US3125273A - Photographic solution pouch - Google Patents

Description

March 17, 1964 H. E. RAMM PHOTOGRAPHIC SOLUTION POUCH Filed 001;. 16, 1961 V 6 VA INVENITOR 4 HERBERT E. RAMM -BY ATTOR NEY United States Patent 3,125,273 PHGTOGRAIHIC SOLUTION PQUCH Herbert E. Ramm, Newton, N1, assignor to Anken Chemical & Film Corporation, Newton, NJ. Filed Oct. 15, 1961, Ser. No. 145,324 3 Claims. (Cl. 22-3.5)

This invention relates generally to pouches for containing a liquid, and, particularly, to pouches for containing an alkaline solution, such as a photographic developer, with a minimum of chemical change due to the properties of the pouch; and for containing such a solution, when necessary, under considerable pressure.

The general object of the invention is to provide a novel pouch for containing an alkaline solution, such as a photographic developer or processing fluid, with a minimum of reaction between the walls of the pouch and the solution; and for insulating the solution against oxygen of air outside the pouch; and for withstanding considerable hydrostatic pressures developed in the solution by forces outside the pouch tending to collapse it.

A particular object of the invention is to provide such a pouch suitable for use in connection with, or as part of, photocopying and diffusion-transfer apparatus. In such use the solution encountered is alkaline, and is susceptible to deterioration by oxidation; and, at least in part, the solution is alternately introduced into the pouch, usually by gravity, for purposes of storage and protection, and literally squeezed out of the pouch by mechanical pressures applied to the outside thereof. Usually, of course, the solution is in storage; it is in use for photographic and ditfusion-transfer purposes only a relatively small percentage of the time.

For such use the pouch is required to have adequate inlet and outlet means, which may be selectively sealed or opened; the inside of the pouch is required to be relatively inert to alkalis; and the walls of the pouch are required to have relatively high tensile strength to withstand the hydrostatic pressures occasionally developed in the contained solution, and relatively high resistivity to gaseous diffusion to insulate the solution from ambient atmospheric oxygen. These requirements are features provided by the invention.

The pouch, with the features set forth above, may also serve by itself as a means for packaging, storing, and preserving an alkaline solution. The provision of such means is another particular object of the invention.

Whether the pouch is to be used for the purposes of packaging, storing, and preserving an alkaline solution,

, the purposes set forth above with relationship to photocopy and diffusion-transfer apparatus, or for both sets of purposes, it is another object to provide a pouch of the general class described having an inlet and outlet tube extending therefrom and means for selectively sealing and opening the tube. This last mentioned object includes the provision of a tube having an internal flange at its outer end and a sealing device which is a removable hermetically-sealing cap adapted to engage the outside of the tube and having a concentric and integral plug for forcefitting with the flange, whereby any permanent deformation of either the outer end of the tube or the cap through 1 fatigue of material, and consequent impairment of the seal, are obviated. Further, this object includes the provision of a tube and a cap, and means for holding the latter when in removed condition captive to the tube, with the tube and the cap, at least, made of material relatively inert to alkalis.

Another object is to provide a pouch of the class described which is transparent, as well flexible and resilient, which latter two properties are usually assumed to apply to pouches generally, whereby the contents of the pouch may be seen through the walls thereof.

"ice

Another, and practically self-evident, object is to provide a combination including a pouch, tube, cap, and means for holding the latter when in removed condition captive to the tube, as described above, and a charge of an alkaline solution within the pouch.

These and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will be more fully understood from the following description, and from the drawing.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a preferred design of the pouch, empty, and shows the tube, cap, and the means for holding the latter captive to the tube, slightly in perspective.

FIGURE 2 is a greatly enlarged sectional view of the pouch, with some solution indicated in it, the plane of the section and direction of the view according with the index 22 of FIGURE 1. FIGURE 2, to make possible the necessary enlargement, which shows the pouch structure, is also necessarily broken in the midportion of the figure to condense it without changing its scale.

FIGURE 3 shows, in a greatly enlarged side view, partly in section, the tube, which is broken to condense the figure without changing its scale, and the cap. The cap is shown in alignment with, but removed from the outer end of, the tube. The means for holding the cap, when removed, captive to the tube also appears. The elements of FIGURE 3 are shown completely separated from the pouch.

