US3173602A - Bag construction - Google Patents

Description

G. R. CLIPNER BAG CONSTRUCTION March 16, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 27, 1959 FIG. 2

FIG. I

FIG. 6

INVENTOR. GEORGE R. CLIPNER FIG. 3

March 16, 1965 G- R. CLIPNER BAG CONSTRUCTION 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 27, 1959 FIG. 4

INVENTOR.

GEORGE R. CLIPNER March 16, 1965 G. R. CLIPNER BAG CONSTRUCTION 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed July 27, 1959 ll/l [/ZIV/ I/l/l/l/l/I/lll/ FIG. 9

FIG. IO

R E m mu W F- G mw E G Y B United States Patent 3,173,602 BAG CGNSTRUCTION George R. Clipner, 5516 Howard St., Umaha, Nebr. Filed July 27, 1959, Ser. No. 829,747 2 Claims. (6i. 229-56) This invention relates to product packaging and more particularly to multiple compartmented bags for the packaging of potato chips and the like.

Heretofore the conventional method of doing such packaging has been to have a single outer bag and two completely separate and independent inner bags disposed in but not attached to the outer bags.

With this prior art method it has been necessary for the two inner bags to be separately filled, separately sealed, and then inserted into the outer bag by hand, and to which the outer bag is itself sealed. For these reasons the cost of the end product is very great and the labor force necessary for these sealing and stuffing operations is considerable.

An object of my invention is to provide a bag having two separator walls forming two separate inner compartments which are preferably formed in one operation whereby the separator walls are securely positioned and sealed in the bag.

Another object of this invention is to provide a bag of the character described whereby the inner compartments are filled separately but wherein both of the inner compartments and also the bag itself are sealed in one operation eliminating the prior art process of separately sealing two inner bags and inserting them into the outer bag and then sealing the outer bag, totalling three sealing operations.

The reduction of time consumption, labor cost and the increase of efficiency in cutting three sealing operations down to one is immediately apparent.

A further object of the invent-ion is to provide a means of making a multi-compartment bag in which two sleeves are suitably secured to the bag at its lower end, and if desired also at its upper end so as to divide the bag into two separate compartments, with the sleeves as the innermost lining thereof.

Yet another object is to provide a bag having a double dividing wall providing greater strength.

Still another object is to provide modifications in which the dividing walls above described are disposed in bags of single wall thickness or of double wall thickness, and in both of which modifications great savings in labor are achieved over the prior art methods.

Still another object is to provide means whereby both inner separator walls are firmly fixed into position with respect to a single or double thickness bag by having the lower edges of the walls folded upwardly inside of the upwardly folded lower edge of the outer bag, with the upwardly folded lower edge portions all firmly held in such positions by suitable means thereby firmly closing the lower end of the resultant multi-c-ompartmented bag and also firmly closing the compartmenting walls in place in the bag.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a multi-compartmented bag the inner compartments of taneous unrolling of (a) one folded sheet, or (b) or of two or more folded sheets forming inner compartments, or (c) the unrolling of sleeves of annular shape forming the one or more inner compartments, with the sheet of material forming the bag being simultaneously and continuously wrapped around the inner compartment forming material to the end that its edges are overlapped whereby they can be sealed together then or later, making possible the eflicient cutting off to proper bag lengths simultaneously both inner compartment forming material and the bag material itself, and thereafter the simultaneous and continuous folding and sealing of the inner separator material and the bag itself at the bottornand at the top, after filling, all preferably as above described.

Other and further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, drawing and claims, the scope of the invention not being limited to the drawings themselves as the drawings are only for the purpose of illustrating a way in which the principles of this invention can be applied.

