Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D75/00—Packages comprising articles or materials partially or wholly enclosed in strips, sheets, blanks, tubes, or webs of flexible sheet material, e.g. in folded wrappers
  • B65D75/52—Details
  • B65D75/58—Opening or contents-removing devices added or incorporated during package manufacture
  • B65D75/5827—Tear-lines provided in a wall portion
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
  • B65B61/00—Auxiliary devices, not otherwise provided for, for operating on sheets, blanks, webs, binding material, containers or packages
  • B65B61/18—Auxiliary devices, not otherwise provided for, for operating on sheets, blanks, webs, binding material, containers or packages for making package-opening or unpacking elements

Definitions

• the present invention relates to packaging film, such as heat-shrink film or stretch film, for surrounding goods to be packaged.
• Packaging films are widely used in many industries, and in particular in the consumable industry. Goods for sale on the market are often transported in batches that group together a number of sale units of a product to be sold. Packaging is used to protect these units, such as cartons, tins or jars for example, and to keep them together. Likewise, bottles are often sold in packs containing in general six bottles held together by a packaging film. Such packaging in batches is known by the term "bundling". Bundling consists in surrounding a batch of goods with a plastic heat-shrink or stretch film. The particular feature of this packaging is that the sides of the batch are generally not welded and they leave the goods visible.
• a lune is defined as a non-convex plane figure bounded by two circular arcs having the same ends.
• a heat-shrink film has the characteristic of shrinking under the effect of heat and therefore of moulding the object that it surrounds. The shrinking may take place in one direction or in two perpendicular directions, depending on the composition of the film, by a rise in temperature.
• a stretch film has cold elasticity properties that allow it to be stretched around the object to be packaged without a rise in temperature. The film is held in place by welding.
• a plastic heat-shrink film may be obtained from a polyolefin, such as high-density polyethylene, low-density polyethylene or polypropylene, or from polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
• a plastic stretch film may be obtained from a linear polyethylene or a polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
• Such plastic packaging films are strong, easy to apply and able to suit any type of object to be packaged, whatever its shape or its dimensions. However, these packaging films are not easy to tear, and to unpackage goods surrounded with such a film often requires the use of a tool, such as a cutter for example. To make it easier to tear the film for manual unpackaging of the goods, several techniques have been proposed.
• a first solution consists in adding additives to the chemical composition of the film so as to create an orientation that weakens the film in one direction.
• This solution increases the cost of manufacture of the film.
• An orientation of the film may also be obtained by microperforations that impose a linearity on the tearing of the film. With these solutions, the propagation of the tear is facilitated by the linearity of the film, but it remains difficult to initiate the tear.
• Another solution consists in weakening the film in certain areas corresponding to gripping areas, for example between four bottle tops. The weakening may be achieved by niicroperforations localized in certain areas of the film.
• the invention consequently proposes a packaging film having an edge that includes notches, said notches being distributed along said edge.
• the film includes notches on each edge.
• two consecutive notches on an edge are spaced apart from 5 to 15 cm.
• the notches have a depth of 5 to 10 mm.
• the notches are perpendicular to the edge of the film.
• the film is of the heat-shrink type or of the stretch type.
• the invention also relates to a batch of goods packaged by bundling with a plastic film surrounding the said batch, one edge of the film defining a lune on one side of the batch, the lune having notches.
• the batch of goods comprises a pack of bottles or a set of cans.
• the invention furthermore relates to a method of packaging a batch of goods with a plastic film, comprising the steps of: - producing notches distributed along an edge of the film; and bundling the batch of goods with the film.
• the bundling step includes a step of heat- shrinking the film.
• the film is a stretch-type film and the bundling step includes a welding step.
• the film is unwound for the bundling and the notches are produced continuously on a film turn roll.
• the film is unwound for the bundling and the notches are produced in series along a portion of the film placed flat in a cutting zone.
• the notches are produced on each edge of the film.
• the notches are produced with a spacing of 5 to 15 cm between two consecutive notches.
• the notches are produced with a depth of 5 to 10 mm.
• the notches are produced perpendicular to the edge of the film.
• FIG 1 a diagram of the packaging film according to the invention
• Figure 2 a batch of goods packaged with a film according to the invention.
• a packaged film is proposed that has notches on at least one edge. These notches constitute tear initiators that facilitate the initial tearing. The notches are deep enough to initiate the tearing movement and are distributed along the film so that the package can be taken hold of with one's whole hand in order to tear it.
• the packaging film proposed by the invention may be used for bundling batches of goods with a conventional bundling machine or bundler, without registration.
