Multi-Ply Tissue Structure With Smooth and Textured Sides
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing multi-ply tissue products lack differing surface textures, compromising their ability to provide both a soft, smooth surface for personal care and a textured, durable surface for wiping and scrubbing applications.
Innovation Solution
Combining a substantially smooth creped tissue ply with a textured through-air dried ply to create a multi-ply tissue product with distinct surface characteristics, achieving a Surface Smoothness Ratio greater than 1.4 and enhanced bulk and tensile strength.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a multi-ply tissue product uses plies with similar structure and manufacturing techniques, then the product maintains manufacturing simplicity and structural consistency, but it lacks differing surface textures that would enable both soft personal care and durable wiping applications
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating different surface characteristics in different plies of the tissue product. Specifically, it combines a creped ply with a smooth surface for softness with a through-air dried ply having a textured surface for durability and wiping performance. This allows each ply to have optimized local properties suitable for different functions within the same multi-ply product.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs composite materials by combining plies made from different papermaking techniques (creping and through-air drying) into a single multi-ply tissue product. This composite structure integrates the benefits of smooth creped surfaces for skin contact with textured through-air dried surfaces for structural integrity and wiping performance, achieving versatility without requiring completely separate products.
2Quantity of substance
If a multi-ply tissue product places a dense, thin absorbent ply in the center to improve absorbency, then fluid absorption increases, but the product loses softness and differing surface textures because the dense ply compromises surface characteristics
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using a single dense ply throughout, the patent applies local quality by creating specific textured regions in the through-air dried ply that provide absorbency where needed while maintaining smooth surfaces in contact plies for softness. The textured surface of the through-air dried ply provides localized absorbent capability without requiring the entire ply structure to be dense and thin.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses composite materials by combining a creped ply with a through-air dried ply, where each material contributes different properties. The creped ply provides softness and smooth surface contact, while the through-air dried ply provides textured surface characteristics and absorbency. This composite approach achieves both softness and absorbency without sacrificing either property.
3Strength
If a multi-ply tissue product uses a textured through-air dried ply for wiping applications, then wiping durability improves, but the product loses the soft smooth surface needed for personal care contact
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the tissue product into distinct plies with different surface characteristics. The creped ply is segmented to provide a smooth surface for skin contact, while the through-air dried ply is segmented to provide a textured surface for wiping. This segmentation allows each ply to specialize in one function without compromising the other.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses composite materials by combining two different ply types: a creped ply that provides softness and smooth surface for personal care applications, and a through-air dried ply that provides textured surface and durability for wiping applications. This composite structure enables the single product to fulfill both functional requirements simultaneously.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention provides a multi-ply tissue product having different surface characteristics on each side of the product. The multi-ply tissue product may be formed from two or more plies where one surface is formed by a substantially smooth creped ply and the other surface is formed by a textured through-air dried ply. In this manner the tissue product may be used for both personal care, which requires a soft and smooth surface, and general household wiping, which requires a rough, durable surface.