Willamette Industries

William J Forstrom

Ronald S Gale

Charles L Carl

A combination of a self-opening shopping bag and a coupon packet is disclosed together with apparatus and a method for making same. A flat coupon packet containing coupons is affixed to the front panel of the bag. The coupon packet is sized and positioned widthwise between the side gussets of the bag and spaced apart from the bottom of the bag so that, when the bag is folded flat, only the front and rear panels of the bag underlie the packet. The coupon-applying apparatus is designed and positioned to apply coupons at the beginning of the bag-making procedure. It includes a glue applicator mounted adjacent the former of the bag-making machine for applying a strip of glue to a side of the continuous sheet opposite the forming means, the strip extending lengthwise of the sheet in a predetermined lateral position. A packet feeder is mounted on the former just downstream of the glue applicator for feeding coupon packets lengthwise of the paper flat onto the continuous sheet upon the strip of glue. A mechanical and electrical timing system is operably connected to a rotationally driven element of the bag-making machine for synchronizing therewith the operation of the glue applicator and packet feeder. It is timed to position each packet on the continuous sheet of bag paper at periodic intervals in a predetermined longitudinal location such that the packets neither interfere with nor are removed by subsequent steps in the bag-making procedure.

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West Linn, OR, United States of America

William J Forstrom