Patents Represented by Attorney Michael J. Sullivan
  • Patent number: 8342360
    Abstract: A product including a stack of a: plurality of interfolded sheets assembled from a folded sheet material. The stack having a first side, a second side, a plurality of first side folded sheets and a plurality of second side folded sheets. A majority of the first side folded sheets folded into a first fold configuration and a majority of the second side folded sheets folded into a second fold configuration. Within the stack, the first fold configuration is different than the second fold configuration. In one embodiment, the first side folded sheets were V-folded and the second side folded sheets were Z-folded. In another embodiment, the first side folded sheets were V-folded and the second side folded sheets were C-folded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Inventor: Leslie Thomas Long
  • Patent number: 8298374
    Abstract: Dry products, and particularly dry tissue substrates, including a blend of conventional papermaking fibers and microalgae are disclosed herein. Use of a cationic retention aid in the dry tissue substrates helps to provide a tissue sheet retaining the microalgae without being detrimental to tissue properties such as caliper, bulk, air permeability, slough and absorbent capacity. Additionally, use of a flocculating agent may agglomerate the microalgae and make it easier to retain the microalgae within the tissue sheet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2012
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas Gerard Shannon, Bo Shi, Ellen Elizabeth Pelky, Jeffrey Robert Besaw, David Wesley Bernd
  • Patent number: 8283542
    Abstract: The present invention provides a reliable, easily adjustable bridge for a string instrument and preferably a guitar and even more preferably a six-string electric guitar. The adjustable bridge of the present invention allows for adjustment of string length using only four intonation adjustment screws.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2012
    Inventors: John Woodland, Mario Costello
  • Patent number: 8277609
    Abstract: The intrinsic tissue sheet properties of tissue sheets wound into a parent roll during manufacturing can be purposely varied in order to provide a z-directional gradient within the parent roll. For example, the moisture content of the tissue sheet can be made lower in the core region of the parent roll and greater in the outer region of the parent roll. Such gradients can ultimately provide more uniformity of the intrinsic property within the final tissue product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc
    Inventors: Michael Alan Hermans, Richard Louis Underhill, Kenneth John Zwick
  • Patent number: 8277917
    Abstract: A roll of a sheet material is provided with elongated sheets within the roll that are either completely detached from each other, or substantially completely detached from each other, such that the user can dispense the elongated sheets with one hand. In the case of toilet paper, the elongated sheets have a pre-determined length deemed to be suitable for most users and serve to assist young children in dispensing a proper amount of tissue from the roll.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventors: Tsutama Satake Neto, Jose Lee McIntyre, James Leo Baggot
  • Patent number: 8221864
    Abstract: Toilet paper rolls are provided with angled sidewalls that impart a wavy shape to the paper as it is unwound from the roll. When individual sheets within the roll are folded or otherwise superimposed on each other, the resulting combination provides an effective width that is greater than the actual width of the individual sheets. As a result, toilet paper sheets can be made narrower than conventional toilet paper sheets while maintaining wiping performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc
    Inventor: Tsutama Satake Neto
  • Patent number: 8220659
    Abstract: A tissue product, which includes a carton and a stack of tissues, is provided with a flattened arched-shaped sheet that supports the stack of tissues. As the tissues are withdrawn from the carton and the weight of the tissue stack is reduced, the flattened arch-shaped sheet gradually assumes its normal arched shape, thereby raising the stack of tissues within the carton. Raising the stack substantially reduces or eliminates “fall-back”, which is a common dispensing problem, as the stack height is reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventor: Paul Douglas Beuther
  • Patent number: 8220700
    Abstract: A product, such as a roll of paper toweling, is wrapped in a polymeric film wrapper having a high degree of molecular orientation. The wrapper is provided with a small perforated starter tab, which a user can depress with their fingers or thumb to break the perforations. Upon breaking the perforations, the user can grasp the tab of the wrapper and thereafter open the package by pulling on the wrapper in the same direction as the molecular orientation direction of the wrapper. The high degree of molecular orientation allows the package to be cleanly torn open with very little effort.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventors: Nancy Jo Myers, Timothy Scott Burnham, Darcey Ellen McCormick, Andrew David Zillges
  • Patent number: 8220624
    Abstract: A flexible package, such as a facial tissue pocket pack, is provided with a rigid mirror, affixed to the package with an overlying adhesive label, to enable a user to clearly see his/her reflection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeremy Thaddeus Gauger, Jason Robert Boon, Blake Adam Hondl, Richard Andre Hookong, Duane Lyle McDonald, William George Stoeger
  • Patent number: 8176650
    Abstract: A through-air dryer system that diverts the airflow within the through-air dryer during warm up and cool down from the normal airflow during the drying of paper in the papermaking process. During warm up and cool down, a majority of the airflow is supplied to one of the dryer's heads and extracted through the opposite head to reduce thermal stresses. If needed to further reduce thermal stresses, a minority of the airflow is supplied through the dryer's shell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventors: Frank S. Hada, Robert J. Seymour, Marek Parszewski
  • Patent number: 7993490