The pouch 1.0 of the present invention, which, in one form, appears in plan, empty, in FIGURE 1 and with some (alkaline) solution 11 in it in FIGURE 2, a greatly enlarged sectional view wherein the plane of the section and direction of the view accords with the index 22 of FIGURE 1, with FIGURE 2 broken in part for compactness without reducing the unusually large, and necessary, scale, has, besides the ordinarily expected properties of flexibility and resilience of pouches, bags, and sacs, generally, that of transparency so that the contents of the pouch, and the amount, coloration, cloudiness, etc., of the contained liquid may be seen through the walls of the pouch. The pouch walls also have, and, as will be shown, should have, high flexibility and adequate toughness and resistance to snagging and tearing, as well as considerable resilience; but the pouch walls are not required to have any considerable elasticity. The pouch, of course, is essentially required to be proof against leakage and gaseous diffusion, and, on the outside at least, to be inert to alkalis.

Transparency of the pouch walls is a desired feature of the inveniton, but not an indispensable feature, as the pouch, having the other properties mentioned herein, but

being opaque, or nearly so, would nonetheless be highly useful.

The properties of flexibility, resilience, toughness, resistance to leakage or to gaseous diffusion, and, internally at least, inertness to alkalis, are fundamental to the invention, the pouch may, in some of its uses, be subject not only to ordinary hydrostatic pressures relating to the weight of the contained liquid but also to considerable artificially induced hydrostatic pressures due to mechanical forces applied to the outside of the pouch, as well as subject to repeated squeezings, fiexings, and deformations. However, under expected conditions, the pouch walls are not required to be particularly elastic.

As a means for charging and discharging the pouch, the latter is preferably provided with a sealable tube 12 (in FIGURE 1, partly in perspective; in FIGURE 2, greatly enlarged, separate from the pouch, and shown in a side view, partly in section and, to reduce the figure with reducing the scale, partly broken away; also, in FIGURE 2, one means for sealing the tube is also shown, and described below). That end of the tube adapted to join the pouch is provided with a thin centrifugal flange 13 of relatively great diameter; the outer or free end of the tube is provided with an internal flange 14. The general outside diameter of the tube is uniform. The means for securing the whom the pouch is described in detail, below, in the description of the pouch structure.

The means shown for sealing the tube is a removable hermetically-sealing cap 15 adapted to fit snugly over the outside of the tube at its outer end, and having, largely for convenience, an integral centrifugal flange 16 to facilitate handling of the cap, and an integral concentric plug 17 therein for force-fitting with the internal flange 14 of the tube. The cap is shown removed from but (for purposes of illustration) in alignment with the tubein FIGURE 3 (see above). The cap also appears in perspective in FIGURE 1, and is shown sealing the tube.

The tube and the cap are preferably made of a relatively alkali-impervious substance (see below); a desirable, but dispensable, property of this substance, is transparency to some degree; essential properties include flexibility and resilience; and the tube and cap should have enough mass to guarantee adequate mechanical strength. The purpose of the internal flange 14 of the tube 12 and of the structure of the cap 15 and its plug 17 which enables the cap to fit snugly over the outside of the tube at its outer end and the plug to fit within the tube and, in effect, to lock with its internal flange, is to prevent any permanent deformation of either the tube or its sealing means through fatigue of material, and consequent impairment of the seal.

So that the cap 15 may be protected to a degree against accidental loss when it is removed from the outer end of tube 12, as shown specifically in FIGURE 3, an integral radial arm 18 having at its outer end a loop 19 adapted to fit snugly around the outside of the tube as shown in FIGURES 1 and 3, extends from flange 16.

When the cap is removed from the outer end of tube 12, that portion of the tube, being smoothly cylindrical, may readily be attached, by insertion, to any apparatus with which it may be desired to associate the pouch.

Another means for sealing and unsealing the tube may obviously be selective application and withdrawal of ex ternal forces tending to collapse the tube.

The pouch hereof, one'embodiment of which appears in FIGURES 1 and 2, being desired to be transparent, and required to be flexible, resilient, tough, and proof against leakage and gaseous diffusion, as set forth above, and to be at least internally relatively inert to the alkaline solution it is intended to, and as part of the invention, does contain, is preferably made of a bonded three-ply laminate film of colorless as Well as transparent plies, the innermost being of material relatively inert to alkalis, the intermediate being of material of relatively high tensile strength, and the outermost of material of high resistivity to gaseous difiusion.

The pouch may be a rectangular envelope, as best shown in FIGURE 1. This design is convenient for packaging and for use with certain photocopy and diffusiontransfer apparatus. The innermost ply of the pouch (see above) is desired to be not only relatively inert to alkalis, but of a substance bondable to itself in the presence of heat. For reasons set forth below the tube 12 and cap are desirably made of the samesubstance as that of the innermost ply of the pouch.

