Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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1079-80
PACKAGE FOR AROMATIC CONTENTS
AND PROCESS FOR ITS PRODU TION
Back~round of the Invention
Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a package for aromatic
contents and/or contents to be maintained at a desired mois-
ture level.
Description of the Prior Art
A tobacco bag is known, from German Offenlegungs-
schrift No. 2,518,229, in which the upper edge forming the
opening of the bag is not closed. One of the two wall portions
which forms the bag in its lower portion, namely the rear
wall portion, is elongated into a fold-over flap, which
lQ lies against the outæide of the bag portion when the bag is
folded up. An adh~sive paralleling the bottom fold line
is intended on the-one hand to close the upper wall at the
top edge and on the other hand in the adjacent area to close
the rear wall portion. However, in this manner an aroma
and moisture sealing closure is not achieved. In addition,
the tobacco bag is not advantageous in either manufacture
or use.
1079-80 ~S6194
~ tobacco bag is also known from'German Offenlegungs-
schrift No. 2,840,223. There, the sealing seam paralleling
the bottom fold is between wall parts or different plastic
materials, so a breakable welded closure is achieved. If
the bags are formed, as taught by these Offenlegungsschrifts,
by folding an elongated piece of material along a transverse
bottom fold, e.g., at about one-third from the end
of the material strip, the inner layer of the bag consists
of a first material type and the outer layer of a second
material type. The upper edge of the front wall is
folded inward and welded directly to the adjacent inside
of the rear wall. In this manner two different material
types face one another upon welding, and by appropriately
adjusting the materials, their seam strength upon welding
can be reduced to an extent that a peelable welded seam is
attained. However, this reduction of seam strength also
applies to the sealed seams of the two side edges of the
bag, i.e. when so-welding two different materials, it has
not been possible to form the seam seals of differing seal
strength -- one of relatively low strength which can be
peeled open and an adjacent one of high strength which
resists opening when the neighboring low strength peelable
seal is opened. Specifically, it has been found, disadvan-
tageously, that the user, when opening the peelable closure
seam at the outer edges, also pulls apart the upper areas
of the lateral sealing means. These packages are then,
disadvantageously, no longer firmly sealed along their
sides with great sealing strength.
Packages are also known, e.g. folding tobacco pouches
or flat bags, in which seam strength is reduced not by folding
over, as in the example described above, but by strip-
lacquering one surface. In this the disadvantage has been
encountered that solvents evaporate into the bag contents
and, upon bag opening by the ultimate consu~er, solvent
residues in the form of solid crumbs drop into the bag
contents.
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An additional disadvantage of known packages having breakable
or peelable closure seams is damage caused to the package during
the sealing process when the bag contents are first sealed into
the bag. When heat for sealing the wall parts together is trans-
mitted by heated jaws, an unattractive seam, visible to the finalcustomer, is formed on the rear side of the seal, i.e., on the
outside of the finished tobacco bag. This can even destroy the
decorative bag design in the case of less than careful production
and in any event an unattractive appearance results.
Thisinvention provides a bag of the initially mentioned type
by providing a peelable closing seam created in place without the
bag lateral permanent edge seals being even partially damaged, and
wherein damage to the bag outer surfaces is also avoided.
The present invention provides a flexible container in the
form of a pouch for use in packaging aromatic contents having a
hand peelably openable seal, said container comprising a laminate
comprising at least two distinct layers, at least one layer con~
sisting of polymer material capable of being sealed together with
itself by applying high frequency electrical energy so as to form
said peelably openable seal, said laminate being folded so that
the fold line forms the bottom of said container and said polymer
layer capable of forming a peelable seal forms at least a part of
the inner portion of said container, the side edges forming said
container being formed of heat seals of substantially higher
strength than said peelable seal, and said peelable closing seal
is formed in the area of the upper edge of said container between
said high strength seals whereby said container is hermetically
sealed.
By the invention, a package is produced which has high seam
strength at the crossing points of the peelable closing seam at
the top outer edge of ihe bag and the two side edge sealing
seams. The consumer can open such a package without particular
care along the peelable, openable closing seam by pulling the
front wall portion away from the rear wall portion so that the
closing seam is opened up from the center toward both sides.
