U.S. patent number 3,795,359 [Application Number 05/200,467] was granted by the patent office on 1974-03-05 for parallellepipedic package.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Tetra Pak International AB. Invention is credited to Anders Ruben Rausing.
United States Patent |
3,795,359 |
Rausing |
March 5, 1974 |
PARALLELLEPIPEDIC PACKAGE
Abstract
A parallelepipedic package is produced from a web of packaging
material formed into a tube, into which the filling material is
introduced, the tube then being pressed flat along transverse,
lontitudinally spaced sealing zones so as to divide the filled tube
into individual package units which are then shaped into
parallelepipedic form. Triangular flaps are formed adjacent the
sealed zone at one end of the package during the shaping procedure
so as to develop an openable pouring spout, and these flaps are
folded downwardly so as to lie against a side wall of the package
and retained in place. To facilitate pouring from the spout, the
same end of the package is provided with a vent hole covered by a
removable protective strip.
Inventors: |
Rausing; Anders Ruben (Rome,
IT) |
Assignee: |
Tetra Pak International AB
(Lund, SW)
|
Family
ID: |
22741848 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/200,467 |
Filed: |
November 19, 1971 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
229/216;
229/5.84; 229/5.82; 229/120; 229/137; 428/542.8 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B65D
5/065 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
B65D
5/02 (20060101); B65D 5/06 (20060101); B65d
005/70 (); B65d 005/54 (); B65d 005/56 () |
Field of
Search: |
;229/7R,17R,51AS,51D,3.5MF,14BL ;206/65T |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1,062,809 |
|
Mar 1967 |
|
GB |
|
1,037,495 |
|
Jul 1966 |
|
GB |
|
203,412 |
|
Jan 1956 |
|
AU |
|
Primary Examiner: Price; William I.
Assistant Examiner: Marcus; Stephen
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Pierce Scheffler & Parker
Claims
1. A package composed of a flexible, relatively stiff carton
material and having a substantially parallelepiped shape comprising
side walls provided with upward extensions, the extensions of the
front and back walls being brought together and secured along a
zone adjacent their upper edges to form a tab extending across the
top of the package and beyond the lateral sides thereof, the
lateral ends of said tab being folded down so that the front and
back extensions form the top of the package, and so that
twin-walled triangular flaps are formed extending laterally and
outwardly from the top of the package, said flaps being folded
downwardly against the outside of the side walls of the package,
one of said twin-walled triangular flaps being provided with
weakened tear lines adjacent the outer end thereof to permit the
end portion of said flap to be removed after raising said flap
upwardly, thus providing a pouring spout when the said flap is
raised to open the package said weakened tear lines extending from
a central point of the inner wall of said flap symmetrically
outward to the outer edges of said flap and then obliquely inwardly
along the outer wall of said flap toward said tab, said inwardly
extending tear lines terminating near the free edge of that portion
of said tab which overlies said flap, a vent hole provided in the
top of the package and removable means for covering said vent hole,
the side walls of the package being flexibly depressed inwardly
when the package was filled and sealed so that the level of
contents of the package is higher than if the package had vertical
walls, whereby when the covering means is removed from the vent
hole at least one of the package walls will flex outwardly and the
contents will have a lower level in the package than prior to
opening the package and when said flap is raised the end portion
thereof may be removed to provide a pouring spout for removing the
contents without
2. A package as claimed in claim 1 wherein said weakened tear lines
comprises perforations extending only through a portion of the
carton
3. A package as claimed in claim 1 wherein said vent hole is
provided in the carton material of the top of the package and
wherein said package further comprises at least a partial
thermoplastic inner lining which at least covers and seals said
vent hole, said removable cover means being secured to said at
least partial thermoplastic inner lining in the area of
4. A package as claimed in claim 3 wherein said at least
partial
5. A package as claimed in claim 3 wherein said package further
comprises at least a partial thermoplastic outer lining which is
sealed to said at least partial inner lining in the area of the
vent hole for sealing said vent hole, said removable cover means
being secured to said at least partial outer lining in the area of
the vent hole for removal in that area of said at least partial
outer lining and said at least partial inner lining when the
package is opened.
