AU737974B3 - A convertible bag - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A PETTY PATENT Name of Applicant: Actual Inventor: Address for Service: Janet Therese CAREW As above CULLEN CO., Patent Trade Mark Attorneys, 239 George Street, Brisbane, QId. 4000, Australia.

Invention Title: A CONVERTIBLE BAG The following statement is a full description of this invention including the best method of performing it known to me: 2 A CONVERTIBLE BAG This invention is directed to a convertible bag, and is particularly directed to a shoulder bag or handbag which can be converted into a comfortable blanket. This type of bag finds particular use for long journeys such as long haul flights.

Bags which can convert into other useful articles are known.

Typically, the bags are formed of flexible fabric and can be unzipped or unclipped and opened up into various other shapes. As an example, US patent 3976113 describes a tote bag which can convert into a blanket.

A principal disadvantage with existing convertible bags is in the arrangement of the handles, zippers or other type of fasteners and the like.

In practice, these items become intrusive when attempting to convert the bag into another useful article. As an example, a convertible bag which can convert into a blanket, has handle clips, and zippers which become uncomfortable when the bag is opened up for use as a blanket. These components tend to rub against a person's body and can be caught in items of clothing.

Other convertible bags have complicated arrangements of fasteners (such as zippers and the like) which are fiddly, difficult to use, and add to the expense in the manufacture of the bag.

Some types of convertible bags have handles which are fixed permanently to the bag. The handles need to be strongly attached to the bag to prevent them from tearing away. In practice, steel rings, heavy duty stitching, strong gussets and the like are used to strongly attach the handles to the bag. These items become uncomfortable and intrusive if the bag is to be converted into a blanket.

Other types of convertible bags can only be partially closed.

This is probably to minimise the number of hard components. However, because the bag cannot be fully closed, the bag is rather insecure and the bag contents can be inadvertently lost from the bag. This makes the bag unsuitable for use in aeroplanes where important documents (for instance passports and travel documents) need to be fully secured in the bag.

The present invention is directed to a convertible bag which can 3 convert into a sheet/blanket/rug, and which may overcome at least some of the abovementioned disadvantages or provide the public with a useful or commercial choice.

In one form, the invention resides in a convertible bag which is formed from a flexible sheet member, the sheet member having a plurality of attachment means to allow one part of the member to be attached to another part of the member, the attachment means being on one side of the member and being substantially in the form of a loop.

In this form of the invention, by having the attachment means in the form of a loop (not necessarily a fully closed loop), the sheet member can be converted into a bag with reduced intrusive hard components such as zippers and other types of fasteners.

In a broad form of the invention, there is provided a convertible bag which is formed from a flexible sheet member, the sheet member having attachment means to allow the bag to be converted from a bag to a sheet/blanket/rug.

The flexible sheet member may be formed from any suitable material. If the flexible sheet member is made from thicker and warmer material, it can be used as a rug or blanket. Conversely, if the sheet member is made from a thinner material, it can be used as a sheet. Various types of materials are envisaged including fabrics, cotton, wool, canvas, felt, other types of natural fibres, artificial fibres such as polyester, nylon, polyamide, polyether, mixtures of natural and artificial fibres, reinforced fabrics, woven and nonwoven materials, leather and suede. The sheet member may be formed from a number of layers attached together, for instance by stitching.

The sheet member may be treated with, impregnated with, coated with or otherwise treated to provide certain properties such as water repellency, dust repellency, antistatic properties, stain resistance, insect resistance and fungal resistance.

The flexible sheet member may have different shapes and sizes depending on, inter alia, the desired size of the bag, and the desired size of the sheet member. Typically, the sheet member is rectangular or substantially rectangular when viewed in plan. However, the sheet member may also have an oval shape, or a rectangular main shape with curved opposed ends. The sheet member may have a length of between 1.5-2.5m, and a width of between 90-150cm. This of course can vary to suit. However, the preferred shape and size seems to be suitable for a bag which can be converted into a blanket, with the blanket being of a sufficient size to be useful for most instances.

The sheet member may be sufficiently flexible to allow it to be used comfortably as a sheet or blanket or rug.

The thickness of the sheet member can vary to suit. For instance, if the sheet member is to be used as a blanket, it may have a thickness which is greater than if the sheet member is to be used as a sheet.

Of course, the sheet member should be sufficiently strong to allow it to be used as a bag without the bag becoming easily torn.

The bag has a plurality of attachment means. The plurality of attachment means may comprise mechanical fasteners. Suitable mechanical fasteners may include zippers, press studs, hook and pile type fasteners (for instance Velcro), hooks and eyelets and the like. Preferably, the attachment means comprises one or more zippers. A single zip is considered to comprise a plurality of attachment means, as the zip will attach two parts together in a multiplicity of places. Other types of attachment means may comprise fasteners such as press stick adhesive, and the like. As the attachment means can function, in part, to hold the sheet member into a bag shape, the attachment means should be sufficiently robust to prevent the bag from inadvertently falling apart.