    Abstract: Pulp fibers can be treated with chemical additives with a minimal amount of unretained chemical additives present later in the process water. The present invention is a method for preparing chemically treated pulp fiber. A fiber slurry is created comprising process water and pulp fibers. The fiber slurry is transported to a web-forming apparatus of a pulp sheet machine thereby forming a wet fibrous web. The wet fibrous web is dried to a predetermined consistency thereby forming a dried fibrous web. The dried fibrous web is treated with a chemical additive thereby forming a chemically treated dried fibrous web. The dried fibrous web contains chemically treated pulp fibers. The chemically treated pulp fibers retain from between about 10 to about 100 percent of the applied amount of the chemical additive when the chemically treated pulp fibers are redispersed in water.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2011
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventors: Troy Michael Runge, Louise Cynthia Ellis Coe, Mike Thomas Goulet, Ricardo Toru Nishihata, Vera Maria Sacon
  • Patent number: 7988823
    Abstract: Textured non-woven webs, papermaking fabrics and tissue sheets made using the textured papermaking fabrics can contain design elements set in highlight areas which make the design elements more visible.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2011
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Alan Burazin, Cristina Asensio Mullally, Andrew Peter Bakken, Robert Eugene Krautkramer
  • Patent number: 7988828
    Abstract: Tissue webs, such as are useful for making bath tissue, can be surface-treated in a pattern with selected papermaking chemicals, such as debonders and strength agents, to selectively improve the directional properties of the resulting tissue product, particularly the cross-machine direction strength properties. The pattern can be applied to the tissue sheet by spraying the selected chemical outwardly through a pattern of open areas in the shell of a rotating hollow roll, where the pattern of open areas corresponds to the desired pattern of chemical deposited on the surface of the tissue web.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2011
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Alan Hermans, Patrick Pachih Chen, Claudia H. Javenkoski, Robert Eugene Krautkramer, Daniel Robert Sprangers
  • Patent number: 7938932
    Abstract: A method of making soft, strong, high bulk tissue is disclosed. The method includes pre-conditioning a wet web by straining the wet web in the cross-machine direction prior to transferring the wet web to a throughdrying fabric. The pre-conditioned web provides improved sheet softness and conforms more readily to the surface contour of the throughdrying fabric, thereby creating greater caliper (bulk) in the resulting dried sheet. The bulk is maintained during a subsequent creping step by maintaining the dried sheet in registration with the throughdrying fabric when the dried sheet is applied to the surface of the creping cylinder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2011
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Alan Hermans, Cristina Asensio Mullally, Stephanie Lee Berube, Frank Stephen Hada, Lacey Leigh Hansen, Jeffrey David Mathews
  • Patent number: 7934597
    Abstract: In order to improve the reliability of cleanly dispensing the first tissue in a pop-up dispensing tissue container, a relatively high strength sacrificial top sheet is interfolded with the tissue clip. The sacrificial top sheet is adhered to the underside of a removable surfboard in the top of the container, such that when the surfboard is removed to access the tissues, the sacrificial sheet is simultaneously removed, which causes the first tissue to pop up into a ready position for subsequent dispensing by the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2011
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventors: Kenneth John Zwick, Mark Anthony Barnes, Dennis Edward Fryer, Cynthia Watts Henderson, Leslie Thomas Long, Paul Kerner Pauling, Bart John Rabas, Stephanie Marie Stoddart
  • Patent number: 7935221
    Abstract: A soft single-ply tissue sheet is produced by making a textured, high bulk, through dried tissue sheet and calendering the sheet with a high level of compression energy to substantially reduce the bulk and impart improved properties to the sheet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2011
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter John Allen, Mark Alan Burazin, Paul Myles Burden, Mark John Hassman, Mark William Sachs, Ashwin Haribhai Soni, Kevin Joseph Vogt, Keith William James Warner, Kenneth John Zwick
  • Patent number: 7935409
    Abstract: The roll properties of tissue sheets are improved either by imparting cross-machine direction dominant bar-like protrusions to the air side of the tissue by using specially woven transfer fabrics and/or by offsetting recurring surface features of the sheet relative to the surface features of adjacent sheets within the roll, such as by providing a throughdryer fabric with an offset seam. Both techniques provide the resulting tissue sheets with improved capabilities for providing an improved combination of roll bulk and roll firmness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2011
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Alan Burazin, Edward Joseph VanRengen, Kenneth Curtis Larson, Jerome Steven Veith, Ralph Lee Anderson, Michael William Veith
  • Patent number: 7914866
    Abstract: A product including two or more plies with each ply including one absorbent layer and a second opposing fluid impervious layer. The two plies are arranged such that the fluid impervious layers face each other and are positioned at the inside of the two-ply product. The two plies are bonded on two or three sides to form a sleeve or a pocket, such that a hand can be inserted between the two plies and positioned in contact with one or both fluid impervious layers. In this manner, the product is absorbent on both sides, and can be utilized on both sides while preventing hand contact with the material absorbed or picked up by the product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2011
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas Gerard Shannon, James Joseph Clark, Jr., Susan Jean Moder, Garry Roland Woltman
  • Patent number: D636273
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2011
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventor: Nancy Rae Ver Kuilen
  • Patent number: D643870
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2011
    Inventors: John Woodland, Mario Costello