Peelable package and peelable packaging method

Details Peelable package and peelable packaging method Peelable package and peelable packaging method

2000-12-15

2003-05-27

Bui, Luan K. (Department: 3728)

Special receptacle or package

Laminate sheet packet

C206S530000, C206S534100, C383S210000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06568533

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a peelable package capable of keeping its interior airtight when closed and easily opening by being pulled and peeled with a relatively weak force, if required, and to a peelably packaging method. More specifically, the present invention concern a peelable package which can be easily opened by even a person having handicapped fingers. The peelable package can readily open up to a predetermined position in an opening direction with a peeling strength abruptly increased at the predetermined position, and stop opening with assuredness at the predetermined position. Besides, it can be put into practice easily and inexpensively.
2. Background Art
A known example of a package for a tablet or the like is a so-called peelable package which arranges a tablet or the like object to be packed between, for example, two package sheets and adheres predetermined portions of both sheets to each other with heat and under pressure to form a weakly-sealed portion around the object to be packed. This peelable package is provided with a grip flap at an end of each sheet. The sheets are peeled and separated from each other by grasping the grip flaps to open the weakly-sealed portion and take out the packed object.
At least one of the sheets composing the peelable package has an inner surface on which a peelable layer is formed from a resin having little strength so as to be able to peel the respective sheets without damaging them. The grip flap mostly has a length set to a minimum width that finger tips can pick up, for example, about 5 mm, in order to make the medicine package compact.
However, the prior art has the following problems:
(A) It is not easy to open by picking up the grip flaps each set to about
5
mm with finger tips for a patient, e.g., a rheumatoid patient, who experiences difficulty when moving his finger tips delicately and pulling an object with a force put on his finger tips;
(B) The peelable package can easily open by pulling and peeling both sheets with a relatively weak force. However, while an insufficient opening size makes it impossible to take out the packed object, an excessive opening makes the packed object readily jump out of the package. Therefore, it is not easy to open the package up to an adequate position;
(C) The packed object is likely to jump out because the grip flaps of both sheets are unsealed by both hands so as to result in opening the package too much. When the jumped out object is received with hands and picked up by finger tips, it may become unsanitary due to the dirt on finger tips and the like. Further, there is a likelihood that the jumped out object might fall on the floor due to failure to satisfactorily receive it. Therefore, it might be lost or dirtied and damaged.
More specifically, for instance, as shown in
FIG. 25
, the conventional peelable package forms its rear part as a ]-shaped sealed portion
89
and has a non-sealed area
87
formed so as to extend to a rear end portion of a weakly-sealed portion
83
in the same width. Thus, as shown in FIG.
25
(A), before opening the rear part, a tablet
82
is sandwiched between two vertical upright package sheets
81
,
81
, and each sheet
81
has a horizontal bulge
88
in an amount corresponding to the tablet
82
. When the package starts opening from this state to a bottom side
90
as shown in FIG.
25
(B), both sheets
81
,
81
are horizontally opened. In other words, both sheets
81
,
81
let the bulges
88
quickly disappear somewhere between a state shown in FIG.
25
(A) and a state shown in FIG.
25
(B) to become planar. During the process while these bulges
88
quickly disappear, the tablet
82
on the sheets
81
,
81
receives reaction therefrom to jump out in many cases. Further, as shown in FIG.
25
(B), when it reaches the bottom side
90
of the ]-shaped sealed portion
89
, the weakly-sealed portion
83
rapidly increases its area. This results in abruptly stopping the peeling operation at a position of the bottom side
90
. At this time, the sheets
81
,
81
undergo stress to vertically vibrate with ease, thereby causing the tablet
82
to fall down more easily.
Then, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 3-111267, one of the conventional peelable packages increases a sealing width at a midway portion in an opening direction of a weakly-sealed portion to enhance a peeling strength of the thus widened portion so as to stop the opening operation at an appropriate position.
More specifically, as shown in
FIG. 26
, this peelable package has a peelable layer formed on either surface of at least one of package sheets
81
a
, which layer is adhered with heat and under pressure to the other package sheet
81
b
, thereby forming the weakly-sealed portion
83
around the object
82
to be packed. The weakly-sealed portion
83
forms at its midway portion in an opening direction a wide portion
84
where a sealing width of the weakly-sealed portion
83
is increased.
When opening this peelable package
80
, both sheets
81
a
and
81
b
are peeled and separated from each other by holding grip flaps
85
until they experience an enhanced opening resistance at the wide portion
84
having a peeling strength higher by an amount corresponding to the increase of the sealing width. As a result, the opening operation stops at this wide portion
84
. There may be expected an effect of preventing the packed object from jumping out.
However, the conventional technique has increased this sealing width at its midway portion and therefore has the following problems:
(D) The above-mentioned package is directed to a relatively large product such as a test instrument. It is used in a case where the product has a portion disclosed and the disclosed portion is gripped to take the product out thereof Therefore, as for a small and light products such as a tablet, even if a bag portion of the package has a portion opened, it does not assure the capability of taking out all the tablets without failure. Further, it will become difficult for a person having handicapped finger tips to take the tablets out of the bag portion having only a portion opened without dropping the tablets. This results in a need to open a large part of the bag portion or fully open it. Therefore, it is desired to use a technique so as to prevent the tablet or the like from falling out while opening the large part of the bag portion or fully opening it.
(E) In general, the package cannot be made excessively larger than the object to be packed. If made excessively larger, it causes an economical disadvantage. Therefore, the wide portion
84
is limited, at largest, to about twice a width of the portion of the weakly-sealed portion
83
to be opened up thereto. However, the weakly-sealed portion of the peelable package is smoothly going to separate once it starts peeling. Accordingly, even if the peeling strength becomes about as large as twice an initial one at a halfway point, this does not resist the opening so much that it subsequently separates the wide portion to result in being apt to open the package to more than a predetermined length. As a result, even the conventional technique is still likely to let the packed object jump out and fall on the floor inadvertently.
The following is an example of other methods for increasing the peeling strength at a proper position in a direction of opening a weakly-sealed portion.
It is a method of utilizing a peelable package material made through a so-called part coating which forms a peelable layer only on a portion to be opened, and adheres substrate resin directly to the other package material at the other portion. However, this example requires precise positioning of the portion forming the peelable layer and the portion accommodating the object to be packed, which makes it difficult to put it into practice. In addition, many kinds of peelable package materials must be prepared depending on the shape and size of the object to be packed. Thus it has a problem of being trou

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