Drycleaning Tag

Abstract

Sheets of spun bonded polyolefin are stapled together to form a pad. Five tags are cut in each sheet and are dispensed by pulling them to tear a bridge of uncut material. The tags have a label portion and a relatively long and narrow tongue portion containing a slit. Tags are attached to clothing by passing the tongue portion through an opening in the garment and forming a loop by feeding the label portion through the slit in the tongue portion.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The field of the invention is identification tags and the means of dispensing the same. More specifically, the invention relates to tags which are temporarily attached to garments for the purpose of identifying them during drycleaning operations.

Drycleaning tags are attached to the garments prior to the cleaning process and are removed by the customer afterwards. Such tags must be easy to attach, and must remain attached to the garment during the cleaning procedure. Staples, safety pins and other means presently used to attach cleaning tags are quite durable, however, their attachment and removal is often quite difficult and sometimes results in damage to the garment. Also, attachment means such as safety pins and other metal devices are a relatively expensive means of identifying large numbers of garments.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention comprises a tag which is cut from a sheet of thin flexible material. The tag includes a relatively wide label portion containing a suitable identifying mark and an integral tongue portion which has a slit through it. The tag is attached to a garment by passing the tongue portion through an opening in the garment, feeding the label portion through the slit in the tongue to form a loop, and drawing the loop tight.

Tags are formed from a sheet of strong flexible material by a cutting die. The tags so formed remain connected to the surrounding salvage material by a relatively small uncut connecting bridge formed at the end of the tongue portion of the tag. Sheets having cut tags are stapled together to form pads which are attached to a dispensing rack. Individual tags are removed by grasping the tag and tearing the connecting bridge.

An object of the invention is to provide an identification tag suitable for temporary attachment to garments. The tag is easily attached by inserting the tongue through an opening in the garment and then feeding the label portion through the slit in the tongue. When pulled tight, the bag will not come loose during the drycleaning process, and yet the customer may easily remove the tag without damaging the garment.

Another object of the invention is to provide a means of dispensing identification tags made from strong flexible materials. Identification tags generally are dispensed a preselected in order according to their identifying marks, and therefore it is desirable to fasten them together to form a pad. The material from which the tag is formed must be strong enough to withstand the rough treatment associated with the dry cleaning process but must yield to allow removal of the tag from the pad. Reliable dispensing characteristics are accomplished by fastening the flexible sheets to a rigid backing material and forming each tag with a connecting bridge between it and the salvage material. The connecting bridge readily tears to release the tag when pulled.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description. In the description reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which there is shown a preferred embodiment of the invention. Such embodiment does not represent the full scope of the invention, but rather the invention may be employed in many different embodiments, and reference is made to the claims herein for interpreting the breadth of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front view of a pad of the invented tags,

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the invented tag being inserted through an opening in a garment,

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the invented tag with the label portion being fed through the slit in the tongue portion,

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the invented tag attached to a garment, and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view with parts cut away of a pad of tags attached to a dispensing rack.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

A group of five tags 10 are formed side by side on a single rectangular sheet of strong flexible material 11. Each tag 10 includes a relatively wide, substantially rectangular label portion 12 and a relatively narrow tongue portion 13. Sheets of spun bonded polyolefin are preferred for this purpose because of the flexibility and strength of this material. The tags 10 are formed by a cutting die (not shown) which leaves uncut a pair of bridge connections 14 between the end of the tongue portion 13 and the salvage material 15. The briding connections 14 retain the tags 10 to the sheet 11 and provide a region which will readily tear when a tag 10 is pulled from the sheet 11.

Formed through each tongue 13 is a slit 16. The slit 16 has a length substantially equal to the width of the label portion 12 and is oriented along the center line of the tongue 13. Also formed through the tongue 13 is an eye 17 located along the center line near the end of the tongue 13.

The sheets 11, each having five tags 10 formed in it, are placed on top of one another to form a pad. The pad is placed on a sheet of rigid backing material 18 and attached to it by means of staples 19. The backing 18 is constructed of fiber board and has a tab 21 formed along its lower edge. The backing 18 is attached to a dispensing rack 20 by inserting its tab 21 under a spring loaded retainer bar 22 on the rack 20. The staples 19 are located to pass through the salvage material 15 surrounding each tongue portion 13. Tags 10 are dispensed by grasping the label portion 12 and pulling it to tear the bridge connections 14. The stapled salvage portions 15 serve not only to separate the tags, but also to retain the tags in place when being dispensed. This feature is particularly advantageous when slippery sheet materials such as the spun bonded polyolefin paper suggested herein are used.

As shown in FIGS. 2-4, the tags 10 are attached to a garment by inserting the tongue portion 13 through an opening such as a button hole. To aid in this step, a forked tool 23 can be used as shown in FIG. 2. One prong of the tool 23 is inserted in the eye 17 of the tag 10 and the end of the tongue 13 is pushed through the opening with the tool 23. In subsequent steps, the tongue 13 is pulled through the opening to expose the slit 16, the label portion 12 is passed through the slit 16 to form a loop as shown in FIG. 3, and the loop is tightened by pulling the label portion 12 away from the garment opening as shown in FIG. 4. The tag 10 is thus securely fastened to the garment.

The flexible spun bonded polyolefin paper is very strong and will not tear or loosen during the cleaning process. On the other hand, the tag 10 is easily removed from the garment by cutting the paper, or manually unfastening the tag by feeding the label portion 12 back through the slit 16. Also, the materials used to form both the tag and the dispensing apparatus are relatively inexpensive making the invented tag particularly useful where large numbers of low cost but reliable identifying tags are needed.

The tag need not be shaped in the specific manner shown in the drawings, however, a more secure connection of the tag 10 is obtained when, as shown herein, the label portion 12 is formed substantially wider than the tongue portion 13. When the tongue width is kept to a minimum, attachment of the tag 10 to the garment is made easier and more salvage material 15 is left to fasten the sheets together and provide a rigid base.

Claims

I claim:

1. A pad of identification tags formed by fastening together sheets of flexible material, wherein each sheet is cut to form a plurality of tags and salvage material, and a connecting bridge is formed between each tag and salvage material which is adapted to tear when the tagis pulled from the pad, and wherein each tag has a label portion and a tongue portion, each tongue portion having a slit through which the label portion is fed to form a loop around a portion of a garment or the like to which the tag is attached when removed from the pad.

2. The pad as recited in claim 1, wherein said flexible material is spun bonded polyolefin and said connecting bridges are located at the end of the tongue portion of each tag.

3. The pad as recited in claim 2, wherein the sheets of flexible material are fastened together by means of staples driven into a rigid backing material through salvage portions of each sheet.

4. The pad as recited in claim 3, wherein salvage portions are formed between the tongue portions of the tags on each sheet and staples are driven through each of these salvage portions to provide a relatively rigid separator between the tags.

5. A pad of identification tags, each tag being removable from the pad for attachment to a garment and each tag comprising:

a label portion formed from a sheet of flexible material which is adapted to receive an identifying mark on its surface; and

a tongue portion formed integrally with the label portion from the same flexible sheet material, said tongue portion having a width substantially less than both the width of the label portion and the length of the tongue portion, said tongue portion also having a slit through which the label portion can be fed to form a loop around a portion of the garment to which the tag is to be fastened.

6. The pad as recited in claim 5 wherein the flexible material from which each tag is formed is spun bonded polyolefin.

7. The pad as recited in claim 6 wherein an eye is formed through the tongue portion of each tag to receive a tool used to insert the tongue through openings in garments.