Easy open water soluble blister package

Abstract

A blister package consists of a backing sheet (16) of cardboard, paper or plastic adhered to a blister (17) in which at least one or both of the backing sheet and the blister is made from a transparent water soluble thermoformable polymer composition. A tooth brush, cleaning utensil or garden utensil enclosed in the water soluble packaging material can be opened by placing it under running water. The packaging material is a starch or modified starch based polymer by direct contact with water, and that biodegrades in waste water. The preferred starch is a high amylose maize starch. The starch can also be derived from wheat, potato, rice, oats, arrowroot and pea sources. The backing sheet is adhered to water and applying the backing sheet with the use of a press plate (24).

Description

[0001] This invention relates to an easy open package particularly blister type packages for products which can withstand being wet. BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION [0002] Most manufactured products are presented for sale in packages. The packaging material usually of paper paperboard and / or plastics needs to be printable and also to protect the articles. For personal hygiene products the articles usually are sealed to ensure the hygiene standards for the product. Consumers usually like to be able to see what they are purchasing so that it is common for at least part of the packaging material to be transparent. Blister packs where a transparent thermoformed polymer layer is bonded to a paper or card board backing is a common packaging method for products of this type. [0003] Tooth brushes are commonly enclosed in a blister pack of transparent thermoformed plastic material enclosing the brush with a paper or paperboard panel at the back. The packaging of tooth brushes has been the subjec...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] To this end the present invention provides a product and package combination in which a significant portion of the package is sufficiently water soluble that the portion of the package can be disintegrated by exposure to water to allow the package to be easily opened.

[0013] The advantage of this invention is that the product is easily released from its packaging and at the same time is instantly disposed of as a waste water effluent. In the case of a tooth brush the consumer usually opens the package in front of a basin and would turn on the tap or faucet to use the brush. Thus the combination provides two significant benefits.

[0028] The preferred plasticiser is a polyol particularly glycerol although ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol are also suitable as is sorbitol. Cost and for some products food contact, are important considerations in choosing the appropriate plasticizer. For low humidity environments it has been found that lower plasticizer content improves the toughness and long term resilience of the material. This is partly due to the properties of the starch ether component and the fact that at low humidity plasticizers such as glycerol tend to remove water from the starch polymer and make it more brittle. It is possible to process the formulation with no plasticizer and the rigid polymer formed is flexible and has good impact resistance at low humidity. When the plasticiser content is low additional water is added to improve processing. Thus the plasticizer content is preferably 0 to 15% and the water content is 15 to 0%. For film processing the plasticizer content is preferably higher than for rigid sheet products. Higher concentrations of plasticiser improve flexibility and for flexible packaging films or other thin films the preferred plasticiser content is 10 to 16%.

Problems solved by technology

None of these patents address the problem of easy opening the packages to access the product.

Blister packages can be difficult to open as the materials used do not tear easily and it is often necessary to use scissors to open the package.

The package then has to be disposed of and packaging of this sort adds to the environmental burden of waste disposal because the materials are not readily biodegradable.

Other articles are packaged in a similar fashion and present similar difficulties in opening and the disposing of the packaging material.

None of the films disclosed in these patents are useful in blister packaging and only some are fully biodegradable.

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