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EP-3882176-B1 - PACKAGE AND METHOD FOR PREPARING A PACKAGE

EP3882176B1EP 3882176 B1EP3882176 B1EP 3882176B1EP-3882176-B1

Inventors

  • KUITUNEN, TUOMAS

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20200317

Claims (13)

  1. A package (10) comprising: - a sheet made of flexible film material or materials (14, 15), folded along a longitudinal direction to bring first and second edges of the sheet together, said edges being sealed to form a longitudinal rear seam (11); - a first end of the folded sheet being sealed by a first end seam (12), and a second end of the folded sheet, located in an opposite end of the folded sheet with respect to the first end, being sealed by a second end seam (13) to form a space for one or more items, wherein said space is defined by said sealed first and second ends and a side wall formed of the folded sheet; - an opening initiation point (18) in at least one of the first and second end seams, said opening initiation point configured to provide a point for initiating tearing of the flexible film material to form an opening extending from the first end seam (12) to the second end seam (13) and across the sidewall of the package (10); - at least one tear control element (16, 17) configured to guide tearing initiated from the opening initiation point (18) along a longitudinal direction of the package (10), from the first end seam (12) to the second end seam (13) and across the sidewall, upon applying a tearing force towards said at least one tear control element (16, 17) and away from said rear seam (11), and - said at least one tear control element (16, 17) being formed into said flexible film material or materials that contribute to the formation of the folded or foldable sheet, characterized in that said tear control element (16, 17) is a longitudinal seam in the sheet or a part of it, which longitudinal seam is distinct from the longitudinal rear seam (11), the opening initiation point (18) being located between the longitudinal rear seam (11) and the tear control element (16, 17).
  2. The package according to claim 1, wherein at least a part of the flexible film material or materials forming the foldable sheet has been modified, for example by a modifying treatment, to create at least one tear control element into the material.
  3. The package according to any of the preceding claims, wherein at least a part of the flexible film material forming the foldable sheet has been configured, for example by seam formation, to exhibit at least one tear control element in the sheet or in the ready package.
  4. The package according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the sheet consists of at least two bands of flexible film material joined to each other by longitudinal seams, and wherein at least one of the bands is made from a material (15) that is different from the material (14) of the other bands, said different material preferably being a breathable material.
  5. The package according to any of the preceding claims, wherein at least a part of said sheet or bands is made of a breathable material, such as a paper-based material
  6. The package according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the package comprises two tear control elements (16, 17), whereby an entire side of the package or at least a part of the sidewall of the package is configured to be completely or partly detached upon tearing open of the package so that an opening is produced, wherein said opening has larger dimensions than the corresponding dimensions of a product (19) to be placed inside the package.
  7. The package according to claim 6, wherein said tear control elements (16, 17) are located at corresponding positions on both sides of the package (10) and on the same side of the rear seam (11), extending from substantially the same point in the first end seam (12) or from two points in close vicinity of each other in the first end seam (12), preferably so that the elements are substantially congruent.
  8. The package according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the package (10) encloses disposable laboratory consumables, such as one or more pipette tip racks or a stack of such racks.
  9. The package according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the package (10) has been manufactured by a flow wrap process.
  10. A method for preparing a package (10), the method comprising: - folding a sheet of flexible film material (14, 15) along a longitudinal direction to bring first and second edges of the sheet together, and sealing said edges to form a longitudinal rear seam (11); - sealing a first end of the folded sheet by a first end seam (12), and sealing a second end of the folded sheet, located in an opposite end of the folded sheet with respect to the first end, by a second end seam (13) to form a space for one or more items, wherein said space is defined by said sealed first and second ends and a side wall formed of the folded sheet; - providing an opening initiation point (18) in at least one of the first and second end seams (12, 13), said opening initiation point configured to provide a point for initiating tearing of the flexible film material to form an opening extending from the first end seam (12) to the second end seam (13) and across the sidewall of the package (10); and - providing at least one tear control element (16, 17) made of said flexible film material or materials of the sheet and configured to guide tearing initiated from the opening initiation point (18) along a longitudinal direction of the package (10), from the first end seam to the second end seam (12, 13) and across the sidewall, upon applying a tearing force towards said at least one tear control element (16, 17) and away from said rear seam (11), characterized in that said tear control element is formed by preparing a longitudinal seam (16, 17) in the flexible film material, which longitudinal seam is distinct from the longitudinal rear seam (11), the opening initiation point (18) being located between the longitudinal rear seam (11) and the tear control element (16, 17).
  11. The method of claim 10, wherein the tear control element (16, 17) is a locally treated region having an elongated shape that extends from the first end seam (12) to the second end seam (13).
  12. The method according to any of claims 10 to 11, comprising joining at least two bands of flexible film material to each other by longitudinal seams to form said sheet.
  13. The method according to any of claims 10 to 12, wherein a flow wrap process is used for preparing the package (10), and wherein at least two bands of flexible film material are first joined by a longitudinal seam to form a sheet, which is fed to the flow wrap process to prepare the package.

