Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D75/00—Packages comprising articles or materials partially or wholly enclosed in strips, sheets, blanks, tubes, or webs of flexible sheet material, e.g. in folded wrappers
  • B65D75/04—Articles or materials wholly enclosed in single sheets or wrapper blanks
  • B65D75/06—Articles or materials wholly enclosed in single sheets or wrapper blanks in sheets or blanks initially folded to form tubes
  • B65D75/10—Articles or materials wholly enclosed in single sheets or wrapper blanks in sheets or blanks initially folded to form tubes with the ends of the tube closed by twisting
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
  • B65B11/00—Wrapping, e.g. partially or wholly enclosing, articles or quantities of material, in strips, sheets or blanks, of flexible material
  • B65B11/06—Wrapping articles, or quantities of material, by conveying wrapper and contents in common defined paths
  • B65B11/08—Wrapping articles, or quantities of material, by conveying wrapper and contents in common defined paths in a single straight path
  • B65B11/10—Wrapping articles, or quantities of material, by conveying wrapper and contents in common defined paths in a single straight path to fold the wrappers in tubular form about contents
  • B65B11/14—Wrapping articles, or quantities of material, by conveying wrapper and contents in common defined paths in a single straight path to fold the wrappers in tubular form about contents the ends of the tube being subsequently twisted
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
  • B65B25/00—Packaging other articles presenting special problems
  • B65B25/005—Packaging other articles presenting special problems packaging of confectionery
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
  • B65B61/00—Auxiliary devices, not otherwise provided for, for operating on sheets, blanks, webs, binding material, containers or packages
  • B65B61/04—Auxiliary devices, not otherwise provided for, for operating on sheets, blanks, webs, binding material, containers or packages for severing webs, or for separating joined packages
  • B65B61/12—Auxiliary devices, not otherwise provided for, for operating on sheets, blanks, webs, binding material, containers or packages for severing webs, or for separating joined packages by tearing along perforations or lines of weakness
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D75/00—Packages comprising articles or materials partially or wholly enclosed in strips, sheets, blanks, tubes, or webs of flexible sheet material, e.g. in folded wrappers
  • B65D75/52—Details
  • B65D75/58—Opening or contents-removing devices added or incorporated during package manufacture
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D85/00—Containers, packaging elements or packages, specially adapted for particular articles or materials
  • B65D85/60—Containers, packaging elements or packages, specially adapted for particular articles or materials for sweets or like confectionery products
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D75/00—Packages comprising articles or materials partially or wholly enclosed in strips, sheets, blanks, tubes, or webs of flexible sheet material, e.g. in folded wrappers
  • B65D75/04—Articles or materials wholly enclosed in single sheets or wrapper blanks
  • B65D75/20—Articles or materials wholly enclosed in single sheets or wrapper blanks in sheets or blanks doubled around contents and having their opposed free margins united, e.g. by pressure-sensitive adhesive, crimping, heat-sealing, or welding

