Oct'. 1, 1963 J. MACK 3,105,628 FLEXIBLE PLASTIC SHOPPING Filed July 5, 1962 »

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4 B-,lÜSßZS United States Patent O ICC Patented Oct. l, 1963 l 2 3,105,628 it requires llateral movement of the. closure 8 which could FLEXIBLE PLASTIC only be displaced at its center area a limited degree of `Ioseph Mack, 444 Park Ave. S., New York, N.Y. movement. -. _ ‘ . Filed July 5, 1962, Ser. No. 207,543 According to the invention herein «the disadvantages of 2 Claims. (Cl.` 229-54) the prior art are completely overcome. ` Turning now to the drawing FIGS. 1 to 3 inclusive, This invention relates to shopping having plastic a plastic, preferably polyethylene shopping bag 10, made construction and more particularly to shopping bags hav of a` thin «longitudinal lilm, preferably transparent, is ing a ñexible polyethylene body portion Ise folded in half and heat sealed at its edges .1‘1 and 12. cured to a plastic handle portion by means of a rein 10 There is thereby provided a bag having opposing walls forced laminate paper -tape used in conjunction with a 13 and '14 and provided with a mouth having adjacent suitable adhesive. opposed edges 15 and 16. It is highly desirable to make a shopping bag having As shown in FIG. 1 a pair of like handles 17, pref a body portion made of thin, strong, transparent plastic erably molded and preferably made from polyethylene polyethylene film material. Such a bag is easily folded 15 plastic is provided with a U-shape having an integral into a small compact package, light in weight and re bridge portion 18 joining to the legs 19 and 20 thereof. useable. The legs 19 and 2t) are each suitably wide to provide However, there is no known commercial manner of good adhesive areas for a tape 2‘1 to be secured thereto. adhesively securing plastic polyethylene bag to plastic Similarly bridge portion 118 4is of suitable dimensions to polyethylene handles. 20 permit it to be also suitably secured to tape 2'1 (FIG. l). This invention provides a solution to this problem. The handles 1'7 are preferably each provided with a It is an objective of this invention to provide a sub bulbous portion 22 in the curved handle carrying portion stantially all made of polyethylene for convenience of carrying. The handles 17 are also plastic. provided at the base of each leg v19 and 20 with an in `It is another object Ito provide a polyethylene body 25 tegral abutment 23 and 24 against which the tape 21 is bag portion made of thin foldab'le yfilm with semi-rigid disposed. polyethylene handles -to thereby produce a shopping bag Turning to FIG. 6, the paper laminate preferably used capable of supporting relatively heavy loads Without tear in this invention, is shown in cross section and consists ing of the thin ñlm material of polyethylene of which of an exterior layer of suitably strong paper 25 and 26 the body portion is made. 30 disposed adhesively upon a center layer of preferably It is a further object to provide an inexpensive plastic non-woven glass iibers 27 of suitable length. shopping bag suitable for repeated use. A suitably long and suitably wide strip of laminate 21 It is yet another object to provide a method of rapidly is secured by means of a conventional latex adhesive and etliciently securing handles to the body portion of composition preferably of rubber, to both the bag wall a shopping bag. 35 13 and the handle leg portions 19 and 2t) as well as to These and -other objects of this invention will become the handle bridge portion 18. Thus while the handle readily apparent upon reading the following descriptive 17 is not itself directly adhesively secured to the poly disclosure `of a plurality of illustrative embodiments of ethylene bag wall '13, nevertheless the handle 17 is in this invention taken in conjunction with the accompany directly secured­ by means of said tape 2‘1. Preferably ing drawing .in which; 40 the tape top edge coincides with the top mouth edge 15 FIG. 1 is >a perspective view of a polyethylene bag, and 16. f broken away, and showing the manner of seeming sepa By use of such` a manner of securing a handle 17 to rate plastic handles 'to the opposed bag walls, a polyethylene bag wall, no foci for tear are provided FIG. 2 is a section View taken on line 2_2 of FIG. 1 and the strain on the handle of a loaded shopping bag 5) and showing in detail the construction of the adhesively 45 is disposed on the abutment 23 and 24 and it is also secured handles and bag, distributed over the large adhesively secured areas of FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the polyethylene plas the legs '19 and 20 as Well as the bridge portion 18. tic shopping bag, broken away in part and showing the There is shown FIG. 4 a modified handle 17X manner of heat sealing the bag edges, wherein the bridge portion 18 is provided with a plu FIG. 4 is a side elevation view of a modified plastic rality of supplementary spaced-apart legs 30' each hav handle secured »to a polyethylene bag wall by means of ing an abutment `311 at its base. This modified handle an adhesively secured tape, will support heavily loaded bags because of its extra FIG. 5 is a side elevation view of another modified supporting abutments 3‘1 and secured leg areas 30. plastic handle, secured to a body bag portion by means 55 Another modiiication o-f «this invention is shown in of paper reinforced laminated tape with the use of suit FIG. 5, wherein a handle .17Y is provided with a con able adhesive material, and tinuous abutment rail 32 disposed between legs Á19 and FIG. 6 is a section view taken through a laminate rein 20. forced tape consisting of a pair of exteriorly disposed yIn this modification 17Y, the bridge portion 33 is rela paper sheets and a center layer of glass reinforcement tively wide. This bridge portion 33 is provided with fibers rsecured adhesively to each of said paper sheets. 60 the continuous rail abutment 32 and is also preferably In the prior art, attempts have been made to staple provided with suitably large apertures 34 through which plastic handles to polyethylene or other plastic body tape 21 may be adhesively secured to the polyethylene portions to create shopping bags. But the use of metal bag wall. The apertures 34 may be rectangular, round or other staples ruptured the polyethylene Íilm -so that a shopping 65 bag iilled with material caused the lilm to rip or tear at wise, provided they are suitably large. the puncture. lThis invention was described above by means of sev To overcome the use of staples resort was made to eral illustrative embodiments so that clearly it is of a broad scope and not limited to these illustrations. heat sealing a closure directly to a plastic body portion -I claim: as shown in Hayes, U.S. Patent No. 2,693,83 6. 70 `1. In a polyethylene shopping bag of film construc But such a shopping bag as the Hayes’ bag, was highly tion and havingk opposed heat sealed edges, opposed bag inconvenient «to till and to unload of its packages since Walls and yan open mouth, the improvement comprising 3,105,628 3 a pair of molded plastic integral handles disposed upon ` 2. The bag of claim 1 wherein said bridge portionY is a respective bag wall adjacent ‘the mouth; loop handle apertured to permit securing of said laminate to said bag means having a pair of spaced-apart parallel disposed wall through said apentures. ` ñat llegs; each leg having an interior and an'exterior Wall surface, a ñat bridge portion connecting the Itwo References Cited in the ñle of this patent legs, Vsaid legs each having an end abutment protrud-V UNITED STATES PATENTS Y ing from the exterior wall surface; ñbrous -flat laminate 2,693,836 Hayes ______Nov. 9, 1954 construction means disposed upon said exterior íìat walls, 2,722,367 Verlin ______.._ Nov. l, 1955 said bridge portion and the bag Wall adjacent thereto 2,729,055 Tobias ______Ian. 3,1956’ ­ and adjacent to said abutments; and suitable latex ad V2,980,312 Gould a ______Apt'. 1'8, 1961 hesive composition securing said laminate means to said *73,000,415 Kritchever ______.__ Sept. 19, 1961 handleand to said bag wall adjacent said handle. „3,033,438 Glass ______May 8, 1952