WO2018013111A1

WO2018013111A1 - Trash receptacle vacuum relief strip and trash receptacle design

Info

Publication number: WO2018013111A1
Application number: PCT/US2016/042148
Authority: WO
Inventors: Derek ASAKURA
Original assignee: Asakura Derek
Priority date: 2016-07-13
Filing date: 2016-07-13
Publication date: 2018-01-18

Abstract

A vacuum relief strip for easy removal of trash bags from a trash receptacle. The vacuum relief strip is made from a hollow rubber and/or plastic material having a plurality of vent holes and a fastening means for attaching the strip to walls of the receptacle. The vacuum relief strip is provided with an upper curved layer and lower flat layer and the vent holes are located at the upper curved layer of the vacuum relief strip at fixed intervals from each other. The vacuum relief strips are used for releasing the vacuum between the trash receptacle and a trash bag to ease pulling out trash bags from trash receptacles effortlessly and safely.

Description

UNITED STATES UTILITY PATENT APPLICATION

FOR

TRASH RECEPTACLE VACUUM RELIEF STRIP AND TRASH

RECEPTACLE DESIGN

BY

DEREK ASAKURA

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

[0001] A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. 37 CFR 1.71(d).

FIELD

[0002] At least some embodiments disclosed herein relate, in general, to trash bag removal mechanisms for trash receptacles, and more specifically a means of releasing the vacuum between the liner bag and the inner walls and the bottom of trash receptacles.

BACKGRO UND

[0003] When trash liners are full or over-filled, they are nearly impossible to pull out of a trash can due to the vacuum created from the trash liner suctioning itself to the inside of a trash can. Many times it takes two people to take out the trash (one to hold the trash can, and the other to pull out the full trash liner).

[0004] A simple vacuum relief strip for easy removal of the trash bags from the trash receptacle would surely be accepted by the industry.

SUMMARY

[0005] In an embodiment, the present disclosure provides a detachable vacuum relief strip which facilitates the easy removal of the trash bags from a trash receptacle. The vacuum relief strip may include, but is not limited to, a hollow rubber strip, plurality of vent holes, and a fastener for attaching the strip vertically along the inside walls of a trash receptacle [0006] In an embodiment, present disclosure relates to a vacuum relief strip comprising a hollow rubber strip, vent holes, and a fastener for attaching the vacuum relief strip to a trash receptacle. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the hollow rubber strip has an upper curved surface and a lower flat surface. The vent holes are located at the upper curved surface and the fastener is attached at the lower flat surface. The strip is attached vertically along the inside walls of the trash receptacle. The vent holes allow air to travel down the length of the strip which relieves the vacuum that is created by the trash liner and the trash receptacle walls.

[0007] Various embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a vacuum relief strip fastened along inner surface of a trash receptacle. The vent holes located throughout the vacuum relief strip create a vertical airway between the trash bag and the curved outer surface of the vacuum relief strip, such that the trash bag slides easily along the inner surface of the trash receptacle.

[0008] An embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a multi-layer vacuum relief strip. The multi-layer vacuum relief strip includes an upper semi-cylindrical layer, a lower flat layer, and a cavity between the upper curved layer and lower flat layer. In an embodiment the vent holes are located at upper semi-cylindrical layer and the lower flat layer of the multi-layer vacuum relief strip is attached at the inner surface of the trash receptacle using a hook and loop fastener (e.g., Velcro®.)

[0009] Various embodiments of the present disclosure provide the advantage of easy removal of trash bags from the trash receptacle.

[0010] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide the advantage of reducing the force up to 50% required for removal of trash bags from the trash receptacle.

[0011] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide the advantage of creating a vertical airway between the trash bag and the curved outer surface of the vacuum re- lief strip, allowing air to relieve the vacuum created by the trash liner the trash receptacle walls, such that the trash bag slides easily along the inner surface of the trash receptacle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAW INGS

[0012] Embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements.

