Quiet-opening wrapper

Abstract

A wrapper that opens relatively quietly and wraps a sheetlike hygiene product provided on one side with an adhesive, said wrapper being based on a packaging material in web form and composed of a polymeric film comprising a) at least one heat-sealable layer based on a mixture of at least one C.sub.2 or C.sub.3 olefin homopolymer or copolymer and not more than 30% by weight, based on the total weight of the layer a), of polybutylene and b) optionally a layer of polyethylene having a density of 0.88-0.94 g/cm.sup.3; the layer a), at least in those sections which face the regions of the hygiene product that are provided with the adhesive, has a release coating, and otherwise, at least in the sub-regions which are joined to form edge closures in the form of stripes or lines, has no release coating.

Claims

1. A wrapper with a low noise opening giving an energy equivalent permanent sound level LAeq60 dB for a sheet-like, single-side-adhesive hygienic product, which wrapper is formed of packaging material in web form and comprises a plastic film comprising: a) at least one heat-sealable layer comprising a mixture of at least one homopolymer of ethylene or propylene or of at least one olefin-copolymer selected from the group consisting of copolymers of ethylene and propylene with a predominant portion of propylene units and of copolymers of ethylene and of at least one -olefin having 6 to 10 carbon atoms, and from 5 to 20% by weight, based on the total weight of the layer a), of polybutylene, and optionally conventional auxiliaries and b) optionally a layer of polyethylene with a density of from 0.88 to 0.94 g/cm.sup.3, where the layer a) has a release coating in sections which face toward adhesive regions of the hygienic product and which thus is bonded releasably thereto, and otherwise has no release coating in wrapper regions bonded as edge closures in the form of strips or lines.

2. The wrapper as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plastic film comprises at least one layer b) which has at least on one surface a layer a).

3. The wrapper as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one layer a) or the film of at least one layer a) and b) is bonded to a nonwoven web as backing layer adjacent to a layer a) or to a layer b).

4. The wrapper as claimed in claim 1, wherein the polyethylene component of the layer b) comprises a mixture of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE).

5. The wrapper as claimed in claim 1, wherein said at least one homopolymer of ethylene or propylene or said at least one olefin-copolymer in the at least one layer a) is a polyethylene (PE), a polypropylene, a mixture of LDPE and LLDPE, a mixture of LDPE and metallocene-catalyzed polyethylene (m-PE), a mixture of LDPE and very low density polyethylene (VLDPE), or a mixture of an ethylene-propylene-copolymer having a predominant proportion of propylene units and of LLDPE and optionally LDPE.

6. The wrapper as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one layer a) comprises color pigments and/or fillers as conventional auxiliaries.

7. The wrapper as claimed in claim 1, wherein the release coating is based on a cured polysiloxane coating.

8. The wrapper as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sections with the release coating on the at least one layer a) are arranged in the form of strips and/or correspond to an arrangement of the adhesive regions of the packaged hygienic product.

9. The wrapper as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the edge closures of the wrapper in form of strips or of single or multiple lines, are durable bonds of the sections without any release coating on the at least one layer a), obtained by superposing the edges of these regions by folding two lateral sections of the packaging material toward one another and together with the hygienic product to be packaged and optionally with overlap on the same surface of the hygiene product during the packaging.

10. The wrapper as claimed in claim 9, wherein the durable bonds are obtained via heat-sealing, adhesion, crimping, or needling.

11. The wrapper as claimed in claim 1, wherein the wrapper is used for individual packaging of a single hygienic product.

12. The wrapper as claimed in claim 11, wherein the single packaged hygienic product is a sanitary napkin, a panty liner or a sheet-like incontinence product.

13. The wrapper as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plastic film is a matt, optionally colored, plastic film.

14. The wrapper as claimed in claim 1, wherein the wrapper is based on the plastic film.

15. A combination comprising (A) a sanitary napkin, panty liner, or sheet-like incontinence product packaged within (B) the wrapper as claimed in claim 1.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 shows an inventive wrapper before folding of the two lateral regions.

(2) FIG. 2 is a diagram of the finished wrapper.

(3) FIG. 1 describes a film web portion of an inventively used packaging material with a central release-coated longitudinal strip which for illustration is shown as somewhat longer than the adhesive hygiene product.

(4) FIG. 2 is a wrapper 5 produced from the film web portion of the inventively used packaging material.

(5) In FIG. 1, 1 indicates a portion of a multilayer plastics film web which is used as packaging material for producing an inventive wrapper 5. This portion has been provided with a release coating 2, and a sheet-like hygiene product 4 to be packaged in the wrapper 5 is placed on said portion. The hygiene product 4 is a sanitary napkin provided on its underside with a pressure-sensitive adhesive (not shown) which is bonded releasably on the release coating 2 and adheres without any loss of adhesion. In order to package the sanitary napkin, two lateral sections 1A and 1B of the portion 1, which have no release coating except in the region 2 are folded with said napkin along the fold lines C and D (shown as dotted line), and the mutually superposed edge strips 3, indicated by broken lines in FIG. 1, are bonded to one another in a manner that is durable but permits opening. These lateral parallel edge closures having the form of strips or of lines can be obtained via heat-sealing, adhesion, crimping or needling of the mutually superposed edge regions of the layer a). Preferably, the bonding of the edge regions to give edge closures in form of strips or of single or multiple lines is achieved via heat-sealing by means of known heat-sealing devices used for the sealing of packaging films.

(6) FIG. 2 shows a finished wrapper 6, obtained via folding of the packaging sections 1A and 1B together with the sanitary napkin (hygiene product) 4 and sealing of the mutually superposed edge regions of the layer a) of the plastics film used as packaging material. The edge closure of the wrapper has already been partially opened in order to open the wrapper in region 3A, and has in region 3 still the form of a strip-like edge sealing of the inventive wrapper.

