Perforated easy opening pouch

Abstract

A perforated large-size easy opening pouch is formed from a single sheet containing at least one layer of a film material, and the sheet forms a volume. The pouch also contains a seal containing a perforation. The perforation is completely surrounded by the seal. When a tear is initiated along the perforation, the tear propagates to a non-sealed portion of the pouch. A sealing jaw and a method for forming such a pouch is also described.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 069,990 filed on Mar. 19, 2008.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to pouches. Specifically, the present invention relates to pouches which are easy to tear open.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Pouches are typically formed of a laminate or a film and may be used for holding many types of items such as food, shampoos, detergents, medicines, etc. In order to make them easier to use, notches, laser cut score lines, and perforations are standard in the packaging industry. However it is always a challenge to balance the need for an easy opening functionality (e.g., tear lines, perforations, score lines, etc.) with pouch sturdiness and strength against bursting and leakage. Many packages such as, for example, laundry detergents do not have tearing lines because during shipment such pouches are often dropped, compressed, etc. which could cause unacc...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]It has now been found that the invention can balance easy opening via a tearing line combined with profiled sealing while also maintaining the robustness and strength of a complete seal. Also described herein is a method of and a sealing jaw for sealing and creating the easy opening portion simultaneously with the bag formation and packing. Since the sealing jaw combines the sealing profile with the perforator, it further reduces misalignment of the perforation, optional notch, sealing portions, etc. which could happen if they were formed on different machines, or in different processes.

Problems solved by technology

However it is always a challenge to balance the need for an easy opening functionality (e.g., tear lines, perforations, score lines, etc.) with pouch sturdiness and strength against bursting and leakage.

Many packages such as, for example, laundry detergents do not have tearing lines because during shipment such pouches are often dropped, compressed, etc. which could cause unacceptable leakage.

Instead, merely a notch or other slit is made to start the tearing, but no cost-effective technology has been found which can also control the propagation of the tear.

Specifically, while such pre-formed pouches are useful for smaller volumes, they become more difficult for larger volumes, where the volume : sealing area ratio becomes too large.

So, as the volume grows, the sealing area may need to grow proportionally, which leads to a large amount of wasted film material and / or a weak pouch which bursts too easily and / or which may leak during shipping, dropping, etc. in other words, when such pre-formed pouch technologies are scaled up to, for example 1-2 liter or larger bags, known methods for forming tearing lines (laser cutting, etc.) tend to unacceptably expensive to complicate, and / or may weaken the pouch integrity, causing undesirable leakage, breaking and / or bursting during manufacturing, filling, shipping, etc.

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