Corrugated cardboard chip insulation

Insulation comprising a multiplicity of small chips of corrugated cardboard. The chips have varying external configurations and varying orientation of the long axis of the flute(s) with a side of the chip. The chips may be utilized as loose, bagged or block insulation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Low cost methods of efficiently disposing of waste materials are a serious 
problem in most industrial nations of the world. This problem is 
particularly acute in heavily populated areas. 
Landfills and incinerators have and are utilized to dispose of waste 
materials. Landfills are frequently located at a distance from areas which 
produce large amounts of waste and therefore are extremely expensive to 
use and are rapidly filled. Incineration creates air pollution, requires 
heavy initial capital expenditures and consume great amounts of fuel in 
order to burn the waste material. Also, they often destroy the waste 
materials which may have value. 
A type of corrugated cardboard or as it is sometimes called corrugated 
board has been used in this country for making shipping containers since 
1895. Today such materials are used extensively for shipping a multitude 
of commercial items. There are very few items that at one time or another 
have not been packed in corrugated cardboard containers, whether as raw 
material destined to the factory or as a finished product destined to the 
store or customer. 
Once the shipped items have arrived at their destination, the corrugated 
cardboard shipping containers are often discarded. These discarded boxes 
comprise 10-15 percent of total disposable waste material. 
The current method of disposing of the used corrugated boxes is to break 
them down and pile them into a flat package, then transport them to an 
incinerator or a landfill. The boxes are particularly clumsy to handle 
because of their great bulk. Furthermore, until the present invention, 
there has been no economical, large scale method of recycling or reusing 
corrugated cardboard known to the inventors. 
Corrugated cardboard is made in production widths generally ranging from 60 
to 85 inches. The corrugating medium, a web of paperboard, is heated and 
moistened by a steam shower and then fluted by passage between a pair of 
rollers. 
After fluting, the tips of the flutes are glued to an inner liner or single 
face of paperboard. This method produces a single face sheet of corrugated 
cardboard. To produce the more common double faced corrugated cardboard 
found in boxes, an outer sheet or outer liner of paperboard is adhered to 
the tips of the flutes on the opposite side from the inner liner of the 
single faced board. The corrugated board is then scored and cut parallel 
to its length by a slitter and then cut to proper length by a cut-off 
knife. The normal direction of the flutes is from top to bottom of a 
container when it is used to form a box. 
Unlike paper waste which has commercial value due to its adaptability in 
recycling, corrugated cardboard waste has almost no commercial value, 
except to the trash collectors who are paid to dispose of it. 
Corrugated cardboard containers are one of the biggest producers of waste 
materials in American commerce and industry today. They are expensive to 
manufacture, used only once, and then discarded. 
Another problem also existing at this time is the rapid consumpton of fuels 
which have caused their depletion and a world wide shortgage, followed by 
ever upward accelerating cost of their procurement. A very successful 
method of reducing the use of fuels when used in the heating of structures 
is to insulate the structures, thereby reducing heat loss and fuel 
consumption. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
This invention is directed at insulation composed of a multiplicity of 
small pieces or chips of corrugated cardboard. Each of the pieces include 
inner and outer liners having a flute portion between and attached to the 
liners, and may have various configurations including rectilinear and 
circular types. Each of the pieces may also have the long flute axis 
oriented in various ways with the sides of the piece. The chips may be 
used either in a loose pack, sealed within a bag as bag insulation, or 
they may be lightly compressed together with adjacent chips and adhered to 
each other to form a block.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
Corrugated board may be single face comprising an inner liner and 
corrugating medium adhered to a side of the inner liner; double face 10 
comprising corrugating medium sandwiched between and adhered to an inner 
liner 12 and an outer liner 14; double wall comprising a double face 
construction having a second layer of corrugating medium adhered to and 
sandwiched between the outer liner of the double face construction and a 
liner and triple wall. 
The corrugating medium is sinuous in configuration including a series of 
parallel flutes 16. 
The chips or insulating elements 18 are formed from double faced corrugated 
board that is unused or that has been used as, for example, in forming a 
shipping container. The containers are cut apart to provide flat, 
undamaged portions. In the average container, the usable portions may 
include side and end panels, and the outer and inner flaps. The container 
portions may then be cut in a number of different ways to provide the 
chips 18. 
