Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Packaged or wrapped product – Having consumer oriented diverse utility
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-02
2002-05-28
Bhat, Nina (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Packaged or wrapped product
Having consumer oriented diverse utility
C426S123000, C053S329000, C383S097000, C383S207000, C383S209000, C206S005000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06395317
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is related to a process and apparatus for forming a dual compartment storage and cooking package for food items such as a boil-in-bag package that includes a bag with a handle and a sealing and release mechanism for easily dispensing the food item from the package. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a dual compartment pouch and a process and apparatus for forming it from a continuous web of material.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The use of pouch-type packages or plastic bags for packaging, storing and subsequent cooking or heating of various food items by suspending the bag in boiling water or by microwave is commonplace. Such a plastic pouch or bag for cooking is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,615,712 and 3,819,089. In practice, the plastic bags are typically formed in a tubular configuration, cut to length and sealed at one end. After being filled with the desired contents, such as rice or other food items, the bags are typically sealed at the remaining opened end.
Many forming processes and apparatuses are known for converting a web of flexible material into these individual pouches, which may be made in-line with filling and final sealing stations. Such typical machines are generally classified as either horizontal type or vertical type forming machines. Such machines employ mechanisms for continuously moving the webbed material through the various stations of the machine, or they may intermittently move the webbed material while controlling the various operations to occur during rest periods between movements.
Pouches that are formed from a continuous web of flexible material are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,774,797 to Colamussi et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,370 to Titchenal and U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,901 to Chung et al. An example of a horizontal forming machine with intermittent movement that is used to manufacture relatively complex individual food containers from a continuous web of material is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,361,235 to Gautier. Such known processes initially include folding a continuous web of material into two sidewalls with a bottom gusset extending therebetween in a generally W shape. Thereafter, various heat sealing and cutting operations are sequentially performed between intermittent movements of the web to produce specialized packages. U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,365 to Garvey et al. also describes a process and apparatus for producing individual product pouches with horizontal-type-form-fill-seal machines. The Garvey et al. patent describes forming pouches from a continuous supply of flexible webbed material by folding the material into two sidewalls and a bottom gusset and performing one or more forming operations on only one of the gusset portions and lower sidewall combinations at a time. During the forming operations, a separation element is inserted within the bottom gusset to effectively isolate one of the gusset portions and lower sidewall combinations from the other.
It is also well known to have plastic sealing and release mechanisms, such as zipper closure structures on these pouches. As discussed above, the pouches are typically made in a continuous form and must be separated from adjoining pouches at a line of separation. Typically, the closed zipper is supplied from a roll and is fed to the pouch forming machine and placed in proximity to the upper end of the folded sheet of material forming the front and the rear panels of the pouch. The zipper is bonded to the opposite side wall surfaces of the pouch and the opposite side edges of the pouch are sealed along lines extending transversely to the elongated zipper, passing through the mass in the zipper. Because of the mass of the zipper structure, sealing the sides of the pouch in the area of the zipper structure has been a problem. As solution to this problem has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,438 to Laudenburg in which the mass of the plastic zipper structure is reduced at opposite side edges of the pouch by forming holes passing through the interlocking tongue and groove portion of the zipper so that the subsequent heating of the side edges of the pouch results in sealing of the pouch side edges with less time and heat that otherwise would be required. See also U.S. Pat. No. 4,246,228 to Sandborn, Jr.
Thus, an object of the invention is to provide a dual compartment pouch and a process for forming a U-shaped tubular pouch having two inside walls and two outside walls that form a two compartment pouch.
Another object of the invention is to provide a tubular pouch having a zipper fastener that mechanically closes the open ends of the pouch by trapping the pouch film within the zipper profile.
A further object of the invention is to provide a U-shaped tubular pouch in which the contents are dispensed from the bottom of the pouch.
A further object of the invention is to provide a process for applying a zipper fastener to pouch film in which one portion of the zipper fastener is sealed to the film and the other portion of the zipper fastener is used to re-close an open end of the pouch.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The subject invention is directed to a dual compartment package for storage and cooking and/or delivery of consumable products. The package is formed from an elongated rectangular shaped bag section that forms a U-shaped package having two inside walls, two outside walls, and open top and bottom ends. A handle section is adjacent the top and bottom ends in which the handle section has an upper and a low portion, and a first and second side. The package also includes a sealing/release assembly having two interlocking members configured to releaseably close at least one of the two open ends of the U-shaped package by capturing at least one of the two open ends between the two interlocking members, the sealing/release assembly is positioned on the handle section. The U-shaped package forms two compartments that are separately filled with a product, in which the product is dispensed from the bottom end of the package after one of the interlocking members is released from the sealing/release assembly.
The dual compartment package can also be formed with a seal between the two compartments of the U-shaped package thereby preventing the intermingling of the products contained in the two compartments. In this embodiment the two open ends are captured between the two interlocking members of the sealing/release assembly and the product is dispensed from the top and bottom ends of the package after one of the interlocking members is released from the sealing/release assembly.
The invention is also directed to a process and apparatus for forming a dual compartment package that includes forming an elongated rectangular U-shaped package having an inside and outside wall configured to form an open top end and an inside and outside wall configured to form an open bottom end. The two compartments of the U-shaped package are filled with product. A zipper assembly having inter-locking members is separated into a first zipper component and a second zipper component. The first zipper component is attached to the inner side of the open top end walls thereby sealing the top end to the first zipper component. The open bottom end walls are placed adjacent the first zipper component and the second zipper component is reattached to the first zipper component thereby locking the open bottom end walls between the inter-locking members of the zipper assembly.
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Blythe David A.
Holten Stephen R.
Singh Balbir
Willison Gary
Bhat Nina
Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P.
Mars Incorporated
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