Trash Bag Retainer

Abstract

An apparatus for easy holding of a trash bag in a container: It comprises of a) a holder made of two magnetically coupled pieces which can engage or disengage with each other; and b) a container, having an open end, with one of the two holding pieces attached rigidly to an outside portion of the container. When placing a portion of a trash bag inside the container with part of the outside portion being captured by the two holding pieces in the coupled state, the trash bag is consequently folded around the rim of the container and around the two magnetically coupled pieces. The resulting total folding angle of the trash bag is greater than 210° which greatly reduces the force needed to hold a heavy trash bag at the coupling section of the two holding pieces. The apparatus can be easily operated with one hand.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

(Not Applicable)

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH/DEVELOPMENT

(Not Applicable)

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

As is often desired, one needs to attach a sheet to a solid structure so that the sheet, or a portion of it, does not move with respect to the solid structure. An example is the attachment of a trash bag to a trashcan. For simplicity sake and unless otherwise stated, we use trash bags and trashcans for the general discussion of this invention.

To keep a trashcan clean and for easy trash removal, a trash bag is typically used inside a trashcan. Trash bags are notoriously known for easily falling into a trashcan when material is placed inside of them. As a result, the material may fall outside of the trash bag and into the space between the trash bag and the trashcan, which makes it difficult to pick the material up and makes the trashcan dirty.

Many trash bag and trash bag retainer designs have been introduced in the past in order to solve the problem of a trash bag falling into a trashcan. Prior arts include many different designs to hold the trash bag in place, for example, tabs inside a trashcan (U.S. Pat. No. 3,825,150); an elastic band (U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,979); elastic band with protruding structures (U.S. Pat. No. 7,055,224); handles on a trash bag attached to holders on a trashcan (U.S. Pat. No. 4,437,634); a wire frame (U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,111); side bars for supporting handled trash bags (U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,724); interlocked rings (U.S. Pat. No. 5,062,533); clips (U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,186); two handles (U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,861); clamps designed into a trashcan (U.S. Pat. No. 6,484,374). These inventions and others have advanced the art, but are still not convenient enough.

It is worth mentioning, that there are no records in the literature of using magnets directly for holding a trash bag. The main reason of this curious absence is that trash bags are slippery. The straightforward way of holding a trash bag with magnets, as used in holding a piece of paper on a magnetic board, requires a strong magnet which makes its usage impractical. The object of this invention is to device an apparatus so that the attachment (or removal) of a sheet to (or from) a solid structure, such as the attachment (or removal) of a trash bag to (or from) a trashcan, can be made conveniently.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an apparatus for the attachment of a sheet or a bag to a solid structure. An example is the attachment of a trash bag to a trashcan. For simplicity sake and unless otherwise stated, we use trash bags and trashcans for the general discussion of this invention.

Our apparatus consists of a magnetically coupled retainer pair, which we call “BagMarshall” (see www.BagMarshall.com). One piece of the BagMarshall (the 1^st piece) is attached rigidly to the trashcan, while the other can engage or disengage with the 1^st piece.

When placing a portion of a trash bag inside the trashcan with part of the outside portion being captured by the two holding pieces in the coupled state, the trash bag is consequently folded around the rim of the trashcan as well as around the two magnetically coupled pieces. The total folding angle of the trash bag is greater than 210° between the portion along the inside wall of the trashcan and the portion at a coupling interface of the two BagMarshall pieces.

Such folding reduces the force needed to hold a heavy trash bag at the coupling interface(s) of the BagMarshall as compared to a total folding angle of 180° or less, thus making it convenient to use. In fact, the present invention can be operated easily with a single hand.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a three dimensional and front view of the 1^st piece (10) of a BagMarshall.

FIG. 2 is a three dimensional and front view of the 2^nd piece (20) of a BagMarshall.

FIG. 3 is a three dimensional and front view of the 1^st and 2^nd piece (10 & 20) of a BagMarshall engaged with each other.

FIG. 4 illustrates how a BagMarshall works.

FIG. 5 is a front and bottom view of one embodiment of the 1^st piece (10) of a BagMarshall.

FIG. 6 is a front and side view of one embodiment of the 2^nd piece (20) of a BagMarshall.

FIG. 7 is a front and side view of another embodiment of the 2^nd piece (20) of a BagMarshall.

FIG. 8 has three drawings located at the top, bottom and bottom-right, corresponding to the top, front and side view of a trashcan with four of the 1^st piece (10) of a BagMarshall attached.

FIG. 8a is the enlargement of a corner of the trashcan in FIG. 8 with the 1^st piece (10) of a BagMarshall attached.

FIG. 9 is the three dimensional view of part of the top portion of a trashcan with the 1^st piece (10) of a BagMarshall attached to the outside wall (302).

FIG. 10 is an enlarged front view (view A in FIG. 9) after a portion of the trashcan is cut open along the broken line in FIG. 9.

FIGS. 11-14 illustrate a sequence for engaging the 1^st (10) and the 2^nd piece (20) of a BagMarshall so that they hold a portion of a trash bag in between them.

