GB2374855A

GB2374855A - Reusable clothes carrier

Info

Publication number: GB2374855A
Application number: GB0110052A
Authority: GB
Inventors: David Richardson
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2001-04-24
Filing date: 2001-04-24
Publication date: 2002-10-30
Anticipated expiration: 2021-04-24
Also published as: GB0110052D0; GB2374855B

Abstract

A reusable clothes carrier comprises a flexible enclosure (2) eg made from plastic film, which is sealable along one edge (4). In a preferred embodiment, the top and bottom edges (6,7) and one side edge (5) of the film are permanently sealed and the remaining side edge comprises a minigrip (RTM) profile strip. The strip may be closed by finger pressure or by use of a slider. The carrier may include a hanger hook opening (9) at the top edge and may have handles (8) attached or punched out for carrying. The carrier may also include a pad (11) of VELCRO (RTM) at each corner so that when the carrier is folded in half in use, the corner pads engage one another and prevent the corners of the carrier flapping when it is carried.

Description

REUSABLE CLOTHES CARRIER This invention relates to a reusable clothes carrier.

It is quite common when shopping to purchase clothes such as frocks, coats, suits, etc. to fold them carefully and place them into a carrier bag usually formed from a flexible plastics material. Unfortunately when the purchaser arrives home with his purchases they are, in spite of careful folding, creased by their shear weight falling down within the carrier bag.

This problem lias been met to some extent, although not when doing personal shopping, by providing a reusable clothes carrier made from various plastic substitutes which are quite thick and have a stiff feel about the material. Such carriers have a conventional zipper arrangement sewn into the front of the carrier. The sewing in of the zipper is usually done by a hand finishing process thereby increasing the costs of producing that type of carrier. Moreover, such a carrier would usually be used for transporting clothes when a person is travelling from home to another location abroad, for example.

Another type of known carrier for providing protection for clothes is a folded plastics arrangement with a central opening but no method of fastening to close the open edges of the plastics. Another arrangement is an inverted bag arrangement in which a hanger on which an article of clothing may be suspended is arranged to project through the closed top of the bag while the

opposite side of the bag, that is the bottom of the bag, is open. In use, the open end of the bag is slid down over the article of clothing and left open.

Usually the travelling carrier is folded in half and the hanger fits through a hanger hole cut out of the top of one half of the folded carrier and is arranged to pass through a hole in the other part of the hanger to hold the two parts together. The hook of the hanger then carries the carrier.

The main disadvantages with the known travelling clothes carriers are: 1) it is costly due to hand finishing ; 2) it is uncomfortable to carry the hanger hook; 3) it is not easy to distinguish the contents of the carrier when hung in a wardrobe when opaque plastics is used; and 4) the costs of the travelling carrier is prohibitive and prevents more widespread use with garments.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a clothes carrier in which the above disadvantages are substantially mitigated.

According to the present invention there is provided a clothes carrier comprising a closable flexible body in which articles of clothing are to be sealed within an enclosure therein, the enclosure being salable along one side edge of the carrier.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention means for sealing

the carrier body along the one side edge of the carrier comprises a minigrip (S

strip. Conveniently, the minigrip strip can be heat welded to the body of the clothes carrier.

Preferably, the clothes carrier body is made of a flexible plastics material which may have a thickness within the range, say 20 microns to 120

microns since the plastics minigrip is heat welded to the carrier, the thickness of the carrier is carefully controlled to ensure that it does not become too thick and the heat welding becomes ineffective between the minigrip strip and the carrier.

The minigrip fastener can be used with or without a closing component such as a slider. The slider increases costs and it is preferable to minimise the costs to avoid using the closing component.

Therefore there has been disclosed a clothes carrier which is unique in providing a side entry into the carrier. Moreover, the minigrip closure system is light and easy to use and avoids the use of a zip which would have had to be sewn into the carrier manually. Furthermore, the side entry of the carrier advantageously offers easier and quicker loading of a garment into the carrier by a retailer than with carriers having a centrally located opening.

