Heat Shrink Film with Increased Tear Strength.
This invention is related to film wrapping bundles of articles or articles with heat shrink film by providing a film having folded edges to increase tear resistance.
This invention is related to film wrapping bundles of articles or articles with heat shrink film by providing a film having better tear strength when lifting the bundle. A bundle is defined to include an article or a collection of articles.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONAfter heat shrinking a film wrapped bundle moving on a conveyor, the sides of the bundles are not covered with the film. This creates an opening on each side of the bundle for manually lifting the bundle by gripping the film through the opening. To reduce the risk of tearing during the manually lifting of the bundle, the prior art has increased the thickness of the film to resist the tearing of the film.
The objective of this invention is to eliminate the need for a thicker film. By folding the film edges of a thinner film to create an overlap, the tear strength of the openings is substantially increased.
Claims
1. A process for increasing the tear resistance of a heat shrunk film wrapped around an bundle comprising,
- providing a heat shrink film with folded edges,
- film wrapping the bundle with the heat shrink film having folded edges, and
- heat shrinking the film wrapping the bundle.
2. A process according to claim 1 wherein the folded edges are treated to maintain the fold in its proper position.
3. A process according to claim 1 wherein a heat shrink tunnel heat shrinks the film.
4. A product produced by the process of claim 1.
5. A bundle comprising
- a heat shrunk film having folded edges wrapped around the bundle, and openings in the film on opposite sides of the bundle where the edges of opening are folded thereby increasing the tear resistance when manually gripping the folded film to lift the bundle.
6. An apparatus for increasing the tear resistance of heat shrunk film wrapped around bundle comprising,
- means for forming a heat shrink film with folded edges, means for film wrapping the bundle with the heat shrink film having folded edges, and means for heat shrinking the film wrapping the bundle.
7. An apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the folded edges are treated to maintain the fold in its proper position.
8. An apparatus according to claim 6 wherein a heat shrink tunnel heat shrinks the film.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 6, 2017
Publication Date: Sep 6, 2018
Inventor: Alain Cerf (Reddington Beach, FL)
Application Number: 15/450,965