[0013] FIG. 1 shows a front view of the vacuum relief strip in an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0014] FIG. 2 shows side view of the vacuum relief strip in an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0015] FIG. 3 shows back view of the vacuum relief strip in an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0016] FIG. 4 shows a top view of a trash receptacle in an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0017] FIG. 5 shows cross sectional view of a trash receptacle in an embodiment of the present disclosure..

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0018] The following description and drawings are illustrative and are not to be construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding. However, in certain instances, well known or conventional details are not described in order to avoid obscuring the description. References to one or an embodiment in the present disclosure are not necessarily references to the same embodiment; and, such references mean at least one.

[0019] Reference in this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. The appearances of the phrase "in one embodiment" in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features are described which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others. Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirements for some embodiments but not other embodiments.

[0020] Referring now to the drawings wherein like reference characters designate identical or corresponding parts throughout the figures, and in particular FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 show an embodiment of a vacuum relief strip and a trash receptacle including the vacuum relief strip.

[0021] FIG. 1 shows the front view of the vacuum relief strip 01 with upper layer 02, vent holes 08 located at the outer surface of upper layer 04 with curved ends 13.

[0022] FIG. 2 shows the side views of vacuum relief strip 01 including upper layer 02 and lower layer 03. The upper layer 02 comprises an outer surface 04 and an inner surface 05 and the lower layer 03 comprises an outer surface 06 and inner sur- face 07. A hollow space 09 is present between the inner surface 05 of upper layer 03 and the inner surface 07 of lower layer 03.

[0023] FIG. 3 shows the back view of the vacuum relief strip 01 including a fastener 10 attached at the outer surface 06 of the lower layer 03 with straight ends 14.

[0024] FIG. 4 shows the top view of a trash receptacle 11 comprising vacuum relief strips 01 attached at the inner surface of trash receptacle 12.

[0025] FIG. 5 shows the cross sectional view of the trash receptacle 11 comprising vacuum relief strips 01 attached at the inner surface of trash receptacle 12.

[0026] Various embodiments of the present disclosure provide a vacuum relief strip 01 including but not limited to the upper layer 02, lower layer 03, vent holes 08 and fastener 10.

[0027] In an embodiment, the vacuum relief strip 01 is made of one or more layers of rubber that includes upper layer 02 and lower layer 03. The upper layer 02 is further comprising of the outer surface 04 and the inner surface 05. The lower layer 03 is further comprising of the outer surface 06 and inner surface 07. There is a hollow space 09 is present between the upper layer 02 and layer 03. The vent holes 08 are located at the outer surface 04 of the upper layer. The vacuum relief strip 01 is attached to the inner surface 12 of the trash receptacle 11 by the fastener 10.

[0028] In an embodiment, the present disclosure provides for the vacuum relief strips 01 made of rubber selected from the group of natural rubber, acrylonitrile- butadiene rubber, hydrogenated acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber, ethylene propylene diene rubber, fluorocarbon rubber, chloroprene rubber, Silicone rubber, fluorosilicone rubber, polyacrylate rubber, ethylene acrylic rubber, styrene-butadiene rubber, polyester urethane, or polyether urethane and combinations thereof including an upper layer 02 and lower layer 03. The vent holes 08 are present at the curved upper layer 02 and a fastener 10 is present at lower layer 03 for attaching the vacuum relief strip 01 to the inner surface 12 of the trash receptacle 11. In an embodiment, the rubber selected is hollow and antimicrobial in nature.

[0029] In an embodiment, the present disclosure provides a vacuum relief strip 01 made of multiple layers of the rubber selected from the group of natural rubber, aery- lonitrile-butadiene rubber, hydrogenated acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber, ethylene propylene diene rubber, Fluorocarbon Rubber, Chloroprene rubber, Silicone rubber, fluorosilicone rubber, polyacrylate rubber, ethylene acrylic rubber, styrene-butadiene rubber, polyester urethane, or polyether urethane and combinations thereof.

