WO1994018090A1

WO1994018090A1 - Packaging especially for tea bags

Info

Publication number: WO1994018090A1
Application number: PCT/GB1993/002662
Authority: WO
Inventors: Steven John Barratt
Original assignee: Premier Brands U.K. Ltd.
Priority date: 1993-02-05
Filing date: 1993-12-24
Publication date: 1994-08-18
Also published as: GB2283959A; AU5711694A; GB9502357D0; GB9302261D0

Abstract

The present invention provides a package for tea bags in which a sealed sleeve (20) is formed to have a block bottom and a gable end top. The tea bags may be contained inside the sealed sleeve in loose form or in the form of stacks held in position by wrapping, or in stacks which are inside sachets (14) and the sachets are sealed and are grouped inside the sleeve.

Description

PACKAGING ESPECIALLY FOR TEA BAGS --

This invention relates to packaging, and has particular but not exclusive reference to the packaging of tea bags. Until quite recently, tea bags have been packaged in cardboard containers or the like and usually loosely fit in these containers so that when the container is opened, the tea bags are somewhat loose and are extracted therefrom as needed. The examination of this form of packaging has indicated that it does have certain disadvantages insofar as the tea in each bag may have some capability of moving relative to the bag structure, and the movement can give rise to the egress of minute tea particles through the bag material, which is of a filtering nature to enable water to flow therethrough thereby to form the tea infusion when a beverage is to be prepared. This deleterious effect has the result that often when a tea bag package is opened, there will be a considerable residue of minute tea particles inside the package, but outside the bags themsleves.

Furthermore, established and conventional tea bag packaging methods have not looked at maintaining the bags in the best condition from the point of view of tea freshness. It is known that the freshness of tea is affected by oxygen in the atmosphere and an oxidation effect leads to the impairment of the tea quality.

Recent developments which we have made, and which have proved to be successful have involved packaging of the tea bags in hermetically sealed wrappings or "sachets" as outlined in our co-pending British Patent No 2228912.

By containing the tea bags in such sachets, they can be stored for much longer periods with minimum or no deterioration in the tea quality, and a spin off of this method of packaging means that when the sachet is first opened by the consumer, an aroma of fresh tea will be released from the sachet, adding to the pleasure of tea consumption.

In the said British Patent, we have indicated that the tea bags typically are of a square or rectangular form, as certain considerable advantages flow from using tea bags of this configuration, but clearly sachet wrappings can be used in connection with the packaging of tea bags which are other than rectangualr or square in configuration. Thus, the "round" tea bags which are now on the market can be packaged in sachets.

In the British Patent No 2228912 it was proposed that the sachets, each typically containing 40 tea bags, could themselves be packaged in cardboard containers and the like and the products heretofore which have been placed on the market have been so packaged.

There is demand for improved presentation and handling and even further demand for the maintenance of package freshness, and therefore we have performed further development work with these objectives in mind, and the present invention is a result of this development work.

Accordng to a first aspect of the present invention, tea bags are held in an outer sleeve wrapping by which the ends are transversely sealed and one end is formed into a block bottom and the outer end is gable ended.

The tea bags are preferably held in the wrapping in at least one pair of stacks, each containing a number, say 20, of tea bags. There may be several pairs of stacks held in the sleeve.

The or each pair of stacks may be contained in a sealed sachet in the manner described in said British Patent. Where several sachets are stacked, these may be grouped together and held in position one against the other by said outer wrapping. The sachets/sachet are/is preferably contained in the wrapping so that the sachet end seals lie parallel to the wrapping seals.

According to a further aspect of the invention, tea bags are contained in hermetically sealed sachets, and the sachets are in turn contained in hermetically sealed wrappings.

By this arrangement, a double freshness effect is achieved, and air is effectively excluded from the tea bags to a much greater extent.

The sachets are preferably such that they are wrapped round the tea bags to keep the tea bags in a particular disposition inside the sachet (as opposed to merely being bags in which the tea bags are free to move around one relative to another) and furthermore, the sachets preferably are located in the wrapping in such a manner that the wrapping will keep the sachets in spacial disposition, preventing relative movement of one in relation to the other.

A particularly effective and efficient system results, and in a method of forming the packages according to the invention, the sachet or several sachets if they are grouped together, is or are fed to a flow wrapping machine by which the outer hermetically sealed wrapping is applied.

