BACKGROUND
Overexertion back injuries rarely occur as a result of a single event or accident. The human spine typically undergoes weeks or months of heavy lifting and awkward work postures until some element of the back, including discs, vertebrae and muscles, gives out. Even for people who or not involved in day to day manual labor, injuries can result from just ordinary household tasks like taking out the trash, cleaning up the yard and discarding landscape waste, etc.
Trash bags are generally designed to have a sealed seam on the bottom and some sort of closure at the top. Closures include twist ties, drawstring handles, extensions on the top of the bag that can be tied—so-called “handle tie” bags, etc. Once closed, the user generally picks the bag up from the closure and puts it into a trash receptacle. This lifting of the waste bag from one point, generally out away from the body, is not ergonomic, and can cause injury or at the very least, fatigue.
In addition, in order to get a better grip on the bag a user may grab the body of the bag. If there is an unseen sharp object in the bag, the user runs the risk of injury by the unseen object when the user grabs the bag. Even if the user does not grab the body of the bag, the bag will typically dangle next to the user's legs as it is carried, and the user may be injured if the sharp object hits the user's leg.
Additionally, often the bag is not used anywhere near its full capacity because of concerns that the bag will rip or tear due to the poor distribution of weight. Users often cannot lift as much waste as they may desire because the awkwardness of the hanging bag prevents them from lifting more. This makes currently available fillable bags inefficient and not cost-effective.
This also applies to pre-filled or pre-packaged materials in bags. A materials supplier or manufacturer may package materials such as sand, concrete, potting soil, etc. in smaller bags to allow easier handling and movement. If there were a way to allow users to handle the material more easily, the suppliers could package the materials in larger amounts, reducing the number of bags needed per pound of material.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows an example of a typical trash bag use.
FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of a bag having a second handle to promote efficient, ergonomic use.
FIG. 3 shows a representation of weight distribution for a point load.
FIG. 4 shows a representation of weight distribution for a load distributed between two points.
FIGS. 5A-D shows examples of differing bag handle and top shapes.
FIGS. 6A-B show an embodiment of a draw-string bag having a second draw string handle.
FIGS. 7-8 show differing embodiments of a second handle for a hole handle bag.
FIGS. 9-10 show an embodiment of a second handle for a handle-tie bag and drawstring bag.
FIG. 11 shows an embodiment of a bag having an absorbent material adjacent to the bottom sealed seam.
FIG. 12 shows an embodiment of a bag having an absorbent material or liner bonded between layers of the bag material.
FIG. 13 shows an embodiment of manufacturing bags.
FIGS. 14-14B show an embodiment of a cross section of a bag detailing the handle and body.
FIG. 15 shows the manufacturing seam detail of the simultaneous cut, weld, and perforation process.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS
FIG. 1 shows an example of a user picking up a bag 10. The bag in this example is a handle tie trash bag. As can be seen, the load of the bag 10 hangs straight down from the user's arms 12. This causes the user to lean out a distance 16 from vertical, shown by line 14. This forms a fulcrum point 18 in the user's back, applying stress and strain to the back, increasing the likelihood of injury.
FIG. 2 shows an example of a user picking up a bag 10 using a bottom handle flap 20. While the user is shown bent slightly from the vertical 14, it is much more likely for the user to be able to straighten fully because of the ability to spread the arms and distribute the load across the torso evenly. Also, even with the bend from vertical, it is far easier for the user to keep the back straight with no fulcrum point that focuses the stress and strain of the load.
FIG. 3 shows a single point of load 22 for a 20 ton weight. All of the force of the load is focused at the lifting point of the load 22. In contrast, FIG. 4 shows two points of load 24 and 26. The load will generally be distributed evenly between the two points. Further two points of load allow more freedom of movement and the ability to adjust the points to more evenly distribute the load. For a non-homogenous load, such as might occur in a trash bag where the contents may be a mix of items with different densities such as grass clippings and leaves, the ability to adjust the balance between two points of load provides an advantage. Having two handles allows distribution of the point load among two points.
