Packaged toilet paper and method of manufacturing thereof

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Patent issued

01/12/1993

Inventor(s):	Yamamoto, Yoshitomo
Assignee	Daiho Giken Co., Ltd. (Kitakyushu)
Application	No. 07/765,342 filed on 09/25/1991
Current US Class	53/429, 53/434, 53/436
Field of search	53/429, 53/436, 53/433, 53/432, 53/117, 53/116, 53/526, 53/528, 53/511, 53/510
International Classes:	A47K 1016, A47K 1020, B65B 6124, B65H 1902
Examiners
Primary	Coan James F.
Attorney, agent or firm:	Armstrong, Westerman, Hattori, McLeland & Naughton
US patent references	3645198, 4377061, 4418514, 4553668, 4595093, 5027582
Foreign patents	2-418661 (12/28/1990, JP), 3-114160 (02/22/1991, JP), 55-94227 (06/30/1980, JP), 3-17073 (01/31/1991, JP)

A packaged toilet paper made up with a strip of toilet paper which isfolded zigzag into a rectangular parallelepipedic body and vacuum-packagedwith an airtight synthetic resin sheet, and a method of manufacturing apackaged toilet paper by folding a strip of toilet paper zigzag into arectangular parallelepipedic body, sealing the rectangularparallelepipedic body of toilet paper with an airtight synthetic resinsheet, and by executing a vacuum packaging, with flat solid members beingput and pressed respectively on the top and bottom faces of the toiletpaper sealed with said synthetic resin sheet.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a packaged toilet paper mainly fordomestic use and a method of manufacturing thereof.
A conventional toilet paper is generally sold in a state where a narrowpaper strip is rolled up onto a paper tube core.
And, in case of using such a toilet paper, a shaft is put through aforesaidpaper tube core and fixed to the supporting means, and then a strip ofpaper is pulled out of the toilet paper in a rolled-up state.
However, there has been a problem that waste spaces are produced when a lotof toilet papers are piled because a toilet paper which is wound into aroll becomes cylindrical in shape. Further, there has been another problemthat the paper tube core on which a paper strip is wound, because the coreis hollow and this hollowed portion occupies a waste volume, becomes bulkyin usual transportation and storage.
In addition, aforesaid paper tube core is only abandoned without reused,wasting resources.
On the other hand, in the case of paper used for computer, etc., there hasknown a method to form a paper strip into a hexahedral body by foldingzigzag such a paper strip, because a rolled-up paper strip becomes bulky.If said method is introduced for manufacturing toilet papers, the papertube cores become unnecessary and, the occupying volume of toilet paperproduced by such a method can largely be reduced in compared with thatproduced by aforesaid method.
However, the paper used for toilet paper, different from aforesaid paperused for computer, etc., is soft and, as a result, becomes only a fat andbulky hexahedral body even if it is folded into a zigzag state, and cannotbecome an effective volume-reducing measure in comparing with aforesaidrolled-up toilet paper which is wound with a certain tension. Moreover,because of its softness, a toilet paper has a disadvantage to deform if itis crumpled or its corner is pressed while being handled.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of above-mentionedcircumstances and, accordingly, it is an object of this invention toprovide a packaged toilet paper whose occupying volume is small enough torationalize transportation, exhibition, and storage, and whose paper tubecore becomes unnecessary, and a method of manufacturing such a packagedtoilet paper.
The packaged toilet paper relating to this invention with above-mentionedobject comprises a packaged toilet paper made up with a continuous stripof toilet paper which is packaged with a synthetic resin sheet, whereinaforesaid strip of toilet paper is folded zigzag with a constant pitchinto a rectangular parallelepipedic body, an airtight synthetic resinsheet is used for aforesaid synthetic resin sheet, and aforesaidrectangular parallelepipedic body is vacuum-packaged with aforesaidairtight synthetic resin sheet.
Then, the method of manufacturing the packaged toilet paper withabove-mentioned object comprises a process to fold the toilet paper zigzaginto a rectangular parallelepipedic body, a process to seal aforesaidrectangular parallelepipedic body of toilet paper with an airtightsynthetic resin sheet, and a process to perform a vacuum packaging, withflat solid members being put and pressed respectively on the top andbottom faces of the toilet paper sealed with said synthetic resin sheet.
In this invention, the rectangular parallelepipedic body includes a cubicbody, and the synthetic resin sheet includes a laminated sheet consistingof a synthetic resin sheet and a metal foil (aluminum foil, for example).
The occupying volume of the packaged toilet paper relating to thisinvention, because it is made up with a strip of toilet paper which isfolded zigzag into a rectangular parallelepipedic body and vacuum-packagedwith an airtight synthetic resin sheet, is reduced to nearly half or lessthat of conventional rolled-up toilet paper. As a result, this packagedtoilet paper becomes easy to transport and compact enough to save theexhibiting or storing space and, if the occupying volume is the same asthat of conventional toilet paper, the longer toilet paper can be used.
In addition, this packaged toilet paper needs no paper tube core which isnecessary for the conventional rolled-up toilet paper and becomes verysanitary because it is totally sealed with an airtight synthetic resinsheet.
Further, this packaged toilet paper has an advantage to be easy to handlein storing and transporting it because its soft toilet paper is compressedto be hard by the zigzag folding and vacuum packaging.
Accordingly, for instance, in case a house wife buys said packaged toiletpaper at a shop and take it home, it does not become bulky because it iscompact and, further, it has an advantage to save the storing space athome.
As to the method of manufacturing the packaged toilet paper relating tothis invention, because it is so manufactured as to be easy to transportand store as mentioned above and, further, because it is vacuum-packagedwhile compressed with a flat solid member from top and bottomrespectively, its top and bottom faces become smooth to show a goodappearance.
Moreover, the produced packaged toilet paper has a good shape as a productbecause it has no camber, bend, nor wrinkles, which makes it convenient topile or arrange a lot of said packaged toilet papers.
Accordingly, the packaged toilet paper and the method of manufacturingthereof relating to this invention, because they have the excellenteffects as discussed above, will offer a convenience to many people whensaid packaged toilet paper becomes widely used.

