RECLOSABLE BAG AND SEALING STRIP FOR USE THEREIN

Abstract: A tamperproof, resealable bag (10) having unique hook and loop sealing strips (70). The bag is made from a flexible, frangible material such as paper and includes a flap (58). A strip of adhesive (60) is disposed along the bottom edge (62) of the flap to secure it to front piece (48). A cord (64) is disposed between the flap and the front piece between the top of the adhesive strip and the lower edges of the sealing strips with a gripping end extending outwardly. The strips are adhesively attached to the flap and the front piece, respectively. When the cord is pulled, the flap is torn adjacent the lower edge of the strips so that one strip can be gripped and pulled to detach them from one another without detaching the flap from its strip. The strips may include an area (92) where the hooks are not included such that the strips can be rolled apart for gripping.

Description: RECLOSABLE BAG AND SEALING STRIP FOR USE THEREIN BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to resealable bags, and, more particularly, to a bag of a flexible, frangible material, including a bottom, opposed spaced sides, and opposed spaced front and rear pieces terminating at the top and front and rear edges respectively, wherein ta perproof resealability is provided by a flap of the flexible, frangible material extending from the rear edge over the front edge and down along the front piece; a strip of adhesive disposed along the bottom edge of the flap to secure it to the front piece; a piece of cording disposed between the flap and the front piece adjacent the top of the adhesive strip with at least one end extending from between the flap and the front piece sufficiently for gripping; and, a pair of strips of a hook and loop fastening system disposed between the flap and the front piece above and adjacent to the cording with one of the pair of strips adhesively attached to the flap and the other of the pair of strips adhesively attached to the front piece whereby when the cording is pulled across the flap, the flap between the pair of strips and the strip of adhesive is fractured and separated along a line close adjacent the lower edge of the strip so that thereafter the one of the pair of strips can be gripped to pull the one of the pair of strips out of attachment to the other of the pair of strips without pulling the flap apart from its adhesive attachment to the one of the pair of strips. Resealable bags have been known in the art for years. For example, before it became popular to sell previously ground coffee in vacuum packed cans, coffee was sold as whole roasted beans in a bag such as that generally indicated as 10 in Figure 1. The coffee bag 10 had metal tabs 12 extending outward from one side of the top. The two sides of the top were pinched together by folding the sides as at 14. The top of the bag was then rolled down so as to appear as in Figure 2 when viewed in the direction of arrow II in Figure 1. The metal tabs 12 were then bent around the folded-down top 16 as shown in Figures 2 and 3. When the coffee was purchased, the metal tabs 12 were unfolded, the folded top 16 unrolled, and the beans (not shown) poured out of the bag 10 into a grinder from whence they were directed from a shoot back into the bag ιo which was then resealed in the manner described above. More recently, the sale of "economy size" bags of pet food, and the like, has increased in popularity. Large bags of such materials open at the top are easily spilled and, therefore, there has been a corresponding desirabilty of providing a tamperproof resealable form for such bags. That is, such bags are normally sealed shut until time of use. At that time, a tear strip is removed allowing the bag to be opened. Thus, the object is to provide resealability for such sealed or tamper-proof bags. A recent attempt at a solution to the problem is shown in Figures 4 - 6. As shown therein the bag 18 is folded over art 20 to provide abutting edges, 22, 24 adjacent the top of the bag. A zipper, generally indicated as 26, of the type having two sides 28, 30 carrying intermeshing plastic loop teeth 32 is attached to the abutting edges 22, 24 and covered with a sealing strip 34. At time of initial use, the sealing strip 34 is peeled off of the zipper 26 as indicated by the arrow 36. The zipper 26 can then be opened by pulling the tab 38 and the direction of arrow 40 in the usual manner of operation for zippers. To close the bag, the tab 38 is pulled in the direction opposite arrow 40, also in the conventional manner. With the zipper 26 in its open position, the abutting edges 22,24 can be pulled apart to provide an entrance into the bag 18 as symbolized by the arrow 42 in Figure 6. The use of a zipper in such applications has numerous drawbacks. The zipper 26, as is typical, is an entity comprising its two sides 28,30 and the tab 38 which must be mounted on the teeth 32 with the teeth 32 in proper meshed relationship. This, of course, adds greatly to the complexity and cost of construction of the bag 18. Moreover, as it also well known by anyone who has used zippers, any foreign material becoming lodged in the teeth 32 will prevent proper operation of the zipper 26. The tab 38 may become completely immovable. Additionally, if the zipper 26 is assumed closed, one may find that a piece of the material contained in the bag 18 has become lodged in the teeth 32 preventing proper