Definitions

• a particularly felt need is that of insuring that the product is maintained unaltered for as long a time as possible after packaging.
• flow-pack sealing wrappers that is, VFFS/HFFS (acronym for Vertical or Horizontal Form Fill and Seal) has long been known, also for small sized food products (such as chocolates, candies, pralines, etc.).
• VFFS/HFFS acronym for Vertical or Horizontal Form Fill and Seal
• the documents WO-A-99/58421 and EP-A-I 593 603 are representative of this technique.
• the latter document also illustrates the possibility of providing extremity (figure 1) or longitudinal (figure 2) package welding lines with zigzag edges, allowing the package to be opened by tearing the sheet material of which the package is made along a longitudinal or transversal trajectory with respect to the package itself.
• the package is usually opened by tearing the wrapping material along a longitudinal or transverse trajectory with respect to the package itself.
• the user tends to open the package starting by untwisting the bow or bows, rotating the central part of the wrapper itself, where the packaged product is located. In both cases, the product could easily escape from the wrapper, making it difficult for the user to avoid its undesired falling.
• Solutions such as the flow pack solution described in WO-A-99/58421 , in which a transverse pre-incision is present, could virtually solve the product dropping problem, but they are critical both for the generally reduced visibility of the pre-incision itself, and because the latter is susceptible to compromising package sealing since it is provided on the welding.
• the object of the present invention is providing a solution capable of overcoming such inconveniences.
• the present invention such object is achieved thanks to a package having the characteristics set forth in claim 1.
• Advantageous developments of the invention are object of the subordinate claims.
• the invention concerns also a corresponding package realisation method as well as a corresponding device.
• the claims are integral parts of the disclosure of the invention provided herein.
• the invention allows the realisation of airtight sealed packages of the "hermetic" type: this being a characteristic very much appreciated in the case of products commercialised in humid areas, since it allows isolation of the product from the surrounding environment.
• such technology provides also, using appropriate films, isolation from oxygen and the migration of aromas.
• figure 1 is a general prospective view of a package of the type described herein,
• FIG. 1 schematically illustrates the criteria of realisation of the package in figure 1
• FIG. 2 schematically illustrates the criteria of realisation of the package in figure 1
• FIG. 3 and 4 illustrate a possible sequence of the opening of the package in figures 1 and 2
• - figure 5 illustrates a possible variant realisation of the solution in the previous figures
• - figure 6 schematically illustrates a method and device useable for realising the packages in figures 1 to 5.
• the numeric reference 1 indicates a package in laminar or sheet material in its entirety, used to package the food product P such as, for example, a confectionery product, a candy, a chocolate, a praline or like product.
• the solution described herein can be used also for products P of very small sizes, such as, for example, confectionery products of a few millimetres in length.
• the product P can be either single or multiple as is illustrated, for example, in EP-A-O 814 030.
• the package 1 is essentially made of a laminar or film wrapping material (on which more will be said in the following) initially wrapped according to a general U conformation around the product P as is schematically illustrated in figure 2.
• a closing line 2 extending in a general arch-like trajectory so as to surround the product P, is provided around the product P.
• the above- said sealing line 2 (also susceptible to having a certain length) has its extremities located in correspondence with the loop part of the sheet material folded in a U around the product P.
• the extremity portions in the packaging intermediate thus realised (refer again to figure 2) are then subjected to a general twisting movement in correspondence to one or both of the extremities (observe the arrows F in figure 2) so to confer the general "candy-like" appearance represented in figure 1 to the package 1, with a central part enclosing the product P (airtight sealed, thanks to the presence of the sealing line 2) and two extremity parts 3 twisted into a general bow-like conformation.
• the package 1 may have only one bow at the extremity 3.
• the sequence in figures 3 and 4 shows how, acting on one of the distal edges 3a, and in particular starting from one of the V-shaped notched points of the zigzag configuration, the user wanting to open the package 1 can trigger a gradual wrapper-tearing phenomenon.
• the tearing action proceeds along a trajectory 40 (indicated with a dotted line in figure 3 and instead, represented as a solid line in figure 4) so to determine the gradual lengthwise tearing of the package 1.
• oriented film meaning a film material (typically a plastic material in, for example, a cyclo olefin copolymer (COC) and polyethylene) that, during production (usually by extrusion) is subjected to stretching in the longitudinally advancing direction of the extruder.
• COC cyclo olefin copolymer
• polyethylene ethylene
• the oriented-film material is easier to tear in the direction of the orientation.
• the film is less resistant to cutting attempts such to induce tearing in the oriented direction that the film was subjected to during its manufacturing phase.
• distal edge or distal edges 3a with a zigzag or similar pattern suggests to and allows the consumer, even in the presence of the twisted bow or bows, to open the package 1 not by untwisting the bows (as the consumer would tend to do with a normal candy-like package, but through a longitudinally induced tearing. In turn, such tearing occurs gradually thanks to the bow through which the tearing is propagated.
• the length of the portion of wrapping subjected to twisting for formation of the or each bow measured longitudinally with respect to the package (see figure 2), has a length A included between 5 millimetres and 5 millimetres plus X (the length of the product) , protruding with respect to the length X of the product P.
• Figure 5 highlights the possibility of realising the distal edge 3a, always having a general zigzag pattern, but with rounded incisions along the external perimeter and with V-shaped notches along the internal perimeter, so to form respective triggering points 4 for tearing of the package wrapper.
• Figure 6 schematically illustrates the possible realisation criteria of a package of the type represented in the previous figures.
• the numeric reference 12 indicates a filling and sealing station in its entirety (itself also of know type) in which the products P are inserted in the tubular blank 10 inserting them inside the part of the loop of the blank through the upper edges not yet connected together. Co-ordinately with the filling operation, operating according to a method of the type described in document EP-B-I 477 423 previously cited, the unit 12 makes the sealing line 2, which provides the hermetic seal around each product P inserted in the blank of sheet material.
• the hermetic package thusly obtained is advanced (usually after a 90° rotation with respect to its advancing axis, indicated with XlO, although such choice is obviously not compulsory) toward the cutting unit 14 (for example, with intermittent or rotating knives - itself also of known type) which provides the cutting of the individual packages forming the distal edges 3a with saw-like pattern (or analogous) visible in figures 1 to 4.
• the cutting unit 14 for example, with intermittent or rotating knives - itself also of known type
• a bow-realisation station indicated with reference 16 in which, operating in a way itself known (for example, according to the method described in the document EP-B-I 299 285), the extremities of each package are subjected to twisting so to provide the extremity bows 3.
• the ' products P housed in the now completed packages 1 are then collected (usually by falling) in a container C.
• the solution illustrated herein is designed so that the seal characteristic of the package around the product P, provided by the sealing line 2, tightly surround the product P, so that the opening pre-incisions provided on the distal edges 3a, as already cited, do not compromise the sealing.
• the seal characteristic of the package around the product P provided by the sealing line 2
• the opening pre-incisions provided on the distal edges 3a do not compromise the sealing.
• terminal package sealing lines realised according' to widely known criteria in flow-pack type packaging technology

