Patent Application
20050178736
The invention relates to a dispensing apparatus for dispensing plastic bags, such as the type commonly provided in the produce section of a grocery store for customers' use, from a stack of serially arranged bags that are flattened and folded and stacked together.
Plastic bags have been replacing paper bags in the United States since the 1970s (and elsewhere more recently) in the grocery and retail products industries as a result of the superior and inherent moisture-resistant properties and strength of plastic. In these industries, these plastic bags have usually included integrally connected front and rear wall portions and, sometimes, gusseted side wall portions, all secured together at the bottoms thereof by a seal to define a closed bottom on the bag. The bag walls are open at the top to define a mouth portion on the bag. Some of these bags are of the “T-shirt” type which provides spaced integral handles laterally extending upwardly from opposed sides of the open mouth of the bag at the top to provide ease in carrying of the bag by the consumer. However, these plastic bags have also included handleless, generally flat-top rectangular-shaped bags, similar to the prior paper bags, without upwardly extending handles. These plastic bags have been provided to and used by the grocery and retail product industries in the form of packs of a plurality of superimposed bags connected together and adapted to be serially opened and removed from the rack, or in the form of a roll of plastic bags connected end-to-end and mounted on a rack to be serially removed and opened up, for packaging of the grocery or retail products. The produce bag market in the United States grocery industry has been dominated over the years by plastic bags on a roll. These bags are typically manufactured of LDPE or HMW-HDPE in gauges from 0.50 to 0.35 mil. The biggest complaint with this style bag by shoppers is the difficulty in getting the bag opened.
More recently, grocery produce bags of the “star seal” configuration have been introduced. The star seal design, which is well known in the industry as a bag having multiple layers and longitudinally folded over on itself and sealed at the bottom so that when it is opened up, the bottom of the bag viewed from the inside resembles a star, got its start in the HMW-HDPE can liner market because of the excellent bottom seal strength it offers with thin-gauge films.
Star seal bags have been provided both in roll form as described for instance in U.S. Pat. No. 6,230,953, and in pack form as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,393 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,446,811, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Grocery produce bags of this star seal type have been accepted in part because of their strength, but also because they are somewhat easier to open than the traditional roll produce bags. Openability of this star seal type bag is improved as a result of the increased number of layers of film at the bag mouth. However, particularly with respect to the roll form star seal bags, shoppers still often mistake the bottom of the bag for the top of the bag, leading to frustration in opening of the bag.
Additionally, star seal bags and other configurations of bags provided in packets, which can include bags generally referred to as header-style bags as well as T-shirt type bags, up to now have been dispensed from a rack having one or more hooks from which one or more stacks of bags hang down, as depicted in the above-referenced patents. The amount of vertical space occupied by the hanging bags thus is at least as great as the length of the bags, which typically is about 20 inches. It would be desirable to provide a dispensing apparatus that takes up less space and has better aesthetics than such prior dispensing racks.
The invention addresses the above needs and achieves other advantages by providing a dispensing apparatus for a packet of bags having a housing configured to house the lower part of a bag packet (i.e., the part distal from the mouth portion of the bags) to substantially prevent access to the lower ends of the bags while allowing a mouth portion of the packet to be accessed through an opening in the housing. A bag mount of the apparatus engages the packet near the mouth portion to secure the packet. Consumers thus can access the upper ends of the bags for removing bags one at a time. The housing in preferred embodiments accommodates bag packets substantially longer than the housing; the lower part of the packet is folded into the housing so that the dispenser is relatively compact in size.
In one embodiment of the invention, the housing comprises a rear portion and a front cover connected to the rear portion. The bag mount is attached to the rear portion proximate the opening in the housing. The front cover is pivotally attached to the rear portion so as to be movable between an open position providing access to an interior of the housing so that a lower portion of a packet of bags attached to the bag mount can be received in the interior of the housing, and a closed position in which the housing substantially encloses said lower portion of the packet of bags while the mouth portion of the packet of bags projects out from the housing to allow a bag to be grasped at an upper end thereof and removed from the packet.
The pivot axis for the front cover is preferably spaced from the bag mount by a distance that is substantially less than the length of the packet of bags. Accordingly, when the front cover is moved to its closed position, the lower portion of the packet of bags is folded into the interior of the housing. Thus, the dispensing apparatus occupies substantially less space than a conventional dispensing rack wherein the packet simply hangs from a hook.
