Patent Application
20220396409
The present invention relates to an expansion sheet body capable of expanding a plurality of cells by a fluid such as air, a package in which an object to be packaged is packaged by the expansion sheet body, and a packaging method thereof.
An expansion sheet body in which a plurality of cells defined by a cell seal for joining overlapped films together are arranged so as to be adjacent to each other, and the cells are constituted such that they are expanded by introducing a fluid from the upstream side into these cells is, as shown in Patent Documents 1 to 3, used in the technical field of a package, and in particular, it is implemented as a buffer, or implemented as a package having a buffer function by itself. The expansion sheet bodies used in Patent Documents 1 to 3 are implemented as the expansion sheet body which acts as a buffer function for protecting the object to be packaged by introducing air into inside the cell, but in some cases, it may be implemented as an expansion sheet body in which the cell constitute a package by introducing a liquid or gaseous object to be packaged into inside the cell, or implemented as a decorative article.
Thus, as accompanied by expanding the fields of use and utility form of the expansion sheet body, the form constituted by the entire expansion sheet body has also diversified, and attempts have also been made, from a relatively simple shape such as a simple sheet shape or a bag shape material, to form a three-dimensional shape by an expansion sheet body as shown in Patent Document 2 or 3.
When the three-dimensional shape is formed by the expansion sheet body, there is a case where the cells are overlapped with each other by being bent at the bending seal part. In such an overlapped portion, there is a case where it is advantageous that one of the overlapped cells is expanded but the other cell is remained in a flat sheet without expansion to provide an unexpanded region.
Also, when a plane sheet such as a slip, etc., is desired to be attached to the expansion sheet body, or when letters, etc., are desired to be directly written with oil-based ink, there is a case where it is convenient to form an unexpanded region.
Thus, for forming an unexpanded region that remains a flat state sheet, it is advisable to prevent fluid from being introduced into a predetermined region of the cell by sealing the cell in the middle of the upstream and downstream. However, there is a case where it is advantageous that air is introduced into a region further downstream than the unexpanded region so that the cell is to be expanded.
In this way, while various forms can be implemented with regard to cells, necessity in manufacturing many varieties and small lot, and in quickly responding to daily changing distribution system are generated, and at that time, necessity of cost reduction to make the mold common, or the like, is heightened.
In other words, in the technical field of the expansion sheet body, it has also been desired to develop a technology excellent in mass productivity. In addition, it has been desired to develop a technology excellent in compatibility with small varieties.
An object of the present invention is to provide an expansion sheet body having high mass-productivity and high versatility.
An object of the present invention is to provide an expansion primary sheet body capable of obtaining an expansion sheet body having high mass-productivity and high versatility.
An object of the present invention is to provide an expansion sheet body capable of obtaining a package with various forms by partial modification and to provide an expansion primary sheet body for obtaining the same.
An object of the present invention is to provide a package and a packaging method excellent in mass productivity and compatibility with small varieties.
The present invention is to improve an expansion sheet body which is constituted such that a plurality of cells defined by a cell seal for joining overlapped films together are arranged so as to be adjacent to each other, and the cells are expanded by a fluid which is introduced into the cells from the upstream side thereof.
In the expansion sheet body according to the present invention, at least one of the cells is provided with an unexpanded region in which the cell is not expanded in the mid-stream section in the midway from the upstream side to the downstream side. The cell provided with the unexpanded region is provided with a connection part which allows flowing a fluid between the adjacent cells at the cell seal on the downstream side than the unexpanded region. Then, it is constituted such that a region at the downstream side than the unexpanded region of the cell is expanded by the fluid from the connection part.
In the expansion sheet body according to the present invention, even when an unexpanded region in which the cell dose not expand is provided in the mid-stream section in the midway from the upstream side to the downstream side, a fluid can be introduced from the adjacent cell by providing the connection part to the cell seal at the downstream side, so that the region at the downstream side of the cell can be expanded.
For implementing the present invention, the unexpanded region can be used for various purposes. For example, the front surface side of the unexpanded region can be used as a placement part of a plane sheet such as a slip, a slip holder or the like. In addition, there is a case where the cells are overlapped with each other when the expansion sheet body is formed into a three-dimensional shape, and at least one of the cells in the overlapped portion may be made the unexpanded region, whereby it can be made a shape that is not bulky than necessary, and can be made a material which is provided with a more complicated three-dimensional shape.
The expansion sheet body can be implemented in various three-dimensional shapes, and at that time, by providing a bending seal part in at least one of the cells, the cell can be made a material that can be easily bent from the bending seal part.
The present invention also provides a package in which an object to be packaged is packaged by using the expansion sheet body. In the package according to the present invention, the unexpanded region of the cell is not expanded, and the region at the downstream side than that of the unexpanded region is expanded.
