Patent Application
20200017269
Flexible polymeric containers for holding liquid are known. Some of such polymeric containers include fitments for filling and/or dispensing the liquid. For example, flexible polymeric containers including fitments can be used for holding beverage concentrates. Examples of such flexible polymeric containers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,231,029, 8,348,509, 8,840,305, and 9,908,668.
After being filled with liquid, some flexible polymeric containers are prone to bursting if dropped. Therefore, each of the liquid-filled containers is often deposited in a respective cardboard box. Placing such a liquid-filled container into a cardboard box provides structure and stability to the container to facilitate handling, storage, and stacking. This “bag in box” combination typically requires that the liquid-filled container be formed from a relatively thick polymer film (e.g., at least 10 gauge) to provide the necessary degree of strength and impact resistance.
There may be disadvantages associated with placing each of such liquid-filled containers into a respective cardboard box. As one possible example, in order to facilitate recycling it may be necessary to remove (e.g., manually remove) the emptied container from its cardboard box. Thus, there remains a need for improved flexible containers and/or means of storing, handling, and/or reinforcing such containers.
An aspect of this disclosure is the provision of a package including a polymeric flexible bag with an opening to an interior space containing liquid, and a polymeric flexible reinforcing article having a cavity at least partially containing the flexible bag. In at least one embodiment of this disclosure, the reinforcing article is configured to at least partially protect the flexible bag from impacts. For example, the reinforcing article can be configured to circumferentially engage, and circumferentially provide inwardly oriented force against, an exterior of the flexible bag.
Opposite ends of the reinforcing article are typically spaced apart by a distance that is less than a distance between opposite ends of the flexible bag. An opening of the reinforcing article can be positioned proximate one of the opposite ends of the reinforcing article and be configured to have a portion of the flexible bag extend through the opening. The package typically includes a fitment mounted to the opening of the flexible bag, wherein the fitment and/or one or more associated components can be configured for selectively closing the opening of the flexible bag.
In one example, a portion of the flexible bag that includes the fitment and a handle of the flexible bag extends upwardly through the opening of the reinforcing article so that the fitment and handle are positioned outside of the reinforcing article. The reinforcing article can be an outer bag that is shorter than the inner flexible bag.
In another example, the reinforcing article can be a sleeve. A portion of the flexible bag that includes the fitment and a handle of the flexible bag can extend outwardly through one end of the sleeve, and a portion of the flexible bag that includes another handle of the flexible bag can extend outwardly through the other end of the sleeve.
The foregoing summary provides a few brief examples and is not exhaustive, and the present invention is not limited to the foregoing examples. The foregoing examples, as well as other examples, are further explained in the following detailed description with reference to accompanying drawings.
The drawings are provided as examples. The present invention may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the examples depicted in the drawings. The drawings may be schematic and may not be drawn to scale.
Examples of embodiments are disclosed in the following. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. For example, features disclosed as part of one embodiment can be used in the context of another embodiment to yield a further embodiment. As another example of the breadth of this disclosure, it is within the scope of this disclosure for one or more of the terms “substantially,” “about,” “approximately,” and/or the like, to qualify each of the adjectives and adverbs of the Detailed Description section of disclosure, as discussed in greater detail below.
The depicted example of the conventional bag 10 can be formed from one or more panels of flexible polymeric film that are connected to one another at respective seams, so that the conventional bag 10 includes one or more sidewalls 14 extending between upper and lower portions of the conventional bag, and the sidewall(s) extend around an interior of the conventional bag. The upper and lower portions of the conventional bag 10 respectively include upper and lower handles 16, 18.
