| WO/2010/069291 | OVERWEIGHT-BAGGAGE INDICATOR |
| WO/2011/135317 | HANDLE |
| WO/2006/101709 | LUGGAGE HANDLE WITH INTEGRAL WEIGHT SCALE |
| PATENT CLAIMS 1 A transport handle tailored for a Bag-in-Box packaging, but also adaptable to other packages, said handle is designed with a balance function integrated in the handle, the handle includes a grip (1), springs (4,5) and fastening legs (3), the balance function of said handle is visible outside the box or said balance function is situated inside the box, figure 9, characterized by the fact that, • the balance is bearing a scale (6,7) which is calibrated in volume of remaining and/or consumed content of the container, such as wine, and with poles (8,9) with protrusions (10,11), or equivalent, used as pointers on the scale • said handle is manufactured by injection molding of one material and in one moment • in said handle the elastic, resilient and stretching properties of the material are used to obtain the function of a spring (4,5) • the handle legs (3) for fastening to the box have one part designed with thinner material, which provides a function equivalent to a hinge (14,15) • said fastening legs are so designed that the handle on delivery after injection molding and assembly on the box will lie flat on the upper side of the box in a parking position • said handle with said fastening legs with thinner material can be turned from lying flat on upper side of the box, parking mode, to erect position when using the balance- or transport-function • in said transport handle the balance function may be manually unlocked by releasing the protrusions from the holes in the scales, or equivalent, at which the springs become active, the user then has enabled the spring function, but the user can also on a transport handle with enabled balance function manually enter the protrusions in said holes (12,13) or equvalent, thereby locking the spring function and thus get a firmer and non-resilient handle to carry. 2 A transport handle according to claim 1 characterized by the fact that, in said transport handle the balance function may easily be unlocked by using an easy manipulation to release the pole (8) figure 5, thus the springs become active, the user has enabled the balance function, but the user can also on a transport handle with enabled balance function manually reset the pole parking position and thus lock the spring function and in this way get a firmer and non-resilient handle to carry. 3 A transport handle according to claim 1 characterized by the fact that, the balance function of said handle has a design suitable for a hidden location inside the box (94) figure 9, that only the handle grip (91) figure 9 is sticking out of the box and that the rod (93) is provided with at least one hinge for flat parking on the upper side of the box. A transport handle according to claims 1 and 2 characterized by the fact that, said handle after injection molding is parked, locked, so that the balance function is not activated, the handle dedicated exclusively to carrying, but where the plastic has one or more removable parts or connections, which can be removed or manually broken by the user, whereupon the handle balance function is released, this balance function may then either again be locked manually or can no longer be locked. |
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Traditionally wine has been sold in glass bottles and these are often light-permeable so that the level of their contents can be easily read off, for an assessment of what has been consumed and what remains.
Wine is now being sold in a new package called "Bag-in-Box", BiB.
This package has a cover, a box (Box), which contains a sealed pouch (Bag) of plastic sheeting or similar. The bag is equipped with a drainage device, a tap.
One problem with these packages is the difficulty to assess how much is taken out of the package and how much remains. It is common that the packages can hold several liters which complicates the assessment of the remaining amount in a used package.
Today it is the weight of the package which may provide some indication of the remaining content of the package. But to pick up a balance is uncomfortable and does not get off.
A recommendation that the customer needs to estimate the volume of wine consumed has been issued by Systembolaget in Sweden. As a result of this desire, the market has been provided with some different variations of inventions aimed to solving the problem. No really good solution has been presented, so there are high expectations on the invention described in this document.
RECORD COPY-TRANSLATION
(Rule 1g f ^ SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One technical solution that has been designed and tested on the market is that the outer side of the box is provided with perforated circles in the material, which can be easily pushed into the box so that openings occur. Through these openings it is possible to estimate how much the bag has dropped in the box and thus estimate the remaining amount. Several disadvantages of this solution are well known, two are mentioned here. By the perforation the box is weakened, these boxes are today transported on pallets where the weight on the lower layers becomes large and hence boxes are crushed during transport. The accuracy obtained is very low and deemed unacceptable.
Another solution to the problem is that a package is provided with a pull cord that is applied around the bag and sticks out through the box. This allows some information on remaining quantities to be obtained by pulling out the cord from the box, the length of the pull cord gives an estimate of the circumference of the bag.
