EP3196146B1 - Plastic film bag - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a film bag having a two front walls having bag body, wherein at a first corner of the bag body formed by at least the two front walls first side edge connects to an upper edge of the bag, where the two front walls are connected by a sealing seam, wherein the front walls each of the first corner having a plurality of weakening lines, which extend from the first side edge in an arc and at a distance from each other to the closure seam and wherein a tear-open is arranged on the closure seam.

Foil bags are opened in practice in a variety of ways. In addition to cutting with a knife or scissors, foil bags can also be provided for opening by hand.

For example, multilayer coextrusion films or film composites are known for the formation of film bags, in which the two opposite front walls are formed by a deflaking, i. Wind up, a seal at the top edge of the bag can be opened. This can be done either by opening the seal or a material break within the laminate, resulting in either an adhesion break or a cohesive failure. Corresponding opening patterns can also be achieved in foil bags, which are sealed with adhesive on an upper edge of the bag.

The described type of opening is often used in the field of snack packaging such as for potato chips. Usually In this case, the entire upper edge of the bag is opened, so that the contents of the film bag can be easily grasped by hand.

In addition, various types of tearing and opening aids are known.

With a zigzag cut on the upper edge of the bag a simple tearing is possible. Corresponding tearing aids such as individual incisions, tearing notches or even a zigzag cut permit easy initiation of cracking, but the further tearing by a user is difficult to control, even if oriented film layers of oriented polyethylene terephthalate (OPET) or biaxially oriented polypropylene (BO-PP ) allow easy tearing. Even if a crack can be deliberately controlled by a user in the mentioned materials, a certain skill of the user is necessary for a targeted tearing. The same applies to cellulose-based films, which have a considerable rigidity even without a biaxial orientation.

Furthermore, opening aids in the form of weakening lines are known from practice, which are produced by laser or by punching in the material. Such weakening lines allow the crack profile and the opening formed therewith to be specified exactly. In addition, easy handling in a tearing can be ensured.

From the WO 2012/100 996 A1 For example, a foil bag is known in which a plurality of lines of weakness are arranged at a first corner of the bag body between a first side edge and an upper edge of the bag, which converge and then form a common weakening line. By the measures described is achieved that always a similar opening and a similar crack pattern result. The embodiment described is also particularly suitable for tearing up gusseted bags starting from the upper edge of the bag, in which case the gusset is inserted between the two front walls. Before reaching the inserted gusset the different weakening lines converge.

From the US 2012/0273 493 A1 a film bag is known in which either the entire upper edge of the bag or even a corner can be demolished. For this purpose, different weakening lines or lines of weakness are provided, which can be controlled by the crack initiation of the crack profile. To rupture the entire top edge of the bag, crack initiation occurs at one of the side edges. In order to tear off only one corner against this background, crack initiation takes place either starting from the opposite side edge or from the upper edge of the bag. To select the different tear options, a considerable attention on the part of the user is necessary, whereby a malfunction can not be ruled out with certainty.

According to the DE 20 2009 000 302 U1 several lines of weakness are provided, wherein the crack initiation takes place at a middle line of weakness and the crack is then taken over by external weakening lines.

According to the CA 2 689 258 C two weakening lines run one above the other in a transverse direction of a foil bag, wherein either only a partial area or the bag in the entire width can be opened by a corresponding sealing on the upper edge of the bag. The preparation of the bag is complicated because large areas are sealed to the described To achieve functionality. Again, a misoperation can cause the foil bag is accidentally completely opened.

The EP 2 650 229 A1 as well as the CN 202 609 252 U relate to further embodiments in which a package can be successively torn further, for which purpose the corresponding weakening lines are arranged in a straight alignment parallel to each other.

From the JP H04 62672 U1 a foil bag with a two front walls having bag body is known, wherein in a first corner of the bag body formed by the two front walls side edge connects to an upper edge of the bag, where the two front walls are interconnected by a sealing seam. The front walls have two lines of weakness at the first corner, with which the foil bag can be torn open. Accordingly, two removal openings of different sizes can be formed, wherein exactly at the ends of the lines of weakness tear-off aids in the form of cuts or punched holes are provided.

The JP 2005280770 A1 discloses a foil pouch having a pouch body having two front walls, wherein at a first corner of the pouch body, a first side edge formed by the two front walls joins an upper pouch edge to which the front walls are connected by a closure seam, the front walls at the first corner or have multiple lines of weakness, which are at a distance from each other and allow the formation of different sized openings.

