Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US4268336?dq=5,664,133
Timestamp: 2017-08-21 16:26:44
Document Index: 148598837

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 2', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'arts 1', 'arts 1', 'arts 1', 'arts 1', 'arts 1', 'arts 1']

Patent US4268336 - Method of manufacturing containers - Google Patents
A method for manufacturing retortable cans is taught which includes the step of cable extruding a tube of plastic. Subsequently, a substantially gas-tight material is laminated to the outside of the tube and a plastic layer is laminated to the layer of substantially gas-tight material. Preferably, the...http://www.google.com/patents/US4268336?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US4268336 - Method of manufacturing containers
Publication number US4268336 A
Application number US 06/025,766
Also published as DE2640311A1, DE2640311C2, DE2661044C2, DE2661111C2, US4267937
Publication number 025766, 06025766, US 4268336 A, US 4268336A, US-A-4268336, US4268336 A, US4268336A
Inventors Lars-Eric Piltz, Bo T. Quist, Folke Kiellarson, Siwer Mansson, Bengt Nilsson
Patent Citations (11), Referenced by (12), Classifications (92)
Method of manufacturing containers
US 4268336 A
A method for manufacturing retortable cans is taught which includes the step of cable extruding a tube of plastic. Subsequently, a substantially gas-tight material is laminated to the outside of the tube and a plastic layer is laminated to the layer of substantially gas-tight material. Preferably, the gas-tight material comprises a metallic foil.
1. A method for manufacturing a gas-tight package comprising the steps of:
(a) extruding a round seamless tube of plastic;
(b) reshaping the round tube into a desired cross-section;
(c) exposing the outside of the tube to an outer vacuum simultaneously with the step of reshaping;
(d) lubricating and cooling the tube with water;
(e) laminating a layer of metallic substantially gas-tight material to the outside of said tube;
(f) laminating a plastic layer to the layer of metallic material;
(g) cutting the laminated tube into pieces of predetermined lengths;
(h) providing top and bottom parts, each comprising a laminate of a first plastic layer, an intermediate layer of metallic substantially gas-tight material, and a second plastic layer; and,
(i) joining such top and bottom parts to one of said cross-cut lengths of tubing to produce a substantially gas-tight package.
2. The method according to claim 1 further including the step of applying a positive pressure to the interior of the tube during the extruding step.
3. A method according to claim 1 wherein the laminating steps (e) and (f) are combined by pre-laminating the substantially gas-tight material with the plastic layer and then pasting the pre-laminate to the inner extruded plastic layer and further including the step of
(j) hardening the paste.
4. The method according to any one of claims 1 through 2 and 3, wherein the substantially gas-tight material comprises a metallic foil.
5. A method according to claim 1 or 4, wherein the step of extruding a tube of plastic (a) comprises extruding a plastic tube having a wall thickness of from 0.4 to 0.8 mm.
6. A method for manufacturing a gas-tight package comprising the steps of:
(a) extruding a seamless tube of plastic;
(b) laminating a layer of metallic substantially gas-tight material to the outside of said tube;
(c) laminating a plastic layer to the layer of metallic material;
(d) cutting the laminated tube into pieces of predetermined lengths;
(e) providing top and bottom parts, each comprising a laminate of a first plastic layer, an intermediate layer of metallic substantially gas-tight material, and a second plastic layer, and wherein said top and bottom parts include indented portions having substantial identical peripheral configurations which correspond to the desired interior cross-sectional configuration of the package to be formed; and,
(f) joining such top and bottom parts to one of said cross-cut lengths of tubing to produce a substantially gas-tight package, including inserting the said indented portions within the said cross-cut length of plastic tubing so that the perpheries of the indented portions abut the inner wall of the plastic tubing and cooperate therewith to define and maintain a desired cross-sectional configuration of the tubing.
7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the step of extruding a tube of plastic (a) comprises extruding a plastic tube having a wall thickness of from 0.4 to 0.8 mm.