(7) The inventive packages, preferably in the form of wrappers, are preferably suitable for providing single, individually packaged sheet-like hygiene products which are single-side adhesive, preferably by virtue of a pressure-sensitive adhesive. Preferably, said inventive package is an individual, single package for a sanitary napkin, for a panty liner or for a sheet-like incontinence product, which hygiene product is preferably packaged in folded form.

(8) The present invention therefore further provides an individual, single package, preferably in the form of a wrapper of a sanitary napkin, a panty liner, or a sheet-like incontinence product, preferably in folded form packaged.

(9) Key

(10) TABLE-US-00001 1 A portion of the inventive plastics film web as packaging material 1A {close oversize brace} In each case a lateral section of the portion of the 1B plastics film web 2 Release coating 3 Bonded edge strips/seal seam 3A Nonbonded section of edge strips 3 4 Hygiene product 5 Wrapper C {close oversize brace} In each case a fold line of the hygiene product 4 to be D packaged and of the portion of the packaging material
Noise Measurement

(11) I. Measurement conditions Measurement equipment: 2250-L from Bruel & Kjaer Software: BZ7133 Version 2.0.2 Space: Soundproof space, basal area 1 m1 m and 2 m in height, equipped with walls to which sound-deadening nonwoven or woven fabric has been adhesive-bonded.
Distance between 20 cm
measurement
equipment and
opening procedure
Opening rate: 3 cm/s

(12) II. Description of Measurement Procedure

(13) Each of 10 wrappers made of identical packaging film listed below, each with identical release coating and each with an identical folded sanitary napkin packaged therein, are opened at constant opening rate by the same person in a soundproof space (dimensions: W/L/H=1 m/1 m/2 m) at a distance of 20 cm from the measurement equipment.

(14) L.sub.Aeq values are measured in the unit [dB]

(15) The highest L.sub.Aeq measured in the unit [dB] during the opening of the sanitary napkin package is determined. L.sub.Aeq[dB] is the equivalent continuous sound pressure level for an averaging time T. The averaging time T was defined as 1/10 seconds.

INVENTIVE EXAMPLES AND COMPARATIVE EXAMPLES

(16) I. Polymers and Auxiliaries:

(17) TABLE-US-00002 LDPE (polyethylene of low density) Lupolen 2420 F from Basell Chalk masterbatch (72% by weight Multibatch ME 50009 chalk in LDPE) from Multibase Polybutylene Polybutene 8640 M from Basell LLDPE (linear polyethylene of low Innovex LL 6910 from density) BP Color masterbatch (70% by weight of Remafin Weiss RCL from TiO.sub.2 in LDPE) Clariant

(18) II. Production of the Wrapper

(19) The films listed as packaging material in the table below, each having a release coating made of cured polysiloxane in the respective adhesive region of the sanitary napkin to be packaged, were used as described above to produce wrappers of which the edge closures, 0.5 mm in width, were produced via sealing of the mutually superposed foil sections of the layer a) with the aid of a sealing tool with heatable sealing jaws with an applied pressure of 4.5 bar at a temperature of 105 C. and a sealing time of 0.5 sec. The % data are always % by weight.

(20) III. Film Structure

(21) TABLE-US-00003 Edge closures of package Film structure of packaging material (0.5 mm) Comparative examples Comparative example 1 LDPE sealed (Monolayer film, thickness 25 m) Comparative example 2 56% of LDPE + 22.5% of chalk masterbatch + 19.5% of sealed LLDPE + 2% of color masterbatch (Monolayer film, thickness 25 m) Inventive examples Inventive example 1 85% of LDPE + 15% of polybutylene sealed (Monofilm, thickness 25 m) Inventive example 2 39% of LDPE + 19% of chalk masterbatch + 25% of sealed LLDPE + 2% of color masterbatch + 15% of polybutylene (Monolayer film, thickness 25 m) Inventive example 3 Layer a [thickness: 5 m]: sealed 39% of LDPE + 19% of chalk masterbatch + 25% of LLDPE + 2% of color masterbatch + 15% of polybutylene Layer b [thickness: 15 m]: 56% of LDPE + 22.5% of chalk masterbatch + 19.5% of LLDPE + 2% of color masterbatch Layer a [thickness: 5 m]: 39% of LDPE + 19% of chalk masterbatch + 25% of LLDPE + 2% of color masterbatch + 15% of polybutylene (3-layer film)

(22) IV. Noise Measurement Results During Opening

(23) TABLE-US-00004 Meas- L.sub.Aeq[dB] L.sub.Aeq[dB] L.sub.Aeq[dB] L.sub.Aeq[dB] L.sub.Aeq[dB] ure- Comparative Comparative Inventive Inventive Inventive ment example 1 example 2 example 1 example 2 example 3 1 >70 >70 59.9 59.8 60 2 >70 >70 60.1 59.7 59.1 3 >70 >70 58.3 57.9 58.5 4 >70 >70 60.2 59 58.7 5 >70 >70 59.4 60.1 59.5 6 >70 >70 58.7 58.2 58.1 7 >70 >70 59.9 59.1 58.2 8 >70 >70 58.2 57.7 58 9 >70 >70 60 58.2 57.6 10 >70 >70 58.9 58.7 58.4 Average >70 >70 59.36 58.84 58.61 value: [dB]

(24) The noise measurements were made in accordance with the methods stated before.

(25) Results:

(26) The noise measurements show that the inventive packages can be opened with less noise than packages of packaging material having no inventive layer a). Furthermore each of the packages according to the comparative examples can be opened only with irreversible damages to the packaging material.