Stand up bag

Abstract

A standup bags made of a flexible material and methods of producing these standup bags. In particular, the standup bags have at least one substantially flat surface which is free of seams and folds. When the bag is filled with a flowable substance, the pressure exerted by the fluid upon the flat surfaces allows the bag to be self-standing. Additionally, the standup includes at least one contour structure that defines the geometry of the bag and also contributes to the standup bag's ability to be self-standing when even partially filled with a flowable substance.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 261,597, filed Jan. 12, 2001; U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 300,623, filed Jun. 25, 2001; U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 305,788, filed Jul. 16, 2001; and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 311,774, filed Aug. 10, 2001. The disclosures of the aforementioned U.S. Provisional Applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates to a flexible bag made of flexible sheet material and adapted to be self-standing after receiving flowable substances. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Many varieties of bags for flowable products such as liquids, pastes, granulates, flakes, or powders are known. Some examples are standup bags, sachets, tubing bags, paper sacks, and even box-like bags such as milk cartons. The bags can be made from coated paper, plastic sheet, metal foil, or plastic-and-foil la...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0129] Moreover, the standup bag of the present invention is designed so that it may be manufactured, stored, and / or shipped in a flat form. When filled with a flowable substance, the bag expands to a desired form and becomes self-standing even when partially filled. The flowable substance exerts a pressure on the bag walls which forces the bag to conform to the bag geometry defined by the contour structures.

[0130] The self-standing bag of the present invention also may be made from one or more sheets of material. Each sheet may be one or more plies of material. Each material ply may be attached along the periphery, laminated together, or any method thereof. The standup bag is provided with a fitment that may be attached to a wall of the bag or through a seal of the bag. The bags of the present invention are filled and may be emptied through the fitment. The standup bag also may include at least one integrated handle that facilitates the carrying of a filled bag. Furthermore, the standup bag may include a sleeve provide on the exterior surface of the bag which may be adapted as a carrying member or provide surfaces on which to print graphics or labels.

Problems solved by technology

Most known bags have not been able to sufficiently meet all these requirements.

These standup bags do not stand up as well because they do not have the bottom gusset and have been used more successfully for dry products than for liquids.

Output speeds of intermittent motion preformed bag machines are usually faster than those on form-fill-seal machines because of multilane possibilities as well as the limiting factors of filling and sealing on the filling machines.

A simple bottom gusset sealed at its sides does not provide a normal consumer plastic bag with a sufficient standup feature.

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