EP1833736A1 - Conditionnement de multiples articles de consommation - Google Patents

Conditionnement de multiples articles de consommation

Info

Publication number
EP1833736A1
EP1833736A1 EP05810210A EP05810210A EP1833736A1 EP 1833736 A1 EP1833736 A1 EP 1833736A1 EP 05810210 A EP05810210 A EP 05810210A EP 05810210 A EP05810210 A EP 05810210A EP 1833736 A1 EP1833736 A1 EP 1833736A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
array
outer package
opening
consumer articles
package
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP05810210A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Inventor
Paul Naylor
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Unilever PLC
Unilever NV
Original Assignee
Unilever PLC
Unilever NV
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Unilever PLC, Unilever NV filed Critical Unilever PLC
Publication of EP1833736A1 publication Critical patent/EP1833736A1/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

Links

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
    • B65D71/00—Bundles of articles held together by packaging elements for convenience of storage or transport, e.g. portable segregating carrier for plural receptacles such as beer cans or pop bottles; Bales of material
    • B65D71/06—Packaging elements holding or encircling completely or almost completely the bundle of articles, e.g. wrappers
    • B65D71/08—Wrappers shrunk by heat or under tension, e.g. stretch films or films tensioned by compressed articles
    • 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
    • B65D2571/00—Bundles of articles held together by packaging elements for convenience of storage or transport, e.g. portable segregating carrier for plural receptacles such as beer cans, pop bottles; Bales of material
    • B65D2571/00123—Bundling wrappers or trays
    • B65D2571/00555—Wrapper opening devices
    • B65D2571/00561—Lines of weakness
    • 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
    • B65D2571/00—Bundles of articles held together by packaging elements for convenience of storage or transport, e.g. portable segregating carrier for plural receptacles such as beer cans, pop bottles; Bales of material
    • B65D2571/00123—Bundling wrappers or trays
    • B65D2571/00555—Wrapper opening devices
    • B65D2571/00561—Lines of weakness
    • B65D2571/00567—Lines of weakness defining a narrow removable strip