When manufacturing the expansion sheet body of the present invention, a primary sheet to which a basic seal has been applied is produced, and secondary processing or tertiary processing is applied thereto depending on each product whereby various forms of expansion sheet bodies can be produced by a common primary sheet.
That is, the present invention is to provide a material provided with the following means in an expansion primary sheet body in which a plurality of cells defined by a cell seal for joining overlapped films together are arranged so as to be adjacent to each other, and the cells are constituted such that the cells are expanded by a fluid which is introduced from the upstream side thereinto. At least one of the cells is provided with an unexpanded scheduled region in which the cell is not expanded in the mid-stream section in the midway from the upstream side to the downstream side. A plurality of the cells including the cells provided with the unexpanded scheduled region is to provide an expansion primary sheet body which is provided with a connection part which allows flowing the fluid between the adjacent cells provided at the downstream side than the unexpanded scheduled region. With regard to the expansion primary sheet body, the closing seal is not applied to the connection parts which are downstream than the unexpanded scheduled region, and the closing seal is applied to the connection parts other than the above, whereby it is possible to obtain an expansion sheet body in which the region of the downstream side than the unexpanded region expands.
Also, the present invention is to provide a packaging method by an expansion sheet which comprises that the expansion-stopping seal and the closing seal are applied to the expansion primary sheet body to produce an expansion secondary sheet body, then, an object to be packaged is packaged with the expansion secondary sheet body and air as the fluid is introduced from the upstream side of the cell into inside the cell to produce a package in which a region of the downstream side is more expanded than that of the unexpanded region.
The present invention could be provided an expansion sheet body having high mass-productivity and high versatility.
The present invention could be provided an expansion primary sheet body which has been capable of obtaining an expansion sheet body having high mass-productivity and high versatility, whereby mass productivity and versatility of the expansion sheet body could be improved.
The present invention could be provided an expansion sheet body capable of obtaining various forms of packages by partial modification. Also, it could be provided an expansion primary sheet body for obtaining such an expansion sheet body.
The present invention could be provided a package excellent in mass productivity and compatibility with small varieties, and a packaging method thereof.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
The expansion sheet body according to this embodiment is a sheet-like body in which a plurality of cells 22 are arranged so as to be adjacent to each other. The cell 22 is defined by a cell seal 41 that joins overlapped two sheets of films 21 to each other, and each cell 22 expands by a fluid (it is air in this embodiment, but other gas or liquid may be used) being introduced into each cell 22 from the upstream side (upper end in
In
Incidentally, in the present invention, it should be understood that the expansion sheet body may be any form either of an expansion primary sheet body 11 or an expansion secondary sheet body 12 in the state before packaging an object to be packaged 14, the sheet body after packaging the object to be packaged 14 and before introducing air, or an expansible package 13 after packaging the object to be packaged 14 and introducing air.
The expansible package 13 according to this embodiment forms an unexpanded region 36 that does not expand in which air is not introduced into a part of a predetermined cell 22 even in the state that air is introduced into the cell 22. When air is introduced from the upstream to the downstream with regard to each cell 22, as for the region 37 of the downstream side of the unexpanded region 36, focusing on the cell 22 alone, air is not introduced into the region 37 of the downstream side so that it does not expand, but in the present invention, it is one of the characteristic features that the region 37 of the downstream side can be also expanded by introducing air from other cell 22. Another characteristic feature of the present invention is to enhance the mass productivity and compatibility with small varieties of the expansion sheet body in which the unexpanded region 36 is provided at the mid-stream region of the cell 22, and in this embodiment, mass productivity and compatibility with small varieties are realized by the expansion primary sheet body 11 and the expansion secondary sheet body 12.
(Overall Explanation of Expansion Primary Sheet Body 11)
While referring to
When the expansion sheet body is industrially produced, it is advantageous to produce it by continuously feeding two sheets of films 21 in an overlapped state, and sealing a necessary portion by processing such as heat sealing, etc. Therefore, the film 21 is supplied by being delivered from a lengthy body wound in a roll state, a plurality of expansion sheet bodies is continuously produced along the feeding direction indicated by the arrow F, and it is cut off at an appropriate stage until the object to be packaged 14 is packaged.
As the film 21, a single sheet, a composite laminated sheet or the like of a synthetic resin having airtightness against a fluid such as air can be used.
(Overall Constitution of Cell 22)
A plurality of cells 22 are arranged along the feeding direction 20 in the expansion primary sheet body 11, and each cell 22 is continuously formed from the upstream (upper end of
Each cell 22 is formed by joining two sheets of films 21 (see
By the formation of the cell seal 41, a diameter at which the cell 22 expands can be limited to a predetermined size, and the whole expansion sheet body can be made a sheet state body suitable for packaging an object to be packaged 14. Also, when the cells 22 are made in an independent state from each other without connecting them, even if one of the cells 22 is broken and withered, the other cells 22 can maintain the expanded state, and it can suppress to lose the buffer function at once.
