1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bath sponges and, more specifically, methods for manufacturing bath ruffles or sponges.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the manufacture of low cost items such as bath ruffles or sponges by unskilled manual labor, it is essential that assembly procedures be standardized and simplified to the extent that labor content is minimized while maintaining complete consistency of product to meet the demands of marketers and retailers.
Typically, imported bath ruffles or sponges are made from extruded polyethylene diamond mesh netting of the type used for fruit or vegetable bags. These bath ruffles or sponges are characterized by a generally misshapen appearance and a prematurely short service life due to unravelling of the ruffle or sponge material from a knotted binding cord.
Consumer demands have led to the requirement for bath sponges or ruffles to be made in a wide variety of colors and the incorporation of a pigment or dye to the base polymer adds substantially to the retail cost of the item.
Moreover, as these bath ruffles or sponges come into intimate contact with tender skin regions of a bather, it is generally not possible to utilize regrind waste polymer due to the risk of contamination which might otherwise manifest itself as sharp lumps or protrusions on the extruded net filaments which could scratch tender skin tissues leading to skin infections.
Even with frequent extruder screen changes to capture particulate contamination, it is extremely difficult to maintain color consistency due to the variations in color in the regrind feedstock without the use of excessive dark pigment to mask the feedstock color variations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,443 is concerned with a knot-tying device in the form of a triangular plate having a small aperture adjacent an apex of the plate and a larger aperture in the center of the plate. A free end of a line or cord is passed through the smaller aperture and knotted on one side of the plate to secure the line or cord thereto. The line or cord is then looped around an object to be secured and a further looped portion of line or cord is pushed through the larger central aperture and looped over the two corners of the plate opposite the apex. Tension on the loop secured around the object secures the knot and the divergent sides of the plate prevent accidental disengagement of the looped portion of line or cord from the plate.
The main application described for this device is to secure a small boat to a mooring post with a tensioned loop.
Another prior art knot tying device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,112,551 relating to a draw strings puller and fastener for shoes or bags. The draw strings puller and fastener comprises a hollow frusto conical body with the free ends of a loop extending through opposed apertures in the side wall of the hollow body and emerging from a divergent open end thereof. The free ends of the loop are secured in a tapered plug which is inserted into the open end of the body when the loop is tensioned to wedgingly engage the drawstring between the tapered plug and body walls.
Other securing devices for cords or ribbons are described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,585,781, U.S. Pat. No. 2,849,821, U.S. Pat. No. 3,922,407 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,676.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,280 describes a body scrubber in the form of an elongate body in the nature of chain formed from a plurality of inter-looped links with a loop-like gripping handle at each end. The body portion is comprised of a polymeric netting in a tubular form, typically of Nylon (Trade Mark) or polyethylene.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,744 describes a bath ruffle or sponge made from extruded diamond mesh polyethylene of the type used to make fruit and vegetable bags. In this patent, the bath ruffle or sponge is made by stretching a number of netting tubes over respective pairs of spaced upright supports, binding the plurality of tubes together intermediate their ends with a plastic tie strip and then releasing the ends of the tubes from respective supports whereby due to the resiliency of the net material, the tubes rebound to form a sponge shape around the central binding.
Although such prior art bath ruffles or sponges are generally effective for their intended purpose, they do suffer from a number of practical disadvantages.
The use of a plastic tie strip is labor intensive and cannot be secured tightly enough to prevent premature unravelling of the bath ruffle or sponge. To overcome this problem a braided cord of cotton or the like was knotted around the netting tubes but again this was a very labor intensive exercise and was difficult to knot tightly enough to prevent premature unravelling.
Sponges of this type have not found favor due to a mis-shapen xe2x80x9cdog-bonexe2x80x9d appearance and a relatively coarse texture which can irritate sensitive skin tissue.
Accordingly, there is a need for a cost-effective manufacturing process for bath ruffles or sponges from extruded polymeric netting wherein the end product has an aesthetically pleasing appearance, is securely fastened and otherwise which can be adapted to a variety of appearances and functionalities.
The present invention seeks to overcome or ameliorate at least some of the disadvantages associated with prior art bath ruffles or sponges and to provide a greater variety of products.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method for the manufacture of bath ruffles or sponges of the type comprising extruded polymeric netting fabric secured in a generally spherical shape.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for the manufacture of bath ruffles or sponges having more than one texture and/or color.
According to the present invention there is provided a method for the manufacture of bath ruffles or sponges, said method comprising the steps of:
radially stretching over spaced upright supports one or more lengths of resilient extruded polymeric netting tube to form a telescopically gathered continuous band around said supports;
tightly securing over opposed portions of said band centrally between said upright supports a loop securing device comprising, in combination, a body having a generally circular base and one or more centrally located apertures therein and a flexible line or cord frictionally engaged within said one or more apertures to form a closed loop extending from said base, the closed loop in use being extendible around said opposed portions of said band with the body and remainder of the flexible line or cord extending through the closed loop to form a double strand loop around the opposed portions of said band whereby the body engages against the looped end of the line or cord to prevent disengagement therebetween; and,
progressively releasing separately over respective upper ends of said spaced supports opposed portions of said telescopically gathered continuous band to form a generally spherical bath ruffle or sponge.
Preferably said telescopically gathered continuous band is progressively released by drawing, in opposite directions, opposed portions of said telescopically gathered continuous band over respective upper ends of said spaced supports at an angle acute to a plane between said opposed supports whereby regions of localized stretch are imparted to said netting tube.
If required said one or more lengths of netting tube may comprise at least two tubes telescopically gathered one above the other on said spaced supports.
Suitably said at least two tubes are formed from polymers having differing resiliencies.
Preferably one of said at least two tubes is comprised of a low density polyethylene polymer and the other of said at least two tubes is comprised of a low density polyethylene/ethylene-vinyl-acetate blend or co-polymer.
If required each of said at least two tubes is of a color differing from an adjacently telescopically gathered tube.
Alternatively said one or more lengths of netting may comprise at least two tubes, one of which is axially located within the other.
Suitably where one tube is axially located within another tube each of said one tube and said another tube is of a resilience and/or color differing from the other.
The inner tube may be formed from a netting of differing polymeric composition.
Alternatively the inner tube may be formed from a netting of differing mesh and/or filamentary size.
Preferably the inner tube is formed from a netting having a color darker than an outer tube.