MXPA01000092A - Bag comprising slide-actuated closing profiles - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a bag (10) which comprises additional closing profiles (20, 30) which are respectively actuated by a slide during opening and closing (40). The invention is characterised in that said bag includes a wall portion which forms a veil (12) which can be broken and which is designed in such a way that it covers the slide (40) before the bag is used.

Description

BAG THAT HAS CLOSURE STRAPS OPERATED BY A SLIDING PIECE DESCRIPTIVE MEMORY The present invention relates to the field of bags having complementary closing straps operated both for opening and closing a bag by means of a sliding piece. Said bags are described, for example, in EP-A-0 051 010, EP-A-0 102 301 and EP-A-0 479 661. Said bags that are opened and closed by means of a sliding part have already offered a good service. The sliding pieces make it easier to open and close the bags. The presence of a sliding piece is particularly appreciated by the elderly or those who suffer from a visual disability. However, despite its advantages, bags with sliding parts are not as common as would be expected. The object of the present invention is to improve this field. This objective is achieved in the context of the present invention by means of a bag that includes complementary closing straps operated both for opening and closing by means of a sliding piece, said bag being characterized by the fact that it includes a part of the wall of the bag forming a membrane, which is adapted to break and which is designed to cover the sliding piece before the bag is used. As will be understood from reading the following description, the present invention thus utilizes a simple means to prevent access to the sliding piece while the protective membrane is in place. This avoids any manipulation, whether accidental, innocent or for criminal purposes, particularly on the shelves of department stores. Other features, objectives and advantages of the present invention will emerge upon reading the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawing, which is provided by way of example and not as a limitation, and in which: Figure 1 is a sectional view through a bag of the invention during a phase of fastening part of the closure straps to the walls of the bag; Figure 2 is a sectional view through the same bag, after it has been opened; and Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 1 showing a bag constituting a different embodiment of the present invention. Figure 1 shows a bag 10 made of two parallel walls 12, 14 defining a mouth 16 of the bag. The general structure of said bag can be made with numerous arrangements known to those skilled in the art.