• an easy- tear packaging film may be used for bundling without any significant increase in cost.
• a batch of packaged goods is therefore obtained by bundling with a film having notches in its lunes.
• a plastic film 10 is being unwound.
• This film 10 may be of the heat-shrink or stretch type depending on the applications. It also has a width suited to the size of the batch of goods to be packaged.
• a longitudinal direction x of the film constituting the film unwinding direction, and a transverse direction y of the film 10, constituting the film cutting direction, are defined.
• Such a film 10 is designed to be placed in a packaging machine called a bundler.
• Such a machine makes it possible to surround a batch of goods with the film 10, to cut the film from edge to edge and to fasten the film over the batch.
• the bundler includes, or is connected to, heat treatment means such as an oven. The plastic is then moulded around the batch after heat-shrinking.
• the bundler includes, or is connected to, welding means. The stretch film is then moulded around the batch after each cut end has been welded.
• the film 10 has notches 15 along an edge 11 and optionally along each edge 11, 11'. These notches 15, 15' are designed to constitute packaging tear initiators when the film 10 has been used for bundling a batch of goods.
• the notches 15 are distributed along the edge 11, that is to say the notches 15 are repeated along the edge of the film.
• the spacing between two consecutive notches may depend on the applications, on the type of batch to be packaged and on the bundling process used.
• the notches 15 distribution along an edge 11 of the film can be regular, that is to say the notches distribution has a regular pattern repeating with spacing between two consecutive notches that may be constant or variable.
• the notches distribution can be linear, that is to say the spacing between notches varies linearly.
• the notches distribution can also be random, with a random spacing between the notches.
• this spacing must be wide enough to allow one's hand to be positioned between two notches, but not necessarily consecutive notches, and small enough for the gripping to easily tear the notch and extend the tearing of the packaging film transversely.
• a spacing of 5 to 15 cm between two consecutive notches fulfils these conditions.
• the detail A shown in Figure 1 illustrates a notch 15 in one edge of the film 10.
• Such a notch has a notch depth L of 5 to 10 mm and an almost zero width e.
• the notches may be produced perpendicular to the edge 11, but they may also be oblique without losing their film tear initiation function.
• a method of packaging a batch of products is proposed.
• Such a method comprises a step of producing the notches along one edge of the packaging film and a step of bundling the batch of goods with such a film.
• the notches 15, 15' may be produced by any suitable means.
• the plastic film 10 is unwound longitudinally (x direction) and passes over a turn roll 20 whose spindle is oriented in the transverse direction (y) of the film.
• a cutting roll 25 is placed opposite the turn roll 20 and rotates in the opposite direction from the direction of rotation of the turn roll.
• the film 10 is thus pinched between the two rolls 20 and 25, while being unwound.
• the detail B in Figure 1 shows that the cutting roll 25 has projecting blades 26 that notch the edge 11 of the film 10 in order to make notches 15.
• FIG. 2 illustrates a batch of goods 30 packaged by the method according to the invention using the film 10 according to the invention.
• the batch 30 consists of two packaged cardboard boxes 31, 32, but it could just as well be a pack of bottles, or a batch of tins or jars for example.
• the batch of goods 31, 32 is packaged by bundling with a plastic film 10, the edges 11 of the film defining lunes 33 on the sides of the batch.
• the lunes 33 have blisters. In such a case, the initial tearing along the edges of the packaging 30 is very difficult.
• the notches 15 produced in the edge 11 of the film are transferred to a lune 33 of the packaged batch and allow tearing to be initiated from the lunes 33 in order to make unpacking easier.
• a user grips a lune 33 with his whole hand there will be notches 15 on each side of his hand. His hand may possibly cover one notch 15, but there will nevertheless be, on either side of his hand, two notches sufficiently close to the edge of his hand.
• notches 15 must make it possible, by a limited tearing force perpendicular to the plane of the film, to extend the tearing of the film 10 and allow easy unpackaging.
• the present invention is not limited to the embodiments and methods of implementation described by way of example with reference to the figures; in particular, the spacing between two consecutive notches or the depth of the notches may vary or be constant along one edge portion of the film. If the notches 15, 15' are produced on each edge 11, 11 ' of the film 10, the depth L of the notches and the spacing between the notches are not necessarily the same along each edge.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Packages (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (1)

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Family Applications (1)

Country Status (3)

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Family Cites Families (4)

• 2003
  • 2003-08-01 FR FR0309524A patent/FR2857939B1/fr not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2004
  • 2004-07-23 WO PCT/EP2004/008244 patent/WO2005014424A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2004-07-23 EP EP04763430A patent/EP1651534A1/de not_active Withdrawn

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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