SPECIFICATION

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a flexible package providing identification by means of braille for providing understanding of information like expiration date, consuming conditions and similar information by visually-impaired people.

PRIOR ART

The first step of consuming healthy, reliable products is to give attention to the information existing on the packages of products. Information like expiration date, consuming conditions and similar information are indicated on the package. Arrangement of the information which exists on the package, in a correct and legal manner for the health of the consumer, is important for reaching reliable product.

Today, identification can be realized by means of braille on the cardboard package in medicine sector for visually-impaired people. Said braille is a writing system for reading and understanding of visually-impaired people and comprises 6 points provided in two columns existing on a rectangle and whose lower sides are embossed. Thus, different points are marked and 64 different combinations are reached. This is used for indicating letters, numbers and some signs or punctuation signs.

In the known state of the art, identifications made on the flexible packages of products sold in shops and in similar places are visual identifications and visually-impaired consumers cannot utilize the information existing on said packages. Particularly, in case attention is not paid to the expiration date of the foods which can deteriorate easily, health risk may occur for the visually-impaired consumers since bacteria and toxins, which unfavorably affect health, can occur on the foods. Moreover, products comprising allergen substances, consumed without attention, bring pluralities of health problems together.

As a result, because of all of the abovementioned problems, an improvement is required in the related technical field. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a flexible package, for eliminating the above mentioned disadvantages and for bringing new advantages to the related technical field.

An object of the present invention is to provide reading of the information on the package by visually-impaired people by making identification by means of braille on the flexible package.

Another object of the present invention is to provide visually-impaired people to give attention to consuming conditions and to understand product information without depending on anyone, since visually-impaired people can read the expiration date, consuming conditions, allergens and similar information.

In order to realize all of the abovementioned objects and the objects which are to be deducted from the detailed description below, the present invention relates to a flexible package having at least one first layer for providing reading of information like expiration date, consuming conditions and similar information by the visually-impaired people. Accordingly, the subject matter flexible package comprises at least one perceivable embossment which is compliant to braille and provided by means of applying a coating material, comprising solid particles, on an outer surface of said first layer which faces the outer side. Thus, the visually- impaired people can read information like expiration date, consuming conditions and similar information on the flexible packages of food, cosmetic, detergent and similar products.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, a coating surface is provided together with perceivable embossments on said outer surface of said first layer.

In order to realize all of the abovementioned objects and the objects which are to be deducted from the detailed description below, the present invention relates to a method for application of braille onto a flexible package for providing reading of information like expiration date, consuming conditions and similar information by visually-impaired people. Accordingly, at least one first layer is provided and the perceivable embossments are formed according to braille on an outer surface of said first layer facing the outer side by means of a coating material having solid particles therein. Thus, visually-impaired people can read information like expiration date, consuming conditions and similar information on the flexible packages of food, cosmetic products, detergent and similar products. In a possible embodiment of the present invention, the process step of applying a coating surface, configured to form said perceivable embossments on said outer surface of said first layer which faces the outer side, is provided.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, formation of perceivable embossments, having the desired height and width, on said outer surface of said first layer which faces the outer side is provided by means of rotogravure print system.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, before application of said coating surface, a lamination surface provided on said first layer is laminated onto an adhesion surface of a second layer provided at the inner side where the product is placed.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, said first layer is a material selected from BOPP (bi-oriented polypropylene) and PET (polyethylene-terephatalate) materials and said second layer is a material selected from BOPP (bi-oriented polypropylene) having aluminum surface, PET (polyethylene-terephatalate) having aluminum surface and aluminum.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, in an alternative embodiment, said second layer laminated with said first layer is connected to the surface at the inner side, where the product is placed, by means of lamination of a third layer.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, in another alternative embodiment, said second layer laminated with said first layer is connected to the surface at the inner side, where the product is placed, by means of adhesion of at least one third layer.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, said third layer is PE (polyethylene) material.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, before the lamination process, the information of the product is printed onto said lamination surface or said outer surface of said first layer.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, the information related to the product is printed onto the lamination surface and inverse print is applied.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, the coating liquid, applied onto said outer surface of said first layer, is used so as to have solid substance between 30% and 70% by weight and between 12 and 40 seconds and by means of viscosity ford cup 4 measurement method.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, the surface energy of said first layer, which is PET material, is greater than the value 40 dyn/cm according to ASTMD 2578.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, the surface energy of said first layer, which is BOPP material, is greater than the value 29 dyn/cm according to ASTMD 2578.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, the periphery of the cylinders used in said rotogravure print system is between 300 mm and 1000 mm.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Figure 1 is a representative frontal view of the subject matter flexible package providing identification by means of braille.

Figure 2 is a representative perspective cross sectional view of a surface of the subject matter flexible package providing identification by means of braille.

Figure 3 is a representative perspective cross sectional view of a surface of an alternative structure of the subject matter flexible package providing identification by means of braille.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In this detailed description, the subject matter flexible package (1 ) is explained with references to examples without forming any restrictive effect only in order to make the subject more understandable.