The WO 03/095327 A1 relates to a foil bag with a pouring spout at a corner. The spout is formed by a recess on the upper edge of the bag and deposited from the rest of the bag body to some extent, with a plurality of straight and mutually parallel lines of weakness are provided.

A foil bag with the features described above is finally from the US 8 740 458 B2 known.

At an upper edge of the bag, a tearing aid in the form of a tearing notch is provided, starting from the tearing aid, the tearing at first tearing open along the front walls before the tear reaches an arcuate line of weakness and is directed from there to a side edge of the bag body. A second line of weakness below serves as a hedge if the rip accidentally leaves the first line of weakness. If the initially unguided crack follows the line of weakness, a bend occurs along its course. Especially at such bends there is a risk of uncontrolled tearing. In order for the crack to actually follow the line of weakness, it must weaken the material accordingly. The size of the opening formed can not be influenced. The crack initially extends from the tear aid in approximately straight down and then goes over to the line of weakness, so that there are always the same dimensions of the opening in a tearing.

Against this background, the present invention has for its object to provide a foil pouch that can be torn open particularly easy and flexible.

The object of the invention and solution of the problem is a foil bag according to claim 1.

Starting from a foil pouch with the features described in the introduction, it is accordingly provided according to the invention that at least three lines of weakness are provided on each front wall and that the rupture aid is configured and arranged such that it tears at the upper edge of the pouch between each two adjacent lines of weakness and / or exactly at each line of weakness allows.

The size of the opening can be influenced to some extent by a user by at least three lines of weakness extending at a distance from each other. If only a small opening is needed, only a comparatively small corner section can be torn open. If, in contrast, a larger opening is desired, tearing is possible with the breaking aid at a weakening line arranged farther towards the center of the bag, whereby a larger corner section is correspondingly cut off. In particular, at the discretion of a user, the foil bag can also be torn open larger in hindsight.

Especially with a liquid or free-flowing product directly after tearing handling due to the bag weight is difficult. In a bulging bag small amounts are difficult to remove due to the internal pressure in a dumping. Especially at the beginning of the removal of the contents is therefore often a relatively small opening advantage.

Subsequently, the bag can then be further torn to remove the remaining contents quickly. It is important to take into account that an already partially emptied bag is easier to handle alone due to the low weight, and even with a pouring the contents itself can develop less momentum.

The generation of a different size opening may also be useful to either remove only the subsets or to be able to empty the bag as quickly as possible in one.

The foil bag according to the invention can be provided for a wide variety of products, in particular free-flowing products. These include, for example, foods such as rice, sugar, flour, cereals, pelleted pet food, a wide variety of powdery or granular construction products, detergents and cleaners, cat litter or the like.

Since tearing between adjacent lines of weakness is made possible with the tearing aid, an uncontrolled tearing is prevented. Immediately after tearing, the crack will skip over one of the two adjacent weakening lines so that the tear then passes in a predetermined course.

According to the invention, the weakening lines extend in an arc between the first side edge and the upper edge of the bag, the weakening lines expediently starting from the first corner having a convex shape.
When the bag is torn off from the upper edge using the tearing aid, the convex course of the weakening lines from the first corner corresponds to the usual pulling direction of a user, so that the tearing can be particularly easy and secure.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, it is provided that all weakening lines enclose at their end associated with the upper edge an angle of more than 60 ° with the upper edge of the bag. More preferably, the angle is more than 75 °, for example, about 90 °. Then, when the crack is first formed at the tearing aid with two hands at an approximately right angle from the upper edge of the bag, this course of the tear also corresponds to the course of the weakening lines, so that in the transfer of the thus formed tear on one of the lines of weakness no strong bending results and the tearing can be done in a light, fluid motion.

The lines of weakness formed on the two front walls are preferably arranged in a mutual overlap, depending on the design production-related deviations can be accepted. An exact or at least substantially exact coverage of the lines of weakness at the two front walls is obtained when the first side edge is formed as a folded edge and the lines of weakness are generated symmetrically with respect to this fold edge, which in the manufacture of the film bag, for example in an FFS method (Form -Fill-Seal method), is easily possible.

Preferably, between 5 and 10 at a distance from each other extending lines of weakness are provided on the front walls in order to achieve a very high degree of comfort and flexibility for the user with the lowest possible production cost. Depending on specific specifications, however, only three or four as well as more than eleven lines of weakness can be provided. Especially with large bags an increased number of lines of weakness on the two front walls may be advantageous to respect the sizes of the opening to be formed to achieve an increased level of flexibility.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention is further provided that the weakening lines are arranged at a different distance arcuately about a common reference point. For example, the lines of weakness can be embodied as circular arcs or elliptical arcs with a common center.

