Patent Grant
12234074
This application claims priority to Chinese PCT Patent Application No. PCT/CN2021/100952, filed on Jun. 18, 2021, which is herein incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to flexible packages for articles which is easy for a consumer to open.
Non-fragile consumer products such as hygiene products and cosmetic products are often packaged in a flexible package, such as a package made of film.
One unmet need in flexible package made of film is that it is not easy to open. Many flexible packages are often not easy to control the propagation of the tearing even with assistance with an opening feature, and leave the opened packages with unpleasant appearance or even tear apart the packages completely. Prior opening features such as various configurations of opening perforations have not provided easy facilitation of opening, and in addition or alternatively, tend to promote substantial destruction of the package during opening, rendering it unsatisfactory for use as a storage container.
After opening a package of disposable absorbent articles and removing one or more items needed for immediate use, a consumer may wish to leave the remaining unused supply of product in the package for storage until the next time additional items are needed. In addition, it is often desirable particularly in environments where high humidity and substantial quantities of airborne dust and dirt particles may be present that the package has a recloseability capability that allows the package to be reclosed to an extent suitable to help protect the unused product from airborne contaminants. Moreover, it is desirable that the package retains, to some extent, its shape with a neat appearance, and structural integrity to remain useful as a container for storing unused product following opening.
To date, flexible packages with an opening feature have generally been less than fully satisfactory.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an easy open flexible package which can be easily and reliably opened along a predetermined direction in the package.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a flexible package which can be easily opened with linear, smooth and controlled tearing.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a flexible package to open easily which can be recloseable.
The present invention provides a package of one or more articles, the package comprising a substrate comprising at least one film layer, wherein the substrate has a first tearing force in a first direction and a second tearing force in a second direction, the second direction being perpendicular to the first direction, wherein the first tearing force is no greater than about 240 gf as measured according to Tearing Force Test, and wherein a ratio of the second tearing force to the first taring force is no less than about 1.35. The substrate forming a plurality of panels and an opening feature. The panels define an interior compartment, and the one or more articles are disposed in the interior compartment.
For ease of discussion, the invention disclosed herein will be discussed with reference to the numerals referred to in figures. The figures and detailed description should however not be considered limiting the scope of the claims, unless explicitly indicated otherwise, and the invention disclosed herein is suitable to package a wide variety of product.
All ranges are inclusive and combinable. The number of significant digits conveys neither limitations on the indicated amounts nor on the accuracy of the measurements. All numerical amounts are understood to be modified by the word “about” unless otherwise specifically indicated.
“Absorbent article” as used herein refers to products that absorb and contain body exudates, and, more specifically, refers to devices that are placed against or in proximity to the body of the wearer to absorb and contain the various exudates discharged from the body. Absorbent articles may include diapers (baby diapers and diapers for adult incontinence), pants (for babies or for adults), absorbent inserts (which are intended to be inserted into an outer cover to form a diaper or pant), feminine care absorbent articles such as sanitary napkins, pantiliners, or tampons, and the like. As used herein, the term “exudates” includes, but is not limited to, urine, blood, vaginal discharges, sweat and fecal matter.
“Cosmetic products” as used herein include locations, creams, tonics, cosmetic oils, facial masks, facial wipes and the like.
“Film” means a sheet structure having a length, width and thickness (caliper), wherein each of the length and width greatly exceed the thickness, i.e., by a factor of 1,000 or more, the structure having one layer (monolayer) or more respectively adjacent layers (multilayer), each layer being a substantially continuous structure formed of one or more thermoplastic polymer resins (including blends thereof).
“Hygiene products” as used herein refers to products for personal hygienic care, including disposable articles and cleansing products. Typical disposable hygiene products include disposable absorbent articles such as infant diapers, sanitary napkins, panty liners, breast pads, tampons and the like, and cleansing products such as washes, soaps, shampoos, hair conditioners, detergents and the like.
“Package” as used herein refers to a material provided to surround or enclose products such as hygiene products or cosmetic products.
“Machine direction” as used herein refers to the direction of the film production line. “Cross-machine direction” as used herein refers to a direction, which extends perpendicularly to said machine direction.
“Sealed” as used herein refers to a package having an interior that is inaccessible until the package is ruptured.
