US3162539A - Packaging arrangements - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 22, 1964 J. P. REPKO PACKAGING ARRANGEMENTS :5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 12, 1962 Dec. 22, 1964 REPKO 3,162,539

PACKAGING ARRANGEMENTS Filed Feb. 12, 1962 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR (705 PR3? fio Dec. 22, 1964 J. P. REPKO PACKAGING ARRANGEMENTS 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Feb. 12, 1962 Jofizz P2522 2 BY 9% Mia QitZZ/? United States Patent Oflice 3,162,539 Patented Dec. 22, 1964 3,162,539 PACKAGXNG ARRANGEMENTS John P. Repko, Parma, ()hio, assignor to The Dow Qhemieai Company, Midland, Mich, a corporation of Delaware Filed Feb. 12, 1962, Ser. No. 172,599 1 Claim. (2. 99-171) This invention relates to an improvement in product wrapper arrangements and methods related thereto.

The art with which the invention is concerned, is of course, well established and many types of carton and wrapper arrangements have been proposed and utilized with varying degrees of success for each intended purpose.

The wrapper of the invention is formed from a thin sheet of heat scalable plastic film, such as polyethylene. Among the features associated with a carton or package wrapper incorporating the principles of the invention are; provision of easy opening for removal of the package contents, assurance of protection of the contents against contamination throughout all stages of handling, elimination of sticking together of the contents of each package, and reduction of packaging costs.

Easy opening is provided by use of serrated tear lines, which may be preformed, or made in a wrapping machine at the time of Wrapping a carton, or forming a packet. Since the overwrap material may be applied to a product in frozen condition, full protection of the product is assured during all stages of handling. The formation of interconnected, similar size packets, not only allows the stacking of the packets in folded condition, thus providing efficient utilization of storage space, but allows convenient removal of one or more packets as desired for use. The packets also do not adhere together when placed in abutting relationship, thereby avoiding sticking of the wrapped products and allowing easy removal of each wrapped product when desired. Since each packet is formed without the need for backing material, either in the packet, or in the formation of the packet seams, reduction of packaging costs is made possible.

The main object of this invention is to provide an improvement in product wrapper arrangements and methods related thereto.

A more specific object is to provide a product wrapper arrangement which allows easy removal of the product.

Another object is to provide a product wrapper arrangement which guards the product against contamination throughout all stages of handling.

Still another object is to provide a product wrapper arrangement which lends itself to folding to effectively utilize storage space, and Without sticking together of each packet forming part of the arrangement.

A further object is to provide a product wrapper arrangement wherein a reduction of packaging cost is made available.

These and further objects and features of the invention will become more apparent from the following descrip tion and accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a strip package arrangement illustrative of an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the strip package of FIG. 1 shown in folded condition;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged plan view showing a packet being removed from the strip package arrangement of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a further enlarged view showing an opened packet;

FIG. 5 illustrates the ease with which a product may be removed from an opened packet of the PEG. 1 type;

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a strip package arrangement illustrating a modified form of the invention;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged plan View showing an opened packet after being removed from the strip package arrangement of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 illustrates the ease with which a product may be removed from an opened packet of the FIG. 6 type;

FIG. 9 is a perspective-like view or" a roll of material used in the formation of the strip package arrangement of FIG. 6;

FIG. 10 is a perspective-like view of a package covering representative of another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 11 is the same but showing an end cover portion being removed;

FIG. 12 is a plan view of a sheet of material used in formation of the package covering shown in FIG. 10; and

FIG. 13 is a perspective-like view of a roll of material from which the sheet of material of FIG. 12 may be taken.

Referring now to the drawings and more particularly to FIGS. 1 to 5, numeral 16 identifies an embodiment of the invention, which comprises a plurality of similarly formed and generally equal size packets 18, each being connected at one end in sequential order to form a strip package arrangement as shown. The wrapper, or ma terial of the packets 18, as previously mentioned, is preferably a thin heat scalable plastic material, such as polyethylene, which may be transparent to allow visual inspection of the packet contents. Each packet is formed to enclose a food product 20, which may be in refrigerated condition, for example, a frozen beefsteak.

