Packing container with pouring spout

(54) Title: Packaging container with pouring pipe (56) Published publications: US 3,251,514 (222: 468) (57) Abstract:

Packaging containers for, for example, milk are often made of the type of laminated material that can be heat sealed.

In cases where the packaging container has an integral pour-pipe-forming part, this can, in order to facilitate the discharge of the milk, be divided into a discharge duct and an air duct by means of a sealing line. This sealing line towards the inner end end of the packaging container was subjected to large stresses in connection with the packaging molding and in order to reduce the risk of friction and leakage it is proposed according to the invention that the air duct forming sealing line should extend over the entire width of the packaging container and shall exhibit a short interruption of air from the duct to the inside of the packaging container.

This distributes the stresses and reduces the risk of stress concentrations that can damage the seal.

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The present invention relates to a disposable packaging container comprising a flexible packaging laminate container body having an integral pouring pipe forming portion comprising a discharge duct and an air duct having an air hole connecting the duct to the inner volume of the container body.

Disposable packaging containers for packaging of

e.g. milk is usually made from a flexible laminate material comprising a paper backing layer coated on both sides with thin layers of liquid-tight, heat-sealable plastic material.

e.g. polyethylene. In the manufacture of the packaging containers, the packaging material is first transformed into tubular form by sealing its longitudinal edges fluid tightly together. The tube is then fed

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and in the transverse tube, sealing zones are sealed and sealed by regularly compressed by means of transversely heated sealing jaws arranged transversely to the tube, whereby the heat-sealable plastic layer present on the inside of the tube joins the transverse seal seal tube surfaces. By simultaneous molding, the filled containers are given a final, substantially parallelepipedic shape, the containers being separated from each other by incisions in the sealing zones and the formed sealing fins being folded into abutment against the adjacent packaging container wall. In the molding operation, there are also four double-walled corner flaps, which are formed of material which, for geometric reasons, cannot be used in forming the actual, parallelepipedic container body. In order not to interfere or interfere with the regular parallelepipedic shape, these flat-pressed corner flaps are folded into and sealed to adjacent packaging container surfaces, after which the packaging container is finished.

Packaging containers of this type are provided with opening means to facilitate the discharge of the enclosed stuff. Usually, the opening device is provided by defining some portion of the packaging container wall by means of a separation line in the form of a weakening line or a reference line, along which the material is to be cut or cut. In the parallelepipedic package, one of the previously mentioned folded corner flaps serves after folding such as pouring spout, the outer end of which is separated along a separation line. This placement of the hall opening allows the pouring of the filling goods into a well-collected and directed beam without the occurrence of spillage or the risk of post-drip. However, depending on the shape of the discharge opening and the packaging, as well as the inclination angle of the packaging container during the discharge of the filling goods, difficulties may arise under certain conditions. This is due to the fact that the poured volume of filling goods must be continuously replaced by a corresponding volume of air, and thus the air must flow in through the hall opening at the same time as the discharge of the filling goods is in progress. This air flow directed towards the filling stream, especially in relatively narrow and long pouring pipes, causes the filling stream to be interrupted periodically by inflowing air to start again when a certain quantity of air has inflowed. This results in a shocking discharge of the stuffing, which is usually referred to as cloaking and

7907719-4 makes it difficult or impossible for the discharge of the consignment to be well collected. beam.

The above-mentioned problems can be solved in parallelepipedic packaging containers of the type described by forming the pouring pipe with two separate channels, namely a discharge duct and an air duct. Since the sealing fin running at the upper end wall of the packaging container also extends over the pouring pipe forming portion, it has been found suitable to utilize this portion of the sealing fin as an air duct. This is done by joining the two layers of material forming layers by means of two longitudinal sealing lines between which the air duct is formed. The length of the channel is hereby determined by the length of the sealing line facing the packaging container which ends inside the packaging container, preferably at some distance within the end of the pouring pipe towards the inner end of the container. A packaging container with a heliport of this type is described in Swedish patent application no. 79C4000-2, to which reference is made.

The asymmetric sealing of the sealing fin resulting from the lower sealing line ending inside the package has been found to concentrate the stresses arising during the manufacture of the packaging container to the end point of the sealing line rather than being distributed over the entire length of the fins. This stress concentration is undesirable as it increases the risk of rupture and consequent leakage.

The continuous manufacture of packaging containers of the above-mentioned type is carried out as previously mentioned by reshaping and dividing a packaging material tube filled with bulk goods. The packaging containers can hereby be oriented in several different ways relative to the tube, but in a frequently used method, the packaging containers are formed in relation to the tube, ie in such a way that the said air duct comprising the sealing fin is formed by the longitudinal sealing fin of the tube. In this way, the air duct necessitates a careful record keeping, since the duct forming the sealing line must get the correct placement in each packaging container.