One way to easily determine the remaining amount of liquid in a "Bag-in-Box" (BiB) is to weigh the whole package. If you know the weight of the empty package, the tare, this can be compensated for and the accuracy increased, especially when the content is small. In a 3-liter or larger Bag-in-Box filled with say wine, the tare weight, about 0,1 - 0,2 kg is almost negligible for quantities down to well below one liter.
A BiB has a transport handle on top. This handle is usually installed at the end of the process of filling. The current production process is hence very little affected if a handle with a balance according to the invention is fitted in place of a conventional handle, because the attachment of the handles are in similar ways and the box design is not affected. If the intention is to determine the remaining quantity of wine in a BiB the balance may, right from the manufacturing, have a fixed scale which is displaced so that the tare is deducted. The tare of present BiB:s differ only marginally between different brands and the requirement of accuracy in the quantitative determination of the remaining wine is relatively low.
A handle with a balance function may be of plastic or wire or sheet metal etc and at low cost. Examples of design of such a handle with a balance function are shown in figure 1,2,3 and 9.
The invention as such is by no means limited to the packaging of wine, but a general one, regardless of the liquid or powdered material stored in a corresponding manner. The cost is low for the product because it is produced in a form, using a homogeneous material and in a process that is well documented and known. The repeatability is good and the quality of the properties are good. The product is suitable as advertising media. It is suitable for carrying a company name such as to mark a positive interest in the reduction of side effects from high consumption of wine, etc.
WO-application 2008/057020 and patent application SE 0800493 shows a number of variants with a fluid container which is compressed by the weight in the bag and through which liquid is pushed into a narrow tube, the height of the liquid in the tube represents the weight, The WO-application also presents some other theoretical solutions that are not considered realistic from a reading ability or with a manufacturing cost that is not reasonable.
The herein described solution is characterized by that a plastic material by injection molding is designed so that a function equivalent to a spring is obtained. This, together with that the manufacturing takes place in one mold with one material and in one step (injection molding) without manual intervention, represents a very low cost of production. This is an important feature that distinguishes this invention from other that are documented and/or on the market.
The balance function is obtained by designing the plastic like a spring, see figures 1,2,3 or 9, alternatively the spring function may be obtained from any other design of the material.
The balance function can be made visible by the handle and thus be placed on the top of the box. Another option is that the balance is hidden inside the box and only the handle part is visible outside the box. From a pedagogical standpoint, it makes sense for consumers to see how a spring or a spring-like portion is extended on a weight basis. Bag-in-Box:es are usually transported by several layers of boxes stacked on a so-called pallet. This means that the transport handle may not stick straight up on the top side of the box, but must be placed inside the box, alternatively it can be folded and lie flush with the box top. Otherwise it will be difficult to stack boxes on one another. DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Figure 1 shows one design
Figure 2 shows a second design with springs
Figure 3 shows a variant of figure 2, the handle is folded
Figure 4 shows an enlargement of the scale portion of the variation in figure 3
Figure 5 shows another view of part of figure 3, showing parking stops
Figure 6 shows the handle of the box, the transport mode
Figure 7a and 7b show part of standing handle, mounted in the box
Figure 8 shows the principle of a handle in carrying position
Figure 9 shows a further variant of the spring design DETAILED DESCRIPTION
According to figure 1 the handle is made of plastic, with a thickness of one or a few millimetres. It consist of an upper part (1) a grip (for the users hand) and a lower part (2) with two devices (3) to secure the handle in the slits (holes) located on the top of the BiB. The fastening is in the same way as conventional handles without balance.
When installing the handle, it may differ from what is shown in figure 1 in two ways: first, the fastening devices (3) are turned 90 degrees to the handle plane (as shown in figure 3) so that the handle will lie flat against the box top (this rotation can be easily brought to 0 degrees through the "hinges" (14,15) between elements (3) and (2) when the user grasps the handle to carry the BiB, and second the protrusions (10,11) are inserted into the holes (12,13), whereby the spring functions (4,5) are locked in a fixed location, the parking location, and the user will experience the handle as solid and steady and reliable to carry the BiB by.
When the user wants to determine the mass, he presses the protrusions (10,11) out of the holes (12,13) perpendicular to the handle plane. The handle is now as in figure 1 assuming the user does not try to lift the BiB with the handle. Now, if the user lifts the BiB with the help of the grip (1), the weight of the BiB will be borne by the springs (4,5), which will elongate accordingly, with the protrusions (10,11) following the grip (1) upwards, while the scales (6,7) remain fixed to (2) and the upper part of the BiB. The user can now read the location of the protrusions (10,11) relative the scales (6,7) and since this depends on how much the springs (4,5) have been elongated, which in turn depends of tare and remaining quantity in the bag, the scales may be graded in the remaining quantity or quantity consumed, or both, on each side of (6,7). The springs (4,5) may be designed in other ways such as in figure 2 or 3, resulting in less tension in the spring material, a longer spring travel and better linear behavior at spring elongation.
