Patent Application
20050211723
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pack of plastic bags having a plurality of bag units, each bag unit having a disposable upper portion and a lower bag portion, wherein the lower bag portion has an opening with a reclosable seal located on the side.
2. Description of the Related Art
In supermarkets, department stores and other retail outlets, there is frequently the need for consumers or store employees to place items in bags to facilitate handling and purchase. For example, produce bags are dispensed directly to customers wherein the customer can bag the produce as it is chosen for purchase. Also, in deli or meat departments, store employees place the selected meats or other deli products in bags for the consumer. In the prior art, there are a number of designs for dispensing bags for these purposes.
Roll mounted produce bags are commonly found in modem grocery stores and supermarkets. These bags are designed for customers to use when purchasing fresh produce. The bags currently available are difficult for customers to use for several reasons. First, the bags tend to cling together and are difficult to separate from the roll. Second, it is difficult to tell the open end of the bag from the closed end of the bag. Third, the bags are difficult to open, as the sides tend to cling together.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,833, commonly owned by applicant, discloses a dispensing assembly for supporting packs of plastic bags. The packs of plastic bags include a disposable upper portion connected to the lower bag portion. A perforation is made between the disposable upper portion and the lower bag portion. When a customer wants to use a plastic bag, he pulls on the lower bag portion and tears it away from the disposable upper portion at the perforation. While these plastic bags are suitable and cost-effective for a number of situations, in other situations these plastic bags suffer from some shortcomings. For example, with these bag dispensing systems it frequently requires two hands to pull the bag down and open it. Also, often more than one bag is removed, resulting in wasted bags.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,730 discloses a pack of plastic bags provided with a zipper. To facilitate mounting, handling, and filling of the plastic bags, the bags include a bottom header. The bottom header includes one or more openings for mounting the plastic bags to dispensing posts. If these packs of plastic bags are hung in a vertical position, the zipper would run along the bottom of the pack of plastic bags. There are number of shortcomings associated with these packs of plastic bags having a zipper on the bottom. For example, to use these bags, the bag must first be removed from the pack before the product is put in the bag. This usually requires two hands, requiring the product be set down while the bag is removed from the pack and opened.
Applicants are also aware of prior art packs of plastic bags where, when the pack is hung in a vertical position from support hooks, a zipper runs along the top of the bag. This prior art pack suffers from the shortcoming that, due to the thickness of the zipper and slider, the pack is very bulky near the top, making it difficult to place product in the bag when the bag is hanging in a vertical position.
Thus, there are a number of shortcomings with the known rolls of plastic bags and packs of plastic bags. A common problem with dispensing bags is providing one bag to the consumer or store employee in a convenient, simple, and reliable fashion. Further considerations relate to uniformity of dispensing bags, ease of opening, and ease of filling.
Accordingly, a need has arisen for a pack of plastic bags which can easily be opened, filled, and sealed.
In accordance with the present invention, a pack of plastic bags is provided comprising a plurality of bag units, each bag unit having a disposable upper portion and a lower bag portion, a binder formed by joining together the disposable upper portions of the plurality of bag units, each bag unit having a serration between the disposable upper portion and the lower bag portion, each lower bag portion having a side and a bottom, and each lower bag portion having an opening with a reclosable seal located on the side.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a pack of plastic bags wherein the bags have an opening on the side such that a user can place a product in the bag while the bag is hanging in a vertical position.
A better understanding of the invention can be obtained when the detailed description of exemplary embodiments set forth below is considered in conjunction with the attached drawings in which:
The present invention relates to a pack of plastic bags. While the pack of plastic bags may be used for any purpose, the preferred use of the pack of plastic bags is at a deli counter. With the preferred use, a store employee places deli meats or other deli products in a bag, removes and seals the bag, and provides the bag with the deli products to the customer.
With reference to
With reference to
With reference to
The embodiment shown in
The present invention provides an attaching means for attaching the pack 50 to at least one support hook. As discussed above, the holes 52, 53 in the headerless binder 51 provides one means for attaching the pack 50 to at least one support hook. Also as discussed above, the header 61 has tabs 62 having holes 63, 64 which serve to hang the pack 50 upon one or more support hooks. Preferably, the side holes 52, 63 are designed to be 3 inches apart.