Description
The present invention relates to a parallelepipedic package
consisting of a flexible, relatively stiff carton material of the
type produced from a web of such carton material which is formed
into a tube and filled with goods and then pressed flat and sealed
along relatively narrow spaced sealing zones at right angles to the
axis of the tube. At the same time a column of the goods to be
filled is subdivided, so that individual package units are filled
which are then subjected to a shaping process in the course of
which the package units are given a parallelepipedic shape and are
provided with twin-walled triangular flaps which are connected with
the package at the ends of the four side walls which are formed
during shaping. The package units or the shaped packages are
separated by cutting through the said sealing zones in such a
manner that sealing tabs extending across and beyond the upper and
lower end walls of the shaped package and along one side of the
said triangular flaps are formed, at least the sealing tab
extending across the upper end wall being substantially folded down
against the adjacent side wall together with the triangular
flaps.
Parallelepipedic packages of this type have been used for a long
time for packaging of solid, powdery or granular goods as well as
liquid goods. These packages are, in addition, becoming
progressively popular since this method of packaging goods and the
type of package itself are for many reasons preferable, and have
proved to be advantageous and have come to satisfy a requirement
which is particularly notable when packaging liquid goods such as
flowing dairy products. However it has been shown that the packages
of this type hitherto used are not entirely satisfactory as regards
opening and also pouring since it has proved difficult to find an
opening arrangement which is convenient, can be easily opened up
while at the same time making it easy to pour out the contents
without causing any spillage, the said opening arrangement at the
same time meeting the requirement that it must be air tight prior
to opening of the package and can withstand normal stresses during
manipulation and transportation without any leakage. Hence there is
a requirement for being able to open these packages easily without
risk of churning or spillage. The packages in current use are
normally opened by removing a strip which is provided on the
package wall and can be torn away from the package wall so as to
expose a discharge hole or by tearing open a part of the package
along a weakened tear line prepared in the packaging material.
Since the packages are entirely filled with the packaged goods it
has also proved practically impossible to prevent the goods issuing
out of the package when the latter is handled with a view to
opening it, which must be regarded as disadvantageous, at least
from a hygenic point of view.
The package in accordance with the invention has been designed with
the aim of retaining the unique properties of this type of package
while at the same time bringing about a package which can easily be
opened without danger of spilling the goods while manipulating the
package with a view to opening it, it being a further aim of the
invention to provide for easy and reliable opening and the emptying
of the package by pouring its contents in a well concentrated,
directly forward stream and without the disadvantages of churning
and spillage. From the point of view of production, the package is,
in addition, still relatively as simple and functional, bearing in
mind the changes in package design due to proposed
improvements.
The package in accordance with the invention is characterized
herein in that one of the triangular flaps situated at the upper
end wall, which is designed to act as the discharge spout of the
package has a separable end, and in that an air hole which can be
covered with a removable cover strip is provided in the upper end
wall of the package at a distance from the triangular flap acting
as a discharge spout and in that at least some of the side walls of
the package are slightly inward curving but so arranged that when
the cover strip is torn off and the package opened they will
instead curve slightly outward from the package.
In the following description further characteristics and advantages
of the invention will emerge, reference being made to the attached
diagrammatic drawings in which
FIG. 1 shows in perspective an unopened parallelepipedic package
forming an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 2 shows from the side the upper part of an opened package in
accordance with FIG. 1; and
FIG. 3 shows the opening flap of the package in the position shown
in FIG. 1.
A parallelepipedic package of the type here stated is usually
produced from a web type base material consisting of paper or paper
lined with plastic on both sides or a combination of paper and a
metal foil with an intermediate plastic layer. The package is
produced by first forming the carton material into a tube,
whereupon the tube is subdivided, by pressing flat and transversely
sealing along narrow transverse zones, into cushion-like packages
which are separated by cutting through the said transverse sealing
zones, the contents of a package being located between two
transverse seals following on one another. The final
parallelepipedic shape can be imparted before or after separation
of the packages by cutting through the transverse sealing zones.
The excess material, which for geometric reasons cannot be included
in the said parallelepipedic package shape a substantially
triangular so that, twin-walled corner flaps are formed which
project flaps at one end of the package, as a rule the opening end,
and are normally sealed against the side wall of the package
adjacent the flap concerned, whereas the flaps projecting from the
lower end of the package are as a rule sealed against the adjacent
lower end wall.
