Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
- 106ZZ()9
This invention is concerned with a package, and more
pal~ticularly with a package intended for containing a stack
of sheet materials. The invention reveals itself extremely
well suited for containing a stack of sensitized films in
face to face relationship, although any stack of sheet
materials and, if necessary, even individual sheets may be
contained in a package according to the invention.
Compared to the prior art packages, the package according
to the inYention has significant advantages, whereof
the feature of easy opening is one of great importance.
Moreover, the package may be easily manufactured and
contributes positively to a clean aspect when being definit-
ely open.
The prior art packages, for example t~e one described in
Belgian Patent Specification 774,378 filed October 22, 1971 by
Agfa-Gevaert N.V. wherein use is made of a tear-strip provided at
the inner side of the package~ suffer from a first drawback in
that the exact positioning of said tear-strip in the package
and the punching of said strip through the latter at well
defined distances requires very complicate packaging-
apparatus.
~ he second drawback is noticed at the moment of use,
that is to say, when the package is opened by means of
tearing said strip. In that case, the latter becomes the
cause that uneven and frayed edges are formed which give
rise to an untidy appearance of the whole.
GV.789PC~
.~. .. , .
,- ~ ~ ?~r
~ ~ , . . .
''.
lOf~Z209
It is an obJect of the invention to provide a package which does not
posscss tllc foregoing dlsadvall~agcs.
~ ccording to the present invention there is provided a package for a
stack of sheet materials wllicll is adapted to be openecl at one end to leave a
defined edge around said opening, which package comprises a first tubular
wrapping of sealsble material enclosing a major portion of said stack around its
sides and one end and terminating adjacent the opposite stack end along a
defined edge, a second tubular wrapping extending in at least partial over-
lapping telescoping relation to said first tubular wrapping with its free end
edge spaced from said defined edge of said first wrapping to constitute a skirt-
like lower section, said first and second tubular wrappings being detachably
sealed together around their contiguous periphery along a locus spaced from the
free end edge of said second wrapping and leaving said lower skirt portion free
for manual engagement to remove said second tubular wrapping bodily along said
seal, leaving the stack within said first wrapping with its defined edge
opening, and said sealed wrappings being uniformly tensioned around the stack
periphery in its lengthwise direction, so that the stack is tightly contained :~
therein.
As will hereafter be explained each or either of the first and second
tubular wrappings referred to in the foregoing definition may itself be a
composite tubular wrapping formed by two or more narrower tubular wrappings of
material sealed together in marginally overlapping relationship. Accordingly
the invention includes any package comprising a stack of sheets in an enveloping
wrapper, said wrapper comprising tubular wrappings of material sealed together
in marginally overlapping relationship and forming a tube
.- . : . . . ~ :
.-. . . - . : . ,
106'~Z09
witllin which thc stack is located, the ends of the tube
having been sealed up so that the stack is totally
enclosed, there being, across opposite faces of the
stack, marginal portions belonging to one or more of said
tubular wrappings, which are free, i.e. unattached to the
wlderlying wrapping portions which they overlap, so that
a section of the wrapper, enclosing a part of the stack,
may be removed by pulling on said free marginal portions~
to break the seals between that section of the wrapper
and the remainder of it.
The scope and spirit of the invention will best be
exemplified by a description of a preferred embodiment
and in the light of the accompanying drawings, in which:
fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a package according
to the invention;
fig. 2 is an enlarged view of fig. 1 in order to show
the seals between the composing tubular wrappings;
fig. 3a and 3b show details of the protective sheets of
the stack to be packed;
fig. 4 is an isometric view of a combined package
enclosing a package according to the invention;
fig. 5 shows a longitudinal cross-section of another package
according to the invention;
-
106Z209
fig. 6 is a longitudinal cross-section of still another
package acoording to the invention;
fig. 7 is a transversal cross-section of the packages of
fig. 1, 5 and 6;
figs. 8a and 8b show an elementary apparatus for packing a
stack of sheet materials in a package according to
fig. 6.
According to ~ig. 1, a package 10 is provided, intended for
containing a stack of sheet materials 11. Optionally, but
not necessary, is the provision of a pair of protective
covers 12 and 13, one cover situated at each side of the
stack 11 and overlapping the sheets contained in said stack.
The stack is hermetically sealed by means of a wrap, comprising
the tubular wrappings 14, 15, 16 and 17. Said wrappings are
made of materials which can be sealed together. This
sealing may be carried out by glueing, heat sealing or
any other technique known in the art. In the case that
the-wrap has to contain sheets of light-sensitive material,
such as photographic sheet films, the constituting materials
must-be light- and mo~sture proof and be capable of pro-
tecting the contained sheets against chemical vapours. A
paper-, aluminium-polyethylene laminate suits this purpose
very well. Moreover, by the fact that this material is
easily heat sea1able, automi~ing the packaging process =ay he
~`
.
