GB2347137A

GB2347137A - Bag with elongate flexible closure member

Info

Publication number: GB2347137A
Application number: GB9904228A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Christopher Freeman Worrell
Original assignee: CHRISTOPHER FREEMAN WORRELL
Current assignee: CHRISTOPHER FREEMAN WORRELL
Priority date: 1999-02-25
Filing date: 1999-02-25
Publication date: 2000-08-30
Anticipated expiration: 2019-02-25
Also published as: GB9904228D0; GB2347137B

Abstract

A flexible bag has a closure ribbon (2), disposed within the bag (1) and fixed to the bag at at least one point, eg ends (5, 6), whereby, after opening the bag, one end of the closure ribbon can be drawn out from the bag and used to close the bag. To enable the end to be drawn out, the ribbon (2) is first torn at a perforated line (7). Initial opening of the bag may be by cutting along a line (8). The bag (1) and ribbon (2) may be of plastics material, the ends (5, 6) of the ribbon being sealed to the bag by the operations sealing the ends (3, 4) of the bag.

Description

PACKAGING This invention relates to packaging. In particular, it relates to a bag having integral means for re-closing the bag after opening.

Products sold or dispense in bags are often of the type of which a portion of the product is removed and then the bag is re-closed until a subsequent portion is required. This is particularly the case for products such as frozen foods, e. g. frozen vegetables, crisps and snacks, and foodstuffs and other products. Unless the bag is reclosed after a portion of product has been removed, there is a risk that products will fall out or spoil when the bag is open to the atmosphere.

Many types of closure have been propose in the past. The simples method of closure is simply to take the open ends of the bag and to try to tie them together.

This can often lead to tearing, is inefficient and is often difficult to achieve when only a small part of the contents of the bag have been removed. Separate closure members are commonly used but these are not-always freely available at the time the package is required to be re-closed and are inconvenient. Furthermore, the type of closure member which incorporates a metal wire embedded within a paper or plastics band have the disadvantage that the wire can sometimes break out of the band leaving a dangerous sharp end expose. Other attempts to provide bag re-closure means have involved bonding resilient mating bars on to internal edges of a bag, the bars being pushed together to close the bag in the general fashion of a zip fastener. This can be relatively expensive to produce and is not always reliable.

The present invention arose in an attempt to provide an improved bag closure system.

According to the present invention there is provided a flexible bag having a flexible elongate closure fixed at one or more points to the bag whereby, after opening the bag, one or both ends of the closure can be used to close the bag.

Preferably, the closure ribbon is fixed at both ends to the bag, typically at respective opposite edges of the bag and the ribbon inclues a frangible part, typically in the form of a perforated part, which can be tom away to provide the free end which is removed from the bag.

Preferably, the ribbon is of the same or similar material as the remainder of the bag and is formed and sealed into the bag at the time of manufacture of the bag.

According to the present invention there is further provided a flexible bag having a closure ribbon dispose within the bag.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which : Figure l shows schematically a bag ; Figures 2 (a) to 2 (d) show stages in opening and re-closing of a bag ; Figure 3 shows schematically apparats for forming a bag with an integral closure ribbon ; and Figure 4 shows part of the apparats of Figure 3.

Referring to Figure 1, a bag 1 embodying the invention is typically made of a plastics material such as polyethylene. Included within the bag is a closure ribbon or ribbon 2. The bag is heat sealed at its top and bottom edges 3 and 4 to seal the bag after a product has been placed within it. As shown, the respective ends 5 and 6 of the ribbon lie within the area of the seals and thus these are also sealed such that the ribbon 2 is secured by the seals at either end of 5 and 6 and lies within the bag between the sels. The ribbon is most preferably also made of a plastics material which can bond easily to the plastics material of the bag, typically but not necessarily of the same type of material as the bag, but may be made of other materials.

If the bag is made of other materials, e. g. paper, it may be closed at one or more ends by means other than heat seals, e. g. by stitches, staples, etc and the closure ribbon 2 is then preferably also attache to the bag by the same closing method.

The ribbon 2 is provided with a perforated line 7 towards the lower end therefore. The bag is also provided with a part which is intended to be cut out, or is perforated, so as to open the bag, but which does not interfere with the connection of end 5 of the sealing ribbon with the bag. As shown in the example, this may include a printed line indicating where the bag should be cut and which terminates at a point 8 before the part of the bag with the end 5 of ribbon 2.

Figures 2 (a) to (d) show the opening and re-closing operation. Firstly, the bag is opened by cutting (in this example) along the dashed line 9. Alternatively, this line may be formed by perforation such that this part need only be tom off. In further embodiments, no guide marks are included, or other types of guide may be included.

Once the bag or package has been opened, then its products or a portion of them, may be dispense. When it is desired to re-close the bag, the closure ribbon is pulled by placing a hand within the bag and pulling on the ribbon, and this causes the ribbon to break at the perforation 7. The resulting free end 10 is drawn out of the opening of the bag as shown in Figure 2 (b). The other end 5 of the ribbon is of course still held captive. The closure ribbon can then be used to re-close the bag in a convenient manner. One method is shown in Figure 2 (c) and this involves first holding the bag towards the top and twisting the bag to form a neck part 11. Then, closure ribbon 2 may be simply wrapped around the neck 11 and knotted or otherwise tied to close the bag (Figure 2 (d)). To re-open the bag, it is simply a matter of untying the knot and opening the bag.