A further advantage of the dispensing apparatus is that the lower ends of the bags are contained in the housing and thus are not readily accessible to shoppers. The upper ends of the bags at the mouth portion of the packet, on the other hand, are presented for ready grasping. The dispensing apparatus thereby encourages proper bag removal (i.e., grasping and pulling the open upper end of a bag to detach it from the packet) and discourages improper bag removal (i.e., grasping and pulling the closed lower end of a bag to detach it from the packet). As a further consequence, shoppers are less likely to attempt to open the lower end of the bag.
Having thus described the invention in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:
The present inventions now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some but not all embodiments of the invention are shown. Indeed, these inventions may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.
A dispensing apparatus 10 in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention is depicted in
The front cover and rear portion are suitably shaped so that the housing 12 defines an interior space for accommodating a lower portion of a packet P of bags. The packet P can be any type of bags, including but not limited to header style bags such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,393 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,446,811, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, or T-shirt style bags. The packet P has an aperture A extending through the packet proximate a mouth portion of the packet. The mouth portion is the portion of the packet at which the open ends or mouth ends of the bags are located. The dispensing apparatus includes a bag mount or hook 20 for engaging the aperture in the bag packet so that the packet can hang from the hook with the lower portion of the packet contained in the interior space of the housing 12. The illustrated packet P has a protruding mounting “tab” at its mouth portion, through which the aperture A extends, but alternatively the mouth portion of the packet can have other shapes such as squared off, rounded, etc. A bag packet typically has severable support means at the mouth portion, by which bags can be detached from the packet by severing the severable support means. The severable support means can have various forms. In some cases, an aperture extends through the packet at the mouth portion and a notch, perforation, or the like (e.g., see
The packet P of bags can be constructed so that the bags are self-opening, i.e., each bag tends to open as the bag is removed from the packet P. For example, successive bags in the packet can be joined together by frangible bonds of predetermined strength that facilitate the opening of the bags during removal from the packet. In particular, the bags can be folded so that each respective bag comprises multiple layers in the packet. Less than all of the layers can be bonded to the successive bag, or the layers closest to the successive bag can be bonded thereto by a bond that is stronger than the bond between the other layers of the respective bag and the successive bag. Thus, as a person pulls each bag from the packet, the bond(s) between the bag and the packet can cause the bag to begin to open. Further, before the bag is removed from the packet, the bag can cause the successive bag in the packet to begin to open. Such self-opening bag packets and the formation of bonds in packets to provide the self-opening feature are further described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,788, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, as well as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,446,811, noted above. Bonds B, which extend between only select layers of each bag, e.g., to connect the outer layers of adjacent bags in the packet, can be formed by corona treatments. For example, adjacent layers of successive bags in the packet can be exposed to a corona treatment and then pressed together to form a corona-induced pressure bond. Pressure bonded areas or cold welds C can be formed to extend through the packet and join the bags, e.g., to maintain the bags in the configuration of the packet during handling and loading onto the apparatus 10. Such bonds are also described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,335,788 and 6,446,811. It is appreciated that the bonds B, C can be formed in various configurations and arrangements in the packet.
The mouth portion of the packet of bags is accessible through an opening 22 defined in the housing 12 between a rear upper edge of the front cover 16 and the rear portion 14. The mouth portion of the bag packet, at which the open upper ends of the bags are located, is thus presented for ready access, while the lower ends of the bags are contained within the housing and hence are not readily accessible as long as the front cover is closed as shown in
The front cover 16 in the illustrated embodiment has a somewhat cylindrical configuration, formed by a front panel 24 of curved, generally U-shaped form, and a pair of spaced, parallel side panels 26 joined to the opposite side edges of the front panel 24. The front cover thus is open on one side that faces the rear portion 14 when the front cover is closed. The rear portion substantially closes the open side of the front cover when the front cover is closed, but the open side is exposed when the front cover is opened, so that the lower portion of a bag packet can be received into the front cover as in
The dispensing apparatus 10 further comprises a latching arrangement 28 for latching the front cover in the closed position. With particular reference to
In this lowered position of the latch member 30, and when the front cover 16 is closed, the latch member is located in latching slots 40 defined in upper edges of the side panels 26 of the front cover. The engagement of the latch member 30 in the latching slots 40 prevents the front cover from being opened. To open the front cover, the opposite ends of the latch member 30 are pushed upwardly against the force of the torsion spring 36 to disengage the latch member from the latching slots 40, and the front cover is pulled forwardly. When the latch member is released, it returns to its lowered position by action of the torsion spring. The upper edges of the side panels 26 of the front cover can be provided with ramped cam surfaces 41 (
The hinge arrangement 18, previously referred to, includes a hinge wire or pin 42 rotatably journaled in apertures formed through the walls 34 at locations proximate the lower edge of the rear portion 14. The pin 42 extends through apertures formed through lugs or bushings 44 affixed to the rear lower end of the front cover 16. If it is desired to prevent the front cover from being able to freely fall downward upon disengagement of the latching arrangement 28, the hinge arrangement 18 can be designed as a friction or detent type of mechanism such that the front cover can be moved only by application of force to the front cover. For instance, the pin 42 can be mounted to the front cover 16 in such a way as to prevent relative rotation between the pin and front cover, and the pin can frictionally engage the side walls 34 so that rotation of the pin requires a torque greater than that exerted by the weight of the front cover alone; alternatively, the pin can be mounted in the side walls to prevent rotation therebetween, and the above-described frictional engagement can be between the pin and the front cover.