:: : , - ., ~ ~ . .
10~i2Z09
carried out with appratus which is rather simply in design. At
the front side of the stack 11 are positioned a first broad tubular
wrapping 14 and a first narrow tubular wrapping 15 whlch are over-
lappingly secured to each other with the help of a seal 18 (see
also fig. 2). The seal 18 is situated at one edge of the broad
wrapping 14, but the narrow wrapping 15 extends partly over said
edge and is loosely overlying. The reason therefore will be
explained in the course of this description. The width of the
composite wrapping, formed by the sealed broad and narrow wrappings
14 and 15 is equal to one dimension of the stack of sheets to be
packed and the composite tubular wrapping is preferably longer than
the other dimension of the stack. In a preferred embodiment the
wrappings 14 and 15 are therefore delivered in web form and may
already have been previously sealed together prior to the packing
step.
At the back side of the stack 11, a more or less analogous
combined tubular wrapping is provided but it is characterized in that
it is broader than the first one.
Indeed, said second combined tubular wrapping which is pre-
ferably delivered in web form too - will serve to enclose partially
the whole stack 11 and must therefore have a width substantially
larger than the,same one dimension of the stack plus twice the
thickness of the stack.
The composite tubular wrappings 16 and 17 are sealed together
in the same way, as the wrappings 14 and 15. The seal 20 is provided
at the edge of the broad wrapping 17, and the narrow wrapping 16 is
overlappingly sealed to the broad wrapping 17.
,.
,;, ~
1062Z09
Both combined wrappings are placed in correct position
relstive to the stack 11 by locating them as that the edges of the
broad wrappings 14 and 17 whicll are overlapped by the narrower
wrappings 15 and 16 are at substantially the same distance from an
edge of the stack 11. Then, the pro~ecting lengths of the combined
wrapping formed by the wrappings 16 and 17 are folded over the stack
and sealed to the combined wrapping formed by the wrappings 14 and
15, the seals thus formed being indicated at 19 and 21.
In this way a kind of tube is obtained in which the stack
; 10 11 and its optional protective covers 12 and 13 are enclosed. By
forming another seal 24 between the pro~ecting portions of the
composite strips along the other edges of the stack 11, this tube
becomes hermetically closed, and an alr-tight, moisture-proof wrap
is thus provided around the stack 11. When the stack is provided
with protective covers 12 and 13, made of a relatively stiff high-
; quality cardboard, the seal 18 may even be formed over a greater -~
area in order to fix both wrappings 14 and lS to protective cover 12.
- By the fact that the narrow wrappings 15 and 16 are sealed to
the broad wrappings 14 and 17 respectively, in overlapping relation-
- 20 ship thereto, and so as to leave the overlapping margins of the ~ -
narrower wrappingsat least partly free, these free marginal portions
of the narrower wrappings provide hand holds by which the said
wrappings can be gripped and torn off in order to open the wrapper.
When the package is thus opened, the opened package has a clean and
tidy appearance (see figs. 3a and 3b). In order to improve the
?, convenience of the package, at least one of the protective covers
~ may be provided with a zone of less mechanical strength such as
.
_J
~ - - ~ - , . . . . . .
.. . . .
106Z'~09
I row of per1`oration; 22 or an incision 23 of about half the
thickness of the protective cover 12 (fig. 3a and 3b).
This enables the operator, after having opened the wrap, to
remove part of one of t~e protective covers 12 or 13, in order to
facilitate re~oval of the first sheet of the stack 11 from the
wrap. This feature too, is a remarkable advantage of the package
according to the invention, because taking the first sheet of a
slightly compressed stack is often rather difficult. The pro-
vision of a partly free face at one upper margin of said first
sheet permits the operator slightly to flex the latter, so that
it can easily be taken between the thumb and the index of the hand~
The wrap, containing the stack of sheet materials may
be placed in a box or enveloped in a supplementary wrapper, ~ade
e.g. of corrugated cardboard. An exa~ple of such combined
package is illustrated in fig. 4.
Said combined package 3~ comprises a corrugated cardboard
sheet punched out in a form capable of enclosing the wrapped -
pac~age. The small slot 35 corresponding with the ends of
the flaps 31 is sealed by means of a self adhesive tape 34.
In this way the package 10 is safely enclosed. In order to
facilitate the opening of the cardboard envelope, a tear-
strip and/or a row of perforations 32 may be provided,
wherein tearing or breaking the perforations is performed
by pulling the tab 33.