Other embodiments of the invention utilizing'the same or equivalent principles may be used and structural changes may be made as descrbed by those skilled in the art without departing from the present invention and the purview of the appended claims.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a frontal elevation of a multi-cornpartmented bag of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a view-in-section taken along the line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view-in-section taken along the line 3--3 of FIG. 1, with a portion broken away;

FIG. 4 is a top plan view showing a method of simultaneously unrolling material for forming walls or separators and other material forming a bag itself;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the relative position of the separator and the outer sheet of material which forms the bag with the sealed longitudinal overlapping edges of the bag forming material being spread apart 'to reveal the shape and position of the inner separators;

FIG. 6 is a view showing a stage in the method of closing the lower ends of the bag by folding;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a modified bag which has been completed in all respects except the sealing of its upper end;

FIG. 8 is a View showing a modified method of sealing the lower edges of both separator wall material and the bag itself by heat fusion employing coatings of heat sealing material to form a hermetically sealed joint;

FIG. 9 is a view-in-section of a modified bag which in external appearance would be like the bag of FIG. 1, but FIG. 9 shows a bag having a double outer wall and a double wall divider;

FIG. 10 shows a cross-section of a modified bag, the section being similar to that of FIG. 9 but showing a bag having a single-thickness outer wall and also a single separator wall.

Referring to FIG. 1 we there see the exterior of a multi-oompartmented bag 10 of this invention. The bag 10 comprises a bag 12 and is best seen in FIG. 2, and further comprises a plurality of inner separators or sleeves 14 two of which are shown by way of example in FIG. 2.

The outer bag 12 has its sides 20 folded inwardly and the sides of the inner sleeves or tubular or sleeve-like partitions 14, seen at 24, are also folded inwardly whereby the resulting multi-compartmented bag is easily folded or collapsed by further and similar folding.

It will be seen that each of the sleeves 14 forms a compartment of the resulting total multi-compartmented bag.

It is preferred that the forward and rearward walls 30 of the inner sleeves 14 he adjacent and in touching relationship and in parallelism with the forward and rearinner sleeves 14 lie parallel to and closely adjacent or touchingthe endwalls 25 of the bagll.

Referring to FIG. 3, it will beseen that the lower edges of the inner sleeves 14 and therbagrl-Z .arepreferably collapsed and folded upwardly asbest seenxat 40 and are then folded downwardly as best seen at 42 to form a double fold with the lower edges of the inner sleeve substantially co-extensive with the lower: edges. of the bag. The double fold can be'rnaintained'in anysuita'ble manner such as by pl'acingheat sealing material. between the several layers-and applying heatv and fusing the layers together;

The up erends; ofthe bagscan be similarly secured as best seen in FIG. 3 in which the. upper terminal edges 1 are folded overv and downwardly as best seen at 5%,.also With'the upper terminalcdges of the inner sleevesmaterial extending. coextensive with and: folded' downwardly with the. upper terminal edges of: the bag.

The. folded relationship withthe-upper end of the bag canxbe: maintained with 'staples 52-or can be maintained by hermetic. sealing. similarly to the loweredge.

Likewise the single folded upper terminal edge shown in. FIG. 3 will-serve to illustrateaway-in which thelower terminaledge" could also be closeclby a single foldt' Referring were. 4'wethere' see a'method of efficiently forming a multi-compaltmented bag in whicli one or more rolled up masses or rolls of annular inner sleeve material, generally indicatedrat 60;:are being unrolledfrom a common axle 62 for simultaneousand uniform and even unrolling'with the rolls 60' and 162 being preferably of equal diameter at all times.

As the inner sleeve materialdt) is unuolled'aifiat sheet of rolled material 70. isrsimultaneously beingunrolled about its axle 72 and is being'unrolled in the same direction as the roll60and is at the same-time folded around the under side of the-unrolled portion'76 of each roll e0 untiltheside edges 78of the flat sheet materialoverlap' each other, this operation all being done as one continuous operation". I

The resultant material can then: be cut to -desired lengthsfor'formingt bags and such'a piece of material al-- ready cut from the remainder is'generally indicated at 80 in FIG. 4 and a perspective'view of the composite material 80 is generally indicated in FIG. 5, and in which the edges of the overlapped portion 780i the outer bag 7 or fiat sheet material are spread upwardly to show the ammlarinner sleeve-material 6i therebeneath'l It will be seen thatthe overlapping edges '78 are pro- 4 by means of scaling or cementing material and application-of heat orother meanst 7 Other and similar scaling is preferably done on the opposite side of the inner sleeve materials.

