BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

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The present invention related to a tear strip opening device and, more particularly, to a container, for example, a package or an envelope containing a plastic band positioned on an inside surface of the container and between dotted punch lines and disposed between small plastic ridges or strips attached to the outside surface of the container for use in easily and readily opening the container.

Many types of package opening devices have been developed in this industry to facilitate the opening of packages. For example, packages such as sugar containers or the like have been designed with perforated punch lines disposed along the middle of the package. Also, envelopes have been designed to contain a thread positioned along the bottom thereof. However, these packages and envelopes suffer from a number of disadvantages, such as they are difficult to open easily and, thus, an opening device, such as a paper opener, must be used for opening the packages or envelopes. Also, it has been found that thread positioned along the bottom of an envelope produces a zigzag cut in the paper when the containers are opened. Furthermore, to tear packages provided with perforated punch lines, made of thin paper products is very difficult.

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OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a tear strip opening device for use in producing a straight opening in a package in an easy manner.

Another object of the present invention is to provide package which utilizes a plastic band tightly attached thereto for facilitating the easy opening of an envelope.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a package containing a plastic band positioned on the inside thereof along perforated punch line and a non-tearable material e.g., plastic ^' strips disposed outside of the package and on opposite sides of the tearable material. Thus the package band disposed between adjacent non-tearable strips is a substantially parallel relationship. For example, the plastic band can be positioned along the middle of the package where it is sealed with a glue on the surface of the packaging materials such as paper or the like and the non-tearable strips are disposed on the reverse side thereof.

Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a package with an additional closing member for easily and readily closing the package after it has been initially opened.

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Other object and further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

The present invention relates to a tear strip device utilized in a package which comprises plastic band disposed along the middle -of the package on the inside surface thereof, plastic strips disposed along the reverse side of the package and on opposite sides of the plastic band and perforated punch lines disposed at both sides of the plastic band. An opening tab can be disposed at one end of the plastic band, and a closing member can be provided for closing the container after it has been initially opened whereby the package can be readily torn open along the perforated punch lines by pulling the opening tab and can be readily closed by utilizing the closing member.

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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a package including the tear strip device disposed at the middle portion thereof according to the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of Fig. 1 taken along line 2-2 of Fig. 1 and showing the tear strip of the present invention; and

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the package after tearing the plastic band to open the package;

Fig. 4 is a front view of the envelope containing the tear strip device thereof in another embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged front view of the envelope including the tear strip device disposed along the middle portion thereof, showing another embodiment of the opening member of the present invention; and

Fig. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 6-6 of Fig. 4.

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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring in detail to the drawings for the purpose of illustrating the present invention, Figs. 1 and 3 show a package 10 and non-tearable material such as plastic band 13 attached by glue 21 to the reverse or inside of the package 10, within perforated punch lines 14. Small, plastic strips 12 are attached by glue 21 to the outside surfaces of the package cover 11 (Fig. 2) . The plastic strips 12 are disposed substantially parallel to each other and ^' in opposite sides of the plastic band 13. One end of the plastic strips 12 is cut at an angle relative to the plastic -band 13 for exposing the end of the band which functions as a handle 24 for facilitating the opening of the package. One of the plastic strips 12 is provided with a closing tab member 15 while mates with a tear aperture 16 provided on the inner cover 17 of the package 10 for closing the package 10 after it has been initially opened (Fig. 3) . Accordingly, closing member 15 can be utilized repeatedly.

The perforated punch lines 14 are provided only at the package cover 11. The tear aperture 16 is provided only at the inner cover 17.

The band 13 can be made of any type of material which is sufficiently strong to cut paper products.

Suitable band materials include flexible plastic materials such as polyvinylchloride or the like.

Figs. 4, 5 and 6 illustrate another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the tear strip device is located along the middle of the envelope 10. Both of the small plastic strips or ridges 12 are disposed on the outside of the envelope 10 along the perforated punch line 14. The plastic strips 12 are attached with glue 21 to the paper 11 of envelope 10. The plastic band 13 is attached to the glue 21 in the inside of the envelope is positioned within the perforated lines 14 (Fig. 5) . One end 19 of plastic band 13 extends from ^' the inside to the outside of the envelope where it is attached by a releasable adhesive 20 to the outside of the envelope.

In operation, when opening the container, the handle 18 is pulled and the plastic band 13 is torn along the perforated punch lines 14 in the package cover 11. At this time, since both sides of the perforated punch lines 14 are provided with plastic plates 12 the plastic band 13 can easily open the container (Fig. 3) . After the package 10 is opened, it can be readily closed by inserting the closing member 15 disposed on the package cover 11 into the tear aperture 16 disposed on the inner cover 17.

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In another embodiment of the present invention, the paper to be formed into an envelope 10 is provided with the plastic band 13 disposed along the perforated punch lines 14. The perforated punch lines 14 are disposed between both the plastic ridges or strips 12 which are with glue 21 to the outside of the envelope 10. As shown in Fig. 5, the envelope can be readily opened by tearing off the opening tab 19 and tearing the envelope along the perforated lines 14 between the small plastic strips or ridges 12 with the plastic band 13.

Although the tear strip is shown for opening a letter, ^" it is apparent that it could be utilized for opening any type of container which can be readily cut by the tear strip. Thus, a paper opening device, e.g., a letter of opener is never necessary in the present invention.

The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included in the scope of the following claims.

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