Plastic bag dispensing apparatus

Claim 2

Apparatus for dispensing carrier bags one at a time from a stack of such bags wherein each of the bags has a pair of aligned apertures in its respective front and rear walls when the bag is in its collapsed state, with each of said apertures being spaced from the bag mouth so that each aperture is surrounded by the material from which the bag is formed and with one of the apertures being larger than the other, said apparatus comprising: a tube having a configuration generally conforming to that of the apertures in said bag walls and adapted to pass through the aligned apertures in a stack of such bags, means supporting said tube at one end thereof, a lip adjacent the other end of said tube and of such a peripheral size as to readily permit the wall of the bag with the larger of the two apertures to pass over said lip while retaining on said tube the bag wall with the smaller aperture, whereby a stack of bags positioned on said tube in such manner that the bag walls with the larger apertures face Toward said lip can be opened one at a time by removing from said tube the bag wall with the larger aperture while the other bag wall is retained by said tube and thereafter the other bag wall can be removed from said tube by forcing said other bag wall over said lip so as to distend the smaller aperture.

Claim 3

The apparatus of claim 1 which further includes resilient means for forcing said stack of bags toward said other end of said tube.

Claim 4

The apparatus of claim 1 in which said tube is hollow and supports at its said other end a nozzle which directs air admitted under pressure in said tube into the interior of the bag most closely adjacent said lip so as to inflate said bag and remove its bag wall having the larger aperture from said tube.

Claim 5

In combination: a plurality of carrier bags each comprising generally coextensive front and rear bag walls and having through apertures adjacent the bag mouth which are aligned when the bag is in the collapsed state, the apertures in one wall of the bag being of larger size than the apertures in the other wall of the bag and with each said aperture being sufficiently spaced from the bag mouth to ensure that each said aperture is surrounded by the material from which the associated bag unit is formed, bag dispensing apparatus comprising an elongate supporting member having a cross-sectional configuration generally conforming to that of the aperture in said bag walls and adapted to pass through the aligned apertures in a stack of such bags, and lip means adjacent one end of said supporting member for permitting the aperture of larger size of each bag to slip readily off said one end while retaining one said member the bag wall with the smaller aperture, whereby each said bag may be retained in an open position on said supporting member and then selectively removed therefrom by pulling on said bag so as to distend the smaller aperture and thereby permit the rear bag wall to pass over said lip means, said bags being stacked on said supporting means with the bag wall of each bag having the larger aperture being closer to said lip means.

Claim 6

In combination: a plurality of carrier bags each comprising generally coextensive front and rear bag walls and having through apertures adjacent the bag mouth which are aligned when the bag is in the collapsed state, the apertures in one wall of the bag being of larger size than the apertures in the other wall of the bag and with each said aperture being sufficiently spaced from the bag mouth to ensure that each said aperture is surrounded by the material from which the associated bag unit is formed, bag dispensing apparatus comprising an elongate supporting member having a cross-sectional configuration generally conforming to that of the aperture in said bag walls and adapted to pass through the aligned apertures in a stack of such bags, and lip means adjacent one end of said supporting member for permitting the aperture of larger size of each bag to slip readily off said one end while retaining one said member the bag wall with the smaller aperture, whereby each said bag may be retained in an open position on said supporting member and then selectively removed therefrom by pulling on said bag so as to distend the smaller aperture and thereby permit the rear bag wall to pass over said lip means, said bags being stacked on said supporting means with the bag wall of each bag having the larger aperture being closer to said lip means.