In the example depicted in the drawings, the upper portion of the conventional bag 10 includes a somewhat or generally cylindrical, sleeve-like opening 19 to the interior of the conventional bag; a tubular fitment 20 is mounted in, and extends outwardly from, the bag opening 19; and a removable cap 21 is mounted to the outer end portion of the fitment 20 for opening and closing access to the interior of the conventional bag. The fitment 20 and cap 21 are typically rigid articles that are molded from polymeric material. An annular portion of the outer surface of the fitment 20 can be positioned in the bag opening 19, and the portion of the fitment in the bag opening can be circumferentially sealed and/or welded to the bag opening in a conventional manner to form a leak-proof seal therebetween. External threads of the fitment 20 can mate with internal threads of the cap 21 for providing the openable, leak-proof connection therebetween. As examples, the fitment 20 can include a valve (e.g., a one-way valve), the cap 21 and/or fitment 20 can be replaced with a conventional spigot having a valve actuated by a handle or lever, or access to the contents in the interior of the conventional bag 10 may be provided in any other suitable manner. As more general examples, the fitment 20, cap 21, and/or any associated valves, spigots, or the like, can be a variety of differently configured conventional items that may be conventionally mounted to the bag opening 19.
An aspect of this disclosure is the provision of hollow bodies or other suitable articles for at least partially containing and reinforcing conventional bags 10. Accordingly, the conventional bags 10 can be more generally referred to as inner containers 10, since they are typically at least partially contained by the reinforcing hollow bodies or reinforcing articles of this disclosure. The reinforcing hollow bodies of this disclosure may be more generally referred to as reinforcing articles (e.g., a bag-shaped reinforcing article 12 (
Advantageously, by using the reinforcing articles of this disclosure (e.g., sleeve-shaped reinforcing articles 60 (
The bag-shaped reinforcing article 12 typically includes one or more seams for fixedly joining one or more of the walls (e.g., portions or panels) of the reinforcing article to one another. Depending upon the inclusion and/or placement of such seams, the demarcation between the respective walls (e.g., panels) of the reinforcing article may vary. In the example depicted in
The bag-shaped reinforcing article 12 may be formed in any suitable manner that will allow it to at least partially protect the inner containers 10 from impacts, for example by provide at least impact (e.g., hoop) strength to the inner container. For example, the at least one sidewall 24 of the bag-shaped reinforcing article can be configured to circumferentially engage, and circumferentially provide inwardly-oriented force against, an exterior surface of the substantially filled inner container 10 positioned in the cavity 26 (
In the first embodiment, the bag-shaped reinforcing article 12 can have an effective crosswise dimension or diameter defined by its sidewall(s) 24 that is approximately equal to, substantially equal to, or slightly smaller than the effective crosswise dimension or diameter defined by the side panel(s) or sidewall(s) 14 of the inner container 10. Accordingly, in one example of a method, the inner container 10 may be inserted into the cavity 26 defined by the bag-shaped reinforcing 10 article prior to filling the inner container with liquid. The inner container 10 may be placed inside the bag-shaped reinforcing article 12 while the inner container is in an at least partially empty, at least partially collapsed configuration, and then the inner container can be filled (e.g., substantially filled).
The bag-shaped reinforcing article 12 may be dimensioned so that the inner container 10 fits snuggly in the reinforcing article cavity 26 when the inner container is filled, so that the reinforcing article and inner container are retained in a fixed position relative to one another during transportation and use. For example, when the inner container 10 is substantially full of liquid, opposing face-to-face contact between at least the outer surface(s) of the inner container sidewall(s) 14 and the inner surface(s) of the reinforcing article sidewall(s) 24 may occur with sufficient force so that there can be a purposely tight fit (e.g., an interference fit) between the inner container sidewall(s) and the reinforcing article sidewall(s). The opposing face-to-face contact between the reinforcing article 12 and inner container 10 can extend annularly around the inner container 10 (e.g., circumferential engagement). The annular, opposing face-to-face contact (e.g., circumferential engagement) can extend along at least a portion of, or along all of (e.g., substantially all of), the length (e.g., height) of the bag-shaped reinforcing article 12.
