blade near the drive region and the second roll-contacting region being at a heel region spaced downstream. A pair of drive rolls defines a nip for driving the web forward, the surface of each of the rolls comprising a series of principle web-gripping grooves extending in only one direction helically about the roll axis. At the nip line of the rolls the angle of the grooves of one roll is inclined positively relative to the direction of travel of the web, and the angle of the grooves of the other roll is inclined negatively relative to the direction of travel of the web. Special roll contours and special forms of the blade construction, and other features of the driving and retarding passages are described.

Longitudinal compressive treatment of web materials

The exterior of a compressed tampon, e.g. for absorbing menstrual discharge, is formed from a bat of substantially aligned absorbent fibers that have been preshortened in a microundulated state as a result of longitudinal compressive pretreatment. The preshortening, generally more than 20% of original length of the fibers, is selected to permit substantial recovery of original dimension, there being at least 10 of the microundulations per inch prior to incorporation in the tampon. The microundulations are shape-retentive (in the dry state) and reside with the sides of adjacent microundulations close together. Because of the pretreated state, the absorbent fibers have stored mechanical energy in a predetermined selected direction within the final tampon. They are highly moisture sensitive, responsive to small amounts of liquid to cause release of the mechanical energy and expansion in the given direction to cause rapid expansion of the exterior of the tampon. One preferred tampon has such a pretreated outer layer and an inner core of nontreated tampon material, though many other constructions are possible. In this preferred tampon the pretreated outer layer serves as a high-speed transfer member to uniformly distribute the fluids about the core to produce high rate of expansion, high total expansion and improved absorbency.

Growing community of inventors

Boston, MA, United States of America

Richard C Walton