[0030] The vacuum relief strip 01 includes a curved upper layer 02 comprising an outer surface 04 and an inner surface 05, the lower layer 03 comprising the outer surface 06 and the inner surface 07, a hollow space 09 between the outer layer 02 and the lower layer 03, vent holes 08 located at the outer surface 04 of the upper layer 02 and a fastener 10 at the outer surface 06 of the lower layer 03.

[0031] In another embodiment, present disclosure provides a vacuum relief strip 01 made of rubber comprising circular vent holes 10 located at the outer surface 04 of the upper layer 02 and the fastener 10 used is an adhesive.

[0032] In another embodiment, the present disclosure provides a vacuum relief strip 01 made of rubber comprising oval vent holes 10 located at the outer surface 04 of the upper layer 02 and the fastener 10 used is an adhesive.

[0033] In another embodiment, the present disclosure provides a vacuum relief strip 01 made of rubber comprising circular vent holes 10 located at the outer surface 04 of the upper layer 02 and the fastener 10 used is a hook and loop type fastening device such as, for example, Velcro ®. [0034] In another embodiment, the present disclosure provides a vacuum relief strip 01 made of rubber comprising oval vent holes 10 located at the outer surface 04 of the upper layer 02 and the fastener 10 used is a hook and loop type fastening device such as, for example, Velcro ®.

[0035] In an embodiment, the present disclosure provides a vacuum relief strip 01 of width 2", height 2/3" and made of rubber selected from the group natural rubber, acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber, hydrogenated acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber, ethylene propylene diene rubber, fluorocarbon rubber, chloroprene rubber, Silicone rubber, fluorosilicone rubber, polyacrylate rubber, ethylene acrylic rubber, styrene- butadiene rubber, polyester urethane, or polyether urethane and combinations thereof.

[0036] The thickness of the lower layer 03 is 1/8" and the upper layer 02 is semi- cylindrical in shape. The hollow space 09 of width 2/3" and height 1/8" is present between the upper layer 02 and the lower layer 03. In this embodiment, the vent holes 08 are present at the outer surface 04 of the upper layer 02 and the fastener 10 used is a hook and loop type fastening device such as, for example, Velcro ® located at the outer surface 06 of the lower layer 03. Further the vacuum relief strip is assembled at the inner surface 12 of the trash receptacle using the fastener 10.

[0037] In the foregoing specification, the disclosure has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be evident that various modifications may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope as set forth in the following claims. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.

Claims

1. A vacuum relief strip, comprising:

at least one strip, wherein the at least one strip includes a plurality of vent holes and a fastener for attaching the at least one strip vertically along at least one inside wall of a trash receptacle.

2. The vacuum relief strip as claimed in claim 1, wherein the strip is provided with an upper curved layer and a lower flat layer.

3. The vacuum relief strip as claimed in claim 2, wherein the upper curved layer comprising of an outer surface and an inner surface.

4. The vacuum relief strip as claimed in claim 1, wherein the strip is made from rubber.

5. The vacuum relief strip as claimed in claim 4, wherein the rubber is selected from a group of: natural rubber, acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber, hydrogenated acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber, ethylene propylene diene rubber, fluorocarbon rubber, chloroprene rubber, silicone rubber, fluorosilicone rubber, polyacrylate rubber, ethylene acrylic rubber, styrene-butadiene rubber, polyester urethane, or polyether urethane.

6. The vacuum relief strip as claimed in claim 4, wherein the rubber is antimicrobial.

7. The vacuum relief strip as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of vent holes are located at the upper curved layer of the strip.

8. The vacuum relief strip as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of vent holes are located at the outer surface of the upper curved layer.

9. The vacuum relief strip as claimed in claim 1, wherein the fastener is adapted to fix the vacuum relief strip at the outer surface of the lower flat layer with the receptacle. The vacuum relief strip as claimed in claim 1, wherein the fastener is selected from a group of: hook and loop devices, brackets, adhesives.