Conveniently, the minigrip seal is applied automatically during the bag manufacturing process generally known in the trade as the bag being converted. To achieve this during the manufacturing process, the bag substrate is presented as a flat strip so that the minigrip can be positioned along one side edge of the substrate strip. Each one of the two parts of the minigrip is heat welded to a respective open edge of the carrier along that side edge to ensure the minigrip fastener in the finished article appears along the open side edge of the carrier.

The carrier can be made from any opaque or transparent plastics material which can be varied in colour, texture, surface finish, inside and out,

and thickness. In any of these situations the carrier may be branded with logos or other advertising literature.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a clothes carrier in an open position; Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the carrier of Fig. 1 in which the carrier is folded in half with the halves attached together; and Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic representation of a cross-sectional view of an elongate minigrip strip.

Referring specifically to Figs. 1 through 3 there is shown a clothes carrier 1 in which articles of clothing can be sealed, transported and stored.

One clothes carrier is shown in Fig. 1 in an opened out configuration having an elongate rectangular body 2 with a seal 3 located along one elongate edge 4 of the carrier 1 for closing an enclosure within the carrier in which clothes can be placed. The carrier 1 is permanently sealed along an opposite side edge 5 of the carrier to the side edge 4 as well as along the opposed top and bottom edges 6,7, respectively, in Fig. 1. When the seal 3 is open full access is allowed to the internal enclosure of the carrier body 2.

A loop handle 8 is provided centrally on each of the top and bottom edges 6,7 for carrying the carrier by hand in a folded position as indicated in Fig. 2. In the position of Fig. 2 the handles 8 are held together by a person's hand. The loop handle in each case may be formed by attaching a thin strip of thick film to the plastics material forming the edges 6,7 or alternatively a

strip (not shown) of reinforcing plastics is heat welded along its whole length to the edge 6 or 7 and the loop handles are heat welded to the reinforcing strip.

A hole 9 is provided in the upper edge 6 and a hole 10 provided centrally close to the lower edge 7. The hole 10 is reinforced. When the carrier has a garment inside it which is hung on a hanger, the hanger is arranged to project out of the top of the hole 9. When the lower edge 7 is folded up towards the top edge 6 the open hook of the hanger is passed through the hole 10 (a similar hole being located on the second side surface of the carrier) and then through the hole in the other or second side surface of the carrier to project outwardly as shown in Fig. 2. In this arrangement shown in Fig. 2 the hook is used to hold the two folded halves of the clothes carrier together so that the carrier can be conveniently carried by hand via the loop handles 8.

The hole 10 is advantageously reinforced with an eyelet of a metal and/or plastics material which camps the two sides of the carrier together in the region of the hole 10.

Conveniently, the carrier can be provided with a pad 11 of Velcro (Registered Trade Mark) in each comer on one side of the carrier so that when the carrier is folded in half the comer pads engage one another to hold the two halves of the carrier together to prevent the comers of the carrier flapping while it is being carried.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view illustrating the seal 3 having two intercoupled elongate strips 20,21 of clear plastics material with one strip attached to an open side of the side edge 4, respectively. The two pieces of opposed elongate plastics strips have complimentary abutting surfaces which interlock one with the other to provide an inexpensive seal extending from substantially the upper edge 6 to the bottom edge 7 along side edge 4.

More particularly, as shown in Fig. 3, each strip 20,21 together form the overall strip seal 3. Strip 20 has, roughly centrally of the strip, two upstanding side walls 22 which have located centrally therebetween a further wall 23 having an enlarged cross-sectional outer end portion 24. The strip 21 has two upstanding walls 25,26 which are each curved inwardly at their outermost ends 27,28 to face one another. The spacing of these latter two walls 25,26 is less than the spacing between the walls 22 on strip 20 and the spacing between the innermost curved ends 27, 28 of the walls of strip 21 is less than the diameter of the enlarged cross-sectional portion 24 of the further wall 23 on strip 20.