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Packging For Living Organisms, Food Or Medicinal Products That Are Sensitive To Environmental Conditiond (AREA)
• Packages (AREA)
• Supplying Of Containers To The Packaging Station (AREA)
• General Preparation And Processing Of Foods (AREA)
• Auxiliary Devices For And Details Of Packaging Control (AREA)
• Vacuum Packaging (AREA)
• Container Filling Or Packaging Operations (AREA)
• Wrapping Of Specific Fragile Articles (AREA)

Priority Applications (10)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=39371359

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (13)

Cited By (1)

Families Citing this family (3)

Citations (2)

Family Cites Families (9)

• 2007
  • 2007-05-23 IT IT000362A patent/ITTO20070362A1/it unknown
• 2008
  • 2008-01-25 CN CN200880017097XA patent/CN101678937B/zh active Active
  • 2008-01-25 US US12/598,659 patent/US20100086652A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2008-01-25 AU AU2008252565A patent/AU2008252565A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2008-01-25 EP EP08702337A patent/EP2146910B1/en active Active
  • 2008-01-25 MX MX2009011710A patent/MX2009011710A/es unknown
  • 2008-01-25 DE DE602008005296T patent/DE602008005296D1/de active Active
  • 2008-01-25 PL PL08702337T patent/PL2146910T3/pl unknown
  • 2008-01-25 WO PCT/IB2008/000202 patent/WO2008142497A1/en active Application Filing
  • 2008-01-25 ES ES08702337T patent/ES2362156T3/es active Active
  • 2008-01-25 AT AT08702337T patent/ATE500162T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2008-01-25 BR BRPI0810268-6A patent/BRPI0810268B1/pt active IP Right Grant
• 2009
  • 2009-10-16 ZA ZA2009/07255A patent/ZA200907255B/en unknown

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