Means for carrying bottles

Abstract

The present invention relates to a means for carrying a bottle (100). According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a carrying means (100) for a bottle (350) having a body portion (110), a neck portion and a tapered portion extending therebetween, said carrying means including; a first bottle retention loop (115) adapted to receive the body of said bottle therein; a carry handle (125) connected to said first bottle retention loop (115); a second bottle retention loop (130), adapted to receive the neck of said bottle (300), therein, and a body portion (110) connecting said first and second loops together, wherein, in use the body of said bottle (300) is retained in said first loop (115), and the neck of said bottle is retained in said second loop (130), such that when said carrying means is suspended by said carry handle (125) said bottle (300) is substantially supported by said second loop (130) against the tapered portion of the bottle (300).

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to a means for carrying a bottle. In particular, the present invention relates to means for crying a bottle from at the point of sale in a convenient and simple manner.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] When goods are purchased from shops and other retail outlets it is common that the sales person or cashier will provide a bag or other type of packaging to the customer in order to assist the customer in carrying the goods from the shop.

[0003] For example bottle shops and liquor stores will typically place bottles of wine, spirits or beer purchased by a customer in a brown paper at the point of sale. Typically brown paper bags are not provided with handles and do not provide any significant protective advantage, or handling advantage over carrying the bottle alone. Additionally the effectiveness of any advertising on a paper bag is also minimal.

[0004] In use, a paper bag is typically twisted around the neck of the bottle in the act of grasping the bottle around the neck in order to carry the bottle. Thus any advertising slogans or pictures printed on the paper bag are creased or obscured from view while the bottle is being carried.

[0005] In the current climate of environmental awareness it is also desirable that packaging and carrying means are provided which use less material in their construction.

[0006] Therefore, clearly it is desirable to provide a means for packaging bottles at the point of sale which address at least one of the above drawbacks of current methods.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0007] According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a carrying means for a bottle of the type having a body portion, a neck portion and a tapered portion extending therebetween, said carrying means including;

[0008] a first bottle retention loop adapted to receive the body of said bottle therein;

[0009] a carry handle connected to said first bottle retention loop;

[0010] a second bottle retention loop adapted to receive the neck of said bottle therein, and

[0011] a body portion connecting said first and second loops together, wherein, in use the body of said bottle is retained in said first loop, and the neck of said bottle is retained in said second loop, such that when said carrying means is suspended by said carry handle, said bottle is substantially supported by said second loop against the tapered portion of the bottle.

[0012] Preferably the carrying means is unitary in construction.

[0013] It is also preferable that the carrying means is made from paper, plastics, fabric or woodfree paper.

[0014] In a preferred embodiment at least a portion, of at least one surface of said carrying means, has a decorative design, advertisement, logo or picture displayed thereon. Preferably at least one surface of said body portion has an advertisement printed thereon.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] Notwithstanding any other forms which may fall within the scope of the present invention, preferred forms of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

[0016] FIG. 1A shows a front view of a carrying means according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

[0017] FIG. 1B shows a rear view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1A;

[0018] FIGS. 2A to 2D show a front view, side view, rear perspective view and front perspective view respectively of the carrying means according to an embodiment of the present invention holding a bottle;

[0019] FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of a carrying means according to an embodiment of the present invention in use carrying a bottle;

[0020] FIG. 4 shows a further embodiment of a carrying means according to the present invention; and

[0021] FIGS. 5A and 5C show three embodiments of the carrying means according to the present invention adapted to hold 2 bottles.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0022] The detailed description given herein will describe a series of embodiments of the invention, in particular in relation to a means for carrying a bottle.

[0023] FIG. 1A shows a front view of a first embodiment of the carrying means according to the invention. The carrying means 100 includes an elongate body portion 110 having an aperture 120 extending therethrough. The body portion 110 extends around the aperture 120 to define a first loop 115. The carrying means 100 also includes a carry handle 125 attached to the loop 115. At the opposite end of the elongate body portion 110 to the carry handle 125 a second loop 130 is attached.

[0024] Turning now to FIG. 1B which shows the rear side of the carrying means 100 of FIG. 1A. The rear side of the carrying means 100 similarly includes an elongate body portion 110, with an aperture 120 extending therethrough defining a first loop 115. The carry handle 125 is attached to the rear surface 111 of the elongate body 110 at the loop portion 115. The handle 125 can be attached with an adhesive such as glue or double-sided tape to the rear surface 111 of the elongate body 110. Retention of the carry handle 125 is aided by the placement of a generally annular reinforcing patch 140 which is attached to the rear side 110 of the carrying means 100. Similarly the second loop 130 is glued to the upper surface 111 of the body portion 110 and held in place via a second reinforcing patch 150. In addition to holding the carry handle 125 and second retaining loop 130 in position, the reinforcing patches 140,150 provide additional strength to the carrying means 100 in positions with high mechanical stress.