Thus, for example, the two walls 12, 14 of the bag can be made of a common sheet folded in half to thereby form two generally parallel sheets corresponding to the walls 12, 14 that are joined on three sides of its periphery, for example with some adhesive or thermally sealed. Under such circumstances, the mouth 16, which preferably corresponds to an area in which the two walls 12, 14 are adhesively bonded or thermally sealed, can be parallel and opposite to the fold of the sheet, or they can be perpendicular to said fold ( in which case the bottom 19 of the bag is also made by sticking or thermally sealing the two sheets 12, 14 as shown without limit in Figure 1). In a variant, the two walls 12, 14 can be made from two originally separate sheets which are generally parallel to each other and which are joined on four sides of their periphery, for example by some adhesive or by thermally sealing them, as mentioned above. The bags of the present invention are provided with complementary closing straps 20, 30 which are actuated by means of a sliding piece 40. These means can be modified in numerous known ways. Thus, for example, the complementary closure straps 20, 30 may be respectively made of male / female-type structures or may be made of structures containing complementary hooks. _____ Those skilled in the art know different ways for complementary closure straps as described in writings on the subject and / or how they are sold today. That is why the shape of the closing straps 20, 30 is not described in detail later. The same applies to the sliding piece 40. It can also be modified in numerous different ways. In particular, the sliding piece 40 can comply with the arrangements described in EP-A-0 479 661. That is why the sliding piece 40 is not described in detail later. However, it should be noted that the sliding piece 40 is preferably made of plastic material and comprises two side wings interconnected by means of a base and together with an elongated central tab to define two converging passages for the complementary closing straps 20, 30, engageable each. In this way, when the direction of travel of the sliding piece 40 relative to the closing strap 20, 30 tends to move the sliding piece 40 to force the closing straps 20, 30 to engage, the bag closes . When the sliding piece 40 moves in the opposite direction, the bag opens. The film (s) constituting the walls 12, 14 of the bag can be modified in numerous ways; the film is preferably made of a plastic material, most preferably of polyolefin, for convenience, of low or high density polyethylene or __________________ Polypropylene. However, the invention is not limited to these particular materials. The invention also applies to bags made of mixed material, for example a sheet made with paper covered with plastic or metal, etc. The complementary straps 20, 30 are located on the respective support membranes 22, 32 attached to the walls of the bag as described below. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 attached, one of the supporting membranes 22 is fastened to the inner surface 13 of a wall 12 at a distance from the thermal seal line 17 defining the mouth 16. In FIG. generally refers to the connection area between the support membrane 22 and the wall 12 with the number 24. This connection zone can be defined by adhesive bonding or thermal sealing of the inner surface 13 of the wall 12 and the support membrane 22. When convenient, as is known to those skilled in the art, this connection zone 24 can be defined, for example, by means of heat sealing rods that are integrally molded onto the support membrane 22 and / or the wall 12. The second support membrane 32 in the embodiment shown in Figure 1 is in the middle of two walls 12, 14 in the mouth 16, and is attached to those in the connection 17. More precisely, a connection 17a is defined between a first face of the support membrane 32 and the wall 12, and a second connection 17b is defined between the second face of the support membrane 32 and the second wall 14. It can be seen, and this constitutes an important advantage of the invention, that the The connection defined in this way between the support membrane 32 and the walls 12, 14 can be implemented using conventional thermal sealing forks of the type commonly used to close a bag in its mouth by connecting the walls 12 and 14 of the bag directly in the form conventional. Said heat sealing forks are represented by numeral 100 and 110 in Fig. 1. The person skilled in the art will readily understand that the wall portion 12 located between the connections 24 and 17a originally covers the sliding piece 40 to prevent direct access to the same. the same. However, once this portion of the wall 12 has been broken, the user has free access in the conventional manner to the sliding piece 40 for both opening and closing the bag by separating or holding together the straps 20, 30. With this purpose, the aforementioned portion of the wall 12 may possess a line of weakness 11 extending parallel to the connections 24, 17a to make it easier to open this portion of the wall. In addition, as shown in diagrammatic form in Figure 1, it is preferable that the length L1 of the aforementioned portion of the wall 12 located between the connection areas 24 and 17a, ie the distance L1 between the connection areas 24 and 17a when the portion of the wall 12 between them is under tension, is less than the sum of the corresponding lengths L2 and L3 of the support membranes 22 and 32 located between the connection zones 24 and 17a. The person skilled in the art will understand that complying with this geometrical condition facilitates access to the sliding piece 40 and to the belts 20, 30 through the opening 1 formed in the portion of the wall 12 located between the connection areas 24 and 17a after that wall portion has been broken. This access is shown in the form of a diagram in figure 2. The bags shown in figure 1 are preferably made in a forming, filling and sealing machine, type FFS, that is to say a machine for automatically carrying out the operations of forming bags, fill them and close them. The general structure of said conventional machines is not described in detail below. However, it is recalled that the FFS machines generally contain a formation collar that receives the film in a flat state from a reel as input., and that removes the film in the form of a tube, a filling ramp that opens in the forming collar and consequently in the mentioned tube, the means for supplying the closing straps and for fastening them to the film, a sealing means longitudinal thermal to close the tubes longitudinally, and a suitable means to operate sequentially and in this way generate a first transverse thermal seal line before the content is inserted into the tube through the filling ramp, and then a second line Thermal seal transverse once the contents have been inserted into the tube, to close a package around the contents. In this context of an FFS machine, in the present invention, the support membranes 22, 32 containing the closing belts 20, 30 and the sliding piece 40 are preferably carried to the film transversely to its direction of travel and upwards from the neck of formation. More precisely, in this embodiment, the support membrane 22 is fastened to the film 12 in the connection zone 24 using a suitable means, and in particular heat sealing forks, upwards from the forming collar, while the The second support membrane 32 is fastened to the walls 12 and 14 in the connection area 17 by means of the thermal sealing forks 100, 110 when the second transverse thermal sealing line mentioned above is made. However, the invention is not limited to having the support membranes 22, 32 disposed transversely to the direction in which the film advances. The invention can also be applied to supply the supporting membranes 22, 32 together with the closing straps 20, 30 and the sliding piece 40 longitudinally, ie parallel to the direction in which the aforementioned film advances. Under such circumstances, the support membranes 22, 32 are fastened to the walls 12, 14 not by means of transverse heat sealing forks, but by means of longitudinal forks, that is to say, forks located parallel to the direction of the forming neck, for example, the conventional forks used to longitudinally close the tube obtained at the outlet of the forming collar. It can be seen that in case the support membranes 22, 32 are placed longitudinally, the two connection areas 17, 24 can be made simultaneously and not successively as described above when they were placed transverse and respectively up and down the neck of the neck. training. Figure 3 shows a different embodiment in which one of the support membranes (in this case, reference is made to it with the number 32 and located adjacent the mouth 16) is made of two segments 32a, 32b, with one of the segments 32a located adjacent the mouth 16 and fastened to the walls 12, 14 in the areas 17a, 17b as described above, while the other segment 32b is located adjacent the belt 30, and with the segments 32a, 32b forming a dihedral angle whose concave side is directed towards the outside, ie towards the wall 12. Under such circumstances, the two segments 32a, 32b can be formed by elements originally separated and which are connected to each other by means of an adhesive or by thermal sealing at the edge 33 of the aforementioned dihedral angle or it may be formed by a single element that is bent at an acute angle at said edge 33. Those skilled in the art may also understand that when using a portion In order to cover the sliding part originally, it is possible to solve in a simple way the problems related to the sealing that are generally given in the bags that have closing belts driven by a sliding piece. Naturally, to ensure that the bags are sealed sufficiently after the wall 12 has been broken, and after the sliding piece 40 has been tampered with, that is, after the bag has been opened, the support membranes 22, 32 and / or closure belts 20, 30 and / or the sliding part can be provided with numerous sealing devices, and in particular those defined by the applicant in the French patent applications FR 98/16236 , FR 98/13732, FR 98/13734, and FR 98/05681. Of course, to ensure that the bag is sealed, it is necessary that the ends of the support membranes 22, 32 extending transversely to the connection areas 24, 17, are also interleaved between the lateral ends of the walls 12, 14 and hold on to them. Of course, the present invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described above, but covers any variant within the scope of the invention. _______________

