WO2014027357A1

WO2014027357A1 - Two-sided packaging with improved tear initiation, and a method and web of film laminate for manufacturing the same

Info

Publication number: WO2014027357A1
Application number: PCT/IN2012/000816
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gupta SURESH
Original assignee: The Paper Products Ltd.
Priority date: 2012-08-17
Filing date: 2012-12-13
Publication date: 2014-02-20

Abstract

The present invention refers to a method for manufacturing a packaging (18; 118) having a front side film laminate (26; 126), an opposite rear side film laminate (27; 127) and at least three continuous sealings (28, 30, 32; 128, 129, 130, 132) to bond the front side laminate (26; 126) and the rear side laminate (27; 127) directly together.

Description

Two-sided Packaging With Improved Tear Initiation, and a Method and Web of Film Laminate for Manufacturing the Same

Description

The present invention refers to improving tear initiation in two-sided pack- agings.

In particular, the present invention therefore in a first aspect refers to a method for manufacturing a packaging having a front side film laminate, an opposite rear side film laminate and at least three continuous sealings to bond the front side laminate and the rear side laminate directly together, the method comprising the following steps:

- moving at least one web of film laminate along a machine direction (MD),

- overlapping a portion of the moving film laminate web with a further portion of a film laminate web moving in parallel along the machine direction,

- sealing a first cross sealing extending in a cross direction (CD), which is orthogonal to the machine direction (MD) and which is parallel to the overlapping laminate portions, thus bonding the overlapping film laminate portions directly to each other within the area of the first cross sealing,

- sealing a longitudinal sealing extending in the machine direction (MD) thus bonding the overlapping film laminate portions directly to each other within the area of the longitudinal sealing, and

- sealing a second cross sealing extending in the cross direction (CD) spaced apart from the first cross sealing in the machine direction (MD) thus bonding the overlapping film laminate portions directly to each other within the area of the second cross sealing,

wherein the first and the second cross sealings and the longitudinal sealing are arranged so as to form one continuous sealing area. Such a generic method is i. a. known in the related art for manufacturing two-sided pouches or bags.

Consequently, since improved tear initiation may not only be established during the manufacturing process, but experienced by the consumer on the finished product, the present invention, in a further aspect, refers also to a two-sided packaging having as a first side a front side film laminate forming a front side of the packaging and having as a second side a rear side film laminate forming an opposite rear side of the packaging, and further having at least three continuous sealings, forming one single sealing area, to bond the front side laminate and the rear side laminate directly together, wherein each of the at least three sealings extends along an associated edge of the packaging wherein at least one layer of the front side film laminate and/or the rear side film laminate is oriented in a direction of orientation (OD), the at least three sealings comprising a first cross sealing, a second cross sealing, and a longitudinal sealing, the first and the second cross sealings including a first and a second angle, respectively, with the direction of orientation (OD), and the longitudinal sealing including a third angle with the direction of orientation (OD) that is larger than each of the first and the second angle.

Such two-sided packaging may be obtained by executing a method as the one described above. Common and well-known embodiments of such two- sided packagings are often referred to in the art as "three-side seal pouch", "three-side seal bag", "four-side seal pouch" and "four-side seal bag", depending on the number of packaging edges exhibiting a sealing alongside. In the present invention "pouch" and "bag" are used as synonyms. However, although the present invention may be particularly advantageously incorporated by three- or four-side seal pouches, it is not restricted to these and may, e. g., have more than four sides or side edges with an adjoining sealing.

Three-side seal pouches or bags are usually formed out of one single piece of film laminate that is folded about a central folding access extending in the plain of the file laminate piece and dividing it into two portions. By the above- mentioned folding, the two portions are made to overlap one another, defining a packaging space or volume between them. The three remaining edges of the still unsealed future packaging - one more or less parallel to the folding axis and two including an angle, preferably a right angle, therewith - are bonded, usually by heat-sealing, along the edges, in order to tightly enclose the packaging space. Before the last sealing is applied, the packaging space or volume is filled with the product to be packaged. Such packagings therefore have three edges (or "sides") closed by sealings, while the fourth edge (or "side") is formed by the fold. This usually results in the above-mentioned single sealing area having a C-shape, with the three sealings forming the two legs and the leg connecting base of the C-shape.

In contrast thereto, four-side seal pouches or bags differ from the above- described three-side pouches or bags in that the free ends of the legs of the C-shaped sealing area are connected by a fourth sealing, to result in a closed ring or O-shape of the single sealing area. Although it might not be ruled out that a four-side seal pouch is formed by sealing along the fold of a three-side seal pouch, it is more common to form four-side seal pouches out of separate film laminate portions that are not directly interconnected by a fold in the edge region of the package to be formed.

Such three- and four-side seal pouches or bags are often used to contain foodstuff, for example a dehydrated food product, like an instant beverage as e. g. coffee, or cosmetic products, in particular cosmetic liquids and pastes, as for example shampoo, conditioner, gels and lotions, to name but a few.

The above descriptions of packaging embodiments apply to the prior art and are given to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the background of the present invention. The above descriptions are, however, equally applicable to the present invention. ln a further aspect of the present invention it refers also to an intermediate product, that is of particular value in carrying out the above method to obtain the above two-sided packaging with superior quality and/or with reduced effort. The intermediate product, to which the present invention refers, is a web of film laminate, in particular for use in the method, to be moved in the machine direction, the film laminate having at least one oriented layer and at least one further layer, the oriented layer preferably forming an outer side of the film laminate, the web extending in a longitudinal web direction and in a cross direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction, wherein the dimension of the web in the longitudinal direction is greater than that in the cross direction.

Since the here-discussed two-sided packagings are often used to offer individualized amounts of a certain packaged good, which is often consumed at once or in not more than a few single uses, these packagings are often relatively small compared to regular European consumer packages, usually ranging from 125 ml or 125 g to 350 ml or 350 g up to 500 ml or 500 g or even higher. US-American regular consumer packages have a comparable size, but differ slightly mainly due to the use of a different measuring system. Therefore, a reliable and reproducible open behaviour of the two-sided packagings discussed here is even more important than of the larger multiple use consumer packages. While a less predictable opening behaviour of a larger packaging may lead to the - still unfortunate - loss of only a few percent of the packaging's content, a disadvantageous opening behaviour of the above two-sided packaging may lead to a total loss of the packaging's content, possibly resulting in a growing consumer's contempt of the packaging and the company behind it.

A modern approach to provide two-sided packagings with a predictable opening behaviour is to use a tear initiation notch cut into the sealing at an appropriate location along one edge of the two-sided packaging. Often the provision of such a tear initiation notch is combined with the use of oriented, in particular monoaxially stretched, film laminates, since tears initiated at the location of the notch usually propagate in the direction of orientation (stretch direction) of the film laminate. This tear propagation behaviour is, according to the currently prevailing scientific theory, due to the molecular structure of an oriented film laminate.

However, the provision of tear initiation notches is cumbersome, since it usually has to be done simultaneously with or after cutting the edge of the packaging that is to bear the notch, thus involving an additional production step at the end of the formation of the packaging. Additionally, the tear initiation notch may disturb the overall asthetic appearance of a packaging, and may affect it in a negative way. The considerably large size of the tear initiation notch is usually inevitable to fulfil its purpose, since it has to be clearly visible for the consumer.

In many cases the notch is literally cut out of the packaging material, leading do undesired separate pieces of waste that, as a potential source of machinery breakdown, have to be immediately removed from the production plant.

Still further, the provision of a tear initiation notch at a predetermined location on the packaging's edge allows the consumer to open the packaging only there, although the consumer might feel more commfortable or might regard it as more adequate to open it elsewhere.

Finally, the sealing area out of which the tear initiation notch of the state of the art is cut has to be wider than the notch itself, in order to maintain the tightness and integrity of the packaging space enclosed by the packaging. This might lead to a reduced packaging efficiency in terms of film laminate to be used for enclosing a predetermined packaging space. It is therefore an object of the present invention, to provide a technical teaching that allows to diminish or even avoid the above disadvantages of the state of the art.

According to a first production-related aspect of the present invention, this object may be attained by the above-descirbed generic method which provides that within an area of the at least one moving film laminate web, which area is predetermined for forming the longitudinal sealing, at least one slit zone of a plurality of layer penetrating slits is formed in at least one layer of the moving film laminate web; the slit zone extends in the machine direction, wherein an end-to-end direction of the slits, in which slits extend from one end to their opposite other end, includes an angle with the machine direction, preferably a right angle.

The machine direction is, according to its usual meaning, the direction, along which a film laminate is transported to be processed from a film laminate stock, such as a reel or a pre-confectioned sheet, to the finished packaging.

The sealings mentioned above in connection with the at least .three continuous sealings of a packaging according to the present invention in its simplest form, are referred to above as the first and the second cross sealing - corresponding to sealings extending along a leg of a C-shape of the sealing area - and as the longitudinal sealing - corresponding to sealings extending along a base of the the above-mentioned C-shape of the sealing area in the example given above.

In a more general approach to the present invention, the first and/or the second cross sealing may in their extension in the cross direction be bent and/or angled and/or, at least partially, curviliniear, as long as the sealing as a whole extends predominantly in the cross direction and the longitundinal direction, respectively. The same holds for the longitudinal sealing and its extension in the machine direction or longitudinal direction. The cross direction, as defined above, is orthogonal to the machine direction and extends parallel to the planes of the overlapping laminate portions.

