GB2150908A

GB2150908A - Securing items for display

Info

Publication number: GB2150908A
Application number: GB08430857A
Authority: GB
Inventors: John Sidney Cantle
Original assignee: Allen Davies and Co Ltd
Current assignee: Allen Davies and Co Ltd
Priority date: 1983-12-07
Filing date: 1984-12-06
Publication date: 1985-07-10
Also published as: GB8430857D0; GB8332687D0

Abstract

A package (10) has a line of weakness (14) above which it is adhered (20) to a support (16), preferably to the rear face of a tongue (18) protruding forwardly thereof. When the package is torn free, a portion is left behind. The resulting gap preferably does not expose the interior of the package (10), but provides an origin for tearing it open. Other arrangements of lines of weakness may be used (Figs. 2-4). <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Securing items for display The present invention relates to a method of securing items, e.g. for display, and to an item when so secured. It particularly relates to the attachment of goods in containers such as packages or bags to a support, e.g. of card material.

In its broadest form, the invention provides a method of attaching an item releasably to a support by means of localised adhesive means.

In a preferred form, the invention provides, in a first aspect, a method of securing an item to a support wherein the item comprises a tearable material; which method comprises providing a line of weakness in the tearable material demarcating an attachment region; and adhering at least part of the attachment region to the support. Thus the item can be torn from the support, leaving at least a part of the attachment region adhering thereto.

The line of weakness facilitates the tearing off, and is preferably arranged to ensure a relatively clean tear. In a preferred form, the tearable material is provided by an enclosure forming a sealed package, and the line of weakness and adhesion are arranged so that tearing off gives a package which is still sealed and which has a portion removed to provide an origin for tearing open the package.

The support may comprise a rigid sheet, e.g. of card. The method may include cutting said sheet to define an internal tongue, offering up the item to the front face of the card, engaging the item beneath the tongue, and adhering the item in its attachment region to the rear face of the tongue.

The line of weakness may be-provided by a line of perforations. Alternatively or additionally, the material may have inherent lines of weakness, e.g.

being easily tearable in one orientation, so the attachment region is effectively defined by the process of adhesion.

In another aspect, the invention provides a support having at least one item adhered thereto.

In a third aspect the invention provides an item adapted for use in a method according to the invention, having a said line of weakness.

The invention is particularly applicable to items such as small packets of nuts which are commonly displayed for sale with a multiplicity of packets attached to a card. The attachment technique usually used at present involves an ingenious but relatively complicated process of producing "cupid's bow" shaped cuts in the card and snap-engaging end portions of the individual packages in them.

Automation of such a process, though possible, requires rather elaborate and specialised machinery.

By contrast, the present invention is well suited to cheap, generally conventional, machinery.

Some embodiments of the present invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figures 1 to 4 are views from the front of four packages for use in four embodiments of the invention; Figure 5 is a partial sectional view of Figure 1 along line V-V; and Figure 6 is a detail of the Figure 1 package after detachment.

Each of Figures 1 to 4 shows a front view of a substantially conventional packet of nuts. Each packet 10 is formed of a plastics material (which may be laminated, e.g. including aluminium foil) having a crimped, heat-sealed portion 12 at each longitudinal end. In each case, one of these longitudinal ends (the top end, as will generally be defined by the orientation of printing on the package) has been treated to define a line of weakness.

In the case of the Figure 1 embodiment, the line of weakness is provided by a transverse line of perforation 14. This extends across an intermediate region of the sealed end portion 12. The package is intended to be attached to a card 16 shown in Figure 5. This has a generally U-shaped cut, defining a tongue 18 (indicated by the line 18' in Figure 1).

To attach the package to the card 16, the tongue 18 is raised slightly (suitably simultaneously with the cutting out step) and the top end portion 12 of the package is inserted behind it. Adhesive means 20 are applied to one or both of the facing surfaces of the tongue 18 and package portion 12, and they are pressed together to cause adhesion. The adhesive means 20 may be applied before the package is engaged under the tongue. They may comprise one or more dots of adhesive material as shown in Figure 1 or, for example, a strip or stripe.