A most convenient way to make the pouch (particularly in the form illustrated in FIGURES 1 and 2) is circularly to perforate (see below) a rectangular bonded three-ply laminate film, or sheet, of the characteristics mentioned above; to insert the prospective outer end of the tube 12 through the perforation from that side of the film, or sheet, which is the ply, or lamina, relatively inert to alkalis, and to move the film, or sheet, and the tube relatively until the centrifugal flange 16 abuts that ply; to heat-seal together the flange and that part of the ply that it abuts; to fold the film, or sheet, once upon itself along a transverse line midway between opposite edges thereof so that the last mentioned ply, or lamina, is on the inside of the fold; and peripherally to heat-seal the once-folded film, or sheet, to itself except along the fold line. It is of considerable convenience that the perforation is made on the prospective fold line.

Another way to make the pouch, as is obvious and unillustrated modification of the pouch of FIGURES 1 and 2, is circularly to perforate a film of the characteristics described; to insert the tube, as above; to move the film and tube relatively, as above; to heat-seal together the centrifugal flange and that'part of the ply it abuts, as above; juxtaposing flatwise and in congruency the film and another film like the first named was prior to perforation with the relatively alkali-impervious plies of the two films in contact; and peripherally to heat-seal the films together. This modification of the pouch, While entirely workable, is not as convenient for the purposes hereof as the pouch of FIGURES 1 and 2.

It will be recalled that the inside ply of the pouch, made either way, as suggested above, as well as the tube and the cap (see above) are of the same material.

The pouch of FIGURES 1 and 2 is heat-sealed along the dotted lines 20, 21 and 22. The first two lines are practically at opposite edges of the pouch and normal to the fold line 24. Line 22 is parallel to and near the congruent edges of film, opposite the fold line, and for special reasons (see below) heat-sealed again along dotted line 23. The pouch proper is defined, in FIGURE 1, by the fold line 24, and heat- seal lines 20, 21, and 22. The marginal portion of the film between heat-seal line 22 and edges opposite the fold line is provided as a special convenience;'it is not essential to the invention, and is useful principally for attaching the pouch to certain apparatus (not shown).

In actual practice the bonded three-ply laminate film from which the pouch is preferably made is so thin (example: 26 mils, or .0026 of an inch) that the plies, or laminae, cannot be distinguished by the unaided eye if the film is viewed edgewise. The weight of the empty pouch together with the tube and the cap may be in the neighborhood of an ounce. The weight of the empty pouch proper is nearly impalpable; the tube and the cap are slightly heavier.

Laminate structure of the film being incapable of illustration in FIGURE 1, it is shown in FIGURE 2, wherein the film is designated 25 (arrow) and is in cross-section, and wherein the scale is necessarily so exaggerated that the figure is unavoidably out-of-drawing. The innermost ply of the film is indexed 26; the intermediate ply 27; and the outermost ply 28. An alkaline solution appears only in this figure (index 11, above). Certain visible heat-seal lines are given apporpriate reference numerals. The direction of view in FIGURE 2 accords with the index 22 of FIGURE 1.

In comformity With the foregoing, the pouch is preferably formed as a bonded three-ply laminate film, the plies, or laminae, of which are preferably made of the following materials:

(1) The innermost ply 26 is of polyethylene. This compound is relatively inert to alkalis; is available as a colorless transparent foil having adequate flexibility and resilience; and is readily heat-scalable to itself. However,

polyethylene foil does not have suificient tensile strength] to withstand the expected hydrostatic pressures developed in the contained alkaline solution; and, further, the compound absorbs oxygen from the atmosphere, and as a foil, permits the gas'to reach the solution at an accelerated rate, and absorption of oxygen by the solution deteriorates it.

(2) The intermediate ply 27 is of polyethylene terephthalate. This compound has relatively high tensile strength; and is available as a colorless transparent foil having adequate flexibility and resilience.

(3) The outermost ply 23 is of a polyvinylidene chloride. This compound has relatively high resistivity to gaseous diffusion, and is accordingly a good shield against oxygen of the atmosphere; and is also available as a colorless transparent foil having adequate flexibility and resillence.

Given the foregoing choice of materials, in the order named, the Wall of the pouch is relatively alkali-impervious on the inside where it is in contact with the solution, intermediately of relatively high tensile strength, and relatively of high resistance to gaseous diffusion on the outside where it is in contact with ambient atmospheric oxygen; and the wall is further colorless, transparent, and adequately flexible and resilient, and quite sufliciently elastic for its needs.

