Abstract:
A stand to which a sandbag can be easily and quickly, yet securely, attached and which includes a funnel portion that directs sand into the attached sandbag. The stand includes legs that are foldable for storage and a clip system for quickly and securely attaching and detaching sandbags to the funnel portion.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention relates to the general art of fluent material handling, and to the particular field of aids to manual filling of containers for fluent material. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   Sandbagging is used in flood control, temporary construction and military applications. It remains the most cost-effective and efficient method of flood control and military construction to date. Millions of sandbags are used for flood control when river banks overflow. In military installations, such as those encountered in Vietnam, up to thirty million sandbags a month were utilized. All of these were filled by hand. The small size of the sandbag (seventeen by ten by four inches), makes its carrying and positioning a one man operation. When sandbags are used as a single unit of many, the size allows great flexibility for building earth works. The use of sandbags is comparable to that of brick. It can be used in a variety of positions and numbers to create unlimited and differing results. Once the sandbags are set, they can be easily removed and repositioned as required. 
   Until the 1960&#39;s, the bags were made of burlap, folded, and sewn on two sides, with a drawstring in the third side. By the 1970&#39;s, a woven polypropylene replaced the burlap, and technical innovation in bags came to a halt. Currently, bags are woven, folded, and sewn at a remote facility, after which they are shipped to the site and filled. In most instances, the sandbags are filled strictly through manual labor. A person fills them with a few shovels full of soil or sand, pulls and ties the drawstring, and tosses the completed bag into a pile to be picked up at a later time. 
   Sandbags are often the only flood control method available to reinforce or raise the height of dikes, berms, or levees used to protect property from flood water damage. The typical method used to fill sandbags is that one person holds the sandbag while a second person shovels sand or other granular material into the bag. When the bag is filled and the open end of the bag closed, the sandbag is ready for use. This method requires two people to fill a single sandbag at a time when there are generally insufficient personnel available to complete the work required to prevent or minimize flood damage. Additionally, as much as fifty percent of the sand thrown at a sandbag misses the bag, and falls back to the ground. The sand that misses the bag results in wasted effort. Thus, it takes a longer period of time to fill a sandbag and more energy is expended per sandbag. Consequently, fewer sandbags are filled in a given time period. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   The above-discussed disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by a stand to which a sandbag can be easily and quickly, yet securely, attached and which includes a funnel portion that directs sand into the attached sandbag. The stand includes legs that are foldable for storage and a clip system for quickly and securely attaching and detaching sandbags to the funnel portion. 
   Using the stand embodying the present invention will permit the quick and easy filling of a sandbag by a single worker with little or no waste. The stand is collapsible for convenient storage and rapid deployment when necessary. A sandbag is securely held in place on the stand so accidental spilling is not likely to occur. 
   Other systems, methods, features, and advantages of the invention will be, or will become, apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features, and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the following claims. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES 
     The invention can be better understood with reference to the following drawings and description. The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. Moreover, in the figures, like referenced numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the different views. 
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a stand for supporting and filling a sandbag embodying the present invention. 
       FIG. 2  is a view taken along line A-A of  FIG. 1 . 
       FIG. 3  is a perspective view of a clip used to attach a sandbag to the stand shown in  FIG. 1 . 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   Referring to the figures, it can be understood that the present invention is embodied in a stand unit  10  used to fill a sandbag  12  which is to be filled with sand for use. A body  14  which has a first section  16  which is cylindrical in shape and which includes a first end  18  which is a bottom end when the body is in use. First end  18  has an outer dimension  20  and a second end  22  which is a top end of the first section when the body is in use. A bore  24  extends from first end  18  to second end  22 . A longitudinal axis  26  extends between the first end of the first section and the second end of the first section. First section  16  further includes an inner surface  28  adjacent to the bore and an outer surface  30 . 
   Body  12  further includes a second section  40  which is in the shape of a truncated cone and which includes a first end  42  which is a bottom end and which is attached to the second end of the first section. First end  42  of the second section has an outer dimension  44  which is equal to outer dimension  20  of the first section adjacent to the second end of the first section. Second section  40  further includes a second end  46  which is a top end when the body is in use and which has an outer dimension  48  that is greater than outer dimension  44  of the first end of the second section. 
   A bore  50  extends from first end  42  of the second section to second end  46  of the second section. Bore  50  is aligned with bore  24  of the first section and defines a continuous bore  54  through body  12  from second end  46  of the second section to first end  18  of the first section. A longitudinal axis  56  extends between first end  42  and second end  46  of the second section and which is co-linear with longitudinal axis  26  of the first section. Second section  40  further includes an inner surface  56  located adjacent to bore  50  of the second section and an outer surface  58 . 
   A plurality of legs, such as leg  60 , are attached to the outer surface of the first section of the body. The legs are identical to each other, and each leg includes a first portion  62  which has a first end  64  which is a top end when in use and which is pivotally attached to outer surface  30  of first section  12  of the body and a second end  66  which is a distal end when in use. 
   Each leg further includes a second portion  70  which has a first end  72  which is a top end when in use and which is pivotally attached to the distal end of the first portion of the leg and a second end  74  which is a distal end when in use. A foot  76  is attached to the distal end. A pivot connection  80  pivotally connects distal end  66  of first portion  62  of the leg to top end  72  of the second portion of the leg. 
   The legs are movable between a stored condition with the first portion located adjacent to the body and the second portion located adjacent to the first portion and a deployed condition, such as shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 , with the first portion extending away from the body and the second portion extending at an angle to the first portion towards a supporting surface, such as the ground S, with the foot on the supporting surface. The legs support the body above the supporting surface when in use. 
   The stand unit further includes a plurality of clips, such as clip  90  shown in  FIG. 3 . Each clip includes a hairpin-shaped body  92  and is attached to first end  18  of the first section of the body during use and attaches sandbag  12  to the body at a location and in a position to accept sand that has been poured into the body through the second end  46  of the second section of the body and which is funneled down from the large end  46  to the end  18  that is small enough to fit into the sandbag. The large end of the body makes pouring or shoveling sand into the body easy and spill free, while the small end of the body makes connection to a sandbag quick, easy and secure. Once the sandbag is full, it is easily and quickly removed from the body by removing the clips and then removing the sandbag from beneath the body. A new sandbag is quickly and easily attached to the body by simply positioning the new sandbag beneath the body and clipping it to the body using clips  90 . 
   One form of the device can include a lever-operated clipping unit which replaces clips  90  and which attaches the sandbag to the body using a lever-operated system. While various embodiments of the invention have been described, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that many more embodiments and implementations are possible within the scope of this invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be restricted except in light of the attached claims and their equivalents.