HYGIENIC PAPER

Abstract

The invention relates to hygienic paper in web form for moist applications that preferably consists of mutually contiguous sheets that are connected to one another via a tear-off perforation, wherein the hygienic paper consists of a cellulose mass with embedded reinforcement fibers and the reinforcement fibers have an increased tear strength on an initial moistening and at least partly lose their tear strength after an extended moistening, whereby the sheets disintegrate into smaller pieces over the course of the time after the moistening, at the latest in the sewer system.

The invention further relates to hygienic paper comprising individual sheets, wherein the sheets are each provided with at least one disintegration perforation that provides a disintegration of the sheets into smaller pieces over the course of the time after a moistening, at the latest in a sewer system.

Claims

1.-19. (canceled)

20. Hygienic paper for moist applications that comprises contiguous sheets that are connected to one another via a tear-off perforation, wherein the hygienic paper consists of a cellulose mass with embedded reinforcement fibers and the reinforcement fibers have an increased tear strength on an initial moistening and at least partly lose their tear strength after an extended moistening, whereby the sheets disintegrate into smaller pieces over the course of the time after the moistening, at the latest in the sewer system.

21. Hygienic paper in web form for moist applications that comprises contiguous sheets that are connected to one another via a tear-off perforation, wherein the hygienic paper consists of a cellulose mass, wherein the hygienic paper is present in at least two layers, and wherein the lignin portion in one of the layers is higher than the lignin portion in the further layer or in the further layers from which the lignin portion is removed.

22. Hygienic paper in web form for moist applications that comprises contiguous sheets that are connected to one another via a tear-off perforation, wherein the hygienic paper consists of a cellulose mass, wherein the hygienic paper is manufactured from a paper towel material.

23. Hygienic paper that comprises contiguous sheets that are connected to one another via a tear-off perforation, in accordance with claim 20, wherein the sheets are each provided with at least one disintegration perforation that provides a disintegration of the sheets into smaller pieces over the course of the time after a moistening, at the latest in a sewer system.

24. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the reinforcement fibers can be dissolved in wastewater.

25. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the reinforcement fibers are provided with a hydrophobic coating that loses its effect in wastewater.

26. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 22, wherein the tear-off perforation and the disintegration perforation are slit perforations and/or hole perforations.

27. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the tear-off perforation extends in a straight line along the total width of the hygienic paper.

28. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the tear-off perforations each extend in parallel with one another.

29. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the disintegration perforation extends in wave shape along the total length and/or along the width of the hygienic paper.

30. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the disintegration perforation extends in zigzag shape along the total length and/or along the width of the hygienic paper.

31. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein a plurality of disintegration perforations, possibly different disintegration perforations, are provided.

32. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 31, wherein the disintegration perforations extend over the hygienic paper such that at least some disintegration perforations intersect at least once.

33. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the spacings between the individual perforations of the tear-off perforation are smaller than the spacings between individual perforations of the disintegration perforation.

34. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the hygienic paper consists of a plurality of layers.

35. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the hygienic paper has a width between 7 and 14 cm.

36. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the hygienic paper is wound onto tubes.

37. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the hygienic paper is produced as tissue paper.

38. Hygienic paper in accordance with claim 20, wherein the individual sheets have a length between 10 and 18 cm.

39. Hygienic paper that comprises contiguous sheets that are connected to one another via a tear-off perforation, wherein the sheets are each provided with at least one disintegration perforation that provides a disintegration of the sheets into smaller pieces over the course of the time after a moistening, at the latest in a sewer system.

Description

[0033] The invention will be explained in more detail in the following purely by way of example with reference to advantageous embodiments and to the Figures. In these, there are shown:

[0034] FIG. 1: schematically a wound-up web of hygienic paper with disintegration perforations;

[0035] FIG. 2 to FIG. 4: different embodiment variants of disintegration perforations; and

[0036] FIG. 5 a specific embodiment of hygienic paper with disintegration perforations.

[0037] In FIG. 1, the hygienic paper 10 in accordance with the invention is schematically shown in the form of a web 12 that is wound on a tube 14 to form a roll. The web is divided into individual sheets 18 by tear-off perforations 16. The individual sheets 18 thus all have the same length L.

[0038] In addition, the hygienic paper 10 and its sheets 18 respectively have disintegration perforations 20 that each extend in zigzag shape along the total length of the web 12. Only for reasons of simplicity, the perforations 16, 18 are only shown on the unwound part of the web 12. In reality, the perforations 16, 18 spread out along the total length of the hygienic paper. The two disintegration perforations 20 in this respect extend precisely such that they intersect one another again and again. The points of intersection 22 represent particularly sensitive breaking points and in this respect help the sheets 18 to disintegrate better into individual pieces in the water of the sewer system.

