Claims
- 1. A system for automatic consecutive opening and dispensing thermoplastic grocery or retail product bags of the T-shirt type while providing for supporting consecutive bags in an open position and for facilitating easy removal of the consecutive loaded bags; said system comprising:
- a bag pack comprising a plurality of stacked T-shirt type bags secured together, each of said bags comprising
- front and rear wall portions integrally connected at sides thereof and secured together at the bottom thereof and defining an open top mouth portion,
- laterally spaced handles integral with said wall portions and extending upwardly from opposed sides of said mouth portion and including a support arm receiving aperture formed through an intermediate portion of each of said handles,
- a detachable mounting tab extending upwardly from each of said front and rear wall portions at a central area of said mouth portion, each of said mounting tabs including a mounting aperture therein and means detachably connecting said mounting tab to said respective wall portion and providing a predetermined tab severance strength for detachment from said respective wall portion, and
- disengageable adhesive means connecting each said rear wall portion to each said front wall portion of each consecutive bag in said bag pack and providing a predetermined adhesive severance strength therebetween; and
- a rack for mounting said bag pack and consecutive dispensing of said bags, said rack comprising
- generally horizontally extending bag supporting base means,
- a vertically extending portion connected to said supporting base means,
- a pair of spaced apart mounting means connected to an upper portion of said vertically extending portion,
- two generally horizontally and outwardly extending support arm means laterally spaced from each other and connected to said pair of spaced apart mounting means, said support arm means being vertically spaced from said base means and each having a linearly-extending free outer end portion (1) for slidably receiving said apertures in said bag handles and mounting said bag pack, (2) for supporting consecutive ones of said bags in an open loading position on said base means as said bags are consecutively removed from said pack and slid along said support arms and (3) for facilitating removal of consecutive loaded bags by sliding said handles off said support arms at said linearly-extending free outer end portion,
- each of said support arm means comprising a rear mounting portion extending substantially perpendicular to said mounting means and defining a longitudinal axis for the support arm means, a rear portion extending at a predetermined angle with respect to said longitudinal axis and a forward linearly-extending portion forming said outer free end portion and extending at a predetermined angle with respect to the longitudinal axis which is smaller than the predetermined angle of said rear portion for providing a resistive force against sliding of said bags therealong in said outer end portions which is greater than said severance strength of said disengageable adhesive means,
- bag mounting tab retaining means positioned generally between said support arm means and extending outwardly a distance less than the extension of said support arm means (1) for receiving said mounting apertures in said mounting tabs, (2) for cooperating with said support arm means to mount said bag pack on said rack and (3) for allowing consecutive detachment of said front and rear wall portions of each of said bags from said mounting tabs as said bags are slid outwardly along said support arm means into the open loading position;
- said predetermined tab severance strength being less than said predetermined adhesive severance strength so that said detachable mounting tab detaches prior to severance of said adhesive means as said bags are consecutively removed from said pack and slid along said support arm means; and
- said predetermined adhesive severance strength being less than said predetermined resistive force of said support arm means so that said adhesive means severs as said bags are slid along said support means and are consecutively removed from said rack.
- 2. A system, as set forth in claim 1, in which the predetermined angle of said rear portion of said support arm means is approximately 15.degree. and the predetermined angle of said forward portion of said support arm means is approximately 10.degree..
- 3. A system, as set forth in claim 1, in which said generally horizontally extending bag supporting base means comprises a stationary base member for manually sliding the loaded bag forwardly thereon to remove the loaded bag from said rack and to open the successive bag.
- 4. A system, as set forth in claim 1, in which said generally horizontally extending bag supporting base means comprises driven conveyor means for automatically moving the loaded bag forwardly off of said rack and for opening the successive bag.
- 5. A system, as set forth in claim 1, in which said severance strength of said detachable mounting tabs comprises from about 0.1 to 1.0 lbs.
- 6. A system, as set forth in claim 1, in which said severance strength of said adhesive means comprises from about 0.3 to 4.0 lbs.
- 7. A system, as set forth in claim 1, in which said resistive force against sliding of said bags in said outer portions of said support arms of said rack comprises from about 1.0 to 5.0 lbs.
- 8. A system, as set forth in claim 1, in which said severance strength of said detachable mounting tabs comprises from about 0.1 to 1.0 lbs., said severance strength of said adhesive means comprises from about 0.3 to 4.0 lbs., and said resistive force against sliding of said bags in said outer portion of said support arms of said rack comprises from about 1.0 to 5.0 lbs.
- 9. A system, as set forth in claim 1 in which said resistive force against sliding of said bags in said outer portion of said support arms of said rack is proportional to the coefficient of friction of said outer portion of said support arms and the normal force between said bags and said support arms and is defined by Coulomb's Law of L=u N, wherein L is friction or resistive force, u is coefficient of friction and N is the normal force.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This is a division of copending application Ser. No. 361,130 filed Jun. 5, 1989 Pat. No. 5,020,750, issued Jun. 4, 1991, and entitled "A System For Automatic Consecutive Opening and Dispensing Thermoplastic Grocery or Retial Product Bags".
This invention relates to a system for automatic consecutive opening and dispensing thermoplastic grocery or retail product bags of the T-shirt type while providing for supporting consecutive bags in an open position and for facilitating easy removal of the consecutive loaded bags.
Since the 1970s plastic bags have been replacing paper bags in the United States for the grocery and retail products industries due to the superior and inherent moisture resistant properties of plastic. For these industries, these plastic bags have been for the most part of the T-shirt type which provide laterally spaced handles integrally extending upwardly from opposed sides of an open mouth portion in the top of the bag to provide ease in carrying of the bag by the consumer. These T-shirt bags have generally been provided to and used by the grocery and retail product industries in the form of packs of a plurality of such bags secured together and mounted on a rack for consecutive detachment of the bags from the pack and for holding the bag in an open position for loading before removal from the rack.
The major problems encountered with these plastic T-shirt bag pack and rack systems has been the development of such a system that will adequately and efficiently provide a means for dispensing and loading bags made of ultra-thin plastic material that in many cases are very difficult and cumbersome to work with because of their flexible nature. These problems are compounded in cases where the person filling the bag with grocery or retail products is not trained or familiar with the particular bag/rack system, as is the case in many supermarkets and other stores where the turnover rate of employees is high or where the customer is required to bag his own items. This was particularly true where the bag/rack system required removal of consecutive bags from a pack mounted on a rack by a central mounting tab and stretching the handles of the removed bag over tabs on arm portions of a rack, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,487,388 assigned to Mobil Oil Corporation.
A major break through with this problem came with the development of the QUIKMATE.RTM. bag/rack system which mounted a pack of thermoplastic grocery bags of the T-shirt type on a rack by a central mounting tab and by apertures in the handles of the bags, for supporting consecutive bags from the pack on supporting rods or arms on the rack in an open loading position by apertures in the handles on the supporting rods and for facilitating each removal of the consecutive loaded bags from the rack, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,378 assigned to Sonoco Products Company (the assignee of the present application). This QUIKMATE.RTM. bag/rack system allowed consecutive bags to be opened by a single motion of the hand to break the central mounting tab on the front wall portion of the bag and pull the front wall portion of the bag open by sliding the bag handles having apertures therein along the outwardly extending support rods of the rack for loading of the bags. This QUIKMATE.RTM. system has been very successful in most applications once the person using the bag has practiced using the QUIKMATE.RTM. bag/rack system. This system has replaced most of the prior bag/rack systems in the grocery and retail products industries. However, there are still certain problems with the manual opening of consecutive bags with the QUIKMATE.RTM. bag/rack system where the user of the system does not break only the front side of each consecutive bag from the mounting tabs to properly position the bag in open loading position on the rack.
Accordingly, it is the object of this invention to overcome the above discussed problems and to provide a system for automatic consecutive opening and dispensing of thermoplastic grocery or retail product bags of the T-shirt type while providing for supporting consecutive bags in an open position and for facilitating easy removal of the consecutive loaded bags.
It has been found by this invention that the above object may be accomplished by providing such a system including a bag pack and a rack including generally the following features.
The bag pack is formed of a plurality of stacked T-shirt type bags secured together. Each of the bags has front and rear wall portions integrally connected at sides thereof and secured together at the bottom thereof and defining an open top mouth portion. Laterally spaced handles are integrally formed with the wall portions and extend upwardly from opposed sides of the mouth portion and include a support arm receiving aperture formed through an intermediate portion of each of the handles. A detachable mounting tab extends upwardly from each of the front and rear wall portions at a central area of the mouth portion. Each of the mounting tabs includes a mounting aperture or slot therein and means detachably connecting the mounting tab to the respective wall portion which defines a predetermined severance strength for detachment from the respective wall portion. Disengageable adhesive means connect each of the rear wall portion to each of the front wall portion, preferably below the mouth portion, of each consecutive bag in the bag pack and has a predetermined severance strength greater than the severance strength of the mounting tab connecting means.
The rack for mounting the bag pack includes a generally horizontally extending bag supporting base means. Two generally horizontally and outwardly extending support rods or arms are provided on the rack and are laterally spaced from each other and vertically spaced from the base portion and have linearly-extending free outer end portions (1) for slidably receiving the apertures in the bag handles and mounting the bag pack, (2) for supporting consecutive ones of the bags in an open loading position on the base means as the bags are consecutively removed from the pack and slid along the support arms and (3) for facilitating removal of consecutive loaded bags by sliding the handles off the support arms at the linearly-extending free outer end portions. The support arms include means for providing a resistive force against sliding of the bags therealong in the outer portions thereof which is greater than the severance strength of the disengageable adhesive means. The rack further includes bag mounting tab retaining means positioned generally between the support arms and extending outwardly a distance less than the extension of the support arms (1) for receiving the mounting apertures in the mounting tabs of the bags, (2) for cooperating with the support arms to mount the bag pack on the rack and (3) for allowing consecutive detachment of the front and rear wall portions of each of the bags from the mounting tabs as the bags are slid outwardly along the support arms into the open loading position by retaining the mounting tabs on the retaining means.
With the above bag pack and rack system of this invention and upon removal of each loaded bag from the rack, (1) the adhesive means will detach between the rear wall portion of the loaded bag and the front wall portion of the next consecutive bag since the resistive force against sliding of the bags along the linearly-extending outer portions of the support arms is greater than the severance strength of the adhesive means and (2) the adhesive means before detaching will pull the next consecutive bag from the bag pack into open loading position on the support arms by severing the mounting tab on the front wall portion of the next consecutive bag since the severance strength of the adhesive means is greater than the severance strength of the mounting tabs.
The support arms may be of different constructions for providing the resistive force against sliding of the bags therealong in the outer free end portions. Such support arms may preferably comprise a cylindrical metal rod forming a rear portion and a linearly-extending cylindrical plastic rod of generally the same diameter as the metal rod and forming the outer free end portions wherein the plastic rod provides the resistive force against sliding of the bags therealong in the outer free end portions. Alternatively, the support arms may preferably comprise a rear portion extending at a predetermined angle with respect to a longitudinal axis and a forward portion forming the outer free end portions and extending at a predetermined angle with respect to the longitudinal axis which is smaller than the predetermined angle of the rear portion for providing a resistive force against sliding of said bags therealong in said outer end portions.
The bag supporting base of the rack may comprise a stationary base member for manually sliding the loaded bag forward thereon to remove the loaded bag from the rack and to open the next consecutive bag, or may comprise a driven conveyor means for automatically moving the loaded bag forwardly off of the rack and for opening the next consecutive bag.
US Referenced Citations (4)
Divisions (1)
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361130 |
Jun 1989 |
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Patent Grant
5125604
