EP0229984B1 - Glass-walled package for flowable contents - Google Patents

Abstract

The package for flowable contents consists of side walls (1), which are connected to each other in tubular form via a longitudinal sealing seam, and end walls which are mounted at the ends of the tube and form the bottom (2) and lid (5) of the package. In this case, the side walls (1) consist of cardboard coated with thermoplastic and the bottom (2) of the package consists of a separate, essentially flat wall piece and is sealed onto the bottom edge (3) of the tubular side walls (1). In order to provide a lightweight, sturdy and inexpensive package, the material of which can be exploited better for the contents and can also be better prepared for reuse, provision is made for the bottom (2) and the lid (5) to consist of glass and to be welded fluid-tightly to the tubular side walls (1) and for the lid (5) to have a closable pouring opening (10). <IMAGE>

Description

The invention relates to a pack for flowable filling goods, consisting of side walls and end walls connected to one another via at least one longitudinal sealing seam, which are welded at the ends of the tube in a liquid-tight manner to the tubular side walls and form the bottom and lid with pouring opening of the pack, the side walls consisting of at least backing material coated on one side with thermoplastic, e.g. Cardboard, consist and the bottom of the pack is formed from a separate, essentially flat wall piece. Similar packs are known from EP-A-0.096.826. The lid of this known package consists of thermoplastic material without a carrier material, is welded along its outer edge to the side walls and has a pouring device.

Another pack is known from FR-A-2.174.588, the side walls of which also consist of coated cardboard, but in which the base and lid are made of thermoplastic material without a carrier material. This known pack is designed in the ready-to-fill state such that the lid is injection-molded along its four edges, but the bottom is only molded on the side walls along one edge to fill the pack. The cross-section of this pack and the lid and base are essentially rectangular.

In particular in the case of the known package described last, the bottom is square, so that there is a certain volume reduction compared to the round lid and the packaging material for the contents is not yet optimally used. The disadvantage of all packs with plastic floors or Lids found that a certain gas permeability is unavoidable, so that easily perishable manure ge with a long storage time are at risk. In special cases, the sterilization of the known packs can sometimes only be carried out with great effort. While the side walls are formed from flat sheets which can be coated relatively easily with gas-impermeable materials, for example with metal foils, this project on the lid and bottom is associated with considerable difficulties.

Certain filling goods are therefore transported in the known glass bottles, but which have many known disadvantages, such as cleaning, closing and opening and the effort by weight. The expert must choose a thick wall for glass containers so that the bottle used for the rough operation during transport, washing and filling does not break. On the other hand, glass is considered to be a very ideal packaging material, especially when you consider the environmental impact and the high recycling value, i.e. recyclability is taken into account. For reasons of economy, however, the paper packaging is often preferred to a glass bottle if one considers the enormous weight difference and the associated transport costs; also the storage of reusable glass bottles. Generally, the weight of a durable 1 liter bottle is about 360 g.

The invention is therefore based on the object of providing a light, stable and inexpensive pack with the features of known packs mentioned at the outset, but whose material is better utilized for the filling volume and is also easier to reprocess. Preferably, a gas-tight packing should also be made possible, which is easy to sterilize and remains aseptic for a long time.

This object is achieved in that the bottom and lid are made of glass and are welded liquid-tight to the tubular side walls and that the lid has a closable pouring opening. The invention is an unusual material combination of paper and glass. Instead of the usual plastics for the bottom and lid, glass is used, which the expert in the past and sometimes still does not think can be welded with plastic-coated paper. It is known, however, to close glass bottles instead of crown caps or the like by means of thermoplastic materials. Here, for example, adhesion promoters have been applied to the edge of the bottle neck, but improvements were considered urgently necessary, on the one hand due to the difficult process steps and on the other hand the contamination of the food in the bottles. Heat seal adhesives have therefore been found with which durable connections, for example between glass and a plastic, can be achieved. In principle, even with liquid fillings, bottles could already be closed by sealing. However, it has hitherto been unknown to provide a package consisting essentially of plastic-coated paper with a glass lid or base. A paper tube has already been sealed with aluminum on the end faces; However, it should be noted here that metals are deformable, which is why the bases and lids, which are made of metal, were also connected to the paper sleeve by flanging and clamping. Such techniques are not possible when using glass instead of metal. In addition, the expert had to fear the breakage of the glass lid or bottom when pressed against the paper sleeve.

The invention breaks new ground here in order to create a much lighter (lower weight) and nevertheless stable pack. A tubular paper sleeve, which is open at the ends or end faces, is produced in a known manner on a paper web coated at least on one side with plastic. In a sealing station, the glass bases and lids kept in stock are connected to this sleeve, adjusted and welded. An induction welding device can be used here, for example. Because the lid has the pouring opening, the package produced in this way can be filled and subsequently closed.