In the first embodiment, the tensile strength of the flexible material of the bag-shaped reinforcing article 12 at least partially provides impact resistance for, and restricts (e.g., prevents) bursting of, an at least partially liquid-filled inner container 10 that may be dropped or otherwise be subject to bursting. For example, hoop stress in the inner container sidewall(s) 14 can be resisted (e.g., reduced) due to the tensile strength of the bag-shaped reinforcing article 12 and the circumferential engagement between the one or more sidewalls 14 of the inner container 10 and the one or more sidewalls 24 of the reinforcing article 12. In this regard, the bag-shaped reinforcing article 12 may be formed from at least one piece of various flexible materials having sufficient tensile strength to resist the hoop stress. In one example, the bag-shaped reinforcing article 12 may be formed from a high yield strength material, i.e., a material that has a minimum tensile strength at yield of at least about 5000 g/inch, preferably at least about 10,000 g/inch, as measured by ASTM D882. The material of the reinforcing article 12 may have a tensile peak value of at least 5000 g/inch, and preferably more than 20,000 g/inch, as measured by ASTM D882. The material of the reinforcing article 12 may have a tensile elongation of less than about 30%, and preferably less than about 15%, as measured by ASTM D882. In addition to or alternatively to resisting the hoop stress, the bag-shaped reinforcing article 12 can be configured to reinforce the inner container 10 in other ways. For example, the material of the reinforcing article 12 may have a tear strength of at least about 2000 g, and preferably at least 3000 g, as measured by ASTM D689. As another example, the material of the reinforcing article 12 may have a thickness of from about 1 mil to about 10 mil, as measured by ASTM F2251.
Referring to
Referring to
With continued reference to
The woven polymer strips 52 and/or the printable outer layer 54 may comprise, consist essentially of, or consist of polyester, polypropylene, polyethylene, and/or any other suitable material or combinations thereof. For example, the reinforcing article 12 may be made from a recycled material, for example, recycled plastic beverage bottles, recycled polyethylene bags, or the like. Alternatively or additionally, the material of the reinforcing article 12 can comprise other suitable polyolefin-based materials.
A second embodiment of this disclosure can be like the first embodiment, except for variations noted and variations that will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. As best understood by comparing and contrasting between
As depicted in
A variety of different distances between the opposite ends/end openings 62, 64 of the sleeve-shaped reinforcing article 60 are within the scope of this disclosure. Accordingly, a variety of different distances that one or both of the opposite end sections of the substantially filled inner container 10 extend outwardly through the respective end openings 62, 64 are within the scope of this disclosure.
As with the bag-shaped reinforcing article 12 (
As an example,
As another example,
In another example, the sleeve-shaped reinforcing article 60 can be formed around to the inner container 10 after the inner container is substantially filled, for example by forming the overlap seal or seam 72 after, or as part of, wrapping the precursor strip or sheet 66 around the inner container. For example, it is believed that the precursor 66 or sleeve-shaped reinforcing article 60 may be configured as a wrap-around component that is applied to the exterior of the inner bag or container 10 after the inner container is filled, for example, using adhesive material, adhesive strips, and/or other fasteners, or the like.
As further examples, two or more of the reinforcing articles 12, 60 may be nested together or otherwise associated with one another, so that an inner bag or container 10 can be simultaneously reinforced by multiple of the reinforcing articles.
In still other embodiments, it is believed that the bag-shaped reinforcing article 12, sleeve-shaped reinforcing article 60, or other suitable hollow body, reinforcing article or apparatus, or the like, may be integral (pre-attached or integrally formed) with the inner bag or container 10.
Reiterating from above, it is within the scope of this disclosure for one or more of the terms “substantially,” “about,” “approximately,” and/or the like, to qualify each of the adjectives and adverbs of the foregoing disclosure, for the purpose of providing a broad disclosure. As an example, it is believed that those of ordinary skill in the art will readily understand that, in different implementations of the features of this disclosure, reasonably different engineering tolerances, precision, and/or accuracy may be applicable and suitable for obtaining the desired result. Accordingly, it is believed that those of ordinary skill will readily understand usage herein of the terms such as “substantially,” “about,” “approximately,” and the like.
To supplement the present disclosure, this application incorporates entirely by reference U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,231,029, 8,348,509, 8,840,305, and 9,908,668.
In the above description and figures, examples of embodiments have been disclosed. The present invention is not limited to such exemplary embodiments. Unless otherwise noted, specific terms have been used in a generic and descriptive sense and not for purposes of limitation. The use of the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
This U.S. nonprovisional application claims the benefit of U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 62/696,493 for Flexible Reinforcement for Flexible Container, (filed Jul. 11, 2018) which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62696493 | Jul 2018 | US |
