Reinforced paper bag

Claim 1

A reinforced bag having enhanced load carrying capacity, said bag being formed from a single ply of sheet stock cut, folded and secured to define enclosing body walls meeting at corner edges and a bottom closure, a series of relatively narrow continuous pleats extending lengthwise of the body walls and across the bottom closure at spaced apart intervals, the pleats being spaced so as to perform the major load carrying function of the bag, with each corner edge of the bag bridged by one of said pleats, and with the remainder of the pleats extending lengthwise of the body walls intermediate the corner edges, said pleats each comprising a pair of reversely folded pleat sections folded over and juxtaposed to the bag stock, said pleats being permanently secured in their folded over condition so as to provide multiple thickness areas of reinforcement for the body walls and bottom closure of the bag when the bag is expanded to its fully opened condition, thereby enhancing the strength of the opened bag so as to permit a lighter weight sheet stock to be used than would be otherwise required for a bag of the same size and carrying capacity.