Fill composition for reducing filling weight of resilient products

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12584253-B2
Application number	US-202318449135-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 14, 2023
Priority date	Aug 14, 2023
Publication date	Mar 24, 2026
Grant date	Mar 24, 2026

Abstract

A filling material and method for reducing the amount of filling material required for filling a soft casing to a pre-selected specification, the filling material comprising a blend of polyester fibers having two or more different deniers and providing at least a 6% reduction in the amount of filling material required as compared to an alternative fill material consisting solely of polyester fibers of a single denier wherein the soft casing filled with the filling material meets pre-selected specifications comprising a pre-selected height measurement for the filled soft casing and is substantially the same in appearance as a soft casing filled with the alternative fill material consisting solely of polyester fibers of a single denier.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for reducing the amount of a filling material required for filling a soft casing to a pre-selected specification:
providing a filling material comprising a blend of loose polyester fibers having two or more different deniers; and filling the soft casing with the amount of the filling material comprising the blend of loose fibers, wherein the filling material provides at least a 6% reduction in the amount of filling material required as compared to an alternative fill material consisting solely of polyester fibers of a single denier, wherein the soft casing filled with the filling material meets pre-selected specifications comprising a pre-selected height measurement for the filled soft casing and is substantially the same in appearance as a soft casing filled with the alternative fill material consisting solely of polyester fibers of a single denier, and wherein the filling material comprises a blend of 3 denier (3D) and 7 denier (7D) rPET or PET fibers and wherein the fibers have a length of approximately 64 mm.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the blend comprises a ratio 3D:7 D fibers that is approximately 80:20.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the reduction in the amount of filling is a reduction in the filling weight of the filling material provided and wherein the reduction is approximately 6.67%.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the filling weight of the filling material, F rv , is reduced as compared to the filling weight of the alternative fill material, F s , according to:

F
rv

=

R
⁢
%
⁢

(

F
s

*

(

1
-

R
⁢
%

)

)

wherein R is the percent reduction in weight realized by the new filling material.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the soft casing filled with the filling material meets additional pre-selected specifications comprising one or more of hand-feel and resilience.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the soft casing is a casing for a pillow, cushion, pet bed, or stuffed toy.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the soft casing has set dimensions for producing a product according to the pre-selected specifications wherein the pre-selected specifications are the same for the filling material and alternative filling material but for the filling weight utilized to meet those pre-selected specifications.

8 . A method of filling a soft casing for producing a pillow, the method comprising:
selecting a fill material comprising a blend of a first quantity of fibers having a denier of 3D and a second quantity of fibers having a denier of 7D and each of the first quantity and second quantities of fibers comprising fibers of a same average length of 64 mm; mixing the first and second quantity of loose fibers; and filling a soft casing defining dimensions of the filled pillow with the fill material comprising the loose fibers.

9 . The method of claim 8 , and further comprising determining a quantity of fill material for filling the soft casing according to one or more of a pre-selected parameter selected from the list comprising a fill material weight, a height of the filled pillow, a resilience of the filled pillow, and a hand-feel of the filled pillow.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the selected fill material is configured to reduce the quantity of fill material required for filling the soft casing according to the pre-selected height of the filled pillow, the pre-selected resilience of the filled pillow, and the pre-selected hand-feel of the filled pillow.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the determined quantity of selected fill material is at least 6% less than a quantity of fill material comprising only a first quantity or only a second quantity of fibers required to fill the soft casing according to at least two of the pre-selected parameters.

12 . A fill composition for a soft casing, the fill composition comprising:
a first fiber quantity, wherein the first fiber has a first denier and first length; a second fiber quantity, wherein the second fiber has a second denier and second length, and wherein the first fiber quantity and second fiber quantity comprise polyester fibers, wherein the first denier of the first fiber is different than the second denier of the second fiber, and wherein the first fiber quantity and second fiber quantity are mixed together to form a loose fiber fill composition before or while filling the soft casing with the loose fiber fill composition wherein the fill composition consists essentially of a mixture of 3 denier (D) and 7 denier (D) polyester fibers wherein the first fiber quantity is the 3D fibers at approximately 80 w % of a total weight of the fill composition and the second fiber quantity is the 7D fibers at approximately 20 w % of a total weight of the fill composition and wherein the 3D and 7 D fibers are 64 mm fibers.

13 . The fill composition of claim 12 , wherein the first fiber quantity and the second fiber quantity are provided as a mixture wherein the first fiber quantity is more than 50% by weight of the fill composition and the second fiber quantity is less than 50% by weight of the fill composition.

14 . The fill composition of claim 13 , wherein the first length and second length are the same.

15 . The fill composition of claim 12 , and further comprising a third fiber quantity, wherein the third fiber has a third denier different from the first and second denier, and third length and wherein the third length is the same or different from the first length and second length.

16 . The fill composition of claim 12 , wherein the soft casing is a casing for a pillow.

Assignees

• Target Brands Inc

Inventors

• Lee Man Sang Manuel
• Wong Chen Tai
• Deng Yongbin
• Huang Dehui
• Sha Dongbing
• Liu Bin
• Wang Xiao
• Zhou Bin

Classifications

• A47G9/10

  Pillows (pillow holders A47C21/00, {A47C21/026}; specially adapted for preventing snoring A61F5/56) · CPC title

• D04H1/43835

  Mixed fibres, e.g. at least two chemically different fibres or fibre blends · CPC title

• B68G2001/005

  for pillows or duvets · CPC title

• A47G9/0207

  Blankets; Duvets · CPC title

• A47G9/0253

  Pillow slips · CPC title