Storage bags are a common household product used throughout the world. Storage bags are conventionally used to store food products in a refrigerator, freezer, portable cooler for camping, picnics, backyard barbecues, or similar type occasions, or even in kitchen cabinets. Stored food items may include, for example, fruits, deli meats, poultry, bread, cheese, beef, sauces, chips, nuts, sugar, flour, and the like. Storage bags may also be used to store various other items such as cosmetic applicators, personal care items, pills, screws or nails, batteries, and the like. Such bags are often made of a flexible material such as plastic, and therefore may be preferred for storage use over a hard-sided container. That is because the size of the flexible bag may be adjusted to match the space required to store the bag's contents, whereas if a hard-sided container is only half full, the empty half is just wasted space.
One difficulty with conventional storage bags is air can get trapped inside the bag as the user closes the bag. This decreases the shelf-life or storage longevity of a stored product. Particularly, when the storage bag stores a food product and is placed in a freezer, excess air in the bag may cause desiccation (commonly known as freezer burn) thus spoiling the stored food product. Some persons have tried to solve the problem of unwanted, excessive air inside a storage bag by vacuum sealing the bag. This process requires a machine to vacuum or pump the excess air out of the bag and may take up to several minutes to seal each bag. The machine, while taking up a great deal of counter-top or kitchen-top space, creates noise. In addition, conventional vacuum sealing machines can be expensive and thus may not be affordable to the average consumer.
Another problem with storage bags is that the air trapped inside a bag increases the size of the bag, therefore taking up more space in the refrigerator, freezer, cooler, shelf, or box that is strictly required to store the contents of the bag. For a user with limited storage space or a shipping company that wants to maximize storage space use, and therefore profits, unnecessary air inside the storage bag is undesirable. This problem may be resolved only with complicated, and time consuming, manipulation of the bag to squeeze out the air as the bag is closed.
It has been known to utilize a package valve in an attempt to overcome these or similar problems. Many of these prior valves, however, are difficult and expensive to manufacture in that multiple pieces must be made, handled, and assembled. As will be understood to one of ordinary skill, storage bags may conveniently be manufactured by sealing and cutting a continuous plastic web as it is formed at high speeds. At such high speeds, placing a valve in the bags in a consistent position presents several technical difficulties. Inevitably this will require a slower moving web, as well as complicate the manufacturing process, leading to reduced production capacity at an increased cost. Exemplary package valves are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,432,087 to Costello.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to have a storage bag that is cost efficient to make and use, easy to manufacture, increases the shelf or storage life of a stored product, conserves space and is easy to use.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds