Patent Application
20120000969
This invention relates generally to packaging. More particularly this invention relates to a package with easy openability.
Various packaging methods and types are known in the art. Considerations for commercial packaging include protection of the package's contents and usability of the package by a consumer or user of the package's contents. In the case of packaged food items, for example, the items generally are sealed into a package to optimize shelf life. When a consumer purchases the product, the consumer must then open the package to access the items stored therein. Accessing the items through a sealed package, however, can require sometimes excessive effort to open the package, which may cause frustration and, occasionally, loss of the package content.
In certain packages, such as stick-pack packages, it is also advantageous to easily, completely remove an end of the package to allow the contents to be fully poured out. For example, where the contents of a package are intended to be poured into a solution for mixing, such as in a flavored drink product, the package should be hermetically sealed to protect the contents from the outside moisture but also be easily opened by a consumer. Such packages are typically made in a vertical-form-fill-and-seal process wherein a web of material is folded over and sealed. This sealed material is cut and sealed on one end and then filled with the package contents. The second end is then also cut and sealed, thereby sealing the contents of the package therein. To open the package, a user must either pull apart the seal or otherwise cut or tear the package.
Various features have been added to such packages to assist the consumer in opening the package. By one approach, the side of the package is notched, such as mechanical cuts, to provide the consumer with a starting point in tearing open the package. This approach, however, requires that the package be sealed around the notched portion which takes additional manufacturing resources and efforts. By another known approach, the side edge of the package is flawed by a physical micro-abrasion process that weakens the side of the package such that the package tears more easily on the edge when a user applies a tearing force to open the package. Under this approach and the above cutting approach, however, the package will merely tear along weak areas naturally present in the package material such that the tear may not propagate straight across the package. Moreover, the tear typically stops at the seal running the length of the package without undue additional force applied by the user.
Another known method for assisting the opening of a package includes weakening the package material along a given line such that a tear will likely propagate along that line when opening the package. One such method includes ablating the package material with a laser. The laser damages the package material along a line across the material without cutting entirely through the package material. Thus, when a user tears at the package, the package is more likely to tear along the laser-damaged portion. When a package is scored by a laser all the way across the package, however, the package is too often so weakened that it cannot stay intact during its manufacturing process or during normal handling by a user before the package is intended to be opened.
U.S. Patent Application No. 20080273821A1 discloses a package formed via a vertical-form-fill-and-seal process includes a web material with edge portions sealed to create a vertical sleeve. The package also includes a first sealed end and a second sealed end at either end of the vertical sleeve to create a sealed package. The package includes a laser scribed ablation pattern extending across the web material with ablated portions having an about one to about three millimeter length separated by non-ablated portions of about 0.25 and about 0.75 millimeter length. The package has increased tensile strength to avoid breaking during the vertical-form-fill-and-seal process and provides a high likelihood that an outer edge and vertical seal of the package include ablated portions to provide an easy-to-start tear area to open the package. Also, the short spaces between ablated portions increase the likelihood of tear propagation along the ablation pattern, all the way across the package.
Similarly, package with continuous ablation using laser scorching may provide easy-to-open functionality.
In a paper titled “Stick Packaging for Powdered and Granular Products: Typical Opening Challenges and Solutions” authored by Jeff Hopp of Curwood, Inc., the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses that the key problem with many single-portion stick-packs on the market is their opening technology. Stick-packs used for powdered or granular products are cylindrical in shape with a single back seal, which can be either a fin or lap seal. It's especially important for the material used in stick packaging to tear easily, once the tear is initiated, to allow easy opening. The structure used for fin-sealed stick-packs is generally a reverse-printed oriented polyethylene terephthalate (OPET) on the outer layer with foil in the middle and a polyethylene sealant layer on the inside. Reverse-printed PET provides a crisp, glossy print surface for superior brand identity, and has good directional tear properties. Foil provides the moisture barrier needed to prevent product clumping and has virtually no tear resistance. PE sealant ensures a hermetic seal to prevent product leakage, and is specially formulated to have minimal tear resistance in the cross or transverse direction. Stick-packs with a lap seal often have heat-sealable polypropylene on the outer layer (versus PET) because both sides of the film need to be compatibly sealable.
Tear notches are typically machine-applied in the upper left corner of stick-packs to accommodate right-handed consumers, who tear from left to right. First the area to be notched is heat-sealed, and then the notch is made in the heat-sealed area to prevent product leakage or a compromised barrier. To follow are four types of problems often seen with tear-notched stick-packs, 1) packages that won't open; 2) packages that open erratically; 3) packages that only open part way; 4) product that leaks or is clumped and won't dispense. In addition to the quality headaches associated with tear notching, this added step can have a fairly serious impact on productivity, including: slower production speeds required to achieve quality heat seal and notch; worn punch dies are costly to replace and time-consuming to change out, resulting in lost production time; defective packages (that either won't open or leak) lead to reject rates that are often in excess of 5%.
