The present invention relates to consumable products packages, and more particularly, to hermetically sealed consumable products packages configured to contain and support consumable products disposed therewithin.
Certain consumable products, such as gum slabs or sticks, are normally accommodated in a packaging device to protect the products and to provide an ease of use for consumers. Currently, there are various packaging devices that are designed and configured to accommodate and dispense the consumable products. Each of these packaging devices normally includes an end seal which may be rupture to open and access the products contained therewithin. In addition, most of these packaging devices generally employ a closure mechanism such that a consumer can dispense the products therefrom and close the package device repeatedly.
While various packaging devices for consumable products are available currently in the marketplace, it is desirable to provide a packaging device for consumable products such as gum slabs with further improvements.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a package for supporting at least one consumable product includes a support member for supporting the at least one consumable product, a flexible package for enclosing the support member and the at least one product, and a closure mechanism configured to transit the package between open and closed positions. The flexible package has a line of weakness and a flap defined and positioned near an area formed by the line of weakness. When the flap is pulled, it ruptures the line of weakness and creates an opening to allow access to the at least one consumable product.
These and other aspects of the present invention will be better understood in view of the drawings and following detailed description.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, referring to
The package 10 includes a support member 14 for supporting and containing the consumable products 12, a flexible package 16 for enclosing the support member 14 and the products 12 contained therewithin, and a closure mechanism 18 configured to transit the package 10 between open, shown in
Directional terms, such as top and bottom are referenced to an orientation in which the package 10 is placed on a flat surface in the open position with the consumable productions contained in a bottom half of the package 10, as shown in
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Referring again to
In a preferred embodiment, magnets are employed to provide the closure mechanism 18 of the package 10. Specifically, first and second magnets 68, 70 are applied and attached to the front portion 34 of the bottom member 24 and the top portion 30 of the top member 22 of the support member 14, respectively, as shown in
Alternatively, the first and second magnets 68, 70 may be attached to or printed on top and bottom sections 76, 78 of the inner film 42 of the flexible package 16, respectively, as shown in
It will be appreciated that other designs and configurations could be used for the closure mechanism 18 of the package 10, as deemed suitable for given application factors. For example, in an alternate embodiment, a reclosable adhesive 80 is applied as the closure mechanism 18, as shown in
In yet another embodiment, hook and loop fasteners of Velcro (not shown) may be employed as the closure mechanism. Specifically, hooks and loops (not shown) are attached to the top and bottom sections 76, 78 of the inner film 42 of the flexible package 16, respectively. Similar to the magnets, when the package 10 transitions to the closed position from the open position, the top and bottom sections 72, 74 of the package 10 are folded along the plurality of creases 26 and are substantially parallel to each other such that the hooks and loops (not shown) are aligned, engaged, and attached to each other. To transit the package 10 back to the open position, the top and bottom sections 72, 74 of the package 10 are simply pulled away from each other with adequate force to disengage the hooks and loops of Velcro (not shown).
In the present invention, an attachment force of the closure mechanism 18, is stronger than the hinge memory force of the package 10. This allows the package 10 to be remained in the closed position once the closure mechanism 18 engages.
When the package 10 is assembled, initially, the package 10 is in the closed position, as shown in
Once the line of weakness 62 is ruptured and the opening 82 is created on the flexible package 16, the package 10 may be closed with the closure mechanism 18, as described above, to prevent access to the consumable products 12 contained within the support member 14 and also to prevent the consumable products 12 being removed from the package 10 through the opening 82. The package 10 may be closed and opened as many times as the consumer desires.
The package 10 is designed and configured such that it can be run on a horizontal wrapping equipment without a major changeover to the equipment or significant additional cost per each product. This allows various sized packages to be constructed to hold different amounts of consumable products 12 therewithin, which currently existing packaging equipment and systems cannot provide.
The package 10 is made of one or more materials having suitable properties for a desired application, including strength, weight, rigidity, etc. A stiffening board, cardboard, paperboard, or plastic is generally preferred for the support member 14. The support member 14 may be formed from a single flat plastic, stiffening board, cardboard, or paperboard blank. For the flexible package 16, monoweb flexible and hermetically sealable material such as polymer laminate is generally preferred.
From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that a consumable product package according to the present invention allows consumable products to be contained therewithin, while providing an environmental barrier and a closure mechanism to improve a shelf life of the consumable products.
In general, the foregoing description is provided for exemplary and illustrative purposes; the present invention is not necessarily limited thereto. Rather, those skilled in the art will appreciate that additional modifications, as well as adaptations for particular circumstances, will fall within the scope of the invention as herein shown and described and of the claims appended hereto.
This application is the National Stage of International Application No. PCT/US2018/038753, which designates the U.S., filed Jun. 21, 2018, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/531,946 filed Jul. 13, 2017, the contents of all of which are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/US2018/038753 | 6/21/2018 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2019/013945 | 1/17/2019 | WO | A |
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Number | Date | Country |
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101037158 | Sep 2007 | CN |
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Entry |
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Machine translation of EP-1547936-A1. |
Machine translation of JPH10147365A. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20200140174 A1 | May 2020 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62531946 | Jul 2017 | US |