Claims (11)

NOVELTY OF THE INVENTION CLAIMS

1. - A bag (10) that includes complementary closure straps (20, 30) actuated both to open and close the bag by means of a sliding piece (40) characterizing the bag by the fact that it includes a portion of the wall of the bag forming a membrane (12) that is adapted to break and that is designed to cover the sliding piece (40) before the bag is used.

2. A bag according to claim 1, further characterized by the fact that the closure straps (20, 30) are in the respective support membranes (22, 32), one of which is subject to the inner surface of a wall (12) of the bag at a distance from the mouth (16) and another of which is attached to at least one of the walls (12, 14) of the bag in the mouth.

3. A bag according to claim 2, further characterized in that the second support membrane (32) is in the mouth (16), sandwiched between the two walls (12, 14) of the mouth and It is subject to each of them in the mouth.

4. A bag according to claim 2 or 3, further characterized in that the second support membrane (32) is made of two segments (32a, 32b) one segment adjacent to the mouth and the other adjacent to the the strap (30), the segments forming a dihedral angle whose concave side is directed towards the outside of the bag, ie towards the rupturable membrane and which originally covers the sliding piece (40).

5. A bag according to any of claims 1 to 4, further characterized by the fact that the length (L1) of the protective membrane (12) that can break and covers the sliding piece (40), as shown in FIG. measured between the two connection zones (24, 17) for the membranes (22, 32) containing the closure strap (20, 30) is smaller than the sum of the lengths (L2 + L3) of said support membranes ( 22, 32) located between the connection areas (24, 17).

6. A bag according to any of claims 1 to 5, further characterized by the fact that the breakable membrane (12) covering the sliding piece (40) is provided with a line of weakness (11).

7. A bag according to any of claims 1 to 6, further characterized by the fact that it is made in a machine type FFS.

8. A bag according to claim 7, further characterized in that the closing straps (20, 30) are provided transversely in the direction of the path of the film forming the bag.

9. - A bag according to claim 8, further characterized in that the connections between the two support membranes (22, 32) for the closure belts (20, 30) and the film (12, 14) forming the bag (10) are respectively made one upwards from the forming neck of the FFS machine, and the other one downwards from the same formation neck.

10. A bag according to claim 7, further characterized in that the closing belts (20, 30) are supplied longitudinally, ie parallel to the forming neck of the FFS machine, and in the direction of trajectory. of the film that forms the bag.

11. A bag according to any of claims 1 to 10, further characterized by the fact that the membrane (12) that originally covers the sliding piece (40) is formed by a portion of one of the walls (12) of the bag (10), while the closure straps (20, 30) are placed on support membranes (22, 32) that are attached to the walls of the bag.