WO1997021595A1

WO1997021595A1 - Packaging sleeves

Info

Publication number: WO1997021595A1
Application number: PCT/GB1996/003030
Authority: WO
Inventors: Brian Henry Mahoney
Original assignee: Charterhouse Graphics Limited
Priority date: 1995-12-09
Filing date: 1996-12-09
Publication date: 1997-06-19
Also published as: GB2308567B; AU1069197A; GB2308567A; GB2308567A8; GB9625566D0

Abstract

A method of producing and applying printed packaging sleeves comprising the steps of: (i) printing a plurality of design sets on both sides of a reel of flexible packaging material, each set comprising the same repeating design extending as a column along the length of the packaging material, the designs on both sides of the packaging material being in register; (ii) sealing the printed sides with a protective coating suitable for food use; (iii) cutting through the reel to separate the columns to provide individual design sets; (iv) transferring each cut reel as required to a package machine to be fed as a continuous web to a packaging station; (v) winding the web around a respective container of packed product with the desired printed face outwards; (vi) cutting from the web the portion of the material wrapped around the packed product container and fixing together the co-operating edges, whilst the material is under tension, to form a sleeve.

Description

PACKAGING SLEEVES Field of the Invention

This invention relates to printed packaging sleeves or banders, and particularly to the production of such sleeves e g for packaging products for presentation in a store, or supermarket, particularly food items Background to the Invention

At present, for food items, such sleeves are conventionally produced in cardboard and the production method includes printing several designs, usually in colour, of a design for one food item to be packaged on one side of a large sheet of carton board transferring the printed sheet to a cutting and creasing press to indent creases and cut out individual blanks for the sleeves, transferring the sleeve blanks to a gluing machine which folds the blanks along the creases and glues co-operating edges together to produce finished sleeves Each sleeve is then fitted by hand over the food item and located thereon by press-outs formed in the sleeve Such a production method has many disadvantages, as follows -

(i) Different designs for more than one food item can be printed on the large sheets of carton boards, but this requires the quantities required for each food item to be of equal ratios, which seldom happens and incurs expensive waste, and the possibility of a wrong sleeve being fitted to a food item (n) Carton board is expensive, and inflexible since it can only be erected/constructed in one direction determined by the creasing blades of the cutting and creasing press (in) Production is expensive in machinery terms and labour intensive

(iv) These sleeves cannot be used to seal the food into the cartons and require that the carton is pre-sealed with polyethylene or other food-compatible film prior to the sleeve being applied This requires additional time labour and materials

It is also known that lightweight, flexible banders can be used to label food products as described in EP 0683100 and EP 0160374 These documents describe various ways of converting a film web, printed on one side, into a bander around a food product The technology needed to print a plurality of repeating columns across a web of material and to divide these up into rolls by a slitting process is known from US 3,948,504 As with the cardboard sleeves, different language versions can be printed side by side and the roll with the appropπate language version on used at any one time Once again, this can be wasteful in materials since it assumes that the correct proportion of each language version has been printed This method cannot allow for changes during the production process other than by wastage

Whilst the prior art describes vaπous forms of sleeve and bander these are applied to a pre-packaged product requiring two packing processes and two lots of packaging mateπal

An object of the invention is to provide an alternative production method which avoids some or all of the above disadvantages Summary of the Invention

According to the present invention, in its broadest sense, there is provided a method of producing and applying printed packaging sleeves comprising the steps of -

(i) Printing a plurality of design sets on both sides of a reel of flexible packaging material, each set comprising the same repeating design extending as a column along the length of the packaging material, the designs on both sides of the packaging mateπal being in register (ii) Sealing both sides of the paper with a protective coating suitable for food use,

(m) Cutting through the reel to separate the columns to provide individual design sets (iv) Transferring each cut reel as required to a package machine to be fed as a continuous web to a packaging station

(v) Winding the web around a respective container of packed product with the desired printed face outwards,

(vi) Cutting from the web the portion of the material wrapped around the packed product container and fixing together the co-operating edges whilst the material is under tension, to form a sleeve

In a preferred arrangement the reel of packaging material is printed on both sides with different language versions of the same design set

Preferably the packaging material is paper Paper is significantly cheaper than carton board, easier to manipulate in printing equipment and reels are smaller per unit length of material

Typically, the sleeve is held in place around the container by frictional forces due to the natural elasticity of the sleeve mateπal Paper is an ideal substrate for this

With such an arrangement, it will be appreciated that one reel of paper can provide a number of different design sets, e g each set can comprise a picture of one particular food item with information and instructions in a different language, in which case the one reel could be used to pack a large number of the same food items with a range of different languages, depending upon the different countries to be exported to In the present method of production described above it will be appreciated that the food items are sealed prior to being fitted with their sleeves