intermeshing. Shortly thereafter, the teeth 32 will come out of engagement and the zipper 26 completely open allowing the contents of the bag 18 to spill. Wherefore, it is the object of the present invention to provide a reclosable bag of the type described with respect to Figures 4 - 6 but eliminating the problems attendant thereto. SUMMARY The foregoing objective has been realized in a bag of a flexible, frangible material including a bottom, opposed spaced sides, and opposed spaced front and rear pieces terminating at the top in front and rear edges respectively, by the improvement of the present invention comprising: a flap of the flexible, frangible material extending from the rear edge over the front edge and down along the front piece; a strip of adhesive disposed along the bottom edge of the flap to secure it to the front piece; a piece of cording disposed between the flap and the front piece adjacent the top of the adhesive strip with at least one end extending from between the flap and the front piece sufficiently for gripping; and a pair of strips of a hook and loop fastening system disposed between the flap and the front piece above and adjacent the cording with one of the pair of strips adhesively attached to the flap and the other of the pair of strips adhesively attached to the front piece, the pair of strips including an area on their lower edge in which there is no ability for the pair of strips to form a releasable attachment to one another whereby when the cording is pulled across the flap, the flap between the pair of strips and the adhesive is fractured and separated along a line close adjacent the lower edge of the strips and thereafter the one of the pair of strips can be rolled back at the area away from the other of the pair of strips sufficiently to be gripped to pull the one of the pair of strips out of attachment to the other of the pair of strips without pulling the flap apart from its adhesive attachment to the one of the pair of strips. The novel hook and loop fastening system employed in the bag of the present invention also has independent use where it is desired to employ a hook and loop strip fastening system adhesively fastened to respective sides of a closure and wherein, delamination of the adhesive fastening during repeated opening and closing of the fastening system is desired to be avoided. DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a perspective view of a reclosable bag such as used for coffee to permit opening and grinding at the point of sale. Figure 2 is a view of the bag of Figure 1 as it would appear in the direction of arrow II when the top is rolled down and the tabs folded over in the locked position. Figure 3 is a top view of one end of Figure 2. Figure 4 is a front view of a prior art approach to a resealable bag employing a zipper therein. Figure 5 is a cutaway view of the bag of Figure 4 in the Plane V-V. Figure 6 shows the bag of Figure 4 in the Plane V-V as it would appear with the zipper opened and the bag opened for use. Figure 7 is a cutaway side elevation through the top flap portion of a bag according to the present invention. Figure 8 shows the bag portion of Figure 8 in the area of the resealable closing strips as the flap is being fractured by pulling of the cording. Figure 9 shows the bag of Figure 7 following the initial opening of Figure 8 with the sealing strip released and the flap being raised for access to the bag. * Figure 10 is a detailed drawing in the area designated as X in Figure 8 showing the details of the unique loop and hook fastening system of the present invention. Figure 11 is a drawing showing the delamination problem solved by the strip fastening system of the present -invention. Figure 12 is a drawing similar to that of Figure 7 showing an alternate embodiment of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Figure 7 shows the top of a bag 44 incorporating the present invention in its preferred embodiment. Bag 44, while possible to manufacture as a tubular construction with a sewn bottom, can generally be described as having a bottom (not shown) , opposed spaced sides 46, and opposed spaced front and rear pieces 48,50, respectively, terminating at the top 52 in front and rear edges 54 and 56, respectively. Bag 44 is of a flexible, frangible material, typically multi-layer coated paper. According to the present invention, a flap 58 of the same flexible, frangible material extends from the rear edge 56 over the front edge 54 and down along the front piece 48. A strip of adhesive 60 is disposed along the bottom edge 62 of the flap 58 to secure it to the front piece 48. Various forms of adhesive can be used at 60, however, adhesive of the hot melt variety is preferred for ease of manufacture. A piece of cording 64 is disposed between the flap 58 and the front piece 48 adjacent the top of the adhesive strip 60 with at least one end thereof extending from between the flap 58 and the front piece 48 sufficiently for gripping. That will be recognized by those skilled in the art, cording, string, tape, or the like, as thus positioned can be used to fracture the flap 58 which in its originally secured position as just described acts as a tamperproof closing for the bag 44 prior to initial opening. As will also be recognized by those skilled in the art, other means for fracturing the flap 58 could be employed within the scope and spirit of the present invention such as providing a perforated tear