“Weakness line” as used herein refers to areas in which the package material has a reduced tear resistance compared to regions outside the weakness line. The weakness line can be provided by continuous lines or by a line of weakness points. The weakness line includes perforations, scoring, or a crease line.
Substrates
The substrate to form the package according to the present invention has a first tearing force in a first direction and a second tearing force in a second direction, the second direction being perpendicular to the first direction. The first tearing force is no greater than about 240 gf, or no greater than 210 gf, or no greater than 150 gf, as measured according to Tearing Force Test. When the first tearing force is too high such as greater than about 240 gf, it may require consumers to take more efforts to tear open the package, and thus it is deemed to be not easy opening packages. The first tearing force may be no less than about 20 gf as measured according to Tearing Force Test. When the first tearing force is too low, the package may be too easy to be open or torn and it poses problems in maintaining the integrity of the package before the time of opening, for example, packaging process and/or transportation or storage of packaged products. A ratio of the second tearing force to the first taring force is no less than about 1.35, or no less than about 1.4, or no less than about 1.5. When the ratio of the second tearing force to the first taring force is lower than about 1.35, it may be difficult to control the tearing propagation along the desired direction due to a small tearing force difference between the first and second directions.
In the substrate, the second tearing force may be no less than about 60 gf, or no less than about 100 gf, or no less than about 150 gf. It may be essential for the second tearing force to be sufficiently high to make sure the tear propagation is along the first direction. If the second tearing force is lower than 60 gf, it may be difficult to control the tearing propagation along the desired first direction.
The reduction of the tear force can be achieved by any suitable means known in the art, such as reducing the thickness or strength of the package material by e.g., cutting, punching, mechanical or ultrasonic embossing or by changing the crystalline structure of the package material by e.g., applying heat, a laser beam, high voltage or adding high crystallized material such as HDPE or the like.
The first direction may be a machine direction or a cross-machine direction. The first direction may be a direction forming an acute angle with the machine direction.
A substrate to form the package of the present invention comprises a polymeric film layer.
A polymeric film layer forming or comprised by the substrate according to the present invention may be formed of one or more polyolefins, such as polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP). Polymeric films may also include blown or cast film materials in a blend of low density polyethylene (LDPE), linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), metallocene PE blends (metPE), ethylene vinyl acetate, Surlyn®, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), mono and biaxially oriented polypropylene (M/BoPP) and nylon.
The film layer may be a single layer (monolayer), or may be formed by at least two layers (multilayer). A multilayer film may have, for example, an outer skin layer formed of a first polymer and an inner skin layer formed of a second polymer. (As used herein, the terms “outer” and “inner” refer to the positioning of the layer relative the inside and the outside of the finished package; thus, the “inner layer” faces the contained product, and the “outer layer” faces outward and has an outer surface that is exposed to view and touch by, e.g., shoppers in a retail store.)
A multilayer film may be co-formed (such as by coextrusion), or in another example, individual layers may be separately formed and then laminated together following their formation, by use of a suitable laminating adhesive. In this latter example, an advantage provided is that one of the layers may be printed on one side before lamination. Following that, the printed side may be faced inward (facing the other layer(s)) during lamination, such that it is protected by the other layer(s) from abrasion and wear in the finished film product, thereby preserving the integrity of the printed images, graphics, verbal content, etc. A suitable multilayer film may be formed of one or more polyolefins, such as polypropylene and polyethylene. In one example, the film may have at least two layers, including a first layer of predominately polyethylene and second layer of predominately polypropylene. In one example, a layer formed of predominately polyethylene having a first relatively higher melting temperature, and a layer of predominately polyethylene having a second relatively lower melting temperature, may be used to form the outer and inner layers, respectively. In another example, an inner layer may be formed predominately of a first type of polyethylene having a relatively lower melting temperature, and an outer layer may be formed predominately of a second type of polyethylene having a relatively higher melting temperature.
In one embodiment, the substrate according to the present invention comprises a multilayer film. A multilayer film may have layers of polymer compositions particularly chosen for the characteristics they impart to the film. For example, one or two outer skin layers may be formed of compositions chosen for, e.g., surface gloss; printability; smooth feel; pliability; low noise generation (upon being handled and manipulated, as by a consumer); relatively lower melt temperature for sealing/weldability; or any combination of these characteristics. One or more intermediate layers may be formed of compositions chosen for, e.g., tensile strength; stiffness; toughness; decorative appearances; suitability for inclusion of blended-in recycled material; environmentally-friendly and/or sustainable material sourceability; relatively higher melt temperature; co-extrusion compatibility with adjacent layers (such that strong bonding between layers occurs upon co-extrusion); or any combination of these characteristics.