~ ig. 5 represents a longitudinal cross-sectional view of
a package which is more or less analogouS to the package
illustrated in fig.1. ~he main difference between the
GV.789PCT - 7 - ,
'
106Z209
packages resides in the fact that the narrow tubular wrapping 15
extends over the tubular wrappings 14 and 16 and forms the link
between both latter wrappings. This set-up results in an economy
of packing material, because the tubular wrapping 16 may be narrower
than in the case illustrated by fig. 1.
Fig. 6 represents the most simple embodiment of a package
according to the invention. Instead of four, only two tubular
wrappings of packing material, 25 and 26, are required and two
seals, 27 and 28, suffice for sealing them together. The apparatus,
capable of packing a stack in such an envelope may be kept relative-
ly simple. A schematic view of such apparatus is represented in
figs. 8a and 8b.
A transverse cross-sectional view of a package according
to the invention is given in fig. 7 to illustrate the longitudinal
seal 24 which is required along the side edges of the stack in order ~
to close the tube formed by the transverse sealing of two or four - -
tubulsr wrappings of packing material.
Figs. 8a and 8b are views of the packing steps in order to
enclose a stack of sheet materials into a package according to
fig. 6.
In the apparatus two tubular wrappings 25 and 26 are treated
which have already been sealed together with the help of the seal
28. Both webs may be continuously delivered in web-form from a
previous manufacturing station (not represented).
The stack 11 is positioned on the sealed webs 25 and 26
.~. ~,.~
lO~;Z2Q9
in such a way that t~e I~lative positio~s between the seal
28 and its associated loosely overlying edge have already
been situated in the exact order. ~o prevent a shifting of
the webs, a kind of diaphragm in the form of a flexible
perforated metallic sheet 42 is provided, the perforations
58 thereof being connected with the pipe 4~, communicating
with a vacuum source (not shown) by means of a suitable
flexible conduit 44. ~he pipe 4~ is capable of moving in
axial direction through a concave member 59. ~his co~cave
member 59 itself is yieldingly supported by means of springs
51 and 53, which enclose supporting membe.rs 50 and 54
respectively, which are capable of performing an axial slid-
ing movement in their respective bushes 52 and 55. At either
side of the concave member 59 are provided slideable supports
56 and 57, which are capable of sliding under the influence
of the force~ exerted by the piston rods 48 and 49, which
are secured to said supports with the help of solid blocks.
.- Above the concave member 59 a convexly shaped pressure
member 45 is fitted, which may undergo a vertical movement
in order to press on the stack of sheets 11. At the upper-
most level is situated a heat-sealing electrode 47 built-in
into a support 46.Preferably, the heat-sealing electrode may be
made of ~EFLON material (registered trade-mark of E.S. Dupont . .
de Nemours - Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.).
At their upper side the slideable supports 56 and 57 bear
the hinge leaves 40 and 41 respectively, which are capable of
GV.789PCT - 9 -
.
.
J
106'~%09
performing a partial rotation of 180 degrees around their
axes, the latter being situated in close proximity of the
side edges of the concave member 59.
; When the heat-sealing step has to be carried out, the
convexly shaped pressure member 45 is pushed in downward
direction and ur~es against the stack 11, which is flexed ir.
order to conYorm to the curvature of the concave member 59.
Upon further pushing, the member 59 itself starts lowering,
so that the level of the upper face of the pressure member 45
coincides with the plane of the hinge leaves 40 and 41. At that
moment, said hinges perform a 180 degrees rotation, whilst ~ -~
folding the strips 25 and 26 around the stack 11. Subse-
quentl~, air ~otors (not shown) are energized and urge the
slideable supports 56 and 57 against the side edges of the
stack 11 which beGomes completely immobile in this way. In the
meantime a heat seal 27 (fig. 6) is formed by the sealing
- electrode 47 which too has performed a vertical downward movement
in order to contact the tubular wrappings 25 and 26. A tube
of heat-sealable material is in this way laid around the
stack 11. -
Upon further moving the slideable supports 56 and 57
against the stack 11, the latter is further bent and the
tube no longer closely ~its around the stack. This permits
to retract the conve~ly shaped pressure member 45 out of the
tube~ whereinafter the air motors are de-energized, enabling
the slideable support~ 5h and 57 to withdraw and to tensio
(,V.7~9P~ 10 -
,~
~ 0~i2;~0~
the stack 11 irl itc; enc:losure again,theIeby to her~etically
close this part-ial pacl;age in a further sealing step (not
represented).
From the f~regoin~, it may be concluded that a new and
useful kind o~ package has been devised which sho~s the
advantage of being easy to open, while maintaining a neat
appearance when opened. Although the descriptior, of some pre-
ferred embodiments was directed to a package comprising
materials capable of being heat-sealed, this feature is how-
ever not limitative for the scope and spirit of the inventionwhich shall be derived from the appended statements.
GV.789pCT
5~,J ,.
:' '- ' :'
"' ,
.
~ ' ' -
