Various types of products, such as facial tissues, napkins, wipes, etc., are folded and stacked, and then cut to length to store in a container or dispenser. For example, facial tissues are commonly folded in a manner such that a consumer can more easily grasp one or more of the tissues from the box. In the past, webs have been folded using a device known as a folding board. For instance, some examples of such folding boards are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,052,048 to Shirasaka.
A folder generally receives a web and, depending on the design of the folding board, folds the web into a certain configuration. In certain instances, it is often desired to utilize more than one folding board to fold one or more webs. For example, during facial tissue converting, a tissue web is continuously unwound from a roll, redirected by a turning bar, folded, and laid down onto previously folded tissue webs to form a continuous stack of tissues. These operations are carried out in a machine known as a multifolder that uses multiple folding boards to fold multiple webs.
One problem currently associated with conventional multifolders, however, is that they typically contain only one set of folding boards. To utilize a set of folders having a different size or configuration, the folding boards must be manually interchanged by removing each individual folding board from the line. Unfortunately, such manual interchanging of folding boards can require a substantial amount of time and energy. Moreover, such manual interchanging often results in the misalignment of the folding boards.
As such, a need currently exists for a system and method for more efficiently replacing a set of folding boards with another set of folding boards.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds