GB2330822A

GB2330822A - A waste bag

Info

Publication number: GB2330822A
Application number: GB9902532A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Raymond Wheeler
Original assignee: Guardline Disposables Ltd
Current assignee: Guardline Disposables Ltd
Priority date: 1995-08-17
Filing date: 1996-08-15
Publication date: 1999-05-05
Anticipated expiration: 2016-08-15
Also published as: GB2330822B; GB2330821B; GB9902532D0; GB9902528D0; GB2330821A

Abstract

A bag 10, which may be used for waste products, has adhesive 26 around the outside of the opening to allow the bag to be sealed once the waste product has been placed in it. The bag is folded about a fold line below the mouth of the bag, and the adhesive 26 is pressed into contact with the front portion of the bag. Another fold is then made about a line between the first fold line and the mouth of the bag, and a back portion of the bag is pressed into contact with the exposed adhesive 26. The adhesive 26 may be protected by a peel-off strip 28 until it is required.

Description

A waste bag The present invention relates to a waste bag.

One previously proposed such waste bag is described in EP-B-0 317 047. A problem encountered with that waste bag is that even when the mouth of the bag is carefully gathered and tied, it does not form an adequate seal against the escape of fluids from within the bag.

The present invention seeks to provide a remedy to this problem.

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a waste bag having an adhesive layer which extends around the outside of the bag, at the mouth of the bag, to enable the mouth to be sealed readily after waste matter has been inserted in the bag.

Preferably the adhesive layer is protected by a peeloff strip.

An example of a waste bag made in accordance with the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows a cross-section through a laminate from which the bag is made; Figure 2 shows an elevation of an intermediate stage in the manufacture of such a bag; Figure 3 shows an elevational view of the finished bag; Figure 4 shows a sectional view through the mouth of the bag shown in Figure 3 after a first fold; and Figure 5 shows, on a larger scale, a sectional view through the mouth of the bag shown in Figure 3 after a second fold.

The waste bag 10 shown as a finished article in Figure 3 is made from a plastics laminate 12, as shown in Figure 1. It comprises a generally fluid-proof plastics sheet 14 made of polyethylene laminated to a lining 16 of non-woven liquid-absorbent filamentary polypropylene material.

A generally 110cm square sheet of the laminate material shown in Figure 1 is folded on to itself along a fold 18 with the lining 16 at this stage on the outside and the polyethylene layer 14 on the inside. An ultrasonic welder is then used to weld the regions of polyethylene material 14 which are now in contact with one another along lines 20 and 22. The line 20 runs adjacent to the edges of the sheet which have been brought together as a result of the folding of the laminate on to itself, to create a seam 20 along an opposite side edge of the bag to that of the fold 18, all the way from the intended top of the bag to the bottom. The seam 22 extends along an intended bottom of the bag at an opposite end thereof to the intended mouth 24 of the bag, all the way across, so that the seams 20 and 22 cross one another and a complete seal at the intended lower end of the bag and all the way around the sides of the bag is created.

The intermediate stage of the bag shown in Figure 2 is then turned inside out so that the polyethylene layer 14 is now on the outside of the bag. A strip of the polyethylene layer 14 extending immediately below the rim or mouth of the bag is coated with a layer of adhesive 26 (which can be provided by double-sided adhesive tape) and this strip extends around the outside of the bag 10. This coating of adhesive material is covered by a protective peel-off strip 28.

When the bag is used, waste material, such as discarded medical equipment which may still have body fluid in it, is dropped into the open bag. To seal the mouth of the bag, the peel-off strip 28 is removed, and the mouth is folded down on itself by way of a first fold just below the mouth (or just above it after the fold has been completed) so that the adhesive on one side of the mouth adheres to the adjacent side of the bag as shown in Figure 4, and then a second fold is made between the mouth and the first fold, to fold the bag on itself again, whereby the adhesive on the other side of the mouth adheres to the other side of the bag, as shown in Figure 5.

Numerous variations and modifications to the illustrated bag may readily occur to a reader of ordinary skill in the art without taking the bag outside the scope of the present invention in one or other of its aspects.

For example, the manufacture of the bag may be from a tubular sheet of laminate , and an ultrasonic seal may be formed along the bottom thereof. Indeed, it would be possible to make a bag from a tubular sheet in which both ends may be sealed in the manner in which the mouth only of the bag 10 in the illustrated embodiment is sealed. The bag may be made in various different sizes.

Claims

Claims: 1. A waste bag having an adhesive layer which extends around the outside of the bag, at the mouth of the bag, to enable the mouth to be sealed readily after waste matter has been inserted in the bag.
2. A waste bag according to claim 1, in which the adhesive layer is protected by a peel-off strip.