According to the present invention, a plurality of penetrating slits is formed in a slit zone that extends in the machine direction. While the slit zone extends in the machine direction, the slits within the slit zone don't extend in the machine direction or at least prevailingly extend in the cross direction. The extension of the slit zone in the machine direction facilitates its formation, since the slits within a slit zone, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, may be formed at one fixed location within the manufacturing process into the at least one layer of the film laminate, while the film laminate web moves in the machine direction relative to a slitting tool forming the slits.

An end-to-end direction of a slit in the slit zone, regardless of the particular shape of such a slit - be it a regular straight-line slit, a curved-line slit or a cross-shaped slit - is to be defined by the shortest distance from one end to the respective opposite end of the same slit. Therefore, e.g., a cross-shaped slit has to be regarded as two slits crossing each other that therefore may have two different end-to-end directions including an angle, preferably a right angle, with one another. The two crossing slits correspond to the individual legs of the cross shape. Irrespective of the pattern in which the slits are arranged in the slit zone, an end-to-end direction can always be determined, since each slit must have to ends connected by said slit.

In order to be able to guarantee that the layer penetrating slits do not jeopardize the integrity or the tightness of the later packaging, the slit zone, in which the plurality of layer penetrating slits are formed, lies within an area of the at least one moving film laminate web, which is predetermined for forming or receiving the longitudinal sealing. Although it shall not be excluded from the scope of the present invention that the slit zone with its plurality of slits extends also into the area of the packaging space, as long as the slits penetrate less than all layers of their film laminate, in a particularly safe and therefor preferred embodiment, the slit zone is located completely in the film laminate area predetermined for forming/receiving the longitudinal sealing. Slits that lie within the longitudinal sealing cannot not affect the stability of the material directly encapsulating the packaging space. These slits confined to the area predetermined for forming/receiving the longitudinal sealing may therefore penetrate the entire film laminate in which they are formed, which considerably facilitates the formation of the slit zones.

In other words: It is preferred that the width of the slit zone in the cross direction is smaller than the width of its associated longitudinal sealing area in the cross direction. To have a safety margin between the innermost slit closest to the packaging space and the packaging space itself, the width of the slit zone is preferable less than two thirds, more preferably less than half of the width of its associated longitudinal sealing area.

In its simplest form, a slit zone may be formed by a sequence of single slits predominantly extending in the cross direction and following one another in the machine direction.

According to an enhancement of the present invention, it may further provided that at least a majority of slits, preferably each slit, within a slit zone is shorter than the width of the slit zone measured in the cross direction. This allows to form more than one or even a plurality of slits next to each other in the cross direction within one and the same slit zone. This allows further to form the slits with a comparably small size, so that the slits of the present invention can be formed in a less visually prominent manner. Consequently, each slit can be formed with a relatively short length, whereby "length" according to the present invention is to be measured in the end-to-end direction of a slit as defined above. By using short slits it is possible to keep the slit zone and along with it the longitudinal sealing narrow, increasing the packaging efficiency.

The short slit length may, if at all necessary, be compensated for by a row of slits within the slit zone or may be assisted in guiding tear initiation and propagation by a molecular orientation of one or more layers of the film laminate.

A row of slits in the sense of the present application is formed within a slit zone, if two or more slits are arranged next to each other in a row direction, that preferably does not deviate more than ± 10° from the end-to-end direction of the consecutive slits. Such a row of slits provides a well-determined direction of tear initiation and, even more, tear propagation.

In order to allow the layer penetrating slits to form a weakening of the longitudinal edge that might be used as a location of tear initiation on the finished packaging, the slits are formed and/or arranged such within the slit zone that their end-to-end direction includes an angle with the machine direction. Preferably, this angle is a right angle, so that tear initiated by aid of the slits can be initiated orthogonal to a longitudinal edge of the packaging and parallel to its cross edges.

If slits within a slit zone are formed in rows of consecutive slits along a row direction, the row direction for the same reasons also includes an angle with the machine direction.

In order to increase the method's productivity, a plurality of parallel longitudinal sealings may be formed in one and the same overlapping film laminate web portions, in order to parallelize the manufacturing of two-sided pack- agings. Two neighboring areas predetermined for forming longitudinal sealings then form a lane, wherein each lane will result in a sequence of pack- agings in- the machine direction. A film laminate web, be it folded during pro- cessing or not, may be virtually subdivided into a plurality of parallel lanes. Each longitudinal sealing between two directly neighbouring (future) pack- agings to be built may be separated by a separating tool, e. g. a cutting blade or wire. This longitudinal cutting preferably immediately results in two longitudinal edges of the parallel future packagings, one on each packaging. Although the longitudinal sealings resulting on the then-formed packagings are narrower than the longitudinal sealing areas on the moving film laminate web portions (usually the separation divides the longitudinal sealing areas on the moving web portions into two substantially equal widthwise halves), each longitudinal edge of a packaging formed thereby inevitably is adjoined by a desired longitudinal sealing.

In the above preferred case of forming parallel longitudinal sealings, a plurality of parallel slit zones can be formed in the at least one layer as well, wherein each slit zone is located within an associated area of the moving web predetermined for forming/receiving a longitudinal sealing. This means that the at least one slit zone may, and for ease of production preferably will be formed before the longitudinal sealing is formed, such that the slit zone is formed in a moving web of film laminate in an area, in which later on a longitudinal sealing will be formed. However, the formation of slit zones may also be executed after the longitudinal sealing has been formed, such that the "predetermined area for forming a longitudinal sealing" is then to be understood as the area of the longitudinal sealing itself.

It is, in such a case, preferred to arrange the slit zone in the at least one web of film laminate along the machine direction such that its center in the cross direction coincides with the center of its associated longitudinal sealing area in the cross direction. By this means, it can be achieved that, when at a later stage of the production process a longitudinal sealing formed to bond the overlapping portions of the moving film laminate web is separated along the machine direction as described above, the slit zone, together with its associated longitudinal sealing is separated into two partial slit zones, so that each of the two packagings resulting from the separating step will not only be equipped with a longitudinal sealing extending along a longitudinal edge of theirs, but also with a (partial) slit zone within the packagings' longitudinal sealings.

Especially, but not exclusively, when manufacturing three-side seal pouches the overlapping step may include a folding step in which a portion of the moving web is folded. Then this portion and the further portion of a moving film laminate web overlapping each other can belong to one and the same moving film laminate. That means further that the front side film laminate and the rear side film laminate can be one and the same film laminate.

The folding step can be largely facilitated by arranging the folding axis to extend in the machine direction. This allows high moving speeds of the film laminate web, and thereby a high output in terms of packagings per time unit.

Even when four-side seal pouches are formed, the method may include the above folding step, although this is not preferred. For example, the fold of the resulting package may receive a longitudinal sealing. Even with a folded moving film laminate web, the provision of a multitude of parallel longitudinal sealings is conceivable. Here again, parallel areas predetermined for forming longitudinal sealings defining the above described parallel lanes may be provided, wherein each lane results in a sequence of future packagings in the machine direction. Packagings manufactured in the outermost folded portion of the moving film laminate web can be formed as a three- or four- side seal pouches, while the remaining packagings neighboring this outermost folded packaging "lane" in the cross direction must be formed as four- side seal packagings, in order to be completely closed.

A "lane" in this context consequently is the area between two parallel actual or future longitudinal sealings or between an actual or future longitudinal sealing and a folded edge of a folded film laminate web. In practice, each lane can be separated in the cross direction into individual packagings. That separation is carried out by cutting through the cross sealings in an analogous manner as the above described separation of the longitudinal sealings, so that each separation creates two cross edges of two immediately consecutive packagings in the machine direction.

Alternatively, two separate webs of film laminates may be moved in the machine direction, one of them forming the front side film laminate and the respective other one forming the rear side film laminate. In this case, the overlapping step mentioned at the beginning of this application may include an approaching step, in which the two webs are arranged with their respective web cross directions being essentially parallel and in which the distance between the webs is reduced as the webs, move in the machine direction. Therefore, only the web cross directions, but not the web longitudinal directions are parallel during the approaching step. This approaching step may continue until the two separate webs contact one another, which is a prerequisite for the formation of a longitudinal sealing and the cross sealings.

As explained above, both variations - one single folded film laminate web and two separate film laminate webs - allow the parallelization of the formation of packagings in parallel lanes defined by a plurality of longitudinal sealings or areas predetermined for receiving a longitudinal sealing extending in parallel.

In order to realize the separation of these originally integrally bonded lanes, the method may comprise a cutting step in which the at least one moving film laminate web is cut in the machine direction. As described above, this cutting is preferably executed within a slit zone, in order to not only separate the slit zone, but also its associated longitudinal sealing area into two partial slit zones and partial longitudinal sealings or sealing areas, respectively. Here, it is important that a cut path of a cutting tool, that carries out the cutting step, crosses a plurality of slits in the respective slit zone. This allows to "open" slits that originally are completely surrounded by film laminate material so that a rim of such a cut slit forms an immediate continuation of a cut edge formed during the cutting step. By such a cut, a cut slit "opens" into the cut edge formed in the machine direction. Such an "edge slit" that extends to and merges with the machine direction cut edge of the moving film laminate web may serve as a tear initiation location in the so-treated film laminate web and in the packaging manufactured thereof. In order to make sure that the tear initiated by such an edge slit can propagate in a direction away from the cut edge into the film laminate and towards the later packaging space to be opened, the slits within a slit zone are to be arranged such that the rims of the edge slits that form the direct continuation of a cut edge include an angle between the cut edge and the rims themselves.

