WO2005102863A1

WO2005102863A1 - An improved sachet pouch

Info

Publication number: WO2005102863A1
Application number: PCT/IN2004/000260
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ashok Chaturvedi
Original assignee: Ashok Chaturvedi
Priority date: 2004-04-21
Filing date: 2004-08-24
Publication date: 2005-11-03

Abstract

The present invention provides for an improved sachet pouch (1) in that a metallized gusset (2) is provided either on one or both the sides of the sachet pouch (1) with a scoring line (3) in the form of a laser cut (3). This laser cut scoring line (3) is provided up to the metalized layer (8) to maintain the barrier property of the pouch (1). The ends of the sachet pouch (1) with the additional gusset (2) terminate in flaps (4) that facilitate an easy gripping of the sachet pouch (1) for the tearing action. The provision of the scoring line (3) makes the opening of the pouch (1) convenient as the pulling apart motion tears the gusset (2) open along the laser cut scoring line (3).

Description

TITLE OF THE INVENTION An Improved Sachet Pouch FIELD OF INVENTION: The invention relates to an improved sachet pouch and more particularly to a sachet pouch that can be easily opened without damaging the sachet pouch or spilling the contents thereof. BACKGROUND OF INVENTION: Films or sheets of polymeric barrier materials are formed into a finished package such as a pouch by various techniques. For instance, by forming heat or adhesive seals about the periphery of the shape to be formed into a pouch. For example, if a square pouch is desired, a rectangular film twice the desired length of the pouch is folded, the two parallel sides of the periphery (perpendicular to the fold) heat or adhesive sealed, or the parallel sides and the fold are heat or adhesive sealed, the food or other material to be packaged inserted wit-hin, and then the remaining open side of the periphery is heat or adhesive sealed. Another method of making such a pouch is sealing on three sides face to face films, filling the thus formed open pouch with food or whatever material is to be packaged therein, and then sealing the fourth side. For background on pouches or bags and their production, reference is made to US Pat Nos. 4190477, 4311742, 4360550, 4424256 and 4557377, each of which being hereby incorporated by reference. The problem encountered by the end user of the food or material within the pouch is how to open the pouch. The pouches are usually formed from tough or strong polymeric barrier materials so the pouches do not open easily. One method of opening such pouches is to manually rip at the pouch, which usually results in the contents spilling all about. Another method is simply cutting open the pouch with a scissor, knife or other sharp objects. It is desirable to be able to neatly open a pouch without the need to use a cutting instrument. Furthermore, the problem of how to open a pouch is actually two-fold: the first problem is how to initiate the opening. The second problem is provicling control of the opening across the entire pouch. A variety of sachet pouches are available in the market for different products like ketchup, shaving gel, shampoo, cold cream, mouth freshener, medical equipment etc. These sachet pouches have a common drawback of difficulty in opening, even if the place for tear is marked. A common type of sachet pouch with a tear line marked is as shown in figure 1. The packaging materials employed for these packages are generally made of composite materials, which have an object of hermetically shielding the product and especially of preventing the permeation of vapor and gases. However, these characteristics also result in a higher strength of the packaging material so that these composite materials are very difficult to tear and can only be torn under exertion of a relatively high force. Thus cutting tools such as scissors, knives or cutters, which are often disadvantageously not present on the spot, are often necessary for opening these packages. Notches, grooves or serrations as shown in figure 2 can reduce the above-mentioned difficulty but cannot satisfactorily eliminate them. Usually a weakened line or a scoring line accompanies such markings on the sachet pouch. It has been found that it is very difficult and inconvenient to open such sachet pouches. The sachet pouches tend to get damaged and often result in tearing open the entire sachet pouch. This also results in the contents of the sachet pouch spilling over. For example: opening a conventional sachet pouch with ketchup or cream in it often results in getting ketchup or cream on one's hands. There are numerous sachets available with grooves or notches. US