8. A method according to claim 7, 1 or 6, wherein the substantially gas-tight material comprises a metallic foil.
FIGS. 6 and 7 more closely and somewhat modified show the opening device indicated in FIG. 1 with reference numeral 4. The opening device consists of two tearing notches 4a and 4b, respectively, of which the tearing notch 4a defines the produced opening whereas 4b defines a grip tongue which in the example is completely located within the tearing notch 4a. Reference numeral 4c is a hatched area in FIG. 7 which indicates a lacquering between an outer suitably injection moulded top portion 9 forming an outer layer and provided with the above tearing notches 4a and 4b, and an inner layer 10 having a desired tightness. By this means the grip tongue 4d formed by the tearing notch 4b may be easily gripped. This is further facilitated in that said grip tongue 4d is made thicker and provided with a nail ridge or gripping edge 11. The grip tongue 4e runs into a prong 4d which likewise is formed with said thicker material. By this means said prong easily can pierce the inner plastic layer 9 when the grip tongue is forced upwardly from the position shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. This piercing is further facilitated when the material around the prong 4e is stiffened, for instance by means of an injection moulded stacking flange 12 or simply by means of its location in proximity to the corner portion 13 stiffened as well by the top part 2 as by the middle part 1. The tearing notches 4a and 4b either may extend to the inner plastic layer 10 or be made somewhat shallower. In both cases it may be suitable to interrupt the outer tearing notch 4a at one or more places 4a' in order to facilitate the flow of the injection moulded material. In FIG. 6 reference numeral 2a is a portion extending into the middle part 1 and being surrounded by a frame portion 2b enclosing the top edge of a middle part 1.
FIG. 8 schematically shows a plant for the manufacture of a package described above. Since many particulars of this plant either are known per se or obvious to a professional man the plant is partially shown in the form of a block diagram. In this figure, 14 is an extruder for the extruding of a round tube 1a' of plastic, for instance polypropene, polyethylene or the like. The tube has the reference numeral 1a'. The tube then moves through a calibration apparatus 15 which is more closely shown in FIG. 9 and in which the tube is reshaped into a square cross section profile. The tube now has the reference numeral 1a". The drawing through the calibration apparatus 15 is made by means of a drawing apparatus 16 and is finished in a cross-cutting machine 17 in which body parts 1a'" are produced. Said body parts 1a'" correspond to two or more of the body parts 1a shown in FIGS. 2a and 2b. The body parts are advanced to a sheet feeder apparatus 19 which is supplied with sheets from a glue application unit 18. In said unit 18 a web-shaped material, such as a laminate of, for instance, aluminum and polypropene, is provided with a glue which is partly dried. The material then is cross-cut into suitable sheets which are rolled on to the bodys units 1a'" as is more closely shown in FIGS. 11a and 11b. The glue application proper is best shown in FIG. 10. In this way lengths 1' are produced corresponding to two or more middle parts 1 according to FIG. 1. Said lengths 1' are transported into a curing apparatus 20 which is more closely shown in FIG. 12. Then they are further transported into a finish cutting apparatus 21 in which they are cross-cut into middle parts 1 which are transported into a cap manufacture and welding apparatus 22. The middle parts 1 with caps 2 mounted thereon are then transported to a bottom application apparatus 23 which bottoms are supplied from a bottom manufacture plant 24, for instance a vacuum forming machine. Said bottoms are here loosely mounted after which the ready packages are transported into a packaging unit 25 from which the packages are transported to filling at which the loose bottoms are temporarily removed during the filling after which they are definitely welded on to the packages. By means of this proceeding a very high hygiene can be maintained.
As mentioned above, FIG. 9 shows the calibration unit 15 in which the extruded tube 1a' is reshaped into a tube 1a" having a rectangular cross section form. This is made by means of closely mounted discs 26 between which all along is percolating a certain quantity of water for lubrication and cooling purposes and which are enclosed in a room 27 which is under a certain negative pressure, or vacuum in order to facilitate the forming of the tube 1a'. At the rear end the room 27 is closed by a sleeve sealing 28. Outside the sealing there are further cooling water spreaders 29. This reshaping of a thin material is supposed per se to involve an important novelty. With a thin material in this case is meant a material having a thickness of about 1 mm or less.
