MXPA99009070A - Adhesive strip products exhibitor - Google Patents

Abstract

A carrier for products is described which is made from an adhesive tape. The tape includes a backing layer, an adhesive coated across substantially the entire width of the second side of the backing layer. The adhesive is exposed by discrete lengths to create a series of adhesive portions and non-adhesive portions alternating in the longitudinal direction of the tape. Information can be printed on at least one of the non-adhesive portions of the tape. The tape can be formed into a block or pad having a plurality of tape lengths or on a roll. The tape can be perforated to create segments which can be removed from the rest of the tape.

Description

FIELD ADHESIVE PRODUCT EXHIBITOR TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention is concerned with product displays. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with exhibitors of products that use adhesive.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is common practice in the retail market, especially in grocery stores, materials and medicines, to display small items of goods for sale. One way to highlight and exhibit small products in a conventional retail environment is with a device known in the industry as "fastener strips". Conventional fastener strips are commonly metal rods with clamps or fasteners attached thereto or plastic strips with a series of cuts or hooks designed to provide the joining of the product to be displayed. Conventional fastener strips have numerous disadvantages. The products to be mounted on the fastener strips must have a structure compatible with the fastening strip. If the fastener strip uses hooks, the product must have a cut or hole to hang on the hook. Frequently these portions of the package or packaging REF .: 31343 of the product can tear, preventing the product from being displayed and sold. If the fastener strip uses a fastener, the product must have a thin portion that can be received and retained within the fastener. There is little space in the known fastener strips for advertising or advertising material and it is very difficult to reload the fastener strips with products before their display on the retail site (point of purchase). Other mechanical systems can secure or exhibit small items in the retail environment. J-shaped hooks and similar hook mechanisms are hooks that protrude from a base. Then the items are individually attached to the "J-type" hooks for display. These hooks present a safety risk to the consumer as a result of not being of low profile; They can damage the client's eyes and slip and damage the clothes. Two patents discussing low profile display strips and comparing them to conventional J-hooks are US Pat. Nos. 4,546,943 and 4,497,464. An example of a patent describing a hook-type mechanism is U.S. Patent No. 4,367,819. Many patents describe plastic strips cut into various fastener geometries as an improvement over the metal type strips. Some examples are U.S. Patent Nos. 5,096,070 and 5,103,970. U.S. Patent No. 5,199,578 discusses the composition of a plastic fastener strip. U.S. Patent Nos. 5,199,578, 5,553,721 and 5,103,970 describe preloading the product onto a plastic fastener strip before the product is shipped to a retail store. It is argued that this is a more economical way to display the product on the retail shelves due mainly to time and cost savings. The application of graphic content to a carrier attached to a fastener strip for advertising or identification of the product is described in U.S. Patent Nos. 4,573,590 and 5,683,003. The Netherlands patent specification NL 7311082A, entitled "Support Card for an Object", describes a pressure sensitive adhesive for attaching an object to a support card for display and sale. A doubly coated tape with a liner or inner liner is attached to the support card. When the card is going to be loaded with the product, the inner lining or liner is separated to expose the adhesive and receive the product.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention consists of a carrier for products that is made of an adhesive tape. The tape includes a reinforcing or elongated support layer having a first side and a second side and having a longer longitudinal direction and a relatively shorter transverse direction. The adhesive is coated through substantially the entire width of the second side of the support layer. The adhesive is exposed by discrete lengths to create a series of adhesive portions and non-adhesive portions alternating in the longitudinal direction of the tape. The non-adhesive portion may functionally have no adhesive or the adhesive may be coated along the entire length of the elongated support layer and become non-stick in portions to create the non-adhesive portions. The non-adhesion can be effected by a non-adhesive layer coated on the second side of the elongated support layer over discrete lengths of the adhesive to create the non-adhesive portions. The detachment layer may consist of ink. Information can be printed on at least one of the non-adhesive portions of the tape. The tape can be formed into a block or pad having a plurality of tape lengths. Alternatively, the tape can be formed into a roll. The tape can be prated to create segments and to allow to separate at least one segment from the rest of the tape. A device such as a hook or hole can be used to mount the carrier on a structure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a cross-sectional view of the adhesive exhibiting strip of the present invention showing a length of the exhibiting strip. Figure 2 is a top view of the display strip of Figure 1. Figure 3 is a top view of another embodiment of the display strip.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention consists of a new commercial strip format that does not use any mechanical connection to secure the product to the display strip. The commercial adhesive adhesive strip 10 is shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3 and utilizes adhesive tape such as a pressure sensitive adhesive tape. The dimensions in the figures are not drawn to scale and the relative lengths, widths and thicknesses of the various components of the display strip 10 can be varied. The display strip 10 includes a support layer 12 having a first side 14 and a second side 16. A release liner 18, such as a low adhesion sizing layer (LAB), can be applied to the first side 14 of the support layer 12. An adhesive 20 is applied to the second side 16 of the support layer 12. The adhesive can be applied to the support layer 12 in any known manner such as by coating. The adhesive 20 is used to secure products that are attached to the tape marketing strip 10. The support layer 12 may be of any known material used for the support layers for a particular tape. The support layer could be for example of cloth, paper, metal foil or plastic film. Suitable plastic film supports include polypropylene, polyethylene, polypropylene and polyethylene copolymers, polyesters and vinyl acetates. The polypropylene can be a molded film, monoaxially oriented polypropylene (MOPP), biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP), biaxially oriented polypropylene sequentially and simultaneously (SBOPP). The support material may consist of a single layer or of multiple layers, combinable, degradable, colored, printable, printed, and