6309104 describes a tear open package for rapid access to a packaged product with at least one sealed seam with a weakening in the form of a notch or groove as a tearing aid, whereby the weakening has an additional gripping and opening aid in the form of at least one punch out, aperture, embodied next to the weakening, is characterized in that a rim of the punch out has an at least partially serrated contour. However, the sachet as described allows for a waste of sachet area in providing punch-outs, and though the sachet provides for convenient gripping it does not prevent excessive tearing of the bag and spillage of contents. Another solution to the above problems is addressed by US publication 2003/0174909 wherein a detachable strip is provided on the sachet. However the strip cannot be said to have barrier properties and does not provide for easy and convenient gripping. Furthermore, the aforementioned solutions present manufacturing problems and complications. For instance, the problem of properly locating the notch, cut pattern or tear line in a position where the consumer desires to open the package. If not properly positioned, the resulting package can be worse than if no such notch, cut pattern or tear line had been provided. The consumer must still resort to some sharp object to open the package, but it is weakened at some point due to the mispositioned notch, cut pattern or tear line. Further, it has been observed that it is extremely difficult to grip and tear a conventional sachet pouch with wet hands, for instance, in the shower. WO 94/28837 describes a different solution for this problem in which the ^• fingers are prevented from slipping off by creating a coarse surface in the opening area of the package. For this however, it is necessary to incorporate additional foreign materials, which on the one hand lead to increased costs and on the other hand makes the recycling of the package more difficult or even impossible. Thus, heretofore, a package, preferably a pouch having a multilayer structure having an easy open tear feature that can be easily gripped has not been disclosed or suggested. To overcome these problems, the present invention provides for an improved sachet pouch in that a metallized gusset is provided either on one or both the sides of the sachet pouch with a scoring line in the form of a laser cut. This laser cut scoring line is provided up to the metalized layer to maintain the barrier property of the pouch. The ends of the sachet pouch with the additional gusset terminate in flaps that facilitate an easy gripping of the sachet pouch for the tearing action. The provision of the scoring line makes the opening of the pouch convenient as the pulling apart motion tears the gusset open along the laser cut scoring line. OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF INVENTION: In order to overcome the above limitations the invention provides for an improved sachet pouch. It is an object of the invention to provide an improved sachet pouch that can be easily opened. It is an object of the invention to provide an improved sachet pouch that does not get damaged on opening. It is an object of the invention to provide an improved sachet pouch that provides for easy gripping and tearing open of the sachet pouch. It is an object of the invention to provide an improved sachet pouch that does not spill the contents on opening. It is an object of the invention to prevent liquid or semi-liquid article from oozing out on opening. It is an object of the invention to provide an improved sachet pouch that can preserve the contents of the sachet. It is an object of the invention to provide an improved sachet pouch that can be easily opened with wet and dry hands. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS: The accompanying drawings illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention and together with the following detailed description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. Figure 1 illustrates a sachet pouch of the prior art. Figure 2 illustrates a sachet pouch of the prior art. Figure 3 illustrates an improved sachet pouch in accordance with the instant invention. . Figure 4 shows an exploded view of the cross section of the improved sachet pouch in accordance with the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION: It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory of the invention and are not intended to be restrictive thereof. Through out the patent specification, a convention employed is that in the appended drawings, like numerals denote like components. At the outset it is appropriate to mention that the term 'gusset' is meant to refer to a piece of material used to strengthen or enlarge a part of the pouch and within the context of the present invention refers to an additional piece of material sealed between two parallel surfaces of the pouch. Figure 3 illustrates the improved sachet in accordance with the invention. The sachet pouch (1) as shown comprises of two substantially parallel surfaces (6) that define the pouch. The two surfaces may be sealed along two parallel edges (5) as shown in the figure. The remaining two edges may be provided with a gusset (2) as shown. The gusset (2) is formed between the two surfaces (6) of the sachet pouch. Consequently, one or more edges on which the gusset is provided ends in flaps (4) that allow for an easy gripping and tearing open of the sachet pouch. The flaps usually extend for 5mm to 20mm depending on the size of the pouch. The flaps are also thicker than the pouch as they have the material of the pouch in addition to the material of the gusset thereby providing for a secure and firmer grip. To facilitate easy tear a score line is provided on the gusset. The score line may be pi holes provided at regular intervals along the gusset. However, this compromises the barrier properties of the pouch. To overcome this the invention proposes a score line scribed by a laser or water jet. As shown in figure 4 the scoring line by laser cut (3) is provided on the gusset (2). The scoring line facilitates an easy tearing of the pouch. The score line has minute holes at regular intervals. However, these holes do not completely penetrate the diaphragm as illustrated in figure 4 (b). Sachet pouch as described allows for an easy gripping of the sachet pouch by means of the flaps (4) and also an easy tearing open of the pouch by provision of the scoring line (3). The gusset may be provided on one or more surfaces. Printing matter may be put on the surface 6. Inserting a printing layer between a number of polymeric layers usually does this. The surfaces (6) of the pouch in accordance with the invention consists of the following 4 layers: 1. Outer binding polymeric layer (10) . 2. A printed polymeric layer (9).