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This opening process is brought to a stop at the crossing points
with the side sealing seams as a result of the great strength of
the side sealing seams. In this manner, a pleasant and very
advantageously usable package is created, especially for use as a
tobacco bag. The new arrangement of the closing seam also provides
increased stability of the paekaged eontents sinee, before opening,
the aroma and the moisture are retained within the paekage to a
great extent beeause of the hermetie sealing provided by the high
strength lateral side seals and the peelable elosure seal. An
adhesive, sueh as a lacquer coating or the like as provided in
conventional bags is not used. In accordance with the invention,
the bag is elosed without aid of foreign materials, whieh eould mix
with the paekaged material and affeet its taste and with other
qualities. Material strips with plastic films are also usable
with improved properties and, advantageously, while improving the
stability of the tobacco, the tightness of closure of a tobacco bag
can be improved, and the fold-over flap provided in the customary
tobaceo bags ean even be eliminated without impairing the barrier
properties.
It is also advantageous in accordance with this invention if
the closing seam extends from one longitudinal side
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1079-80
edge of ~he bag to the other. In this way, production can
be improved and production speed increased since the bags
are produced by feeding the bag material in the longitu-
dinal direction. The equipment used can also be made
simpler, since the exact length of the closing seam is not
very important.
Brief Description of The Drawin~s
Figure 1 is a vertically sectioned schematic isometric
view of the preferred embodiment of the bag of the inven-
tion, with the section taken to show only the right-
hand half of the bag;
Figure 2 is a broken section view taken as indicated
by circle A in Figure l;
Figure 3 is a broken section view taken as indicated
by circle B in Figure l;
Figure 4 is a broken front view of another embodi-
ment of the bag of the invention.
1079-80 1~56~4
Description of the Preferred Embodiments
The bag as shown in Figure 1 includes a laminated
triple layered material strip 30, the outer plastic
film 1 of ~hich is preferably composed of polypropylene
with good optical transmission properties. The middle
layer 2 is a paper insert. (The majority of final consumers,
especially smokers, prefer a bag, especially a tobacco
pouch, produced in the traditional manner with a decorative
paper insert enclosed by transparent films.) The third
layer 3 of the material strip is the interior plastic
film which depending on its selected components absorbs
high-frequency radiation in the desired manner. As a result,
it is possible to produce seam 4 as an openable, peel-
able sealing seam. The seam 4, along with the layer
structure 1, 2 and 3 of the material strip 30, of which the
bag is formed, is clearly shown in Figure 1 or on an en-
larged scale in Figure 2. The structure of layers 1, 2
and 3 is visible in Figure 3. The reopenable sealing seam
4 preferably is perpendicular to the longitudinal direc-
tion of the material strip 30 and is indicated by line
x-x-x in Figures 1 to 4.
In the embodiments of Figures 1 and 4, the bag
generally designated 5 is formed by two opposing wall por-
tions 6 and 7. If one views the partially opened bag
according to Figures 1 and 4, 6 designates the front wall
portion and 7 designates the rear wall portion. The rear
wall portion is elongated upwardly in excess of the length
of the front wall portion, to form a flap por~ion 8. In the
embodiment of Figure 1, this flap portion is visibly longer
than in the embodiment of Figure 4. By means of an adhe-
sive strip 9 shown only in Figure 4, flap portion 8 is made
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to adhere at the bottom or on the rear side of the ex-
terior of the bag after filling the package and folding
over. In the embodiment shown in Figure 1, the flap
portion 8 is of longitudinal length exceeding that of front
portion 6, so that when flap 8 is wrapped around the bag,
downwardly over front portion 6, generous overlap of front
portion 6 by flap 8 is provided; this furnishes redundancy
to the seal provided by peelable seal 4.
The bottom edge of the bag portion 5 is defined by
the bottom fold 10. The two side edges 11 and 12 extend
transversely from the bottom fold 10 to the preferably
sealed upper edge 13, which defines the opening of package
5.
While the peelable closing seam 4 preferably extend-
ing parallel to traverse bottom fold 10 is shown in both
the embodiments of Figures 1 to 3 and in Figure 4, the lateral
sealing seam 14 is only shown on the right hand side in
the embodiment of Figure 4, as a double broken line. There
i8 also shown crossing point 15, at which reopenable
peelable closing seam 4 crosses the lateral sealing seam
14. Therefore, Figure 4 shows in particular how the lateral
sealing seams, with uniform and high seam strength,
extend from the bottom fold 10 to the upper edge 13, so
that the peelable sealing seam 4 has low seam strength
only between crossing points 15, while at the crossing
points 15 the seam strength i8 equal to that of the lateral
sealing seams 14.