A further object of this invention is to provide an alternative method which avoids pre-sealing According to a feature of this invention, the packed products are presented at the packing station in unsealed containers and the continuous web of sealed paper is additionally sealed around the container mouth

It will be appreciated that the scope of the invention includes the production of paper reels printed with design sets and sealed with a protective coating for use with the production method, as well as the finished sleeves and packed products with packaging sleeves applied thereto in accordance with the production method Description of the Drawings

In order that the invention may be readily understood and further features made apparent, embodiments of the production methods in accordance therewith will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which

Figures 1A and 1B show the underside and topside of a reel of paper with a printing arrangement for food items, or other products

Figure 2 is a schematic view of a cut reel feeding a continuous web to a packing station for sleeving a sealed food tray, and Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 for sleeving an open food tray

Description of the Preferred Embodiments

Referring to Figures 1A and 1B a reel of paper 1 is printed with a number of design sets each comprising a column 2 defined by the dotted parallel lines 3 of repeating designs 4 In this embodiment the design sets have been arranged for distribution of one particular food item mainly in the UK with smaller volumes to be exported to five other European countries Thus it will be noted that five columns of identical design sets are printed across the width of the reel 1 on the underside thereof, whilst one design set column is provided for each of the European languages on the topside It will also be noted that the printing of the columns and design sets on respective sides of the reel are in register It will be appreciated that other design set arrangements can be printed according to requirements e g they can cover a range of different food items with information in the same language, furthermore, the width of each column can be varied according to the width of different sleeves to be produced from the reel Following printing, both sides of the paper are provided with a protective coating, e g a UV Varnish, or clear PVC, in a manner known per se Spaces or gaps can be provided in the varnish or other protective coating to allow specific batch information, such as the sell by/use by date to be over-printed on the sleeve at the time of packaging The reel 1 is then slit along the lines 3 defining the columns 2 and re-reeled into a number of smaller reels 5 (see Figure 1 B), each with the particular design set required on a chosen side, in this embodiment on the underside These smaller reels are then either stored for subsequent use or fitted onto a packing machine (not shown) as required

Referring to Figure 2, the packing machine has a packing station to which sealed pre-packed food items 6 are fed singly, e g by a conveyor belt (not shown) to which a required design set of a smaller reel 5 is fed as a continuous web 7 Such food items are typically sealed by a polyethylene or polypropylene film over the top of the food container 6 and heat-sealed around the edge Each design repeat of the design set on the web is defined by a register mark 8 (see Figure 1) The end of the web 7 is passed around the product 6 at the packing station cut and the co- operating edges fixed together e g by glue, at the location marked by the arrow 8A This operation can be completed either by hand or, if the volumes are sufficient, automatically by use of suitably designed guide and timing devices known per se

Whereas known carton board sleeves are held in place by folding in pre- formed press-out corner portions, this requires a separate operation after the outer carton has been placed over the product It has unexpectedly been discovered that by using a paper or plastic sleeve stretched tightly around the product, the natural and intrinsic elasticity in the sleeve material holds the sleeve in place quite satisfactorily Thus there is no need for further cuts, folds, press-outs or other operations This results in significant cost savings

An alternative gluing point is shown as 10 in figures 2 and 3 Where the food containers are relatively flexible the corner of the container tends to be the most rigid region on which to press the edges of the sleeve when gluing This adaptation allows even relatively thin containers to be banded successfully It will be appreciated that food cartons are often wider at their open face than at the base That is to say, the sides are angled inwards towards the base Where the sleeve covers the entire open face of the container there will be inevitably be a portion of the sleeve which does not overlap the base This presents problems when gluing the sleeve ends together because there is no cooperating surface to press the sleeve against This can be overcome by placing the container between retractable jaws whose faces correspond to the angle and depth of the container sides Wth the jaws in contact with the container, the jaws provide a firm surface against which to press the ends of the sleeve during the gluing process

In an alternative embodiment, the sleeve can be glued to the carton itself at one end, wound around the carton and the other end of the sleeve attached to the first end This provides a stable sleeve that will not slip around the carton and is also prevented from sliding along its length

Importantly, the wrapping and outer carton formation can take place in a single operation with the sleeve being formed in a single packaging operation Referring to Figure 3, a second aspect of the invention is particularly applicable to food items in open trays 6 that need to be sealed The method is basically the same as described above, but includes the further operation of additionally sealing the printed web 7 to the mouth of open trays 6 fed to the packing station In this case, that part of the sleeve produced extending around the sides and bottom of the tray can be readily torn off, if not required, with the aid of lines 9 of perforations formed during the production of the paper reels and extending across the width of the webs at appropriate, longitudinally spaced, positions