Packages designed with the ability to cleanly tear off the designated end generally depend on the use of aluminum foil because 1) aluminum foil tears with little resistance, and requires no tear initiation point to commence the tear which is not the case of metallized (MET) oriented polypropylene films; or 2) the aluminum foil buried within the lamination which reflects rather than absorbs the laser beam in laser scored technology that allows a naturally controlled penetration of the scoring (burn) to allow the required tear initiation without compromise to barrier properties. However, once the aluminum foil is replaced with metallized oriented polymers, such as, polyolefins, the existing technologies do not provide acceptable performance because the metal layer of a metallized polymer film does not reflect the laser beam like aluminum foil, hence the power setting of the laser must be controlled accurately to prevent catastrophic burn through and/or loss of metal barrier. Without properly laser scorching, the metallized polymer film will tear cleanly across the top of the package until it intersects the fin or overlap seal and at this point the tearing process completely stops, or in some cases the tear changes direction and proceeds down the length of the package.
Therefore, there is a need to develop a new technology which allows 1) the package top to be completely removed; 2) easy and cheap manufacturing procedure; 3) eliminating the need for paper or foil material by using stretched polymeric films, such as, uniaxially or biaxially oriented polypropylene (OPP) films.
The following drawings illustrate some embodiments of this disclosure:
In some embodiments, this disclosure relates to a package comprising:
In some aspects of these above mentioned embodiments, the web material of this disclosure comprises polymer film, preferably polyolefinic film, more preferably oriented polyolefinic film, e.g., oriented polypropylene (OPP) film. In some preferred embodiments, the polymer film has a sealable outermost layer that allows the fin seal to seal down to the package sidewall to ensure alignment of the tear features or allows the formation of overlap seal. In other embodiments, the polymer film is multilayer polymer film comprising a core layer and at least one skin layer, and preferably at least one tie layer. In a preferred embodiment, at least one of the skin layers is a sealable layer.
In some preferred embodiments, the package of this disclosure is formed via a vertical-form-fill-and-seal process or a horizontal-form-fill-and-seal process.
Various specific embodiments, versions, and examples are described herein, including exemplary embodiments and definitions that are adopted for purposes of understanding the claimed invention. While the following detailed description gives specific preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate that these embodiments are exemplary only, and that the invention can be practiced in other ways. For purposes of determining infringement, the scope of the invention will refer to any one or more of the appended claims, including their equivalents, and elements or limitations that are equivalent to those that are recited. Any reference to the “invention” may refer to one or more, but not necessarily all, of the inventions defined by the claims.
As used herein, “polymer” may be used to refer to homopolymers, copolymers, interpolymers, terpolymers, etc.
As used herein, “package” may be used to refer to packet, sealed, wrapped, substantially sealed, or substantially wrapped web material.
A package, such as package formed via a vertical-form-fill-and-seal process or package formed via a horizontal-form-fill-and-seal process, includes a web material with edge portions sealed to create a sleeve. The web material also includes a first sealed end and a second sealed end at either end of the sleeve to create a sealed package. The package comprises at least two tear initiation points. One tear initiation point is located on the seal for a package with fin seal (or on one of the edge portions of the seal for a package with an overlap seal) and the other tear initiation point is located on one of the side edge of the package. For a package with an overlap seal, a first tear initiation point is located on the first package side edge and a second tear initiation point is located on one of the edge portions of the overlap seal which faces toward the first packing side edge. For a package with a fin seal, a first tear initiation point is located on the fin seal and a second tear initiation point is located on the package side edge that the fin seal is folded toward. In both cases, the first tear initiation point and the second tear initiation point are across the package, preferably aligned substantially perpendicular to the package side edges, such that the package substantially tears along the line linking both tear initiation points and across the seal when a separating force is applied by a user at the tear initiation point on the package side edge.
So configured, the package provides a sealed container that a user may open along a line linking both tear initiation points. The package may contain foodstuffs such as drink powders, dessert powders, snack nuts, condiments, and toppings that are poured into another container or directly into a consumer's mouth. The tear arrangement of this disclosure comprises two tear initiation points as described herein. The arrangement of this disclosure provides the web material with increased tensile strength so as to avoid breaking during the conventional vertical-form-fill-and-seal process or horizontal-form-fill-and-seal process, but also provides a user an easy-to-start tear area to open the package with wide opening for pouring. Similarly, the two tear initiation point arrangement of this disclosure provides for an easier tear propagation across the package seal. Also, the tear arrangement of this disclosure increases the likelihood that the tear will propagate in a line linking the two tear initiation points, all the way across the package, so that the end of the package is relatively easily and completely removed to allow unrestricted access to the package's contents.