strip within the flap 58 itself. A pair of strips 66 and 68 of a hook and loop fastening system generally indicated as 70 are disposed between the flap 58 and the front piece 48 above and adjacent to the cording 64 with strip 66 adhesively attached to the flap 58 and strip 68 adhesively attached to the front piece 48. Again, for ease of manufacture, it is preferred that the strips 66,68 be adhesively attached to the flap 58 and front piece 48 by a hot melt adhesive for ease of manufacture (however, pressure sensitive adhesives, for example, could also be used). The hook and loop fastening system 70, comprising strips 66,68, is of a type generally well known to those skilled in the art and, in particular, sold by the assignee of this application under the trademark VELCRO. The preferred embodiment of the present invention as being described incorporates a new and novel embodiment of the hook and loop fastening system 70 which will be described in greater detail shortly. As shown in Figure 8, as the cording 64 is pulled outwardly in the direction of arrow 72, the flap 58 is fractured and separated close adjacent the bottom edge 74 of the strips 66,68. By so doing, the strip 66 adhesively attached to the flap 58 can be gripped to pull it from its engagement from strip 68 without a delaminating problem depicted in Figure 11 which would otherwise take place. As seen in Figure 11, if the flap 58 were allowed to extend beyond the strip 66 and the peeling or separating force were applied in the direction of arrow 76, there is a good chance that, at least after several openings and closings, the flap 58 would delaminate at the adhesive 60 from the strip 66 at the point indicated by arrow 78. Shortly, flap 58 would then completely separate from strip 66 and the reclosability feature would be lost. By being able to grip strip 66 directly and apply the initial peeling force thereto, the delaminating problem of Figure 11 is substantially 1 avoided. Once the strips 66, 68 have been separated, the flap 58 can be lifted as indicated by the arrow 80 in Figure 9 and and front edge 54 pulled outward in the direction of arrow 82 to provide entrance to the bag 44. Closure and resealing is, of course, a reverse of the above-described procedure. The front and rear edges 54,56 are pressed together and the flap 58 pulled down over the front edge 54 until the strips 66,68 can be pressed together into releasable attachment with one another. Turning now with particularity to Figure 10, the novel construction of the hook and loop fastening system 70 of the present invention will now be described in detail. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the hook and loop fastening 70 provides benefits of delamination resistance for other uses besides bags as hereinbefore described when it is desired to apply the strip 66, 68 with an adhesive such as hot melt, or otherwise. In the usual manner, one loop strip (in his case strip 66) comprises a backing material 84 such as adhesive 86 and covered polypropylene adapted to adhere to the with a loop material 88. The other strip (in this case strip 68) also has a backing 84 to which adhesive 86 will adhere with resiliently flexible "J" or "T" hooks 90 extending therefrom. To accomplish the purposes desired, an area at 92 is provided where the strips 66,68 will not adhere to one another. This is most easily accomplished by eliminating the hooks 90 in that area. In the preferred embodiment, the hooks 90 are disposed in longitudinal rows and to provide the area 92 at least one row, and preferably two or three, is eliminated. As a consequence, if outward pressure is exerted within the area 92 as symbolized by the arrow 94, strip 66 (in combination with the bottom of flap 58) can be rolled back sufficiently to allow the bottom edge of the strip 66 to the grip securely such that the strips 66,68 can be pulled out of their entangled engagement with r one another wherein the hooks 90 are entangled into the loop material 88. The unique hook and loop fastening system 70 as thus described can also be incorporated into an alternate embodiment of the bag of the present invention as shown in Figure 12. In this embodiment, the bag 96 is of substantially the same construction as bag 44 of the preferred embodiment. The hook and loop fastening system 70, however, is moved to a point wherein one strip is attached to the front edge 54 and the other to the rear edge 56 with the above described area 92 off the top 52. The flap 58 was attached with the adhesive 60 as previously described and with separation means such as the cording 64 adjacent thereto. Once opened, the flap is not resealable in this embodiment but the top 52 was resealable at the front and rear edges 54,56 by means of the fastening system 70 disposed therein. Because of the unique construction of the fastening system 70 as described above and the area 92 for gripping provided thereby, the strip 66 and front edge 54 can be securely gripped to pull them out of engagement with the be strip 68 without causing the delamination problem of the adhesive previously described. Wherefore, having thus described my invention, it can be seen that the present invention not only provides a reclosable bag with improved sealing means as desired. But, additionally, an improved hook and loop fastening system for use in adhesively applied applications where delamination of the glue adhesion is avoided despite repeated openings and closings.