If the package is pulled downwardly with sufficient force, if the adhesion is sufficiently strong, the end portion of the package will tear around the adhesive means 20. The form of the tear of tears will be in part determined by the line of weakness 14. Thus the result will probably be something like that shown in Figure 6. Areas of the end portion 12 adjacent the areas of adhesion 20 have been torn away, remaining on the card 16. The resulting gaps 22 provide sites from which it is easy to open the package by tearing off a corner portion. (The packages are often made of such strong material that unassisted tearing is difficult both to initiate and to direct.) The line of weakness 14 ensures that the gaps 22 terminate some way above the lower end of the sealed end portion 12, so that a torn-off package can remain hermetically sealed.

Of course, the line of weakness can take numerous forms, and different circumstances may lead to different preferences. Figure 1 to 4 shown four different types of line of weakness. The Figure 2 embodiment resembles that of Figure 1 in having a single generally transverse line of weakness 114, but instead of being formed of a simple linear perforation it is formed of angled L-shaped cuts. The Figure 3 embodiment has a line or lines of weakness 214 composed of semicircular portions whose diameters are at the upper edge. The Figure 4 embodiment is somewhat similar in having two discrete lines 314 which enclose areas adjacent the upper edge. With embodiments such as those of Figures 3 and 4, adhesion will be effected by adhesive means placed within the enclosed areas. Tearing a package from a card may then lead to tearing wholly around a line of weakness.

Of course, much variation is possible in the practice of the invention. The mode of adhesion of the packages 10 to the card 16 can be varied. Whereas we prefer to adhere packages 10 to the rear face of the card 16 so that a card 16 from which some packages have been torn away present a neater appearance (the portions of the packages left behind being on the backs of the tongues 18 and hence invisible) it may be preferred simply to adhere the packages 10 directly to the front face of the card 16, and not to bother with cutting out tongues 18.

Claims

1. A method of securing an item to a support wherein the item comprises a tearable material; which method comprises providing a line of weakness in the tearable material demarcating an attachment region; and adhering at least part of the attachment region to the support.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the tearable material is provided by an enclosure forming a sealed package, and the adhesion and the line of weakness are arranged so that tearing-off gives a package which is still sealed and which has a portion removed to provide an origin for tearing open the package.

3. A method acording to claim 1 or 2 wherein the support comprises a rigid sheet.

4. A method according to claim 3 which includes cutting said sheet to define an internal tongue, offering up the item to the front face of the sheet, engaging the item beneath the tongue, and adhering the item in its attachment region to the rear face of the tongue.

5. A method according to any of the preceding claims including the step of forming a line of perforations to provide the line of weakness.

6. A method of securing an item to a support substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

7. A display assembly comprising an item secured to a support by the method of any preceding claims.

8. A display assembly comprising at least one item and a support therfor, said at least one item comprising a tearable material provided with a line of weakness which demarcated an attachment region, at least part of the attachment region being adhered to the support.

9. A display assembly according to claim 8 wherein said item is a sealed package including an enclosure provided at least partly by the tearable material, and the adhesion and the line of weakness are arranged so that a package torn from the support is still sealed and has a portion removed to provide an origin for tearing open the package.

10. A display assembly according to claim 8 or 9 wherein the support is a rigid sheet provided with at least one internal tongue, and the item is supported substantially on the front face thereof by adhesion of its attachemnt region to the rear face of the tongue.

11. A display assembly according to any of claims 8 to 10, wherein the line of weakness is provided by a line of perforations.

12. A display assembly according to any one of claims 8 to 11, wherein the tearable material has one or more inherent lines of weakness.

13. A display assembly substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

14. An item adapted for adhesion to a support to form a display assembly according to any of claims 8 to 13 which item comprises tearable material having a line of weakness whereby an attachment region is demarcated, said attachment region being adapted for adhesion to said support.