The substrate of the present invention may further comprise an additional layer such as a paper layer, a metal layer and a metallization layer. A paper layer herein intends to include a paper layer made from natural fibers, synthetic fibers or any combination thereof. A metal layer herein tends to include foils such as made from aluminum, copper and other suitable metals or alloys. A metallization layer herein intends to include a polymeric film with a thin layer of metals or oxidization of metals via suitable metallization processes, such as vacuum metallization or spattering metallization, etc.
A polymeric film layer forming or comprised by the substrate according to the present invention can be pigmented. The polymeric film layer can be clear or opaque.
Package
A package of the present invention comprises a substrate forming a plurality of panels which define an interior compartment where one or more articles are disposed. The package of the present invention has a longitudinal direction extending from the first side panel (or the first side edge) to the second side panel (or the second side edge), and a transversal direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, and comprises an opening feature.
In one embodiment, the package of the present invention is a retail package containing non-fragile, compressible disposable absorbent articles. It may have a hexahedral shape with a top panel, a bottom panel, a first side panel, a second side panel, a front panel, and a back panel. Referring to
The substrate to form the package according to the present invention has a first tearing force in a first direction and a second tearing force in a second direction, the second direction being perpendicular to the first direction. The first direction may be substantially parallel to the transversal direction of the package. The first direction may be substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the package. The first direction may be a direction forming an acute angle with the transversal direction of the package.
Referring to
In another embodiment, the package is a flexible sachet. Flexible sachets suitable for the present invention may be of any shape, but referring to
The package may enclose one or more articles in a hygienically protective manner. In one embodiment, articles are typically arranged in one or more stacks inside the package. The package herein is provided with an opening flap for allowing a user to access and dispense the hygiene articles therethrough.
In one embodiment, the package is designed to provide an opening in the package by tearing a top part of package apart which provides an opening in the package and an opening flap. The opening flap can be reclosed as is, or by use of an adhesive strip which is fixedly joined to the opening flap and which is capable of releasable attachment to the package.
In another embodiment, the package is designed to provide a hood structure when the package is opened. As noted, it may be desired that the package have a recloseability feature. An opening hood structure having three sides each formed of a portion of one of the first side panel 52, second side panel 53, front panel 54 or back panel 55, and a top formed of a portion of one of the top panel 50 or bottom panel 51, as suggested in
Opening Feature
The package of the present invention further comprises an opening feature.
The opening feature can be various means to indicate a tear initiating point to guide users to initiate tearing the package and/or facilitate to open the package easily.
The opening feature may comprise a feature selected from the group consisting of a weakness line, an adhesive tape, an indicium, a pre-cut, a notch, and combinations thereof.
The opening feature may be located in any appropriate location (panel) in the package considering package shape, opening design and package usage, etc.
The opening feature may comprise a weakness line such as a series of perforations, scoring, or a crease line for easy rapture of the package and propagate the tear. Referring to
The present package can be easily and reliably opened without a weakness line or a minimum length of a weakness line if it has which may minimize the chance that tensile forces exerted by the compressed flexible articles will cause premature opening the package before it reaches the end user.
The opening feature may comprise an adhesive tape. Referring to
The opening feature may comprise an indicium which can highlight and direct the user's attention to the location of the tear initiating point. Such indicia may include words, graphic indicia, tactilely perceivable indicia, and any combination thereof. Indicia may be provided at an appropriate position of the exterior package, in order to direct the skilled person toward proper opening of the package along the pre-determined tearing direction such as the first direction of the package. The graphic indicia may be an arrow, a line or area of color, or an imprinted path marking or tracing path of a color that visibly contrasts with surrounding package color. The graphic indicia may draw attention to the easy opening property of the package and/or demonstrates how to open the package. For example, the graphic indicia may be an image which may comprise a hand and a perspective view of the package and may demonstrate the movement of the hand relative to the package required to tear the package. The tactilely perceivable indicia may include embossing or other surface texturing of the film, configured to provide raised, tactilely perceivable features that suggest the presence of the location of the tear initiating point and/or tearing direction.