Claims: Wherefore, having thus described my invention, I claim: 1. In a hook and loop strip fastening system, the improvement to permit adhesive fastening of two interactive strips to flexible surfaces while avoiding delamination of the adhesive during separation of the strips comprising: providing an area along one edge of one of the strips which is lacking in the ability to form a releasable attachment to the adjacent area of the other strip whereby said area can be rolled back away from said other strip sufficiently to be gripped to pull said one strip out of attachment to said other strip. 2. The improvement to a hook and loop fastening system of claim 1 wherein: (a) said other of the strips is covered with a loop material; (b) said one of the strips is covered with longitudial rows or resiliently flexible hooks for releaseably intermeshing with said loops; and (c) said area comprises a portion of said one of the strips where at least one row of said hooks adjacent said edge is missing. 3. The improvement to a hook and loop fastening system of claim 2 wherein: at least one complete row adjacent said edge is missing whereby said area for gripping extends along the length of said one strip. 4. A strip fastening system of the hook and loop type particularly adapted for adhesive fastening to flexible surfaces while avoiding delamination of the adhesive during separation of the strips comprising: (a) a first strip comprising a backing covered on one side with a loop material and adapted on the opposite for adhesion to an adhesive; and (b) a second strip comprising a backing adapted on the one side for adhesion to an adhesive and on the opposite side generally being covered with resiliently flexible hooks for releasably intermeshing with said loop material, said opposite side of said second strip including an area along one edge thereof wherein said hooks are not disposed whereby said area does not form a releasable attachment to said loop material when said strips are pressed together and one of said strips of said area can be rolled back away from the other of said strips sufficiently to be gripped to pull said one of said strips out of attachment to the other of said strips. 5. The strip fastening system of claim 4 wherein: said hooks are disposed in longitudinal rows and at least one complete row adjacent said edge is missing whereby said area for gripping stands along the edge of said strips. 6. In a bag of a flexible, frangible material including a .bottom, opposed spaced sides, and opposed spaced front and rear pieces terminating at the top in front and rear edges respectively, improvement to provide tamperproof resealability comprising: (a) a flap of the flexible, frangible material extending from the rear edge over the front edge and down along the front piece; (b) a strip of adhesive disposed along the bottom edge of said flap to secure to the front piece; (c) a pair of strips of a hook and loop fastening system disposed between said flap and front piece above and adjacent to said strip adhesive with one of said pair of strips adhesively attached to said flap and the other of said pair of strips adhesively attached to the front piece, said pair of strips including an area on their lower edge on which there is no ability for said pair of strips to form a releasable attachment to one another; and (d) fracturing means disposed for fracturing and splitting said flap adjacent the bottom edge of said pair of strips whereby at initial opening of said fracturing means said flap is fractured and separated along a line close adjacent said lower edge of said strips and thereafter said one of said pair of strips can be rolled back at said area away from the other of said pair of strips sufficiently to be gripped to pull said one of said pair of strips out of attachment to said other of said pair of strips without pulling said flap apart from said adhesive attachment to said one of said pair of strips. 7. The resealability inprove ent to a bag of claim 6 wherein: (a) a one of said pair of strips is covered with a loop material; (b) another of said pair of strips is covered with longitudinal rows of resiliently flexible hooks for releasably intermeshing with said hooks; and (c) said area comprises having at least a portion of one row of said hooks adjacent said lower edge missing. 8. The resealability improvement to a bag of claim 7 wherein: one complete said row adjacent said lower edge is missing whereby said area for gripping extends along the length of said pair of strips. 9. The resealability improvement to a bag of claim 6 wherein said fracturing means comprises: a piece of cording disposed between said flap and the front piece adjacent the top of said adhesive strip with at least one end extending from between said flap and the front piece sufficiently for gripping. 10. In a bag of a flexible, frangible material including a bottom, opposed spaced sides, and opposed spaced front and rear pieces terminating at the top in front and rear edges respectively, improvement to provide tamperproof resealability comprising: (a) a flap of the flexible, frangible material extending from the rear edge over the front edge and down along the front piece; (b) a strip of adhesive disposed along the bottom of said flap to secure it to the front piece; (c) a pair of strips of a hook and loop fastening system disposed between said flap and the front piece above and adjacent to said strip of adhesive with one of said pair of strips adhesively attached to said flap and the other of said pair of strips adhesively attached to the front piece; and (d) fracturing means disposed for fracturing and splitting said flap adjacent the bottom edge of said pair of strips whereby at initial opening with said fracturing means said flap is fractured and separated along a line close adjacent said lower edge of said strips so that thereafter said one of said pair of strips can be gripped to pull said one of said pair of strips out of attachment to said other of said pair of strips without pulling said flap apart from its adhesive attachment to said one of said pair of strips. 11. The resealability improvement to a bag of claim 10 wherein: (a) a one of said pair of strips is covered with a loop material; (b) another of said pair of strips is covered with longitudinal rows of resiliently flexible hooks for releasably intermeshing with such loops; and (c) said pair of strips include an area wherein at least a portion of one row of hooks adjacent said lower edge is missing whereby at said area said pair of strips do not attach to one another and can be gripped for pulling without separating the adhesive attachment. 12. The resealability improvement to a bag of claim 11 14 wherein: one complete said row adjacent said lower edge is missing whereby said area for gripping extends along the length of said pair of strips. 13. The resealability improvement to a bag of claim 10 wherein said fracturing means comprises: a piece of cording disposed between said flap and the front piece adjacent the top of said adhesive strip with at least one end extending from between said flap and the front piece sufficiently for gripping.

Inventors: PROVOST GEORGE A, PROVOST, GEORGE, A.
Applicants: VELCRO USA, VELCRO USA INC.
Application year: 1986
Main classification: B65D33
IPC codes: A44B18, B65D33