US20150321784A1

US20150321784A1 - Foldable Paperboard for Preparing a Paper Tube

Info

Publication number: US20150321784A1
Application number: US14/274,714
Authority: US
Inventors: Xiyan Li
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2014-05-10
Filing date: 2014-05-10
Publication date: 2015-11-12

Abstract

A paperboard comprises a plurality of folding lines and paper panels. The paperboard is either intact or perforated. The paperboard remains unfolded and flattened during the storage and transportation. When it is used, the paperboard is folded up and tightened into a paper tube with a polygonal cross section so that small animals are able to pass through or stay inside the tube.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Small animals such as nocturnal rodents have been extensively used in laboratories for many years to assist medical and pharmaceutical research. They are particularly helpful for researchers to identify promising therapeutic agents and understand their toxicity before they are applied to human being. While sometimes it is unavoidable for these laboratory animals to be sacrificed in the scientific studies, it is possible to maintain a living environment that helps ensure their welfare in the laboratory. This is called environmental enrichment program by some animal experts. Animals become more healthy and active when they live in a place facilitated by this program. It has been increasingly adopted for laboratory animals by research institutes for the past decade.
One of methods in such program is to provide to laboratory animals a private shelter where they are able to hide, rest, or play when being kept in cages. Because paper tubes are readily available in the market, they have been used recently as the animal shelter in research laboratories. These paper tubes are not for a permanent use. For the sanitizing purpose they need to be disposed after being put into cages for a certain period of time. Therefore, the demand of paper tubes for laboratory animal use has been increasing.
However, when paper tubes are used as the animal shelter, two issues have come up, the space and the cost. Because the paper tube is hollow, it occupies more space than the paper material itself For instance, a large carton with a size of 20.25″H×20.25″W×30.25″L can hold only thirty pieces of round paper tubes of 5.00″ (diameter)×10.00″ (length). Most of the carton's volume is taken by these tubes' hollow space. In addition, the paper tube can't be folded up into a reduced size due to its fixed and stiff structure. Therefore, the size and structure of the paper tube render cost increased during the transportation and storage.
Paper tubes have been widely used in the packaging industry for a long period of time. Different methods have been developed for the manufacture of circular and rectangular tubes. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,963, Berg described a method of manufacturing cylindrical tubes for containers, in which a foil web and at least one fiber web are helically wound on a heated, rotating mandrel. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,202, an apparatus is invented for producing a paper tube by helically winding tape on a mandrel tightly and delivering the tube formed from the mandrel axially. In order to make paper tubes with a desired size, one must assembly the apparatus with mandrel, paper tape feeders, tube press, tube rotating-drawing device, resin-coated tape feeder, drying over, and tube cutter. In another invention (U.S. Pat. No. 6,106,451), a method of making a cardboard tube with a rectangular cross-section is showed. In this method, the plurality of heated cardboard strips with thermoplastic coating is passed through a guiding unit to create an overlapped configuration. The aligned plurality of strips is wound around a rectangular cross-section to form a rectangular tube. However, in all these methods, one needs to go through complex manufacturing procedures such as feeding, heating, winding, and cutting to prepare paper tubes. Devices with special design for tube-making have to be used. Different machinery modes need to be set up to prepare paper tubes with different sizes of cross section. The manufacturing complexity increases the production cost and drives up the price of paper tubes.
Therefore, it is needed to create a new type of paper tube for animal use, which has a lower manufacturing cost and occupies less storage space than the current product.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The paper tube available on the market is bulky and manufactured with a complicated process. The objective of the current invention is to prepare a paper tube for animal use, which is simple to be manufactured and occupies less storage space than the currently-marketed product.
In accordance with the invention, the objective is fulfilled by preparing a foldable paperboard wherein the board can be folded up into a tube with a polygonal cross section when it is used. The hollow space of the paper tube allows small animals to stay inside. In order to facilitate transportation and reduce the storage space the paperboard remains unfolded and flattened before and after the use. The manufacturing process of the paperboard is simple and does not involve the winding and binding steps of forming the traditional paper tube. Therefore, the manufacturing cost of paper tube is significantly reduced.
The thickness and material of the paperboard may vary so long as they do not prevent the paperboard from being folded up into a paper tube.
In particular embodiments of the invention, the paperboard is cut into a predetermined shape with a desired size. The folding lines on the paperboard separate it into multiple panels, which can be folded up into a tube with a polygonal cross section.
In more particular embodiments of the invention, one or multiple paper panels may be perforated with different opening patterns.
In other more particular embodiments of the invention, one panel at the end of the paperboard is turned into a paper flap, which is inserted into the slot created along one of the folding lines to fasten the paper tube.
In more particular embodiments of the invention, the paperboard further comprises a panel with a piece of board removed at one end of the paperboard and the piece of board may have the same size and shape as the paper flap.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows two paperboards with paper flaps and slots. One (A) is with a piece of board removed and the other (B) is without any piece removed;

FIG. 2 shows two paperboards with paper flaps and slots. They are used to form paper tubes with an octagonal cross section. One (A) is without any piece removed and the other (B) is with a piece of board removed;

FIG. 3 shows different patterns of openings on the paper panel;