The strip package arrangement 16 is formed on automatic machinery (not shown) Which folds the material, taken from a roll, so as to enclose the product 2% and to heat seal the edges of the material to provide an overlapped seam 22 arranged at the central region of the packet, and extending in the longitudinal direction. A transverse heat seal 24 is provided which defines the end of each packet 18. At the time the transverse heat seal is made, a tear line in the form of perforations, or serrations 26, is made adjacent thereto, whereby each packet may easily be torn, or ripped from an adjoining packet, as best seen in FIG. 3.

It is to be noted that the arrangement provided not only eifectively seals each packet 18, so that the contents are completely enclosed, but results in the opening of one end of each packet as it is torn, or removed from an adjoining packet. In such manner, a product 2% may be conveniently removed from its packet without any further tearing operations, and without need for touching the product.

A modified type of strip package arrangement is shown in FIGS. 6 to 9. The main difierence between this arrangement and that previously described, is that when a packet 32 is removed from the strip arrangement 3%, it is still in totally enclosed condition.

As seen in FIG. 6, the strip arrangement includes a plurality of packets 32 formed from a strip of plastic material, the longitudinal edges of which are overlapped and sealed to provide a seam 34 at the mid-region of the packet. A pair of parallel arranged serrations 3d, are positioned to extend longitudinally, the spacing thereof being such as to provide one serration on each side of a formed packet, as seen in FIG. 7. A transverse heat seal 38 is arranged at each end of a packet 32, and a serration 46 is formed in the mid-region of each of said seals 38.

The strip arrangement fail is formed from a roll of material 42, which has the serrations 36, formed therein, said material being fed to automatic machinery (not shown), which forms the material in packet form about a product 44, and makes the heat seals 34 and '38, as well as the serrations 40.

In using the packet 32, an edge is torn along the serrations 36 to open the packet, whereby the product 44 may easily be removed without need for touching the product.

A further modified embodiment of the invention is illustrated in FIGS. 10 to 13, wherein a carton 48 is shown having an overwrap, or cover 50, which is formed of a heat scalable plastic film, such as polyethylene. The overwrap material 50, is taken from a roll 52 and is formed with a single line of serrations 54 arranged parallel with one edge and in spaced relation thereto, depending upon the size of the carton to be wrapped. The serrations 54, may in the alternative, be made by the wrapping machine (not shownlduring a wrapping operation. In wrapping the carton, the serrations are arranged to extend about the carton toward one end thereof, to provide an end seal 56, as seen in FIGS. 10 and 11. To open the carton, the overwrap end seal may easily be removed by tearing along the serrated line 54 in the manner shown in FIG. 11. It will be apparent that the arrangement of the overwrap 50, with the preformed serrations 54, not only provides an effective manner for covering a carton, but allows convenient removal thereof by the ultimate user. I

It will be seen that all three of the above described embodiments achieve the objectives of the invention set forth hereinbefore.

The foregoing description has been given in detail without thought of limitation since the inventive principles involved are capable of assuming other forms without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the following claim.

What is claimed is:

A plurality of interconnected packets of heat sealed plastic material capable of being stacked in folded condition, each packet containing a food product and connected at opposite ends in sequential order to an adjacent packet forming a strip package arrangement and each readily separable from said arrangement as an opened packet comprising a plurality of individual food products with a strip of heat sealable plastic material wrapped about said food products and having its longitudinal edges overlapped and heat sealed together providing a longitudinal seam and transverse heat seals formed between each of said packets containing s-aid food products, and perforated tear lines formed adjacent each of said transverse heat seals whereby each packet of said plurality of interconnected packets may be simultaneously opened and easily torn from its adjoining packet in said arrangement.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,286,877 Graham Dec 3, 1918 2,154,521 Maxfield Apr. 18, 1939 2,194,451 Soubier Mar. 19, 1940 2,248,266 Abrams July 8, 1941 2,324,541 Salfixbrg. July 20, 1943 2,332,857 Karg Oct. 26, 1943 2,335,159 Salfisberg 2 Nov. 23, 1943 2,430,995 R008V Nov. 18, 1947 2,565,887 Salfisberg Aug. 28, 1951 2,722,993 Gerber et a1. Nov. 8, 1955 2,732,111 Fogle Jan. 24, 1956 2,759,648 PiaZZe Aug. 21, 1956 2,773,285 Piazza et a1; r Dec. 11, 1956 2,878,929 Leupold 2-2 Mar. 24, 1959 2,888,133 Betteridge 2 May 26, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 352,620 Switzerland Apr. 14, 1961 927,529 Germany -2..-" May 12, 1955

Images