In this application the face of the sleeve which is in contact with the food is laminated with a food-compatible plastics material such as polyethylene or polypropylene The region forming the seal is then further coated with a heat sealant such as polyvinyl indene chloride (PVDC) Such heat sealants are known to the materials specialist who would be consulted to determine the optimum laminates, varnishes, sealants etc for each application

It has therefore been discovered, for the first time, that a food carton can be sealed and banded in a single operation This represents considerable savings in packaging, machanical operations, cost and time If required, the sealer/bander can also be reversible and printed on both sides as described above to minimize wastage

It will be appreciated that a range of flexible packaging materials can be used in this method, as selected by the materials specialist It has been unexpectedly discovered that paper as opposed to carton board is a suitable substrate and this can be sealed or laminated as required Food-compatible plastics or composite films could also be used and may be more appropriate if the wrapper also acts to seal the mouth of the food tray

One of the advantages of this method is that paper can be used as the sleeve This has the advantage that not only is paper cheap compared to other materials but very high quality images can be printed on it cheaply and easily This contrasts with plastics films where the printing process gives less clear images which are not upto the expectations of the discerning shopper By laminating after printing the best of both worlds is obtained In an alternative embodiment of this second aspect of the invention the sieeve may be sealed to the mouth of the container, wrapped around the container then glued to its side That is to say the sleeve need not completely encircle the carton

In this context the term sleeve therefore encompasses a bander which partly encircles a carton and which is adhered in some way to the carton to keep it in place In a further embodiment, the sleeves can be formed separately from the container, around a former for example and then slipped over the container in a separate operation

It will be appreciated that a production method in accordance with aspects of this invention has the following benefits, compared with the present method used -

(a) Reduced raw mateπal costs i e Paper v Carton Board

(b) Flexibility of varying sizes, design and languages over the reel width particularly where the reel is printed on both sides

(c) Reduced waste of packaging which in the past was ordered by estimating and guess work, particularly where Foreign language ratios were involved (d) If any particular design or Foreign language on one side of the reel is not required, the design on the other side can be used (saving packaging waste)

(e) Stock control is easier and cheaper, which means that write-offs of packaging sleeves are virtually eliminated (f) Reduces waste particularly in the tπaling of new products

(g) Enables high quality tho printing to be used

(h) Provides for coding and pricing in-line by printing onto pre-determined gaps left on sleeve Packing then becomes a fully automated process (i) No cutting and creasing is required, saving machine and operator costs Similarly there is no folding and gluing, other than where the sleeve is formed around the container (j) If the reverse side of the sleeve is not required for a second language version, it can be used to provide menu suggestions and recipes

Claims

1 A method of producing and applying printed packaging sleeves comprising the steps of -

(i) printing a plurality of design sets on both sides of a reel of flexible packaging mateπal, each set comprising the same repeating design extending as a column along the length of the packaging material, the designs on both sides of the packaging material being in register,

(it) sealing the printed sides with a protective coating suitable for food use,

(in) cutting through the reel to separate the columns to provide individual design sets,

(iv) transferring each cut reel as required to a package machine to be fed as a continuous web to a packaging station,

(v) winding the web around a respective container of packed product with the desired printed face outwards, (vi) cutting from the web the portion of the material wrapped around the packed product container and fixing together the co-operating edges, whilst the material is under tension, to form a sleeve

2 A method according to Claim 1 wherein the reel of packaging material is printed on both sides with different language versions of the same design set 3 A method according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein the packaging material is paper

4 A method according to any preceding Claim wherein the sleeve is held in place around the container by frictional forces due to the natural elasticity of the sleeve material 5 A method of producing and applying printed packaging sleeves to pre-sealed containers substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in any combination of the accompanyng drawings

6 A method according to any preceding claim in which packed products are presented at a packaging station in unsealed containers compπsing the additional steps of -

(VII) sealing at least one side of the packaging material with a protective laminate coating of food-compatible plastics material such as polyethylene or polypropylene, (VIM) applying a heat sealing material such as polyvinyl indene chloπde to the portion of the packaging material intended to come in contact with the mouth of the container,

(ix) winding the web around the container and heat sealing the web to the container mouth 7 A method of producing and applying printed packaging sleeves to unsealed containers substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in any combination of the accompanying drawings

8 A packaging sleeve formed according to any of the preceding Claims

9 A packaging sleeve substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in any combination of the accompanying drawings