may be of different surface textures or embeddable or extensible. Also, the support layer can be applied by flame treatment, corona treatment, acid attack, hardening and combination thereof. The adhesive 20 can be virtually any adhesive including repositionable, pressure sensitive or more aggressive, permanent adhesives. The adhesive may include hot-melt-recoverable, transfer-recoverable, heat-activated, water-activated, layered / aßl solvent-laden, transfer compositions. and activated by radiation. The adhesives useful in accordance with the present invention include all pressure sensitive adhesives. Pressure sensitive adhesives are normally adherent at room temperatures and can be adhered to a surface by applying light finger pressure. Examples of adhesives useful in the invention include those based on general polyacrylate compositions; polyvinyl ether; rubber containing diene such as natural rubber, polyisoprene and polyisobutylene; polychloroprene; butyl rubber; butadiene-acrylonitrile polymer; thermoplastic elastomers; block copolymers such as styrene-isoprene-styrene-isoprene-styrene (SIS) block copolymers, ethylene-propylene-diene polymers and styrene-butadiene polymers; poly-alpha-olefin; amorphous polyolefin: silicone, ethylene-containing copolymers such as ethylene vinyl acetate, ethyl acrylate and ethyl methacrylate; polyurethane; polyamide; epoxy; polyvinylpyrrolidone and vinylpyrrolidone copolymers; polyesters and mixtures or combinations (continuous or discontinuous phases) of the above. Additionally, the adhesives may contain additives such as plasticizers, fillers, antioxidants, stabilizers, pigments, diffusion materials, curing agents, fibers, filaments, and solvents. A general description of useful pressure sensitive adhesives can be found in Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering, Vol. 13, ile and Interscience Publishers (New York, 1988). An additional description of useful pressure sensitive adhesives can be found in Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Technology, Vol. 1, Interscience Publishers (New York, 1964). Any known release coating 18 can be used as the LAB layer. Suitable coating and release materials include silicones, fluorochemicals and alkyl constituents as the release imparting component and combinations thereof. Numerous other layers can be added to the tape such as primers or sizing to increase the adhesion of the adhesive layer to the backing layer. The tape may also contain a wide variety of additives such as deodorants, perfumes, antistatic materials and imaging materials and indicators. The adhesive 20 on the display strip 10 is not functional along the entire length of the tape. Adhesive 20 operates only along discrete lengths (in the lengthwise direction of the machine or longitudinal of the belt), as shown in Figure 1, to create adhesive portions 22 and alternating non-adhesive portions 24 of the belt. This can be done in different ways. The adhesive 20 can be applied to the entire second side 16 of the tape and discrete portions (the non-adhesive portions) 24 can be coated on the adhesive 20 or become non-adherent in another way. Alternatively, the adhesive 20 may be applied in discrete lengths to create alternating adhesive and non-adhesive portions of the tape. Optionally, information about the tape can be printed using any known method. The information can be printed on either one of the first or second sides 14, 16. As shown in Figure 1, the information consists of the ink 26 printed on the adhesive surface 20 to create non-adhesive portions 24 on the display strip 10. Printing ink 26 provides two functions in the ink display strip 10. This provides graphic content (and everything that is desired to be printed) and as discussed above, adhesive 20 can be rendered adhesive if applied over the second side 16 of the support layer 12, to create the non-adhesive portions 24 on the display strip 10. This creates an exhibiting strip 10 of the product with alternating zones of "adherent" adhesives (the adhesive portions 22) to which the The composite product is bonded in "non-sticky" zones (the non-adhesive portions 24) where the printing ink exhibits information. The adhesive strip exhibiting merchandising products can be supplied in block or roll format. In a block form, any adhesive portion 22 and non-adhesive portions 24 can be used. For example, blocks of 25-100 strips could be used. Any length of ribbon roll can be formed in a roll format. The product display strip can be used when mounting it on a shelf or other structure. In one embodiment, a block form or pad of the display strip 10 could have adhesive mounted on the first side 14 of the support layer 12 on the lowermost layer of the block. Alternatively, a double-sided adhesive tape could be mounted on the lower layer. Then the adhesive can be used to adhere the block to a structure. In another embodiment, an exhibit strip 10, either in block or roll format, could be mounted by hanging it on a hook or other projection. As shown in Figure 2, the upper end of the display strip 10 can have a conventional hanging tab 30 having an attached hook or hole 32. Alternatively, a directly formed hole or hook can be present in the display strip 10 as it shows it in figure 3. A plurality of punched or cut holes 34 (either cut or completely punched for its subsequent punching) can be formed on the strip 10. This allows strips of any length to be removed from the roll and mounted to their use when combined with perforations 36 as described hereinafter. The product display strip 10 has numerous advantages with respect to the known fastener strips. The products to be displayed do not require any special packaging. For example, the products do not need provisions to hang them on hooks. Because the products / goods can be joined via the adhesive 20, as opposed to a mechanical complement, the product indicating strip 10 does not require any special packaging consideration. There is no need for any hole cut receiver, hooks, or similar features. The only requirement of the product is that it has a relatively flat surface to be attached to the strip to allow good contact with the exposed adhesive surface. Also, strip 10 has a mounting system low profile which is safer to consumers. The displayed strip of products includes areas (non-adhesive portions 24) that can have graphic information. This adds advertising value and brand recognition and name. The vast majority of fastener strips on the market do not allow the propaganda of the manufacturer's products. The product display strip 10 may use printing to provide a strip of tape having a repetitive configuration of the desired graphics of the customer (the manufacturer or vendors of products of another entity). The product display strip 10 can be purchased by manufacturers who pre-load and pack products mounted on the strip. This improves most of the fastener strips that are loaded at the point of purchase to result in inefficiencies (labor cost associated with filling the fastener strips) for the vendor and the manufacturer. Because the product display strips 10 are manufactured from a flexible tape, the products can be pre-loaded and added in a more compact configuration for packaging. This reduces the amount of packaging materials required and reduces labor costs by eliminating the load of the product or the display strip at the point of purchase.

