Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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GUSSETED BAGS WITH A TAB
BACKGROUND
[0001] Many commercial establishments, such as retail stores, as well as
consumers use bags
for transporting articles such as groceries and other items. The present
invention is directed to a
novel embodiments of bags.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention is directed to a bag comprising two exterior
faces, an open
mouth end defined by the exterior faces, a sealed bottom end joining the
exterior faces, at least
one gusset extending between the mouth end and the sealed bottom end, and at
least one tab
located in a tab region at the mouth end, wherein at least one gusset extends
into the tab region.
[0003] The present invention is for novel bags as more fully set forth
herein.
[0004] The present invention may be better understood by reference to the
description and
figures that follow. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited
in its application to the
specific details as set forth in the following description and figures. The
invention is capable of
other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0005] These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present
invention are better
understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to
the accompanying
drawings, wherein:
[0006] Fig. lA is a front view of bag embodiment of the present invention;
[0007] Fig. 1B is an end view of the bag shown in Fig. 1A;
[0008] Fig. 2 is an end view of a bag embodiment of the present invention; and
[0009] Fig. 3 is an end view of a bag embodiment of the present invention.
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS
[0010] Reference will now be made in detail to various embodiments of the
invention, one or
more examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Each
example is
provided by way of explanation, not limitation, of the invention. In fact, it
will be apparent to
those skilled in the art that modifications and variations can be made in the
present invention
without departing from the scope and spirit thereof For instance, features
illustrated or
described as part of one embodiment may be used on another embodiment to yield
a still further
embodiment. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers such
modifications and
variations as come within the scope of the appended claims and their
equivalents.
[0011] The use of reference characters with the same two ending digits as
other reference
characters to indicate structure in the present specification and drawings,
without a specific
discussion of such structure, is intended to represent the same or analogous
structure in different
embodiments.
[0012] Referring to Fig. 1A, bag 100, which is illustrated as a t-shirt-
type bag, is shown. As
illustrated, bag 100 has an open mouth end 102 and a sealed bottom end 104 at
opposing
longitudinal ends. In some embodiments, sealed bottom end 104 may be formed by
a heat seal.
Bag 100 also includes faces 106 (with a front face shown and a rear face, not
shown, on the rear
side of the bag). Bag 100 also has laterally-spaced, upwardly extending handle
portions 108.
Each handle portion 108 may include an aperture portion 110 for mounting a bag
or a stack of
bags on a dispensing rack system. In addition, bag 100 may include a
detachable central tab 114,
which may have a slit or aperture 112 for mounting the bag on a dispensing
rack system. As
shown, aperture 113 permits separation of a bag from central tab 114, although
in other
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embodiments a perforated, or scored, line may be used. In some alternative
embodiments, the
tab may be integral to and not detachable from bag 100. As shown in Fig. 1A,
bag 100 also
includes gussets 116, which have an inner gusset point 116'. Bag 100 is shown
in a closed
configuration in which the bag is not opened, i.e., front and rear faces 106
are back-to-back and
the gussets are not open.
[0013] As shown in the embodiment of Fig. lA and 1B, bag 100 has four plies
(or layers) of
film in the gusseted regions and only two plies (or layers) of film in the
region between the
gusseted portions. However, in the exemplary embodiment shown in Figs. lA and
1B, gussets
116 extend within the center of bag 100 such that portions of each gusset 116
are disposed within
central tab 114. As a result, the outer portions of central tab 112 have four
plies and the inner
portion of central tab 114 (between gussets 116) has two plies. In some
embodiments, gussets
may meet at the middle point of a central tab such that the central tab
substantially has the same
number of plies throughout.
[0014] In some embodiments of the present invention, gussets may overlap. For
example, as
shown in Fig. 2, gussets 216 may overlap such that the entire bag, including
the entire tab, has
greater than two plies. In addition, a central tab for this bag (which is not
visible from the end
view but is located within the region indicated as A) has two outer portions
with four flies and a
central portion with six plies. In other embodiments, gussets may overlap
within only a portion
of a central tab, such as shown in Fig. 3, wherein the central tab
(represented within region A)
has two portions with four plies and one portion with six plies.
[0015] The present invention may advantageously improve dispensing of bags
from a bag
stack. In particular, in some bag stacks, it may be desirable for the removal
of a bag in the stack
to adhere to the front (i.e., the first ply) of the subsequent bag in the
stack so as to open the
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subsequent bag without removing the entire subsequent bag, such as described
in U.S. Patent No.
5,335,788 and U.S. Patent No. 6,446,811, each of which is incorporated herein
in its entirety by
reference. By utilizing embodiments of the present invention, a bag having
gussets extending
into the tab region may have more plies connected with a tab as compared with
a bag in which
the gussets do not extend within a tab region. Because more plies are
connected to the tab in
certain embodiments of the present invention, such a bag may be more secured
to the tab and less
likely to be entirely removed from the stack upon the removal of a preceding
bag in the stack. In
that regard, after the front face of a bag has been pulled open and detached
from the tab after
removal of the preceding bag in a stack, a bag in which the gussets do not
extend into the tab
region would only remain affixed to the tab by a single ply of the back face
of the bag. By
contrast, using some embodiments of the present invention in such
circumstances, the bag may
remain attached to a tab by attachment with multiple layers in view of the
additional layers in the
tab region from the gussets. At the same time, with respect to embodiments of
the current
invention, the bond of the front ply of a bag is not increased in strength by
the extension of the
gussets into the tab region, such that the front ply may continue to be pulled
forward upon
removal of a preceding bag from the stack. Thus, the present invention may
provide a better
self-opening feature in a bag stack with a tab and bags with one or more
gussets.
[0016] Bags and bag stacks of the present invention may be made using any
conventional
techniques known in the art, such as those described in U.S. Patent No.
5,335,788 and U.S.
Patent No. 5,562,580, each of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by
reference. In
addition, as indicated above, bag materials used to make tabs may have the
same composition as
the underlying bag to which the tab is applied. Suitable bag materials bag may
include any
polymeric materials, including polyolefins. By way of example, and without
limitation, bag
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materials may include polyethylenes such as linear low density polyethylene
(LLDPE), low
density polyethylene (LDPE), high density polyethylene (HDPE), high molecular
weight high
density polyethylene (HMW-HDPE), and combinations thereof One of ordinary
skill in the art
will readily appreciate that other materials may be suitable, such as other
thermoplastic
materials, including copolymers.
[0017] Although the foregoing examples are shown with respect to T-shirt bags,
one of
ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the invention may also be used
on other types of
bags, such as, but not limited to, produce bags in a stack, produce bags on a
roll, shopping bags
on a roll, and other bag types. In addition, one of ordinary skill in the art
will appreciate that
although the preceding examples in the context of a detachable tab, gussets
extending into
integral and nondetachable tabs are also within the scope of the present
invention.
[0018] The foregoing description of illustrative embodiments of the
invention has been
presented only for the purpose of illustration and description and is not
intended to be exhaustive
or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Numerous
modifications and adaptations
thereof will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without
departing from the scope of
the present invention.
[0019] It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or
two or more
together, may also find utility in applications differing from the types
described. While the
invention has been illustrated and described in the general context of mixing
in wastewater
treatment systems and processes, it is not intended to be limited to the
details shown since
various modifications and substitutions can be made without departing in any
way from the spirit
and scope of the present invention. As such, further modifications and
equivalents of the
invention herein disclosed may occur to persons skilled in the art using no
more than routine
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experimentation, and all such modifications and equivalents are believed to be
within the spirit
and scope of the invention as described herein.
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