It is particularly expedient if, according to the invention, the glass is pressed glass. Up to 90% of such a material can be regarded as recycled glass. The environmental impact on the packaging materials is therefore remarkably low. It is irrelevant for the manufacture and function of the package according to the invention if small stones, streaks or other impurities are enclosed in the glass lid and the glass quality is therefore lower, so to speak. Rather, the plant or lid (or both) can be inexpensively manufactured by simpler systems and the use of recycled glass by the manufacturer of liquid packs.

It has been shown that with a glass thickness of approximately 1.5 mm for the lid and base, the risk of breakage is negligible even during manufacture, and yet the weight per lid or base is approximately in the range from 20 to 25 g. Nevertheless, it can be particularly advantageous if the glass is toughened according to the invention. This prestressing is known and easy to carry out, there are many prestressed drinking glasses, car glass is prestressed, for example, etc. According to the polyliquid method, the lids and bottoms made of glass are passed through a liquid on a conveyor belt, as a result of which the prestressing and hardening takes place. Another advantage of the treatment process is the reduction in weight. The prestress also achieves better strength, so that rougher production machines can also be used, in which the paper tube is pressed against the glass during the manufacture of the empty liquid pack for sealing.

The materials for the tubular side walls, ie the sleeve, namely paper or cardboard, at least on one side with plastic, are used for the Both rigid glass plates or glass panes, so to speak, created a soft suspension, so that the pack is not only well processed, but also filled, transported and can be handled by the end user without danger. The two glass plates are hung on the tubular side walls in a manner comparable to that of a metal oscillator. This unexpected combination of glass and paper therefore also results in the new package being extremely stable.

It is advantageous according to the invention if the glass is colored. These staining processes for glass are also known per se. In combination with the opaque, tubular side wall, however, this advantageously results in a high level of light protection also from the ends or end faces of the packaging.

In a further expedient embodiment of the invention, the pouring opening in the lid has an annular collar projecting outwards in the axial direction of the pack, and a sealing surface lying in the axial direction is arranged on the outer circumference of the lid and / or the bottom. The configuration of the pouring opening described above not only provides a good possibility of filling through the open pouring opening, but also makes closing much easier because the outwardly projecting ring collar on the pouring opening can be easily reached by a closing device. As a result, the structure of the closing device can be simplified and the method can be developed with a higher output. The fact that a sealing surface is arranged on the outer circumference of the lid and / or bottom improves the adhesive force between the glass part and the paper sleeve. In conventional 1/4 1, 1/2 1, 1 1 or 2 1 packs, this sealing surface will be essentially ring-shaped and have a length of 1 to 7 mm, preferably 2 to 5 mm. Detachment of the glass lid or glass bottom of the filled or empty package from the paper side walls is thus switched off or only possible with a certain amount of force when destroying the pack.

If, in a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, a bead and / or a sealing surface lying transversely to the axial direction is / are attached to the outer end of the ring collar, an area enlargement is advantageously achieved at those points to which other parts, plates or disks have to be sealed, e.g. Metal foils, which are optionally coated, for closing the pouring opening.

The bead can be easily molded as a casting bead when producing the glass lid. It runs on the ring collar and therefore has a shorter circumference than the above-mentioned sealing surface on the outer circumference of the lid or bottom.

It is also expedient according to the invention if a closure lid made of plastic is detachably attached to the ring collar of the pouring opening. This is used primarily for resealability and can be made of polyethylene, for example. After the pouring opening has been closed, it is pressed over the ring collar by the coated aluminum foil, so that the aluminum foil is advantageously protected against impact or damage during transport. An inwardly projecting annular bead is preferably formed on the lower outer edge of the closure cover, so that the closure cover can be snapped onto the ring collar and has a self-holding function. To open the closure lid is removed, the metal foil is broken open, and after partial pouring, i.e. Partial emptying of the liquid pack, the closure lid can be snapped back on, so that the contents remaining in the pack are protected against dust and there is also some protection against leakage.

