Special receptacle or package – For hook – hanger – eye – chain – button – clasp
Reexamination Certificate
2002-09-13
2004-08-03
Bui, Luan K. (Department: 3728)
Special receptacle or package
For hook, hanger, eye, chain, button, clasp
C206S820000, C248S205300, C248S683000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06769541
ABSTRACT:
The invention relates to a self-adhesive hanger comprising a self-adhesive portion adapted to be able to be stuck to an object to be suspended, and a hanger secured to the self-adhesive portion and permitting hooking or gripping the hanger, and the object to which it is stuck.
There exist numerous situations in which objects must be able to be hung.
Such is particularly the case of packaged articles offered for sale in stores, hung from arms secured to shelves or presentation panels. For small articles, there is most often used specific packaging, so-called blisters, comprising a cardboard base (on which commercial information and/or instructions can be given) bearing a shell or a synthetic film enclosing the articles. The cardboard base is pierced to be able to be threaded on an arm. Similarly, certain other types of packaging provided with holes, permit hanging the articles. Nevertheless, it is known that it is important to be able to reduce the volume and quantity of material used in packages which, as trash, is costly and imposes increasing problems of elimination and pollution. Moreover, certain types of articles or packaging cannot be presented by hanging. Such is in particular the case of articles or groups of articles packaged in thermoshrunk film (magnetic cassettes, food pastes, cheeses, magazines, electrical connections or accessories, . . . ) or in paper or cardboard envelopes (packages of crackers, boxes of vegetables, cereals, cartons of cigarettes, candy, chocolate bars, paper articles, . . . ), or unpackaged materials (tools, receptacles (bottles, flasks, pots . . . ), lingerie, clothing, shoes, sporting goods, . . . ).
The same problem arises in numerous other situations, for example for hanging on the wall decorative objects such as frames, for the manual transportation of objects without handles (packages, shoes, documents, files, bottles, flasks . . . ).
Numerous solutions have been proposed to satisfy this problem in certain applications.
A first solution consists in a hook cut out of a so-called rigid synthetic material sheet (resilient in flexure, such as polyester, PVC, polypropane . . . ) stuck on a self-adhesive label adapted itself to be stuck on the object to be hung. This solution is relatively costly and complicated to make. Moreover, the presence of the rigid plate creates in general an added thickness preventing the production of reels of large dimension for automatic positioning with a standard label maker. Also, once positioned on an object for its presentation hung in a store, the rigid hook necessarily extends beyond the object, which poses problems of packaging, manipulation, size and risk of untimely hooking or tearing during storage or transport before hanging the articles. Moreover, this device is not very resistant to the extent to which a risk exists that the rigid plate comes unstuck from the label, or the label comes unstuck from the object, particularly under the influence of the weight of the hung object which is generally not exerted in the plane of the plate and of the label (this latter being only rarely centered relative to the object).
A second solution consists in a plate of rigid synthetic material of which a portion is cut out to form a hanger (hook or opening) and another portion is provided with a layer of self-adhesive material adapted to be stuck on an object to be hung. This solution also is relatively troublesome given the cost of the rigid synthetic materials and prevents use of an automatic labeler. Moreover, it cannot be used in a case in which the hanger must not extend beyond the contour of the object. And here again, it offers only a low strength and is not adapted for hanging heavy objects.
A third solution consists in a label of flexible synthetic material having a self-adhesive portion, and a pre-cutout portion suitable to form, by deployment and/or plastic stretching, a hanging handle.
In the case of deployment without stretching, it is possible to use low-cost flexible materials, such that this solution is thus less costly than the preceding. But the production of the cutout permitting forming the handle by deploying a strip of precut material is relatively delicate and costly to produce. Moreover, it offers a relatively low resistance to the extent to which the width of the strip forming the handle is necessarily very much less than that of the self-adhesive portion, and the ends or corners of the cutout constitute regions of less strength. Moreover, this label is less easy to use during the step of hanging objects, because it requires a precise manipulation to grip the pre-cutout strip and to deploy it to form the handle. Thus, if this manipulation can be suitable for special use, for example in a laboratory, it hinders productivity in industry or commerce during mass production. Moreover, the shape of the pre-cutout being essentially dictated by the size of the handle and its strength, it is difficult to produce various forms adapted to the hooking members. The handle thus formed accordingly does not generally offer a good holding of the object—particularly in horizontal directions, relative to the hooking member. And when the objects are grouped, the adjacent handles can become entangled. Finally, the handle thus deployed does not offer regularity of shape and is hardly pleasing to the eye. This solution is thus suitable for gripping handles for objects that are small in number and not very heavy, but is not suitable either for the presentation of articles at points of sale or for heavy articles.
Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,301 discloses a suspension label comprising a peripheral portion provided with double-faced adhesive strips for sticking it to an article, and a central cutout portion forming a suspension tab bendable along a bend line delimited by the ends of the cutout forming the tab, this bend line not corresponding to an assembly line. Rounded fillets must be provided at these ends of the cutout, which remain particularly fragile. In a modification, this label is not directly applied to the article, but to an intermediate adhesive label that is not cut out, and is itself stuck to the article, and which can be of paper to receive printing. This second label, provided to reinforce the hanging, is in practice without interest, because all the forces remain imparted to the first cutout label and the adhesive strips. Here again, the bend line is delimited by the cutout of the tab and does not correspond to an assembly line of the two labels. This device thus has all the drawbacks mentioned above, of difficulty and cost of production, fragility, aging, difficulty of handling, not very effective holding, not very good appearance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,495 discloses another modification of a hanger of this third type in which the hanger portion is formed by an extension prolonging the adhesive portion, cut out and folded and bent down before use along a bend line in this adhesive region. Other portions are folded down on the assembly to hold the folded down hangar portion on the adhesive portion before use. As a result, the assembly is complex and costly and is adapted for special use in laboratories or care centers (for example for holding perfusion bags) but inappropriate for industrial or commercial use for hanging large numbers of articles.
In the case of deployment accompanied by plastic drawing, it is moreover necessary to use a stretchable material such as a polyamide, which is high priced. Moreover, the drawing operation is delicate and the risk is great of stretching the material too far. And the material in the stretched condition within the plastic region offers much less resistance in tension.
A fourth solution consists in a label formed by a flexible strip having two self-adhesive portions separated by an intermediate non-adhesive portion forming a hanging loop with the object itself when the self-adhesive portions are stuck to the object. Here again, such a label is in practice relatively costly to produce (because of the presence of two separate adhesive portions independently protected eac
Bui Luan K.
Young & Thompson
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