It is an object of the present invention to overcome the aforementioned difficulties and to provide a packaging container which, while retaining good pouring function, is easier and cheaper to manufacture than the above mentioned.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a packaging container which can be manufactured in high speed automatic machines without causing such stresses and stress concentrations to compromise the strength and tightness of the packaging container.

These and other objects are achieved according to the invention in that a disposable packaging container comprising a flexible packaging laminate container body with an integral pour-pipe-forming part comprising a discharge duct and an air duct which has an air hole connecting the duct with the inner volume of the container body, that the air duct is formed in a sealing fin formed by a plurality of material layers and delimited from the interior of the container body by a sealing line joined by said material layer, which exhibits interruptions to provide said air holes.

Preferred embodiments of the packaging container according to the invention will now be described in more detail with particular reference to the accompanying schematic drawings, which show only the details necessary for understanding the invention.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a packaging container according to the invention.

Figure 2 shows the packaging container of Figure 1 in the opened state.

Figure 3 is a side view on a larger scale of a portion of the packaging container according to the invention after the folding of a corner tab serving as a pouring pipe, but. prior to the actual opening of the packaging container.

The packaging container shown in Fig. 1 comprises four substantially rectangular side walls 1 (of which only two are visible in the figure) and two similarly rectangular end walls 2 (only one of which is visible in the figure). The packaging container is made of a flexible, relatively rigid, web-shaped laminate, which is formed into a tube which is closed by means of flat pressing and cross-sealing at regular intervals in transverse, narrow zones. After similarly transverse clipping in said zones, cushion-shaped packaging containers arise, which at least have their upper end exhibit a sealing fin 3, which upon subsequent re-transformation of the packaging container into a substantially parallelepipedic shape will extend across the end wall 77-19-4.

in conjunction with the formation of the packaging container, the liner fin 3 has been folded down to abut the material surface to which it is connected.

In the molding machining required for atr. further transforming the substantially cushion-shaped packaging container into the shown parallelepipedic shape, four substantially triangular, double-walled corner flaps are formed (of which only one is visible in the figure). The corner flaps 4 are wrapped around the straight wall edges along which they are connected to the actual, parallelepipedic packaging container and fixed by heat sealing to the packaging container wall. The tab 4, which is visible in the upper corner of the packaging container in Figure 1, serves when the filling material contained in the packaging container is to be discharged as pouring pipe. Hereby, the seal is broken between the corner flap and the packaging container side wall 1 and the corner flap is folded up to the position shown in Figure 2, after which its outer end is separated or separated along a separation line 5 such that a discharge opening 6 is formed at the outer end of a corner flap formed by the folding and forming of the corner flap. discharge channel 7. In addition to the discharge duct 7, the pouring pipe-forming corner flap 4 also includes an air duct 8, which extends substantially parallel to the discharge duct and whose outer end is exposed simultaneously with the discharge opening 6 at the tearing of the outer corner of the corner flap. The air duct extends through the fin 3 arranged at the upper end surface 2 of the packaging container and communicates with the interior of the packaging container, which will be described in more detail below.

Figure 3 shows a side view and on a larger scale, part of the packaging container according to the invention, namely the upper corner at which the discharge channel forming the corner tab 4 is. located. The corner tab 4 is shown in the position it is in when, as a preparation for the opening of the packaging container, it is detached from the side wall with which it is associated and unfolded and formed to form a discharge channel. However, the packaging container has not been opened, ie The outer end of the corner tab, by means of the separated end 5, has not been torn off. The figure shows how the sealing fin 3 located at the upper end surface of the packaging container extends over the corner tab 4 and crosses the separation line 5, which can either be a weakening line of the material or a visual indication line for a suitable tearing or cutting position. In cases where the separation line is a material weakening line, e.g. a carrier layer or base permeable perforation line, its upper end, located in the seal fin 3, may coincide with a jack 9 in the fin to facilitate the onset of tearing.