The tube and the cap are preferably of molded polyethylene. Accordingly, the centrifugal flange 13 of the tube may be readily heat-sealed to the innermost ply of the pouch wall. On account of the properties of flexibility and resilience of the compound the tube may be bent as required, the seal between the tube and the cap may be literally under tension and therefore quite reliable, the arm 18 may be bent as required, and the loop 19 may engage the outside of the tube under suflicient tension to prevent disengagement under normal circumstances. The wall of the tube, and the entire cap, may be sufficiently thick so that they have all required mechanical strength as well as adequate resistivity to permeation by ambient atmospheric oxygen. And, of course, both the tube and the cap have, like the polyethylene ply of the pouch wall, relatively high impermeability to alkalis; but, it will be understood, the tube may be expected to have infrequent contact with the alkaline solution, and the cap practically no contact. The solution within the pouch is not normally under externally applied pressures when the cap is serving as a seal, and at such times the liquid will ordinarily neither contact the inside of the tube or the cap.

The invention includes the combination of a quantity of an alkaline solution, for sale or use, or both, packaged in the present pouch and sealed by the cap.

What is claimed is:

1. The combination of a pouch for containing an alkaline solution susceptible of aerial oxidation, the pouch being in the form of a generally rectangular envelope made of three-ply laminate, film, peripherally heat-sealed along three of its side edges, the side walls of said envelope being continuous with each other along the fourth side edge, the innermost ply being of material relatively inert to alkaline solutions, the intermediate ply being of material of relatively high tensile strength, and the outermost ply being of material of relatively high resistivity to gaseous diffusion; a tube extending from the pouch at its continuous side edge, the tube being made of the same material as that of the innermost ply and passed through the outermost and intermediate plies, the inner end of said tube being provided with an annular flange which is also made of the same material as the innermost ply, said flange being heat-sealed to said innermost ply, the outer end of the tube being provided with a closure to prevent escape of the contents of the pouch.

2. A pouch in accordance with claim 1, wherein the innermost ply, the tube, and the annular flange at the inner end of said tube are made of polyethylene, the intermediate ply being made of polyethylene terephthalate and the outermost ply being made of polyvinylidene chloride.

3. A pouch in accordance with claim 1, in which all of the plies are made of transparent plastics through which the contents of the pouch may be viewed, the innermost ply comprising a polyethylene film having insuflicient tensile strength to withstand such hydrostatic pressures as are developed in the contained alkaline solution in the normal use of said pouch, the intermediate ply being a polyethylene terephthalate film of sufiicient tensile strength to withstand such hydrostatic pressures, and the outermost ply being a polyvinylidene chloride film which protects the intermediate and innermost plies against atmospheric oxygen.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,679,969 Richter June 1, 1954 2,815,896 Shapero Dec. 10, 1957 2,861,718 Winzen Nov. 25, 1958 2,956,671 Cornwell Oct. 18, 1960 2,958,419 Kaelble Nov. 1, 1960 2,977,264 Shapero et al Mar. 28, 1961 3,017,302 Hultkrans Jan. 16, 1962 FOREIGN PATENTS 233,257 Australia Feb. 25, 1960

Claims (1)

1. THE COMBINATION OF A POUCH FOR CONTAINING AN ALKALINE SOLUTION SUSCEPTIBLE OF AERIAL OXIDATION, THE POUCH BEING IN THE FORM OF A GENERALLY RECTANGULAR ENVELOPE MAKDE OF THREE-PLY LAMINATE, FILM, PERIPHERALLY HEAT-SEALED ALONG THREE OF ITS SIDE EDGES, THE SIDE WALLS OF SAID ENVELOPE BEING CONTINUOUS WITH EACH OTHER ALONG THE FOURTH SIDE EDGE, THE INNERMOST PLY BEING OF MATERIAL RELATIVELY INERT TO ALKALINE SOLUTIONS, THE INTERMEDIATE PLY BEING OF MATERIAL OF RELATIVELY HIGH TENSILE STRENGTH, AND THE OUTERMOST PLY BEING OF MATERIAL OF RELATIVELY HIGH RESISTIVITY TO GASEOUS DIFFUSION; A TUBE EXTENDING FROM THE POUCH AT ITS CONTINUOUS SIDE EDGE, THE TUBE BEING MADE OF THE SAME MATERIAL AS THAT OF THE INNERMOST PLY AND PASSED THROUGH THE OUTERMOST AND INTERMEDIATE PLIES, THE INNER END OF SAID TUBE BEING PROVIDED WITH AN ANNULAR FLANGE WHICH IS ALSO MADE OF THE SAME MATERIAL AS THE INNERMOST PLY, SAID FLANGE BEING HEAT-SEALED TO SAID INNERMOST PLY, THE OUTER

Images