In order to facilitate the manufacturing of the packagings, the longitudinal sealings bonding the front and the rear side film laminates with one another can be used to fix and immobilize the front and the rear side film laminate with each other. Therefore, it is preferable to carry out the cutting step after the longitudinal sealing step within and along the longitudinal sealing.

The slits in the slit zone may be produced by cutting and/or piercing and/or punching. As well, thermal slitting by the use of a laser is conceivable. In order to avoid waste material that has to be removed from the production site and that endangers an undisturbed execution of the manufacturing process, slit producing methods are preferred which only separate the material continuity within the slit, but which do not cut out or separate otherwise pieces from the film laminate web. Another major advantage of the present invention is that the slits in the slit zone, in contrast to the known cut-out and waste-creating tear initiation notches, can be formed with comparably low dimensions. This is partly due to the preferred nature of the slits as material continuation disturbances, and partly due to the possibility to form more than one slit in a row. In particular by the last measure, it may be sufficient to create slits that are not longer than 5 pm in their end-to-end direction. Although, slits may have an end-to-end dimension up to 1.000 pm, in order to provide a high security in tear initiation, such long slits from the viewpoint of funtion- ality are not really necessary.

Depending on the chosen film laminate material, the minimum end-to-end dimension necessary to initiate a tear into the material may vary. At any rate, the end-to-end dimension should not fall below the above-mentioned 5 pm limit. In this context, a minimum end-to-end dimension of 50 pm has shown to be sufficient for reliably initiating tears into the laminate material for a great variaty of different film laminate materials. Slit lengths within one and the same slit zone may vary in an arbitrary manner within the above-mentioned range, depending on the respective tools to be used for forming the slit zones. Consequently, a slit zone may comprise slits of different lengths. Nonetheless, a slit zone with slits of only one fixed length is conceivable.

Although preferred slits may have the simple shape of a straight-line, slits in the slit zone are not limited to this. Additionally or alternatively, slits may have the shape of a curved line or may even be formed out of intersecting straight or curved lines, such as crosses or asterisks. By piercing the film laminate material with a conical or cylindrical needle, slits having a circular shape may also be obtained. Of course, a plurality of slits in one and the same slit zone can be formed out of a mixture of two or more or even all of the above-mentioned shapes.

Although it might be sufficient to provide the slit zone in only one of the front or the rear side film laminate of the manufactured packaging, tear initiation is more reliable if slit zones are formed in both of the front and the rear side film laminates. A further advantage in forming slit zones extending in the machine direction is that a tear can be initiated at any location along the longitudinal edge of the packaging that is equipped with edge slits.

The slit zone can be formed of a continuous pattern of slits in the machine direction, generally leading to longitudinal packaging edges where tears can be initiated at any arbitrary location. However, it is also conceivable to form interrupted slit zones where slit bearing portions are interrupted in the machine direction by interposed areas of non-slit material of unimpaired integrity. The sequence pattern of such an interrupted slit zone can be adjusted to the length of the longitudinal edge of the planned packaging to be manufactured. Then, the packaging may have one or more tear initiation zones, where tear initiation is facilitated by edge slits, and may have stable zones without slits, where tear initiation is hard up to impossible to achieve.

The above-mentioned object of the invention is, according to a product aspect of the present invention, also attained by modifying the before-mentioned generic two-sided packaging such that in a slit zone of the packaging, which lies within the longitudinal sealing, that extends along a longitudinal edge of the packaging, and that ranges from the longitudinal edge in an orthogonal width direction towards a packaging space enclosed by the packaging, a plurality of slits penetrating at least the oriented layer of the front side and/or of the rear side film laminate is provided, wherein an end-to-end direction of the slits in which slits extend from one end to their opposite other end, coincides with the direction of orientation, wherein at least some slits, in order to function as tear initiation locations,, are formed as edge slits extending to the longitudinal edge of its film laminate in which they are formed, such that a portion of a rim of an edge slit forms an immediate continuation the longitudinal edge of its film laminate including an angle between the rim and the longitudinal edge. The above-defined generic two-sided packaging may be and is preferably, but not exclusively, embodied by the three-side seal pouches and four-side seal pouches described at the beginning of this specification.

The modification made to that generic two-sided packaging according to the present invention is generally based on the same inventive concept as the modification of the generic method, namely to provide slits penetrating at least one oriented layer, penetrating preferably a plurality of layers including at least one oriented layer or penetrating most preferably all layers of at least one of the front side and the rear side film laminate.

Advantages and advantageous enhancements of the basic method of the present invention explained above may apply also to the two-sided packaging of the present invention, respectively, on the condition that the cross direction used in the description of the method is to be replaced by the direction of orientation used in the description of the two-sided packaging. This means that for producing a packaging according to the present invention, a film laminate web has to run through the production plant with its direction of orientation predominantly extending in the cross direction orthogonal to the machine direction. Advantageous modifications of the inventive two-sided packagings, that can be taken from the description of the method and will therefore not be repeated. This concerns, e. g., the shape and size of the slits, their arrangement within a slit zone, the use of oriented layers for tear propagation, the numbers of layers penetrated by the slits within a film laminate, and the like.

The slits are provided in a slit zone that lies, for the reasons set forth above preferably completely, within the longitudinal sealing of the two-sided packaging, which longitudinal sealing extends along a longitudinal edge of the packaging. The longitudinal sealing starts at or very close to the longitudinal edge and extends in a width direction orthogonal to the longitudinal edge towards a packaging space enclosed by the packaging. As stated above, the slits within the slit zone are provided to facilitate opening the two-sided packaging by tearing. To that end, at least some slits are formed as "edge slits". Such "edge slits" are arranged such that their rim merges with the longitudinal edge of the packaging, or, put in other terms, are formed such that their rim forms an direct and immediate continuation of the longitudinal edge of the film laminate in which they are provided. Such a continuation usually includes the formation of a corner by the longitudinal edge and the rim of the edge slit. Thereby, the rim of the edge slit as well as the end-to-end direction of the edge slits provided in the two-sided packaging include an angle with their longitudinal edge of the associated film laminate. Usually, the edge of the film laminate also forms an edge of the two- sided packaging.

Consequently, the edge slits form a sort of micro notches at the longitudinal edge of their film laminate, which facilitates tear initiation.

If a slit zone within a packaging comprises rows of slits following each other in a row direction, as described above, preferably the row direction, like the end-to-end direction, includes an angle with the longitudinal edge of the associated film laminate from which the row of slits extends away.

In order to facilitate tear propagation after tear initiation, the end-to-end direction and preferably, if applicable, also the row direction coincides with the direction of orientation of the at least one oriented layer. Thereby, a tear initiated within a film laminate of the two-sided packaging is first mainly propagated by the edge slit itself and may then be propagated by a row of slits following the edge slit in the above-defined row direction and may finally be guided in propagation by the material orientation, always in one and the same direction.

Although not necessarily, the two cross sealings of one and the same two- sided packaging preferably extend parallel to one another, so that the first and the second angles are preferably identical. This considerably facilitates the manufacturing of the packagings. Preferably, the first and the second angles have an identical value of zero degrees, whic fmeans that preferably the cross sealings extend in the direction of orientation of the at least one oriented layer. This leads to the advantageous situation that tear propagation takes place parallel to the cross sealings, which means that a uniform strip of the packaging can be removed from the remainder of the packaging.

Moreover, it is advantageous that the longitudinal sealing extends orthogonal to the first and the second cross sealings, e.g. for facilitating the cutting processes during manufacture. Then it is preferred for apparent reasons that the end-to-end direction and, if applicable, the row direction include a right angle with the longitudinal edge, since this provides the most reliable tear initiation. For the same reason, it is preferred if the angle between the rim of an edge slit and the longitudinal edge also includes a right angle.

Although, as already explained above, it is sufficient to form slit zones only in either the front or in the rear side film laminates, the reliability of tear initiation can be dramatically enhanced, if both the front and the rear side film laminates have slit zones with edge slits. Here, the number of possible locations of tear initiation on one longitudinal edge of the packaging can be increased up to doubled, if the edge slits of the front side film laminate on a longitudinal edge of two-sided packaging do not coincide with the edge slits of the rear side film laminate at the same longitudinal edge of the two-side packaging.

In this context, it has shown sufficient to provide slit zones with a linear edge slit density of at least three edge slits per centimeter length of the associate longitudinal edge of the film laminate exhibiting the edge slits. This allows to expect tear initiation roughly every 3 mm, provided the edge slits are evenly distributed over the length of the longitudinal edge, which, however, is not necessary. A sufficient lack of coincidence of the edge slits on the front and on the rear side film laminates can be achieved, if at least a part of the edge slits, preferably the majority of edge slits, more preferably all edge slits of the front and the rear film laminates at the same longitudinal packaging edge, have a different distance from a common reference point at the longitudinal packaging edge formed by the longitudinal edges of the front and the rear film laminates. By this measure, tear initiation may be possible every 1.5 mm in average, assuming that both edge slits are evenly distributed over the length of the longitudinal edge and that both film laminates only show the minimum linear edge slit density. If on some locations the distance between two consecutive edge slits of different film laminates on the same longitudinal edge of the packaging is greater than the average value of 1.5 mm, it is most probably shorter on other locations.

While the term "edge slits", as explained above, is chosen for those slits whose rims merge into the longitudinal edge, there might also be "material slits" present in the slit zone which are fully encircled by material of the respective layer or layers of the film laminate in which they are formed. Usually, if rows of slits are formed, the material slits follow the edge slits in the row direction as further means of tear initiation and tear propagation aids.

In order to have a clear and determined tear propagation direction, it is preferred that slits within the same slit zone are arranged as consecutive slits following one another along a straight line, the straight line defining the row direction along which at least two consecutive slits are arranged in a row.