What is claimed is:
1. A method of manufacturing a packaged toilet paper comprising foldingtoilet paper in a zigzag manner into a rectangular parallelepipedic body,enclosing aforesaid rectangular parallelepidic body of toilet paper in anair impermeable synthetic resin containing sheet, and vacuum packagingsaid sheet with flat solid members placed and pressed respectively on thetop and bottom faces of the toilet paper enclosed with said syntheticresin containing sheet.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the method of packing the packagedtoilet paper relating to one embodiment of this invention,
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a toilet paper folded zigzag with aconstant pitch,
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a vacuum-packaged toilet paper, and
FIG. 4 is a side sectional view showing said packaged toilet paper in astate of being used.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
As shown in FIG. 2, a strip of toilet paper 10 having a specified width isfolded zigzag with a constant pitch into a rectangular parallelepipedicbody 11. And, if necessary, a paper band is applied at right angles to thefolding direction so that the folded toilet paper may not becomedisordered.
Then, the rectangular parallelepipedic body 11 of said toilet paper ispackaged with an airtight synthetic resin sheet 12. For this syntheticresin sheet 12, though it may be a good practice to use a piece ofairtight synthetic resin sheet made of polyvinylidene chloride, etc., itis preferable to use a gas-impermeable film such as a cellophane-laminatedpolyethylene film, an aluminum-foil-laminated polyethylene film, apolycarbonate-laminated polyethylene film, or a polyester-laminatedpolyethylene film.
It is also a good practice to used a three-layer laminated sheet consistingof aforesaid film to which a nylon sheet, etc. is adhered for improvingthe strength.
For packaging the toilet paper, there is a method to form said syntheticresin sheet into a bag beforehand, put the rectangular parallelepipedicbody 11 of the toilet paper into the bag, and to seal the bag by thermalsealing, leaving an air-discharging port; and another method to putaforesaid rectangular parallelepipedic body 11 on a piece of syntheticresin sheet and wrap it up from the periphery with said synthetic resinsheet, and to seal the abutting sides of the sheet by thermal sealing,leaving an air-discharging port.
FIG. 1 shows an example of wrapping the rectangular parallelepipedic body11 of the toilet paper with the synthetic resin sheet 12 provided with anair-discharging port 13 on the side face. As shown in the figure, thereare disposed flat plates 14 and 15 each of which is one example of flatsolid members to the top and bottom faces of the rectangularparallelepipedic body 11 respectively and, via these plates, therectangular parallelepipedic body 11 of the toilet paper is pressed fromtop and bottom by a pneumatic cylinder (not shown in the figure), andthere is attached a suction port 16 which is connected to a vacuum pump(not shown in the figure) so as to reduce the inner pressure of thepackage down to a vacuum or to a sufficiently low level for vacuumpackaging, and then the package is sealed by thermal sealing at thesection of aforesaid air-discharging port 13.
FIG. 3 shows a packaged toilet paper 17 which has been sealed byabove-mentioned process and, as shown in the figure, there is provided aslit 18 on the top face and the slit 18 is covered with an adhesive tape19. The vacuum packaging is executed in a state where said slit 18 isformed and said adhesive tape 19 is sticked on said synthetic resin sheet12 beforehand.
FIG. 4 shows said packaged toilet paper 17 in a state of being put in atoilet-paper holder 20, wherein aforesaid adhesive tape 19 is peeled off,the slit 18 is split so that the top portion of the packaging sheet may beopened, the packaged toilet paper 17 is put in a box body 21, and the headportion of the paper strip is pulled out of the top portion of the boxbody 21 so that the portion of the paper strip which is pulled out of thebox can be cut off by a cutter 23 which is rotatably attached via pins 22.
Aforesaid box body 21 is provided with holes at the top portion thereof sothat the box body may be attached to the side plates 24 for supporting aconventional rolled-up toilet paper by inserting pins 25 into the pinholes of the side plates 24.
In addition, said toilet paper 10 may be put in aforesaid toilet-paperholder 20, with the packaging sheet of said toilet paper 10 beingthoroughly removed.
In the embodiment described above, though the air-discharging port isdisposed on the side face of the package in vacuum packaging, it ispossible to dispose the port on either top or bottom flat solid member.Further, the present invention is applicable to the case wherein thesealed packaging of aforesaid rectangular parallelepipedic body 11 isexecuted in a vacuum though, in above-mentioned embodiment, the vacuumpackaging is executed by discharging the air inside the package aftersealing the rectangular parallelepipedic body 11 of toilet paper with thesynthetic resin sheet 12.