[0039] In this embodiment, on the disintegration of the sheets 18, disintegration pieces in the form of triangles D and in the form of rhombuses R are produced whose area is small enough so that a clogging of drain pipes can be avoided.

[0040] Further embodiments of disintegration perforations 20 can be seen in FIGS. 2 to 4. For reasons of simplicity, the tear-off perforations 16 are formed as longer slits 24, while the disintegration perforations 20 are substantially shorter slits 24 and thus, distributed over the width of the web 12, substantially more slits 24 are also distributed. However, other shapes and variations for the tear-off and disintegration perforations 16, 20 are also possible, as can, for example, be seen in FIGS. 3 to 5.

[0041] Accordingly, a part of a web 12 of hygienic paper 10 is shown in FIG. 2 that has a plurality of parallel tear-off perforations 16 that are drawn along the total width of the web 12 and that are all spaced apart from one another at a spacing L that is equal to the length of a sheet 18.

[0042] In this example, the disintegration perforations 20 are also straight lines that are arranged in parallel with one another and that extend along the total width of the web 12. However, the spacing between the disintegration perforations 20 is smaller than the spacing L between the tear-off perforations 16 to ensure that a sheet 18 disintegrates into smaller strips. Therefore, in the embodiment of FIG. 2, each sheet 18 has two disintegration perforations 20.

[0043] FIG. 3, in contrast, shows an embodiment in which two disintegration perforations 20 spread out in wave shape along the total length of the web 12. On the disintegration of the individual sheets 18, three differently shaped pieces are thus produced from each sheet 18. In practice, what shape exactly the disintegration pieces have usually does not play a substantial role as long as they are small enough not to clog a drain pipe.

[0044] The disintegration perforations 20 of FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 are each shown as solid lines to illustrate schematically that the individual perforations of a perforation can also have such small and such close spacings from one another that they are barely visible to the naked eye.

[0045] FIG. 4 shows a further embodiment of the web 12 in which three disintegration perforations 20 are provided. Analogously to the two disintegration perforations 20 of FIG. 1, which extend in zigzag shape, further disintegration perforations 20 are provided that—analogously to FIG. 2—extend in parallel with the tear-off perforations 16. The sheet length L can hereby be selected larger if, during use, the sheet 18 is, for example, to be folded at a folding line F (that is imaginary). The folding line F drawn in FIGS. 4 and 5 in this respect represents a purely imaginary line that is shown purely for an easier understanding, but could also be printed on the paper if desired. However, due to the additional disintegration perforations 20, a disintegration into many smaller pieces is nevertheless given so that the clogging problem mentioned can be avoided.

[0046] In addition to the disintegration perforations 20 shown, in the different embodiments of FIGS. 1 to 4, a type of hygienic paper can be selected that has the reinforcement fibers in accordance with the invention and thus additionally contributes towards the hygienic paper 10 indeed initially having a certain wet tear strength, but disintegrating over the course of the time in the water of the sewer system.

[0047] Furthermore, all the webs can be designed in multiple layers and/or embossed in order also to meet the high comfort demands that a consumer places on hygiene wipes.

[0048] In a specific embodiment, as is shown in FIG. 5, provision is made that the Hydraspun paper of the Suominen company, which is provided with additional disintegration perforations 20 that allow the individual sheets 18 to disintegrate into smaller pieces, is used as the hygienic paper 10. In this respect, the disintegration perforations 20 are formed by slits that have a length of 6.8 mm and that are each spaced apart from one another by 1 mm. The tear-off perforations are likewise formed by slits that each have a spacing of 1 mm from one another. However, the length of the slits of the tear-off perforation amounts to only 4 mm in each case so that the tear-off perforation yields earlier than the disintegration perforation (see FIG. 5). The dimensions specified above represent preferred values, but should not be considered as restrictive. Preferred ranges for the values are specified in the introduction to the description.

[0049] Provision can furthermore be made that the hygienic paper roll is inserted into a dispenser for moistened toilet paper in accordance with the example of EP 2 367 467 B1. Thus, moistened toilet paper can be provided to a consumer and can be safely flushed in the toilet without blockages arising in the drain pipes.

REFERENCE NUMERALS

[0050] 10 hygienic paper [0051] 12 web [0052] 14 tube [0053] 16 tear-off perforation [0054] 18 sheet [0055] 20 disintegration perforation [0056] 22 point of intersection [0057] 24 slit [0058] D triangle [0059] F folding line [0060] L length [0061] R rhombus