(Region of Cell 22)
In each cell 22, a common flow path 24, a first region 31, a second region 32, a third region 33 and a fourth region 34 are formed in a partitioned state from its upstream toward the downstream. In order to form these regions in a partitioned state, a top seal 43, an upstream seal 44, a plurality of bending seal parts 46 and an expansion-stopping seal 47 are formed along the feeding direction 20.
The top seal 43 and the upstream seal 44 are provided for forming a common flow path 24, and the common flow path 24 is made an introduction port in which one of the left and right ends is closed and the other end is open. The air introduced from the introduction port into the common flow path 24 is introduced into inside each cell 22 from the upstream seal 44 and expands a predetermined region of each cell 22. A check valve 23 can be provided at the upstream end of the respective cells 22 so that air does not flow back and escape from the expanded cell 22. This check valve 23 may be adopted a sheet-shaped check valve as those shown in Patent Documents 1 to 3. Incidentally, it may be implemented without providing the check valve 23, and in such a case, it is necessary to close the upstream seal 44 with a seal or the like after expanding the cell 22.
The bending seal part 46 is a material to easily bend the cell 22 in the expanded state, and a part of the cell 22 in the width direction is sealed and connection of air is allowed in the other portions. In this example, each cell 22 is divided into 4 regions by forming the bending seal part 46 partitioned with three steps from the upstream toward the downstream.
As shown in
Further, the two front and rear surfaces of the expansible package 13 can be covered with the cell 22 that expands when air is introduced by bending both the left and right sides of the first region 31 and the third region 33 from the cell seal 41. And, the overlapped part 27 is folded and overlapped on the front surface side of the expanded cell 22. The overlapped part 27 is planned as an unexpanded scheduled region 35 at both the left and right sides of the second region 32 and the fourth region 34 and becomes an unexpanded region 36 that does not expand even if air is introduced into the cell 22. The overlapped part 27 constituted by the unexpanded region 36 is folded and overlapped, the object to be packaged 14 is packaged in the state of the so-called caramel packaging and is fixed by a fixing means or the like, if necessary, so that the expansible package 13 having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape shown in
(With Regard to Unexpanded Scheduled Region 35)
The unexpanded scheduled region 35 can be provided to form the above-mentioned overlapped part 27, or can be provided to form a placement part 26 to which a plane sheet 25 such as a slip is attached. The plane sheet 25 may be various display sheets such as a slip, an address seal, a handling attention sheet or the like, or may be a transparent insert for inserting the sheet. Also, it may be a space which can be easily written directly by oil-based ink or the like.
The unexpanded region 36 can be obtained by closing the upstream side and the downstream side of the unexpanded scheduled region 35 with an expansion-stopping seal 47 shown in
(With Regard to Connection Part 42)
By forming the unexpanded region 36 in the mid-stream section in the midway from this upstream side to the downstream side, air is not introduced into the region 37 of the downstream side thereof, so that the region is in the state of not expanding. However, it is desirable as a buffer to expand the region 37 of the downstream side so that air is introduced thereinto. In order to correspond to this, a connection part 42 is formed at this region 37 of the downstream side. By forming this connection part 42, air can be introduced from the other adjacent cell 22, and the cell can be expanded.
The connection part 42 may be provided only in the region 37 of the downstream side of the unexpanded region 36, and in this embodiment, in consideration of mass productivity, the connection parts 42 are formed on all the cell seals 41 at the stage of the expansion primary sheet body 11. Specifically, in the upper and lower two stages of the downstream side of the unexpanded scheduled region 35 which becomes an overlapped part 27 and the downstream side of the unexpanded scheduled region 35 which becomes a placement part 26, the connection parts 42 are provided on all the cell seals 41. In each stage, it is desirable to align the positions where the connection parts 42 be provided on the cell seal 41. That is, it is desirable that the distances from the upstream end to the connection part 42 in each cell 22 be equal.
(With Regard to Expansion Secondary Sheet Body 12)
The expansion secondary sheet body 12 shown in
In this expansion secondary sheet body 12, with regard to the unexpanded scheduled region 35, the unexpanded region 36 is made by forming the expansion-stopping seal 47 that closes the upstream side and the downstream side thereof with the expansion-stopping seal 47, and the connection part 42 is selectively closed by forming a closing seal 48. Specifically, the closing seal 48 is not applied to the connection part 42 of the region 37 of the downstream side of the unexpanded region 36, and the closing seal 48 is formed only to the connection part 42 of the cell 21 having no unexpanded region 36.