It is preferred that the attachment means is positioned on only one side of the sheet member. In this manner, the reverse side, or other side, of the sheet member can be free from attachment means such as zippers. In this embodiment, if the bag is opened up into a blanket, one side of the blanket can be completely free, or substantially free from zippers or other type of attachment means. This allows this side of the blanket to be used by a person more comfortably than would be otherwise possible.

In a particular form of the invention, the attachment means (for instance zips) is substantially in the form of a loop. It is preferred that the attachment means is on one side only of the sheet member. In this arrangement, it is found that the sheet member can be quickly converted into a bag by fastening (for instance zipping) various parts of the attachment means to each other.

The loop is preferably spaced somewhat inwardly from opposed edges of the sheet member (for instance the top and bottom edge). This provides a free flap between the loop and the opposed edge. This flap can form a soft lining on the inside of the bag. This will be described in greater detail below. The loop may have a configuration which is substantially square or rectangular when viewed in plan and when the sheet member is laid out flat.

The bag may be provided with handles. A pair of handles may be provided. The handles may be sized such that the bag can be carried by a person's hand, or supported by a person's shoulder, or used as a backpack.

The handles are preferably releasably attached to the remainder of the bag.

In one form, this can be achieved without requiring heavy steel clasps, loops, or heavy duty stitching in order to ensure that the handle is strongly attached to the bag. This is currently a disadvantage with existing convertible bags.

In a particular form, the or each handle may be securely attached to a separate bag, with the separate bag able to be releasably attached to the sheet member. In this manner, the handle can be securely attached to the separate bag (which may require some heavy duty and bulky stitching). The separate bag can be removed from the sheet member which allows the sheet member to be used as a blanket without having an attached handle.

The separate bag may be formed from the same material as the sheet member. It is preferred that the separate bag is smaller than the main bag. In this manner, the separate bag may contain smaller items, and, the separate bag can be used as a smaller handbag if the main bag is not required. For instance, the separate bag may contain toiletries or valuable documents. The separate bag is typically formed to retain a bag like shape which means that it does not usually open up into a sheet or blanket as this bag is typically too small to function efficiently as a sheet or blanket. Thus, the separate bag may be stitched into a bag shape. The separate bag may have a closable opening and the opening is typically closed by a zip, flap and the like. The size of the separate bag can vary to suit but the separate bag is typically substantially rectangular when viewed in side elevation and has a length of between 40-60cm and a depth of between 30-50cm.

The main bag may contain more than one separate bag, and in an embodiment, the main bag contains two separate bags typically of equal size, with a separate bag extending on each side of the main bag.

The or each separate bag can be releasably attached to the main bag. In one form, this can be achieved by zips. Other types of releasable attachment means are also envisaged, some of which have been described above. The separate bag is preferably attached via an elongate zip which provides a good secure attachment of the separate bag to the main bag. This, in turn, provides a good attachment of the handles relative to the main bag.

It is envisaged that the invention may include other types of attachments attached to either the main bag or a separate bag.

An embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to the following drawings in which: Figure 1 is a plan view of a sheet member showing the position of the attachment means (zippers).

Figure 2 is a plan view of the other side of the sheet member showing the absence of any attachment means.

Figure 3 is a side view of the sheet member partially assembled into a bag shape.

Figure 4 illustrates the assembled bag containing two separate bags Referring to the drawings there is illustrated a sheet member which is rectangular when viewed in plan. In the embodiment, sheet member has a length of approximately 1.5 m and a width of approximately 80 cm.

This can of course a vary to suit. The sheet member 10 is formed from a soft fabric material having a top layer 12 which can be furry, and which becomes the outside part of the bag. Sheet member 10 has a lower layer 11 which is stitched to top layer 12, this layer being smooth and being the layer which contacts the person when the sheet is used as a blanket or rug. A strip of strengthening material (not illustrated) extends about the edges of sheet member 10 (if the sheet member is a single layer) to prevent the edges of the sheet member from fraying.

Sheet member 10 is formed with an attachment means which is in the form of one or more zips. In the embodiment, four lengths of zip material 13, 14, 15, 16, are attached by stitching to sheet member 10. Each length of zip material is L-shaped and the four lengths are arranged to form a loop type configuration. The loop type configuration is not entirely closed as their may be some gaps or spaces between the various lengths of zip material. Two zips 17, 18 are provided. Each zip attaches two adjacent lengths of zip material to form the bag. In the embodiment, zip 17 is already attached to the length of zip material 16 and will attach to the length of zip material 15. Thus, zip 17 connects length 16 and 15 to each other. Similarly, zip 18 is already attached to length 14 and will attach to length of 13 such that zip 17 connects lengths 14 and 13 to each other.

