US 7025504 B2
A reclosable bag having closed top and bottom ends, closed sides extending therebetween, and a closure region with a reclosable fastener. The fastener and one of the closed sides have an included angle less than 90 degrees. The fastener is further configured such that the reclosable fastener has a first end and a second end, and the sealed portion has a first end and a second end, the first end of the fastener generally extending to the closed first side so as to form a pour spout, the second end of the fastener generally extending to the first end of the sealed portion, and the second end of the sealed portion generally extending to the closed second side. In this manner, a pour spout is formed, that assists in pouring material from the bag. The pour spout can also be reclosed for convenience of the user.
1. A reclosable bag, comprising:
closed top and bottom ends, closed first and second sides extending between the closed top and bottom ends, and an interior portion configured to store material;
a first closure region at least partially defined by the closed top end and a tear strip, the tear strip disposed inward of the closed top end;
a second closure region disposed inward of the first closure region and the tear strip, the second closure region including a reclosable fastener and a sealed portion;
wherein the reclosable fastener is configured to open so as to expose the interior portion; and
wherein the reclosable fastener and the closed first side have an included angle less than 90 degrees; and
wherein the reclosable fastener has a first end and a second end, and the sealed portion has a first end and a second end, the first end of the fastener generally extending to the closed first side so as to form a pour spout, the second end of the fastener generally extending to the first end of the sealed portion, and the second end of the sealed portion generally extending to the closed second side.
2. The reclosable bag of
3. The reclosable bag of
4. The reclosable bag of
5. The reclosable bag of
6. The reclosable bag of
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/367,801 filed Feb. 19, 2003 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,857,779, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/804,526, filed Mar. 10, 2001 now abandoned, which is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/339,702 filed Jun. 24, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,571.
The present invention relates generally to packaging for packaging pourable contents such as breakfast cereal, snack food product and the like, and more particularly to a flexible cereal bag provided with a reclosable pour spout.
Packaging of breakfast cereal is customarily effected by sealing the dry cereal product within a plastic bag and storing the filled bag within a suitably sized cardboard box or carton. A disadvantage with this type of packaging is that once the sealed bag is opened, it is difficult to reseal the bag in an airtight manner necessary to maintain freshness of the cereal product.
In order to close a conventional cereal bag after the sealed top end has been opened, the user will typically fold the opened end of the bag over onto it self one or more times. Closing the bag in this way is awkward. Oftentimes, the user will simply stuff the opened end of the bag down into the box without regard to properly sealing the opening. Once opened, the conventional cereal bag is never again airtight. In humid climates, in particular, exposure of the dry cereal product to air quickly compromises the freshness of the cereal product. Furthermore, as additional serving portions of the cereal product are emptied from the bag with each use, it becomes more difficult to effectively seal close the open end of the bag by rolling the bag within the depth of the box or carton.
Another problem with conventional cereal bags is that it is difficult to open the sealed top end of the bag without also ripping or tearing the side panel walls of the bag. An unevenly opened bag often has an overhanging portion that blocks or traps cereal during pouring. In the case where the bag is used as a liner within a box, the overhanging portion of the ripped open bag often also causes spillage of the cereal contents into the crevice space between the bag and the box as the box is returned to the upright position. A flexible bay formed with an easily openable reclosable pour spout that overcomes the above-noted problems of the prior art would be desirable.
Flexible plastic bags or cereal box liners having a reclosable fastener or zipper for packaging cereal are known from the prior art. Examples of prior art flexible plastic bags having a reclosable fastener are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,759,642, 4,946,289, and 5,080,253. In each of the bags disclosed is these patent documents, the reclosable fastener extends transversely across the entire width of the bag. None of these patent documents disclose or teach a bag having a reclosable fastener or associated structure that is configured to form a natural pour spout when the zipper material is opened. Quaker Oats currently markets a cereal bag having a zipper-type reclosable fastener under the trademark ZIP PAK. Like the prior art noted above, the reclosable fastener of the ZIP PAK bag extends across the entire width of the bag. The ZIP PAK bags, like most cereal bags on the market these days, are mass produced from a single web of film material using conventional in-line vertical form, fill and seal (VFFS) packaging equipment. As a result of the VFFS production process, the overlying front and rear panel walls of the bag are joined together by a joining fin seal that runs the longitudinal length of the bag. In the ZIP PAK bags, in particular, the joining fin seal bisects the zipper-type reclosable fastener across the top of the bag. Thus, there is a tendency for the joining fin seal to obstruct zipper closure action as the user applies thumb and finger pressure in a sweeping motion across the length of the zipper-type reclosable fastener. This obstruction often results in the bag not being completely sealed. Difficulty in airtight resealing a bag with such “full width” zip closures is compounded in the case where the bag is also used as a box liner.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,953,708 and 5,060,803 disclose flexible bags that form pour spouts when opened. The bags in these patent documents lack any resealable structure for the pour spouts and they require the sides of the bag to be gussetted which increases the cost of manufacture.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,344 discloses a flexible package for enclosing liquid or granular products which includes a tubular plastic bag and a pleated reclosable pour spout that is appended to the side edge of the bag. A bag of this configuration is complex in design and would be extremely expensive and difficult to mass manufacture using conventional VFFS equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,626 discloses a bag with a corner tear-away pour spout opening. This patent teaches to reseal the bag after each use by attaching a separate adhesive patch to cover the corner pour spout opening. A drawback with this resealing approach is that the glue on the adhesive patch tends to loose its effectiveness after repeated uses. Also, since the adhesive patch is separable from the bag, it may become lost through carelessness of the user, thereby leaving the user without a convenient means for resealing the bag.