The outer wrapping may be constructed of any suitable material, but we prefer to use one which has particularly effective gas barrier properties, and the material preferably comprises a laminate of polyethylene terepthalate, a metal foil, and a polyethylene layer. The wrapping is applied so that the polyethylene layer is to the inside, the foil is in the centre, and the polyethylene terepthalate (PET) is to the outside.

The sachet or sachets may be formed from polyethylene. Where the sachets are of the geometric construction as disclosed in our Patent No 2228912, they are preferably arranged in the hermetically sealed wrapping so that the end fin seals lie parallel to the fin seals of the wrapping, although this particular disposition is not essential to the invention. Each sachet may contain 40 tea bags arranged in two stacks of twenty each although other arrangements are possible.

The outer wrapping preferably after application for example in a flow-wrap machine, is tucked and folded so as to provide that the shape of the outer wrapping takes the shape of a block bottom and gable top container. The folded gable end to form the bottom may be tacked with an adhesive to hold the folded end in block bottom configuration. Where the wrapping is applied by a flow-wrap machine, the sheet material to form the wrapping may be pre-creased so that it can and will readily fold to the gable end, block bottom configuration.

A particularly effective and attractive package results by the measures of the present invention.

The package will also be effectively hermetically sealed providing a double sealing arrangement for the actual tea bags, the first sealing arrangement being formed by the sachet and the second sealing arrangement being formed by the wrapping. The hermetic effect is particularly effective when the outer wrapping is of the laminated material of the type hereinbefore described although it should be mentioned that other relatively impermeable sheet materials can be used and any suitable shape material can be used both for the sachet and for the outer wrapping.

Several embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, wherein:-

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of two stacks of tea bags to be packaged according to one embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 shows the two stacks of tea bags of Fig. 1 when wrapped in a sachet;

Fig. 3 shows the sachet of Fig. 2 in perspective view and in the disposition it will occupy in the final package;

Fig. 4 shows the sachet of Fig. 3 when overwrapped with the wrapping;

Fig. 5 is a side view of the arrangement of Fig. 4 in final form;

Figs. 6 and 7 are views similar to Figs. 4 and 5 but showing a package containing two sachets;

Fig. 8 is a side view showing a package containing four sachets; and

Fig. 9 is a perspective view showing a package according to the invention and containing twelve sachets. Referring to the drawings, Fig. 1 shows two stacks of tea bags 10 and 12 and each stack may typically contain twenty tea bags. The tea bags shown are generally rectangular in shape, but they could be of other configuration, for example circular. Additionally, the stacks are shown as being separated in the interests of clarity, but the machine which produces the stacks of tea bags, as disclosed in our co- pending UK Patent No 2228912 arranges for the stacks to be in juxtaposition as shown in Fig. 2, and as also disclosed in said co-pending application, the stacks are wrapped in a sachet of flexible material, indicated by reference numeral 14, by a flow wrapping process so as to have end seals 16 and 18. The production method and arrangement are shown in the said UK Patent to which reference is made.

The resulting product as shown in Fig. 3 is a sachet containing two stacks of tea bags which are held in position by the sachet material, and the sachet is hermetically sealed in order to retain the tea freshness by excluding air from contacting the tea bags until the sachet is opened. In the said Patent it was described that the material of the sachet could be any suitable type of good air impermeability qualities, and specifically a metalised plastic film was preferred. This film could furthermore be laminated with a further plastic layer in order to enhance the barrier properties. With the present invention however, because the sachet 14 subsequently is wrapped with an outer wrapping, it means that other materials can be used, and preferably in this example the film is of polyethylene (PE) .

In accordance with the first embodiment of the invention as shown in Fig. 4, the sachet 14 is wrapped in an outer flow wrap wrapping 20, the wrapping 20 being provided with end seals 22 and 24 hermetically to seal the sachet 14 inside the wrapping 20. The wrapping 20 furthermore is made of a size and dimension so as neatly to wrap the sachet 14 circumferentially, but to provide end extensions 26 and 28 of gable end construction, and in the formation of the final package as shown in Fig. 5, one of the ends, say end 28, is formed into a block bottom by folding of the gable end construction as shown. The seal 24 may be tacked down in the folded position of Fig. 5 by adhesive. This formation of the block bottom preferably is doen in line insofar as after the sachet 14 is flow wrapped with the wrapping 20 having extensions 26 and 28, the extension 28 is folded in a manner to provide the block bottom whilst the package is travelling in line with the flow wrap machine. The web which forms the wrapping 20 may be pre-creased as it is fed to the flow wrap machine to enable it to be folded to form the ends illustrated.