With the package design as described above, the package shown in
FIG. 1 is provided with side wall 1 and 2 as well as an upper end
wall 3. Above the end walls is located tab 4 which is formed during
the sealing stage and which is folded down towards the end wall 3.
The tab 4 extends along the two upper twin-walled, triangular flaps
5 formed during the shaping stage, only one of which is shown in
the figure. The tab at the other end wall is folded inward against
the respective adjacent end wall side walls. The twin-walled flap 5
shown in the figure may therefore be said to have an outer wall and
an inner wall, whereby the outer wall is constituted by a part of
end wall 3 which is extended because of excess material, whereas
the inner wall consists of a part of side wall 2, extended because
of excess material.
The flap 5 is designed to constitute a discharge opening of the
package, whereby the flap which is preferably folded down towards
the side wall 2, may be raised to form a discharge spout as shown
in FIG. 2. The outer part of the flap 5 forms an end 6 so designed
that it can be removed from the flap thus forming a discharge
opening, the flap being provided with a weakened tear line 7 formed
by perforations passing only partly through the carton material. In
addition, the end wall 3 with which flap 5 is connected has a cover
strip 8 capable of being torn off, which covers a vent hole 9
situated in the end wall.
A parallelepipedic package in accordance with the invention and
produced of the said carton material is to a certain extent
dimensionally stable, i.e. the 12 edges of the package act as a
frame or skeleton on which the side and end walls form diaphragm
like elements. By causing the package flaps 5 to lie against the
adjacent package walls a further improvement in dimensional
stability is achieved without any significant reduction in the
diaphragm action of the side walls. If the package in accordance
with the invention is kept compressed to a certain extent before
and during its sealing, the package will not be filled to its
maximum volume. That is to say while the package is being sealed at
least some of its side walls which are being formed are subjected
to an external inwardly directed pressure the said wall or walls
are caused by buckling to limit the internal package volume which
is less than the maximum volumetric capacity of the
parallelepipedic package which is being formed. In spite of the
fact that the material in the package is not particularly
resilient, the side walls having been pressed inward obtain the
capacity of again resuming a position of equilibrium. Since the
sealing tabs 4 formed during the shaping of the package are folded
downwardly against the end wall 3 and against the triangular flaps
5 located against the end wall, that part 13 of the end wall 3 from
facing away the sealing tab, will, owing to the flexibility of the
packaged material, be disposed in a somewhat higher plane of the
package configuration than the other part 14 of the end wall.
Folding downward of the sealing tab 4 is brought about by folding
the flaps 5 down against the adjacent side wall where they are
preferably sealed.
The end 6 of flap 5 shown in the figure is provided, with a
perforation line 7 which is torn when the package is opened. In
this connection it will be noted that the tear lines start from a
common point a located on the inner side of flap 5 which faces the
package and at a distance from the base line 11 of sealing tab 4,
and pass through preferably symmetrical points b and c situated
along the free side edges of the flap 5 and end in the section of
tab 4 which extends over that flap, near the base line of the tab
or the free edge 12 of the tab. The tear line 7 takes a preferably
straight course between the said points in the packaged material
but it is of course also possible for the tear line to pass along a
curved line leading to the said points. The tear line 7 is
preferably provided in the package material during its formation,
either before or after application of a coating layer to the web of
base material. After raising the opening flap 5 and pressing the
flap walls together, the tear line; should be inclined to the
horizontal plane of top of the package at an angle of at least
20.degree., thus ensuring that the discharge opening 15 formed
after removal of the end 6, will be sufficiently large and will
have a proper a position of the pouring edge to ensure even pouring
of the contents in a well concentrated, directly forward jet, and
will have an opening which is entirely restricted to flap 5.
However, in this position the tear line 7 should preferably be at
an angle between 45.degree. and 60.degree. to the top of the
package in order to ensure satisfactory pouring as intended.
The discharge opening 15 of the package, see FIG. 2, is thus
obtained after raising of flap 5 and by removal of the end 6 which
is brought about by taking the end 6 of the flap between thumb and
finger on the inside of the tear line 7, and tearing off the end 6.
