US 12,168,564 B2
Multi-slit tension-activated, expanding sheets
Thomas R. Corrigan, St. Paul, MN (US); Patrick R. Fleming, Lake Elmo, MN (US); Anne C. F. Gold, South St. Paul, MN (US); Silvia G. Guttmann, St. Paul, MN (US); Nicholas K. Lee, Minneapolis, MN (US); Dylan T. Cosgrove, Oakdale, MN (US); Delony L. Langer-Anderson, Hugo, MN (US); Lisa M. Miller, Spring Valley, WI (US); and Manoj Nirmal, St. Paul, MN (US)
Assigned to 3M Innovative Properties Company, St. Paul, MN (US)
Appl. No. 17/785,983
Filed by 3M INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES COMPANY, St. Paul, MN (US)
PCT Filed Dec. 17, 2020, PCT No. PCT/IB2020/062149
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jun. 16, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/130628, PCT Pub. Date Jul. 1, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/952,806, filed on Dec. 23, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2023/0017683 A1, Jan. 19, 2023
Int. Cl. B65D 81/03 (2006.01); B31D 5/00 (2017.01); B32B 5/04 (2006.01); B65B 11/00 (2006.01); B65D 81/05 (2006.01); B31D 3/02 (2006.01)
CPC B65D 81/03 (2013.01) [B31D 5/0065 (2013.01); B32B 5/04 (2013.01); B65B 11/004 (2013.01); B65D 81/05 (2013.01); B31D 3/0207 (2013.01); B31D 2205/0058 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An expanding material having a pretensioned state defining a pretensioned plane, comprising:
a material including a plurality of slits that form a multi-slit pattern wherein the plurality of slits are arranged in rows, wherein the material defines a tension axis;
wherein each slit includes two parallel axial portions that each have first axial endpoints terminating at opposite ends of a transverse portion, wherein each axial portion also has a second axial endpoint that terminates at an imaginary line;
wherein slits in a first row are inverse to slits in an adjacent second row such that the second axial endpoint of each axial portion in both rows terminates at a different point along the imaginary line that runs between the two rows and is parallel to the transverse portion of each slit in both rows; and
wherein the material is substantially in a plane in the pretensioned state but wherein the multi-slit pattern enables at least portions of the material to rotate 45 degrees or greater from the plane of the pretensioned state when tension is applied along the tension axis.