One preferred embodiment of a two-sided packaging according to the present invention is the above-mentioned three-side seal pouch or bag which has exactly three sealings, each extending along an associated edge of the packaging, and in that a fourth edge of the packaging opposite the edge associated to the longitudinal sealing is formed by a fold of a film lam- inate, so that the front side film laminate and the rear side film laminate are of identical material.

Another preferred embodiment of the present invention is the also above-explained four-side seal pouch or bag for which the above-mentioned longitudinal sealing is more precisejy termed as a first longitudinal sealing and which has exactly four sealings, each extending along an associated edge of the packaging. A fourth edge of the packaging opposite the edge associated to the longitudinal sealing has a second longitudinal sealing, preferably parallel to the first longitudinal sealing.

These three- or four-side seal packages can be filled with liquids, powders and pastes, e. g. foodstuff and cosmetics.

For reasons of ease of manufacture, the second longitudinal sealing of a four-side seal pouch is preferably formed in an analogous manner to the first longitudinal sealing explained in detail above.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, the above-defined object can also be attained by the generic intermediate product mentioned in the introduction, which is modified such that in at least one longitudinal end zone, preferably both longitudinal end zones, including a longitudinal edge of the web and ranging from that longitudinal edge in the cross direction into the web, a plurality of slits penetrating at least the oriented layer, preferably a plurality of layers, more preferably all layers of the web, is provided, wherein an end-to-end direction of the slits in. which slits extend from one end to their opposite other end includes an angle with the machine direction, preferably a right angle, wherein at least some slits, in order to function as tear initiation location, are formed as edge slits and extend to the longitudinal edge, such that a portion of a rim of an edge slit forms an immediate continuation of the longitudinal edge including an angle between the rim and the longitudinal edge. Again, advantages and advantageous enhancements of the method and the two-sided packaging of the present invention explained above may apply also to the intermediate product of the present invention, respectively, on the condition that the cross direction used in the description of the method or the direction of orientation used in the description of the two-sided packaging is to be replaced by the cross direction of the film laminate web as the intermediate product. Advantageous modifications of the inventive film laminate web as the intermediate product that can be taken from the description of the method will therefore not be repeated.

The web of film laminate, which is usually provided wound-up in a reel, has its longest dimension in a longitudinal direction which is also the direction in which the web of film laminate is unwound from a reel of stock. It extends in a cross direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction between its longitudinal edges. And, for reasons of completion, it also has a thickness dimension which is by far the shortest dimension of the film laminate web. "Longitudinal end zone" in the context of the film laminate web as the intermediate product means an end zone extending along the longitudinal edges of the film laminate web being spaced apart from one another in the cross direction.

The basic advantage of the above presented web of film laminate is that it is pre-manufactured with slit zones along its longitudinal edges, so that these slit zones do not have to be formed during a manufacturing process of two- sided packagings. It is then sufficient for the manufacturer to form parallel slit zones in between the longitudinal edges, in order to form the lanes within the web of film laminate explained above.

If the dimensions of the packagings to be manufactured of a certain web of film laminate are known in time, the additional parallel slit zones can also be pre-manufactured in the intermediate products, in order to reduce the manufacturing effort for the packaging manufacturer. Since out of one and the same web of film laminate usually only identical packagiggs are manufactured, the plurality of slit zones are preferably evenly, in particular symmetrically with respect to the cross center of the web, distributed over the width of the intermediate product in the cross direction. This leads to slit zones being provided with essentially equal distances in the cross direction.

For the reasons set forth above, edge slits are provided in a film laminate with a linear density of not less than 3 per centimeter length of a longitudinal edge of the film laminate.

In cases of doubt, a "slit zone" in the sense of the present application is a virtual straight strip, mainly extending in the machine direction or mainly extending along a longitudinal edge of a packaging, that envelops all slits within that particular area of a film laminate web or a packaging. A straight virtual border line of a slit zone separates a slit area of a laminate from a non-slit area of the same.

For further advantages of the intermediate product reference is made to the appended claims as well as to the specification of the method and the two- sided packaging above.

The present invention is explained in further detail along with the accompanying drawings which display advantageous embodiments of the present invention. The drawings show in details:

Figure 1 a schematic view on a first embodiment of a method according to the present invention including a folding step and with a schematic view on an exemplary three-side seal pouch as a first embodiment a two-sided packaging according to the present invention,

Figure 2 a schematic view on a second embodiment of the method of the present invention allowing to manufacture four-side seal pouches as a second exemplary embodiment of a two-sided packaging according to the present invention,

Figure 3 a schematic view on a modified first embodiment of the method of the present invention allowing to manufacture four-side seal pouches,

Figure 4 a three-side seal pouch as a first embodiment of the two-sided packaging of the present invention,

Figure 5 a schematic view on sealing zones and a slit zone of the first embodiment of a two-sided packaging shown in figure 4,

Figure 6 a schematic view on a four-side seal pouch as a second embodiment of a two-sided packaging according to the present invention,

Figure 7 a schematic view on sealing and slit zones on the second embodiment of the two-sided packaging according to figure 6,

Figure 8 a schematic view on slit zones lying within sealings on the exemplary embodiments of two-sided packagings of the present invention, and

Figure 9 .different shapes of slits in slit zones according to the present invention together with their respective end-to-end direction(s).

In figure 1 , a reel of a film laminate web is generally designated with reference numeral 10. There, a film laminate 12 is wound about a reel axis 14 The web 16 of film laminate 12 has, as usual, a dimension that is longest in its longitudinal direction, which coincides with the direction in which it is unwound from the reel 10, and has a cross direction CDW, which coincides with the cross direction CD of the production plant on which the film laminate web 16 is processed.

The direction of movement of the film laminate 16 from the reel 10 to the finished product at the end of the process, here: three-side seal pouch 8 as an example, defines the machine direction MD of the production plant and the process.

The film laminate web 16, which may undergo one or several further processing steps that are not shown in figure 1 , may be folded about a folding axis FA, which extends preferably in the machine direction, in order to facilitate the folding of the web 16 even at higher moving speeds of web 16.

By the folding of the film laminate web 16 two film laminate portions 20 and 22 are made to overlap one another. These film laminate portions 20 and 22 are interconnected by a fold 24 extending around the folding axis FA. The overlapping portions 20 and 22 of the film laminate web 16 may form a front side film laminate 26 of the finished packaging 18 and may form a rear side film laminate 27 of the packaging 18 (see phantom line), which is not shown in figure 1 , since the front side film laminate 26 covers the rear side film laminate 27 in this figure. As an example, film laminate portion 20 may form the front side film laminate 26 and film laminate portion 22 may form the rear side film laminate of packaging 18.

In order to seal three-side seal pouch 18 as a first embodiment of a two- sided packaging of the present invention, sealings may be applied to the film laminate web 16 in its folded shape with overlapping portions 20 and 22.

More precisely, a longitudinal sealing 28, a first cross sealing 30 and a second cross sealing 32 may be formed. Although the sealings may be realized by adhesive bonding the.areas prede- termined for sealing of the film laminate web 16, heat sealing, as it is known in the art, is preferred as a bonding method. Of course, a packaging space 34 enclosed by the packaging 18, in particular by its front side film laminate 26 and its rear side film laminate 27 has to be filled with the product to be packaged before the last sealing is applied, whichever sealing of a longitudinal sealing 28 and the first and the second cross sealings 30 and 32 may be the last sealing.

The packaging 18 will be explained in more detail in connection with figures 4 and 5 below.

However, the packaging 18 in the given example is to be configured to be opened by tearing in the cross direction CD. To this end, a packaging slit zone 34 (see figures 4, 5a and 8), which is explained in more detail below, is provided on the packaging 18 as a tear initiation aid or a tear initiation location.

For providing such a slit zone 34, the reel 10 of a web 6 of film laminate 12 as a preferred prefabricated intermediate product can be used:

As it is clear from figure 1 , manufacturing two-sided packaging 18 implies directly sealing areas extending along the two opposite longitudinal edges 16a and 16b of the film laminate web 16 with one another.

Along each longitudinal edge 16a and 16b of the film laminate web 16, an area 36 and 38, respectively, is provided that is predetermined to receive the longitudinal sealing treatment. These areas 36 and 38 predetermined for longitudinal sealing extend a predetermined width in the cross direction CD of the production plant (or in the cross direction CDW of the film laminate web 16, which coincides with the cross direction CD) starting from the respective longitudinal edge 16a and 16b towards the cross center of web 16. In figure 1 , the areas 36 and 38 predetermined for receiving the longitudinal sealing treatment are marked by a three-dash-two-dot line.

In these areas 36 and 38 predetermined to receive longitudinal sealings, preferably completely within these ares, slit zones 40 and 42 may be pre- manufactured in the film laminate 6, so that the slits of the slit zones 40 and 42 do not have to be formed during the manufacturing process.

As an alternative, only one of the slit zones 40 and 42 may be provided in the web 16, while the respective other slit zone 42 or 40 is formed during the manufacturing process on the moving web 16. Of course, also both slit zones may be formed during the manufacturing process by appropriate tools, as for example blades, piercing, needles or even laser beams.

The slitting zones 40 and 42 reach from the longitudinal edges 16a and 16b in cross direction CD towards the cross center of the web 16. The border lines of the slit zones 40 and 42 are marked as fine dashed lines in figure .

If the slit zones 40 and 42, as it is preferable, lie completely within the areas 36 and 38, slits formed in the slit zones may penetrate the entire film laminate 12 in its thickness direction (the thickness direction is orthogonal to both the cross direction CDW of the web 16 and its longitudinal direction).

