Importance

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Abstract

An opening device for flexible packaging and a package having an opening device bonded thereto are provided, wherein the opening device concentrates tearing forces and provides increased tearing leverage, facilitating the opening of the packaging without the need for a sharp object to initiate the tear. The opening device may employ first and second wings spaced apart from one another at a narrow distance and joined at a proximal end by an integral web, which acts as a fulcrum for each of the wings as they are rotated to initiate the tear, or may employ first and second wings or levers secured to opposite sides of a sealed edge of the package, which levers operate about a common fulcrum at the innermost portions of the proximal ends of the levers to magnify and concentrate tearing forces. Another embodiment employs a single lever whose fulcrum is established at a point where a bottom edge of the lever contacts, through the thickness of the packaging material, a surface of the product contained in the package, and the load is positioned at an upper extent of a bonded region joining the packaging material to the proximal end of the lever.

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First Claim