[0025] The carrying means may be made from a suitably flexible yet strong fabric, plastics, paper or woodfree-paper material. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B the body portion 110 can be made of a synthetic paper-like material such as Tyvek made by DuPont, and the handle 125 and retaining loop 130 may be made of a reinforced paper ribbon such as is commonly used in the art to make handles for brown paper bags. Alternatively the carry handle and second retaining loop, can be plastic carry handles, such as ScotchPad™ Carry Handles from by 3M.

[0026] In this embodiment, the carry handle 125 and the retaining loop 130 are glued to the body portion 110 and the reinforcing patches 140 and 150 are made from a self-adhesive fabric-backed tape, such as gaffer tape or book binding tape. Alternatively, the reinforcing patches 150 can be made of the same material as the body 110 of the carrying means and be attached using a suitable adhesive.

[0027] In use, the carrying means may be applied to a bottle by firstly placing the first retention loop 115 around the bottle such that the body of the bottle protrudes through the aperture 120 of the carrying means 100.

[0028] In general, there is no requirement that the loop portion 115 of the carrying means 100 passes over the entire bottle from the narrower end to the wider end in order to attain a position around the wider end of the bottle. Ideally, the aperture 120 is of a dimension which allows the easy insertion of the bottle but it should not be so large as to allow the bottle to move around freely within the aperture. The chief purpose of the first loop 115 is not to support the weight of the bottle in the carrying means, but rather it is to retain the bottle in a substantially inverted vertical alignment such that it does not fall over or fall out of the carrying means 100.

[0029] Next, the neck of the bottle is placed through the second loop 130. The second loop 130 is then moved along the length of the bottle to be carried until the loop 130 attains a tight fit around the shoulder, between the neck and body of the bottle.

[0030] Once the second retention loop 130 is in a position such that it will not move further along the body of the bottle, the carrying means can be lied by the handle 125. When the carrying means is lifted by the handle, the weight of the bottle in the carrying means is supported substantially by the second retention loop 130 against the taper of the bottle's shoulder. The body portion 110 of the carrying means 100 acts as a sling connecting the second retention loop 130 to the carry handle, whilst the first retention loop 115 maintains the bottle in vertical alignment.

[0031] It should be noted that when an bottle is lifted using the carrying means it may be possible that the second retention loop 130 will slide along the bottle. In order to prevent this the length of the body portion 110 should not be so long that the second retention loop slips off the base of the bottle. Additionally, it is preferable that the weight of the bottle is supported only by the second retention loop 130 and not by the first retention loop 115. In order to ensure that this is the case aperture 120 should be sized such that the first retention loop 115 is a loose fit around the body of the bottle to be carried.

[0032] FIGS. 2A to 2D show a carrying means 100 according to an embodiment of the invention being used applied to a bottle 200. The bottle 200 is of the type having a body portion 210 and a relatively narrow neck portion 220 with a tapered region 215 located therebetween The bottle 200 additionally has a base 205. It can be seen from FIGS. 2A to 2D that the carrying means 100 is placed on the bottle such that the first retention loop 115 is located around the body portion 210 of the bottle 200 in a location adjacent to the base 205 and the second retention loop 130 is positioned around the tapered portion 215 of the bottle between the neck 220 and the body 210. The elongated body portion 110 of the carrying means 100 is pulled taut along the length of the body 210 of the bottle 200.

[0033] The carrying means 100 can be applied to a bottle in a number of different ways. Typically, the carrying means will be applied to the bottle while the bottle is standing in an upright position on its base 205 supported by a table, bench or other support means. In this position, the carrying means can be placed on the bottle by sliding the first retention loop 115 over the neck 220 of bottle 200 and sliding it down to a position in the vicinity of the tapered portion 215 of the, bottle. Next, the second retention loop 130 can be placed over the neck 220 over the bottle 200 and slid down to a position adjacent to the first retention loop 115. From this position the first retention loop 115 can be slid along the body 210 of the bottle 200 until the body portion 110 of the carrying means 100 is pulled taut along the side of the bottle 200 and the second retention loop 130 is pulled along the neck until it becomes tight against the tapered portion 215 of the bottle. The bottle can then be turned over and carried by the carry handle 215. It will be clear that many other methods of placing the carrying means 100 on a bottle or other bottle are available such as placing the bottle 200 base first 205 through the first retention loop 115 and then sliding the first retention loop up the body 210 of the bottle 200 toward the tapered portion 215 until the second retention loop 130 can be placed over the top of the neck 220 of the bottle 200. The carrying means can be then slid toward the base 205 of the bottle 200 until the second retention loop 130 becomes tight around the tapered portion 215 of the bottle and the weight of the bottle may be supported via the carry handle 125.

[0034] FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the carrying means applied to a bottle 300 in use. It can be seen that the weight of the bottle 300 is supported from the user's hand by the carry handle 125 through the side portions 115A of the first retention loop 115 and down through the body portion 110 of the carrying means 100 to the second retention loop 130.

