Patent Application
20060124714
The present invention pertains to a carton having a folded and sealed bottom wall. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a carton having a bottom wall having folded-in gusset tips.
One common form of container for milk, juice and the like is the gable top carton. Recently, packaging technology has made enormous strides vis-à-vis these gable top cartons, as well as other types of packages. At present, technology permits packaging perishable food items for non-refrigerated extended shelf lives. These packages provide the ability to bring these food items into parts of the world that have limited transportation, distribution and storage infrastructure.
In view of this, efforts have been made to increase the high standards of cleanliness in the formed, filled and sealed containers to provide the highest quality product and to provide the greatest product shelf life. And, in conjunction with this, the demands on the overall packaging processes have been maintained vis-à-vis machine operating speeds. Such machines must form, fill and seal packages, in a sterile environment, at high operating speeds.
In order to maintain the integrity of the package after it is filled and sealed, advanced technologies have been applied to the carton materials, as well as the processing operations. Many such packaging materials are formed from paperboard or fiberboard-based materials formed in a composite structure. Typically, one or more layers, such as polymeric coatings, foil coatings and the like, are applied to the paperboard or fiberboard substrate to reduce or eliminate the gas and liquid permeability of the substrate material.
It has been found that one avenue for providing an environment that reduces the shelf life is wicking of the food product into the package material. Wicking occurs at the edges of the material that are exposed to the food product. Typically, wicking occurs at the raw or exposed edges of the bottom wall panels as they are folded to form the bottom wall. To this end, it has been found desirable to reduce the amount or extent of exposed edges, and in particular at the bottom wall. It has also been found that the foil at the tips of the gussets (the in-folded triangular panels) can crack thus exposing the paperboard substrate material.
One package that has affected a reduction in wicking is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,328,204 to Stacy-Ryan and an apparatus to form such an over-folded bottom is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,385,950 to Anderson, both of which patents are commonly assigned with the present application and are incorporated herein by reference. While this over-folded bottom served to “cover” the exposed edges from the bottom front or rear panel, the increase in material required was undesirable.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a carton bottom folding configuration that reduces or eliminates the raw (exposed) paper edges within the carton product storage region. Desirably, such a carton uses, for the most part, a traditional creasing, folding and sealing configuration. Most desirably, such a carton can be formed on known form, fill and seal packaging machines (with minimal modification) and using less packaging material than known over-folded bottom arrangements.
A package having a bottom wall with in-folded gusset tips includes a plurality of, preferably four, upstanding side walls, each side wall contiguous or sealed to its adjacent side walls. The package has a sealed top, such as the familiar gable top, and a sealed bottom wall. The sealed bottom wall is formed from opposing leading and trailing panels and intermediate, opposing gusset panels. The gusset panels are folded inwardly toward one another to form triangular panels. The triangular panels are disposed interior of the leading and trailing panels. The ends of the gusset panels define triangular tips that are folded away from one another.
In a present package, the triangular tips are disposed between the triangular gusset panels and the leading and trailing panels, and the leading panel is sealed over the trailing panel.
A sixth panel is contiguous with the trailing panel. The sixth panel is folded rearwardly so as to lie between the leading and trailing panels. A blank for forming the package is also disclosed.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, in conjunction with the appended claims.
The benefits and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the relevant art after reviewing the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, wherein:
While the present invention is susceptible of embodiment in various forms, there is shown in the drawings and will hereinafter be described a presently preferred embodiment with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered an exemplification of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to the specific embodiment illustrated.
It should be further understood that the title of this section of this specification, namely, “Detailed Description Of The Invention”, relates to a requirement of the United States Patent Office, and does not imply, nor should be inferred to limit the subject matter disclosed herein.
An embodiment of the package 10 in accordance with the principles of the present invention is illustrated in
The bottom wall 32 is formed from in-folded side gusset panels 36, 38 and front and rear or leading and trailing panels 40, 42. As seen in
A tab or sixth panel 52 is folded over so that the raw or uncoated edge of the trailing panel 42 is also outside of the product storage or wetted region. That is, the uncoated edge is “shifted” from the end of the trailing panel 42 to the end of the tab panel 52 and, because the tab panel is folded over, the uncoated edge (indicated at 54) is thus, like the gusset tips 44, 46, sealed between the triangular panels 36, 38 and the bottom panels 40, 42. In a present package, the sixth panel 52 has a width (as at w52) and a length (as at d52). This configuration results in less material (about 3 percent less than known configurations) which provides a material cost savings.
A blank 110 for the package 10 is shown in
A plurality of corresponding bottom panels 32-38 are partitioned from the corresponding or respective front, rear and side panels 14-20 by a lower horizontal score line 114. A plurality of lower diagonal score lines 116 further define the bottom gusset panels 36, 38 and are for folding purposes. The bottom or tab panel 52 (also referred to as the sixth panel) is separated from the trailing panel 42 by a score line 118.
In known carton blanks, the diagonal score lines extend fully from the horizontal score line separating the side panels from the bottom panels to the edge of the bottom panels (indicated at 120), and the score lines meet at the edge to form the triangular panels.
In the present blank 110, the diagonal score lines 116 (referred to herein as major diagonal score lines) terminate at a folding region 122 that includes a rectangular area 124 having smaller triangular areas 126 adjacent to the sides of the rectangular area 124. The areas 124, 126 are defined by a first horizontal score line 128 contiguous with a pair of spaced apart vertical score lines 130 (forming an upside-down U). The major diagonal score lines 116 terminate at the corners 132 of the U or at the respective junctures of the horizontal and vertical score lines 128, 130.
To accommodate the in-folding of the tips, 44, 46 each of the bottom gusset panels 36, 38 includes a pair of minor diagonal score lines 134 that extend from the edge 120 of the panel to the respective junctures (corners) 132 of the horizontal and vertical score lines 128, 130 with the major diagonal score lines 116.
Referring now to
All patents referred to herein, are hereby incorporated herein by reference, whether or not specifically done so within the text of this disclosure.
In the present disclosure, the words “a” or “an” are to be taken to include both the singular and the plural. Conversely, any reference to plural items shall, where appropriate, include the singular.
From the foregoing it will be observed that numerous modifications and variations can be effectuated without departing from the true spirit and scope of the novel concepts of the present invention. It is to be understood that no limitation with respect to the specific embodiments illustrated is intended or should be inferred. The disclosure is intended to cover by the appended claims all such modifications as fall within the scope of the claims.
