CARRIER FOR SACKS WITH STRAP
A device has a cylindrical handle with two opposed ends and lifts loaded sacks and other equipment with narrow handholds. Upon both ends, the device has a slot about its circumference. Each slot receives an end of a strap fitted over the handle and into the slot. The strap then suspends below the handle, passes through the handholds of sacks, secures back to the handle, and allows many sacks to be carried. Alternatively, two straps are provided, one upon each end for carrying sacks separately.
This application is a continuation in part of the pending non-provisional application having the Ser. No. 11/752,061 with a filing date of May 22, 2007 and both applications are owned by the same inventor.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe carrier for sacks with strap generally relates to house wares and more specifically to a handle having a strap that receives plastic grocery sacks among other things.
For many years, people have brought home groceries in paper bags. The paper bags are generally hollow and rectangular in shape when unfolded. A person grasps the bag from below or grips the folded over top. But in recent years, paper bags have been found as a fairly large component in landfill waste. Paper bags also have a high cost of production and toll upon the environment. Bowing to environmental and cost pressures, grocers have sought other bags.
Grocers, joining with other stores, developed plastic sacks, generally of polyethylene. The plastic sacks are flexible, lightweight, biodegradable, and low cost. The question of “paper or plastic?” has more and more been answered with plastic. Plastic sacks generally have a planar rectangular form, somewhat like an envelope, that expands when loaded with groceries and other products. Grocers often pack one milk jug to a plastic sack and a few of other products to a plastic sack. More often than with paper bags, grocers place fewer items in a plastic sack. The typical customer takes home more plastic sacks than paper bags in times past.
Typically, the plastic sacks begin as a sleeve that is sealed at one end forming a bottom and then cut to form an open top. Near the top, each plastic sack has a handhold upon each side. The handholds allow a person to inset the fingers of one hand through one or both sides of the sack and thus to lift the sack with groceries and products therein. Arriving home from a grocery or shopping trip, a person unloads the plastic bags and brings them into a home. Though the handholds allow a person to grip the plastic sack, the handholds rest upon the inside skin of the fingers and across the palm of a hand. If many sacks are carried in one hand or a sack is carried for a long time, the sacks begin to pinch into the fingers causing discoloration and eventually discomfort from lack of circulation. Additionally, the plastic sacks generally remain in a person's hands as gripping them from beneath causes the sacks to open and spill their contents. When carrying a plastic sack, the hands of a person are occupied and a person has difficulty reaching for keys in pockets or purses, holding a stair rail, turning door knobs, or opening doors, among other tasks. Once at the kitchen, pantry, or other location for the products within the plastic sacks, a person sets down the plastic sacks which then go limp and partially spill the products from within the sacks.
Besides grocery sacks, people carry bags and other containers with narrow diameter, or rope like, handles. Shopping bags for years have had cord like handles. Holding such handles for long durations also pinches the inside of fingers. Beyond shopping, fishermen use nylon rope stringers to hold and then to bring in a catch of fish. When the weight of fish on the stringers exceeds 4-5 pounds, the stringer also pinches the inside of the fisherman's hand. Similar to grocery sacks, cord handles and rope handles pinch the hand of a person holding them.
The present invention overcomes the difficulties of the prior art. The present invention includes a handle, comfortably sized, with hooks upon each end. One or more plastic sacks or cord handle bags can be placed upon the hooks and then a person grasps the handle to lift and to carry the sacks or bags to a destination. The present invention operates so that a person carries many plastic sacks in one hand with a tool having a handle wider and longer than the handholds of the plastic sacks.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONGenerally, the present invention provides a cylindrical handle with two opposed ends. Upon both ends, the invention has a hook attached. The hook can be a single though a double hook is preferred. Each hook has a shank that connects with the end of the handle upon one end and extends in a curve upon the opposite end. The curve of the hook then terminates in a spherical cap. Each hook can hold at least one plastic grocery sack though multiple sacks upon each hook are foreseen. In the preferred embodiment, the invention has a strap suspended below the handle. The strap attaches to slots proximate the ends of the handle. The strap can attach to one or both slots at the discretion of the user.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood and that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. The present invention also includes a handle offset above the hooks, two fasteners upon each hook to prevent rotation of the hook relative to the handle, rings or ridges upon the handle to prevent slippage of a person's grip, symmetric slots upon the handle, a symmetric strap, a strap having elongated apertures, and reinforcing upon the strap around the apertures.
Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims attached.
Numerous objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description of the presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiment of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Before explaining the current embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
One object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved carrier for sacks.
Another object is to provide such a carrier for sacks that holds at least two sacks of groceries without reducing circulation to the fingers and palm and without pinching the fingers.
Another object is to provide such a carrier for sacks that has a low cost of manufacturing so the consuming public can readily purchase the carrier for sacks through existing retail outlets and retailers can source the carrier from existing wholesalers and suppliers.
These together with other objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty that characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there is illustrated a preferred embodiment of the invention.
