US3197118A - End construction for multi-gusset bag - Google Patents

Description

July -27, 1965 E. MEYERHOEFER 3,197,118

' END CONSTRUCTION FOR MULTI-GUSSET BAG Filed May 17, 1963 INVENTOR W i.

BY a M ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,197,118 END *CQNSTRUCTZGN IUEJLTl-GUSEQE BAG Carl E. ldeyerhocfer, 264-34} fitlth Ave, Little Neel: NE. Filed May 17, 1963, 2L No. 281,685 3 @iairns. (Cl. 229-625) This invention relates to the construction or" the ends of bags that have multi-pleat sides, and more especially to the construction of bags of air-pervious paper for use in vacuum cleaners. The invention relates also to methods of making such bags.

Paper vacuum cleaner bags are expendable products and they must be of a construction that can be manufactured at low cost. For cleaners where the dust-laden air enters at one end of the bag, it is usual to have the bag closed at the other end by bringing the front and back walls of the bag together with the sides folded between them to make a fiat end closure. Where the inlet pipe for the dust-laden air enters the bag at the middle, or at some other location intermediate t e ends, an economical construction is obtained by having flat end closures at both ends. The cost of the manufacture of such bags is greatly reduced by having a construction which is made on conventional bag-making machines. This results in high-speed manufacture and reduced capital investment. It is another object of the invention to provide an improved method for making vacuum cleaner bags suitable for conventional bag-making machines.

In order to use fiat end constructions where the front and back walls have the sides folded between them, and at the same time have the bag capable of opening to its full cross section at short distances from the fiat ends, it is necessary to have mult-i-pleat sides for the bag so that none of the folds of the pleats extends inward very far from the longitudinal edges of the bag at the closed ends where the pleats are cramped together by the front and back walls.

Multi-pleat constructions bring special problems, however, in obtaining an end construction which is air-tight. If there are any open places along the ends where dustladen air can escape from the bag, the construction is not suitable for use in vacuum cleaners.

It is an object of this invention to provide an improved bag for vacuum cleaners and to provide, more especially, an improved construction for bags having multi-pleat side walls. This improved construction is obtained by terminating the ends of the bag blanks with each panel of every pleat on each side ending at a dif ferent place and a little short of the end or" the next underlying panel so as to leave an area of the underlying panel exposed where the underlying panel extends beyond the end of the one above it. Adhesive is applied from one side to all of the exposed areas and they are secured to a common surface by folding over an end portion of the bag to bring these exposed areas of the panels into confronting relation with the common surface on the other side of the fold.

In the preferred construction, all of the panels of the side walls, except the'panels which join directly to the front and back walls of the bag, terminate inward from the edges of the bag so that the lowermost panel can be exposed along its entire longitudinal edge to seal the ends of the fold in the end closure.

Other objects, features and advantages of the inven- Eddllld ice tion will appear or be pointed out as the description proceeds.

In the drawing, forming a part hereof, in which like reference characters indicate corresponding parts in all the views:

FIGURE 1 is an isometric View showing a bag made in accordance with this invention with the bag partially expanded by pressure of air within the bag;

FIGURES 2 and 3 are slightly enlarged sectional views taken on the lines 22 and 33, respectively, of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is a diagrammatic view showing the method by which the bag blanks for this invention are formed from a single web and separated along incised tear lines;

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary plan view, partly broken away andin section, showing the construction of the bag in more detail than in FIGURE 4; and

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged, fragmentary, sectional view, partly on the line s s of FIGURE 5.

FZGURE 1 shows a vacuum cleaner bag it having a front wall .12, back wall 14 and a side wall 16 having pleats which provide a plurality of panels 21, 22, 23 and The bag can be made with more pleats, if desirable.

Referring next to FIGURE 3, the panel 21 joins the back wall 14 along a fold line 25, and joins the next panel 22 along a fold line 27 at an inside fold.

The panels 22 and 23 join one another in an outside fold along a fold line 28. The panels 23 and Z4 join one another in an inside fold along a fold line 29. On the other side of the panel 24, it joins the front wall 12 along a fold line 3%. In the illustrated construction, the front and back walls 12 and 14 are of one-piece construction with the panels 21-24, and the bag is made from a fiat web which is folded into a tube and seamed along a longitudinal seam 32 located at an intermediate region between the edges of the back wall 14. 7

There is an opening 36 in the front wall 12 for receiving an inlet pipe through which dust-laden air is discharged into the interior of the bag when used in a vacuum cleaner. In order to reinforce the front wall opening 36, a stiff collar 38 (FIGURE 2) is secured to the front wall 12 by an annular area of adhesive 4% The shape of the collar 33 depends upon the design of the vacuum cleaner in which the bag is intended to be used. The particular bag illustrated in the drawing has an upper flap 42 hinged to the upper portion of the collar 38 and capable of swinging back into the position shown for fitting into the portion of the vacuum cleaner that holds the bag in assembled relation with the inlet pipe. A sealing ring 46 is secured to the front surface of the collar 33 around the opening for preventing leakage of air between the inlet pipe and the edges of the opening in the bag that receives the air inlet pipe.

