US2248038A - Package - Google Patents

Description

July 8, 1941. R T ADAMS ETAL 2,248,038

PACKAGE Original Filed Oct. 51, 1938 2 sheat s-Sheet 1 14 Inventor Ross T. AonMs MoRms RAYMER Run 5. Pom: by?

Rttomzya R. 'r. ADAMS ETAL ,038

PACKAGE Original Filed Oct. 31, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 .ITE.4-

Ross T. A DAMs Rum 5. Pout" f fiw WMM Akturmys Momma RM ER Patented July 8, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PACKAGE Ross T. Adams, Battle Creek, Morris Raymer, Augusta, and Richard S. Poole, Bedford, Mlch., assignor to Kellogg Company, Battle Creek, Mich., a corporation of Delaware ()riginal'application October 31, 1938, Serial No. 237,942. Divided and this application May 19, 1939, Serial No. 274,624

2 Claims.

bag serves as a suitable enclosure for cereal, etc.,

from which it is desired to exclude moisture.

Bags of this character are also admirably adapted to serve as the liner or sack element contained within a cardboard carton, the flaps of the latter being glued completely to enclose the liner. It is customary to fill the liner or sack while the latter is positioned within the carton and in order to facilitate the filling operation, the mouth of the liner usually projects upwardly beyond the top edge ofthe carton. After the liner has been filled with cereal or other fiuid' material, the mouth of the liner is sealed and thereafter folded and tucked within the carton so that the carton flaps can be secured together to close the package.

In accordance with the disclosure made in the application, of which this is a division, it is customary to close the mouth of theliner by bringing together the opposed surfaces which are then pressed and simultaneously heated, finally cooled while in the pressed condition whereby the liner surfaces are sealed or firmly cemented to form an air tight joint at the mouth.

It is found in operation that liners thus sealed in some cases separate at the top after the carton has been closed. While this tendency does not occur in many cases, the stress which produces it is apparently caused when the sealed surfaces of the liner are later folded and tucked flat to permit the closing and sealing of the carton. The defective scaling is found to occur occasionally when, in warm weather, there is improper or insuflicient cooling of the heated mouth of the liner and, therefore, the folding and tucking flat of the liner produces stress which, in some instances, causes the liner to become unsealed.

4 The present invention is based on the discovery that, if two sides of the liner or sack are firmly secured together in a mechanically interlocking manner, the sides are prevented from slipping, sliding or otherwise separating, or independently moving relative to each other. Thus. the opposite sides of the liner are firmly cemented together at all times and in particular during the time that the wax remains plastic, even though the wax is not thoroughly chilled by the cooling operation. This mechanical interlock permits the congealing of the adhesive regardless of subsequent manipulations of the mouth and thus insures flrm adhesion of the sealed joint.

Accordingly, the primary object of the invention is to provide a bag having a flattened mouth which is hermetically sealed. In particular, the

invention provides a wax paper liner for a carton which remains strictly sealed notwithstanding the fact that the liner is subsequently manipulated during the packaging operation. This ob-- ject is attained in brief by providing the flattened mouth of the liner with corrugationswhich mechanically interlock the opposing liner surfaces.

The improvements of the present invention-will be clearly understood by making reference to the following specification and the drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a fragmentary enlarged view, partly in section, of an embossing machine which serves to corrugate the flattened mouth of a liner and simultaneously to cool the corrugations in order to congeal the adhesive.

Figure 2 is a section taken along line 2--2 of Figure 1- and looking in the direction of the arrows.

Figure 3 is a plan view of the entire embossing mechanism, but with the embossing chains removed, and

Figure 4 is a side elevation of the mechanis shown in Figure 3.

Figure 5 is a view looking upwardly at the structure illustrated in Figure 4, showing springpressed plates for-holding the opposed faces of the embossing chains together during the cooling and embossing operation.

Figure 6 is a perspective view showing a typical carton with its-top flaps open and the general appearance of the liner after it has been embossed.