Referring now'to FIG. 6 we see our next step in the method which is the foldingv over of the lower terminal edge 9*6 of the outer bag'm'aterial70 with cement or coatings of heat s'eal material 98' applied to all'surfaces of the folded over material which would be inwardly disposed after a complete folding has been finished, in the case of themethod shown in FIG. 6 a double folding isto be done which will result ina finished bag having cross-sectional, appearance at its" lowerend' similar to that shown in FIG. 3;

Other modificationsof the multi-oompartment bag of this invention-can be-made and one is shown in "FIG. 7 in which a double-thicknesslaminated-bag is generally indicated a t-ltlfihaving over-lapped edges 162; the outer thickness having an inner layer or, thickness 1% laminated thereto or loose therein except at the bottom and, top.

In themodificati-on of FIG. 7 a wallm'eans or separator wall. or partition 110 is disposed suitably attached by hermetic sealing, bycement or otherwise,.asgenerally indicated at 112 to the forward and rearward sides'of an inner layer or inner 'bag- 106,- the for'ward and rearward terminal-edges-of the wall 110 being disposed transversely to the remainder of the Wall so as to be parallel tothe 'forwardfand rearward' walls 1-20. and 1-22. respectively of the inner bag 106. I

The wall 110 divides the inner layer-1&6 of the. bag

into two completely separate" compartmentsand the Wall preferably is foldedatits lower end so'that it is flat and is folded preferably vertically along. a line transverse to the upturned and folded lower cdge'130 of the composite bag formedof the outer bag, 100 and inner bag 106. V

The wall 110 is upturned and. folded in with the up.- turned loweredge ofthe outer bag 110-which also has in itthe upturned lower edge of the inner layeror sleeve 106, is therefore bound in such a way asto completely' separate two compartments-: and 142 fromeach other.

Itwill beseenthat the lower edge 130 of the 1bag 100 is folded upwardly only and isnotdouble-folde'd as is anotherpossibility 1 Referring now to FIG. 9 We" there find'anouterbag layer and an inner bag layer 152;and a divider or wall meansor, separator Walljmeans 160. The divider or Wall or-wallmeans m this modification is an annular sleeve and forms a double separator wall with two sides 162 and ltid'which are secured together by having com.- mon ends 168 disposed transversely thereto and which are disposed parallel to the face and back walls=170 and .172 of*theinner bagslayer 152.

lapping: edges. 88 which latter are'prefe'rably provided therebetween with suitable means 1 for facilitating their cementing or sealing whereby they are either cemented :or' hermetically fused together by the application of heat or coatings of heat'seahrnaterial' as isa. sealing method that: can be employed on almost any of V the secured edges of the'bags shown in this application;

It will'be seen that it is preferred that the overlapping edges 88 be secured togetherbefore the pieces of material '60 are placed on the. axle 62.

Referring, to FIG. 5 it will be seen that when the sealing of the edges-78 'is done after the cutting into a section 80, then it is easier'to place sealing material-90 on the forward and rearward side of the inner sleeve material (EU-whereby the overlapping edges 78' of-the outer bag can. then be sealed together with a later, sealing operation binding they-inner sleevesto the Walls of 'theouter bag.

The double wallmeans or dividers can similarly be folded at their lower ends :in the-folded lower end of the entire composite bag similar to other modifications as is believed not-to-need further illustration for that reason. 7 v a ReferringjoP-IG. 10 we have abag having a single outer wall and provided with a divider or wall means or .separator' Wall 190 having. a single thickness with vertically extending ends 194 which latter fit flat against the face and back walls 196 and 198 'of the;bag 190 ;--the single wall'means 192'dividingthe bag into two completely separate compartmcnts ZOtl and 2021 7 FIG. Silldstrates another'way separate wall means 222 can be secured 'by being folded and inserted between the bottom ends of the foldedouter bag. 190215 another modification. FIG. .8 is a'vieW of abottom of a bag 220 havingan inner separatorwall portion 222 folded: at. 223.

The lower terminal edges of the bag 2 26 and the separator wall ZZZ-of the modification of FIG. 8 are not foldedv over to form a seal but instead have a suitable cement or heat-sealing material generally indicated'at 240 therebetween whereby, upon the application of heat, the various coatings of heat-sealing material 249 and the wall 222 and bag 220 are all sealed together in heat fusion.

It will be seen that this method of sealing can be used in the upper or lower edges of any of the bags herein although it is preferred in many cases that the upper edges be simply folded and stapled for greater ease of opening.