The term bag as used here means a container for holding any material that has three closed edges ie: left edge, right edge, bottom edge, two sides ie front and back panels and an open top with or without some type of closure, Alternatively, a bag may not have three distinct edges. For example, the bag may have a body formed from flattened tubular stock with a continuous curved edge, with an opening. The top handle would be at the opening, the bottom handle flap would be located on a portion of the curved seam typically, but not necessarily, at the bottom of the bag. Examples of a bag include bags of all sizes, including household ‘kitchen’ bags, ‘outdoor’ bags, contractor bags, made of plastic, fibrous materials, paper, cardboard, or even thin cloth, and material bags filled with such items as concrete, sand, potting soil, bark mulch, grains, compost, etc. The top handle may be formed from the side edges of the opening, separate from the opening, formed from the side panels of the bag, etc. It will be referred to as being adjacent to the opening.
FIGS. 5A-D show embodiments of a bag body front-side and back-side panels 10, having top handle ties 32, handle flap 20 and sides/edges 94. The bottom handle flap 20 is arranged to be outside the sealed seam 30 in FIG. 5A, with a different relationship between the ties 32 and the bottom handle shown in 5B. FIG. 5B also shows a different configuration of the handle. The handle flap could be one of many shapes, sizes or types. The handle flap could be either an extension of the body side panels 10, or a separate piece of material, of the same material as the body of the bag or of a different type, joined, welded or bonded in any fashion to the body.
The handle flap could employ various methods of construction and is not limited in shape, size, form or location. For example the handle flap may either be joined around the perimeter as a result of many manufacture methods such as welded, fused, bonded, fused completely together by whatever method, or left unjoined and open. These options will be described in further detail in FIGS. 7, 8 and 14. The handle flap could be located in any position around the perimeter of the bag as seen on the side of the bag 21. Similarly the bag itself may not be a handle tie bag, such as shown in FIGS. 5C and 5D.
One should also note that the examples in FIGS. 6A-B show a bottom handle that is the same as the top handle, no limitation to this particular arrangement is intended, nor should any be implied. Further, the bottom handle may not actually be on the ‘bottom’ of this bag, it may be located on an edge or side portion of the bag.
In FIGS. 6A-B, the bag is filled from the open, also referred to here as the ‘top’ end of the bag at handle 32. Once filled as far as desired, the user would draw the strings in the top handle 32. The bottom handle 20, being also of the drawstring variety, would be drawn to allow the user to grasp the straps of the handle similar to the manner in which the top handle 32 is grasped, shown in FIG. 6B.
As mentioned above, the handle could be one of many types. FIGS. 7-8 show an example of a handle that is formed in the handle flap 20, referred to here as a ‘hole handle’ 40. In FIG. 7, two different locations for the handle are shown, but in one embodiment there could be three handles, the top handle, a bottom and a side handle, giving the user two options for lifting. The flap portion of the hole handle 40 could be an extension of the bag 10, which will be discussed in further detail with regard to manufacture below. When the bag is filled, as shown in FIG. 8, the user can grasp the hole handle 40 at the bottom of the bag to lift it more easily. Note that in FIG. 8, one can see that the handle is formed from extensions of both front and back side panels 10 of the bag, although the handle could be a single panel of material.
The bottom handle configuration may also be adjusted in size, shape, location to facilitate other uses. Ie the handle could also be located on the edge of the bag, as shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 7. This side handle 21 would attach to the edge of the bag 94, instead of the way the handle flaps 20 attach or extend at the bottom sealed seam 30 of the bag. In addition, the handle flap and handle hole could be formed in many different ways. For example, the handle hole 40 could have the handle flaps joined, such as those shown in FIG. 7. Alternatively, as discussed below in FIG. 14 a seam 44 could seal just the perimeter of the handle flaps, and similarly just the perimeter of the hole 42, or the entire surface of the handle flaps could be bonded or sealed in any form together 46. Another example could have bonding, reinforcing or strengthening material between the flaps and then sealed.
In yet another variation, FIGS. 9 and 10 shows examples of a handle-tie bag. A ‘handle-tie’ bag is one that has extensions, usually scalloped or otherwise curved into segments that can be tied to close the top of the bag. The bottom of the bag 10 would also have handle formed from the ties 50. When the bag is filled, shown in FIG. 10, the lower handles would be tied to allow the user to grasp them for transport. Another possible handle configuration is a perforated handle tie, where at least a portion of the handle is separated from the body of the bag by tearing along a perforation, while a portion of the handle typically remains attached to the body portion.
Other variations and modifications within the scope of the embodiments may exist. For example, the length of the handle could be adjusted to accommodate it acting as a protective layer if the bag where to be dragged over rough terrain.