[0035] FIG. 4 shows a preferred embodiment of the carrying means according to the present invention. The carrying means 400 comprises a single sheet of paper, fabric, plastic, wood free paper or other suitable material. The carrying means 400 consists of a general elongate body portion 410 having a first retention loop 415, a carry handle 425 and a second retention loop 435 being defined by a series of apertures 420, 440 and 430 respectively. The first aperture 420 and third aperture 440 are located next to each other, and spaced apart by a small amount at a first end of the elongate body portion 410. The piece of body material, which remains between the two apertures 420 and 440 provides a first retention loop 415, and the strip of material which remains between the third aperture 440 and the outer periphery 401 of the carrying means defines a carry handle 425. Similarly, the second retention loop 435 is formed by leaving a strip of material between the outer periphery 401 of the packaging device 400 and the second aperture 430.

[0036] In use, the carrying means 400 can be used in an identical fashion to the embodiment described in connection with FIGS. 1 to 3.

[0037] The embodiment of the carrying means shown in FIG. 4 is particularly advantageous as it can, be made from a single sheet of suitable material. As discussed in connection with the embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 3 the carrying means can be made from fabric, paper, a synthetic paper alternative or plastics material. However, it should be noted that, as a single sheet of material is used in this embodiment and no reinforcing patches are used, the material from which this packaging is manufactured should be strong enough to support the weight of a full bottle adequately without tearing or stretching substantially.

[0038] FIGS. 5A, 5B and 5C show three additional embodiments of the present invention which can be used to carry more than one bottle. These embodiments generally comprise a pair of package means as discussed in connection with FIGS. 1 to 4, which are joined together, in order to allow two bottles to be carried. The 3 embodiments shown represent 3 configurations which may be obtained by joining 2 “single bottle” packages together at different positions.

[0039] Turning first to FIG. 5A which shows a carrying means 500 comprising an elongate body 510 with 3 pairs of apertures 521, 540, 550, extending therethrough. The carrying means 500 is symmetrical about line A-A, with each half being adapted to carry one bottle. As discussed in connection with FIGS. 1 to 4, the aperture is defined two retention loops 555, 531 and a handle 520. In use, the carrying means 500 is folded along line A-A to produce two identical, carrying means joined by the handle. As this embodiment is adapted to carry a greater weight than the embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 4, it may be necessary to reinforce the handle portion 520 with a reinforcing patch as discussed in connection with FIGS. 1A and 1B. Alternatively, the material may be layered or laminated to provide additional strength over the entire carrying means 500.

[0040] Turning now to FIG. 5B which shows an alternative embodiment of the carrying means 599 for carrying more than one bottle. In this embodiment, the carrying means 599 is symmetrical about line A-A providing two “single bottle” packages joined by their respective second retention loops 555. As discussed in relation to FIG. 5A each half the carrying means 599 includes a series of three apertures thereby defining a first and second retention loops 530 and 550 respectively, and a carry handle 520.

[0041] FIG. 5C shows a further alternative embodiment of a carrying means adapted to carry two bottles. The carrying means 598 includes a generally elliptical body portion 510 which is symmetrical about line A-A. This embodiment essentially represents 2 “single bottle” packages attached by their respective first retention loops 531. Each half of the body portion 510 includes two apertures 530, 550 which define two retention loops 531 and 555 in each half of the carrying means 598. The carrying means 598 additionally includes a handle 600 which is attached to the body 510 of the carrying means 598 along the centre line A-A. The handle 600 can be made of suitable material such as reinforced paper or polymer material as discussed in connection with the embodiment of FIGS. 1A and 1B. The handle 600 is attached along the centre line A-A of the carrying means 598, and in use defines a line along which the package will naturally fold.

[0042] In a preferred embodiment of the carrying means according to an invention, the surfaces of the carrying means can be adorned with decorative designs or advertising material advertising either the retail outlet selling the bottle to be carried, the supplier of the bottled product or a third party. The advertising slogans or images can be applied to the carrying means during manufacture, by simply printing the designs or advertisements onto the surface of the material from which the carrying means is made either prior to cutting the material or on the finished product.

[0043] It will be understood that the invention disclosed and defined herein extends to all alternative combinations of two or more of the individual features mentioned or evident from the text or drawings. All of these different combinations constitute various alternative aspects of the invention.

[0044] The foregoing describes embodiments of the present invention and modifications, obvious to those skilled in the art can be made thereto, without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A carrying means for a bottle of the type having a body portion, a neck portion and a tapered portion extending therebetween, said carrying means including;

a first bottle retention loop adapted to receive the body of said bottle therein;

a carry handle connected to said first bottle retention loop;

a second bottle retention loop adapted to receive the neck of said bottle therein, and

a body portion connecting said first and second loops together, wherein, in use the body of said bottle is retained in said first loop, and the neck of said bottle is retained in said second loop, such that when said carrying means is suspended by said carry handle, said bottle is substantially supported by said second loop against the tapered portion of the bottle.

2. A carrying means as claimed in claim 1, wherein said carrying means is unitary in construction.

3. A carrying means as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said carrying means is made from paper, plastics, fabric or wood-free paper.

4. A carrying means as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein at least a portion, of at least one surface of said carrying means has a decorative design, advertisement, logo or picture displayed thereon.

5. A carrying means as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein at least one surface of said body portion has an advertisement printed thereon.

6. A carrying means substantially as herein before described with reference to the accompanying drawings.