The invention of course is not limited merely to the embodiments described above but may be varied within the scope of the following patent claims. Thus, for instance, the thickness of the various material layers may be varied within wide limits without departing from the scope of the invention. In practice, however, it has proved appropriate to use for the inner extruded casing a polypropene material having a wall thickness less than 1 mm and preferably between 0.4 and 0.8 mm. Particularly good results have been obtained with a thickness of about 0.5 mm. On the outside this inner casing preferably is provided with a laminate material consisting of aluminum and polypropene. Here practical experimental works have proved that the aluminum layer should be between 8 and 20 microns, preferably 12 microns, and the outer polypropene layer between 20 microns and about 60 microns, preferably about 50 microns. Correspondingly, practical experimental tests have proved preferably for the inner layer 3d of the bottoms to use a laminate of an aluminium foil between 8 and 20 microns, preferably 12 microns, between two polypropene layers of about 50 microns. Alternatively, in the cap is an inner layer preferably using a laminate of an aluminum foil between two films of oriented polypropene. Here the same values as mentioned above apply to the aluminum foil. For the films of oriented polypropene a thickness of 18-35 microns, preferably 20-25 microns, should be used. Also the form and construction of the particulars of course may be varied.
US3567546 * Sep 20, 1967 Mar 2, 1971 United Glass Ltd Method of producing hollow collapsible containers
US3660194 * Dec 21, 1970 May 2, 1972 Hoffman Ag Geb Method of fabricating fluid-tight containers
US4632298 * Feb 6, 1986 Dec 30, 1986 Sandherr Packungen Ag Packing container
US4724027 * Nov 14, 1985 Feb 9, 1988 Ab Akerlund & Rausing Method of manufacturing a body wrapped by a metal foil
US4865793 * Nov 21, 1986 Sep 12, 1989 Showa Denko Kabushiki Kaisha Method of insert injection molding
US20110278317 * Jan 21, 2010 Nov 17, 2011 Claudio Chiari Barrier-type container made of plastics
DE3727589A1 * Aug 19, 1987 Mar 2, 1989 Tetra Pak Rausing & Co Kg Quaderfoermige fluessigkeitspackung
U.S. Classification 156/244.13, 264/524, 264/566, 264/563, 264/564, 264/568, 264/531, 156/244.19, 156/244.14, 229/123.2, 220/613, 220/62.11, 264/515, 264/573, 264/514, 156/244.18
International Classification B29C69/00, B65D17/40, B65D65/40, B29C47/90, B29C65/02, B65D8/04, B65D6/10, B65D3/10, B65D17/32, B65D6/14, B65D85/80, B65D17/50, B29C47/00, B29D22/00, B29C45/14, B29C51/16, B29C61/00, B65D3/28, B65D3/26, B29C67/00, B65B1/02, B29C63/14, B31B17/00, B65D3/22, B32B15/08, B65D17/34, B29C63/00
Cooperative Classification B29C66/8221, B29C66/63, B29C47/904, B29C47/0023, B29C47/8835, B29C66/71, B29C66/8322, B29C66/83411, B29C47/0019, B29C65/368, B29K2705/00, B29C66/124, B29C65/3656, B29C66/72321, B29C47/903, B29C47/0054, B29C47/0038, B29C47/0066, B29C47/905, B65D11/20, B29C63/00, B29C69/00, B29C2791/006, B29C51/16, B65D17/163, B29C47/0059, B65D2517/0088, B29C63/14, B29C65/3644, B29C45/14811, B32B15/08, B29C66/5432, B29C66/545, B29C47/0057
European Classification B29C65/36F2F, B29C65/36B12, B29C66/72321, B29C63/00, B29C69/00, B29C66/534, B29C66/124, B29C47/90F, B29C51/16, B65D11/20, B65D17/16B1, B29C45/14Q4, B29C63/14, B32B15/08, B29C47/90B3