GB1001421A - Adhesive bandages - Google Patents

Abstract

1,001,421. Making packages. MINNESOTA MINING & MANUFACTURING CO. Jan. 29, 1962, No. 3345/62. Heading B8C. [Also in Divisions A5 and B5] An adhesive bandage package unit comprises a folded adhesive bandage enclosed between a pair of panels 12, 14 sealed about their periphery, a flap 32 extending into the package from one panel 12 being removably adhered to the adhesive at one end 26 of the bandage and the other panel 14 being removably adhered to the adhesive at the other end of the bandage. The intermediate portion of the bandage carries an absorbent pad 24. At the end of each panel opposite to the end where the flap 32 is attached to one panel 12 is a finger tab 18, 20. When the finger tabs are pulled apart the panels separate and the bandage is unfolded to expose the pad for application to the body. Further pulling on the tabs peels the flap and the other panel, respectively, from the adhesive coated ends of the bandage. Such bandage package units are made by laying absorbent strips 40 on a pressure-sensitive adhesive coated polyethylene backing web 34 and partially covering each strip and the portions of the web, which will form the adhesive end portions 26 at one end of each bandage, with a polyethylene strip 42 of a width slightly greater than the finished length of the flaps 32. The absorbent strips 40 are spaced by a distance equal to the sum of the lengths of the end portions 26, 28 of the bandage. The web is slit into strips 44 at right angles to the strips 40, 42 and alternate strips 44 are laid adhesive side down on a polyethylene web 46 for forming the covering panels 14, the web 46 having rectangles 47 printed thereon within which the backing web portions forming the other adhesive end portions 28 of the bandages are positioned. Two portions 54, 56 of a folder bar are then disposed to grip between them the adhesive end portions 26 and the covering flap 32. The bar is rolled through 360 degrees as adjacent bandages are severed from one another, to fold the bandage so that it overlies the appropriate printed rectangle. The free end of each flap 32 is temporarily secured to the covering panel web 46 by an adhesive strip. A second web for forming the other panels 12 is laid over the folded bandage and the bandages are subjected to heat radiation, e.g. from an incandescent lamp with an elliptical reflector, and then pressed lightly together so that the panel web portions and the flaps become heat sealed along the lines of the printed rectangle which absorb sufficient heat for this purpose. The individual packages are then severed from one another and trimmed, this process removing the temporary adhesive strip.