Fastener closure arrangement for flexible packages

A method of forming a reclosable flexible package, comprising:

• providing opposed front and rear panels having sides and joined together at a side to form an interior in the package opening communicating with said interior;
• providing first and second interlockable fastener tracks configurable in an interlocked, closed position and an unlocked open position the fastener tracks having a bottom portion of preselected width when in the interlocked, closed position;
• providing a slider at least partly extending above said fastener tracks and movable along said fastener tracks to configure said tracks in said interlock position and in said unlock position;
• forming said fastener tracks to provide an end stop formation comprising a side-by-side pair of end stops, mirror images of one another, each end stop comprising an L-shaped shoulder joined to a thin web-like fin portion, the L-shaped shoulder having a portion extending above said fastener tracks and a finger-like portion lying below said shoulder comprising an undeformed bottom portion of said fastener tracks;
• the step of forming said fastener tracks to provide an end stop formation comprising displacing material from said slider tracks while leaving said finger-like portion as a continuous extension of the lower end of said fastener tracks and having a width approximately the full predetermined width of the lower end of the fastener tracks and joined to a thin web-like fin portion of thickness substantially less than said predetermined width;
• aligning said fastener tracks with respect to said front and said rear panels with an end of the fastener tracks located at said side seal;
• joining said fastener tracks to said front and said rear panels;
• and
• cutting said end stop formation so as to sever an end stop joined to said front and said rear panels from the remainder of said interlockable fastener tracks.