US3131065A

US3131065A - Tea bag with strip of metallic foil heat sealed to one edge thereof

Info

Publication number: US3131065A
Application number: US88933A
Authority: US
Inventors: Salomon Jacob
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1960-03-01
Filing date: 1961-02-13
Publication date: 1964-04-28
Anticipated expiration: 1981-04-28

Description

April 28, 1964 J. SALOMON 3,131,065 TEA BAG WITH STRIP 0F METALLIC FOIL HEAT SEALED TO ONE EDGE THEREOF Filed Feb. 13, 1961 [nuenlor Sa IOTnon ttorney United States Patent 3,131,065 TEA BAG WITH STRIP 0F NETALLIC FOIL HEAT SEALED TO (ONE EDGE THEREOF Jacob Saiomon, 21 Kugel Eivd, Halon, Israel Filed Feb. 13, 1961, Ser. No. 88,933 Claims priority, application Great Britain Mar. 1, 1960 2 Claims. ll. 99-771) This invention concerns tea bags, i.e. packets formed of a water permeable material containing tea leaves and adapted to be placed in a cup, glass or other suitable receptacle (hereinafter for convenience all included in the term cup) into which is poured boiling water.

It is usual for conventional tea bags to have attached thereto a length or chain of string which, when the tea bag is placed in a cup, is draped over the lip of the cup so as to enable the bag to be readily removed from the cup when desired. Such bags suffer from the disadvantages that the attachment of the string to the bag, which is achieved either by sewing or stapling, requires relatively complex and expensive machinery and that the string acts in the manner of a wick and liquid from the cup travels along the string and drips from the end thereof outside the cup.

Tea bags have also been produced in which the length of string is replaced by a paper strip. Although such a strip may more easily be applied to the tea bag, liquid is absorbed by the strip and this, like the string, acts in the manner of a wick causing dripping of the liquid outside the cup.

It is an object of this invention to provide a new or improved tea bag in which the above-mentioned disadvantages are reduced or eliminated.

In the tea bag according to this invention, I use in place of the conventional string a shorter strip of a nonabsorbent material which is flexible to the extent that it may be bent over upon itself, but resists deformation to the extent that it retains its bent form. An eminently suitable material for the said strip is aluminium, or other suitable metal, foil.

A strip of material as above defined does not act as a wick when the tea bag is immersed in liquid in the cup and has the advantage that it may be folded over the lip of the cup to hold the bag firmly in the latter during infusion of the tea or alternatively be wrapped around the handle of a tea spoon to hold the tea bag firmly adjacent the bowl of the latter so as to be removable with the spoon after using the latter to stir the liquid in the cup.

The strip is preferably the same length as the bag and may be attached by its ends to opposite end edges of the bag, the strip being readily torn or severed near one end to provide the necessary free end for folding over the lip of a cup or wrapping around the handle of a spoon. It is, however, convenient for only one end of the strip to be attached to the tea bag, i.e. to an end edge thereof, as this facilitates the subsequent use of the bag. It is found that in this latter case the strip, because of its semi-rigid nature, is not likely to become entangled with the strips of other tea bags during packing and transport as occurs with the strings of conventional bags. The strip may be attached to the edge of the bag by heat-seal- The tea bags of the present invention can be made by conventional tea bag making machines provided with a simple modification. Thus according to a further aspect of the invention there is provided a method of making tea bags comprising enclosing tea leaf in an envelope of water permeable material and simultaneously closing the envelope and attaching thereto by a heat sealing op eration a strip of non-absorbent material which is flexible to the extent that it may be bent over upon itself, but

r 3,131,065 Patented Apr. 28, 1964 resists deformation to the extent that it retains its bent form. Preferably the envelopes are formed by doubling over a longitudinally moving web of the water permeable material and intermittently feeding tea leaf into the doubled web so that pockets of tea are held in the web, and, after simultaneously sealing the strip to the web and closing the doubled portions of the web together to form the envelopes, cutting the Web and the strip between the pockets to form individual tea bags.

The invention is described, merely by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 shows a tea bag according to the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a view similar to FIGURE 1 showing an alternative form of the invention;

FIGURE 3 is a diagrammatic view showing one use of the invention; and

FIGURE 4 is a diagrammatic view showing another use of the invention.

Referring to the drawings the tea bag comprises a bag or envelope 1 of water permeable material e.g. paper, containing tea leaf 9 and provided with a strip of aluminium foil 2. In the tea bag of FIGURE 1 both ends 3 and 4 of the strip are attached to the bag 1 while in the embodiment shown in FIGURE 2 only one end of the strip is attached to the bag while the other end 5 is left free.

FIGURE 3 shows a tea bag according to the invention suspended in a cup 6 by the strip of aluminium foil 2. With the tea bag of FIGURE 2 the foil 2 can be quite simply bent to form the hook for supporting this bag from the rim of the cup. When using the tea bag of FIGURE 1, however, one end of the strip 2 must first be torn or otherwise separated from the bag 1 so that the tea bag can be used as shown in FIGURE 3 or 4.

FIGURE 4 shows the tea bag being used with the aluminium foil strip 2 wrapped around the lower part of the handle of a spoon 7. This method of use is particularly useful when the tea bag is being used with a deep glass or beaker 8 since the spoon enables the tea bag to be taken to the bottom of the glass and stirred thoroughly to infuse the tea.

The strip can readily be attached to the tea bag during the manufacture of the latter without the use of expensive and complex equipment. Conventional tea bags are generally formed by feeding from a roll a web of material, e.g. paper, used to form the packet, doubling this web longitudinally over upon itself, feeding tea intermittently from a feeder post while the web moves so that separate pockets of tea are held in the web, feeding the doubled web through heat sealing rollers to heat seal the doubled web around the tea pockets therein to form linked packets and cutting the web between the packets to form individual tea bags. The strip of a tea bag according to this invention may readily and automatically be attached to an edge of the packet by the sealing op eration and only a relatively simple modification to existing tea bag making machines has to be made to enable the strip to be fed to each packet at the appropriate stage in its manufacture, this modification being to provide the machine with a roll of strip which may be drawn through the machine automatically with the said web. The sealing rollers may conveniently be corrugated or knurled in order to facilitate the sealing together of the doubled web and the aluminium foil strip.

Conventional tea bags are usually a substantially flat rectangular packet of a size of the order of 2%" by 2". I have found that a strip of metal foil, advantageously aluminium foil, having a width of the order of /2" and a thickness of the order of 25 to 40 microns and extending between the two shorter edges of the rectangle, i.e. having a length of the order of 2 /2" or less, is adequate to give the required support to the bag. In bags employing a chain of string, it is necessary for this chain to have a length of the order of 3 /2" and to be provided at its free end with a cardboard or stilt paper tab. In bags using a paper strip, such strip is required to have a length of the order of 4".

The strip of a tea bag according to this invention may, in addition to its primary function, be used, e.g. by being embossed or printed, to carry data denoting the manufacturers of the tea leaf and/ or the type or trade name of the latter and/or any other informatory or advertising data. 7

I claim:

1. A tea bag comprising a substantially fiat closed Water permeable container, tea leaves contained in said container and a tab comprising a planar strip of metallic .4 foil having an end face and superimposed on said container and having said end face heat sealed to a substantially coplanar edge of said water permeable container, said strip having a thickness not greater than 40 microns and a length substantially the same as the length of said water permeable container.

2. A tea bag as claimed in claim 1, wherein said tab comprises a length of aluminum foil.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 634,349 Humphrey Oct. 3, 1899 1,665,080 Abbott Apr. 3, 1928 1,677,397 Mock July 17, 1928 2,192,605 Salfishberg Mar. 5, 1940 2,362,460 Barnett Nov. 14, 1944

Claims

1. A TEA BAG COMPRISING A SUBSTANTIALLY FLAT CLOSED WATER PERMEABLE CONTAINER, TEA LEAVES CONTAINED IN SAID CONTAINER AND A TAB COMPRISING A PLANAR STRIP OF METALLIC FOIL HAVING AN END FACE AND SUPERIMPOSED ON SAID CONTAINER AND HAVING SAID END FACE HEAT SEALED TO A SUBSTANTIALLY COPLANAR EDGE OF SAID WATER PERMEABLE CONTAINER, SAID STRIP HAVING A THICKNESS NOT GREATER THAN 40 MICRONS AND A LENGTH SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME AS THE LENGTH OF SAID WATER PERMEABLE CONTAINER.