Thermoformed package with tamper evident seal

Abstract

A thermoformed clamshell package with a pair of closing flanges and a double-sided adhesive for joining the closing flanges to seal the package. The package includes a carrier flange that carries the double-sided adhesive prior to sealing and a sealing flange that is brought into contact with the double-sided adhesive to seal the package. The package may include a frangible portion in the flange region for gaining access to the contents of the package after it has been sealed without breaking the adhesive seal created by the double-sided adhesive. The carrier flange may include a channel for seating the double-sided adhesive and for denesting adjacent packages when nested together for shipping and / or storage. The package may include one or more display strips disposed in the flange region. The present invention also provides a method for packaging articles in a package with a tamper-evident seal, and a method for manufacturing a package with a tamper-evident seal.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to packaging and more particularly to thermoformed packages with tamper evident seals.[0002]Thermoformed packages are used in a wide variety of applications. Typical thermoformed packages are relatively inexpensive to manufacture and provide sturdy, aesthetically pleasing packaging. Also, thermoformed packages are typically transparent, thereby allowing consumers to visually inspect the packaged goods. This makes thermoformed packages particularly well suited for use in point of sale packaging. Thermoformed packages are often manufactured from a clamshell with top and bottom parts that are joined by a hinge. This keeps the top and bottom parts together facilitating manufacture and packaging, and making it easier for consumers to repeatedly open and close the package.[0003]Thermoformed packages are often sealed around the peripheral edges to prevent access to the package. In clamshell packages, the seal may be formed only...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]The aforementioned problems are overcome by the present invention wherein a thermoformed clamshell package is provided with a pair of closing flanges and a double-sided adhesive for joining the closing flanges to seal the package. In one embodiment, the package includes a carrier flange that carries the double-sided adhesive prior to sealing and a sealing flange that is brought into contact with the double-sided adhesive to seal the package. In one embodiment, the double-sided adhesive is double-sided tape disposed along the carrier flange of the package. The double-sided tape may have sufficient adhesive strength to make it unlikely for the closing flanges to be separated from one another without causing damage that is evident through visual inspection of the package.

[0012]The present invention provides a simple and effective tamper-evident seal that can be used without expensive sealing equipment and without specially trained equipment operators. The use of double-sided adhesive allows the package to be securely sealed with minimal effort and limited expertise. The package can be provided with or without a release liner on the double-sided adhesive. When the release liner is removed before the packages are shipped from the manufacturing facility, the packaging of goods can be even easy because the release liner does not need to be removed and there is no need to deal with scrap release liner at the point of packaging. This can be particularly beneficial when packaging fresh fruit and vegetables in the field where dealing with scrap release liner can be particularly burdensome. In applications in which the package will be provided without a release liner, the package can be provided with denesting lugs that help to reduce the possibility of the exposed adhesive causing adjacent packages to stick together. In some applications, the package may include an adhesive channel that can help to protect adjacent packages from sticking together when nested for shipping and storage, and may also be helpful in aligning the double-sided adhesive and package during manufacture.

Problems solved by technology

Although providing a level of security, these seals are often essentially permanent and can make it difficult for the end consumer to open the package.

This package has a variety of benefits, but suffers in that the equipment required to create the permanent seal is expensive and the process of feeding packages through sealing equipment after filling is time consuming and labor intensive.

These issues make it a practical impossibility for many small to medium sized companies to use this type of packaging because they cannot afford to obtain, maintain and operate the necessary sealing equipment.

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