The invention accordingly provides a simple, convenient, and effective method of re-closing bags after use, in which the closure member is always available with the bag.

The bag, with integral closure ribbon, may be made by many different methods. One of these is shown schematically in Figures 3 and 4 by way of example only. Figures 3 and 4 shows a modification to a standard form-fill apparats. In the standard apparats, material from a reel of plastics film 12 is passed first through a tensioning mechanism 13 and then through a mechanism 14 which mates and seams the lateral edges of the film together (to in effect produce a cylindrical film). Product is dispense into this film from a dispenser 15, and cutting and sealing means 16 (Figure 4) form the cylinder into discret sealed bags. These are currently used for many different products, such as crisps, many different frozen or fresh foods and so on.

The apparats is modifie according to the present invention by the provision of a further reel 17 of a plastics material of the width of the desired closure ribbon.

The material from reel 17 passes through a perforating station 18 which forms lines of perforations in the ribbon at desired intervals. After passing through a tensioning means 19, the film from reel 17 comes together with that of reel 12 at a roller 20. At this stage, the ribbon material simply lies on top of the wider plastics film 21. This is shown more clearly in Figure 4. The resulting structure is applied to the station 14 where the lateral edges of film 21 are brought together as shown at 22. This brings the ribbon of material within the film"cylinder"so that the ribbon now lies inside the bag. The film is then filled with product and cut and sealed at station 16. Since the ribbon and the film are continuous, the cutting and sealing also affects the ribbon and thus the ribbon is cut and sealed at the same places as the plastics film. The result is the bag l shown at the bottom of Figure 4, in which the top and bottom edges of the ribbon are cut and are sealed to the top and bottom edges of the bag. The ribbon lies free within the bag apart from its top and bottom edges.

The ribbon may be connecte to any part of the bag in other embodiments, not necessarily its top or bottom edge.

In alternative arrangements, only one end of the ribbon is held within the bag, the other end lies free, in which case the perforation, or other detachment means 7 would not be required. Alternatively, the ribbon may be connecte at a point intermediate its end, in which case one or both ends may be drawn out to the bag.

In other embodiments the ribbon is attache inside a bag after the bag has been manufactured and/or the bag may be manufactured empty with a ribbon and filled with product later on.

The ribbon may alternatively be mounted outside the bag, and sealed or otherwise connecte at one or more points to the bag.

In other embodiments the closure member may be simply supplie in the bag, without being affixe thereto so that a user can simply remove the member from the bag and use it to tie up the bag. The member may be provided with an adhesive portion, e. g. at one end, which can be used to attach the member to the bag after it has been removed from the bag. This adhesive portion may be covered by a release sheet until required.

Instead of a ribbon, the closure may be a thread, cord, band or any other flexible elongate member.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. A flexible bag having a flexible elongate closure fixed at one or more points to the bag whereby, after opening the bag, one or both ends of the closure can be used to close the bag.
2. A flexible bag as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the closure is dispose within the bag.
3. A flexible bag as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein the closure is a ribbon.
4. A flexible bag as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the ribbon is fixed at both ends to the bag and inclues a frangible section which can be torn to release the free end which is drawn out from the bag.
5. A flexible bag as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the closure inclues a perforated part which is torn to release a free end which is drawn out of the bag.
6. A flexible bag as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the closure is fixed at its ends to the ends of the bag during manufacture of the bag.
7. A flexible bag as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said one or more points of the closure are sealed to the bag by the operations which seal the ends of the bag.
8. A flexible bag as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the bag and closure are of plastics material.
9. A flexible bag substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated by, the accompanying drawings.

9. A flexible bag having a closure ribbon dispose within the bag.

10. A flexible bag as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the closure ribbon is provided with one or more adhesive portions for attachment to the bag.

11. A flexible bag substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated by, the accompanying drawings.

Amendments to the claims have been filed as follows

1. A flexible bag comprising : a flexible elongate closure, dispose within the bag whereby, after opening the bag, the closure can be used to close the bag ; wherein said closure is fixed at both ends to the bag and inclues a frangible section which can be torn to release the free end which is drawn out from the bag.

2. A flexible bag according to Claim 1, wherein said closure is a ribbon.

3. A flexible bag according to any preceding claim, wherein the closure inclues a perforated part which is torn to release a free end which is drawn out of the bag.

4. A flexible bag as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the closure is fixed at its ends to the ends of the bag during manufacture of the bag.

5. A flexible bag as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said one or more points of the closure are sealed to the bag by the operations which seal the ends of the bag.

6. A flexible bag as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the bag and closure are of plastics material.

7. A flexible bag having a closure ribbon dispose within the bag.

8. A flexible bag as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the closure ribbon is provided with one or more adhesive portions for attachment to the bag.