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to packaging of multiple consumer articles .
  • the invention provides an outer package containing a plurality of consumer articles arranged in an array, said outer package comprising (a) flexible sheet material wrapped and sealed around the array in a configuration which is adapted to the shape of the array so as to retain the arrangement of the array, and (b) an easy open mechanism contained within a single face of the outer package comprising two lines of weakness separated by a gap and coj oined at one end by a further line weakness or cut to define a tear strip, whereby the arrangement of the array is retained after opening of the package via the tear strip .
  • the invention advantageously allows convenient grouping of individual articles (which may be packages ) by packaging in an outer or a ⁇ secondary' package which can by opened simply by tearing the parallel strip of film.
  • a tear strip is advantageous in that it does not require the use of potentially dangerous sharp implements such as knives and minimises the risk of damage to the primary packaging by eliminating the use of potentially sharp or dangerous obj ects .
  • the action of tearing is involved, which is potentially quite disruptive when used on flexible packaging, this does not destroy the array due to the location of the lines of weakness .
  • the user is thereby allowed access to an orderly array of articles after opening and e . g . whilst stocking shelves , articles can be selected and then retrieved from an orderly array.
  • the articles are less likely to be damaged since they remain in the orderly array even after the package is torn open . Even further the articles are more likely to remain in a orderly array even after one or more articles have been removed.
  • the opening mechanism is within a single face such that it does not extend to or beyond the perimeter of the single face . Therefore the opening mechanism does not interfere with any aj oining regions (e . g . edges ) between adj acent faces of the package . This is advantageous in that all other faces are left intact after opening, which retains the integrity of the package .
  • opening mechanism there may be more than one opening mechanism, e . g . there may be an opening mechanism within two or more respective faces of the outer packaging . This gives the user the choice of which opening to select, according to the type of article .
  • the location of the opening may differ according to whether the articles are to removed from the outer package and placed on shelves for sale (in which case the face may be an upper or top face) , or whether the outer package is to be used as a display package (in which case the face may be a side face) .
  • a further advantage is that, even after opening because the package retains its integrity, the user can still handle e . g. carry the package without substantial disruption of the array of articles .
  • the flexible sheet material is a shrink wrap film. In this way the material is effectively shrunk to adapt to the shape of the array of articles .
  • Suitable materials for this are PE and derivatives e . g . Low density polyethylene LDPE, medium density polyethylene MDPE, and high density polyethtylene HDPE, ethylene vinyl acetate EVA, polypropylene PP, polyamide PA and ionomers thereof .
  • the material might also be folded and sealed so as to adapt to the shape of the array.
  • the lines of weakness may comprise a line of perforations in the form of dashes and/or dots , and/or line of reduced thickness (of the material ) .
  • the package may include a label at the end of the perforation .
  • the label is preferably attached e . g . by adhesive or heat sealing, to the tear strip material .
  • part of the label remains free to act as a tab to facilitate grasping of the tear strip to use the easy open feature .
  • the advantage of including a label is that is acts to direct the user to the beginning of the tear strip and may have visual indicia to indicate to the user how to use the opening mechanism.
  • the lines are initially relatively close together negating the need for precise registration of the label with the beginning of the tear strip .
  • the lines may diverge from such close proximity, if a wider tear strip is required.
  • the seals are effected by heating the regions to be sealed.
  • the zone of weakness may comprise a series e . g . line of perforations .
  • Each of the individual perforations is less than approximately 10 mm in length, preferably less than approximately 5 mm in length and may be approximately 3 mm approximately.
  • the gap between each perforation is less than approximately 10 mm in length, preferably less than approximately 5 mm in length and may be approximately 3 mm approximately.
  • the perforations may be made by e . g . a blade or laser . This can be applied before the articles are wrapped in the outer package or during the application procedure . Each perforation may be a small hole or slot .
  • the package is a non-peelable, flexible material such as polyethylene, polypropylene and may be an oriented materials , laminates , coextrusions etc .
  • the package may be of thickness 25-100 ⁇ m.
  • Figure 1 is a perspective view of an outer package containing a plurality of consumer articles arranged in an array according to the invention .
  • one embodiment of the invention comprising an outer package 1 containing a plurality of consumer articles comprising cartons 13 of detergent powder, which are arranged in an array 17.
  • the array 17 comprises a single row of cartons 13, each carton having identical dimensions and arranged to rest on its base .
  • the outer package 1 consists of a flexible sheet material 19 comprising shrink film which is tightly wrapped and sealed by shrink wrapping around the array 17 in a configuration which is adapted to the rectangular shape of the array so as to retain the arrangement of the array 17.
  • shrink wrapping process can leave gaps 15, these are within the boundaries of each end face 23 of the array , and are small enough not to comprise the array 17.
  • An easy open mechanism 7 is contained within a single upper face 19 of the outer package such that it does not extend to or beyond the perimeter of the single face .
  • "Upper” means with the cartons orientated with bases downwardly directed and upper faces , (which contain spouts , lids etc not shown) upwardly directed.
  • the opening mechanism comprises two mutually parallel lines of weakness 3 , 5 each parallel line consists of a row of perforations (in the form of dashes ) , coj oined at one end by a further row of perforations to define a tear strip 21.
  • Each of the perforations is 3 mm in length.
  • Shrink wrap film is of thickness 60 ⁇ m.
  • the arrangement of the array 17 is retained after opening of the package 1 via the tear strip 21. Once the tear strip 21 has been torn away an aperture 11 is left, through which the cartons may be selected and retrieved.
  • the outer or ⁇ secondary' package 1 is used to transport the array 17 to the retail establishment (e . g . supermarket) and can also be used to transport the array within the retail establishment .
  • a further advantage of the invention is that, even after opening, because the package retains its integrity, the user can still carry the package without substantial disruption of the array of articles .
  • the package may opened on the shop floor of a supermarket and one or more cartons can be selected from array in the the opened package and placed directly on one shelf and the undisrupted array conveniently carried by the merchandiser to another part of the supermarket for stacking shelves there .
  • the package comprises a flexible material which is very easily and expeditious ripped open, it still acts as an effective transport device for ordered arrays of articles after opening of the package .
  • expeditious opening of secondary and tertiary packaging is highly desirable as this is a key factor in the speed of shelf stacking ' within supermarkets .
  • the unopened array may be sold as a consumer unit, so that the individual cartons are selected for use as and when necessary by the consumer .
  • the packaging arrangement advantageously allows convenient grouping of the individual cartons within a ⁇ secondary' package which can by opened simply and, very importantly, expeditiously by simply tearing the strip of film but without the use of potentially dangerous sharp implements such as knives thus minimising the risk of damage to the primary packaging (the cartons ) by eliminating the use of such obj ects . Even though the action of tearing is involved, which is potentially quite disruptive when used on flexible packaging, this does not destroy the array due to the precise location of the perforations . The user is thereby allowed access to an orderly array of cartons after opening and e . g . whilst stocking shelves , cartons can be selected and then retrieved from an orderly array.
  • the cartons can be made from thinner, cheaper (and therefore more vunerable) materials as these less likely to be damaged since they remain in the orderly array 17 even after the package 1 is torn open. Even further the cartons 13 are more likely to remain in the orderly array 17 even after one or more have been removed.
  • the shrink wrap film comprises low density polyethylene LDPE Shrink wrapping allows the the material to be effectively shrunk to adapt to the shape of the array of articles .
  • the tear strip 21 includes a ⁇ pull tab' (with visual indicia to indicate to the user to being tearing by pulling the pull tab) 9 attached at the end of the perforations 3, 5. Part of the pull tab is attached by adhesive to the end of the tear strip 21 material leaving the end free to facilitate grasping of the tab 9.
  • the perforations may be made by any suitable technique e . g . laser or circular cutter . In this embodiment, they are made prior to the application process by a laser .
  • Any suitable shrink wrapping process can be used and in this embodiment .
  • the material is loosely wrapped around the articles and may be sealed e . g . heat sealed in this loosely wrapped configuration .
  • the wrapped articles are then briefly (e . g. a few seconds) heated e . g. within an oven to shrink the material around the array. The time, temperature of the oven are selected so that the material forms tightly around the array.

Abstract

La présente invention concerne un conditionnement extérieur (1) contenant une pluralité d’articles de consommation (13) disposés en rangée (17), ledit conditionnement extérieur comprenant une matière en feuille souple emballée et scellée autour de la rangée (17) dans une configuration qui est adaptée à la forme de la rangée (17) de manière à conserver la disposition de la rangée (17), et un mécanisme d’ouverture facile (7) contenu à l’intérieur d’une face unique du conditionnement extérieur (1) comprenant deux lignes de faiblesse (3, 5) séparées par un espace et co-jointes à une extrémité par une autre ligne de faiblesse ou découpées pour définir une bande déchirable (21), moyennant quoi la disposition de la rangée (17) est conservée après l’ouverture du conditionnement par l’intermédiaire de la bande déchirable (21).
EP05810210A 2004-12-22 2005-11-22 Conditionnement de multiples articles de consommation Withdrawn EP1833736A1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB0428086A GB0428086D0 (en) 2004-12-22 2004-12-22 Packaging of multiple consumer articles
PCT/EP2005/012532 WO2006066682A1 (fr) 2004-12-22 2005-11-22 Conditionnement de multiples articles de consommation

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP1833736A1 true EP1833736A1 (fr) 2007-09-19

Family

ID=34113054

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP05810210A Withdrawn EP1833736A1 (fr) 2004-12-22 2005-11-22 Conditionnement de multiples articles de consommation

Country Status (6)

Country Link
EP (1) EP1833736A1 (fr)
CN (2) CN101080351A (fr)
BR (1) BRPI0519390A2 (fr)
GB (1) GB0428086D0 (fr)
WO (1) WO2006066682A1 (fr)
ZA (1) ZA200704797B (fr)

Families Citing this family (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2014053515A1 (fr) * 2012-10-01 2014-04-10 Philip Morris Products S.A. Paquet à emballage thermorétractable
EP3110705B1 (fr) 2014-02-28 2018-11-28 Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc. Produits emballés groupés à ouverture facile

Family Cites Families (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE1586448A1 (de) * 1967-09-28 1970-07-30 Ampag Gmbh & Co Kg Packstueck mit aufgeschrumpfter Umhuellung aus einer thermoplastischen Folie
NL1005648C2 (nl) * 1997-03-26 1998-09-29 Sara Lee De Nv Krimpverpakking.
US5992630A (en) * 1997-05-21 1999-11-30 Lever Brothers Company Shrink wrap package
IT1313633B1 (it) * 1999-09-27 2002-09-09 Barilla Alimentare Spa Confezione di una pila cilindrica di biscotti tondi.
JP2003335383A (ja) * 2002-05-14 2003-11-25 Uni Charm Corp 二重包装容体

Non-Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
See references of WO2006066682A1 *

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
WO2006066682A1 (fr) 2006-06-29
GB0428086D0 (en) 2005-01-26
BRPI0519390A2 (pt) 2009-01-20
ZA200704797B (en) 2008-09-25
CN101080351A (zh) 2007-11-28
CN101087721A (zh) 2007-12-12

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