Flexible Pouch With Easy-Opening Features

Abstract

A flexible pouch is formed from a laminate having built-in opening features. The laminate is wrapped/folded into a generally tubular configuration and sealed at top and bottom ends and along a longitudinal fin. A tear initiation feature is provided in the form of a hole extending through the laminate and located within a top seal of the pouch. The tear initiation feature is located at one longitudinal edge of the pouch when the laminate is wrapped and sealed to form the pouch. A fin tear-propagating feature is also provided in the form of two tear areas formed respectively in the side edges of the laminate such that the tear areas substantially coincide on the fin so as to form the fin tear-propagating feature, the fin tear-propagating feature being substantially in transverse alignment with the tear initiation feature. In another embodiment, the tear initiation feature is provided as a score line extending across the pouch.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]The present application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 12 / 180,709 filed on Jul. 28, 2008, which is currently pending, and the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]This disclosure relates to food or beverage containers in the form of a sealed pouch or the like formed from flexible laminate material. The laminate typically includes at least a barrier layer and a sealant layer. Edges of the laminate material are sealed together via the sealant layer to create the pouch or other configuration.[0003]A variety of food and non-food products are packaged using flexible packaging materials formed primarily of laminations of one or more of polymer films, metallized polymer films, paper, metal foil, and the like. In many instances, it is desirable to provide easy access to the contents of the package such that a user can provide minimal effort to open the package wit...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]Accordingly, there is a need for an improved manufacturing process to produce opening features for sealed pouches formed from flexible

Problems solved by technology

Packages that are easily opened, however, typically suffer from being poorly sealed resulting in the contents of the package being adversely affected (e.g., becoming soggy, drying out, etc.) by exposure to the surrounding environment.

Easy opening of such flexible packaging has been a longstanding problem to which much effort has been devoted toward developing a satisfactory solution by many workers in the field.

These techniques have not met with complete success in all cases, particularly when the unablated portions of the laminate are a highly extensible material, because the extensible layers may not tear easily.

Instead, the highly extensible m

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