The resulting package as shown in Fig. 5 is a block bottom gable top arrangement to provide an attractive configuration. Additionally, the walls of the outer wrapping 20 embrace the sachet neatly to keep it in position as shown clearly in Fig. 5.

The material of the wrapping 20 may be any suitable which can be hermetically sealed in order to exclude air from the interior of the wrapping, and in a preferred arrangement the wrapping 20 is a laminated material of polyethylene on the inside, aluminium foil in the centre, and a polyethylene terepthalate (PET) on the outside. The polyethylene layer can be heat sealed to itself in order to form the hermetic seal in the seal regions 22 and 24, and if the wrapping material as is usually the case is fed in web form, there will also be a longitudinal seal 30 extending lengthwise of the package. The seal 30 may be a face to face seal or an overlap. It will be noticed that the seals 22 and 24 extend in the same direction as the sachet seals 16 and 18.

Figs. 6 to 9 show alternative embodiments wherein the only difference from Fig. 1 is in the number of sachets contained in the package. In Fig. 6, as shown, there are two sachets 14 contained in the wrapping 20, Fig. 7 showing the resulting block bottom gable top arrangement.

In the arrangement of Fig. 8, there are four sachets 14, whilst in Fig. 9 six sachets 14 are arranged as shown inside the wrapping 20.

The package according to the invention of Fig. 4 holds 40 tea bags, the arrangement of Fig. 6 holds 80 tea bags, the arrangement of Fig. 8 holds 160 tea bags and the largest package shown in Fig. 9 holds 480 tea bags.

Other arrangements are possible and indeed as disclosed in our co-pending Patent Application No 9222384.1, it is possible to replace one or more of the sachets in a multiple sachet package, with another object of similar size which may be for example a gift or a promotion item, and this concept of providing a promotion item in conjunction with tea bag sachets, wherein the promotion item is of a like size and configuration to a sachet, is another aspect of the present invention.

Modifications of the present invention are possible, and in such modifications further inventive aspects are provided.

Thus, the gable end block bottom construction of a sealed flow wrap sleeve is usable in connection with the packaging of tea bags where the tea bags although arranged in stacks as shown in Fig. 1 are not in fact contained in sachets. In other words considering for example Fig. 5, this would contain two stacks as shown in Fig. 1 placed directly in the outer wrapping 20. The outer wrapping could be applied in basically the same manner as described in our aforesaid British patent, but the additional step of forming the sleeve into gable end block bottom configuration applies.

With such an arrangement, the wrapping sleeve forms the means for holding the stacks of tea bags in the correct configuration, and this modification of the invention can be applied in relation to block bottom gable end wrappings which hold more than one pair of tea bags.

Additionally, the adoption of the gable end block bottom configuration can be utilised for containing tea bags which are loose and randomly packaged although obviously a different method of filling the sleeves would have to be adopted to compare to that in our aforesaid British Patent.

Instead of the tea bags being contained in foil seal packages as indicated, the stacks of tea bags may be contained loose within the outer gable end block bottom package.

Claims

1. A package containing tea bags wherein the tea bags are held in an outer sleeve wrapping of which the ends are transversely sealed and one end is formed into a block bottom and the other end is gable ended.

2. A package according to Claim 1 wherein the tea bags are held in the wrapping in at least one pair of stacks, each containing a number say twenty tea bags.

3. A package according to Claim 2 wherein there are several pairs of stacks held in the sleeve.

4. A package according to Claim 2 or 3 wherein the or each pair of stacks is or are contained in a sealed sachet.

5. A package according to Claim 4 wherein there are several sachets in the wrapping and these are grouped together and held in position one against the other by the said wrapping.

6. A package according to Claim 4 or 5 wherein the sachet or sachets is or are contained in the wrapping so that the sachet end seals lie parallel to the wrapping end seals.

7. A package containing tea bags, wherein the tea bags are contained in hermetically sealed sachets, and the sachets are in turn contained in a hermetically sealed sleeve wrapping.

8. A method of forming packages containing tea bags wherein a sachet or several sachets containing tea bags is or are fed to a flow wrapping machine by which an outer hermetically sealed sleeve wrapping is applied.