Back to results
US 6,892,567 B1Granted
System for determing the integrity of a package or packaging material based on its transmission of a test gas
OwnerDarrell R. Morrowinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
OwnerDarrell R. Morrowinventor
Estimating the term…
A sealed package's transmission of oxygen, water vapor, carbon dioxide, or other gas or vapor that is of interest because of its potential adverse effects on the package contents is determined indirectly, based upon the package's transmission of a different gas selected as a test gas. Helium is preferred as a test gas. The package's total transmission of the test gas is separated into its components of leakage through the package seals and permeation through the packaging material itself. The package's leakage of the gas of interest is determined based on its leakage of the test gas, in accordance with the molecular weights of the gases. The package's permeation of the gas of interest is determined based on its permeation of the test gas, in accordance with data correlating the permeation of the gas of interest and permeation of the test gas for the materials from which the package is made, and with package structure data relating to the size, shape, and disposition of the materials from which the package is made. The package's total transmission of the gas of interest is determined by adding its leakage and permeation components so determined. Such data may be used with other data to determine a packaged product's shelf life or its sensitivity to a gas of interest.
A method of determining the effect of a gas of interest on a product within a package comprising the steps of:
Apparatus for determining the effect of a gas of interest on a product within a package, the apparatus comprising stored data and a processor operating on the stored data in accordance with software, wherein the stored data includes data representing the package's total transmission of a test gas, the test gas being different than the gas of interest, storage condition data representing the amount of the gas of interest in the atmosphere surrounding the package during storage, and data representing the sensitivity of the product to the gas of interest, and the processor operates on the test gas transmission data to determine the package's transmission of the gas of interest, and the processor operates on the gas-of-interest transmission data, the storage condition data, and the product sensitivity data to determine the shelf life of the packaged product.
Apparatus for determining the effect of a gas of interest on a product within a package, the apparatus comprising stored data and a processor operating on the stored data in accordance with software, wherein the stored data includes data representing the package's total transmission of a test gas, the test gas being different than the gas of interest, storage condition data representing the amount of the gas of interest in the atmosphere surrounding the package during storage, and data representing the sensitivity of the product to the gas of interest, and the processor operates on the test gas transmission data to determine the package's transmission of the gas of interest, and the processor operates on the gas-of-interest transmission data, the storage condition data, and the shelf life data to determine the sensitivity of the product to the gas of interest.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.