Figure 7 is an enlarged detail of a portion of the mouth of the liner showing the embossments or corrugations which provide the mechanical interlock between the liner surfaces.

The embosing machine, shown in Figures 1 to 5 inclusive, constitutes one of a number of machines through which the bag has passed. In case the bag constitutes a liner or sack positioned within the carton and containing cereal, the liner has previously been placed within the carton, filled with cereal and has had its mouth flattened and pressed together while being heated. In case the bag is not intended as a liner or sack for a carton, the bag has simply passed through a mouth-flattening and pressing stage which closes the bag. This mouth-pressing and closing operation may be performed in any suitable manner, manually or by machine. For this purpose, it is customary to present the bag or a carton containing the liner to a pair of oppositely positioned heating irons which are either manually or automatically moved toward one another so as to clamp the mouth of the bag or liner, and simultaneously to heat the same to cause the wax or other adhesive to melt or fuse and thereby secure the opposite surfaces of the liner together. This clamping effect obviously flattens the mouth of the bag or liner. The irons may be heated in any suitable manner, but we prefer to do so electrically by means of a resistance wire contained in one or both of the irons.

In case the conveying means moves the bag or the carton containing the liner at a uniform rate through'the station or stage at which the pressing. and heating is done, it may be desirable to provide mechanism by which the heated irons are maintained in their clamping position and move along with the bag or carton for a predetermined distance, depending on the character of the adhesive. A machine of this character has been shown and described in the Kellogg et a1. Patent No. 1,824,401 (Figs. 4, 19 and 20). This patent is assigned to the same assignee as the present application.

, Thus, the bag or liner reaches the embossing machine shown in Figures 1 to 5 inclusiv of this application in a .condition in which the month has alreadyjbeen flattened and the opposite surfaces have been cemented oriotherwise secured together by the simultaneous heating and pressing operation of the immediately preceding station. It is pointed out thereinbefore that, while this heating and pressing operation serves to secure the opposite surfaces of the liner together, nevertheless there is a tendency for this joint to become impaired during the subsequent manipulations of they bag or liner, for example, when the bag is being manually handled, perhaps in shipment or in use or when the liner is being folded and tucked fiat within the carton prior to securing the flaps to the carton together in order to close the package. In order to insure the permanency of the sealed joint, notwithstanding the subsequent manipulations of the bag or liner, we provide a mechanical interlock at the month which serves to increase the firmness with which the two opposing surfaces of the bag or liner are secured together.

The corrugation-forming machine consists essentially of a pair of oppositely disposed; steel chains indicated at I and shown more clearly in Figures 1 and 2. These chains are suitably cooled as hereinafter described and, therefore, perform the double function of cooling and embossing the liner as indicated in Figures 6 and 7 so as simultaneously to effect a double sealing of the liner 2 (Figure 6) by cooling the wax and creating a mechanically interlocking alteration of the wax-coated or other similar material.

, This mechanical lock serves to hold the parts mechanical. alteration and the joint does not slide apart or open during the subsequent cooling or setting of the wax.

The cooling chains I are supported by a frameplate 3 by means of the shafts 4 and sprockets 5. The shafts 4 are geared together above the plate by the gears 6, I and are operated through the bevel gear 8 mounted on one of the shafts 4.,

The tension of the cooling chains I is maintained by mounting a pair of adjacent shafts 4 on slidable supports 9, the position of which is adjusted by the adjusting screws l0, so as separately to maintain both chains in proper tension.