According to the invention, the tubular side walls can also be used coat the inside with a metal foil. Here too, aluminum is preferably used again. For aseptic milk packaging, it is known per se to cover paper side walls with aluminum foil. This also made the side walls gas-tight. For aseptic packaging, the well-known cuboid packaging, which consist entirely of this coated paper, has therefore often been used. For reasons of material consumption, tightness and opening problems, one would like to switch to other types of packaging. In particular in the case of packs in which at least one of the end faces is closed by a lid or base made of plastic, problems already arise as a result of the gas entering through the plastic. On the other hand, if glass is used instead of plastic according to the teaching of the present invention, then these sealing problems are eliminated. A gas-tight and sterilizable package can therefore also be produced by the measures according to the invention. In the manufacturing process described above, the sterilization takes place after completion of the package, ie after the glass plates or glass panes have been welded into the soft paper sleeve, ie the tubular side walls made of plastic-coated cardboard and before filling.

The above-mentioned measures can be used according to the invention particularly advantageously if the cross section of the tubular side walls and the lid and base are circular. With such a pack you have an optimal filling volume per packaging material used, i.e. an even better utilization than with a square floor.

Nowadays, rubbish is already collected separately, and one could also make the glass and paper package according to the invention with few handles (cutting off the lid and bottom with a knife), because the separated materials and in particular the glass is very recyclable. With the new liquid pack according to the invention, an environmentally friendly and transportable packaging material is created, which immediately has a high advertising effectiveness, because advertising prints can be provided in a known manner on the paper web for creating the tubular side walls.

Figur 1

eine Milchverpackung nach einer ersten Ausführungsform der Erfindung in perspektivischer Ansicht mit abgenommenem Verschlußdeckel,

Figur 2

eine Schnittansicht durch die Packung der Figur 1 mit auf die Ausgießöffnung aufgelegter Metallfolie,

Figuren 3, 4, 6 und 7

abgebrochene und schematische Schnittansichten durch den oberen Teil der tubusförmigen Seitenwände mit eingeschweißtem Deckel, offen,

Figur 5

drei offene Deckel separat, übereinandergeschichtet,

Figur 8

eine weitere andere Ausführungsform, abgebrochen und im Schnitt, wobei auf den Deckel eine Metall-folie aufgelegt ist,

Figur 9

eine ähnliche Ansicht wie Figur 8, jedoch mit weiterer modifizierter Ausgestaltung des Deckels und im Schnitt getrennt darüber gezeichnetem Verschlußdeckel und

Figur l0

abgebrochen eine Querschnittsansicht durch die tubusförmigen Seitenwände mit der Längssiegelnaht und dem Kantenschutz.

Through various shapes of glass lid and glass bottom, these can be made stackable so that they can be conveniently and compactly fed from magazines to the finished paper tubes, which are guided in a transport chain, for example. Particular embodiments of the same, further advantages, features and possible uses of the invention result from the following description of preferred exemplary embodiments in conjunction with the drawings. Show it:

Figure 1

4 shows a milk packaging according to a first embodiment of the invention in a perspective view with the closure lid removed,

Figure 2

2 shows a sectional view through the pack of FIG. 1 with the metal foil placed on the pouring opening,

Figures 3, 4, 6 and 7

broken and schematic sectional views through the upper part of the tubular side walls with welded-in lid, open,

Figure 5

three open lids separately, one on top of the other,

Figure 8

another different embodiment, broken off and in section, a metal foil being placed on the lid,

Figure 9

a view similar to Figure 8, but with a further modified design of the lid and in section separately drawn cap and

Figure l0

broken off a cross-sectional view through the tubular side walls with the longitudinal seal seam and the edge protection.

In Figure 1, the finished milk pack is shown in perspective in the open state. It consists of a longitudinal sealing seam 4 (FIG. 10), tubular side walls 1 and end walls made of glass, of which only the cover 5 is shown in FIG. 1, but the bottom 2 is also shown in FIG. 2. The side walls 1 consist of paper or cardboard coated with thermoplastic on both sides and are formed from a flat, preferably printed web which is formed to form the tube and is closed in the manner shown in FIG. 10 with the longitudinal sealing seam 4 to form the sleeve. A plastic strip 6, which runs lengthwise in the direction of the tube axis, is sealed on the inside and forms the edge protection so that liquid cannot penetrate into the free inner edge of the paper, which is protected without plastic, and thus can destroy the paper.

Both the bottom 2 and the lid 5 consist of a separate, generally flat wall piece, which is disk-shaped in the round embodiment and plate-shaped in other embodiments. The bottom 2 is sealed on the lower edge 3 of the side walls 1. The annular sealing surface 7 lies on the inside of the sleeve-shaped side wall 1 at the bottom at the edge 3 thereof on the one hand and on the outer circumference of the base 2 on the other hand. So that this sealing surface extending in the direction of the axis 8 of the package has a certain height or length of about 1 to 7 mm, preferably 2 to 5 mm, a bead or groove 9 is formed in the bottom 2 from the plane, which is transverse to axis 8. Through this groove-shaped bead 9, the bottom 2 also receives additional stiffening.

