GB2080247A - Bag with hanger - Google Patents

Abstract

A rigid hanger is secured to a liquid supply or drainage bag by welds 22 extending through apertures 18 in the hanger. The tube 108, Fig. 5, may have a flap valve 102 within the bag, formed by a sheet welded at locations 106. An outlet tap 116 has a flat flange which is secured in a face-to-face manner to one wall of the bag. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Liquid supply or drainage bag including hanger This invention relates to a liquid supply or drainage bag including a hanger.

It is known that bags such as night drainage bags used for the collection of urine or other liquids from patients are customarily hung from a bracket or hook. For this purpose, it has been proposed to include one or more holes, often strengthened with eyelets, in an upper extension of the bag. Of course such holes are located away from the portion of the bag in which the liquid is contained. An example of such an arrangement is seen in British Patent Specification No. 1162 336.

Among the defects of such an arrangement are that the bag walls may be weakened by the eyelets, and that the insertion of the eyelets, or the provision of other means whereby the bag can be suspended, involves an extra stage in the manufacturing process.

In accordance with the invention in its broadest aspect, a liquid supply or drainage bag is made integral with a substantially flat hanger of a material which is relatively rigid compared to the bag, the hanger being welded or otherwise secured to an upper region of the bag.

With such a construction, the bag may be suspended in such a way that the weight is not concentrated at particular points, and if the bag contains an internal flap valve the hanger can be arranged and located in such a way as to prevent the bag folding at a region which will result in the flap valve being inadvertently shut off.

The flat hanger may be a sheet of rigid or semirigid plastics material which is welded in a face-toface manner to an upper region of one of the walls of the bag.

Alternatively the flat hanger may be made of cardboard or like stiff material provided with a plastics surfacing. An upper region of a bag wall is then welded face-to-face to the plastics surfacing on the card.

The hanger may have brackets or other tube supports which prevent (a) a drainage tube being kinked and (b) the drainage tube bearing any substantial part of the weight of the bag when the bag is sus- pended.

According to one embodiment of the invention, a liquid supply or drainage bag has a flat hanger embodied therein by welding the bag walls together in one or more upper regions, the welds extending through one or more corresponding apertures in the hanger.

Such welds may be made in the same welding operation as that which provides a peripheral weld sealing front and rear bag walls together, leading to a saving in manufacturing time and cost compared to prior art bags wherein eyelets are provided.

The hanger may provide a support for a bracket which secures a drainage tube to the hanger.

The invention will be better understood from the following non-limiting description of examples thereof given with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a cross-section in a vertical plane on the lines Il-Il of Figure 2; Figure 2 is a front view of one example of drainage bag according to the invention; Figures 3 and 4 are respectively front view and vertical cross-section of a second example of drainage bag according to the invention; and Figure 5 is a front view of a drainage bag according to a third example of the invention.

The bag illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 has a front wall 10 and a rear wall 12 secured together by a peripheral weld 14. A flat hanger 16 is interposed between these two walls at an upper region thereof.

The hanger has three apertures 18 therein. The hanger also has a hole 20 therein by which it can be suspended from a suitable hook, not shown. The bag walls 10 and 12 are welded together by bar welds 22 located in the apertures 18. In this way the hanger 16 is securely attached to the bag walls 10 and 12.

The hanger may be of cardboard or of plastics or other suitable material. The bag walls areof any suitable weldable plastics material. The hanger 16 carries a bracket 24 which guides and secures a drainage tube 26. The hanger surface may carry instructions for use or other information.

The welds 14 and 22 can all be made in a single welding operation, so leading to economy in manufacture.

Although three apertures have been illustrated, it will be understood that any suitable number may be provided. In the case of a liquid supply bag, a supply tube will be connected to an outlet at a lower region of the bag instead of the drainage tube 26 being connected as illustrated.

Such bags can be packed flat which is a considerable advantage for storage and transport. The rigid nature of the hanger, and the fact that it can extend across the whole width of the bag assists in reducing the tendency of the bag to distort when full of liquid.

Figures 3 and 4 are respectively front view and vertical cross-section of a second example of drainage bag in accordance with the invention. The bag illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 has a front wall 70 and a rear wall 72. These are secured together by a peripheral weld indicated at 74. A drainage tube 76 is welded into the top edge of the bag. The lower end of the tube 76 extends into a conventional flap valve 78, whose purpose is to prevent reverse flow of urine up the tube 76. It has been found with some prior known designs of bag that kinking or folding of the bag results in a forced temporary closure of the flap valve 78 so preventing urine in the tube 76 from entering the bag 78, with the result that urine in the tube 76 may back up towards the patient with undesirable results.

A bag hanger 80 is of flat construction and may be of cardboard or plastics. It has two rectangular apertures 82 therein, and the bag walls 70 and 72 are welded together through these apertures by four bar welds indicated at 84. These welds may be made simultaneously with the peripheral weld 74, and securely attach the bag to the bag hanger. An arcuate hole 86 and circular holes 88 are cut in the bag hanger to facilitate its suspension. The hanger includes brackets 90 which hold and receive the tube 76. If desired, the brackets 90 may be formed by bent-up cut-outs from the flat hanger material.The exposed flat surface of the hanger may be used for carrying information of clinical value or directions as to the use of the equipment It will be seen thatthe lower portion of the flat hanger 80 extends below the outlet of the flap valve 78, and consequently this relatively rigid lower portion of the hanger prevents backward bending of the bag which would close off the flap valve 78. Hence the problems associated with such inadvertent closure are avoided.

The bag illustrated in Figure 5 is intended to be hung up at floor level and is made from superposed front and rear sheets of plastics material, e.g. P.V.C.

of a few thousandths of an inch in thickness. These are welded together by a peripheral weld 100. A flap valve of novel kind is provided by an extra sheet 102 of plastics material which is interposed between the superposed sheets and is smaller than both of them.

Its lower edge is indicated at 104. It is welded to the superposed sheets around the periphery but is only welded to one of them (the front sheet for example) at intervals by spaced welds 106. The inlet pipe 108 is arranged to lead into the space between the front sheet and the interposed sheet and liquid passes therefrom into the lower region of the bag by travelling through the unwelded gaps between the welds 106.

A handle 110 of plastics or cardboard or other suitable material is welded into the upper region of the bag in a similar manner to that disclosed in connection with Figures 1-2 and 34. The handle 110 has windows 112 therethrough and the welds extend through the said windows.

The lower region 114 of the bag forms a discharge chamber and has an outlet tap 116 fixed thereto.

According to a preferred feature of the present invention, the discharge chamber is bounded by a simple flat seam weld 118 (which is part of the weld 100) and the outlettap 120 has a flange which is welded in face-to-face mannertothe plastics sheet forming the front bag wall. The tap may be fixed to the bag by projection welding leading to an efficient production method. In this way the complexities of inserting and securing a separate tap body member (e.g. member 16 referred to in U.K. published Patent Application 2 061 466) between the front and rear bag walls are avoided.

A suitable outlet tap is described and claimed in our U.K. Patent Application No.81 20082 (Case C.27) but conventional prior art taps may be used instead, although a tap according to the said application is preferred.

As seen in Figure 5, the inlet pipe 108 is fixed to the handle as indicated at 122, and this avoids kinking of the inlet pipe atthe region where it enters the bag.

Claims (9)

1. A liquid supply or drainage bag which is made integral with a substantially flat hanger of a material which is relatively rigid compared to the bag, the hanger being welded or otherwise secured to an upper region of the bag.

2. A bag according to claim 1 having front and rear walls of plastics material welded together around their periphery.

3. A bag according to claim 1 or 2 in which the hanger is of rigid or semi-rigid plastics material welded to one wall of the bag.

4. A bag according to claim 1 or 2 in which the hanger is of plastics-coated cardboard and is welded to one wall of the bag.

5. A liquid supply or drainage bag having a flat hanger embodied therein by welding the bag walls together in one or more upper regions, the welds extending through one or more corresponding apertures in the hanger.

6. A bag according to claim 1 in which the hanger has bracket portions extending therefrom which receives and guide a drainage tube leading into the top of the bag.

7. A liquid supply or drainage bag according to any one of the preceding claims and having an outlet tap secured to a lower region thereof, the tap having a plastics flange which is welded or adhesively secured to one wall of the bag in a face-to-face manner.

8. A bag according to any one of the preceding claims in which a single plastics sheet forming part of a flap valve is interposed between the front and rear bag walls.

9. A liquid supply or drainage bag substantially as herein particularly described with reference to and as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, or Figures 3 and 4, or Figure 5 of the accompanying drawings.