This invention relates to bag holders, and is concerned particularly with bag holders of the kind for retaining a bag with its mouth open to facilitate the loading of material, for example builder's rubble or garden refuse, into the bag.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved bag holder of the above kind.

According to the present invention a bag holder for retaining a bag with its mouth open, comprises a hollow body of generally-tubular form that is open at both top and bottom, and retention means for engagement within the mouth of the bag as entered through the open bottom of the body to retain the bag within the body with its mouth opened out wedged against the inside wall-surface of the body.

The retention means may take the form of a ring that wedges within the hollow body, for example at a depth substantially half way between the top and bottom of the body. The ring may be of a truncated generally-conical configuration.

The body may have a substantially-flat tongue projecting from its open top, and its wall may be of a truncated generally-conical configuration in transverse cross-section. More especially, the transverse cross-section of the body may be substantially of D-shape, and the retaining means may also have a D-shape configuration conforming substantially to this.

A bag holder in accordance with the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a exploded perspective view of the bag holder according to the invention, showing its component parts, a retention ring and the bag-holder body, separated from one another;

FIG. 2 is a sectional side view of the bag holder with its retention ring within the bag-holder body; and

FIG. 3 is illustrative of the bag holder of FIGS. 1 and 2 when fitted with a bag and held off the ground.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the bag holder consists of a body 1 and a ring 2 both molded in one piece of high-density polythene. The body 1 is of a hollow, generally-tubular form having an open top 3 and an open bottom 4 of slightly-smaller cross-section that the top 3. More particularly, the body 1 has a wall 5 of a truncated generally-conical configuration that is flat throughout a part 6 of its circumference, giving it a transverse cross-section of D-shape. The flat part 6 of the wall 5 projects upwardly in a substantially-flat tongue 7 from the arcuate rim 8 of the open top 3.

Three mutually-spaced hand-grips 9 that project above the rim 8 are molded integrally with the body 1 to the outside of the wall 5, one diametrically opposite the tongue 7 and the other two diametrically opposite one another at right angles to this. Two outwardly-projecting lugs 10 are molded integrally with the body 1 on the outside of the wall 5 either side of each hand-grip 9.

The ring 2 is of a D-shape configuration conforming to that of the transverse cross-section of the body 1, but is of smaller diameter than the rim 8 so that it can be entered into the open top 3 of the body 1. However, the inside transverse cross-section of the body 1 reduces gradually from the top 3 down to the bottom 4, so that the depth to which the ring 2 can be entered before wedging against the inside of the wall 5 (as illustrated in FIG. 2), is limited to about half the full depth. The wall 11 of the ring 2 is of a truncated generally-conical configuration but less pronounced than that of the wall 5, so that wedging of the ring 2 is enhanced. It is the wedging of the outside of the wall 11 with the inside of the wall 5 that is used to retain a bag within the body 1.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, a bag 20 is retained in the body 1 with its mouth 21 held open and wedged by the ring 2 against the inside of the wall 5, and with a substantial, lower part 22 of the bag 20 hanging down through the open bottom 4. Engagement and retention of the bag 20 within the body 1 is brought about by inserting the mouth 21 of the bag 20 upwardly through the open bottom 4 of the body 1, placing the ring 2 within the mouth 21 to hold it open, and then pushing the ring 2 with the bag 20, down within the body 1 to wedge the open mouth 21 against the inside of the wall 5 under the tight-fitting ring 2. In this condition, any loading of the bag 20 that tends to pull it away from the body 1 when the holder is lifted by the hand-grips 9, merely tightens the wedging of the bag 20 to the body 1 under the ring 2.

The bag holder can be used in various way, but there are two principal modes. In one of these, the bag holder stands upright with its bottom 4 on the ground and with the lower part 22 of the retained bag 20 extending out across the ground from underneath it. Material can now be loaded into the bag 20 by dropping it through the top 3 of the body 1 to fall into the open top 21 of the bag 20; the material may, for example, be builder's rubble shovelled into the top 21. As the part of the bag 20 within the body 1 fills, so the material can be transferred to the lower part 22 of the bag 20 simply by lifting the body 1 using the grips 9, and repeating this until the bag 20 as a whole becomes full. The full bag 20 can then be easily freed from the holder ready for replacement by another, empty bag, by removing the ring 2 from within the body 1 and lifting the body 1 clear.

In the other principal mode of use, the body 1 is laid on its side with the flat part 6 on the ground. This locates the tongue 7 on the ground projecting forwardly from the body 1 so that material can be readily swept or otherwise pushed onto it and through the open top 3 into the bag 20; the material may, for example, be garden rubbish swept by broom into the bag 20. The material can be transferred down the bag 20 out of the body 1, simply by lifting the body 1 using one or more of the grips 9. Once the bag 20 becomes full it can be freed from the holder by lifting the body 1 up so as to stand the bag 20 upright using the grips 9, removing the ring 2, and lifting the body 1 from it.

When the bag holder is not in use, it can be stacked with the ring inside, together with one or more other, similar holders, the holders being stacked upright, partially inside one another. The depth to which the bag holder can be inserted into another for stacking is limited by its outwardly-projecting lugs 10. The lugs 10 abut the rim 8 of the other holder to prevent the two holders becoming wedged together, allowing them to be separated easily when required for use.

In one example of a bag holder constructed as described above, the thickness of each wall 5 and 12 is some 3 millimetre, the body 1 has a height of 200 millimetre with the tongue 7 projecting above this by some 56 millimetre, and the diameters of the top 3 and bottom 4 are 375 millimetre and 300 millimetre respectively, whereas the height of the ring 2 is 75 millimetre and its top and bottom diameters are 350 millimetre and 325 millimetre respectively. With this construction, wedging of the ring 2 within the body 1 normally occurs at a height of about 50 millimetre above the bottom 4 of the body 1. It will be apparent that this height is dependent partly on the thickness of bag-wall but more especially on the general diameter of the ring 2.