Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Packaged or wrapped product – Multiple discrete packages containing same material
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-08
2001-07-24
Cano, Milton (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Packaged or wrapped product
Multiple discrete packages containing same material
C426S115000, C426S118000, C383S103000, C229S087050
Reexamination Certificate
active
06265002
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to non-hermetic seals. More specifically, the present invention relates to non-hermetic seals used for sealing individually wrapped items of food and to methods and apparatus for forming such non-hermetic seals.
FIG. 1A
shows a front view of a portion of a prior art chain
100
of individually wrapped food items.
FIGS. 1B and 1C
show sectional views of chain
100
taken along lines
1
B—
1
B and
1
C—
1
C, respectively, as shown in FIG.
1
A.
FIG. 1B
additionally shows figuratively an apparatus
101
for forming chain
100
.
Chain
100
includes a series of packets
110
. Each pair of adjacent packets
110
in chain
100
is separated by a transversal seal area
112
. As shown in
FIGS. 1A and 1C
, a longitudinal seal area
113
also extends along one side of chain
100
in a direction substantially perpendicular to the transversal seal areas
112
. As shown in
FIGS. 1B and 1C
, an item of food
114
(e.g., a slice of cheese) is encased within each packet
110
. Each packet is characterized by a length L and a height Hp. Each transversal seal area
112
is characterized by a length L (equal to the length of the packets) and a height Hs. When the food items
114
are cheese slices, typical dimensions for L, Hp, and Hs are 86 mm (millimeters), 85 mm, and 15 mm, respectively.
Apparatuses for forming chain
100
are well known in the art and one example of apparatus
101
(indicated in
FIG. 1B
) is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,542,570 (which is assigned to L. D. Schreiber Cheese Company, Inc. and which was invented by Robert G. Bush and Gilbert H. Hannon). Briefly, apparatus
101
is coupled to a source of food
102
and a large roll
103
of flexible wrapping material (e.g., cellophane). Roll
103
feeds a sheet of wrapping material
104
into apparatus
101
and food source, or nozzle,
102
injects food (e.g., viscous cheese) into apparatus
101
. Apparatus
101
forms the sheet
104
into a tube as indicated generally in
FIG. 1D
, which shows a perspective view of a portion of the tube. Apparatus
101
also uses heat or pressure to form longitudinal seat area
113
by pressing overlapping portions of the tube together as indicated in FIG.
1
D. Apparatus
101
also presses selected portions of sheet
104
together to form transversal seal areas
112
and thereby forms the sheet
104
into packets
110
. For example, as shown in the perspective view of
FIG. 1E
, apparatus
101
presses portions
126
and
128
of sheet
104
together to form a single transversal seal area
112
. Food source
102
injects the food item into the packets
110
as the packets are being formed. The sheet of wrapping material
104
used to form packets
110
, seal areas
112
, and seal areas
113
is preferably moisture proof and gas proof so the packets
110
can adequately preserve the freshness of the food items
114
. Although
FIGS. 1A and 1B
only show five packets
110
in chain
100
, those skilled in the art will appreciate apparatus
101
forms the chain
100
continuously, and the chain
100
can include many more packets
100
.
FIG. 1F
shows a magnified front view of one of the seal areas
112
shown in
FIGS. 1A and 1B
.
FIG. 1G
shows a sectional view of the seal area taken along the line
1
G—
1
G shown in FIG.
1
F. For convenience of illustration, the longitudinal seal area
113
is not shown in FIG.
1
F. As shown, each seal area
112
includes eight parallel sealed strips
122
and seven unsealed strips
124
, with an unsealed strip
124
separating each pair of adjacent sealed strips
122
. Each of the sealed strips
122
and unsealed strips
124
extends across the full length L of the seal area
112
. The sealed strips are typically formed by pressing portions of the sheet
104
of wrapping material tightly together and by locally heating the wrapping material (e.g, a strip of portion
126
and a strip of portion
128
, as shown in
FIG. 1E
, would be pressed together to form a single sealed strip
122
). At the sealed strips
122
, the portions of wrapping material are permanently bonded together, and the sealed strips can not be “unsealed” without tearing or otherwise damaging the wrapping material. The collection of sealed strips
122
in seal area
112
forms a tight hermetic seal between the two adjacent packets
110
and thereby protects the freshness of the food items
114
.
The unsealed strips
124
are formed by adjacent portions of the sheet
104
of wrapping material that have not been sealed together. As shown in
FIG. 1G
, a small amount of trapped air may separate the two portions of wrapping material at the unsealed strips
124
. However, even if the trapped air were eliminated permitting the portions of wrapping material to contact one another at the unsealed strips
124
, the portions of wrapping material would not be not bonded together at the unsealed strips
124
. As shown in
FIG. 1G
, the unsealed strip
124
a
is formed by a portion
130
of sheet
104
(shown in
FIG. 1B
) and by a portion
132
of sheet
104
(shown in FIG.
1
B). The portions
130
,
132
are not bonded together and are held in place with respect to one another only by the adjacent sealed strips
122
. The portions of the sheets used to form each of the unsealed strips are held in place with respect to one another only by the adjacent sealed strips.
In a typical food production process, after chain
100
is formed, the packets
110
are separated from one another (e.g., by slicing the seal areas
112
in half along their length L) and then stacked to form a stack
200
as shown in FIG.
2
. Stack
200
is then normally encased in an outer wrapping (not shown), and sold as a collection of individually wrapped food items (e.g., individually wrapped slices of cheese).
FIG. 3A
shows a side view of an apparatus
300
for forming seal areas
112
. Apparatus
300
would normally be considered a part of apparatus
101
(shown in FIG.
1
B). Apparatus
300
includes two wheels
310
, and each of the wheels is studded with a set of four cleats
312
a
,
312
b
,
312
c
, and
312
d
. The chain
100
is threaded between the two wheels
310
and travels downwards as the wheels rotate synchronously in the directions indicated by arrows
314
. In the position of apparatus
300
illustrated in
FIG. 3A
, cleats
312
a
from both wheels
310
are simultaneously pressing two portions of sheet
104
of wrapping material (between the two packets
110
) together to form a seal area
112
. The cleats
312
are typically heated so a combination of pressure and heat is used to form the seal areas
112
. As the wheels
310
rotate, corresponding cleats from both wheels periodically meet to form one of the seal areas
112
. Wheels
310
are disposed so their outer perimeters (in areas without cleats) are separated by a distance at least as large as the width of packet
110
, so the packets
110
can pass undisturbed through the wheels
310
as the wheels rotate.
FIG. 3A
shows a clamped area
316
at the top of the upper packet
110
. Clamped area
316
is typically formed by clamping or squeezing the two sheets wrapping material together tightly enough to temporarily hold the sheets of wrapping material together, but not tightly enough to permanently bond the sheets of wrapping material together. Although clamped area
316
defines (at least temporarily) the shape of packet
110
, the food item in the packet
110
is not adequately sealed (so as to preserve freshness) until the clamped area
316
passes through the cleats
312
of sealing apparatus
300
and is thereby turned into a proper seal area
112
.
FIGS. 3B
,
3
C, and
3
D show magnified front, side, and perspective views, respectively, of one of the cleats
312
of apparatus
300
. As shown, cleat
312
has a generally corrugated appearance and defines eight distinct bearing surface strips
320
, with each of the bearing surface strips extending across the entire length L (equal to the length of the seal area
112
) of the cleat
312
.
FIG. 3E
shows a magnified side view of two c
Cano Milton
Dauerman Sherry A.
Hale and Dorr LLP
Kustner Industries S.A.
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