The sealing fin 3 consists of two layers of material which are joined to one another along the entire width of the packaging container's sealing line 10. This sealing line is relatively narrow and extends along the upper edge of the sealing fin 3, i.e. the free edge of the sealing fin. A further sealing line 11 extends substantially parallel to the sealing line 10 along the entire length of the sealing fin 3, and, like the sealing line 10, intersects the separation line 5. The sealing line 11 extends substantially along the sealing line 3 of the sealing fin 3, i.e. at the opposite side to the sealing fin 3 in the sealing line 3. a relatively wide, unsealed region of the seal fin 3 arises between the sealing lines 10 and 11. This region forms the air duct 8, which thus extends between the two total packing material layers which form the sealing fin 3 and is delimited partly by the sealing line 10 and partly by the sealing line 11. The formed air duct thus extends over the entire width of the packaging container and has an air hole 14 connecting the duct the inner volume of the container body.

From the above description, it will thus be seen that the packaging container according to the invention comprises a pouring pipe forming part which contains two separate channels, namely a discharge channel of relatively large cross-section and an air channel with smaller cross-section. The two ducts are delimited by each other by the sealing line 11 which, in order to provide connection between the air duct and the internal volume of the container body, exhibits an interruption of the air hole 14. The interruption and thus the air hole 14 is preferably positioned where the pouring pipe passes into the actual packaging container which location has been shown to ensure that air can flow freely into the packaging container via the air duct 8 and the air hole 14 when the packaging container is tilted for pouring the loading material 6 through the emptying of the air duct through this discharge. opening over or near the free filling surface inside the packaging container. This design of the pouring pipe has proven to work well

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In practice and in full, d-d initially solves the problem of so-called clocking. The discharge opening can be made relatively small without inconvenience, so that a well-concentrated and easy-to-direct beam is created during the discharge of the filling goods.

Because the sealing line 11 extends over the entire length of the sealing fin, ie over the entire width of the packaging container, · the problem of stress concentrations and staining risk in the manufacture of the packaging container is eliminated as the forming forces are now distributed over the entire length of the sealing line 11. In addition, the insignificant stress concentration which may still occur due to the interruption of the air hole 14 in the sealing line 11 is reduced in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention by the sealing line 11 being bent on either side of the interruption: direction towards the air duct, thereby avoiding any deflection. .

Further reduction and distribution of any stress concentrations at the air hole 14 forming the interruption in the sealing line 11 can be further achieved in one embodiment of the invention by the fact that the sealing line 11 adjacent the interruption has lower sealing strength than the sealing line in general. Preferably, the sealing strength gradually decreases in the direction of the interruption. This can be achieved by reduced sealing temperature and / or reduced sealing pressure, and in practice ensures the strain which strives to separate the laminates connected by the sealing line 11 is not concentrated to the sealing line end points but is absorbed and distributed over a greater length of the sealing line, which effectively reduces the sealing line. .

Some modifications to the above-described preferred embodiment of the packaging container according to the invention are necessary in some cases, for example, depending on the rigidity and other properties of the packaging container chosen for manufacture of the packaging container. When a relatively rigid packaging material is used, the two layers of material included in the sealing fin 3 will abut against each other also in the area to form the air duct 8, and in the area formed by the air hole 14. In order to overcome this problem and ensure that the active portion of the air duct 8 has a sufficiently large cross-sectional area and good air flow, it is advisable to provide the two layers of material forming the two sealing fin 3 between the sealing lines 10, 11 indicated by a

7907719-4 dash dotted line 13 in Figure 3. The two groove lines 13 are formed prior to the flat pressing and sealing of the sealing fin 3 by pressing grooves in the material from the inside thereof, i.e. from the faces of the two packaging material layers. The big lines will thus be located with the concave side facing the opposite material layer of the sealing fin, which ensures that the two layers of material are slightly distant from each other between the two sealing lines 10, 11 so that a free space is provided for the formation of the between the pouring pipe and the container itself. extending, active portion of the air duct 8.Biglines 13 extend substantially parallel to the two sealing lines.

10, 11 and then at an angle out through the break in the sealing line

11, d vs they follow the active part of the air duct. Alternatively, the big line can be formed exclusively in one material layer, but the line may then be made correspondingly stronger to ensure a satisfactory air flow.

Since in most cases the location of the air hole 14 is not critical to the operation of the air duct, the location can be allowed to vary within relatively wide limits. Thus, it is possible (with the aim of simplifying the manufacturing process to be simplified) that it is possible, through repeated interruptions in the sealing line 11, to provide a plurality of air holes with such spacing that an air hole always receives a favorable location. Such a design of the sealing line 11 completely eliminates the need for record keeping, because, regardless of the positions of the holes relative to the pouring pipe, the most favorably positioned hole will always function satisfactorily. This allows the packaging containers to be designed in any arbitrary position along the packaging material tube without affecting the function of the air duct, which is a great advantage, since cost and material demanding register keeping can be avoided.

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