Means are provided for pressing the inner faces of the chains I together and at the same time cooling the same. The pressing mechanism which is illustrated in detail in Figures 1 and 5 consists of two plates ll, one of which has two bolts l2 slidably mounted in brackets I3 fixed to the plate 3. The other of the two plates is rigidly secured to the frame. Coil springs l4 surround the bolts l2 and serve to press one of the plates ll toward the other. The plates II are chilled in any suitable manner, preferably through the main supply pipe I5 connected to a cross pipe l6 which feeds two longitudinal pipes l1, each located behind one of the presser plates ll. Each of the pipes I! is provided along its side, facing toward the adjacent plate H with vent holes 18, shown best in Figure 4. These vents deliver a constant blast of refrigerated air against the plates H which may be either solid or perforated to permit some of the blast to pass through to the chains. It is preferred to employ imperforate plates as their chili is transmitted adequately through the chains to the heated or pressed liner. However, by forming an opening in each of the cooling plates H, as indicated at 19, the blasts of refrigerated air may be permitted to pass through the presser plates II and to contact directly the embossing chains or other mechanism and the wax paper or other liner material to be cooled.

.By means of the improved mechanism, the waxed bag or liner, after its top portion has been folded, heated and pressed together, is subjected to a further three-fold operation consisting in maintaining the pressure and simultaneously riveting, embossing or mechanically locking the opposite faces together during the cooling operation so as to hold them in place, even though the cooling continues after theliner has passed out of contact with the cooling chains.

By reference particularly to Figure 2 and, as shown in dotted lines on Figure l, the embossing or riveting of the wax-like material is effected preferably by having the various links of chains l mutually overlap each other so that projecting portion of one chain fits into a receiving portion in the space between two links on the opposite chain. Thus, the mutual'overlapping or staggering of the oppositely disposed links causes the paper or other material to be crimped, as. shown in Figure 6. While the rectangular crimping in Figure 6 is preferred, it is merely indicative and it is obvious that crimping in any other design so that theopposing surfaces of the mouth of theliner are interlocked, riveted together or embossed, would be as effective.

In view of the fact that the operation and discovery which is carried out by this mechanism can be adequately performed manually or mechanically by the use of chilled vises or clamps, which would press, emboss or chill the heated bag or liner with any design on said face or vise, it is thought proper to present claims in this divisional application on the bag or liner, per se, which has been subjected to the above described operation, regardless of whether the latter has been mechanically or manually performed.

It is apparent that our present invention, when stated in broad and general terms, relates to a bag either contained within a carton or used separately from a carton and in which the opposing surfaces of the mouth are provided with an interlocked or riveted joint so as to form an inseparable and air-tight seal, While we have described the use of the interlocking corrugations in connection with bags made of wax paper and in which the wax is first heated, it is obvious that the interlocking or riveting feature may be employed in connection with bags or liners which are not coated with wax or other adhesive. In other words, the present invention is not inextricably related to the operations which take place prior to the embossing station and, if desired, the bag or liner may be presented directly to the embossing machine. However, we had found that the embossments or corrugations introduced by the chains I are particularly useful in connection with a wax paper bag or liner, and in which .the mouth of the liner had been previously flattened and heated and then presented to the embossing machine.

It will be understood that we desire to comprehend within our invention such modifications as come within the scope of the claims and the invention.

Having thus fully described our invention,

what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A new article oi. manufacture comprising a container bag having wax-like surfaces, said ba having the mouth walls contacting and interlocked by horizontal rows of spaced indentations, the indentations of adjacent rows being arranged alternately and in staggered relation with respect to each other, said indentations being of similar transversely elongated rectangular configuration having substantially flat bottom surfaces and the dimension of each identation along one direction of the mouth walls being such that every portion of the mouth walls having contacting surfaces in that direction is indented.

2. A new article of manufacture comprising a container bag having wax-like surfaces, said bag having the mouth walls contacting and interlocked by horizontal rows of spaced indentations, the indentations of adjacent rows being arranged alternately and in staggered relation with respect to each other, said indentations being of similar transversely elongated rectangular, configuration having substantially flat bottom surfaces and the dimensions of each indentation in vertical and transverse directions of such surfaces being such that every portion of the mouth Walls having contacting surfaces in the vertical and transverse directions is indented.

ROSS T. ADAMS. MORRIS RAYMER. RICHARD Sf POOLE.

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