By forming the expansion-stopping seal 47 as mentioned above, even when air is introduced into the cell 22, air is not introduced into the unexpanded region 36, and a plane sheet state can be maintained. On the other hand, with regard to the region 37 of the downstream side of the unexpanded region 36, air is introduced from the adjacent cell 22 through the unclosed connection part 42 so that it can be expanded. Further, with regard to the connection part 42 of the cell 21 having no unexpanded region 36, independence of these cells 21 can be obtained by forming the closing seal 48.
(With Regard to Expansible Package 13)
The cell 22 is expanded by introducing air from the common flow path 24 into the completed expansion secondary sheet body 12 and the object to be packaged 14 is packaged to complete the expansible package 13. Incidentally, if necessary, necessary parts of the expansible package 13 may be fixed by a fixing means such as an adhesive tape, or the like, so that the package cannot be unpacked. In this example, as mentioned above, air is introduced from the common flow path 24 into the cell 22 to expand the same, whereby the object to be packaged 14 is packaged in the form of the so-called caramel packaging. At this time, the overlapped part 27 is folded at a crease line 28, this portion is not expanded so that it can be folded without difficulty and it is not necessary to apply special processing to the crease line 28. Further, a plane sheet 25 can be securely attached to the placement part 26 which does not expand. Incidentally, it is desirable to carry out introduction of air prior to packaging the object to be packaged 14, but either of them may be carried out first.
In the above-mentioned embodiments shown in
To the contrary, in another embodiments shown in
For that reason, as shown in
Further, in the previous embodiment, the unexpanded scheduled region 35 provided in the fourth region 34 is located at the most downstream of the expansion primary sheet body 11, but in this embodiment, since the fifth region 39 is present at the downstream side of the unexpanded scheduled region 35 in the fourth region 34, the connection part 42 is provided on the cell seal 41 of the fifth region 39.
Incidentally, in this embodiment, the connection part 42 is provided only in the cell seal 41 corresponding to the region 37 of the downstream side of the unexpanded scheduled region 35 for the placement part 26 in the third region 33, and the connection part 42 at the upstream side of the unexpanded scheduled region 35 for the placement part 26 is omitted, but it may be also implemented by providing the connection part 42 to the said portion similarly as in the previous embodiment.
Also, the expansion-stopping seal 47 for forming the unexpanded region 36 is made thicker than that of the previous embodiment, and the portion of the cell seal 41 is also subjected to heat-sealing in duplicate, whereby it is made that the unexpanded region 36 can be formed more reliably. Incidentally, with regard to the closing seal 48 provided on the expansion secondary sheet body 12, it may be a width wider than that of the cell seal 41, and the length thereof is made slightly longer than the length of the connection part 42, whereby it can suppress leakage of the fluid caused by position displacement.
In the above-mentioned two embodiments, the unexpanded region 36 which becomes the overlapped part 27 is arranged outside the expanded cell 22. To the contrary, in the embodiment shown in
Incidentally, the joint portion of the expansion sheet body can be selected from any of those shown in
Each of the illustrated embodiments shows only one form of the expansible package 13, and the present invention can be applied to various packaging forms. For example, with regard to the simple bag-shaped packaging form, it can be implemented as in which a placement part 26 for a plane sheet 25 is provided, or it can be applied when the packaging form shown in Patent Document 2 or 3 is implemented. Further, even in the same form of the caramel packaging as shown in the drawing, the position and size of the placement part 26 for a plane sheet 25 or the overlapped part 27 to be provided may be changed depending on the size thereof, and a number and length of the cells 22 may be changed. Further, in the examples of
Further, the present invention is implemented with two stages of the expansion primary sheet body 11 and the expansion secondary sheet body 12 in the embodiment, but it may be implemented such that the expansion secondary sheet body 12 in a completed form is continuously produced in a series of lines. However, mass productivity and compatibility with small varieties can be improved by separating the line for producing the expansion primary sheet body 11 and the line for producing the expansion secondary sheet body 12. Specifically, a primary roll in which the expansion primary sheet body 11 is continuously provided is produced at a production base of the sheet, this primary roll is carried in a distribution base at which packaging work is carried out, processing of the form corresponding to the object to be packaged 14 is applied to the expansion primary sheet body 11 to complete the expansion secondary sheet body 12, and the object to be packaged 14 can be packaged by the completed expansion secondary sheet body 12. Further, even when both the expansion primary sheet body 11 and the expansion secondary sheet body 12 are produced at the production base of the sheet, the expansion primary sheet body 11 is produced using a common mold having high versatility, and processing of the expansion secondary sheet body 12 is partially applied individually to the obtained expansion primary sheet body 11, whereby both mass productivity and compatibility with small varieties can be achieved.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2019/040586 | 10/16/2019 | WO |