FIG. 15 illustrates a varied embodiment of the piece 10 in FIG. 5.

FIG. 15a is an enlargement of piece 11 in FIG. 15.

FIG. 16 illustrates a varied embodiment of piece 20 in FIG. 2.

FIG. 16a is an enlargement of the top of piece 20 in FIG. 16.

FIGS. 17-26 illustrate some of the alternative designs of the present embodiment.

FIG. 27 shows different views of the piece 10 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 28 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the 1^st piece (10) of a BagMarshall in FIG. 1.

FIG. 29 shows a design with the trash bag having a total folding angle of 180°.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Drawings herein are for purposes of illustrating the preferred embodiments of the present invention only, not to limit the present invention. There are no dimensional specifications in these drawings so that dimensions may be altered to fit with specific applications. FIGS. 1&2 are a three dimensional and front view of a 1^st (10) and 2^nd (20) piece of a holder which we call a BagMarshall. The inside top surface (101) of the 1^st piece (10) attracts the 2^nd piece (20) magnetically. The details of how this works will be discussed later. FIG. 3 shows the engagement of the 1^st (10) and 2^nd (20) piece of a BagMarshall. They are held together by the magnetic force between them. As shown in FIG. 4, when pieces 10 and 20 are engaged with each other, they capture a portion of a trash bag (40) in between.

In one embodiment (FIG. 5), piece 10 consists of two portions: one (11) is made of a magnet or a piece of magnetic material and the other (12) is made of a non-magnetic material. Piece 11 is attached to the underside of piece 12. The upper portion of FIG. 5 is the front view of the piece 10, while the lower portion of FIG. 5 is the bottom view of the piece 10. In this embodiment, piece 20 (FIG. 2) is made of a magnet or a piece of magnetic material so that the top of piece 20 (201 in FIG. 2) is attracted to piece 11 of piece 10 in FIG. 5. As shown in FIG. 5, length a and b do not have to be the same.

In another embodiment (FIG. 6), piece 20 consists of a top piece (21) and bottom piece (22). Piece 22 is made of none magnetic material. Piece 21 is made of a magnet or a magnetic material so that piece 21 is attracted to piece 11 in FIG. 5. Length a and b in FIG. 6 do not have to be the same; neither do width c and d in FIG. 6. Piece 21 may also be recessed partly into piece 22 as shown in FIG. 7, where the top portion of FIG. 7 is the top view and the bottom portion is the front view.

FIG. 8 consists of three separate drawings located at the top, bottom and bottom-right, corresponding to the top, front and side view of a trashcan with four of the 1^st piece (10) of a BagMarshall attached.

FIG. 8a is the enlargement of a corner of the trashcan in FIG. 8 with a 1^st piece (10) of a BagMarshall attached to the outside wall of the trashcan.

FIG. 9 is a three dimensional view of part of the top portion of a trashcan with the 1^st piece (10) of a BagMarshall mounted on the outside surface (302). 301 is the top rim of the trashcan. FIG. 10 is an enlarged front view (view A in FIG. 9) after a portion of the trashcan is cut open along the broken line in FIG. 9, showing the cross section of part of the trashcan wall (302) and the top rim of the trashcan (301) together with the head on view of piece 10.

As shown in FIG. 11, to hold a trash bag, the bottom portion (401) of the trash bag (40) needs to be placed in the trashcan and the top portion of the trash bag (402) extends beyond the top rim of the trashcan (301). The trash bag outside of the trashcan is then folded down covering piece 10 and extents beyond it (FIG. 12). As shown in FIGS. 13 and 14, the top of piece 20 (201) is brought into contact with the inside top of piece 10 (101) with part of the trash bag sandwiched between 101 and 201.

As shown in FIG. 14, the assemble of a trashcan together with a Bagmarshall forces the trash bag to fold at different places. In this particular example, the total folding angle of the trash bag is 450° between the portion along the inside wall of the trashcan and the portion at the coupling interface of the BagMarshall. The requirement of the total folding angle being greater than 210° reduces the force needed to hold the trash bag at the coupling interface(s), making it easy to use as compared to having a total folding angle of 180° as shown in FIG. 29. Within a similar design, the larger the total folding angle, the smaller the force is needed at the coupling portion(s) to hold a heavy trash bag.

The outside surface of 11 in FIG. 5 may have groves for improved holding capabilities as shown in FIGS. 15 and 15a. In this case, the top surface 201 of piece 20 in FIG. 2 should have matching groves as shown in FIGS. 16 and 16a.

The placement of a magnet or a magnetic material (11) in piece 10 can be at different locations from that shown in FIG. 5. It can be, e.g., on the inward sides of piece 10 as shown in FIGS. 17 and 18.

There are numerous variations of the present embodiment. Variations in dimension and structure may be implemented by one skilled in the art. Some exemplary variations are shown in FIGS. 19 and 20. The corresponding total folding angle of the trash bag between the portion along the inside wall of the trashcan and the portion at the coupling interface of the BagMarshall in FIGS. 19 and 20 is 270° and 360° respectively. A design with a total folding angle of 210° is shown in FIG. 30.

