H.b. Fuller Company

Paul Kaplan

Victor H Clausen

Thomas C Steel

There is provided a tear tape opening system for packages constructed from a tearable substrate such as kraft paper, paperboard or corrugated board materials wherein the resulting tear line is substantially precisely defined with even tearing of the packaging material. The tear tape is adhered along an inside surface of the tearable substrate along the desired tear line of the package and the initiating segment thereof is defined by an opening tab formed at the initiation of the tear line in the package so that it may be grasped by the user to initiate opening. A system for guiding the tear along the desired tear line is provided by means of a guide tape or tapes which serves as an edge reinforcing for the tear lines produced by the tear tape being torn through the packaging material.

Tear tape opening system

A process of reinforcing a sheetlike substrate by applying a plurality of linear reinforcements comprising a filamentary core having a pre-coating of 'hot melt' adhesive to the substrate with at least one of the linear reinforcements applied in a generally serpentine or waveform pattern to provide both in-machine and cross-machine tensile strength and tear resistance. The present invention is also an improved reinforced sheetlike substrate having the linear reinforcements applied thereon in accordance with the process. In one embodiment, adjacent linear reinforcements are applied in an overlapping or interlocking serpentine configuration onto the substrate. In one embodiment of the process, the sheetlike substrate is conducted along a path defined as the in-machine direction while the plurality of linear reinforcing members are fed through a guide member that is reciprocating transversely with respect to the in-machine direction. The temperature of the thermoplastic adhesive is raised above its softening point and then allowed to harden to bond the linear reinforcing members onto the substrate.

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Peapack, NJ, United States of America

Paul Kaplan