Background:
One of the most significant impacts of the retail boom can be seen in the area of packaged foods - driven by the changing tastes and preferences of Indian consumers. Today the category boasts of a wide range of Indian and international brands of snacks and foods available in various forms of foil / pillow packs.
According to recent studies  the size of the packaged food market in India is estimated to be US$ 10 million and is expected to reach US$ 20 million by the year 2014. Packaged food  which is now 4% of the overall Food and Grocery (F&G) market  is expected to reach 5% of F&G market by 2014.
As more and more Indian and international brands are added to retail shelves  the consumer is facing a challenge - of choice - with a host of Indian and international brands vying for their attention. Brands play an important role today and have to find unique new ways of reaching out to consumers  attracting their attention and keeping loyalties intact. The key challenge for brands here is to be able to stand out among the clutter of brands.
Branding and packaging design have over the years helped food and snack brands create a unique identity for themselves and vie for the consumers’ attention. Packaging methods like pillow packs have been constantly evolving to create better “shelf-throw” and “shelf-life”. Nitrogen-flushed foil pillow packs have now become common-place. Designed to suit the stacking systems in modern retail or hanging displays in neighbourhood and mom-and-pop stores.
Often the nitrogen-flushed packs and the crimp seals make it difficult for the packs to be self-standing on retail shelves without the help of suitable display systems like gondolas; missing out on the opportunity to leverage the brand and its packaging.
Attempts to address this problem have been limited by the need to retain the current packaging assembly lines  machinery and configurations  especially in the extremely cost-sensitive foods and snack market.
Object
The opportunity is to create a simple and cost effective “additional crimping” on the bottom of a typical nitrogen-flushed pillow pack such that it would allow the pack to “self-stand”  while retaining the existing packaging assembly lines  machinery and configurations.
The result – self-standing pillow packs – would help leverage the brand’s visibility on retail shelves exponentially.
Summary of Invention
The invention includes a simple additional crimping on the bottom ends of a typical nitrogen-flushed pillow pack  that is made using a customized “crimp-sealing” attachment to the current vertical form  fill and seal (VFFS) packaging machine  allows the pack to self-stand when separated individually  thus enhancing shelf space utilization and brand visibility.

Detailed Description
Referring to the drawings  a simple additional crimping attachment will be added to the existing Vertical Form  Fill and Seal (VFFS) packaging machinery.
The attachment will be in the form of a pneumatic roller head (A as in Fig 1.1 and 1.2) placed perpendicular (horizontally) to the main heat-crimping head (B as in Fig 1.1) and set to the desired rotation cycle. The pneumatic roller head has a heat-crimper (C as in Fig 1.2) along its length.
1. As per fig 1.1  the main crimp head (B) crimps and seals the top of the filled pack and the bottom of the next pack.

2. As per fig (2.2)  the said additional roller head rotates from the two sides (horizontally)  adding the additional crimp to the two bottom ends of the pack. This crimp detail will be as shown in figs 2.3 and 2.4.1 and 2.4.2.

3. The pack is then filled with the contents (fig 3.1) and vacuum-flushed (fig 4.1)

4. The main crimp head then seals the top of the filled pack and the bottom of the next pack (same as explained in point 1 and fig 5.1 above) and the cycle continues (figs 6.1  7.1  8.1 and 9.1).

5. The combined strip of pillow packs will be as in fig (10.1) and will facilitate hanging of the packs and display.
When separated along the perforations  the additional crimp on the bottom (the invention) will allow the individual pack to self-stand (as in fig 11.1). This is facilitated as the additional crimp on the bottom sides of the pillow pack (the invention) creates an optimal base along with the horizontal bottom crimp seal  thus enabling the pillow pack to “rest” on its own.