For example, the weakening lines can run as a quarter circles concentrically around a center offset at the first corner or also with respect to the first corner.

Preferably, the lines of weakness are arranged equidistant from each other, so that adjacent lines of weakness have an equal distance. Regardless of a precisely equidistant arrangement, the spacing of adjacent lines of weakness is preferably between 7 mm and 30 mm. If the weakening lines are arranged, for example, as circular arcs concentrically around a center point, the radius increases continuously in accordance with the distance of adjacent weakening lines.

Without limitation, the lines of weakness can be generated with a laser or by punching. In this context, the person skilled in the art is able to adapt the laser energy or the punching depth to the respective material combination and thickness.
Since the tear-in a slight tearing is possible and the arcuate course preferably also corresponds approximately to the direction of pull by a user, are already relatively light material weakening by the Lines of weakness sufficient to ensure a controlled tearing behavior.

The tearing aid on the upper edge of the bag can be formed particularly simply by a zigzag cut. As an alternative, several incisions or notches come into consideration, which are arranged at least in the region of the weakening lines on the upper edge of the bag. Of course, a zigzag cut, cuts or notches may also extend across the entire width of the film bag along the top edge of the bag in the transverse direction.

By a zigzag cut tearing between two adjacent lines of weakness is possible with a correspondingly fine configuration, in which case it is not necessary to pay attention to the exact alignment of the zigzag section with respect to the lines of weakness. In addition, if the tearing aid to allow tearing at exactly each line of weakness, it can be particularly preferably incisions or notches provided. For example, it may be sufficient if the weakening lines are not only led up to the closing seam, but are guided over the closing seam to the outermost edge of the front walls, so that they themselves form the breaking aid at their ends. When producing the weakening lines by means of laser or by means of a punching, more material can also be removed at the corresponding points to produce the tear-open aid and, if appropriate, a complete transection of the foil can take place.

Preferably, it is provided that the weakening lines extend at the upper edge of the bag starting from the first corner over a range between 10% and 45% of the bag width determined along the upper edge of the bag.

Additionally or alternatively, at the upper edge of the bag, both corners can be provided with weakening lines in the manner described, so that the described tear-open structure is present at a second corner between the upper edge of the bag and a second side edge and the film bag is optionally torn open at one of the two side edges can.

If the two front walls clearly form a front and a back side for a user due to their customary printing, the foil bag can easily be torn open by a right-handed and a left-handed person if the described weakening lines are provided at the two upper corners.

The inventive design of the film bag is particularly advantageous if the bag body is formed exclusively by the two front walls and correspondingly no gussets and preferably also has no bottom fold. Such a pillow-shaped bag can be formed particularly easily from a hose, wherein the film bag is preferably produced in an FFS process. However, the inventive design of the film bag can also be provided when the bag body of the film bag is folded from a single sheet of film or formed from two sheets of film by heat sealing.

For the front walls usual materials used for foil bags come into consideration. Preferably, the bag body is formed from a coextruded or multilayer laminated film. In order to heat-seal the film bag and in particular the sealing seam on the upper edge of the bag, an inner film layer is preferably made of a heat-sealable film Material such as polyolefin, in particular polyethylene formed. For the outer layers, laminated films often use oriented film layers such as OPET and BO-PP. In the case of a laminated film, printing is preferably arranged on an inner layer transition, so that the imprint is optimally protected.

Fig. 1

ein erfindungsgemäßer Folienbeutel vor einem Aufreißen,

Fig. 2

eine Detailansicht einer ersten Ecke des Folienbeutels gemäß der Fig. 1 unmittelbar nach einem Einreißen ausgehend von einem oberen Beutelrand,

Fig. 3

den aufgerissenen Folienbeutel gemäß der Fig. 1.

The invention will be explained in the following with reference to a drawing showing only one exemplary embodiment. Show it:

Fig. 1

an inventive foil bag before tearing,

Fig. 2

a detailed view of a first corner of the film bag according to the Fig. 1 immediately after tearing from an upper edge of the bag,

Fig. 3

the torn foil bag according to the Fig. 1 ,

The Fig. 1 shows a film bag according to the invention, the bag body is formed of two front walls 1.