In referring to the drawings,
The same reference numerals refer to the same parts throughout the various figures.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTThe present invention overcomes the prior art limitations and provides a carrier for sacks that aids people bringing groceries and other goods into a home, among other tasks. The preferred embodiment of the present invention 1 is shown in
Upon each end 3, the present invention has a hook assembly that has a plate 4 connected to the end. The plate is generally planar, has an outer surface, and an opposite inner surface, and has a rounded shape slightly less in diameter than the diameter of the end. The plate connects to the end 3 with at least one fastener 5, such as a screw, and preferably two fasteners. Where one fastener is used, the plate has an extension, or bump, upon the inner surface. Upon tightening the one fastener, the extension is pressed into the end 3 to prevent inadvertent rotation of the plate. The preferred embodiment has two fasteners 5, generally spaced apart upon the diameter of the plate. Where the diameter containing the fasteners intersects a tangent to the plate, as at 6, the plate begins to narrow in width away from the fasteners.
Opposite the fasteners at the narrowest portion of the plate, as at 7, two shanks 8 extend from the plate. The shanks generally bifurcate outwardly from the plate and the centerline of the handle 2. Each shank has a hook 9, here shown as partially circular though other shapes, such as oval, are foreseen. In cross section the hook 9 is generally rectangular. Away from the plate 6, the hook terminates in a non-penetrating fitting, here shown as a ball 10. The ball has a diameter greater than the thickness of the hook 9 and prevents sacks, at the handhold, from slipping off the hook. Additionally, the ball having a rounded surface without a point minimizes the risk of injury from the hook abutting, or penetrating, a person. In the preferred embodiment, the ball is generally located below the elevation of the fasteners 5. The preferred embodiment has two hooks upon each plate and a plate upon each end.
Turning the invention,
Viewing an end 3 of the handle 2,
An alternate embodiment is shown in
A further alternate embodiment takes form in
Turning to the preferred embodiment shown in
The end 3 of the handle 2 appears in
And turning the handle,
From the aforementioned description, a carrier for sacks with strap has been described. The carrier for sacks is uniquely capable of distributing the weight from a narrow handle of loaded sacks to prevent pinching of the fingers and the palm of a person carrying the sacks or other items. The carrier is preferably made from hardwood and the strap is leather. The carrier for sacks and its various components may be manufactured from many materials, including but not limited to, woods, polymers, polyvinyl chloride, high density polyethylene, polypropylene, nylon, steel, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, their alloys, and composites.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. Therefore, the claims include such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and the scope of the present invention.
Claims
1. A device for carrying sacks and other containers by a user, the sacks and other having a narrow handhold, comprising:
- a handle, cylindrical and elongated, having two opposed ends and a circumference; and,
- at least one elongated strap securing proximate to each of said ends, said at least one strap adapting to pass through the handholds of the sacks and other containers.
2. The sack carrying device of claim 1 further comprising:
- each of said ends having a slot therein receiving said at least one strap.
3. The sack carrying device of claim 2 further comprising:
- each of said slots locating inwardly from said end and extending around the circumference of said handle wherein said slot defines an inner diameter of said handle.
4. The sack carrying device of claim 1 further comprising:
- said handle having a plurality of spaced apart ridges, generally perpendicular to the length of said handle, and locating inwardly from said ends.
5. The sack carrying device of claim 2 further comprising:
- said at least one strap being flexible and elongated, having two opposite ends, each of said ends connecting to each of said slots.
6. The sack carrying device of claim 5 further comprising:
- each of said ends of said strap having an aperture therethrough, said aperture having a width approximately that of the inner diameter of said handle.
7. The sack carrying device of claim 6 wherein said aperture has a rounded end and an opposite pointed end.
8. The sack carrying device of claim 7 wherein said aperture is elongated thus aiding a user to emplace said aperture upon an end of said handle into said slot.
9. The sack carrying device of claim 1 wherein said handle is wood and has a length proportional to that of the palm of a user.
10. The sack carrying device of claim 1 wherein said at least one strap is leather.
11. The sack carrying device of claim 3 further comprising:
- two of said straps, each strap locating upon one of said ends of said handle;
- each of said straps having two opposite ends, each of said ends having an aperture therethrough, each of said apertures being elongated and having a width approximately that of the inner diameter of said handle wherein said ends of one strap secure to one end of said handle and said ends of the other strap secure to the other end of said handle thus a user can carry at least two sacks separately.
12. The sack carrying device of claim 1 wherein said at least one strap is plastic and said handle is plastic.
13. The sack carrying device of claim 1 wherein said at least one strap has a length greater than the length of the handle.
14. The sack carrying device of claim 1 further comprising:
- said at least one strap having two opposite surfaces, at least one of said surfaces being smooth.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 10, 2008
Publication Date: Apr 2, 2009
Inventor: DENNIS W. EHRHARD (St. Louis, MO)
Application Number: 12/331,942
International Classification: A45F 5/10 (20060101);