Therefore, when the two strips 20,21 are pressed together the two inwardly curved ends of strip 21 engage the enlarged cross-sectional portion 24 of the further wall 23 of strip 20 and are forced outwardly until the curved portions 27, 28 pass the enlarged cross-sectional portion and then move inwardly to clamp the strip 21 onto the strip 20. In this clamped position the

outermost walls 22 of strip 20 are located closely to outer surfaces of the walls 25 to secure the walls in their gripping position.

One embodiment of the invention has been described above but it is clear that many variations are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention.

In one alternative embodiment the minigrip may be provided with a closing component, in the form of a slider, which has the effect of forcing the two strip parts 20,21 together to lock them or alternatively to force the parts apart to unlock the strip.

Furthermore, although the closed carrier is shown to be of an elongate rectangular configuration it is possible during manufacture of the carrier to subject the carrier to an offline process whereby the top and bottom edges 6,7 are arranged to slope downwardly or be curved to the general contours of a coat hanger.

Conveniently, the plastics material from which the carrier is made is polythene because this is suitable for heat welding. However, other flexible plastics materials can be used.

Therefore, there has been disclosed a reusable clothes carrier which is configured to have a side entry. The carrier can be manufactured automatically without manual or hand finishing processes which are normally associated with the stitching in of a conventional zip. Therefore very significant reductions in the costs of manufacture are achieved. Since the carrier is reusable it is possible to store garments for a length of time, after

purchase, in a wardrobe or other storage arrangement. Furthermore, following purchase of the garment it can be transported from the store to the home without creasing of the garment.

Conveniently the finished clothes carrier can have a display logo or design printed on it and furthermore the carrier can be shaped and sized to suit any specific garments such as frocks, shirts, suits, so that the carrier is of a short length for say a sports jacket and longer to hold an overcoat/evening dress etc. Moreover, the carrier has a reinforced hole or loop to permit carrying when folded. The carrier can have handles attached or punched out for carrying purposes. Conveniently Velcro pads can be applied at each comer of one surface of the clothes carrier as shown in Fig. 1, to prevent the comers of the carrier flapping or falling open when the carrier is being transported.

Although the above description concerns an embodiment which has the loop handle formed by attaching thick film and/or reinforced plastics strips to the carrier, in one alternative embodiment the handles can be stamped/punched out of the plastics film of the carrier.

In a further embodiment in accordance with the present invention the minigrip fastener described herein can be replaced by a Velcro (RTM) strip located along the full length of the side opening of the carrier. Other fastening arrangements can also be used although the minigrip fastener is preferred.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A clothes carrier comprising a closable flexible body in which articles of clothing are to be sealed within an enclosure therein, the enclosure being salable along one side edge of the carrier.

2. A carrier as claimed in claim 1, comprising an elongate strip seal for sealing along the one side edge of the carrier.

3. A carrier as claimed in claim 2, wherein the strip seal is a minigrip strip.

4. A carrier as claimed in claim 3, wherein the minigrip strip comprises two elongate lengths of flexible plastics material configured to interlock one with the other.

5. A carrier as claimed in claim 4, including a closing element for closing the minigrip strip.

6. A carrier as claimed in claim 5, wherein the closing element is a slider.

7. A carrier as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the carrier is of a flexible plastics material.

8. A carrier as claimed in claim 7, wherein the plastics material is polythene.

9. A carrier as claimed in claim 7 or 8, wherein the plastics material is transparent.

10. A carrier as claimed in claim 7 or 8, wherein the plastics material is coloured.

11. A carrier as claimed in any of claims 7 to 8, wherein the inner and/or the outer surfaces of the carrier are textured.

12. A carrier as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the thickness of the material of the carrier is in the range of 20 microns to 150 microns.

13. A reusable clothes carrier substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, the accompanying drawings.