Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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The present invention relates to a tubular container
particularly for food products.
In the field of food products it is known to use,
especially for packaging products which have a generally
5 parallelepipedal shape, so-called tubular wrappings, which
are manufactured starting from a continuous band, one
surface of which, hereinafter indicated as "inner surface",
is suitable for making contact with the products to be
wrapped and has two peripheral longitudinal regions covered
10 by respective layers of heat-weldable adhesive material.
Generally, said products are packaged by arranging them
in succession in contact witb the inner surface of the band,
which is then folded transversely until the layers of
adhesive material of said two peripheral longitudinal
15 regions are moved into mutual contact so as to define, once
they are subjected to a heat-welding operation, a continuous
tubular container which is laterally provided with a flap
which is constituted by the mutually welded opposite
longitudinal edges of the band.
Said continuous tubular container is subsequently cut
in portions which are welded at their ends and have a preset
length; each portion defines a tubular fluid-tight wrapping
for a related product.
For many food products packaged in the above described
25 manner it is necessary to produce said wrappings so that
they are particularly easy to o~en and so that their opening
does not entail the complete destruction of said wrappings,
a part of which must remain preferably intact and protect
the related products until tbey are eaten.
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This need is normally met by transversely applying, on
each wrapping, a tear-stxip which allows to easily divide
said wrapping into two parts. In order to allow the opening
of the wrapping, the strip has one end which extends outside
5 said mutually welded longitudinal edges of the band.
Generally, said strips are constituted by, or covered
with, heat-weldable material, so as to initially allow their
application onto the continuous band by means of a heat-
welding operation and subsequently, by means of a second
lo previously mentioned heat-welding operation, so as to allow
the execution of the tubular container, which affects not
only the longitudinal edges of the continuous band but also
the end of the strips which is interposed between said
longitudinal edges.
The above described known tubular wrappings have the
disadvantage of requiring, for their manufacture, a
succession of operations involving heat, which can entail a
deterioration of the packaged products.
The aim of the present invention is to provide a
20 tubular container which does not require operations
involving heat for its manufacture.
According to the present invention, a tubular container
particularly for food products is provided which comprises a
portion of sheet material having an inner surface
25 arrangeable in contact with a related product, two
longitudinal edges and two transverse edges,-~-a la-yer of
adhesive material applied on a band of said inner surface
which extends along each of said edges, and a tear-strip
which extends in contact with said inner surface
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transversely to said longitudinal edges, said sheet being
folded so as to move into mutual contact both the two inner
surface bands arranged along the longitudinal edges, with
the interposition of an end portion of said strip, and the
5 two inner surface bands which are arranged along the
transverse edges, characterized in that said adhesive
material is a cold-adhesive material, a first further layer
of cold-adhesive material coating a first surface of said
strip which faces said inner surface, and a second further
lo layer of cold-adhesive material coating at least one portion
of a second surface of said strip which is opposite to said
first surface, said portion of second surface extending
along said end portion of said strip.
Preferably, a layer of cold-adhesive material is
15 applied on a portion of said inner surface which is arranged
in contact with said first surface of said strip.
The present invention will now be described with
reference to the accomPanying drawings, which illustrate a
non-limitative example of an embodiment thereof, wherein:
figure 1 is a perspective view of a preferred
embodiment of the container according to the invention;
figure 2 is a plan view of a development of the
wrapping of figure 1: and
figure 3 is a sectional view taken along the line III-
25 III of figure 2.
With.reference to figure 1, the reference numeral 1
generally indicates a tubular and substantially "pillow-
shaped" container or wrapping for a product 2 (figures 2 and
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3), particularly a food product, having a substantially
parallelepipedal shape.
According to what is illustrated in figure 2, the
container 1 is manufactured starting from a planar
5 rectangular sheet 3 obtained by transversely cutting a
continuous band 4, and has an inner surface 5 (figure 3)
which can be arranged in contact with a related product 2
and is delimited by two longitudinal edges 6 and by two
transverse edges 7. Bands 8 and 9 of the inner surface 5
lo which extend along the edges 6 and 7 respectively are coated
with respective layers 10 and 11 of cold-adhesive material.
~ he container or wrapping 1 is manufactured by folding
the sheet 3 around the product 2 so as to move the two bands
8, and the adhesive layers 10 which coat them, into contact
15 with one another so as to mutually connect them and form a
flap 12 which, according to what is illustrated in figure 1,
extends in a longitudinal direction outside said container 1
and is folded into contact with an outer surface of the
sheet 3. The container 1 is then completed by making the
20 layers 11, arranged along the mutually facing transverse
bands 9, adhere to one another so as to form two transverse
flaps 13.
If, as in the illustrated example, the sheet 3 is part
of a continuous band 4, the operation of mutually glueing
25 the layers 11 and of forming the flaps 13 is performed
simultaneously with an operation of transverse cutting of
said band 4.
According to what is illustrated, in particular, in
figure 2, the container 1 furthermore comprises a tear-strip
30 14 which extends in contact with an intermediate band 15 of
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the :inner surface 5 of the sheet 3 transversely to the
long:itudinal edges 6. ~ccording to what is more clearly
illustrated in figure 3, the intermediate band 15 is
preferably but not necessarily coated with a layer 16 of
5 cold-adhesive material. The strip 19 has a length at least
equal to the distance comprised between an inner edge of one
of the two longitudinal bands 8 and the longitudinal edge 6
which is opposite thereto, and the strip 14 is arranged so
as to extend through one of the longitudinal bands 8 and be
lo secured between said two bands 8 during the formation of the
flap 12.
According to what is illustrated in figure 3, the strip
14 has a first surface 17, which is arranged in contact with
the band 15 of the inner surface 5 of the sheet 3 and is
15 coated with a layer 18 of cold-adhesive material, and a
second surface 19, which is opposite to the surface 17 and
is at least partially coated by a layer 20 of cold-adhesive
material. In particular, said layer 20 extends, as in the
illustrated example, to a portion of the surface 19 which
20 extends along an end portion 21 of the strip 14 which is
superimposed on one of the bands 8.
From the above description it can be deduced that the
described container 1 can be obtained without performing any
operation involving heat and that the container 1 is
25 furthermore a perfectly fluid-tight container, as normally
required by hy~iene rules related to the packaging ~f food
products. The presence of the layer 20 of cold-adhesive
material, at least on the portion of the surface 19 which
extends to the end portion 21 of the strip 14, ensures the
30 perfect closure of the wrapping 1 along the flap 12. ~n this
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subject it should be stressed that one of the disadvantages
normally occurring in cold-adhesives is that they do not
ensure tightness unless glueing between two opposite
adhesive layers is performed. Consequently, the wrapping 1
5 would not be perfectly fluid-tight if the layer 20 were
missing.
The optional presence of the layer 16 along the
intermediate band 15 of the surface 5 ensures the perfect
adhesion of the strip 14, along its entire length, to the
lO sheet 3 and, accordingly, a clear-cut splitting of the
wrapping 1 into two parts when the strip 14 is pulled. One
of said parts can be easily used to protect the product 2
while eating it.
