Packaged non-woven garments

Abstract

A method for containerlessly packaging non-woven safety garments to minimize particulate shedding, including at least partially filling a pressing cavity of a orthorhombic parallelepiped shape with compressible, non-woven safety garments, applying isostatic pressure to the cavity to compact the garments into a compressed mass, wrapping the compressed mass and removing the compressed mass from the cavity. The wrapped compressed mass retains a substantially rectangularly parallelepiped shape and is substantially free of loose particulate matter.

1 . A boxless stackable block of prepackaged nonwoven safety garments, comprising:
 a compressed block of nonwoven safety garments; and   at least one layer of polymer wrapping material enclosing the compressed block of nonwoven safety garments;   wherein the wrapped compressed block of nonwoven safety garments is substantially free of loose particulate matter;   wherein the at least one layer of polymer wrapping material defines a generally rectangular parallelepiped shape; and   wherein the at least one layer of polymer wrapping material exerts a force onto the compressed block sufficient to maintain compression without substantial distortion of the generally rectangular parallelepiped shape.   
   
   
       2 . The block of  claim 1  wherein the at least one layer of polymer wrapping material is substantially non-porous. 
   
   
       3 . The block of  claim 1  wherein the at least one layer of polymer wrapping material is polyethylene. 
   
   
       4 . The block of  claim 1  wherein the at least one layer of polymer wrapping material is about 4 mils thick. 
   
   
       5 . The block of  claim 1  wherein the at least one layer of polymer wrapping material is polyester film. 
   
   
       6 . The block of  claim 1  wherein the compressed block has a volume of about 2700 cubic inches and a mass of about 10 pounds. 
   
   
       7 . The block of  claim 1 ,
 further comprising at least one polymer gusset reinforcing the generally rectangular parallelepiped shape of the wrapped compressed block of nonwoven safety garments; and   wherein the at least one polymer gusset exerts a force onto the compressed block sufficient to maintain the compression of the block without substantial distortion of the generally rectangular parallelepiped shape.   
   
   
       8 . The block of  claim 1 , wherein at least one layer of polymer wrapping material wraps the block under vacuum. 
   
   
       9 . The block of  claim 8 , wherein the polymer wrapping material is of sufficient thickness to retard gas leakage therethrough. 
   
   
       10 . The block of  claim 1 , wherein the polymer wrapping material is of sufficient thickness to retard gas leakage therethrough. 
   
   
       11 . The block of  claim 1 , wherein the generally rectangular parallelepiped shape is substantially cubic. 
   
   
       12 . The block of  claim 1 , wherein the nonwoven safety garments are formed of a spunbond/melt blown/melt blown/spunbond material. 
   
   
       13 . The block of  claim 1 , wherein the compression exerted by the at least one layer of polymer wrapping material is sufficient to allow at least two additional, substantially identical blocks to be stacked on top of it without substantially deforming its generally rectangular parallelepiped shape. 
   
   
       14 . The block of  claim 1 , wherein the compression exerted by the at least one layer of polymer wrapping material is such that the block of nonwoven safety garments has a density corresponding to about two to about five times the loose density of the nonwoven safety garments.