By comparison with earlier packages of this type, one advantage of
opening the package in accordance with the invention should be
specially noted, i.e. that during tearing of the end 6 only a part
of the flap itself is removed and that tearing of the carton
material is effected over a relatively short distance so that the
grip required for removal of the end 6 is simple and tearing itself
can be effectd easily. This condition is accentuated if the tear
line 7 extends so that tearing the end 6 is along a straight
line.
As stated above, the upper end wall of the package is provided with
an air hole 9, in order to ensure that the contents of the package
may be poured in an uninterrupted, even jet. The air hole is
covered with a strip 8, which is sealed against a thermoplastic
film covering the air hole 9. The thermoplastic film may consist of
an inner liner provided in the package. To provide a package with
an inner thermoplastic layer has the advantages that the material
as such is impermeable to liquid and results in liquid-proof seals
which are formed simply by pressing two adjacent material surfaces
having thermoplastic linings against each other while applying
heat, as a result of which the adjacent linings are fused together
along the heated zones. If it is regarded as more advantageous to
glue the sealing joints in the package, this is of course also
possible. With such packages it is also customary to provide the
outside of the package material with a thermoplastic layer. Of
course, the air hole may be covered with both an inner lining and
an outer layer whereby the layers of are fused together or by by
means of a laminated layer lining the surface of the package
material, such as a combined thermoplastic metal foil layer.
The air hole 9 in the package may be provided in the carton
material during its formation, already before the lining layer is
applied. However, the air hole is preferably provided after
formation of the carton material. This may be effected by either
punching through the entire thickness of the carton material so
that the hole will be closed by thermoplastic lining, or by
punching only to such a depth that the lining remains unperforated,
whereupon the perforated layer is removed.
The cover strip 8 which may consist e.g. of wear-resistant paper,
plastic, metal foil or a combination of these materials may be
sealed over the air hole 9 before the web is converted to tubular
form. The cover strip may of course also be sealed to the end wall
in the area surrounding the air hole. A part of the cover strip
maybe not be firmly attached to the package wall in order to
provide a gripping flap 10 which can be used for exposing the air
hole 9, by pulling strips off when opening the package.
When the package is to be opened, the cover strip 8 provided over
the air hole 9 is first removed from the package, whereby any layer
or layers covering the air hole are removed simultaneously. As the
result, air enters the package and the walls of the package bulge
outwardly in FIG. 2. so that the inner volume of the package is
increased, which in turn causes the level of the contents in the
package to drop. If the package has been kept in a compressed state
during its sealing as noted above the inner volume of the package
will be restricted to a value below the maximum capacity of the
package, and the level of the contents will of course descend when
the air hole is exposed. This is of importance when the package is
to be emptied since none of the packaged goods can, as a result,
issue from the air hole when the package is handled while it is
opened and held at an angle to pour out the packaged goods.
By locating the air hole 9 as far as possible from the discharge
opening, it will be more certain that none of the contents issue
through the air hole during the handling and pouring operation, see
FIG. 1. In this connection it is advantageous to locate the air
hole in section 13 of the end wall 3 so that the air hole is
located somewhat higher and is thus further removed from the level
of the contents than if the air hole is provided in the section 14
of the end wall.
If the air hole 9 and the strip 8 are provided on the carton
material during its production, and the package material is then
rolled up, a disadvantage arises if the air hole and its cover
strip are provided unsymmetrically on the package material web, in
relation to its web edges. The thickness of the cover strip in
particular causes discontinuities in the roll of carton material,
which in turn result in a continuous displacement of the web of
carton material by rolling up towards one side of the roll thus
forming a slanting, substantially tapering roll. For this reason it
may therefore be preferable to provide the air hole 9 and at the
same time the cover strip 8 symmetrically on the carton material
web. However, it should be stressed in this connection that
packages of the present type are normally formed from a carton
material web in such a way that if e.g. an air hole is located
symmetrically on the package material web, the hole will also be
located in a substantially symmetrical position on the finished
package.
A further advantage of the present package consists in that it can
be reclosed in a relatively satisfactory manner. As stated
previously only the end 6 of the flap 5 is removed during opening
of the package, thus the package can be reclosed by rolling up or
folding the remaining flap material so as to form a sharp edge,
preferably parallel to the end wall 3.
Without exceeding the scope of the inventive idea, modifications of
the illustrated and described package may be possible. Hence, the
invention is not limited by the illustrated and described
embodiment but only by the following claims.
* * * * *