Abstract:
A pressure sealed bag made of a strong flexible plastic that has the structural integrity to remain upright when placed on its bottom surface while the upper portion of the bag has the flexibility to fold neatly over onto itself so that the bag can be readily grasped by the hand. An innovative dual locking mechanism ensures the contents of the bag are secure. The pressure sealed bag has a label area where information can be readily displayed.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent application Ser. No. 60/166,740, filed Nov. 22, 1999. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates generally to storage bags and more particularly, to an airtight, water-resistant, semi-foldable, and recloseable storage bag for enclosing items such as food products or cosmetics. The storage bag of the present invention is self-standing, disposable, and pressure sealed around its mouth 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Finding an appropriate carrying container for a person&#39;s lunch or other personal items that is properly sized, convenient to use, disposable, and consumer friendly is not easy. The consumer market is full of flexible containers made of different materials and having a variety of shapes and sizes. However, finding a flexible container that is appropriate for a specific need or that possesses the characteristics needed under specific circumstances can be challenging. A flexible carrying bag or a flexible storage container is often either too small or too large or too oddly shaped to meet a person&#39;s needs and requires frequent cleaning. For example, a flexible carrying bag may be easily carried by hand but may not fit conveniently into a larger enclosure, such as a purse. A flexible storage container may fit neatly onto a shelf but be very difficult to carry in a person&#39;s hand. 
     It would extremely advantageous to have a flexible container that could be readily used for both the storage and the transport of a wide variety of items. The prior art describes a number of flexible storage bags, for example, a recloseable container is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,182 issued on Mar. 14, 1995 to S.C. Gaible et al. The recloseable plastic bag has extruded plastic side walls with a profile strip or web along an open end of the bag for receiving printed information for identifying bag contents and related information. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,094 issued on Apr. 4, 1995 to M. Tomic describes a recloseable zipper for a recloseable bag. The recloseable zipper consists of a pair of closures that are disposed adjacent and opposite to one another. The closures are configured to interlock with one another over a predetermined length and at least one of the closures is provided with intermittent transverse notches to enhance the ease of interlocking the closures. A recloseable stand-up bag is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,378 issued on Aug. 4, 1998 to T. R. Thomas. The recloseable bag is manufactured in a generally vertical production line. The recloseable bag is suitable for stand-alone marketing, or placing inside of a rectangular box container such as a cereal box. 
     None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide a durable, flexible, and disposable pressure sealed bag that is comfortable to grasp with the hand. 
     It is another object of the invention to provide a durable, flexible, pressure sealed bag that has the structural integrity to stand upright when placed on its bottom surface. 
     It is a further object of the invention to provide a durable, flexible, pressure sealed bag that is airtight and that will securely retain any spillage that might occur within the bag. 
     Still another object of the invention is to provide a durable, flexible, pressure sealed bag that has an economic design that results in the use of less material to manufacture the bag. 
     It is an object of the invention to provide improved elements and arrangements thereof in a durable, flexible, and disposable pressure sealed bag for the purposes described which is inexpensive, dependable and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes. 
     To accomplish the foregoing objectives, the present invention provides a durable, flexible, and disposable pressure sealed bag that is airtight and that has the structural integrity to stand upright on its own. The pressure sealed bag of present invention is made of a durable yet flexible plastic gusseted bag having a conformation similar to the proverbial “brown paper bag.” Items inside the bag of the present invention are secured by a dual locking mechanism. The first is pressure seal at the mouth of the bag and the second is a pair of hook and loop fastening strips such as Velcro® that is horizontally disposed on one side of the bag. The upper portion of the bag folds over onto itself thereby establishing contact between the two mating surfaces of the fastening strips and further securing the contents of the bag. In a preferred embodiment, the pressure sealed bag is made of a polyethylene film and has a pressure sealing slider assembly such as a ZIP-LOC® seal at its mouth. 
     The pressure sealed bag of the present invention has a label or white section for writing information such as a person&#39;s name or the nature of the items in the bag. The sturdy, durable bottom portion of the bag is ideal for supporting heavy items such as a bowl or fruit when used as a lunch bag. In the preferred embodiment, the pressure sealed bag has a decorative exterior, for example, the exterior of the bag could display cartoon characters which makes an excellent lunch bag for children. 
     These and other objects of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of a disposable pressure sealed bag according to the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a top view of plastic material cut into the configuration that constitutes the starting point for the making of the pressure sealed bag. 
     FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an intermediate step in the process of making the pressure sealed bag. 
     Similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the attached drawings. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     FIG. 1 which shows a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of a disposable pressure sealed bag  100  according to the present invention. The pressure sealed bag  100  comprises an anterior wall  104 , a posterior wall  106 , a pair of triangular lateral sidewalls or walls ( 108 ,  116 ), a bottom wall  118  (seen in FIG.  3 ), and a slider assembly or zipper ( 102 ,  120 ,  122 ,  124 ,  126 ). The pressure sealed bag  100  of the present invention has gussets similar to the proverbial “brown paper bag.” The pressure sealed bag  100  of the present invention is made of a low density polyethylene film having a thickness of approximately 3 mils; however, for heavy duty uses, a strong durable thick plastic similar in thickness to that of a plastic shower curtain can be used. The pressure sealed bag  100  can also be made of a copolymer film, a polypropylene film, or any similar material having a thickness in the range of 2 to 5 mils. The thickness of the plastic can be varied to meet the specific needs of the items to be carried or stored. 
