Cereal Bag Zipper

Abstract

The present invention is a closure capable of being applied to an existing flexible container structure in order to form a releasable closure thereon. The closure includes base formed of a flexible material having an adhesive disposed on one side thereof in order to attach the closure to the exterior of a container. The closure also includes a pair of releasably engageable zipper sections secured to the base on opposite sides of a gap formed in the base having an open end and a closed end. The closure further has a liner located between the zipper sections and the base that extends over the gap to finction as a positioning device for properly locating the closure on the flexible container. The base and the liner also limit the size of any opening formed in the container to the size of the closure.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 as a continuation-in-part of U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 11 / 736,921 filed on Apr. 18, 2007, which in turn claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) from U.S. Provisional Patent No. 60 / 801,214, filed on May 17, 2006, and under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 988,514, filed on Nov. 16, 2007, each of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to resealable closures and, more specifically, to a closure adapted to be positioned on and secured to or over an opening in a container, such as a cereal bag, to allow the container or bag to be selectively opened and resealed as necessary after being initially opened.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Plastic and foil bags have long been utilized to hold a variety of items, including food products, therein for transpo...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014]According to one aspect of the present invention, a bag resealing system is provided that includes a resealable closure device. The resealable closure device is formed from a number of sections of a suitable and, preferably, a thermoplastic material that include a resealing mechanism with disengageable members on the opposed sections that operate to secure the sections to one another and selectively form an opening therebetween. The mechanism is also attached to a separate bottom or lower support strip that supports the resealing mechanism and includes an amount of an adhesive applied to the support strip opposite the disengagable members, which allows the closure device formed of the mechanism and the support strip to be adhered to the exterior of a bag, such as a plastic bag. The adhesive is covered by a release liner to avoid the inadvertent attachment of the adhesive to a substrate, such as a bag, until such time as it is desired to adhere the device to a bag. Once the resealable closure device is adhered to the bag using the adhesive on the support strip, due to the clearance provided between the bag and the mechanism by the inclusion of the support strip, the disengagable members of the mechanism can be separated without

Problems solved by technology

This is often difficult to accomplish, because the material forming the bag is flexible and the opposed sides of the opening are hard to align with one another for the correct placement of the attachment flanges of the zipper strip along each side of the opening.

In addition, the zipper strip disclosed in the '373 patent cannot be positioned on bags prior to forming an opening in the bag.

Further, if the attachment surfaces are forced apart to provide sufficient clearance to form an opening, the engagement of the attachment flanges with immediately adjacent sections of the bag will result in tearing of the bag along lines not in alignment with the zipper strip, such that the zipper strip is no longer capable of providing a reclosable opening on the bag.

A large number of these types of containers or bags must be opened by severing, breaking or otherwise permanently deforming the container, such that the container cannot be re-closed after being initially opened.

This causes multiple problems with containers and bags of this type, not the least of which are the inadvertent spillage and/or premature spoila

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