Flexible bags – With stacking feature
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-04
2002-12-10
Pascua, Jes F. (Department: 3727)
Flexible bags
With stacking feature
C405S114000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06491431
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an engaging or touch-fastening sandbag envelope for accepting a loose bulk or free-flowing medium such as sand, with no hardening during or after filling, so that a stackable constructional element results therefrom, which can be used for building up any type of protective walls.
It is common to use sacks or bags filled with sand or the like to build up protective walls, barriers against surface water, for provisional repairs of dikes, the construction of igloos and shelters and similar purposes. The disadvantage in that case is that those filled constructional elements or sacks may slip out of place when being stacked, and thus the construction of those provisional structures is hampered.
A further disadvantage with constructional elements such as for example sandbags is that upon stacking of sandbags small gaps remain between them, which make the protective construction unstable, in particular in the case of temporary high-water levels from the sea or river side and in the case of a high water level created by hurricanes, tornadoes, damage from earthquakes or dam breaks and the like, because under those conditions the water is pressed with immense pressure against the protective structure. Thus the water can pass through these gaps and issue again at the other side, which in time results in possible destruction of the protective structure. Additionally, it is important that the connection between two constructional elements or sandbags is completed within seconds, enjoys long durability and is water-tight, which is impossible with the commonly used connecting devices as they always require some time to firmly close them and in addition they are then also not water-tight.
2. State of the Art
The most relevant state of the art is to be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,368. It describes a plastic container which is automatically filled with water by a suction effect when high water occurs. Those stackable plastic containers are additionally fixed on their top and bottom sides with fastener elements which are referred to as touch-and-close fastener elements or hook-and-loop fastener elements or ‘Velcro’ elements.
In contrast to the engaging sandbag envelopes in accordance with the present invention those water containers do not enjoy positionability which can be immediately adapted to the local conditions, in other words the water containers lack positional flexibility and positional elasticity which represent an essential property in the engaging sandbag envelopes of the invention. The lack of positional elasticity and positional flexibility in an on-site situation mean that the water container itself is not properly operational. Dangerous creepage gaps for high water immediately occur when the water containers are used to build a protective structure. Even the specified mode of fixing the water containers together with hook-and-loop fasteners remains ineffective as the water containers themselves are of a rigid nature and no longer involve engagement in relation to each other upon a minor positional displacement on site. In the event of an increase in water pressure, those water containers are directly threatened by collapse in the absence of the specific counterweight in relation to the water pressure at the side, as would be afforded for example by a filling with sand. The unfilled lightweight bags will be displaced by the pressure of the flow at a high water level during stacking. Additionally the specific weight of water-filled bags or sacks has a limited resistance to the applied water pressure at a certain level of water-pressure so that the wall becomes unstable and cannot function in the desired manner.
It is also doubtful whether the porous external surface structure for receiving water into the interior of the container functions correctly in the event of water contamination with oil or sludge or slurry because the pores of the flood water containment bags can get clogged by the pollutants and can lose their permeability so that they cannot absorb the necessary amount of water to increase in volume and weight to function as a flood water containment bag.
The water containers also lack what is known as blind layability. In a disaster situation, blind layability by virtue of sandbag envelopes using hook-and-loop fasteners is the technical standard. Due to the congruent arrangement of the hook-and-loop fastener elements on the top side and underside on the water containers, the corresponding operation of making up building construction involves a very high degree of fitting accuracy and is therefore a tedious and time-consuming operation. Since the fastener devices of that invention are in the form of narrow strips, the containers have to be stacked in a fitting manner to ensure that the strips of each bag or sack lie on a strip of another. Otherwise it would fail in establishing the desired connection between the bags or sacks.
In contrast thereto the sandbag envelopes in accordance with the invention have on the top side and the underside thereof patterns of hook-and-loop fastener elements which for example in a lattice or grid form guarantee immediate layability/stackability on site, requiring only seconds for that operation. In other words, the sandbag envelopes with their hook-and-loop fasteners can be built up on a surface at any angle in blind relationship with each other in the form of a wall-like protective structure. This is important in terms of affording protection and safeguarding life in a disaster situation.
The adhesive or cling action of the hook-and-loop fastener elements, in the operation of fixing the water containers in position, is limited only to fastening hooks but not to mushroom-shaped male sticking elements. Those mushroom-shaped male sticking elements afford an attachment or fastening action which is up 300% better, in comparison with conventional hook-and-loop fastener hooks. In the condition of being fixed in position by hook-and-loop fastening to constitute a protective wall-type structure, the sandbag envelopes equipped in that way with a hook-and-loop fastener arrangement enjoy a protective action in relation to high water, which is improved by about 300%.
A further crucial disadvantage of the water containers disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,368 (Bayer) is that such containers are only suitable for those areas of use in which water is available for automatically filling the containers, that is to say it is essentially limited to use in affording protection in relation to a high water level.
German utility model DE-GM No 18 64 678 discloses a bag or a sack consisting of foil material. Those sacks have on their outside means which increase the friction between the filled sacks lying one on another. Those means include projections like ribs, recesses or linings and those attachment means are not suitable for forming walls or embankments, as dikes and the like, which are compact, relatively stable and water-tight.
Furthermore there are known fasteners with male and female parts consisting of hooks or mushroom-like caps and loops engaging each other, which are covered with different types of materials.
For example U.S. Pat. No. 3,900,652 (Uraya et al) discloses a velvet-type fastener, each male element of the male piece consisting of a stem and a cap laterally expanded at the top thereof and being composed of compositions of first and second polyamide polymers having different melting points. The purpose of this two-component material is to improve the strength of the connected portion between the cap and the stem of the male elements. But there is no hint at the use of those elements for bags or sacks for forming a protective wall, a dike or the like. German utility model DE-GM No 84 02 729 describes a textile areal adhesive fastener which consists of a part with hooks and a part with loops engaging each other, wherein the filaments forming the hooks and loops are covered with a thin metal layer. The purpose of this metal layer is to increase the heat resistance of
Kasper Horst M.
Pascua Jes F.
LandOfFree
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