Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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This invention relates to a package article,
particularly to a package of stacked, flexible sheet
articles, and more particularly to a package or stack
of flattened, stacked, wicket holed ~lexible packaging
bags made of plastic or the like material, of the type
customarily used in the meat packaging industry in con-
junction with automatic and semiautomatic packaging
apparatus.
Packaging operations in industry, particularly
in the meat packing industry, involve the use of flexible
plastic packaging sheets or bags held on wickets passing
through wicket holes in the stacked sheet or bag supply
for one at a time removal and utilization at a packing
station. The modes of automatic and semiautomatic
packaging which utilize such sheet materials and bags,
and the criteria for such usages are discussed in U.S.
Patent 3,738,482 to Cwikla.
- The packaging, handling, shipping, unpacking,
and mounting for. utilization of these sheets and bags,
because of their slippery surfaces, presents many problems.
The ensuing discussion will treat only of bags for purposès
of simplification, but the discussion in general also
applies to sheets. Polyethylene bags for such ~se, for
instance, when sh;pped, as they customarily are, in loose
bulk quantities, tend to slide into disorderly piles and
are extremely difficult to handle. The invention described
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in the aforesaid patent to Cwikla, obviated these problems
to some extent by providing a pre-wicketed bag stack but
that solution presupposes a packaging station having
wicket sockets to accept the wicket which comes with the
pre-wicketed bag stack.
The desiderata of flattened, stacked, wicket
holed, flexible plastic, slippery packaging bags then
is that they be held bundled and neatly stacked, with
their wicket holes in registration, as a unitary package,
during packing, shipping, unpacking, and installation at
a packing station, and that the arrangement to accomplish
these ends be optimally flexible to accommodate various
modes of bag installation and mounting at different packaging
stations.
With this being the state of the art, the present
invention was conceived and developed to provide a unitary
stack or bundle of flexible plastic packaging bags with
wicket holes all held nicely in registration and align-
ment by means of a flexible binding.
- The present invention also provides a unitary
stack of wicket holed flexible plastic packaging bags `
wherein the flexible binding holding the assembly-of -
bags is also utilized as a carrying handle.
The invention further provides a stack of wicket-
holed packaging bags wherein the flexible binding holding
the bags may be severed at its carrying handle ?ortion and
utilized as a pair of wicket legs.
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Ano~her ~e;lture of t:l-e invcn~ion is the pro-
vision o~ binding sh~nk elements of flexible tubing wllich
c.~n be rcadily slipped over wicket posts.
~ still further ~nd advant~geous fe.~ure of ~he
invention is in its provisions of a binding which securely
holds the stacked b~gs during shipping and handling and
readily permits their transfer t-o various other wicketing
means.
These and other features and advant~ges of the
invention will become the more readily understood and
appreciated from the ensuing detailed description and the
drawings wherein:
Figure 1 is an isometric view, looking from
above, of a stack of bags held on a flexible binding
according to the present invention, and
Figure 2 is an isometric view, looking from
below, of the stack of bags of Figure 1.
I.n general, the present invention comprehends
a package article comprising, in combination, a stack of
_ flattened flexible packaging sheets, each sheet having.two
wicket holes therethrough, said wicket holes being in
substantial registration with the wicket holes in re-
spectively contiguous sheets in the stack, an elongate
flexible binding member extellding through the wicket holes
in the stacked sheets to form a hand grip~able loop between
the wick~t holes of the topmost sheet of the stack and a
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lC~57~8
shallk extending from each of the wicket holes in the
botton~ost sheet of the stack, and means on each
said shank to retain the sheets and thc binding member.
Particular embodiments of package articles
according to the invention comprise stacks of two-ply
flattened, closed bottom, open mouth packaging bags.
The elongate flexible binding member is pre-
ferably a length of plastic tubing, and the means on
the shanks to retain the sheets or bags on the binaing
member are preferably friction washers.