Description

FIELD The present invention relates to packages made of flexible material, and more particularly packages that comprise means for controlling opening of the package by tearing. BACKGROUND When packaging products that require a high and controlled purity or sterilization level, attention shall be paid not only to the product package itself but also its manufacturing and opening processes. The package must keep the product uncontaminated through the entire logistics chain. The end user shall obtain the product from the package to an end use situation without any risk of contamination. Typically, purity of products requiring a controlled purity level is ensured by packaging the products to packages made of plastic film. Such packages prevent contamination of the product located inside the package. Such packages are manufactured for example by flow wrap, shrinkwrap and TFFS (Thermoform-Fill-Seal) methods. In flow wrap and shrinkwrap methods, a kind of bag is formed around the product. In the TFFS method, a package base with a desired shape is moulded, the product is placed on the base, and finally a film is sealed onto the base to close the package. Each of these methods has disadvantages. For example, in a shrinkwrap film there are holes through which air can escape from the bag during the manufacturing process. Such holes clearly expose the product to a risk of contamination. In the TFFS method, the forming of the base of the package imposes restrictions to the dimensions of the package, such as its depth in relation to the area. A package manufactured by the TFFS method typically takes more space than a pouch-type package. If the base has been formed from a rigid film, the packaging waste will also require a lot of space. The flow wrap method is a very widely used method for packaging products that require a controlled purity and sterility level. A major disadvantage of this method is that the package is difficult to open in a controlled manner. Typically a flow wrap bag comprises an opening initiation point in one of the seams, from which tearing of the bag is started. Tearing starts easily but progresses in an uncontrolled manner to various directions, depending on tearing forces and directions that are used. In the worst case, only a tiny corner is detached upon the first tearing action, thus necessitating further attempts to tear the bag open. It is known to attach tear strips onto the film material of a package. Such strips are usually made of a plastic material and glued onto the film material of the package. The strips function so that the user grasps an end of the strip located in a seam of the package and tears the strip off the film material, whereby the film material is also torn under the strip. A disadvantage of such tear strips is the limited strength of the glued joint between the strip and the film material. The force required to tear the film material beneath the strip is relatively high, particularly when the package is made of a multilayer laminate film ensuring good barrier properties, and therefore the strip may become detached and the film left unopened. Another disadvantage of tearing strips is that the adhesive that is used for attaching the strip to the film material is located inside the package, which clearly exposes the product to a potential source of contamination. It is known to use oriented plastic film materials that tend to tear along a certain direction. Such a film is torn in a controlled manner if the tearing force can be directed to the direction of the desired tearing line. However, if the tearing force deviates from the desired longitudinal tearing line, the film tends to resist tearing and appears very tough. It is also known to make perforations to a package film material for controlling the tearing open of the package. Such a perforation can be prepared for example by a laser and mechanically so that only a part of the film thickness is punctured, so that the barrier properties of the film are maintained. Such perforations control tearing relatively well if the tearing force can be directed along the perforations. However, if the tearing force is directed cross-wise with regard to the perforations, tearing easily departs from the desired path of perforations and becomes uncontrolled. Packages comprising perforations are more vulnerable to mechanical strain imposed during transport than package made of a uniform film. Particularly pressure variations impose problems, because in low air pressure conditions the package is swollen and easily torn at the perforations. If a flow wrap package does not comprise any tear control mechanism, it will be demanding for the user to keep the contents under control upon opening the package, particularly if the contents comprise separate parts. Such lack of control upon opening of the package often results in contamination of the contents. US 2015/0158628 A1 discloses a package comprising: a flexible material having a first portion f