Substituting Plastic Frame of Watch Pillow with Paper Bobbin
Traditionally, paper bobbins are used for winding materials that tend to slip from the roll. However, we recently proposed an alternative application for a paper bobbin: a structural component of a watch pillow. Unless you are a watch aficionado or recently purchase a watch, you may not know that the packaging box of a watch often comes with a pillow that a watch wraps around while laying inside to serve as a cushion (see Figure 1). A watch pillow can be unstructured in a similar manner to any ordinary pillow, but there is also a common variant that has a structured rigidity to it, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Example of a watch box with cushion pillow. (Disclaimer: a photo from eBay, not our customer or ours)
Figure 2 Customer’s current structural frame for a watch pillow
Recently, we have been asked by a customer who is a jewelry box maker to come up a paper-based solution for providing a rigid structure to a watch pillow. Currently, our customer is using a structural frame that is made from acrylic plastics and medium-density fiberboard (MDF) as shown in Figure 2. Since the end customer is a European watch brand, the company is making the transition to a more eco-friendly packaging as most in Europe are doing. Given the shape of the current frame used in a watch pillow, we proposed a paper bobbin with two paper cores to support the cushioning, as shown by the Figure 3 below. Figure 4 and 5 provide additional photos of finished watch pillows.
With our experience in paper converting and some creativity, we have proposed a paper-based solution for a watch pillow structural frame. Our solution is not only more eco-friendly but also offers more rigidity as we design the paperboards to lock the paper cores firmly in place. In the future, we may revise the design to improve ease of assembly and rigidity further.
Figure 3 Prototypes of watch frame bobbin by M.R.S. Kato
Figure 4 Finished watch pillows (including a half-cut)
Figure 5 Finished watch pillow using paper-based frame in use.