Accordingly, a bag having a pour spout which includes integral structure or means for resealing the pour spout and which is also easily mass produced using conventional VFFS equipment would constitute a significant advance in the art.
It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide a flexible bag (or box liner) for packaging pourable contents such as dry cereal or snack food product, and wherein the bag is formed with an integral reclosable pour spout that is easy to open, pour cereal from, seal, and close.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a design for a plastic bag (or box liner) having a reclosable pour spout which is simple in construction, low in cost, and well suited for mass production using conventional VFFS techniques.
In one embodiment of the invention, a reclosable bag comprises closed top and bottom ends, closed first and second sides extending between the closed top and bottom ends, and an interior portion configured to store material. The bag also has a first closure region at least partially defined by the closed top end and a tear strip, the tear strip disposed inward of the closed top end. In addition, the bag has a second closure region disposed inward of the first closure region and the tear strip, the second closure region including a reclosable fastener and a sealed portion. The reclosable fastener is configured to open so as to expose the interior portion. Also, the reclosable fastener and the closed first side have an included angle less than 90 degrees. The reclosable fastener has a first end and a second end, and the sealed portion has a first end and a second end, the first end of the fastener generally extending to the closed first side so as to form a pour spout, the second end of the fastener generally extending to the first end of the sealed portion, and the second end of the sealed portion generally extending to the closed second side.
Other and further objects of the present invention will be apparent from the following description and claims, and are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, which by way of example, show preferred embodiments of the present invention and principles thereof. Other embodiments of the invention embodying the same or equivalent principles may be used and structural changes may be made as desired by those skilled in the art without departing from the present invention and the purview of the appended claims.
A flexible bag formed with a reclosable pour spout constructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention is designated generally by reference numeral 10 in
The bag 10 is formed from thermoplastic sheet or film material, and has overlying front and rear wall panels 14 and a closed bottom end 16. In the preferred embodiment, the closed bottom end 16 is formed as a sealed seam using conventional heat sealing means.
For purposes of example and illustration, the bag 10 is a flat tube-type bag formed of a single sheet of material which is folded over onto itself to form a joining fin seal (not shown) that runs the longitudinal length of the bag 10. However, bags incorporating the invention of this application may be fabricated in a side-gusset tube style, side gusset back seam style, or any other suitable bag design.
The upper portion 26 of the bag 10 comprises a first closure region terminating in a sealed top end 18. One or more openings 19 may be provided to the sealed top end 18 to permit hanging of the bag from hooks at a retail display site. The sealed top end 18 is preferably reinforced in the area surrounding the openings 19 so that the weight of the filled bag 10 does not cause the hooks to rip through the top sealed end 18 at the openings 19.
The upper portion 26 of the bag 10 further comprises a second closure region which includes a tear strip 20 followed by an inwardly adjacent inner heat seal 22 and reclosable fastener 24. The tear strip 20 extends across the entire width of the bag 10 whereas the inner heat seal 22 only extends across a portion of the bag width having a first end located at one side of the bag 10 and a second end terminating at a distance from the opposite side of the bag 10. The reclosable fastener 24 begins where the heat seal 22 leaves off and extends across the remaining width of the bag 10 to terminate at the other side of the bag 10. As can be seen in the drawings, the inner heat seal 22 extends in the transverse direction approximately one half the width of the bag 10, although it is understood that this distance and orientation may vary.
In this embodiment, the reclosable fastener 24 is oriented along an upward oblique angle relative to the inner heat seal 22. In use, the upper portion 26 of the bag 10 is first separated from the lower portion of the bag 10 by tearing along tear strip 20 to expose the reclosable fastener (see
In the case where the bag 10 is to be received within a close fitting box 12 (e.g., see
Referring now to
Although not shown in any of the drawings, a modified version of the
Turning now to
In the embodiment of