The front panel 24 of the front cover can include a vertically extending slot 46 extending downwardly from a rear upper edge of the front panel. The slot 46 can be helpful in removing a bag from the dispenser in that the slot allows the upper end of the bag, grasped just below the hook 20, to be pulled downwardly away from the hook. Such downward force on the bag is generally helpful either for detaching the bag from a tab or header portion that remains engaged on the hook (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,393, particularly
In use, the dispensing apparatus 10 can be mounted on a support stand 50 or other support device, as shown in the first embodiment of
To remove a bag from the dispenser, the outermost bag in the packet is grasped at a point just below the hook 20 and is pulled forwardly and downwardly, along the slot 46 (if present) in the front cover, so as to sever the severable support means of the bag and detach the bag from the hook and the remaining bags. If the bag is a self-opening bag such as described in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,446,811 and 5,941,393, the process of detaching the bag may also cause the upper end of the bag to be opened up. The bag can then be filled with merchandise. As noted, the dispenser 10 can optionally include a cup 52 or the like for holding a quantity of twist ties or other closures that can be applied to a bag to close it after it has been filled with merchandise.
The invention is susceptible to numerous variations. For instance,
The dispensing apparatus 110 of
As shown in
Similar to the embodiment described above in connection with
The front cover 116 in the illustrated embodiment defines a front panel 124 of curved, generally U-shaped form, and a pair of spaced, parallel side panels 126 joined to the opposite side edges of the front panel 124. A cover member 127 extends between the side panels so that the opening 122 is defined between the cover member 127 and the front panel 124. A latching arrangement 128 for latching the front cover in the closed position includes a latch member 130 that is connected to a pivot member 132, each of which can be in the form of a wire or rod configured so that the latch member 130 is substantially parallel to the pivot member 132 and is spaced from the pivot member in a forward direction (i.e., toward the front cover 116). The pivot member 132 is journaled for rotation about its axis in apertures formed through a pair of laterally spaced, parallel walls 134 that are joined to opposite side edges of the rear portion 114. A torsion spring 136 is affixed to the pivot member 132 and engages the latch member 130 to bias the latch member in a downward direction. The opposite ends of the latch member 130 extend outwardly through vertically elongated apertures 138 in the walls 134, and the torsion spring 136 biases the latch member downwardly against the lower edges of the apertures 138. Thus, the latch member is structured to engage latching slots 140 in the side panels 126 when the front cover 116 is closed to prevent the front cover from being opened. The front cover can be opened by pushing the opposite ends of the latch member 130 upwardly against the force of the torsion spring 136 to disengage the latch member from the latching slots 140, and pulling the front cover forwardly.
The front panel 124 of the front cover can also include a vertically extending slot 146 extending partially through the front panel from the opening 122 to aid in the removal of a bag from the dispenser 110. The slot allows the upper end of the bag, grasped proximate to the mouth of the bag and below the tab T1, to be pulled downwardly away from the flange 148 and hook 120. As described above, such downward force on the bag is generally helpful for detaching the bag from the tab T1 that remains engaged to the packet and the dispensing apparatus 110. In other embodiments of the present invention, a dispensing apparatus similar to the one shown in
To prepare the dispensing apparatus 110 for operation, the front cover 116 is opened and a packet P1 of bags is hung from the hook 120 (
To remove a bag from the dispenser 110, the outermost bag in the packet is grasped at a point just below the tab and is pulled forwardly and downwardly, along the slot 146 (if present) in the front cover, so as to sever the severable support means of the bag and detach the bag from the hook and the remaining bags. The process of detaching the bag can cause the mouth portion of the bag to be opened, and the bag can then be filled with merchandise.
Many modifications and other embodiments of the inventions set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which these inventions pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the inventions are not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.
