Tear-open pouch that stays in one piece after opening

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12043465-B2
Application number	US-202117758732-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 7, 2021
Priority date	Jan 15, 2020
Publication date	Jul 23, 2024
Grant date	Jul 23, 2024

Abstract

The present invention relates generally to the field avoiding the disposal of small pieces of packaging material into the environment. In particular, the present invention relates to flexible pouches. Proposed are flexible tear-open pouches that after opening stay in one piece. This avoids that the small torn-off pieces of packaging are disposed into the environment after opening. Embodiments of the present invention relate to a flexible pouch that is sealed with seals and on the back of the pouch with a finseal, and that comprises a tear starting point that is located essentially opposite of the finseal.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A flexible pouch that is closed with a top seal, a bottom seal, and on the back of the flexible pouch with a finseal, the flexible pouch comprising:
a tear starting point, wherein the tear starting point is located opposite of the finseal, and the finseal of the flexible pouch comprises a strengthening element that is configured to avoid a tear accidentally crossing the finseal on the back of the flexible pouch when the flexible pouch is being torn open, wherein the strengthening element comprises a tear resistant packaging layer in the finseal,
wherein the tear starting point is selected from the group consisting of a weakness in packaging material of the pouch, a tear notch, a score, a visual indication on the pouch, and combinations thereof; and the tear starting point is located within the top seal, with an unsealed part of the pouch positioned between the tear starting point and the finseal;
wherein a line guiding the tearing extends from the tear starting point at least partially across the flexible pouch; wherein a portion of the line guiding the tearing extends from the top seal and intersects with the finseal, and the portion of the line guiding the tearing that extends from the top seal and intersects with the finseal is positioned completely within the unsealed portion of the pouch.

2. The flexible pouch in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the tear starting point is located between about 120° and 175° from the finseal, and wherein the finseal is oriented opposite a tear direction.

3. The flexible pouch in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the flexible pouch does not comprise an extra tearing stop position other than the finseal.

4. The flexible pouch in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the flexible pouch is made from one piece of material.

5. The flexible pouch in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the tear starting point is located near an upper end or a lower end of the flexible pouch.

6. The flexible pouch in accordance with claim 1 , wherein after tearing the flexible pouch open, the teared-off fraction of the flexible pouch is configured to stay attached to the flexible pouch through the finseal.

7. The flexible pouch in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the flexible pouch is made from a material selected from the group consisting of paper, plastics, aluminum, or combinations thereof obtained by lamination, extrusion coating, dispersion coating and other technologies.

8. The flexible pouch in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the flexible pouch is made from a recyclable, biodegradable, and compostable material.

9. The flexible pouch in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the flexible pouch has an rectangular shape including short edges and long edges, with a length of the short edges being about 10 to 70% of a length of the long edges.

10. The flexible pouch in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the flexible pouch is designed to contain a product weight in the range of 1 to 250 g.

11. The flexible pouch in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the flexible pouch contains food products.

12. The flexible pouch in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the flexible pouch is part of a plurality of flexible pouches, wherein each of the plurality of flexible pouches includes first edges and further includes second edges that are shorter than the first edges, and wherein each of the plurality of flexible pouches is attached to another of the plurality of flexible pouches at one of the short edges via an attachment configured to allow tearing off of each of the plurality of flexible pouches.

13. The flexible pouch in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising a tearing stop position.

14. The flexible pouch in accordance with claim 13 , wherein the tearing stop position consists of one of an incision orthogonal to a tearing direction, a piece of rigid material in the tearing direction, or a piece of packaging material applied to an outside or an inside of the flexible pouch in the tearing direction.

Assignees

• Nestle Sa

Inventors

• Wyser Yves Roger
• Chevet-Douelle Fanny Claire Emmanuelle

Classifications

• B65D75/44

  Individual packages cut from webs or tubes · CPC title

• B65D75/42

  Chains of interconnected packages · CPC title

• B65D75/5805 Primary

  for tearing a side strip parallel and next to the edge, e.g. by means of a line of weakness · CPC title