3. A metalized polymeric layer (8).

4. Inner binding polymeric layer (7). Figure 4 shows an exploded view of the improved sachet pouch in accordance with the invention utilizing the above 4 layers. However, the printed layer (9) is an optional layer and need not be present. Also, the use of the layers depends on the contents of the sachet pouch. The layers vary depending on whether the contents of the sachet pouch are edible or non-edible. For example, in the case of edible products such as tomato ketchup, sugar and mouth freshener, all 4 layers as listed above are to be used. More particularly, the metalized polymeric layer (8) becomes critical as a barrier against the external environment. For oil or liquid medications an extra layer of nylon, EVOH etc may be used. In the case of non-edible contents such as shampoo, shaving gel and face cream, the metalized polymeric layer may be absent. Materials used for the polymeric layers may be Low Density polyethylene (LDPE), Linear Low Density polyethylene (LLDPE), Cast Polypropylene (CPP), Blown Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) etc. Material used for the printed polymeric layer (9) may be nylon, polyactyal or polyester. Similarly, the metalized polymeric layer may be made of material such as polyester or metpet or BOPP. In order to maintain the strong barrier properties of the pouch the gusset is also made of the same material as the pouch. Thus the gusset also comprises of a metallized polymer layer. The printed polymeric layer may however be omitted from the gusset. Though the use of the printed polymeric layer in the gusset increases the aesthetic appeal of the pouch. In one embodiment the material for the pouch and the gusset comprises three layers: the outer two layers (7, 10) being polymeric and the center layer (8) being a metalized polymeric for providing the strong barrier property. The score line in this case is applied partially such that the depth of the score line is limited only up to metalized structure of the laminate, leaving metalized layer intact and thereby maintaining the strong barrier of the laminate. With such a score line cut in place, user can more easily open the bag by tearing along the score line on the diaphragm. In another embodiment, the material may comprise of an aluminum foil in between two layers of polymeric films or even a combination of a metalized layer and an uminum foil may be used to provide an even stronger. barrier. In such an embodiment also the partial laser cut is such that the depth of cut is limited only up to the aluminum foil or a combination of the metalized layer and aluminum foil of the laminate as the case may be and thereby maintaining the strong barrier of the laminate. It may be observed that the laminates used in the above embodiments have been described using only three layers for the ease of illustration and is in no way a limitation of the present invention. A man skilled in the art will appreciate that number of layers and their composition in a laminate may vary as per the requirements of different flexible Dackages. It will/be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments herein shown. Thus variations may be made within the scope and spirit of the accompanying claims without sacrificing the principal advantages of the invention.

Claims

I claim:

1. An improved sachet pouch comprising two parallel surfaces characterized in that: said surfaces are sealed along two parallel edges, - at least one of the remaining edges is sealed by a gusset, the gusset has a scoring line to facilitate easy tear, such that the edge sealed by the gusset extends from the pouch in the form of easily gripped flaps.

2. An improved sachet pouch as claimed in claim 1 wherein two edges of the sachet are sealed by additional gussets.

3. An improved sachet pouch as claimed in claim 1 wherein the score line is a laser cut score line.

4. An improved sachet pouch as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein the sachet comprises of an inner polymeric layer, a outer polymeric layer and a printed layer between said inner and outer polymeric layers.

5. An improved sachet pouch as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein the sachet comprises of an inner polymeric layer, an outer polymeric layer, a metallized polymeric layer and a printed layer.

6. An improved sachet pouch as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein the gusset comprises of an inner polymeric layer, an outer polymeric layer and a printed layer between said inner and outer polymeric layers.

7. An improved sachet pouch as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein the additional gusset comprises of an inner polymeric layer, a outer polymeric layer, a metallized polymeric layer and a printed layer.

8. An improved sachet pouch as claimed in claim 2 wherein one of the additional gussets is provided with a scoring line for easy tear.

9. An improved sachet pouch as claimed in claim 2 wherein both the additional gussets are provided with a scoring line for easy tear.

10. An improved sachet pouch as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein the two edges are sealed by means of glue or welding.

11. An improved sachet pouch substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.