If the slits formed in the slit zones 40 and 42 penetrate only a sub-group of the total number of layers present in the film laminate 12, the slit zones 40 and 42 may extend in the cross direction CD even beyond the areas 36 and 38 predetermined for longitudinal sealing, since then the non-slit layer of the film laminate 12 provides for the tightness and integrity of the packaging space 34 of the packaging 18, which would not be the case, if the film laminate 12 was penetrated in its entire thickness. The slit zone 42 is shown enlarged in the right bottom of figure 1. Since slit zone 40 practically has the same configuration but is arranged in mi¾Or-sym- metry with respect to an axis of symmetry extending along the cross directional center of the film laminate web 16, in the following only slit zone 42 will be explained:

In the slit zone 42, a plurality of slits 44 are formed. The slits 44 may penetrate one or more or even all layers of the film laminate 12 of the web 16.

The slits 44 may in a preferred embodiment exhibit the shape of a straight line, wherein different slits 44 may have different lengths in their end-to-end direction E that is shown in figure 1 by a double arrow.

Additionally, two or more slits 44 may follow one another in a row direction R, to form a row of slits. Preferably, the end-to-end direction E of the slits 44 and the row direction R, in which the slits follow one another, coincide.

In the example of figure 1 , a multitude of rows of slits 44 are arranged in parallel along the machine direction MD.

The slits 44 comprise edge slits 44a and may moreover comprise material slits 44b.

While the material slits 44b have a "closed" rim, i. e. material slits 44b have a closed periphery and are fully encircled by the material of the layers of the film laminate 12 in which they are formed, the edge slits 44a extend to the longitudinal edge 16b of the web 16. Rims 46a of edge slits 44a do not follow a closed line, but merge with the longitudinal edge 16b of the film laminate 12 or the web 16, respectively, in such a way that the end-to-end direction of the edge slits 44a forms an angle, in the example of figure 1 preferably a right angle, with the longitudinal edge 16b of the film laminate web 16. Consequently, the edge slits 44a form a sort of micro notches serving as a tear initiation aid along their end-to-end direction. Such a tear once initiated through an edge slit 44a may be propagated by the consecutive material slits 44b, along the row direction R. Thereby, a reliable and reproducible tear initiation behavior can be ensured.

The slits may have a length in their end-to-end direction from 5 pm to 1.000 pm, preferably in the range of 50 pm to 200 pm, 300 pm, or even 500 pm or more.

One should be aware that the enlarged view in figure 1 is only an exemplary view and is not in scale.

The width W of slits 44 orthogonal to the end-to-end direction E can range from 1 pm to 20 pm, since preferably the slits 44 are formed by cutting or piercing such that the material continuation of the respective layers of the film laminate 12 is simply interrupted, without cutting material out of the film laminate 12. In this manner, undesirable waste is avoided.

Tear propagation can further be enhanced by using a film laminate 12 that has at least one oriented layer, the direction of orientation of which coincides with the cross direction CD of the production plant or the cross direction CD of the film laminate web 6.

Figure 2 shows a second embodiment of a method and a two-sided packaging of the present invention. ,

In the following the second embodiment of figure 2 will only be described in so far as it differs from the first embodiment shown in figure 1 , to the description of which is referred to otherwise. Components or component portions of the second embodiment that correspond in structure and/or design and/or function to components or component portions of the first embodiment are attributed the same numerals as in the first embodiment, but increased by 100.

The second embodiment in figure 2 is a rough schematic view on a production line which uses two separate film laminate webs 16 and 148. As in the first embodiment both webs 1 16 and 148 of film laminates 112 and 152, respectively, are provided on reels 110 and 150, respectively, from which they are unwound about reel axes 114 and 154, respectively. Reel axis 114 of reel 110 and reel axis 154 of reel 150 are preferably, but not necessarily, parallel. From the location where reels 110 and 50 are unwound at the beginning of the process, webs 116 and 148 are approached to one another during their movement in the machine direction D so that one of the webs 116 and 148 may form a front side film laminate 126, and the other web will form a rear side film laminate 127 of four-side-seal pouch 118, which forms a second preferred embodiment of a two-sided packaging according to the present invention. Consequently, the two laminates 116 and 148 at least in those portions which are predetermined to receive a sealing treatment to directly bond the laminates 1 6 and 148 to one another are approached to contact each other in the above-described approaching step.

The major difference between the first and second embodiments therefore is that in the first embodiment the front and the rear side film laminates 26 and 27 of the manufactured pouches originate from one an the same film laminate web 16, while in the second embodiment they originate from two separate film laminates 116 and 148.

Since in a four-side-seal pouch 118 no pouch edge is formed by a fold, the second embodiment allows for the production of a plurality of pouches in parallel lanes 156 out of the film laminate webs 116 and 148. In the example of figure 2 four parallel lanes 156 extending in the machine direction MD are shown for webs 116 and 148, two of which only are designated with reference numeral 156 for reasons of a better legibility.

Other than in the first embodiment, where a film laminate web 16 with prefabricated slit zones 40 and 42 is used, in the second embodiment non-slit webs 1 6 and/or 148 may be used, in which slit zones may be formed by a slitting tool 158 and 160, during the webs' movement in the machine direction MD. For example, slitting tool 58 may form slit zones in web 116, while slitting tool 160 may form slit zones in web 148.

Slitting tools 158 and 160 are preferably identical for the ease of maintenance and repair. Slitting tools 158 and 160 may, e.g. be provided in the form of rolls having slitting zones 162 in which cutting tools, like rigid blades, piercing needles and the like, are provided on their outer shell, be it over only a portion of or over their entire circumference.

The slitting tools 158 and 160 may roll on the surface of the corresponding web 116 and 148, which they contact, in a slipless manner, penetrating one or more layers of film laminates 2 and 152. The depth of penetration may easily be adjusted by the overall distance by which the cutting tools protrude from the outer shell of the slitting tool 158 and 160. ,

In order to avoid evasive movements of the webs 116 and 148 at their location of contact with the correspondingly associated slitting tool 158 and 160, respectively, a backing tool not shown in figure 2 may be present on the webs' surfaces facing away from their slitting tools 158 and 160, respectively, in order to create sufficient back pressure to enable the cutting tools of slitting tools 158 and 160 to disrupt the material continuity of the film laminate layers to be penetrated. Preferably, the entire web 116 and/or 148 is penetrated by slits 144 in its thickness direction. Inactive zones 164 of the shell of slitting tools 158 and 160 axially - with respect to the rolling axis about which slitting tools 158 and 160 rotate - in between slitting zones 162 may have a smooth surface that does not affect the contacted surface of the respective webs 116 and 148, in order to ensure that slit zones are only locally applied to the webs 116 and 148.

By the slitting process shown exemplarily in figure 2, slit zones are formed extending in the machine direction. In the embodiment of figure 2 slit zones formed by the slitting tool comprise edge slit zones 140 and 142 corresponding to slit zones 40 and 42 of the first embodiment extending along longitudinal edges 116a and 116b of web 116 as well as of web 148, and further comprises material slit zones 166 neighboring in cross direction CD by portions of film laminates 112 and 152 that are predetermined to remain unbonded and to directly enclose a packaging space 134 of the four-side-seal pouch 118. In the embodiment of figure 2 two edge slit zones 140 and 142 are formed, one along each longitudinal edge 1 6a and 116b and three material slit zones 166 are formed which are preferably equidistant to one another and to the edge slit zones 140 and 142. However, more or less than three material slit zones 66 may be formed.

The formation of slit zones 140, 142 and 166 by slitting tools 158 and 160 is only an option to arrive at a two-sided packaging 1 8 of the present invention. Alternatively, as in the first embodiment, a film laminate web 116 or 148 or both film laminate webs 116 and 148 may be used as intermediate products with prefabricated slit zones.

Again the slit zones 140, 142 and 166 are formed in areas 138 and 168 that are predetermined to receive a longitudinal sealing treatment, in order to directly bond laminate webs 116 and 148 to one another (see lower enlarged view on two-sided packagings 118 in figure 2). Here, area 168 is a strip area extending in the machine direction and predetermined to receive a longitudinal sealing that in the cross direction CD is neighbored by pouches 118 on each side, while area 138 is an edge area extending along a longitudinal edge 116b of web 16 which has a pouch118 or a packaging space 134 adjoining on only one side in the cross direction CD.

In the lower enlarged view of figure 2 borders of areas 142 and 168 are indicated by a three-dash-two-dot lines, while the borders of slit zones 142 and 166 are indicated by fine dashed lines. Preferably the borders of slit zones 142 and 166 on the one hand and predetermined areas 138 and 168 on the other hand run parallel to each other.

Further preferably, the cross directional centers of material slit zones 166 and their associated predetermined sealing areas 68 coincide so that these zones and areas form a symmetric pattern in the cross direction.

In a subsequent step the lanes 156 of webs 116 and 148 are cut in the machine direction along a cut line 170, indicated in the lower enlarged view of figure 2 by a fine dotted line, that preferably extends along the common cross directional centers of slit zones 166 and their respectively associated predetermined sealing areas 168, in order to individualize the two-sided packagings 1 18 out of the processed webs 1 6 and 148.

In a similar or better analoguous way, areas 172 predetermined to receive a cross sealing treatment will be cut along a cutting line 174 extending in the cross direction CD and being located preferably in a machine directional center of predetermined cross sealing area 172. Cutting line 174 is also indicated by a fine dotted line in figure 2.

