Apparatus and method for packaging a product in individual packets

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INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY REGISTRY

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NUMBER

293.634

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DATE OF PRESENTATION

16.4.1986

UTILITY MODEL

W A60,1986

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(z?) date of publicity ·

• »(S) INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION. i β &amp; 5 £&gt; Sz / cro (sV¡ TITLE OE THE INVENTION

A CONTAINER a

· · . · ·. · .·’·.·· • · · .· • ·.

I. \ @s □ BIDDER &lt;S&gt;

MPR CORPORATION (File 18-4624 (Div.))

APPLICANT'S ADDRESS

190 F Street, Ampoint Industrial Complex, Perrysburg, Ohio 43551, USA

inventor iesi

Yun Hoon Chung and Dennis E. Chung dj) REPRESENTATIVE

B. ALBERTO BE ELZABURU MÁRQUEZ

CCF

UNE A-4 Mod. 3.204.— Price 2 pías.

(Mod.-8959)

USE AS THE FIRST PAGE OF THE MEMORY

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P-MOD-8959

Hoju num

BACKGROUND DEI, INVENT

The present invention generally relates to individual packages constructed of a sheet of flexible packaging material.

The present invention relates to a container having an increased capacity compared to prior art containers produced from a sheet of packaging material of similar size. The packages are formed of a flexible sheet material such as • paper or plastic suitably coated so that welding can be carried out between two parts of the sheet in contact with, for example, heated pressure plates. · · * · • · ·

In particular, in the present invention it is ^ with • '' * · ₆ * ··. · Shows a flexible sheet of packaging material in f £&gt;, rma

*. . · *% Of a generally U-shaped channel having generally vertical spaced side walls. The facing surfaces of the side walls are welded at vertically spaced locations to define a package set consisting of a plurality of top open packages. A predetermined amount of a flowable product such as sugar, for example, is then introduced into each top-open container. The top corners of each container are then welded to reduce the size of the container opening. After the top corners have been welded, a predetermined portion of each welded top corner is cut from the package. This per30

23046 individual in the sense of ale

4 * -K. Be from each other in direction

Please pull the top corners of each container '' NMOD-8959 &lt;·

Sheet No. 2 generally horizontal, thereby pushing the upper edge edges of the side walls of the container towards each other. The top edge edges of the packages are then welded together to seal the package.

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The foregoing as well as other advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent to a person skilled in the art upon reading the detailed description of the preferred embodiment in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figures la to lg are perspective views, showing a constructive sequence for transforming a sheet of packaging material into a plurality of • · · • · · individual welded containers each containing urfa • · * · predetermined quantity of a flowing product; in the, ff '. La gure la, a rectangular sheet of flexible packaging material * · has been configured in the form of a generally U-shaped channel; In Figure Ib, the facing surfaces of the U-channel have been welded into selected spaced vertical posts to define a plurality of individual open top packages; in figure le, the upper corners of each of the individual packages have been welded together to reduce the size of the opening of the respective package; in figure Id, a part of the upper corners of each individual container has been cut out; In figure le, the top corners of each individual container have been pulled away from each other to make the edge edges

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P-mod-8959 í

Spaced tops of the respective container move towards each other; In figure lf, the unsoldered part of the container is welded, remaining part to close figure lg, a single being is shown separadd from the group shown in figure lf.

container finished top container; in after

In accordance with the present invention, welded packages or pouches are produced and filled with a flowable material, such as, for example, sugar, mayonnaise, or tomato sauce. The containers are made of paper properly • · ·. · Coated so that welding can be done with_F · hot. Also, material sensitive to cold pressure can be used. Another sheet material other than paper can be plastic, sheet, metal sheet, combinations of the same ones, depending on the product to be packaged. ···

After the U-channel 208 · β • · is formed.

• _andIn figure la, selected parts of the special side walls are welded in the manner shown in figure Ib: das 20b and 20c, which define the lateral edge edges of the packages. individual, to define a set of in

23046 vas.es 21 comprising a plurality of top open individual spaced containers 22 having side welds 22a and 22b. As will be described, the parts of the spaced side walls 20b and 20c which are located between the side welds 22a and 22b are held in a spaced relationship during the welding operation of Figure Ib such that the packages have a bottom part 22c. spaced bottoms of welds upward from side ends 22a and 22b. Keeping the side walls in spatial relation

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Sheet # p-MOD-8959 gives during the initial welding operation, more product can be packaged in a container constructed of a given amount of packaging material.

After the individual packages 22 have been formed in the manner shown in Figure Ib,

I each of the individual packages 22 is filled with a predetermined quantity of a product. After the packages have been filled, the upper corner portion of each individual package 22 is welded into zones 30a and 30b, as shown in Figure le, to partially close •

open top of packages 22.

The upper corner parts of each individual package are then cut, as shown in Figure Id, to define cut-out parts 34a and · ' ⁹ 9 l * 34b. Cutouts 34a and 34b allow for a more efficient top weld to be achieved, while also providing an inwardly extending indentation in the side seal of the package which facilitates opening of the welded package to the user. After the upper corners are cut, the upper corner parts 38a and 38b are pulled in the direction of moving away from each other, as shown in figure le, thereby stretching the upper part and causing the marginal edges.

23046 the top of the packages, which are spaced as shown in figure Id, advance towards each other, as shown in figure le. After the top has been stretched, the unsealed section of the top can be fully welded to close the container

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- mod-8959

HoJ »ní» m 5 ίο as shown in figure lf as upper welds 40.

Because the intermediate portions of the side walls of the package are held in spaced relation during side welding, the length of the top marginal edges of the package to be welded to each other is greater than the overall width of the package. Thus, conventional solutions to weld the top of the package would result in undesirable wrinkled or overlapping parts through the top of the package that could possibly result in ineffective welding. 'Providing the cut-out parts 34a and 34b and causing them to be pulled from the upper corners of. each container in.

• · «• ♦ the sense of moving away from each other before forming the ··· ·? ··. top weld 40, parts are minimized * ··· '• ·_and •. wrinkled or overlapped through top weld ·.

.

In addition to allowing the upper corners of the individual packages to be pulled away from each other prior to final sealing, the cutouts 34a and 34b are intended to facilitate the user opening a welded package. As shown in Fig. Id, cutout portion 34a includes a horizontal cut line 36a that extends inward of the container beyond a vertically inclined cut line 36b to form an inwardly extending slit 36c. Such a slit has been found to greatly facilitate user opening of individual packages. For example, the package can be easily opened

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P- MOD-8959. one

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Hóju núnt by the user by grasping the top corner of a container between the thumb and index finger of one hand and grasping the respective lateral weld between the thumb and index finger of the other hand and tearing the top apart from the remaining part of packaging.

After the packages have been completely welded, they are separated from each other along the perforated lines 20a. Figure lg shows a fully welded single finished container 44.

utosο tutos

In accordance with the provisions of the principles and mode of operation of the present invention, this invention has been illustrated and described in what is considered to represent its preferred embodiment. However, it should be noted that the present invention may be practiced in a manner other than that specifically illustrated and described without departing from its spirit or content.

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Hoju No. 7