FIGURE 4 shows a web 50 of air-pervious paper from which the bags of this invention are manufactured. This web 5t; travels through a conventional bagrnalring machine and has slits 51, 52, 53 and 54 cut through the paper. In addition to these slits 51-54, other cutters form incised tear lines including transverse tear line 56 connecting the lower ends of the slits 52 and 53. The cutters also make another incised tear line 57, which extends from the upper end of the slit 52 to the lower end of the slit 51. This incised tear line 57 has some portions which have longitudinal components to their direction of extent, for reasons which will be explained in connection with FIGURE 5. There is another incised tear line extending transversely from the upper end of the slit 51 to the edge of the web 59'.

The cutters make an incised tear line 61 which joins the slits 58 and 54 and which is similar to the tear line 57 with the necessary reversal for the fact that the tear line 61 is on the other side of the center line of the web from the tear line 57. At the upper end of the slit 54 there is formed another incised tear line 62 extending transversely to the edge of the Web. In the illustrated construction, the lines 56, 58 and 62 are at right angles to the longitudinal edges of the web 50, but this is not an essential feature of the invention.

The web 59 is folded into a tube with the edges overlapping toform the seam 32, in accordance with conventional practice. The proportions of the various slits and, incised tear lines are'such that the lines 58 and 62 provide a continuous tear line across one side of the folded web, and all of the slits and the other incised tear lines are located on the other side of the tubed web The successive bag blanks are subjected to a snap action to tear each end blank from the remainder of the tubed web 50' at a severing station 64. This operation is well known in the bag-making art and the only novelty in FIGURE 4 is the shape and correlation of the slits and tear lines along which the bag blank is torn from the tubed web It is important to note in FIGURE 4 that the bag blank 10 has its front wall 12 terminating along an edge 66 which is formed by tearing of the tubed web along the lines 53 and 62 while the back wall 14 extends beyond the front wall 12 to an edge 68 which is formed by tearing of the paper along the incised tear line 56. The other end of the bag blank 10 has just the opposite condition with the front wall 12 longer than the back wall 14. This opposite condition is that represented by the end of the tubed web 50 from which the bag 10 is severed at the severing station 64.

FIGURE 5 shows the end of the bag 10 on a larger scale. The end edges of the panels 21-24 in FIGURE 5 are indicated by the same reference characters as the slits and tear lines where severance of the paper formed the end edges, but with a prime appended to the reference characters. The panel 24 extends beyond the edge 66 of the front Wall 12 and terminates along an edge having a sloping portion 52 and a straight transverse portion 57a. The panel 23 has an end adge 57b and the panel 22 has an end edge 57c. All of these edges 57a, 57b and 570' are formed by severing the tubed web along the incised tear line 57.

The last panel 21 has its end edge formed by a portion 57d which is at right angles'to the edge of the bag and another portion 51 which extends to the corner of the bag with a substantial longitudinal component of direction.

It will be apparent that by having all of the fold lines 1 for the panels, except the fold lines which join the front and back walls of the bag, inward from the edges of the bag, there is an area of the panel 21 exposed throughout the entire length of that panel from the edge 66 to the edge 63, and all of the other panels have exposed areas for coating with'adhesive indicated by stippling of the surface and designated by :the reference character 70.

The adhesive 70 can be applied to the portion of the back wall 14 which is exposed beyond the edge 66, and can be applied to an area of the front wall 12 over, an area equal to that of the exposed surface of the back wall 14. When the portion of the back wall 14, which extends beyond the edge 66, is then folded at the edge 66 and over the surface of the front wall 12 it forms an end panel 72, as illustrated in FIGURE 6, the confronting surfaces on opposite sides of the fold are bonded together by the adhesive. It is not necessary to have adhesive on both of the confronting surfaces and in practice it is preferable to have only one face on the inside of the fold coated with adhesive.

Because of the exposure of the panel 21 along the full length of the fold, on both sides of the fold, the adhesive forms an air-tight seal around the right end of the bag and the exposed areas of the panels 22, 23 and 24 by being bonded to the confronting surface of the front wall 12, provide a connection for preventing the panels from separating and opening up the fold which closes the end of the bag. At the opposite end of the bag, from that shown in FIGURE 5, the fold will be in the other direction. This other fold is indicated generally by the reference character '76 in FIGURE 6, it being understood that the construction at this other end of the bag is identical with that described in FIGURE 5 except that the exposures are all toward the back of the bag instead of toward the front and the front wall 12 is the longer Wall and the one that is folded over to form an end panel 86 that closes the other end of the bag.

The preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, but changes and modifications can be made and some features can be used in different combinations without departing from the invention as defined in the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A vacuum cleaner bag comprising a sheet of airpervious paper having an edge at one end wth a center portion substantially normal to the longitudinal edges of the sheet and extending for substantially less than one-half of the transverse width of the sheet, said edge having short angularly extending portions at opposite ends of the center portion and diverging angularly from one another in the direction of the longitudinal edges of the sheet, other portions of the edge immediately be yond the short angularly extending portions and of greater length than said short angularly extending por tion and diverging from one another along at least a part of their length with the divergence at a much greater angle than that of the short angularly extending portions, a second pair of short angularly extending portions of the edge immediately beyond said other portions, the remainder of the edge extending to the longitudinal edges of the sheet along portions that are substantially normal to the longitudinal'edges, a complementary edge at the other end of the sheet, the sheet being folded into a tube having front and back walls and with its longitudinal edges secured together to make a seam, and the sides of the tube being folded along longitudinal lines into multiple gussets across the part of the sheet that is traversed by all of the angularly extending portions of the ends of the sheet, the ends of the bag being folded in opposite directions to close the bag with the fold at least as far from the end'of the sheet as is any portion of the end edges of the sheet, and adhesive on the faces of the sheet that confront one another after folding, the bag having an opening through one side thereof for receiving the air pipe of a vacuum cleaner.

2. The bag described in claim 5 characterized by the wall which has the opening therein being reenforced with a stiff collar surrounding said opening and secured to the area of the wall of the bag.

3.'The bag described in claim 1 characterized by there being at least four panels formed by the multiple gussets ineach side wall and all of the folds at connections of the panels to one another being spaced inward from the longitudinal side edges of the front and back walls of the bag, and the edges of the panels being correlated to leave an exposed area of the lowermost gusset panel exposed for the full longitudinal distance from the end of the front wall to the corresponding end of the back wall.

(References on following page) 5 6 References Cited by the Examiner 2,085,766 7/37 Potdevin.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,864,462 12/58 Brace 229--62.5 205133 6/78 P It FOREIGN PATENTS 0 er. V v 392,964 1.1/88 McC-ulla 229-- 58 5 55656 12/38 Denmark 421 191 2 90 Pol-ten GEORGE O. RALSTON, Primary Examiner. 426,607 4/90 Single 229-58 FRANK B. SHERRY, Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. A VACUUM CLEANER BAG COMPRISING A SHEET OF AIRPERVIOUS PAPER HAVING AN EDGE AT ONE ND WITH A CENTER PORTION SUBSTANTIALLY NORMAL TO THE LONGITUDINAL EDGES OF THE SHEET AND EXTENDING FOR SUBSTANTIALLY LESS THAN ONE-HALF OF THE TRANSVERSE WIDTH OF THE SHEET, SAID EDGD HAVING SHORT ANGULARLY EXTENDING PORTIONS AT OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE CENTER PORTION ASND DIVERGING ANGULARLY FROM ONE ANOTHER IN THE DIRECTION OF THE LONGITUDINAL EDGES OF THE SHEET, OTHER PORTIONS OF THE EDGE IMMEDIATELY BEYOND THE SHORT ANGULARLY EXTENDING PORTIONS AND OF GREATER LENGTH THAN SAID SHORT ANGULARLY EXTENDING PORTION AND DIVERGING FROM ONE ANOTHER ALONG AT LEAST A PART OF THEIR LENGTH WITH THE DIVERGEANCE AT A MUCH GREATER ANGLE THAN THAT OF THE SHORT ANGULARLY EXTENDING PORTIONS, A SECOND PAIR OF SHORT ANGULARLY EXTENDING PORTIONS OF THE EDGE IMMEDIATELY BEYOND SAID OTHER PORTIONS, THE REMAINDER OF THE EDGE EXTENDING TO THE LONGITUDIANL EDGES OF THE SHEET ALONG PORTIONS THAT ARE SUBSTANTIALLY NORMAL TO THE LONGITUDINAL EDGES, A COMPLEMENTARY EDGE AT THE OTHER END OF THE SHEET, THE SHEET BEING FOLDED INTO A TUBE HAVING FRONT AND BACK WALLS AND WITH ITS LONGIGUDINAL EDGES SECURED TOGETHER TO MAKE A SEAM, AND THE SIDES OF THE TUBE BEING FOLDED ALONG LONGITUDINAL LINES INTO MULTIPLE GUSSETS ACROSS THE PART OF THE SHEET THAT IS TRAVERSED BY ALL OF THE ANGULARLY EXTENDING PORTIONS OF THE ENDS OF THE SHEET, THE ENDS OF THE BAG BEING FOLDED IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS TO CLOSE THE BAG WITH THE FOLD AT LEAST AS FAR FROM THE END OF THE SHEET AS IS ANY PORTION OF THE END EDGES OF THE SHEET, AND ADHESIVE ON THE FACES OF THE SHEET THAT CONFRONT ONE ANOTHER AFTER FOLDING, THE BAG HAVING AN OPENING THROUGH ONE SIDE THEREOF FOR RECEIVING THE AIR PIPE OF A VACUUM CLEANER.

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