The present invention provides a closure means for sealing each bag located on one side of the lower bag portion 12. Preferably, the closure means is a zipper having a slider 16. Also, the closure means may be the “press together” seal known in the art wherein a person uses his fingers to start sealing a bag and slides his fingers along the seal to complete the seal.
Most preferably, the plurality of bag units 10 are provided in an open position with the opening 14 on the left side 17 of the lower bag portion 12 with the slider 16 at the bottom 19 of lower bag portion 12. The positioning of the opening 14 on the side of the lower bag portion 12, and particularly on the left side 17, has been found to provide significant advantages over prior art bag dispensers. For example, behind a deli counter, the slicing equipment is typically set up where the employee uses his right hand to move a large piece of deli meat back and forth into contact with the slicing blade, while using his left hand to catch the slices of the deli meat. Thus, the deli counter employee will have slices of deli meat in his left hand which he wishes to package for the customer. The present invention allows the deli counter employee to place his left hand containing the sliced deli meat in the opening 14 of the lower bag portion 12 while the bag is still hanging on the support hooks. After placing the deli meat in the bag, the deli counter employee then has both hands free to remove the bag from the pack 50 and to seal the bag. Also, a deli counter employee may use a knife or other cutting instrument, generally in his right hand, to cut cheese or other deli products. Typically, since the deli counter employee's right hand is occupied, he will pick up the cheese or other deli product in his left hand. Again, the present invention allows the deli counter employee to place his left hand containing the cheese or other deli product in the opening 14 of the lower bag portion 12 while the bag is still hanging on the support hooks. While it is preferable to have the opening 14 and the seal 15 on the left side 17 of the lower bag portion 12, to achieve some of the advantages of the present invention, the opening 14 and the seal 15 may be provided on the right side 18 of the lower bag portion 12. Also, many of the advantages of the present invention may be achieved if the slider 16 is located at the top of the lower bag portion 12.
As noted above with regard to the prior art pack of plastic bags shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,730, if this pack of plastic bags was hung in the vertical position from support hooks, the zipper would run along the bottom of the pack of plastic bags. This presents several significant shortcomings as compared with the present invention. As noted above, with the present invention, a product may be placed in the bag while the bag is still hanging on the support hooks. With the prior art pack of plastic bags shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,730, it is not possible to place product in the bag while the bag is hanging in a vertical position (i.e., the product would fall out of the opening at the bottom of the bag). Thus, in using this prior art pack of plastic bags, one must remove the bag from the pack prior to placing the product in the bag. If a deli counter employee has a deli product in his left hand, he would typically set the deli product down on the counter, retrieve a bag, then place the product in the bag. Thus, the present invention eliminates one or more steps in the process of packaging deli products.
Applicant is also aware of prior art packs of plastic bags where, when the pack is hung in a vertical position from support hooks, the zipper runs along the top of the bag. Due to the thickness of the zipper and slider, these packs tend to be very bulky at the top of the bag, making it difficult to place product in the bag while the bag hangs in a vertical position.
With reference to
The material used to create the plastic bags may be any suitable plastic resin, including low density polyethylene; linear low density polyethylene; high density polyethylene; high molecular weight, high density polyethylene; and polypropylene. Also, the material used to create the bags may be a single extruded layer or a plastic film comprising multiple, coextruded layers.
The present invention is advantageous over known packs of plastic bags. The present invention provides a pack of plastic bags which, when hanging in a vertical position, presents a bag having an opening and a seal on the side. This allows the user to place a product in the bag while the bag is hanging in a vertical position. After the product is placed in the bag, the user then has two free hands to remove the bag from the pack and to seal the bag. As discussed above, other prior art packs of plastic bags are more difficult to use and/or require additional steps to remove, fill and seal the bags.
Having described the invention above, various modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art. It is intended that all such variations within the scope and spirit of the invention be included within the scope of the appended claims.
