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US RE40,756 E1Granted
Bag clamp
OwnerChristopher I. Hallinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An improved bag clamp and bag cutter is presented that is a non-obvious increase in capability over this inventor's previous bag clamp/cutter invention. The improved clamp possesses a stronger spring, an improved cutting blade with safety guard, a springboard button for pressing the blade firmly against a bag surface, and other improvements.
Claims19
A improved bag clamp for closing and cutting a polymer bag, said clamp , comprising:
- two opposed clamp members, wherein said clamp members are movable between a normally closed position and open condition, each one of an opened position;
- said clamp members identified respectively as an upper clamp member and a lower clamp member and each having an inner surface and an outer surface, ;
- a gripping means disposed on the inner surface of each one of said clamp members for gripping said bag, said gripping means including a plurality of internal ridges disposed on the inner surface of each one of said clamp members,
- each one of said clamp members possessing a mouth end for engagement of a bag surface and a grasping end for grasping by a user,
- a hinge attaching said clamp members to each other, said hinge attached to each clamp member inner surface at a location between said mouth end and said grasping end, the hinge biased by a spring clip, said spring clip possessing increased strength over spring clips in previous applications,
- each of said clamp member mouth ends possessing a lip for aiding in positioning said bag in said clamp,
- said clamp members identified as an upper clamp member and a lower clamp member,
- a finger movable button flexibly integrally attached to said upper clamp member and having mounted thereto a cutting blade, said finger movable button facilitating the moving of said cutting blade downwardly from a retracted non-bag engaging position into an anvil protected bag cutting position;
- a cutting means disposed on the inner surface of said upper clamp member, said cutting means comprised of a cutting blade, a springboard button, and a blade guard,
- said cutting blade possessing a characteristic shape and increased sharpness such that cutting efficiency is improved over previous cutting blade designs for this application,
- a split anvil means disposed on integrally attached to the inner surface of said lower clamp member, said split anvil means and disposed in such a manner that it is directly opposite said cutting means blade when said upper clamp member and said lower clamp member are disposed in a said normally closed position;
- said split anvil having two parallel closely spaced upstanding side walls between which said cutting blade fits and is guided to said anvil protected bag cutting position as a user moves said finger movable button flexibly downward;
- a blade guard mounted to said finger movable button for providing said cutting blade with a protected space when said cutting blade is disposed in said retracted non-bag engaging position;
- and
- wherein said two parallel closely spaced upstanding side walls facilitate holding up a bag material captured between said two opposing clamp members to allow the cutting blade to more easily engage and penetrate said bag material as said cutting blade is pressed downwardly by said finger movable button through said blade guard, and further downwardly into said anvil protected bag cutting position.
12 more elements
A bag clamp, comprising:
- a pair of clamp members each having an inner surface and an outer surface;
- securing means projecting upwardly from the inner surface of said pair of clamp members for spacing said pair of clamp members from one another along a rear portion thereon and for removably attaching said pair of clamp member to one another so they are biased together along a front portion thereof with a sufficient biasing force to clamp and hold a bag in a stationary position for closing and cutting purposes;
- finger movable cutting means disposed in one of said pair of clamp members for biasing a cutting blade and a blade guard for rectilinear movement;
- and
- bag raising stop means extending upwardly from the inner surface of one of said pair of opposing clamp members for holding a portion of said bag away from said inner surface and for limiting the path of travel of said blade guard as it and said cutting blade are pushed downward via a user pressing on said finger movable cutting means to facilitate bag cutting purposes.
2 more elements
A bag clamp, comprising:
- a pair of clamp members hinged together for relative movement between an open bag receiving position and a closed bag clamping position;
- an upstanding split anvil integrally attached to an inner surface of an individual one of said pair of clamp members, said split anvil having two parallel sides between which a cutting blade is received;
- a thin finger engagable button flexibly integrally attached to an outer surface of another individual one of said pair of clamp members, wherein the flexibility of said thin finger engagable button relative to the outer surface of said another individual one of said pair of clamp members allows said button under the finger force of a user to move downwardly and upwardly relative to said outer surface between a guard protected position and an anvil protected position;
- wherein said finger button has attached thereto at a distal end thereof a cutting blade and at a proximal end thereof a blade guard, said cutting blade and said blade guard being disposed adjacent an inner surface of said another individual one of said pair of clamp members when said finger button is disposed in said guard protected position;
- said cutting blade being hidden and concealed behind and above said blade guard in a blade protected position when said finger button is disposed in said guard protected position;
- and
- said cutting blade being hidden and concealed between said two parallel sides in another blade protected position when said finger button is disposed in said anvil protected position.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.