The bag body formed by the two front walls has a first side edge 2a, a second side edge 2b, a lower bag edge 3 and an upper bag edge 4. The lower edge of the bag 3 and the upper edge of the bag 4 are each closed by a closing seam in the form of a heat-sealing seam.

At the side edges 2 a, 2 b, the front walls 1 merge into one another by means of bending lines, wherein a closing seam for the peripheral closure of the bag body against the rear side of the bag body visual and in the Fig. 1 invisible rear front wall 1 is preferably arranged centrally.

Alternatively, the closure seam can also be arranged on one of the side edges 2a, 2b.

In the region of a first corner 5, which is formed between the first side edge 2a and the upper edge of the bag 5, there are a plurality of lines of weakness 6, which extend from the first side edge 2a in an arc and at a distance from each other to the sealing seam on the upper edge of the bag , wherein on the closure seam a tear-in is arranged.

According to the detailed view Fig. 2 is provided as a tear a zigzag cut 7. Alternatively, multiple notches or cuts may be present as rupture aid.

According to the invention, there are at least three weakening lines 6 on each front wall, in the exemplary embodiment seven weakening lines 6, the tear-open aid being designed and arranged such that it allows tearing between respectively two adjacent weakening lines 6 at the upper edge.

With the zigzag cut 7, the upper edge of the bag can be torn by a user at almost any point (in each recess). If instead of a zigzag cut 7, for example, separate notches or cuts are present, so at least between each two adjacent weakening lines 6 such a notch or an incision provided.

When the upper bag edge 4 according to the Fig. 2 is torn between two lines of weakness 6, the tear first extends approximately at right angles downwards and can then be taken up by one of the adjacent weakening lines 6.

The weakening lines have a convex shape with respect to the first corner 5 and usually enclose an angle of more than 60 ° with the upper edge of the bag 4.

The lines of weakness 6 preferably extend at a different distance arcuately about a common reference point. For example, the weakening lines 6 can extend concentrically around a center arranged at the first corner 5 as quarter circles, an equidistant arrangement of the weakening lines 6 being achieved by a uniformly increasing radius.

The distance between adjacent weakening lines may be, for example, between 7 mm and 30 mm, for example about 15 mm.

Preferably, the lines of weakness 6 are generated by a laser, but also the formation by punching comes into consideration. If starting from the Fig. 2 the film bag is further torn, finally, a bag portion with the first corner 5 is completely separated, so that then the contents of the film bag can be removed ( Fig. 3 ).

From the Fig. 3 It can also be seen that the opening can also be increased slightly by a user by separating a further, then annular section along a further line of weakness 6.

Claims (11)

1. A film bag having a bag body, comprising two front walls (1), wherein a first lateral edge (2a) formed from at least the two front walls (1) adjoins an upper bag edge (4) at a first corner (5) of the bag body, at which upper bag edge the two front walls (2) are interconnected by a closure seam, wherein the front walls (1) each have at the first corner (5) lines of weakness (6) which run from the first lateral edge (2a) in a curve and spaced apart from one another at least up to the closure seam and wherein a tear-open aid is arranged on the closure seam, characterized in that at least three lines of weakness (6) are provided on each front wall (1) and that the tear-open aid is configured and arranged in such a manner that this enables a tearing-open, at the upper bag edge (4), between respectively two adjacent lines of weakness (6) .
2. The film bag according to claim 1, characterized in that the lines of weakness (6) have a convex shape beginning at the first corner (5).
3. The film bag according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that all the lines of weakness (6) enclose an angle, at the end thereof assigned to the upper bag edge (4), of more than 60° with the upper bag edge (4) .
4. The film bag according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the lines of weakness (6) are arranged in an arcuate shape at a different distance about a common reference point.
5. The film bag according to claim 4, characterized in that the lines of weakness (6) run as quadrants concentrically about a centre point situated at the first corner (5).
6. The film bag according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the lines of weakness (6) are arranged equidistantly.
7. The film bag according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the distance between adjacent lines of weakness (6) is between 7 mm and 30 mm.
8. The film bag according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the tear-open aid is formed from a zigzag cut (7).
9. The film bag according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the lines of weakness (6) extend on the upper bag edge, beginning at the first corner (5), over a region between 10 % and 45 % of a bag width determined along the upper bag edge (4).
10. The film bag according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the bag body comprises further lines of weakness at a second corner formed between the upper bag edge (4) and a second lateral edge (2b), which further lines of weakness have a convex shape beginning at the second corner.
11. The film bag according to one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that the bag body is formed exclusively from the front walls (1).

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