Flexible Packaging Committee News
- Published: January 01, 2001, By David J. Bentley Jr., The PLACE editor
The Flexible Packaging Committee met at the 2000 Polymers, Laminations and Coatings Division under the leadership of the new chairperson, Dante F. Ferrari. The committee is looking for volunteers for its work in developing sessions for future Polymers, Laminations and Coatings Conferences and its Troubleshooting Short Course. A committee project to design a website for the group also needs volunteers. Anyone interested should contact Ferrari This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
In addition to the business meeting, committee members and guests at the luncheon session heard a presentation by Joseph J. Cote, Jr., Vice President of Arthur D. Little Enterprises, Inc., in Cambridge, MA. The title of his talk was "What's New In Reclosables?" He is with a small group within the organization that is doing technology commercialization and technology development. He used the opportunity at this meeting to present to the group a new technology brought to his organization by a retired chemical engineer from Polaroid Corp. who had developed new technology working in his basement as an inventor.
The technology was the result of the inventor's desire to find a way to reclose a package that emphasizes ease of use in opening and closing. The packages could contain cereal, toys, items for arts and crafts, etc. Other requirements were ease of use by elderly people and use on a couch or in a car. Essentially, the inventor was looking for alternatives to zippers, twist ties, bag clips, rubber bands, or the common "fold, roll, and hope" techniques.
His development was a totally new approach to reclosable needs. It is a patented, inexpensive plastic strip that causes an opened package to remain open and a closed package to stay closed even when dropped. The new plastic strip can be on the exterior or interior of a bag. It is inexpensive.
The invention involves using one to four pre-curved plastic strips positioned on opposing sides of a bag so that the strips are opposed when open and nested when closed. Mounting of the strips on a bag might use commercially available adhesives, and conversion of form-fill-seal machines could add this new closure device.
Another development from the same inventor addressed reclosing of gussetted bags or stand-up pouches with a single piece of molded or folded plastic that closes a bag positively and securely. In addition, it provides rigidity to the mouth of the bag when open. The clips adhere to only one side of the bag, and they can form a handle to carry the bag.
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Contact "the PLACE" editor David Bentley at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
