Special receptacle or package – With pallet feature – Knockdown or collapsible type
Patent
1982-11-29
1985-10-29
Shoap, Allan N.
Special receptacle or package
With pallet feature
Knockdown or collapsible type
383 35, 383 62, 383 77, B65D 2736
Patent
active
045496579
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention generally relates to the construction and manufacture of bags and more specifically to a bag structure that facilitates opening and reclosing of a bag and the apparatus for manufacturing such a bag.
Bags are used for storing a wide variety of contents and are composed diverse materials. Although this invention can be utilized and applied to many different bags, it is particularly suited for bags that are used for packaging snack foods and the like and that are composed of thin cellophane or organic polymer base material that has limited tear resistance.
Hundreds of millions of these bags are manufactured each year. They are manufactured in a combined form-and-fill apparatus. More specifically, in such apparatus sheet material is drawn past a guide which directs the material into a tubular form surrounding a mandrel. As the material is drawn along the mandrel, an overlapping seam is formed in the material sealed by a heat or pressure sealing process. The material is thus formed into a tube as it passes over the mandrel. The material then passes heat sealing jaws that are disposed to form a transverse heat seal across the tube thereby to simultaneously "form" an upper seal in one bag and a bottom seal on an adjacent bag. When this occurs, the contents can "fill" the bag through a passage in the mandrel. The resulting bag then contains a longitudinal seal along the material seam and seals at the ends that define an hermetically sealed pouch for the contents. The sealing jaws normally also contain a mechanism for severing the completely sealed bag for subsequent shipment. This "form-and-fill" manufacturing process is widely accepted because it is reasonably simple, requires a minimal number of operations, and is reliable.
However, bags formed by this process are not without their problems as purchasers of snack or like contents of such bags are well aware. The bags can be difficult to open and do not facilitate reclosure if the contents are only partially consumed. Typically a purchaser will attempt to open the bag either by tearing through the seal or by trying to separate the seal. When an attempt is made to tear through the seal, the tear detection and length are random. The nature of the material is such that the tear could travel in any direction and depending on the force utilized to start the tear could travel for various distances. If the purchaser grabs the oppositely spaced walls of the pouch and then tries to pull the walls apart to separate the seal, a random opening also can occur. Specifically the force required to separate that seal varies widely and is not predictable. In either case, the opening procedure is not controlled or predictable. As a result, the bag oftentimes tears and is thus destroyed. Moreover, whether the bag tears or not, the operation often causes the contents to spill.
Generally these bags contain perishable contents or contents that become stale if exposed to air. If the contents of such bags are only partially consumed, it is not easy to reclose the bags thereby to preserve the freshness of the remaining contents. The open end of the bag, assuming it remains intact during the opening procedure or opening operation, can be rolled up; however, at rest the bag tends to resume its original shape and the rolled portion straightens thereby opening the bag and exposing the contents to air. Thus it is difficult to reclose the bag without some separate element.
A great deal of research and development has been expended in order to provide a bag which is easy to open and which can be simply reclosed. A number of solutions have been proposed.
Some bags have been designed in an attempt to solve both the opening and reclosing problems. Generally these bags include some structure for assisting or directing the tear and some separate, removable element that can be used to reclose the bag if the contents are only partially consumed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,184,149 discloses a resealable bag. This bag includes a sheet of flexible material hav
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Gehman Bryon
Shoap Allan N.
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