FIG. 21 is still another exemplary variation of the present embodiment. In this example, the top of the cross section of a trashcan (top of the shaded area in FIG. 20) is not just a straight angle, but is n-shaped as shown by the top of the shaded area in FIG. 21. A magnet or a magnetic material (11) can be attached to the underside of the n-shaped portion. Piece 20 engages with piece 11 with a portion of the trash bag sandwiched in-between as shown in FIG. 21.

FIG. 22 is still another exemplary variation of the present embodiment. It can be used with piece 10 in FIG. 1, where the inside top of 10 (101 in FIG. 1) is attracted magnetically to the top of 50 (501) in FIG. 22. The bottom of 50 (502 in FIG. 22) is attached to the outside wall of a trashcan (FIG. 23) by conventional means, such as the usage of a double sided tape. Piece 10 engages with piece 50 with a portion of the trash bag (40) sandwiched in between as shown in FIG. 23.

FIG. 24 and FIG. 25 are still other exemplary variations of the present embodiment. Piece 60 in FIG. 24 essentially consists of two units of piece 10 in FIG. 1. The corresponding piece 70 (FIG. 25) has two ridges (701 and 702) which are magnetically attracted to the top undersides of piece 60 (601, 603 of FIG. 24). Furthermore, if it is desired, one can make the inside top of piece 70 (703 of FIG. 25) to magnetically attract to ridge 604 of piece 60 (FIG. 24). FIG. 26 shows that piece 60 is attached to the outside wall of a trashcan and piece 60 is attracted to piece 70 with a portion of the trash bag (40) sandwiched in between.

FIG. 27 is a different 3 dimensional and front view of piece 10 in FIG. 1. FIG. 28 (piece 10A) is an illustration of an exemplary variation of piece 10 where the front and back ends (103 and 104) of piece 10 in FIG. 27 are capped off. Piece 20 of FIG. 2 can fit into the cavity in piece 10A. The side caps on piece 10A keep piece 20 properly positioned with respect to piece 10A.

In all above discussions, the two pieces of a BagMarshall are made of rigid material. The two pieces can also be made of flexible material so that they can easily conform to a curved structure when needed. An example is the usage of magnetic tapes.

Illustrations above provide exemplary embodiments of the present invention. The scope of the present invention is not limited by these illustrations. The number of variations, some of which are shown in this presentation, is too many to list. These variations may be implemented by one skilled in the art in view of this disclosure.

REFERENCES CITED

U.S. Pat. Documents
	Patent #	Issue Date	Inventor(s)
	3,825,150	Jul. 23, 1974	Taylor
	4,338,979	Jul. 13, 1982	Dow
	4,437,634	Mar. 20, 1984	Hambleton
	4,623,111	Nov. 18, 1986	Prader
	5,054,724	Oct. 8, 1991	Hutcheson
	5,062,533	Nov. 5, 1991	Fickes, et al.
	5,645,186	Jul. 8, 1997	Powers, et al.
	5,671,861	Sep. 30, 1997	Hall, et al.
	6,484,374	Nov. 26, 2002	McAllister
	7,055,224	Jun. 6, 2006	Bathey

Claims

1. A magnetic retainer comprises of two pieces: one of them is attached rigidly to a trash can, while the other can engage with the 1st piece and together they capture a portion of a trash bag affixing it to the trash can.

2. The retainer of claim 1 can be of any size and shape

3. The retainer of claim 1 can be made of rigid or flexible material.

4. The retainer of claim 1 can be used by itself or with other retainers.

5. The retainer of claim 1 wherein the 1st piece can be integrated into a trash can and may be the top rim of the trash can with a magnet or a magnetic piece placed under it.

6. The retainer of claim 1 wherein the shape of the 1st piece may be such that it attaches easily to a curved trash can other than a trash can with flat sides.

7. The retainer of claim 1 wherein the 2nd piece may be attached flexibly to the 1st piece or to the trash can.

8. The attachment in claim 7 may be by different methods, e.g., a string or a ribbon.

9. An apparatus for holding a trash bag in a container comprising of

A. a holder made of two magnetically coupled pieces (the two holding pieces) which can engage or disengage with each other;

B. a container, having enclosed sides and at least one open end, with one of the two holding pieces in A (the 1st holding piece) attached rigidly to an outside portion of the container;

Wherein, when placing a portion of a trash bag inside the container with part of the outside portion being captured by the two holding pieces in the coupled state, the trash bag is consequently folded around the rim of the container as well as around the two magnetically coupled pieces and the total folding angle of the trash bag is greater than 210° between the portion along the inside wall of the container and the portion at a coupling interface of the two holding pieces.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, whereby the attachment of the 1st holding piece is on the side of the container.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, whereby the container has a rim extending beyond the plane of the container side and the attachment of the 1st holding piece is under the rim of the container.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, whereby the 1st holding piece is integrated into the rim of the container.