Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
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The present invention relates to bag closures in
general and to closures for "poly" bags in particular.
Many industries utilize polyethylene or other thin
plastic bags to package commodities, one of the most common
industries being the food industry. Many foodstuffs are packaged
in this way, for example, bread and milk. Most consumers are well-
acquainted with the "pony-tail" bread bag and most are aquainted
with the overbag containing a nu~ber of l-quart pouches of milk.
In both instances, it is necessary to open and close the covering
bag a number of times before the contents thereof are ~xhausted.
This means that a bag closure which can be positioned by automatic
machinery and which can be removed and reused by the consumer must
be provided. Many such closures have been proposed and many are
in commercial use. For example, there is a closure made from a
sheet of plastics material and having a C-shaped opening at one
end. The bunched bag sides are positioned in the opening and the
edge thereof retains the bag sides therein. This closure has the
disadvantage that during handling portions of the bag sides can
slip thxough the open area of the closure allowing air to enter
the ~ag and perhaps allowing bag contents to eventually leave the
bag. Also, the size of the opening in the closure must be tailor,ed
to the size of the bag to be closed. If the opening is too big or
too small an improper closure will result.
An improved closure is ~ound in U.S. Patent 3,673,640
issued on July 4, 1972 to Dwight C. Brown. That closure includes
a bowed strap and a clamping bar struck from the interior thereof
and hinged at one end to the strap~ A lo~king hook ls provided
at the other end of the bar for engagement with an edge of the
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strap in the opening left by the bar. The bunched bag sides
are locked between the bar and the 5 trap when the hook has
engaged the strap. This closure eliminates any ~roble~s of
inadvertent bag opening and also permits greater latitude in
the size of the bag that can be closed thereby~ However the
tooling to produce the closure is expensive as the closure is
complex in configuration, requiring a number of steps ko bow
the strap, form the clamping bar and form the hook thereon.
The configuration also fails to provide areas for imprinting,
an important feature with respect to mounting consumer inter-
est in price, quality, weight and dates of latest use.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
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The present invention overcomes the problems associated
with the above described closures. It is simple, easy to manu-
facture, prevents inadvertent bag opening, accomodates a great
variety of bag sizes and lends itself to imprinting. The bag
closure of the present invention is stamped ~rom a flat sheet
of plastics material and remains flat until use. It has a flat
base portion and a flat tongue portion stamped from-the base
but hinged thereto. Ad~acent the hinge area the tongue portion
has a pair of opposed neck areas and at the free end the side
~dges of the tongue portion converge slightly. When usecl the
tongue portion is pushed out rom the base portion and the
bunched bag sides are positioned therebetween. The base portion
is bent around the bunched bag sides and the tongue portion is
pulled through the opening created by pushing the tongue portion
~rom the base portion. The tongue portion is pulled ~or pushed)
through the opening until the neck areas engage the converging
edges of the opening in the base portion, therebv loc:king the
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closure about the bunched bag sides. The tongue portion can
be easily released or unlocked by simply disengaging the edges
of the opening in the base portion from the neck areas o~ the
-tongue portion and drawing the tongue portion back through the
opening in the base portion. The closure can be reused as o~ten
as desired without fear of failure. Also the tongue surface
area readily lends itself to imprinting.
Broadly speaking therefore, the pxesent invention
provides a bag closure comprising a base portion and a tongue
portion formed from the base portion so as to define an opening
in the base portion, the opening having edge sections closely
conforming to the periphery of the tongue portion, the tongue
portion being integrally hinged to the base portion at one
end o~ the opening and having a pair of opposed neck areas
adjacent the one end, the width of the tongue portion at the
neck areas being greater than the minimum width of the opening
adjacent the other end thereof5 whereby in its bag closing mode
the base and tongue portions may be flexed so that the tongue
portion may be inserted through the opening until the neck
areas releasably engage and lock with the edge sections oE the
opening adjacent the other end thereof.
Figure 1 illustrates a plan view of the bag closure
according to the present invention.
Figure 2 il~ustrates the bag closure of the present
invention in use.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREEERRED EMBODIMENT
Figure 1 shows an enlarged plan view o~ the bag closure
according to the present invention. The bag closure 10 includes
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a base portion 12 which in an unused state is generally flat,
the base portion 12 being provided with a tongue portion 14
which is stamped or struck therefrom. The tongue portion 14 is
delineated by a pair of opposed parallel edge sections 16, a
pair of opposed converging edge sections 18, a curved edge
section 20 joining edge sections 18 and a pair of opposed
inwardly directed neck areas 24 adjacent the integral hinge
connection between the tongue portion 14 and the base portion 12.
The neck areas 24 correspond to a pair of opposed projections 22
on the base portion, the projections 22 being directed inwardly
towards each other. While the projections 22 are shown as bein~
generally triangular in plan they can take any form such as
circular or rectangular.
As seen in Figure 2 the base portion 12 has an opening
26 that corresponds to the tongue portion 14 and is delineated
by corresponding edge sections 16', 18' and 20'. The width of
the tongue portion 14 between the neck areas 24 is greater than
the minimum width of the opening 26 at the end thereof opposite
the hinge connection, that is in the vicinity of the edge
sections 18'.
The closure of the present invention may be formed from
a sheet of a plastics material in a simple stamping press, the
punch and die of which could simultaneously or progressively
stamp the outline of the base 12 and the outline of the tongue 14.
It i8 alBo possible to stamp the closures progressively in a
continuous strip of plastics material, which strip of closures
c~uld be rolled up for use in automatic packaging equipment.
Thus, a closure would be struck from the roll as requiredD
Alternatively, it would also be possible to stamp out the
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closure just prior to use from a roll or strip of plastics
material, the stamping press in this case adjoining the
packaging eqiuipment. The material may be any o~ the flexible
yet strong plastics such as polyethylene.
In use, the tongue portion 14 i's initially pushed
from the base portion, the tongue being hinged at its junction
with the base. This lea~es the opening 26 in the base portion
12 closely con~orming ~o the periphery o~ the tongue portion 1~.
The base portion 12 and the tongue portion 14 when pushed
from the base
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portion, form a V-shaped zone into which the bunched bag sides 28
are moved. The base portion 12 is wrapped around the bunched bag
sides as seen in Figure 2 and the tongue po~tion 14 is ~oved
through the opening 26 in the v-Lcini~y of the converging edges 18'
thereof so that when the tongue is pulled through the opening 26
the converging edges 18' of the opening 26 will engage the neck
areas 24 on the tongue thereby locking the closure about the
bunched bag sides. Since the bag closure is intended to
tightly close the bag there will be resistence to closure provided
by the bunched bag sides and the out~ardly directed forces
produced thereby will tend to enhance the engagement between
edges 18' and neck areas 24.
In order to release the closure it is only necessary
to release the engagement between edges 18' and neck areas 24
which can be easily accomplished by slightly twlsting tongue
portion 14 and wlthdrawing the tongue portion back through
opening 26. Needless to say the closure of the prese~t invention
may be used over and over again as there are no zones thereon
which will be subject to high ~atigue stresses during opening
and closing thereofO
The relatively large flat surface of the tongue portion
14 lends itself to printing and thls becomes a convenient area
for price or other information pertaining to the product.
The present inventlo~ accordlngly provldes a bag closure
which is highly efficient, eEfective in use~ and economic to
produce. It has large areas for prin~ing thereon while being
compact in size and it can therefore be unobstrusive when in use.
It is also conceivable that detail changes in the design of the
pre~ent bag closure could be effected withou~ departlng from the
ba9ic concept and hence the protection to be afforded the present
inventlon should be determined only from the appended claims.
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