It will also be seen that any suitable adhesive is included in the term cement as used with any of the bags or modifications herein. Further it will be seen that any suitable material can be employed for these bags, such as wax paper or the like, the particular material not being of significance.

Referring now again to FIG. 1 it will be seen that dotted diagonal lines 250 can be employed to indicate lines along which the upper end of the bag can be opened, the dotted lines 250 being imprinted in a suitable manner into the bag material itself.

A take-apart, two section bag can be made by optionally perforating the multi-compartment bag 15%) of FIG- URE 9 with perforations 270 completely around its periphery from the top of the face, down the face through folded bottom parts, up the rearward side and through all parts folded at the top, not shown. The perforations lie along a vertical plane through the bag.

The bag of FIGURE 9, thus weakened by the perforations, can be torn apart to use one bag conveniently at a time. Yet there is enough strength to hold both sections together in normal handling.

It will further be seen that the bag 150 of FIGURE 9 can have its two outer walls completely laminated together giving the appearance of one single wall, the two outer walls being formed from paper which is of a two lamination, double thickness.

It will be seen that the upper and lower ends of the bag have closure means attached thereto for maintaining the bag ends substantially sealed and for maintaining the partition sealed to the upper and lower bag ends for closing the compartments formed by such partition against moist outer air and against the passage of air from one of said compartments to the other to maintain the contents of the bag crisp. Such closure means can be either sealing material as at 240 as seen in FIGURE 8 or staples 52 as seen at the top of FIGURES 1 and 3 and either combined with folding as shown at the top of FIGURE 3 or multiple folding as seen at the bottom of FIGURE 3.

I claim:

1. A multi-compartmented package comprising a bag for crisp food products, said bag having forward and rearward sides attached together at their adjacent portions and disposed in parallelism at their upper and lower ends, a plurality of sleeves in said bag, said sleeves having closed sides and having upper and lower ends disposed in parallelism with and between the said upper and lower ends of said tubular bag, and closure means attached to the ends of said bag and maintaining said bag ends and said partition ends sealed together for economically closing said sleeves so as to form inner bags.

2. A multi-compartmented package comprising a bag for crisp food products, said bag having forward and rearward sides attached together at their adjacent portions and disposed in parallelism at their upper and lower ends, two spaced partitions in said bag, said partitions each having sides attached to opposite sides of said bag for dividing said bag into compartments sealed from each other, each said partition having its upper and lower ends disposed in parallelism with and also disposed between the said ends of said tubular bag for economical separation of said compartments, each said partition being of such size as to be folded when said package is flattened, and closure means attached to the ends of said bag and maintaining said bag ends and said partition ends substantially sealed together for closing said compartments against entry of moist air to maintain the contents crisp, whereby if a user tears said bag between said partitions one of said compartments can be maintained closed for maintaining the contents crisp while the other said compartments can be torn open for access thereinto.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 662,226 11/00 Dittgen 22956 1,292,902 1/ 19 Smith 22956 1,983,418 12/34 Thurmer 22956 2,154,536 4/39 Sebastian 2295 6 2,316,3 85 4/ 43 Abramson 2295 7 X FOREIGN PATENTS 2,338 1905 Great Britain.

FRANKLIN T. GARRETT, Primary Examiner.

EARLE I. DRUMMOND, Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. A MULTI-COMPARTMENTED PACKAGE COMPRISING A BAG FOR CRISP FOOD PRODUCTS, SAID BAG HAVING FORWARD AND REARWARD SIDES ATTACHED TOGETHER AT THEIR ADJACENT PORTIONS AND DISPOSED IN PARALLELISM AT THEIR UPPER AND LOWER ENDS, A PLURALITY OF SLEEVES IN SAID BAG, SAID SLEEVES HAVING CLOSED SIDES AND HAVING UPPER AND LOWER ENDS DISPOSED IN PARALLELISM WITH AND BETWEEN THE SAID UPPER AND LOWER ENDS OF SAID TUBULAR BAG, AND CLOSURE MEANS ATTACHED TO THE ENDS OF SAID BAG AND MAINTAINING SAID BAG ENDS AND SAID PARTITION ENDS SEALED TOGETHER FOR ECONOMICALLY CLOSING SAID SLEEVES SO AS TO FORM INNER BAGS.

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