In Figure 1 , a representative frontal view of the subject matter flexible package (1 ) providing identification by means of braille is given. The present invention relates to a flexible package (1 ) providing identification by means of braille for providing reading of information like expiration date, consuming conditions of food, cosmetic products, detergent and similar products. In said flexible package (1 ), there is at least one first layer (20). On an outer surface (22) of said first layer (20) facing the outer side, at least one perceivable embossment (10) is formed for providing writing by means of braille by using coating material comprising solid particles. In Figure 2, a representative perspective cross sectional view of a surface of the subject matter flexible package (1 ) providing identification by means of braille is given. A surface of said flexible package (1 ) can be formed by at least one first layer (20) or it can be provided by means of laminating pluralities of layers to each other. The material of said first layer (20) and of the other layers is formed according to said perceivable embossment (10) and the product to be placed therein, and it may comprise polypropylene, poly-ethylene-teraphtalate, polyethylene, cavitated polypropylene, metalyzed coated polypropylene, metalyzed polyethylene-teraphtalate, colored or white polypropylene or polyethylene, polyamide films or aluminum foil and similar metal including layer, multiple-layer or single-layer combinations on coated or non-coated, bio-degradeable, bio-soluble, bio-composite and bio-based layers.

In a preferred embodiment of said flexible package (1 ), there can be at least one second layer (30) connected to said first layer (20) facing the outer medium and provided on the side facing into said flexible package (1 ). The side of said first layer (20) facing said second layer (30) is a lamination surface (21 ) and the other side thereof is an outer surface (22). The surface of said second layer (30) facing said first layer (20) is the adhesion surface (31 ). Said lamination surface (21 ) provided on the side of said first layer (20) facing said second layer (30) and said adhesion surface (31 ) provided at said second layer (30) are laminated. Said first layer (20) can be one of BOPP (bi-oriented polypropylene) or PET (polyethylene teraphatalate). Said second layer (30) can be BOPP (bi-oriented polypropylene) having aluminum surface, PET (polyethylene teraphatalate) having aluminum surface or aluminum. As given in Figure 3, moreover, there can be at least one third layer (40) provided on the side of said second layer (30) facing into the package. Said third layer (40) can be connected to said second layer (30) by means of lamination or adhesion. Said third layer (40) can preferably be a material which can be used as adhesion layer like PE (polyethylene) or which is suitable for inner adhesion. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, said first layer (20), which is PET material, can be between 8 and 30 microns and said first layer (20) which is BOPP material can be between 5 and 40 microns. Said second layer (30), which is BOPP material having aluminum surface, can be between 5 and 40 microns and said second layer (30) which is PET material having aluminum surface can be between 8 and 30 microns and said second layer (30) which is aluminum material can be between 5 and 17 microns. Moreover, said third layer (40) which is PE can be between 7 and 200 microns. Moreover, the surface energy of said first layer (20) which is PET material is greater than the value 40 dyn/cm according to ASTMD 2578. In the preferred embodiment, it is at least 54 dyn/cm. The surface energy of said first layer (20) which is BOPP material is greater than the value 29 dyn/cm according to ASTMD 2578. In the preferred embodiment, it is at least 38 dyn/cm. Before the lamination process, information of the product can be printed onto said lamination surface (21 ) or said outer surface (22) of said first layer (20) on said flexible package (1 ). The printing of information of the product onto said lamination surface (21 ) can be provided by means of inverse print. Said print process is provided by means of the transfer of the ink which fills to the cells of metal cylinders processed in a suitable manner to the design of the print in rotogravure print system.

Application of a coating liquid, comprising solid particles, to said outer surface (22) of said first layer (20) is configured to form perceivable embossments (10) according to braille. In the application of said coating liquid, a coating surface (1 1 ) is formed onto said outer surface (22) of said first layer (20) and said perceivable embossments (10) can be provided according to braille and said perceivable embossments (10) can be provided directly according to braille without forming said coating surface (1 1 ).

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the formation of perceivable embossments (10), applied onto said first layer (20), with the desired height and width is provided by means of rotogravure print system. The application viscosity of the coating liquid to be applied for perceivable embossments (10) to be formed by said rotogravure print system is provided so as to have solid substance between 30% and 70% by weight and between 12 and 40 seconds by means of ford cup 4 measurement method. The periphery of the cylinders used in said rotogravure print system is between 300 mm and 1000 mm. After the transfer process, by using rotogravure method, onto the film by means of rotogravure cylinder, the liquid mass is evaporated and the solid part remains after the coating material passes through the drying furnaces. The evaporation process is adjusted according to curing parameter or solvent evaporation point of the liquid part of the coating material. Preferably the evaporation point for the coating material to be processed is between 40°C and 150°C.

Thus, identifications are made on the flexible package (1 ) by means of braille and the visually-impaired people can read the information provided on said flexible package (1 ).

The protection scope of the present invention is set forth in the annexed claims and cannot be restricted to the illustrative disclosures given above, under the detailed description. It is because a person skilled in the relevant art can obviously produce similar embodiments under the light of the foregoing disclosures, without departing from the main principles of the present invention. REFERENCE NUMBERS

1 Flexible package 10 Perceivable embossment

1 1 Coating surface

20 First layer

21 Lamination surface 22 Outer surface

30 Second layer

31 Adhesion surface 40 Third layer