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For sales reasons, it is sometimes advantageous if
metallized material strips are used to provide decoration
and reinforcement of the bag exterior. A further develop-
ment of the invention in this regard is then characterized
by the fact that the closing seam is located on the non-
metallized interior between two superimposed, external
selectively metallized wall parts. In this manner,
very attractive packages can be produced with the metallized
film, and nevertheless the closing seam can be arranged
by simple means for closing the bag opening in the manner
that it can be opened, so that it can be peeled open only
between the crossing points with the lateral sealing
seams at the outer corners, so that the side edges, even
in the case of bag material having selectively metallized
surfaces, have a great seam strength all the way up to
the top.
The term "metallization" as used herein denotes a
partial, ribbon-like coating of selected areas of the
laminate external surface film l with metal. In the
high-frequency welding area, i.e. the area exterior of
reopenable peelable seal 4, on the outside of the package
and, naturally, also on the inside of the package, no
metallization is present, in order, for example, to
prevent an electrical short circuit. Since this area
on the flattened-out bag laminate blank appears in ribbon-
like from, the strip metallization likewise takes place,
so to speak, "in ribbons" on the corresponding area. The
ribbons of metal strengthen the package.
The invention furthermore pertains to a process for
producing the bag described in the proceding, in which
a laminated material strip including the plastic film
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g
is pulled longitudinally from rollers, folded around a bottom fold
transverse to the feed direction to form the bag portion, and then
welded parallel to the feed direction at the side edges of the bag
and the formed bag is severed from the strip, after which the
contents are packed in and the bag is thermally closed along the
reopenable peelable closing seam connecting the side edges. The
package with the characteristics presented in detail in the pre-
c~ding is attained when, in accordance with the invention, the
closing seam is produced while lightly pressing together the two
parts of the material strip which are to be welded together and
simultaneously applying high frequency energy to achieve welding.
Actually, high frequency welding with a frequency of 27 MHz is
preferred in accordance with the invention. Naturally, however,
the high frequency welding can also be performed under other
conditions. In particular, by means of high frequency welding
the unattractive distortion of the decorative pattern provided by
the metallization ribbon due to pressing through the welding jaws
along the closing seam can be avoided. By means of a suitably
constructed material strip, especially the plastic film or films
incorporated in it, it is possible to ensure that the material
strip at its surfaces which are to be welded together more or
less absorbs the energy of the high frequency radiation, so that
a truly peelable welding closing seam can be attained without
destroying the surfaces of the material strips.
In this process, it may be advantageous if, in accordance
with the invention, the high frequency welding
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1079-80
jaws are preheated to 40C. With this preparatory measure
the high frequency welding can be used especially rapidly
and with definitive effect.
An important feature of this invention is provided
by the peelable sealing seam construction and the high
strength side seam construction whereby two laminate
surfaces are sealed to form the bag, where the laminate
consists of three distinct and different layers, with the
seal formed between facing surfaces of a common layer
?` ln of material, namely inner film 3. Thus, there is no
- need to effect a seal between dissimilar materials. The
rugged outer plastic film remains intact to form the
exterior of the package, providing protection against package
rupture.
Bag 5 has mutually facing front and rear portions
~ and 7 formed from a common piece of laminate material
with the portions joining at a fold 10 defining the bag
bottom. The lateral sealing seams 14, which are of high
strength and noted in Figure 4, extend the longitudinal
length of and join together corresponding longitudinal
margins 12 of the bag. The peelable heat seal 4 is
hand-openable and accordingly is of substantially lower
strength than the side seam seals 14. The peelable seal
joins the front and rear portions ~ and 7 of the bag
together, extends transversely to side seals 14 and
is longitudinally removed from fold 10 defining the
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1079-80
bag bottom. The transverse extremities of the hand
peelable seal 4 overlap the respective side seam seals
14 as shown at 15 in Figure 4 to thereby provide seam
crossing zones of great strength so that hand peelable seal
4 can be opened only between the seam crossing zones. The
rear portion of the bag extends longitudinally from peelable
seal 4, oppositely from fold 10 beyond front portion 6,
a distance at least equal to longitudinal length of
front portion 6. This facilitates folding of the thereby
created extension portion 8 of rear portion 7 over front
portion 6 and over the hand peelable seal 4 to thereby
provide greater isolation of the bag contents when the
bag is reclosed after opening seam 4.
An important feature of this invention is the con-
struction whereby the bag is folded from a single piece
of laminated material in such manner that all seals are
made between facing surfaces of a common material, in
this instance interior plastic film 3. This contruction
allows all exterior surfaces of the bag to be made of a
common material, namely outer plastic film 1.