Cutting line 170 extending in the machine direction MD will form cut longitudinal edges of substantially identical two-sided packagings 118, each being preferably adjoined in the cross direction by a partial slit zone and a partial longitudinal sealing resulting from cutting slit zones 166 and predetermined longitudinal sealing areas 168. Although the cutting step may theoretically be executed before or after the longitudinal sealings and cross sealings are formed, manufacturing is facilitated, if the cutting step is carried out after the formation of the sealings, since sealing immobilizes the overlapping portions with respect to one another, so that any inadvertant shift between the two overlapping web portions is avoided.

In the upper enlarged view of figure 2 a further enlarged detail of the lower enlarged view is shown, namely the position and orientation of slit zone 166 with respect to its associated predetermined longitudinal sealing area 168. There it can be seen that the slit zone 166 may be comprised of subsequent rows of slits 44, preferably having a substantially equal width of a one-digit or a low two-digit number of pm, and also preferably having a length in the end-to-end direction E that may vary within a range of 5 pm to 000 pm, or even more preferred of 50 pm to 300, 500 or 700 pm in an arbitrary manner. However, this is only a preferred embodiment and the length of the slits 144 may be equal for a majority of or even for all of slits 144. The uniform length is selected out of the above-mentioned range.

The upper enlarged view of figure 2 shows the position and orientation of cutting line 170 with respect to slits 144. As it can be seen, cutting line 170 extends through some slits 144 positioned centrally in slit zone 166, forming edge slits 144a in the finished two-sided packaging 118, while the remaining slits 144 remain unaffected by the cutting process along cutting line 170 and form material slits 144b in the finished two-sided packaging 118.

Figure 3 shows a modification of the first embodiment of figure 1 to illustrate that four-side-seal pouches 118 can be manufactured out of one single' film laminate web 16, if said web 16 is folded about a folding axis FA extending in the machine direction in the manner described above with regard to figure 1. The number of lanes and with it the number of parallel future two-sided pack- agings 118 obtained out of such a folded web 16 depends on the web's dimension in its cross direction CDW. As indicated by the scissor symbol in figure 3 the folded web 6 may be cut along its fold 24 to separate overlapping web portions 20 and 22, although this is not necessary. A longitudinal sealing may as well be formed on a present fold 24.

Again, a web 16 with pre-manufactured slit zones, as an intermediate product, may be used to carry out the manufacturing process to manufacture two-sided packagings 118. Alternatively or additionally, slitting tools not shown in figure 3 may be applied in the process of figure 3 to form slit zones in web 16 that have not been pre-manufactured. The slitting tools can be applied to the web 16 before or after the folding step. The advantage of applying a slitting tool before the folding step is that only one slitting tool is necessary, since only one web is to be formed with slit zones. The advantage of applying a slitting tool after the folding step is that the slit zones can be formed in the position in which they are finally needed, so that no inaccuracy can be incurred by the folding step.

Sectional view B-B shows how portions 20 and 22 of web 16 overlap without a fold connecting them. This sectional view applies to folded web 16, if it is cut along its fold 24 and also applies to webs 116 and 148 during their approach towards each other.

Figure 4 shows the configuration of three-side-seal pouch 18. Figure 4a is a front view of pouch 18, figure 4b is a cross sectional view and figure 4c is a detail of figure 4b showing an exemplary layer structure of film laminate 16.

In figure 4a a front view of three-side-seal pouch 18 of figure 1 is shown with first cross sealing 30, second cross sealing 32, longitudinal sealing 28 and slit zone 42 extending along a longitudinal edge 18b of packaging 18 having a smaller width than the longitudinal sealing 28. The packaging space 34 is fully enclosed by front side film laminate 26, rear side film laminate 27 (see figure 4b), fold 24 and sealings 28, 30 and 32. The fold 24 forms the other longitudinal edge 18a of packaging 18a. For reasons of completion: the cross edge of the packaging 18, that is closer to the first cross sealing 30 has reference numeral 18c, and the opposite cross edge closer to the second cross sealing 32 has reference numeral 18d. In the shown first embodiment, both longitudinal edges 26b and 27b of the front side and the rear side laminate 26 and 27, respectively, coincide and together form the longitudinal edge 18b of the two-sided pouch 18.

Figure 4b is a cross sectional view along section plane IVb-IVb in figure 4a, allowing a view into packaging space 34. Enlarged view 4c gives an example of a laminate structure of film laminate 12 and the resulting front side film laminate 26 or the rear side film laminate 27 integrally formed with front side film laminate 26. Here it can be seen that the front and the rear side of packaging 18 is formed by the front side film laminate 26 and the rear side film laminate 27 being integrally interconnected.

Web 12 or better front and rear side film laminates 26 and 27 may have an outer layer 76 of OPP, OPET, OPA or any other material commonly used in film laminate packaging. Preferably, at least the outer layer 76 carries the slits 44 and 46 of slit zone 42. The outer layer 76 is preferably oriented, most preferably monoaxially oriented, in order to promote tear propagation along its direction of orientation OD. To that end, the direction of orientation OD of outer layer 76 preferably coincides with the end-to-end direction E and/or the row direction R of slits 44 and 46 of slit zone 42.

Since the two-sided packaging 18 often is used to package food stuff or sensitive cosmetic products, it is preferable for laminate 12 to comprise a barrier layer 78, e.g. made out of EVOH or a metal layer, preferably an aluminum layer. Using EVOH as a barrier material allows to stretch barrier layer 78, preferably monoaxially, so that also layer 78 may be oriented, preferably with its direction of orientation OD coinciding with that of layer 76.

Barrier layer 78 may be sandwiched between outer layer 76 and an inner layer 80. Inner layer 80 is preferably used as a sealing layer, and can therefore be made out of any thermoplastic material, preferably however out of a polyolefin material like PE or PP. To assist in guiding tear propagation inner layer 80 may be an oriented layer of OPE or OPP, with its direction of orientation OD for apparent reasons coinciding with that of outer layer 76.

Outer layer 76 is preferably the thickest layer of film laminate 12, in order to prevail in tear guiding. This allows to use unoriented further layers in film laminate 12.

Film laminate 12 may include further layers or may be formed without barrier layer 78. For example, the outwardly facing surface of outer layer 76 may be printed and may carry an overlacquer.

In figure 5 the different treatments of a web portion, e.g. web portion 20 forming the future front side film laminate 26 of two-sided packaging 18, are shown.

Figure 5a shows the application of slit zone 42 to laminate portion 20, figure 5b shows the application of cross sealings 30 and 32 thereto and figure 5c shows the application of longitudinal sealing 28 to film laminate portion 20. Although there is no order of sequence in which the slit zone 42 and the sealings 28, 30 and 32 have to be applied to web portion 20, it is preferable to first form the slit zones 42 with the end-to-end direction E and/or the row direction R of their slits 44 coinciding with the direction of orientation OD of the at least one layer that receives the slitting treatment. The order of sequence of cross sealings 30 and 32 and longitudinal sealing 28 will be chosen by the skilled practitioner such that pouches 18 ca be filled with the respective machinery available.

Figure 6 substantially corresponds to figure 4 and shows a front view, a sectional view and a layer structure of a film laminate 112 and 152 used for manufacturing a four-side-seal pouch 8 in figures 6a, 6b and 6c, respectively. First cross sealing 130, second cross sealing 132 and first longitudinal sealing 128 fully correspond to sealings 30, 32 and 28 of two-sided packaging 18 of the first embodiment. In order to avoid repetitions, reference is made to the description of sealings 28, 30 and 32 in figures 1 and 4 to explain sealings 128, 130 and 132 in figure 6.

Additionally, two-sided packaging 118 of the second embodiment has a second longitudinal sealing 129 running parallel to the first longitudinal sealing 128. Second longitudinal sealing 129 extends along longitudinal edge 118a of packaging 118 that in turn is commonly formed by preferably coinciding longitudinal edges 126a and 127a of the front side and the rear side film laminates 126 and 127 of the pckaging 1 18. First longitudinal sealing 128, which extends along longitudinal edge 1 8b of packaging 118 that is commonly formed by preferably coinciding longitudinal edges 126b and 127b of the front side and the rear side film laminates 126 and 127, may for example be formed in predetermined longitudinal sealing area 138 of figure 2, and second longitudinal sealing 129 may be formed in predetermined longitudinal sealing area 168 of figure 2.

As well, first cross sealing 130 may be formed in predetermined cross sealing area 172 of figure 2.

Slit zone 166 associated to the second longitudinal sealing 129 may be that part of slit zone 166 applied to the film laminate web 1 12 that remained with the two-sided packaging 118 after cutting predetermined longitudinal sealing zone 168 along cutting line 170 in the machine direction. Figure 6b is a sectional view of two-sided packaging 118 of figure 6a along sectional plane Vib-Vlb. Here it can be seen that the front and the rear side of packaging 118 is formed by the front side film laminate 126 and the rear side film laminate 127.

Enlarged view of figure 6 shows an advantageous layer structure of film laminate 112 forming the front side film laminate 126 of two-side packaging 118. A rear side film laminate 127 resulting from film laminate 152 may be different in structure, but preferably is identical to the front side film, laminate 126.

The exemplary layer structure shown in figure 6c comprising outer layer 176, barrier layer 178 and inner layer 180 preferably corresponds to the layer structure shown in figure 5c. Therefore, all explanations given with respect to figure 5c also apply to figure 6c on the condition that reference numerals in explanations of figure 5c be increased by 100.

In case rear side film laminate 127 differs from front side film laminate 126, its inner layer should be made out of a compatible material to that of inner layer 180, in order to enable their bonding with each other by heat-sealing.

