US1399270A - Method of packaging and sealing perishable articles and the product thereof - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES" PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH NUSBAUM, OI PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO P. I21.

SEARPIJESS COMPANY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORA- TION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

METHOD 0] PACKAGING AND SEALING PERISHABLE ARTICLES AND THE PRODUCT THEREOF.

No Drawing. Application filed June 7,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JosErH NUSBAUM, citizen of the United States, and resident of Germantown, Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Packaging and Sealing Perishable Articles and the Product thereof, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, formin a part of this specification.

My invention relates to packaging and sealing, to preserve from moistureand natural deterioration, small perishable articles, especially rolls of soft or uncured cheese. This article of food has heretofore and now been commercially packaged and sold in small rolls, which are inclosed in metal foil,

such as either tin foil or aluminum foil, not only for sanitary purposes but to enable them to be more readily handled in commerce and to protect them from exposure to the air and its decomposing effects. Such method of packing answers all these purposes satisfactorily,-

except the last named; and the single ultimate object of my invention is to seal the package in order to extend the life of the contents in sweet and edible condition.

To this end my invention consists broadly stated, in a novel method and means of producing a sealing effect on the foil-inclosed roll of cheese or other perishable edible, and in the sealed package as the resultant product thereof.

The attainment of the ultimate object stated, involves primarily the employment with melted paraffin of a combining element in a melted admixture with the paraffin, to cause it, when applied as hereinafter stated to effect a coating of the metal foil with a fixedly adhering thin film of paraffin, and secondarily of a novel method of applying the melted admixture to the package, the employment of the combining ingredient and the method of applying the mixture resulting in a coating 0 paraffin on the entire package, that will not loosen or peel there from under flexure. I apply such means and that method as a bisis for the present invention of a sealed package, and which I will now describe.

A small sheet of tin foil or aluminum foil, of a size sufficient to pass around the cheese Specification of Lett'is' Patent.

Patented Dec. 6, 1921.

1920. Serial No. 387,224.

roll in the direction of its length and fully overlap at the edges and also extend beyond each end of the roll sufficient to be folded on itself to inclose the cheese roll, is employed to form thereby a covering over the entire roll. This is now the usual and common practice. It is so packaged for sanitary reasons and to provide a more readily handled product for commercial reasons. With such cheese, as the product packaged, there is no adequate exclusion of air and moisture, and obviously a constant liability to deteriorate in quality, if not in character, in a few days.

I have improved this character of pack aging by a subsequent paraffin sealing, which when applied by the means and in the manner hereinafter described, will be effective to exclude air and moisture therefrom to such extent as to very materially prolong the keeping quality of the contents, besides excluding all foreign matter, and hence make the contents more sanitary.

In carrying out my process to produce such a sealed package, by means of a coating of paraffin as a sealing medium, it is desirable not only to make this coating as a very thin and transparent film so that the descriptive printing or label usually printed directly. on the surface of the foil may be clearly seen, but essential to cause such a substantial adherence of the paraflin film to the foil that it will practically unite with or firmly adhere to the surface thereof, sufficiently, at least, to prevent loosening or peeling therefrom under flexure due to ordinary handling of the sealed package.

I am aware that efforts have been made heretofore, by means of preliminarily-applied heat to tin foil, and simultaneouslyapplied pressure to both elements, to so attach a thin coating of paraffin to one or both sides of the foil, but my process differs radically therefrom, and the products of each are not comparable in the quality of adherence above referred to; my product. responding satisfactorily to flexure without loosening or peeling off, and is roductive of extreme thinness of the deposited coating, which is substantially transparent. 7

I have found from repeated experiments that pure beeswax will when a very small percentage of resin is added, both admixed with the melted paraffin, cause the paraffin to efiectually attach itself to thesurface of the foil so as practically to become a fixed part of its surface; and I have further found that dipping the foil into a hot body of the said composition, rather than pouring or otherwise similarly applying melted parafiin to a fixed body of the foil, whether the latter be hot or cold, eflects not only a thinner and more transparent deposit thereon of the paraflin coating but a more even distribution of it; and that dipping takes up less unnecessary quantity of the paraflin, which, if promptly followed by a slight vibration of the coated foil on a suitable holder removes substantially all surplus, leaving an exceedingly thin and trans arent coatin fixedly attached to the sur ace of the 011 and capable of flexure without disturbing the adherence of the coating under ordinary commercial usage. In the practice of my process, I use commercial tin-foil, or commercial aluminum foil, of a suitable thickness for the purpose to which-"it is to be ultimately used; and commercial paraflin of a grade which is white inrolpr, is known as a purified. product of the-distillation of crude etroleum and a by-product in the manu acture of gasolene, and melts at a. temperature varying from about 122 to 127 F.; pure natural beeswax, preferably excluding any adulterated commercial beeswax, which is a light lemon in color and has a melting point of about 65 C. or very nearly the same as pure parafiin; and commercial resin, which, if pure and unadulterated softens at 70 C. and melts at 100 C.

Applying the process a suitablevessel, the sai ingredients, in the proportion of 85 parts by weight, of paraflin, and 15 parts of beeswax and resin, the latter not exceeding 5 parts.

As commercial resin usually contains some non-soluble material or some part thereof which is not readily soluble at the melting tem erature to which the other elements are sub ected, I recommend that it be suspended (practically I melt in ortion to ooze may be slightly vibrated to shake off surplus coating and reduce the thickness of the coating to that which will adhere before it sets. To produce the best results I have found that the temperature of the solution, after melting takes place, should be raised to 212 F. or 100 C. or even sli htly above this, to increase its fluidity, at t c time of dipping the package, the effect of which is to deposit on the package a relatively thinner and hot coating more easily deprived by a slight vibration recommended of any surplus coating taken up, and avoiding any setting gctilpn prior to the application of the water Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. The process of packaging and sealing perishable articles, which consists in formmg'a closed package by completely inclosing the article. in a sheet of metal foil, such as tin foil or aluminum foil, preparing a melted paraffin composition containing beeswax and resin, raising the temperature thereof to effect complete fluidity, and dipping the package .therein to effect a sealing coating thereon throughout the entire exterior surthe article in a sheet of metal foil, deposit-' ing on the exterior of the/package a melted paraffin composition containing beeswax and resin, subjected to a temperature sufficient to effect complete fluidity,'and setting the coating b a water bath.

3. The process of ackaging and sealing perishable articles, w ich consists in forming a closed package by;completely inclosing the articlein a sheet of metal foil, depositing thereon a coating of a fluid composition of parafiin, resin and beeswax at a high temperature, vibrating the coated package to remove surplus coating, and setting the coat.- in'g b a water bath.

4. The new product described which is a sealed package comprising an inclo'sin wrapper of metal foil such as tin or aluminum foil, having fixedly adhering to the entire exterior of the inclosin foil wrapper a sealin coating consisting o a composltlon of are n, resin and beeswax.

n testimony whereof I have hereunto aflixed my signature this third day of June,

JOSEPH NUSBAUM. Witnesses:

I. M. Tums, ALEXANDER PARK.