The user can disable the spring function and get a firm handle on again by pushing back the protrusions (10,11) in their parking position, the holes (12,13).
The entire handle may be produced from plastic in one operation and is thus inexpensive. Options for this may be other elastic materials including steel, sheet metal, wire.
The scales (6,7) may be graded in the remaining amount as seen from one side and the amount consumed as seen from the other, if desired.
When using the handle as a transport handle the poles (8,9) are slightly bent so that the protrusions (10,11) are pressed into the corresponding slots (12,13) in the lower part of the scales (6,7). The grip (1) is thereby locked into the lower part (2) and becomes stable, and does not spring, the balance function is disabled, the handle is parked.
A handle in this form and of suitable size can easily be attached to a BiB packaging and takes up little space as it may be folded down against the upper side of the package using the "hinges" (14,15) on the fastening legs (3). Using injection molding of plastic the handle may be designed so that the parking mode at delivery is at level with the top of the box. Handles where metal and plastic are combined are possible, for example the balance may be made of sheet metal while the grip (1) is fitted with plastic to provide a comfortable grip.
The protrusions (10,11) have been drawn triangular in the figures, this gives an advantage when they at measurement are used as pointers to the scales (6) and (7). The protrusions with this design get a narrow end directly at the corresponding scale. A circular protrusion or another form is of course possible, but provides a somewhat more diffuse reading.
Other designs of the handle are possible.
Figure 2 and figure 3 shows a version where the spring travel is made longer by using the multiple curves of the springs (4) and (5).
Designs can be varied ad infinitum, with focus on function or with focus on appearance. Figure 3 shows a model with long spring travel and with a new design of the poles (8,9) and reading scales (6,7).
Figure 4 shows a magnified reading scale (6), graded 1,2,3,4 in the figure and attached to (2) and a pole (8) with a lower part, the cursor (51), which has similar function as the previously mentioned protrusions (10,11) in that it can be detached or attached, be parked, in part (2).
Figure 5 shows an example of the detailed design that provides an opportunity to have the handle either in the carrying position, parked, or in position for weighing. At position for weighing the pole (8) with its cursor (51) is pressed somewhat towards the center of the handle and the design of the opening in the cursor (51) allows it to be released and with the recess suitably enveloping the scale can slide along it, the balance is activated. The cursor (51) will point to the subdivisions on the scale in relation to the spring travel like the protrusions (11,12) in figure 1.
By suitable design of the plastic form the cursor (51), or equivalent, may upon delivery be firmly attached to the section corresponding (2). This solid attachment may be manually broken by the user when he wishes to activate the balance function. After the balance function has been activated it may, depending of the design, either no longer be possible to deactivate or it may be deactivated as described above. Figure 6 shows the handle mounted on a Bag-in-Box, flat against the upper side of the Box. This results in stackability during transport.
Figure 7a and 7b shows the handle in cross section and placed standing on a box. The figure shows how the handle fastening elements (3) locks into the box.
Figure 8 shows a handle, simplified, standing on the box in carrying position.
What is described above relates to an embodiment where the handle is produced in a form with a design that is educational by the fact that by weighing the extension of the springs is seen, the less liquid left, the less extension of the springs and vice versa.
However, this invention also covers other variants and appearances with the principle of utilizing the resilient properties of an injection-molded material. The combination of a transport handle and a balance function which is given by the material's elastic properties will open many alternative embodiments. One embodiment is to design the handle with the spring function inside the box, see figure 9. Figure 9 shows a version of the transport handle that also has a spring function. The transport handle consists of three legs of which the middle one, the spring leg, gives the balance function.
Figure 9a shows the handle seen from above. The handle, the grip (91), is on the middle spring leg (92) of the three legs that form the core of the device. The spring leg (92) is bonded to the grip (91) via a rod (93). The spring function is obtained from the the portion of the handle, the spring leg, which is bent downwards inside the box (94). The rod (93) which connects the spring leg (92) with the grip (91) may be provided with graduations which are read from the outside and give consumed or remaining amount in the box.
With advantage the rod (93) is provide with at least one hinge function with the aim of the grip (91) to lie flat against the top side of the box.
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