Reclosable package and carton blank and process for making the same

In a package made of carton stock having front and rear main panels, side panels articulated by fold lines to a set of end closure flaps, which comprises dust flaps, a cover flap, and a sealing flap, and coated, at least on the end closure flaps, with a heat sealing coating;

• the improvement in which:
• said dust flaps and said cover flap have sealing areas adjacent to the fold lines thereof;
• said cover flap has cut-away end portions corresponding to the sealing areas of said dust flaps so that, when they are folded in on top of the dust flaps, the dust-flap sealing areas are exposed;
• said cover flap, save for said cover flap sealing area, is coated with a non-heat-sealing coating to provide a non-sealing area which stretches from one dust-flap sealing area to the other and to the edge of the cover flap;
• said sealing flap is folded down onto the infolded dust flaps and adhered to the sealing areas thereof and to the sealing area of said cover flap;
• the area of the sealing flap which overlies the non-sealing area of the cover flap is circumscribed by a sealing-flap ply-separation means forming a ply-separable area which extends from the sealing flap fold line along the sealing area of each dust flap and along the cover flap sealing area to said pull tab;
• and said sealing flap has a line of weakness which angles in from each corner to said ply separation means.

A process for making a reclosable package which comprises:

• making a carton blank of carton stock having front and rear main panels, side panels articulated by fold lines to a set of end closure flaps, which comprises dust flaps, a cover flap, and a sealing flap, and coated, at least on the end closure flaps, with a heat sealing coating;
• cutting away the ends of said cover flap to expose, when the cover flap laps the dust flaps, narrow sealing areas along the fold lines of said dust flap;
• coating the rest of said dust flaps with a non-sealing coating;
• coating said cover flap with a non-sealing coating except for a narrow strip along the fold line thereof, thereby leaving a narrow sealing area which, when the cover flap laps the dust flaps, complements the dust flap sealing areas to form therewith, when the cover flap is folded in on the dust flaps, a continuous U-shaped sealing area along the fold lines of the dust flap and the cover flap;
• making parallel cuts in the center portion of said sealing flap and crease-scoring across said cuts to form a pull tab of a size to overlie the corresponding center portion of said cover flap sealing area;
• forming offset ply-separation scoring in said sealing flap which, in the closed end of the erected carton coincides with the inner edges of said U-shaped sealing area;
• and
• forming lines of weakness in said sealing flap which angle in from the corners thereof to said ply-separation scoring.