The view of figure 7 corresponds to that of figure 5, to the explanation of which explicit reference is made.

Figure 7 and its views of figure 7a to 7c correspond to figure 5 and its views of figures 5a to 5c. Figures 7a to 7c show the different slitting and sealing treatments that a laminate portion 120 of a future front side film laminate 126 may receive during the production of two-sided packaging 118.

This includes the formation of slit zones 142 and 166, e.g. by the slitting tool 158 shown in figure 2, the formation of a first and a second cross sealing 30 and 132, respectively, and the formation of first and second longitudinal sealings 128 and 129, respectively.

As is described with regard to figure 5 the formation of slit zpnes 142 and 166 may preferably be executed before forming the longitudinal and the cross sealings. However, this does not necessarily have to be so.

Again, the skilled practitioner will choose an order of formation of sealings 28, 129, 30 and 132 such that the manufactured two-sided packaging 18 can be filled with the respective good to be packaged by the available machinery. Although both of the longitudinal sealings 128 and 129 and/or both of the first and the second cross sealings 130 and 132 may be formed simultaneously, one or more sealings 128, 129, 130 and 132 may be formed one after the other.

Figure 8 shows the two embodiments 18 and 1 18 of two-sided packagings according to the present invention in view of a particular feature that serves to increase a linear density of edge slits 44a and 144a, respectively, along the slit zone bearing longitudinal edges 18b, 18a and 1 8b of the two-sided packagings 18 and 8, without increasing the linear density of edge slits 44a and 144a, respectively, in the individual front and rear side film laminates 26, 27, 126 and 127 of two-sided packagings 18 and 118, respectively.

As can be seen in the enlarged views of figure 8 where the longitudinal edges 26b, 27b as well as 26a, 127a and 26b and 127b of the front and rear side film laminates 26, 27 and 126, 127 are shown parallel to each other for illustrative reasons, the number of edge slits 144a in each longitudinal edge 26b, 27b, 126a, 127a, 126b and 127b per unit length (linear density of edge slits) of the front and rear side film laminates 26, 27 and 126, 127 is substantially the same. The individual locations of a majority of edge slits 144a, preferably all edge slits 144a, in a longitudinal edge 26b, 126a and 126b of a front side film laminate 26 and 126 do preferably not coincide with the corresponding locations of edge slits 144a in associated longitudinal edges 27b, 126b and 127b of the rear side film laminate 27 and 127 forming a common longitudinal edge 18b, 1 8a and 118b of a two-sided packaging 18, 118 of the present invention.

In other words: For each longitudinal edge 18b, 118a and 118b of a two- sided packaging 18, 1 8 of the present invention a majority of, preferably all edge slits 144a in longitudinal edges 26b, 27b as well as 126a, 127a and 126b and 127b of front and rear side film laminates 26, 27, 26 and 127 contributing to that longitudinal edge 18b, 118a and 118b have a different distance from a . common point of reference PR arbitrarily chosen on the longitudinal edge 18b, 18a and 118b of the two-sided packaging 18, 118.

Thereby, the number of edge slits 144a present on different locations along a longitudinal edge 18b, 118a and 118b of a two-sided packaging 18, 1 18 of the present invention can be significantly increased up to doubled. This allows a consumer to open a two-sided packaging 18, 118 of the present invention by tearing at whatever location the consumer prefers.

Due to the short length of the edge slits 44a, which practically have the effect of a micro notch, a tear initiation aid can be provided on the longitudinal edges 18b, 118a, 1 18b of two-sided packagings 18, 118 of the present invention without being noticeable at first glance to the customer, leading to an improved appearance of the packaging.

Since slits 144 are preferably formed without cutting out material from the respective film laminate webs 16, 116, 148, no waste is produced during the formation of the slits 144, leading to a stable and reliable production process.

Figure 9 shows different shapes of possible slits and their respective end-to- end direction E. Here it can be seen that cross-shaped or asterisk-shaped slits may have more then one end-to-end direction. There, a straight-line slit is designated with reference numeral 44, a star-shaped slit is designated with reference numeral 44', a curvilinear slit is designated with reference numeral 44", and a wave-shaped slit is designated with reference numeral 44'".

Claims

Method for manufacturing a packaging (18; 1 18) having a front side film laminate (26; 126), an opposite rear side film laminate (27; 127) and at least three continuous sealings (28, 30, 32; 128, 129, 130, 132) to bond the front side laminate (26; 126) and the rear side laminate (27; 127) directly together, the method comprising the following steps:

- moving at least one web (16; 116, 148) of film laminate (12; 1 2, 152) along a machine direction (MD),

- overlapping a portion (20; 120) of the moving film laminate web (27;

127) with a further portion (22) of a film laminate web (16; 1 16, 148) moving in parallel along the machine direction (MD),

- sealing a first cross sealing (30; 130) extending in a cross direction (CD), which is orthogonal to the machine direction (MD) and which is parallel to the overlapping laminate portions (20, 22; 120), thus bonding the overlapping film laminate portions (20, 22; 20) directly to each other within the area of the first cross sealing (30; 130),

- sealing a longitudinal sealing (28; 128, 129) extending in the machine direction (MD) thus bonding the overlapping film laminate portions (20, 22; 120) directly to each other within the area of the longitudinal sealing (28; 128, 129), and

- sealing a second cross sealing (32; 132) extending in the cross direction (CD) spaced apart from the first cross sealing (30; 130) in the machine direction (MD) thus bonding the overlapping film laminate portions (20, 22; 120) directly to each other within the area of the second cross sealing (32; 132),

wherein the first (30; 130) and the second cross sealings (32; 132) and the longitudinal sealing (28; 128, 129) are arranged so as to form one continuous sealing area,

characterized in that the method comprises the following further step: - within an area (36, 38; 138, 168) of the at least one moving film laminate, web (16; 116, 148) predetermined for forming the longitudinal sealing (28; 128, 129): forming in at least one layer (76, 78, 80; 176, 178, 180) of the moving film laminate web (16; 1 16, 148) at least one slit zone (40, 42; 142, 166) of a plurality of layer penetrating slits (44; 144), the slit zone (40, 42; 142, 166) extending in the machine direction (MD), wherein an end-to-end direction (E) of the slits (44, 144) in which slits (44, 144) extend from one end to their opposite other end includes an angle with the machine direction (MD), preferably a right angle.

2. The method according to claim 1 ,

characterized in that a dimension taken in the end-to-end direction (E) of the majority of slits (44; 144), preferably of each slit (44; 144), is shorter than the width of the slit zone (40, 42; 140, 142, 166) in the cross direction (CD), wherein further a plurality of slits (44; 144) within the slit zone (40, 42; 140, 142, 166) is arranged in a row along row direction (R).

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2,

characterized in that a plurality of parallel longitudinal sealings (28; 128, 29) is formed and further in that a plurality of parallel slit zones (40, 42; 140, 142, 166) is formed in the at least one layer (76, 78, 80; 176, 178, 180), each slit zone (40, 42; 140, 142, 166) being located within an associated area (36, 38; 138, 168) of the moving web (16; 116, 148) predetermined for forming a longitudinal sealing (28; 128, 129).

4. The method according to one of the preceding claims,

characterized in that the slit zone (166) is arranged such that its center in the cross direction (CD) coincides with the center of its associated longitudinal sealing area (168) in the cross direction (CD). The method according to one of the preceding claims,

characterized in that the width of the slit zone (40, 42; 140, 142, 166) in the cross direction (CD) is smaller than the width of its associated longitudinal sealing area (36, 38; 138, 168) in the cross direction (CD), preferably less than two thirds, more preferably less than half of the width of its associated longitudinal sealing area (36, 38; 138, 168).

The method according to one of the preceding claims,

characterized in that the overlapping step includes a folding step in which a portion (20) of the moving web (16) is folded, preferably about a folding axis (FA) extending in machine direction (MD), to overlap a portion (22) of the moving film laminate web (16) with this folded portion (20) of the same moving film laminate web (16) as the further portion (22) of a moving film laminate web (16).

The method according to one of claims 1 to 5,

characterized in that two separate webs (1 16; 148) of film laminates (112; 152) are moved in the machine direction (MD), wherein the overlapping step includes an approaching step, in which the two webs (116; 148) are arranged with their respective web cross directions (CDW) being essentially parallel and in which the distance between the webs (1 16; 148) is reduced as they move in the machine direction (MD).

The method according to one of the preceding claims,

characterized in that it comprises a cutting step in which the at least one moving film laminate web (116; 148) is cut in the machine direction (MD) within a slit zone (166), thereby separating the slit zone (166) into two partial slit zones with a cut path (170) of a cutting tool, that carries out the cutting step, crossing a plurality of slits (144) in the respective slit zone (166), such that a rim of a cut slit forms an immediate continuation of a cut edge formed during the cutting step along the cut path ( 70), including an angle between the cut edge and the rim, in order to form a tear initiation at the location of the cut slit.

9. The method according to claim 8,

characterized in that the cutting step is carried out after the longitudinal sealing step within and along the longitudinal sealing (28; 128, 129), thereby separating the longitudinal sealing (28; 128, 129) into two partial longitudinal sealings.

10. The method according to one of the preceding claims,

characterized in that the slits (44; 144) in the slit zone (40, 42; 140, 142, 166) are produced by cutting and/or piercing and/or punching.

1 . The method according to one of the preceding claims,

characterized in that the slits in the slit zone have an end-to-end dimension ranging from 5 pm to 1000 pm, preferably from 50 pm to 1000 pm and/or in that the slits have a shape of a straight line and/or a curved line and/or a cross and/or an asterisk and/or a circle.