With reference to the drawings, there is shown
generally a bundle or stack 6 of flattened flexible
plastic packaging bags 4 each having a closed bottom
end 5, an open mouth end 7, and wicket holes 9 through
the flattened plies. The wicket holes 9 through the
bags 4 are in substantial registration throughout the
stack 6. An elongate flexible binding member 10, pre- --
ferably a length of plastic tubing, is threaded through
the wicket holes 9 as shown to form a hand grippable
loop 11 between the wicket holes of the topmost bag of ;--
the stack. Shank elements 12 of the flexible binding .
member 10 are shown in place in the wicket holes 9,
with shank extensions 14 extending from the bottommost ~ ~ -
bag 4 of the bag stack 6. The bags are held on the
flexible binding 10 by means of friction washers 16, one
on each shank extensiQn 14, slid up snugly against the ~ -
underside of the botto~most bag of the stack as shown in
Figure 2 of the drawings.
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The bag stack package article according to
the invention and as herein describcd and illustrated
can be readily liftcd by the loop li for placing into
and removal from a shipp;ng carton, for carrying to a
packaging station for installation in a bag dispensing
apparatus, and for any other necessary handling.
Bags bundled and bound on flexible tubing
according to the invention can be readily transferred to
rigid inverted U shaped wickets used in many automatic
and semi-automatic packaging techniques. To effect
such a transfer to a selected rigid inverted U shaped
wicket, the friction washers 16 are removed from the
shank extensions 14, the rigid wicket legs are slid
into the open ends of the tubing binding member 10, the
tublng and wicket legs are pulled up through the aligned
wicket holes 9 in the bag stack 6 until the rigid wicket
~ legs extend beyond the uppermost bag of the stack, and
the tubing binding is slid off the wicket legs, leaving
the bag stack aligned as before, but now on a rigid
wicket. Transfers to hollow tubing rigid wickets, where
necessary, are accomplished in a similar manner but may
---be workably effected with either a solid or a tubular
plastic binding element, the solid element being slid into
the rigid tubular wicket leg and the tubular element being
slipped either into or over such wicket leg.
- The package article according to the invention
is more advantageously used however in connection with
bag holding platens having either wicket holes into which
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9747
iO85788
the shank extensions 14 are inserted or wicket po6ts
over which tubular shank extensions 14 are slipped.
In such arrangements, the flexible binding member 10
is severed at the midpoint of the hand grippable
loop 11 and the severed sections serve as wicket
posts holding the bags in readiness for one at a time
removal from the stack.
In connection with such applications, the
present invention is particularly and most advanta-
geously used in conjunction with the invention which is
the`subject of copending application Serial No. 237,001,
filed October 3, 1975, entitled Pivoted Wicket Bag
Opening Dispenser, assigned to the same assignee as in
this application. It is to be appreciated however that
this invention is not limited to use only with the in-
vention of the aforesaid other application.
Example -
A typical bundle of bags according to the ~ -~ -
present invention was made up of 200 bags of 0.04 mm.
thick polyvinyldichloride tubular plastic film, cut
and bottom sealed into flush cut bags, each of 41 cm.
flatwidth by 76 cm. length, with 12.5 . wicket hole
apertures spaced on 25 cm. centers adjacent the mouth
end. A 40 cm. length of 0.95 cm. O.D. by 0.63 cm. I.D.
flexible polyethylene tubing was threaded through the
aligned wicket hole apertures and the bags were
secured onto the tubing with 10 mm. friction washers
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disposed to leave about 3 cm. lengths as shank
extensions. Bundles so made were tested and found
consistently casy to handle in the process of carton
packagill~3, unpackaging, d~spensing station installations,
and ultimate utilization of the bags,without any bundle
breakage, spills, or other malfunctions.
Modes of practicing this invention other than
those heretofore described, but within the spirit of
the invention, may, in the light of this disclosure,
occur to persons conversant with the art. It is there-
fore intended that the disclosure be taken as illus-
trative only, and not construed in any limiting sense.
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