Laundry Hamper

The present invention relates to hampers, and more particularly to laundry hampers for use in storing laundry and transporting it to and from laundry facilities.

Our invention is an improved laundry hamper in that it combines the well-known and worthwhile features of a stationary, rigid and upright laundry hamper and a soft, flexible laundry bag which is very easy to transport. Our improved hamper comprises a laundry bag which is supported by an internal shell to stand upright to provide an access opening at the top for receiving the laundry items.

The prior art, of course, includes a wide variety of laundry hampers and laundry bags including duffel bags. The prior art also includes a variety of issued U.S. patents which show all sorts of bags, including refuse bags, with upright shells inside the bags to provide structural support and open top ends. Such prior U.S. patents are as follows: U.S. Pat. Nos. 576,782; 1,044,023; 1,139,281; 3,915,329; 3,983,914; 4,014,157; 4,037,778; 4,115,909; and 4,509,643.

We believe our hamper constitutes a significant improvement over the prior art for several reasons. Our hamper comprises a very durable and reusable bag, usually a durable cloth material bag, which can be used over and over again for many years conveniently to transport the laundry. Our presently preferred bag is a generally cylindrical bag having an open top end with a reduction means, such as a drawstring, to reduce the top end from a size generally equal to the diameter of the bag to a size small enough to restrain the laundry items. Inside this drawstring bag we place a collapsible cylindrical shell to support the bag in an upright fashion. After the removable shell is inserted into the bag and radially expanded, the upper end can be closed downwardly to an opening smaller than the diameter of the bag to lie generally in the plane of the upper edge of the shell. Our preferred support shell is a rectangular sheet of plastic material roll-formed or otherwise formed to provide a collapsible generally cylindrical shell. We take such a sheet of plastic and roll-form it so that it can be shipped in a tight tubular form and, when released, expanded outwardly to the diameter of the laundry bag. The plastic material will have sufficient memory to expand radially outwardly to the diameter of the bag.

Our invention, therefore, is a hamper comprising a bag formed to have a closed bottom end, an open top end, and sidewall means extending therebetween. Collapsible means is provided to be inserted into the bag and expanded. This collapsible means, when expanded, provides an upright support shell for the bag. This shell provides an upper edge defining a shell upper opening plane. The bag is provided with reduction means for drawing the open end into a bag opening smaller than the shell upper opening and lying generally in the shell upper opening plane.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the preferred hamper of our invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the hamper;

FIG. 3 is an elevational view of the plastic sheet which is rolled up to form the support shell;

FIG. 4 is an elevational view of the sidewall of the bag portion of the hamper;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of one illustrative technique for packaging the hamper for shipment and sale;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along lines 6--6 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the hamper showing the details of the top end portions;

FIG. 8 shows the bag with the shell support removed;

FIG. 9 shows an alternative form of the hamper using a four-sided shell support; and

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing an alternative hamper with a three-sided shell support.

Referring particularly to the drawstrings, it will be seen that our clothes hamper 10 comprises a generally cylindrical duffel bag 12 having an outer cylindrical wall 14 which terminates at its bottom edge 16 and its top edge 18 (FIG. 2). The bag has a generally circular bottom 20. The bottom 20 and the sidewall 14 are joined along the bottom seam line 21 (FIG. 4) of the sidewall, the stitching being indicated by the reference numeral 22 (FIG. 2). The top end 18 of the bag 12 is sewn as indicated at 24 to provide a sheath for receiving a drawstring. Specifically, the upper edge 18 is turned down and sewn along the line 26 shown in FIG. 4 to provide the drawstring sheath 24. The stitching along this line 26 is indicated at the reference numeral 28 in FIG. 2. The drawstring, indicated at 30, may be any tough and flexible cord placed in the sheath 24 so that it has two loose ends 32,34. These ends may be gathered together and threaded through a lock or clamp 36. A clamp which might be used is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,328,605. Such a clamp may be used to lock the drawstrings at any selected position.

In our preferred embodiment, the support shell 40 is a plastic sheet (FIG. 3) having a height A and a length D, an upper edge 42, a lower edge 44, and end edges 46,48. This plastic sheet is roll-formed or otherwise formed such that it will assume a generally cylindrical shape with the ends 46,48 overlapping as shown in FIG. 2. The sheet 40 may be a high density polyethylene sheet which may be rolled tightly down to a relatively small diameter tubular shape as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. When the sheet is released from its tightly rolled state, it will assume a generally cylindrical shape with the overlapping ends 46,48 as shown in FIG. 2. It will be appreciated that this shell will be resiliently expandable generally radially outwardly to the diameter of the bag 12. It will be seen in FIG. 4 that the sidewall 14 of the bag 12 has, when flattened out, a length E somewhat less than the shell length D. The sidewall 14 has a height B which is greater than the height A of the shell by the distance C. Because of this proportioning and sizing, when the shell is rolled as shown in FIG. 2 and inserted into the bag 12, the upper edge 42 of the shell will be below the upper end edge 18 of the bag by the distance C. When the drawstring 30 is tightened as shown in FIG. 7, the upper end portion of the bag will form a plane as shown in FIG. 7 lying generally in the plane defined by the circular upper edge 42 of the shell 40. The distance C is selected to provide for a hamper opening as indicated at 56 through which soiled laundry may be dropped into the hamper 10. When it is time to take the laundry to the laundry facility, the shell 40 may be removed from the bag leaving the laundry therein to produce a duffel bag 12 filled with soiled laundry as shown in FIG. 8. Because the shell 40 is relatively soft, many people may prefer to leave it in even when transporting the hamper 10.

Our hamper is particularly attractive in the configuration shown in FIGS. 1 and 7. It will be appreciated that the bag 12 itself may be made from a wide variety of cloth materials having a wide variety of decorative patterns or colors. For use in college dorms, the bags may be decorated with the college or university logos.

Our concept of having the upper end of the hamper be horizontal with a concentric opening 56 provides a particularly attractive and useful structure. It is relatively easy to use and the opening 56 may be easily enlarged, if necessary, by operating the lock 36 to loosen the drawstring 30 forming the opening 56.

Another attractive feature of our hamper is the packaging and shipping feature shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. Specifically, the shell 40 may be rolled tightly as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 to provide a tubular receptor for the bag 12. This tubular arrangement may be inserted into a shipping container 50 having corrugated sidewalls as indicated at 52. It will be appreciated that this packaging technique is merely illustrative.

FIGS. 9 and 10 represent alternative forms of our hamper. In FIG. 9, we show a hamper 58 comprising a bag 60 into which a four-sided support shell 62 may be inserted. it will be appreciated that the bag 60 may be cut and sewn to have four sides to accommodate the four sides of the removable shell 62. In FIG. 10, a triangular hamper 64 is shown comprising a triangularly-shaped bag 66 into which a triangular shell 68 is inserted. It will be appreciated that the rectangular shell 62 and the triangular shell 68 may be provided using any number of types of sheet stock formed to bend at vertical lines to provide the shell structures illustrated. When the shells are not used, of course, they may be folded to provide a flat assembly for shipping purposes.