Referring to
The opening feature may comprise a notch or a pre-cut referring to
In some embodiments, an opening feature can primarily exist on a side panel (e.g., one of the left or right panels) or a side edge so that a consumer's eyes are drawn to the graphic indicia to help them to start the package opening process and indicate where the path of tearing direction is. Referring to
In other embodiments, an opening feature can primarily exist on a top panel referring to
In other embodiments, referring to
Referring to
Measurement
1. Tearing Force Test
Tearing force in a machine direction and a cross-machine direction of a substrate is measured according to ASTM D 1922-15. When a substrate specimen is prepared from a package, the substrate is cut from the finished product using a razor blade or scissors to excise the substrate from the package not to include a seam, or a gusset or any bonding. Five replica for each sample are tested and average tearing force of the five replica is reported as tearing force.
2. Tearing Performance Test
Tearing performance of a substrate is conducted in order to test straight linearity tearing in one direction of a sample substrate.
When a substrate specimen is available in a raw material form, a rectangular test specimen with a size of 300 mm×100 mm is cut from the raw material. When a substrate specimen is prepared from a package, the substrate is cut from the finished product using a razor blade or scissors to excise the substrate specimen with a size of 300 mm×100 mm from the package without inclusion of a seam, or a gusset or any bonding area.
Referring to
Film substrates were prepared as below.
Substrate 1: 30 μm mono-axial direction orientation (“MDO”, hereinafter) film layer was prepared. A composite of about 65% polyethylene, about 8% of polypropylene, about 24.5% CaCO3, and about 2.5% polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) was blended and co-extruded via traditional film blowing process to make a precursor film. The precursor film then passed through a machine direction orientation process in which the film is continuously stretched along the machine direction of the film via a set of several nipper rollers to reduce the film thickness into 30 μm.
Substrate 2: Substrate 2 was prepared by laminating Substrate 1 and a 70 μm PE film layer using a solvent free adhesive to bond the two film layers together.
Substrate 3: Substrate 3 was prepared by laminating Substrate 1 and a 30 μm PE film layer using a solvent free adhesive to bond the two film layers together.
Substrate 4: 70 μm PE film from package of in market PE film for Pampers (Procter and Gamble, China).
Substrate 5: 25 μm MDO PE film from Huangshan Novel (China).
Substrate 6: Substrate 6 was prepared by laminating a 20 μm MDO PE film layer (Huangshan Novel, China) and a 55 μm PE film layer which is blown film with a composition of HDPE, MDPE and LLDPE.
Substrate 7: Substrate 7 was prepared by laminating a 12 μm PE film layer, a 9 μm aluminum layer, a 12 μm PET film layer and a 45 μm PE film layer.
Tearing forces in a machine direction and in a cross-machine direction of Substrates 1-7 were tested according to Tearing Force Test disclosed herein. All results are indicated in Table 1 below.
Tearing performance of Substrates 1-6 were evaluated according to Tearing Performance Test disclosed herein. Images of torn substrates of Substrates 1-6 in the first direction and the second direction according to the Tearing Performance Test are shown in
Each of Substrates 1-3 shows substantially linear and very neat tearing in the first direction, a machine direction in these cases, while Substrates 4-6 show failure of linear and neat tearing in either a machine direction or a cross-machine direction.
The dimensions and values disclosed herein are not to be understood as being strictly limited to the exact numerical values recited. Instead, unless otherwise specified, each such dimension is intended to mean both the recited value and a functionally equivalent range surrounding that value. For example, a dimension disclosed as “40 mm” is intended to mean “about 40 mm”.
Every document cited herein, including any cross referenced or related patent or application, is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety unless expressly excluded or otherwise limited. The citation of any document is not an admission that it is prior art with respect to any invention disclosed or claimed herein or that it alone, or in any combination with any other reference or references, teaches, suggests or discloses any such invention. Further, to the extent that any meaning or definition of a term in this document conflicts with any meaning or definition of the same term in a document incorporated by reference, the meaning or definition assigned to that term in this document shall govern.
While particular embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described, it would be obvious to those skilled in the art that various other changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is therefore intended to cover in the appended claims all such changes and modifications that are within the scope of this invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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| PCT/CN2021/100952 | Jun 2021 | WO | international |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
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| 20220402674 A1 | Dec 2022 | US |