     The anterior wall or surface  104  and the posterior wall or surface  106  extend from opposite sides of the bottom wall  118  and converge at the top  130  of the bag  100  where a pressure sealing slider assembly ( 102 ,  120 ,  122 ,  124 ,  126 ) is attached. The zipper or slider assembly comprises a slider  102 , a pair of strips ( 120 ,  122 ) that engage and disengage as the slider  102  is slid in opposite directions, and a pair of end clips ( 124 ,  126 ) that are used to secure the slider assembly to the bag  100 . The top portion of the bag  100  is constructed in such a manner as to produce an airtight seal when the slider assembly or zipper is closed. 
     The pressure sealed bag  100  of the present invention is configured so that the bag  100  is tapered with the largest segment of the interior volume of the bag  100  residing at the bottom portion of the bag  100 . This tapered configuration makes it possible to place a large number of items into the bag  100  and still have enough of the bag  100  available to be easily grasped by a person&#39;s hand. Furthermore, the tapered configuration endows the pressure sealed bag  100  with unique characteristics. The wide base  132  of the bag  100  and the fact that the majority of the volume of the bag  100  resides at the bottom or lower portion of the bag  100  provides the bag  100  with the necessary structural integrity so that the bag  100  stands upright on its own when the bag  100  is placed on its bottom surface or wall  118 . However, because the width of the side walls  108  and  116  is narrower towards the upper portion  134  of the bag  100 , the upper portion  134  of the bag  100  is readily folded over onto itself for easy grasping of the bag  100  by a person&#39;s hand. The bottom wall  118  of the bag  100  can be reinforced with a second layer (not shown) of thick plastic to further increase the load bearing capacity of the bag  100 . The exact dimensions of the pressure sealed bag  100  can be scaled up or down to meet the needs of the user, for example, in the preferred embodiment, the bag  100  has a height of 13 inches, a width of 8½ inches, and a maximum depth of 2 inches. 
     In the preferred embodiment, a pair of hook and loop fastener strips ( 112 ,  114 ) are horizontally disposed on the anterior or front wall  104  of the bag  100 . A first fastener strip  112  is spaced downwardly from said mouth, and a second  114  fastener strip is spaced parallel to the first fastener strip. Each fastener strip ( 112 ,  114 ) has an orientation normal to the vertical axis  136  of the bag  100  so that when the upper portion  134  of the bag  100  is folded over onto itself, the pair of fastener strips ( 112 ,  114 ) are aligned and engaged, thereby further securing the contents of the bag  100 . The fastening means of the pressure sealed bag  100  can be configured to any suitable shape that allows a secure fastening. For example, the hook and loop fasteners can have a circular configuration. 
     The posterior or rear wall  106  of the pressure sealed bag  100  has a label area or white section (hidden) for displaying written information such as a person&#39;s name or the nature of the contents of the bag  100 . The pressure sealed bag  100  can be transparent or opaque. The plastic of the pressure sealed bag  100  can be colored or have a decorative pattern  128 . In an alternate embodiment, the pressure sealed bag  100  may have no decorative pattern or hook and loop fastening means. 
     FIG. 2 is a top view of plastic material  140  cut into the configuration that constitutes the starting point for the making of the pressure sealed bag  100 . The pressure sealed bag  100  is made from a single piece of plastic  140  cut into a configuration which when properly folded results in the configuration depicted in FIG.  1 . The elongated triangular configuration of the lateral sidewalls ( 108 ,  116 ) produces the tapered contour of the pressure sealed bag  100 . The seams of the gusseted pressure sealed bag  100  are heat sealed to ensure the airtightness of the bag  100 . A crease  138  that runs the entire length of the two lateral sidewalls ( 108 ,  116 ) and the bottom wall  118  produces an infolding  110  of the lateral sidewalls ( 108 ,  116 ) forming gussets and an infolding of the bottom wall  118  which serves to provide predetermined folds for collapsing the bag  100  when not in use. When the bag  100  is opened, expansion of the lateral walls  108 ,  116  and bottom wall  118  provide a stable, broad base  132  for the bag  100  when the bag  100  is standing in an upright position by centralizing the weight distribution of the contents inside the bag  100 . 
     FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an intermediate step in the process of making the pressure sealed bag  100  where the anterior wall  104 , the posterior wall  106 , and the elongated triangular sidewalls ( 108 ,  116 ) are aligned. 
     The pressure sealed bag of the present invention makes an excellent lunch bag especially for people with children because a child&#39;s lunch usually includes some type of beverage and if anything spills or leaks inside the bag, the spillage or leakage remains inside the bag, unlike the conventional brown paper bag that breaks apart when wet. The pressure sealed bag is excellent for carrying personal items, such as cosmetics. The pressure sealed bag could be colored any color such as red or blue to prevent anyone from seeing the contents of the bag. A decorative pressure sealed bag would make an excellent arts and craft bag and a pressure sealed bag showcasing cartoon characters would be superb for children. The sturdy bottom of the bag ensures that heavy items such a bowl or fruit do not fall through the bottom of the bag. The airtight feature of the bag ensures that perishable items such as cookies stay fresh. The pressure sealed bag of the present invention can be made from any suitable material with the appropriate properties. 
     The preferred embodiments of the present invention disclosed herein are intended to be illustrative only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications and adaptations of the present invention as well as alternative embodiments of the present invention may be contemplated. It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the sole embodiments described above, but encompasses any and all embodiments within the scope of the following claims.