These and other benefits may become clearer upon making a thorough review and study of the following detailed description. Referring now to the drawings, and in particular to
The first sealed end 20 and the second sealed end 24 define a first package side edge 28 and a second package side edge 30 wherein the first package side edge 28 and the second package side edge 30 are folded web material created by and between the edges of the sealed ends 20 and 24. The folded web material may be creased along fold lines 15 and 17 to better define the side edges for the user or may be rounded portions of the web material transitioning from the front of the package 10 to the back.
With continuing reference to
With such tear initiation point arrangement, the package 10 substantially tears along a line linking both tear initiation points and across the seal 18 without substantially varying from this line when a separating force is applied by a user at the tear initiation point on the package side edge as shown in
Referring now to
With reference to
With reference to
Although the vertical-form-fill-and-seal-process device 200 depicted in
Although the vertical-form-fill-and-seal-process device 200 depicted in
In another embodiment of this disclosure, the seal end 20 is an L shape seal as shown in
In another embodiment of this disclosure as shown in
In some embodiments, the tear initiation points are created by mechanical cut, laser scoring, or any other methods know in the art.
In preferred embodiments, the web material comprises OPP films, preferably metallized OPP films, cavitated OPP films etc.
Both tear initiation points are aligned substantially perpendicular to the package side edge. The term “substantially perpendicular” as used herein means the angle between line linking both tear initiation points and the package side edge is 90±45 degree, preferably 90±30 degree, most preferably 90±15 degree.
The web material useful for this disclosure comprises a polymeric film, preferably a polypropylene film having at least one layer, i.e., the core layer. The polymeric film may further comprise additional layer(s), such as skin layer, sealant layer, tie layer, metal deposit layer, and any combination thereof. The polymeric film may be oriented uniaxially or biaxially.
In some embodiments, the web material may comprise a propylene polymer, ethylene polymer, isotactic polypropylene (“iPP”), high crystallinity polypropylene (“HCPP”), low crystallinity polypropylene, isotactic and syndiotactic polypropylene, ethylene-propylene (“EP”) copolymers, and combinations thereof.
In a preferred embodiment, the web material is an iPP homopolymer. Examples of suitable commercially available iPP include: PP4712E1 from ExxonMobil Chemical Company, and Total Polypropylene 3371 from Total Petrochemcials. An example of a useful HCPP is Total Polyproplene 3270 (commercially available from Total Petrochemicals).
In some embodiments, an outer skin layer is provided as the sealant layer known to a person skilled in the art.
The web material may be uniaxially or biaxially oriented. Orientation in the direction of extrusion is known as machine direction (“MD”) orientation. Orientation perpendicular to the direction of extrusion is known as transverse direction (“TD”) orientation. Orientation may be accomplished by stretching or pulling a film first in the MD followed by the TD. Orientation may be sequential or simultaneous, depending upon the desired film features. Preferred orientation ratios are commonly from between about three to about six times the extruded width in the MD and between about four to about ten times the extruded width in the TD.
One or both of the outer exposed surfaces of the web material may be surface-treated to increase the surface energy of the film to render the film receptive to metallization, coatings, printing inks, and/or lamination. The surface treatment can be carried out according to one or the methods known in the art. Preferred methods include, but are not limited to, corona discharge, flame treatment, plasma treatment, chemical treatment, or treatment by means of a polarized flame.
One or both of the outer exterior surfaces of the web material may be metallized. Generally, the metallized layer is one of the outer skin and/or sealant layers. Such layers may be metallized using conventional methods, such as vacuum deposition of a metal layer such as aluminum, copper, silver, chromium, or mixtures thereof.
The web material useful for this disclosure comprises no metal foil, such as aluminum foil.
In other embodiments, this disclosure relates to a method of manufacturing a package comprising:
In some aspects, the step (a) comprises vertical-form-fill-and-seal package or horizontal-form-fill-and-seal package.
In other aspects, the first tear initiation point and/or the second tear initiation point is generated by laser scoring the web material prior to form the package or the first tear initiation point is generated by mechanical cut inside the seal area of one of the seal end.
In further other aspects, the second tear initiation point is generated by mechanical cut of the fin seal or one of the edge portions of the overlap seal.
The following table compares various package configurations to demonstrate the advantage of this invention. The web materials used in these examples are multilayer films having a metallized OPP (Met OPP) core layer, a propylene-ethylene copolymer (PE) sealant layer and an outside skin layer consisting of PET, paper or OPP. Examples 1 and 3 demonstrated the advantage of this disclosure. Examples 2 and 4 are comparative examples.
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. For example, many of the example embodiments discussed herein refer to generally rectangular shaped packages with specified, distinct edges. Other configurations such as oval or round packages are possible. Also, any variation of multiple scoring lines to provide multiple tear lines in a package can be provided. Such modifications, alterations, and combinations are to be viewed as being within the ambit of the inventive concept.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/US2009/039158 | 4/1/2009 | WO | 00 | 9/16/2011 |