FIG. 4 is a view of a paperboard when it is being folded up into a rectangular paper tube;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a rectangular paper tube with the paper flap being inserted into the slot.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The current invention relates to paperboards that can be folded up into paper tubes to form shelters for small animals. The paperboard is cut to a predetermined pattern. A plurality of folding lines is made on the paperboard, which comprises a number of paper panels. The panel at one end of the paperboard can be trimmed to a size smaller than other panels to form a paper flap. The paperboard remains flattened before use so that it helps save space during the transportation and storage. When it is in use, the paperboard is folded up along the folding lines into a tube with a polygonal cross section. The paper tube can be fastened by inserting the paper flap into a slop created along one of the folding lines.
As shown in FIG. 1(A), the paperboard comprises five parallel folding lines (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and six paper panels (a, b, c, d, e, f). The panel a is a paper flap, which has a size smaller than other panels. A slot g is made along the folding line 5 between panels e and f. There is a piece of board removed from the panel fin (A). The paperboard in FIG. 1(B) is the same as the one in FIG. 1(A) except that there is no piece of board removed from the panel f. In FIG. 1(A) the shape and size of the cut-out is the same as those of paper flap a. However, the shape and size of the cut-out can be different from those of the paper flap in other embodiments. These two paperboards depicted in FIG. 1 are used to prepare paper tubes with a rectangular cross section.
Now refer to FIG. 2. The paperboards shown in FIG. 2 are used to prepare octagonal paper tubes, each of which comprises eight paper walls. There are total nine parallel folding lines, which separate each paperboard into ten paper panels. The panel a′ is a paper flap, which has a smaller size than other panels. A slot g′ is created along the folding line between panels e′ and f′. Similar to those two examples in FIG. 1, the only difference between paperboards in FIG. 2(A) and (B) is whether there is a piece of board removed from the panel f′.
The drawings in FIG. 3 show various patterns of openings used on paperboards. These openings can be applied to some or all panels of a paperboard. However, these patterns are only used for illustrating examples of the opening. Any variation from these drawings may be used and is also covered by the current invention. In other embodiments, all paper panels remain intact and there is no opening on them.
It is shown in FIG. 4 how a six-panel paperboard is being folded up into a rectangular tube. The panel b is going to be laid on the panel f and the paper flap a is going to be inserted into the slot g. The drawing in FIG. 5 shows a ready-to-use paper tube. The panel b is interlocking with the panel f as the paper flap a is completely inserted into the slot g. The tube has total four walls. The rectangular cross section provides an empty space for small animals to pass through or stay inside the tube. Although they are not shown in the figure, openings may be made on any wall of the paper tube.
It is to be understood that the above description and drawings are only used to illustrate some of the most preferred embodiments of the current invention. They are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Any variation from the description and drawings such as the size of the paper board, the shape of the paper panel and cross section, and the way of how the paper tube is fastened is encompassed by the scope of the current invention.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A paperboard comprising at least two folding lines that separate the paperboard into at least three paper panels, which are either intact or perforated and can be folded up into a paper tube having a polygonal cross section for animal use.

2. The paperboard in claim 1 wherein the folding lines are parallel with each other.

3. The paperboard in claim 2 comprising four folding lines and five folding paper panels wherein the panels are folded up into a tube with a triangular cross section.

4. The paperboard in claim 3 wherein the paper panel at one end of the paperboard is a paper flap and is inserted into a slot, which is made along the folding line between two paper panels at the opposite end of the paperboard, to form the triangular tube.

5. The paperboard in claim 2 comprising at least three folding lines and at least four folding paper panels wherein the panels are folded up into a tube with a quadrilateral cross section.

6. The paperboard in claim 5 comprising five folding lines and six paper panels wherein the panels are folded up into a paper tube comprising four paper walls and a rectangular cross section.

7. The paperboard in claim 6 wherein the paper panel at one end of the paperboard is a paper flap and a slot is made along the folding line between two paper panels at the opposite end of the paperboard.

8. The paperboard in claim 7 wherein the paperboard is folded up in a way that the paper panel next to the paper flap and the paper panel at the opposite end of the paperboard are overlapped with each other to form one wall of the rectangular tube.

9. The paperboard in claim 8 wherein the paperboard is folded up into the rectangular tube, which is fastened by inserting the paper flap into the slot.

10. The paperboard in claim 9 wherein a piece of paperboard having the same shape and size as the paper flap is removed from the paper panel at the opposite end of the paperboard.

11. The paperboard in claim 2 comprising six folding lines and seven folding paper panels wherein the panels are folded up into a tube with a pentagonal cross section.

12. The paperboard in claim 11 wherein the paper panel at one end of the paperboard is a paper flap and is inserted into the slot, which is made along the folding line between two paper panels at the opposite end of the paperboard, to form the pentagonal tube.

13. The paperboard in claim 2 comprising seven folding lines and eight folding paper panels wherein the panels are folded up into a tube with a hexagonal cross section.

14. The paperboard in claim 13 wherein the paper panel at one end of the paperboard is a paper flap and is inserted into a slot, which is made along the folding line between two paper panels at the opposite end of the paperboard, to form the hexagonal tube.

15. The paperboard in claim 2 comprising eight folding lines and nine folding paper panels wherein the panels are folded up into a tube with a heptagonal cross section.

16. The paperboard in claim 15 wherein the paper panel at one end of the paperboard is a paper flap and is inserted into a slot, which is made along the folding line between two paper panels at the opposite end of the paper board, to form the heptagonal tube.

17. The paperboard in claim 2 comprising nine folding lines and ten folding paper panels wherein the panels are folded up into a tube with an octagonal cross section.

18. The paperboard in claim 17 wherein the paper panel at one end of the paperboard is a paper flap and is inserted into a slot, which is made along the folding line between two paper panels at the opposite end of the paperboard, to form the octagonal tube.