Plastic Bag with EZ Open Notches

Abstract

An easily openable plastic bag is provided. The bag comprises a notch on its front panel along the edge of the bag’s mouth opening along with a non-adjacent notch on its back panel. This allows the user to easily separate the front and back panels by placing a finger and thumb on portion of the bag directly underneath each notch and then pulling in an outward direction.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Plastic bags that are used by consumers to hold things like: groceries, produce and even dog poop (among other things), are often difficult to open. In many cases the bags come on rolls or are presented to consumers in compressed stacks of bags. When removed from the roll or from a stack of bags, the front and rear sides of a bag’s mouth are frequently stuck together, making it difficult for consumers to open them. The most common approach to opening the bags is for users to wet their fingers by spitting on them and then rub their spit moistened fingers on opposite sides of the bag to create enough friction to separate the bag’s mouth opening. The global pandemic has made people aware of how easily viruses are spread through saliva and so a more hygienic solution is needed.

Previous attempts to make plastic bags easier to open have often required additional bag dispensing hardware to be installed. For example, in U.S. Pat. 10,486,862 Bag Dispenser for Facilitating Bag Opening, a hardware device needs to be installed to assist users to open their plastic grocery bags. This approach is expensive and not practical for bags that need to be dispensed when consumers are not in a fixed location, as in the case when consumers need to open dog poop bags while out for a walk.

Another approach has involved making major structural changes to the design of the plastic bag itself, which involves creating expensive new tooling to be able manufacture the bags as represented by U.S. Pat. 4,911,560 Easy Open Bag. This approach would add substantial costs to the production of the bag.

In some cases, as in patent application US20080105679A the approach to making it easier to open plastic bags was to have the mouth of the bag cut in a swirling pattern and then have the user pull on a flap extending out from the mouth of the bag. The drawback to this solution is that the curls would make it much difficult to separate bags that are dispensed on continuous rolls, like dog poop bags and grocery store produce bags among others. The many curves on the perforated portion of the bag that consumers need to pull apart would likely cause tears rather than ripping neatly along a straight edge. Another issue with this approach is that even if the bag is successfully torn off the roll, the user now has to pull on a flap extending from the main body of the bag. Depending on the force used, this could lead to the flap being torn completely loose from the bag.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is specifically concerned with plastic bags, which incorporate means, as an integral part of the individual bags, for facilitating the opening of the mouths of the bags.

More specifically, the invention proposes formation of a plastic bag with a notch cut out along on the mouth of the bag on the front side and a second notch cut out along the mouth of the bag on the opposing side, in such a way that at least a portion of each notch does not overlap with the opposing notch.

The notches allow a user to grasp the front and rear side of the bag at the same time and then pull in an outward direction to cause the mouth of the bag to open.

When pulling, the user will be grasping both the front and rear sides of the bag which are more structurally sound than flaps, tags, or extensions.

Adapting current tooling to incorporate these notches will be relatively simple for manufacturers, since it does not require adding any extra material to the bags.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an open bag with a notch cut out from the front side of the bag and a second notch cut out from the rear side of the bag.

FIG. 2 shows a closed bag with a notch cut out from the front side of the bag and a second notch cut out from the rear side of the bag.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now more specifically to the drawings, FIG. 1. Illustrates in one embodiment how notches designed to facilitate bag opening, can be added to bags that have handles.

One notch (labeled 102 in the drawing) is cut out from the rear side of the bag. This cutout allows the user to touch and grasp only the front side of the closed bag.

The notch, labeled 103 in the drawing, is cut out from the front side of the bag. This cutout allows the user to touch and grasp only the rear side of the closed bag.

FIG. 2 Illustrates in one embodiment how notches can also be added to bags that do not have handles. These bags include, but are not limited to: produce bags found in grocery stores, garbage bags, dog poop bags, specimen bags, among others.

The notches, labeled 203 and 204 in the drawing, in this embodiment, are depicted as being elliptical in shape. In other embodiments the notches can come in different shapes.

The notches, labeled 203 and 204 in the drawing, in this embodiment are widely spaced apart from each other. In other embodiments the notches can be closer together or further apart, as long as the two notches do not completely overlap each other.

When the user pulls the portion of the bag behind notch 203 and the portion of the bag behind notch 204 in an outward direction, the mouth of the bag will be opened.

Claims

1. A plastic bag that is made easy to open, comprising: a notch on front side of the bag placed along the bag’s mouth, and a notch on rear side of the bag placed along the bag’s mouth, with the notches placed in such as way that the front and back notches do not completely overlap with each other.