Patent Application
20100166924
This invention relates generally to packaging, and more particularly to a disposable packaging comprising a pouch having a multiple opening feature.
Flexible film packages are well known in the art and typically comprise disposable pouches commercially produced on high-speed form-fill-seal machines from rolls of plastic film material. The flexible film packages have cavities within which pluralities of contents, such as food products, are stored. Consumers typically open these packages by tearing the plastic film material to access the contents. Moreover, consumers often have varied behaviors when consuming contents from such a package. While some prefer to controllably pour the contents out of the package, others desire to reach into the package to manually remove the contents. A package having a multiple opening feature allows the consumer to create an opening in the package that best suits the individual consumer's preferred behavior.
Numerous opening mechanisms for flexible packages are well known in the art. By one approach, flexible packages are opened by simply ripping off the sealed top portion of the package. The package may be notched to facilitate the tearing of the film. This approach gives the consumer little control over the size of the package's opening. Because the consumer must exert a large amount of force to tear the film material, it is difficult to control the tear so that it extends across only a portion of the package.
In another approach, flexible packages have zipper seals, such as press-to-close or slider-facilitated. Zippers allow the consumer to vary the size of the package's opening between fully closed and fully open. The consumer may open only a portion of the zipper seal to control the width of the package opening. However, the zipper seal is easily separated once partially opened. A small force parallel to the zipper causes the zipper to separate. As the consumer accesses the contents of the package or pours the contents of the package out, the seal is often opened further. Thus, the desired opening size is not maintained.
In yet another approach, flexible packages have a narrowed opening designed to permit controlled pouring. This may be done through use of an integrated spout. In another approach, some flexible packages include a feature to stop the consumer from being able to tear off the entire top of the package. Such an opening may also be facilitated by using a tear line extending across only a portion of the package. In all of the above approaches, the consumer may only controllably create a single-width opening. This configuration, similar to those packages where the entire top seal is separated, does not allow the consumer to select an opening size that best suits the consumer's desired use of the package.
The package described herein comprises a flexible pouch having two areas of weakness defining two removable top portions. Removal of the first top portion exposes an opening in the pouch allowing egress of the product contained therein. Removal of the second top portion exposes yet another opening in the pouch allowing egress of the product. In one embodiment, the first opening is smaller than the second opening to facilitate different manners of dispensing the food product. Further, in one illustrative example, the flexible pouch is a hand held pouch that can be comfortably and easily controlled with one hand.
To commercially produce the flexible package having a multiple opening feature, high-speed form-fill-seal equipment having a vertical or horizontal configuration may be employed. In one embodiment, the packages are formed out of film material in an in-line operation such that areas of weakness are formed at the time the packages are sealed.
The above needs are at least partially met through provision of the flexible package with a multiple opening feature described in the following detailed description, particularly when studied in conjunction with the drawings, wherein:
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. It will also be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.
Generally speaking, pursuant to these various embodiments, a flexible package having a multiple opening feature is illustrated in
In one illustrative embodiment, as depicted in
The areas of weakness 24, 34 facilitate removing respective removable top portions 20, 30 from flexible pouch 10. More particularly, the areas of weakness 24, 34 may assist the user in initiating and directing the tear that removes the top portions 20, 30. Further, the areas of weakness 24, 34 also may assist the user in guiding the tear through the fin seal 48 or other potentially difficult areas. The areas of weakness 24, 34 may be created by laser scoring, mechanically, such as by creating perforations, or other similar techniques. In one illustrative embodiment, the areas of weakness 24, 34 extend across the entire width of flexible pouch 10. The positioning of the areas of weakness 24, 34 may be determined by a number of factors such as overall size of the package, the food product stored therein, and the desire to ensure sufficient distance between the two areas of weakness 24, 34.
Depending on the contents 12 of the flexible pouch 10, it may be desirable for the package to have a hermetic seal. The hermetic seal may be created by the top seal 44 or another seal. Turning now to
The consumer may accesses the contents of the flexible pouch 10 by removing one or both removable top portions 20, 30. Area of weakness 24 facilitates the removal of the first top portion 20 ensuring that the removable top portion 20 separates from the flexible pouch 10 in a controlled manner along a predetermined path.
Similar to area of weakness 24, area weakness 34 facilitates the removal of the second top portion 30 ensuring that the removable top portion 30 separates from the flexible pouch 10 in a controlled manner along a predetermined path.
To create two differently sized apertures 26, 36, a number of configurations are contemplated. By one approach illustrated in
Turning now to
Referring now to
A variety of manufacturing methods are available to commercially produce the multiple-opening flexible pouches and one illustrative example will be discussed herein. The flexible pouches may be made in a high-speed form-fill-seal (FFS) operation that produces up to 800 packages per minute. By one approach, the FFS operation may be on a vertical FFS machine, as illustrated in
In one illustrative embodiment shown in
After a bottom seal is formed in the flexible pouch, the partially formed flexible pouch is then filled with food product, which is introduced into the pouch via the fill tube 49. In one embodiment, an area of weakness is formed in the flexible pouches to define a removable top portion. By one approach, a notch, score line, or other feature to facilitate removal of the top portion of the package may then be formed near the top of the pouch. A hermetic seal may also be created in the flexible pouch. The formed, filled, and sealed pouch then advances downward as the next pouch is formed, filled, and sealed, resulting in a chain or connected series of filled, sealed pouches advancing in the machine direction intermittently or continuously. The flexible pouches are then separated from one another, such as, for example, by a reciprocating knife.
There are a variety of alternative steps to those described in this vertical FFS operation. Also, high speed techniques may be employed instead of application of heat and pressure by heat seal bars as described above. For example, RF energy, ultrasonic energy or other techniques may be employed.
The film material or substrate of the flexible pouch may be formed as a polymeric sheet of various plastic polymers, copolymers, co-extrusions and/or laminations. Further, the film material may be a monolayer polymeric film or a multilayer laminate comprising an outer layer of durable material and one or more inner barrier layers and sealant layers. The multilayer combination may be comprised of polyolefin such as polyethylene (high, medium, low, linear low, and/or ultra low density polymers including metallocene), polypropylene (oriented and/or biaxially oriented); polybutylene; ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA); polyamides (oriented and/or biaxially oriented) such as nylon; polyethylene terephthalate (oriented and/or biaxially oriented); polyvinyl chloride; ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH); polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC); polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH); polystyrene; or combinations thereof. In addition, adhesive tie layers may also be used.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that a wide variety of modifications, alterations, and combinations can be made with respect to the above described embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, and that such modifications, alterations, and combinations are to be viewed as being within the ambit of the inventive concept.