One method of cutting or slicing may start with a first cut 22 from a long 
edge 20 through the middle of the second complete flute from the side edge 
24 through the opposite long edge of the corrugated board. The rest of the 
cuts 22 are made to include a flute 16 as indicated in FIG. 1. The first 
cut 22 is made at right angles to the long edge 20 of the board across the 
full width of the board. In the embodiment shown in the drawings, the 
longitudinal or long axis of the flutes 16 are in right angle relation to 
the long edge 20. There is the possibility that the flutes would be in 
right angle relationship to the side edge 24 and in that case the first 
cut would be made in the second complete flute from the long edge 20 at 
right angles to the side edge 24 and across the full length of the board. 
A second cut 26 is then made at right angles to and across the line of the 
first cut 22 from the side edge 24 a predetermined distance from the long 
edge 20 to provide the rectalinear chips 18. The rest of the cuts 26 are 
made an equal distance from each other and each of these distances is 
equal to the distance from the long edge 20 to the first of the second 
cuts 26. The chip 18 includes a portion of the inner and outer liners 12, 
14 and at least a portion of one flute 16. Obviously, position of the 
first cut 22 may be varied to provide portions of two or more flutes in 
the chip 18 is desired. Further cuts are then made in a manner similar to 
the first and second cuts. 
Another method of cutting is to make the first cut 22a at an angle of 
45.degree. to the long edge 20a of a board from the center of the second 
flute from the side or short edge 24a of the board. A second cut 26a is 
made from the side edge 24a and the long edge 20a at a 45.degree. angle 
with the side edge 24a and long edge 20a and at a 90.degree. angle with 
and across the first cut 22a to provide a square configured chip 18a. The 
pieces formed by the cutting operation adjacent the edges of the board 
will probably not form complete chips. These may be discarded. In the 
square configured chip 18a, the long axis of the flute 16a is at a 
45.degree. angle with the edges of the chip 18a that it opens upon. 
The cuts may be varied to provide different angular relationship between 
the flute long axis and the chip edge. 
In either the rectalinear or square configuration, the first and second 
cuts may be made to provide a chip having the length of each of its sides 
not less than 1/4 inch nor more than 3 inches. These dimensions are 
considered by the inventors to provide optimum insulating advantages when 
the chips are packed as will be explained more fully hereinafter. The 
first, second and additional cuts may be simultaneously made by tools 
having multiple blades appropriately dimensioned according to the desired 
size of the chip. 
Still another method of forming the chips is to form them of circular 
configuration as a chip 18b by punching them out of the corrugated board 
by methods well known in the art. The chips may also have an elliptical 
configuration 18c. As is true of all the chip embodiments, care should be 
taken that a substantially undamaged flute portion is provided. 
The air space created by the combination of a flute portion and liner 
portion is an important element for furnishing the insulating quality of 
the chip. 
When used as insulation, the chips are effective as thermal insulators, 
sound insulators and vibration insulators and can be utilized in many 
forms of insulation, for example, bag, loose and block. 
The chips 18, 18a, 18b and 18c can be manufactured into a block form by 
spraying, brushing or roll coating their external surfaces with an 
adherent such as thermal marine glue. The coated chips are placed into a 
mold manually or by blowing. They are then lightly pressed together and 
the adherent is allowed to set. If the mold was a large one, the formed 
piece (sheet) is cut into sections 36, which may be attached or laid in 
place in the conventional manner to provide an insulating layer in 
building construction. The placement may be in areas similar to those 
where the loose or bagged chips are used as will be set out hereinafter. 
In building construction, the loose chips 18 are used, for example, to 
insulate an exterior wall of an existing wooden building by blowing them, 
by methods well known in the art, between the sheathing 28 and the lath 
30. Of course, the blown chips will also be located on top of the sill 32 
and between the studs 34. The chips may also be blown into bags 38, which 
are subsequently sealed and used as insulators in the walls and attics of 
dwellings, in a manner well known in the art, such as on a ceiling 40 
between joists 42. The chips 18 when used either in a loose pack, bag or 
block form should be packed with adjacent chips 18 in abutting relation.