The display strip 10 of products can be supplied in various roll or block formats. This makes it more versatile and convenient when compared to current plastic strips or metal rod fasteners. In addition, particularly if the display strip 10 is placed in a roll format, it can be perforated as shown in Figure 3. The perforations 36 can be formed either transversely to the adhesive portions 22 or the non-adhesive portions 24. The perforations allow that the end user vary the length of the display strip 10 based on his needs by the number of products to be displayed. For this purpose, the perforations can be located anywhere. In this modality, as in the non-perforated modalities, the products can be removed from the strip 10 exhibiting products to buy them. This is similar to commercially available fastener strips. However, this embodiment also allows the product to be removed from the product strip 10 by tearing the strip in the exposed perforation 36 to remove the product with a portion of the strip still attached to the product. (For this use, it is preferable that the perforations 36 extend through the non-adhesive portions 24 as shown in Figure 3). This would eliminate the need to have an empty or partially empty merchandise display strip 10 attached to the retail shelf. It also eliminates the problem that the adhesive 20 pulls something from the product package or packaging when more aggressive adhesives are used. Various changes and modifications can be made to the invention without deviating from the scope or spirit of the invention. All the materials cited are incorporated in this description by reference. It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known by the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention, is the conventional one for the manufacture of the objects to which it relates.

Claims (7)

2. Having described the invention as above, the content of the following claims is claimed as property: 1. A carrier for products, characterized in that it comprises a tape, wherein the tape comprises a support layer having a first side and a second side and having a longer longitudinal direction and a relatively shorter and adhesive transverse direction coated through at least part of the entire width of the second side "of the support layer and exposed by discrete lengths to create a series of adhesive and non-adhesive portions alternating in the longitudinal direction of the tape 2. The carrier according to claim 1, characterized in that the non-adhesive portion does not have any adhesive functional
3. 3. The carrier according to the claim 1, characterized in that the adhesive is coated along the entire length of the elongated support layer and further comprises a disintegrating layer coated on the second side of the elongated support layer over discrete lengths of the adhesive to create the non-adhesive portions. The carrier according to claim 3, characterized in that the disintegrating layer comprises ink. The carrier according to any of claims 1 and 3, characterized in that the tape is formed into one of: a pad or block comprising a plurality of tape lengths and a roll. The carrier according to any of claims 1 and 3, characterized in that the tape is perforated to create segments and to allow the removal of at least one segment from the rest of the tape. The carrier according to any of claims 1 and 3, characterized in that it further comprises at least one of: a release layer formed on the first side of the support layer and means for mounting the carrier on a support structure and printed information on at least one of the non-adhesive portions of the tape.