12. The method according to one of the preceding claims,

characterized in that the slit zone (40, 42; 140, 142, 166) is formed penetrating a plurality of layers (76, 78, 80; 176, 178, 80), preferably all layers (76, 78, 80; 176, 178, 180) of the moving web (16; 1 16,

148).

13. The method according to one of the preceding claims,

characterized in that the slit zone (40, 42; 140, 142, 166) is formed in each of the overlapping portions (20, 22; 120) of the moving web

(16; 116, 148). A web (16) of film laminate, in particular for use in the method to be moved in the machine direction (MD), the film laminate (16) having at least one oriented layer (76) and at least one furtHer layer (78, 80), the oriented layer (76) preferably forming an outer side of the film laminate (16), the web (16) extending in a longitudinal web direction and in a cross direction (CDW) orthogonal to the longitudinal direction, wherein the dimension of the web in the longitudinal direction is greater than that in the cross direction (CDW),

characterized in that in at least one longitudinal end zone (40, 42), preferably both longitudinal end zones (40, 42), including a longitudinal edge (16a, 16b) of the web and ranging from that longitudinal edge (16a, 16b) in the cross direction into the web, a plurality of slits (44) penetrating at least the oriented layer (76), preferably a plurality of layers (76, 78, 80), more preferably all layers (76, 78, 80) of the web (16), is provided, wherein an end-to-end direction (E) of the slits (44) in which slits (44) extend from one end to their opposite other end includes an angle with the machine direction (MD), preferably a right angle, wherein at least some slits (44), in order to function as tear initiation location, are formed as edge slits (44a) and extend to the longitudinal edge (16a, 16b), such that a portion of a rim (46a) of an edge slit (44a) forms an immediate continuation of the longitudinal edge (16a, 16b) including an angle between the rim (46a) and the longitudinal edge ( 6a, 6b). 5. The web of film laminate according to claim 14,

characterized in that a dimension taken in the end-to-end direction (E) of the majority of slits (44), preferably of each slit (44), is shorter than the width of the longitudinal end zone (40, 42) in the cross direction (CDW), and wherein a row direction (R), along which at least two consecutive slits (44) are arranged in a row, includes an angle with the longitudinal edge (40, 42) of the web (16), preferably a right angle.

16. The web of film laminate according to claim 14 or 15, characterized in that the end-to-end direction (E) and/or the row direction (R) coincides with the direction of orientation (OD) of the at least one oriented layer (76). 7. The web of film laminate according to any one of claims 14 to 16, characterized in that the web (16) has at least one, preferably more than one further zone of slits extending parallel to the longitudinal end zones (40, 42). 8. The web of film laminate according to claim 17,

characterized in that the slit zones are provided with essentially equal distances in the cross direction (CD).

19. The web of film laminate according to any one of claims 14 to 18, characterized in that the slits (44) in the longitudinal end zone (40, 42) have an end-to-end dimension ranging from 5 pm to 1000 pm, preferably from 50 pm to 000 pm and/or in that the slits (44) have a shape of a straight line and/or a curved line and/or a cross and/or an asterisk and/or a circle.

20. A two-sided packaging (18; 118) having as a first side a front side film laminate (26; 126) forming a front side of the packaging (18; 18) and having as a second side a rear side film laminate (27; 127) forming an opposite rear side of the packaging (18; 1 18), and further having at least three continuous sealings (28, 30, 32; 128, 129, 130, 132), forming one single sealing area, to bond the front side laminate (26; 126) and the rear side laminate (27; 127) directly together, wherein each of the at least three sealings (28, 30, 32; 128, 129, 130, 132) extends along an associated edge (18b; 1 8a, 118b) of the packaging (18; 1 18) wherein at least one layer (76, 78, 80; 176, 178, 180) of the front side film laminate (26; 126) and/or the rear side film laminate (27; 127) is oriented in a direction of orientation (OD), the at least three sealings (28, 30, 32; 28, 129, 130, 132) comprising a first cross sealing (30; 130), a second cross sealing (32; 132), and a longitudinal sealing (28; 128, 129), the first and the second cross sealings (30, 32; 130, 132) including a first and a second angle, respectively, with the direction of orientation (OD), and the longitudinal sealing (28; 128, 129) including a third angle with the direction of orientation (OD) that is larger than each of the first and the second angle,

characterized in that in a slit zone (40, 42; 142, 166) of the packaging, which lies, preferably completely, within the longitudinal sealing (28; 128, 129), which extends along a longitudinal edge (18b; 118a, 118b) of the packaging (18; 118), and which ranges from the longitudinal edge (18b; 118a, 118b) in an orthogonal width direction towards a packaging space (34; 34) enclosed by the packaging (18; 1 8), a plurality of slits penetrating at least the oriented layer (76; 176), preferably a plurality of layers (76, 78, 80; 176, 178, 180), more preferably all layers (76, 78, 80; 176, 178, 180) of the front side and/or of the rear side film laminate is provided, wherein an end-to-end direction (E) of the slits (44, 144) in which slits (44, 144) extend from one end to their opposite other end, coincides with the direction of orientation (OD), wherein at least some slits (44, 144), in order to function as tear initiation locations, are formed as edge slits (44a; 144a) extending to the longitudinal edge (16a, 16b; 1 16a, 116b) of its film laminate (12; 112, 152) in which they are formed, such that a portion of a rim (46a; 146a) of an edge slit (44a; 144a) forms an immediate continuation the longitudinal edge (16a, 16b; 116a, 116b, 148a, 148b) of its film laminate (12; 112, 152) including an angle between the rim (46a; 146a) and the longitudinal edge (16a, 16b; 116a, 116b, 148a, 148b).

21. The two-sided packaging according to claim 20,

characterized in that a dimension taken in an end-to-end direction (E) of an end-to-end extension of the majority of slits (44; 144), preferably of each slit (44; 144), is shorter than the width of the slit zone (40, 42; 142, 166) in the width direction, and a row direction (R), along which at least two consecutive slits (44; 144) are arranged in a row that includes an angle with the longitudinal edge (16a, 16b; 116a, 116b, 148a, 148b).

22. The two-sided packaging according to claim 20 or 21 ,

characterized in that the two cross sealings (30, 32; 130, 132) are parallel, so that the first and the second angle are identical, preferably are zero degrees, and in that further the longitudinal sealing (28; 128, 129) extends orthogonal to the first and the second cross sealings (30, 32; 130, 132), preferably extending in the direction of orientation (OD), so that the third angle is preferably is a right angle.

23. The two-sided packaging according to any one of claims 20 to 22, characterized in that each of the front side (26; 126) and the rear side film laminates (27; 127) have a slit zone (40, 42; 142, 166) with edge slits (44a; 144a), wherein each slit zone (40, 42; 142, 166) has a linear edge slit density of at least three edge slits per centimeter length of the associated longitudinal edge (26b, 27b; 126a, 127a, 126b, 127b) of its film laminate (26, 27; 126, 127), wherein at least a part of the edge slits (44a; 144a), preferably- the majority of edge slits (44a; 144a), more preferably all edge slits (44a; 144a) of the front side (26; 126) and the rear side film laminates (27; 127) at the same longitudinal packaging edge (18b; 118a, 18b), have a different distance from a common reference point (PR) at the longitudinal packaging edge (18b; 18a, 118b) formed by the longitudinal edges (26b, 27b; 126a, 127a, 126b, 127b) of the front side (26; 126) and the rear side film laminates (27; 127).

24. The two-sided packaging according to any one of claims 20 to 23, characterized in that the slit zone (40, 42; 142, 166), preferably each slit zone (40, 42; 142, 166), in addition to the edge slits (44a; 144a) has material slits (44b; 144b) which are located at a distance to the longitudinal edge (26b, 27b; 126a, 127a, 126b, 127b) of their film laminate (26, 27; 126, 127), which have a closed rim periphery, and which are fully encircled by the layer material of the at least one material layer (76, 78, 80; 176, 178, 80) in which they are formed.

25. The two-sided packaging according to any one of claims 20 to 24, characterized in that it has exactly three sealings (28, 30, 32), each extending along an associated edge (18b) of the packaging (18), and in that a fourth edge of the packaging opposite the edge (18b) associated to the longitudinal sealing (28) is formed by folding a film laminate (16), so that the front side film laminate (26) and the rear side film laminate (27) are identical.

26. The two-sided packaging according to any one of claims 20 to 25, characterized in that the longitudinal sealing (128) is a first longitudinal sealing (128), and further in that it has exactly four sealings (128, 129, 130, 132), each extending along an associated edge of the packaging (1 18a, 118b), and in that along a fourth edge (118a) of the packaging (118) opposite the edge (118b) associated to the first longitudinal sealing (128) a second longitudinal sealing (129) is formed, preferably parallel to the first longitudinal sealing (128).

27. The two-sided packaging according to claim 26,

characterized in that the second longitudinal sealing (129) is formed in an analoguous manner to the first longitudinal sealing (128) as is described in at least one of claims 20 to 25, with the directive that

..longitudinal sealing" is to be replaced by ..second longitudinal sealing".

The web of film laminate according to any one of claims 20 to 27, characterized in that the slits (44; 144) in the slit zone (40, 42; 142, 166) have an end-to-end dimension ranging from 5 μηη to 1000 μιτι, preferably from 50 μιτι to 1000 m and/or in that the slits (40, 42; 142, 166) have a shape of a straight line and/or a curved line and/or a cross and/or an asterisk and/or a circle.