Bottom 2 and lid 5 are made of glass, which is preferably colored for light protection and tempered pressed glass.

The cover 5 could also have such a V-shaped or trapezoidal ring bead 9 as the base 2, but such an embodiment is not shown in the drawings. Rather, the lid 5 obtains its rigidity from other ring edges or the pouring opening, generally designated 10. This lies in the center of the circular cover 5 and is formed by an annular collar 11 which projects outwards and upwards in the direction of the axis 8 and which has a bead 12 (FIG. 7) at its top end or a sealing surface 13 lying transversely to the axial direction 8. points. The bead 12 in FIG. 7 can also be understood in such a way that it forms such a sealing surface as designated 13 in the other embodiments.

The pouring opening is closed at the top and outside by an aluminum foil 14 coated on both sides with thermoplastic. This is only shown in Figures 2, 8 and 9.

In FIG. 2, the aluminum foil 14 is shown bent downward on the outside of the circumference of the ring collar 11. This was done by the sealing cap 15 made of polyethylene, which was detachably attached to the ring collar 11 by placing it over the inwardly projecting ring bead 16 shown in FIG. 9 on the ring collar 11 and over its bead 12 or the annular outer edge of the sealing surface 13 was snapped up.

FIG. 9 shows, for example, the state in which the aluminum foil 14 still lies smoothly on the sealing surface 13, namely before the closure cover 15 is snapped on and snapped into place. If you then remove the cover 15, you have the state shown in Figure 2.

It is understood that the aluminum foil 14 is broken open for pouring, and when the package is only partially ent is empty, the closure lid 15 can be used for reclosing.

FIG. 3 shows a first embodiment of the cross section of the cover 5, which can also be found in the representation of FIGS. 1 and 2. One can see here the sealing surface 13, which is transverse or perpendicular to the axis 8 of the package, with its outer edge 17, via which the inner bead 16 of the closure cover 15 can snap into place. The ring collar 11 merges from top to bottom from the cylindrical jacket shape into the truncated cone shape, in order then to merge into a plane in the lowest region, so that an annular surface 18 is formed. This is found in essentially all covers 5 except in the embodiment according to FIG. 8. The sealing surface 19 lying in the direction of the axis 8 is formed on the outer circumference of the cover 5, which is ring-shaped and has a height or length of approximately 1 to in the direction of the axis 7 mm and preferably 2 to 5 mm. This achieves a good adhesive force between the glass cover 5 and the paper wall 1.

In the embodiments according to FIGS. 4, 7, 8 and 9, an annular surface 20 covering the paper edge is also formed, which lies next to and outside the sealing surface 19. There is also a welded connection between glass and paper. Liquid can therefore not penetrate into the open edge of the paper side wall 1.

FIG. 5 shows the good stackability of the covers 5 according to the second embodiment according to FIG. 4. Similarly, other lids are stackable.

Claims (10)

1. A package for flowable contents, consisting of, connected to one another by at least one longitudinal sealing seam (4) tubularly connected side walls (1) and end walls which are provided at the ends of the tube, being welded to the tubular side walls in fluid-tight manner, and comprising a bottom (2) and top (5) with a pourer orifice for the package, the side walls (1) consisting of a carrier material, e.g cardboard, coated at least on one side with thermoplastics material, the bottom (2) of the package being formed by a separate substantially flat wall member.
2. A package according to Claim 1, characterised in that the glass is pressed glass.
3. A package according to Claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the glass is pre-stressed.
4. A package according to one of Claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the glass is tinted.
5. A package according to one of Claims 1 to 4, characterised in that the pourer orifice (10) in the top (5) has projecting outwardly in the axial direction (8) of the package an annular collar (11) and in that on the outer periphery of the top (5) and/or of the bottom (2) there is an axially (8) disposed sealing surface (19).
6. A package according to one of Claims 1 to 5, characterised in that at the outer end of the annular collar (11) there is a bead (12) and/or a sealing surface (13) which is disposed transversely to the axial direction (8).
7. A package according to one of Claims 1 to 6, characterised in that the pourer orifice (10) is sealed by a possibly coated metal foil (14).
8. A package according to one of Claims 4 to 7, characterised in that on the annular collar (11) of the pourer orifice (10) there is a separably attached synthetic plastics closure cover (15).
9. A package according to one of Claims 1 to 8, characterised in that the tubular side walls (1) are coated on the inside with a metal foil.
10. A package according to one of Claims 1 to 9, characterised in that the cross-section of the tubular side walls (1) and top (5) and bottom (2) is circular.

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