The conversion of the flat sheet member 10 into a bag (illustrated in Figure 4) is as follows. Initially, sheet member 10 is laid out flat as illustrated in Figure 1. Then, one of the zips (for instance zip 18) is moved to the position illustrated in Figure 1 where the zip is at one extreme end of its attached length of zip material 14, and is adjacent the beginning of the length of zip material 13. Next, zip material 13 is moved in the direction of arrow 21 to feed into zip 18. As the sheet material is flexible, zip 18 can also be moved towards zip material 13. Zip 18 now grips both zip materials 13 and 14 and zip 18 can now be moved towards the other end of zip material 14 to connect the two pieces together. At this stage, the other zip 17 is connected to zip length 15 by moving zip length 15 in the direction of arrow 22 to feed into zip 17. Zip 17 can then be moved along zip length 16.

Both zips 17 and 18 are initially moved approximately halfway along their attached zip lengths. This position is illustrated by reference numeral 23. At this point, the bag has been partially formed, and has end flaps 24, 25 which protrude outside of the partially formed bag. These flaps 24, 25 (which comprise the part of sheet member 10 which extends between the zip lengths and the top and bottom edges 26, 27 of the sheet are then tucked into the bag such that the top layer 12 of the bag forms the inside lining of the bag. Once these flaps have been tucked into the bag, the bag has a shape which is as illustrated in Figure 4. The zips 17, 18 can then be moved further along the zip lengths to a fully closed position illustrated in Figure 4 where the bag is now sealed. The bag can be easily opened up by moving zips in the opposite direction, decoupling the zips from the other zip length and opening up the sheet member to form a comfortable blanket or rug.

Referring now to Figure 4, there is illustrated two separate bags 31 which extend along each side of the main bag body. Bags 30 and 31 are identical and are formed from the same material as sheet member Bags 30 and 31 are stitched such that they cannot open up into sheet members. The separate bags 30, 31 are smaller than the main bag. Each separate bag is formed with an uppermost zip length 32 (only one zip length illustrated). This zip length mates with a corresponding zip length 33, 34 on sheet member 10, the zip lengths being best illustrated in Figure 1. In this manner, each separate bag 30, 31 can be zipped to sheet member 10 along zip lengths 33, 34. Separate bags 30, 31 each have a zip opening 35 to allow the inside of the bag to be accessed.

Each separate bag has a handle 36, 37. Each handle 36, 37 is strongly and securely fastened to the respective separate bag. In the embodiment, each handle is strongly and securely stitched to its respective zip length 32 (this usually being formed from strong material). In this manner, once the separate bags have been zipped to the main bag, the main bag can be supported by handles 36, 37, without these handles being attached directly to the main bag.

The main bag can be used to carry a pillow to make longdistance travel more comfortable. The bag can then open up to form a cosy blanket. The sheet material may be formed from washable fabric such that a person can use their own blanket rather than risking the use of a public transport provided blanket or rug. The separate bags are capable of containing essential travel need such as books, spectacles, mobile telephone, toiletries, ear plugs and even a change of clothing. If a pillow is placed inside the bag, the pillow is protected from dirt and travel grime. The traveller can carry their own pillow of choice rather than rely upon the usually small and uncomfortable pillows provided by public transport providers.

The main bag together with the two separate bags can be shaped to mimic animal faces. For instance, the two separate bags can be seen as floppy ears and the main bag can be seen as a face. The bag material can be printed with animal faces (for instance a dog face), or the separate bags can be seen a wings, and the main bag can be printed with insect or bird features, which may make the convertible bag attractive to children.

It should be appreciated that various other changes and modifications may be made to the embodiment described without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For instance, the sheet member may be provided with a foot pocket at one end to provide additional comfort.

The sheet member may be in the form of a sleeping sheet bag similar to a sleeping bag.

Claims (3)

1. A convertible bag which is formed from a flexible sheet member, the sheet member having a pair of zippers on one side of the sheet member, the zippers together being in the form of a loop, the flexible sheet member having a pair of opposed edges, the zippers being spaced inwardly from said edges to form end flaps which extend between a said zipper and a said opposed edge, the end flaps able to be tucked into the formed bag.

2. The bag of claim 1, wherein the pair of zippers comprise four lengths of zip material, each length being substantially L shaped, the four lengths being arranged to form a loop.

3. The bag of claim 1 or claim 2 substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Dated this 16 th day of May 2001 Janet Therese Carew By her Patent Attorneys CULLEN CO.