Similarly, the bag may not only be used as a disposable or reusable bag that is filled by the user. Manufacturers and packagers of bulk materials, such as fertilizer, bark mulch, potting soil, sand, concrete, rice, wheat, corn, livestock feed, etc., could package their materials in bags that have a handle on either end. This would allow for more efficient and ergonomic handling of the materials by both warehouse workers and users and possibly reduce work-related injuries. The second handle may also assist in emptying the pre-packaged materials from the bag, making it easier to distribute the materials more evenly or to reach less accessible areas. In this instance, the “opening” would be the end of the bag designed to be opened, such as with a tear off strip or other mechanism that allows the bag to be opened.
In addition, the bag could have an absorbent strip or liner to absorb some of the accumulated fluid that may be in the material content stored or placed in the bag. As shown in FIG. 11, the bottom seal of the bag 30 by the second handle may also hold in place an absorbent strip 70. In the event of a bag rupture, the strip would have absorbed at least some of the fluid in the contents of the bag reducing the amount of fluid that would leak out of the bag.
For uses having more liquid involvement, the bag could actually be constructed having a ply system, in FIG. 12 an absorbent liner 82 is sandwiched between two plies of plastic 80 and 84. In the event of the inner ply being ruptured, the absorbent liner would absorb more of the fluids as well as acting as a more robust mechanical structure to stop further rupturing of the bag.
Typically, bags are formed from a tubular roll of stock material. The stock is laid flat, then stamped, cut or otherwise formed from the roll. The handles could be formed in the bottoms of the bags as part of the step of cutting and sealing the bottoms of the bag from the stock. As mentioned above, this would probably be fairly straightforward for the hole handle and handle tie bags.
However, one could easily see that with some slight adjustments, the drawstring bag process could easily be adapted. By leaving an extension of the bag past the bottom sealed seam, the process could add the drawstring feature to the bottom of the bag in the same manner as the top. As mentioned above, the size of the bag would not change; the flap would be made by using a longer run of the plastic stock than would be used for a standard sized bag. The position of the bag end would be the same relative to the top of the bag; the handle would be cut or stamped from an additional length of the stock material. After forming the handle, the stock would typically be cut straight to form the top of the next bag from the stock.
As discussed above, manufacture of the bags would more than likely use rolled or tubular stock. FIG. 13 shows an example of such stock adapted to produce bags with two handles. The stock 100 would be stamped, cut or otherwise perforated to form the individual bag outlines from the stock, such as bag 10. The sides/edges such as 94 of the bag would be formed because of the nature of the tubular stock. The bottom seam 30 would be welded or stamped for containment.
FIG. 15 envisions a single manufacturing step in which all cuts, welds, and perforations are achieved at one time. This will increase CPM rates and lessen production cost making the product more viable in the market place. The lines 90 could be cut to produce individual units or perforated to package the bags as a roll. Optional upper hole handles 92 could be cut or stamped, but would not be welded together allowing the bag to be opened at the top. In FIG. 14 the shape at the mouth and bottom handle would be in addition to standard or typical bag sizes, leaving the volume/capacity of the bags unchanged. However, one could alter that configuration and remain within the scope of the embodiments described here.
In this manner, an ergonomic and more efficient bag is provided. The addition of the second handle is relatively easy and inexpensive to achieve. The second handle allows the bags to be filled more to their capacity, but allows users to move the bags more easily. As shown in FIGS. 13 and 15, the formation of the bags may be configured to form the handle ties of the next bag from the areas around the bottom handle of the previous bag. A first or upper hole handle 92 is located adjacent to the open top, is formed from the same portion of bag material, and is at least partially defined by a curved perimeter of the open top. A handle flap 20 is located below the transverse seam 30 and formed from the same portion of material. A second or lower hole handle 40 comprises a hole formed in the handle flap, wherein the hole of the second or lower handle lies substantially along a transverse axis. The first handle 92 is at least partially defined by a hole cut from a side of the flattened material between the open top and the sealed bottom. The first handle hole and second handle hole have substantially similar longitudinal height, and the handle flap 20 has a lower perimeter of a same configuration as the curved perimeter of the open top. This type of fitting together of one bag with the next is referred to here as tessellation or tessellated manufacture. When assembled into a bag roll, the hole of the first handle 92 lies substantially along the transverse axis of the hole of the second handle of a next bag in the roll.
Thus, although there has been described to this point a particular embodiment for a bag with a secondary handle, it is not intended that such specific references be considered as limitations upon the scope of the below claims.
Patent Grant
8790009
