Appeal No. 95-4806
Application No. 08/155,730
complicates the process. For this reason, when the webs are
manufactured, they are conveyed in the direction of the closed
end of the bags and therefore, when the web is coiled for
transport to the user, the closed ends of the bags are
oriented inwardly of the coil, with the open ends being
outwardly oriented. Removing the bags by unwinding from the
outside of the coil at the packaging station caused the open
ends to be oriented in the direction of travel which, as
explained above, was undesirable. Therefore, it was the
practice in the prior art to rewind each coil of bags before
use in the packaging operation, so that as the bags were
unwound from the outside of the coil they were oriented with
the closed end in the direction of travel. This process of
rewinding was a slow and complicated one, for there seemingly
was no way to avoid moving the web in the direction of the
opening in the bags, with the attendant problem of the bags
opening. Several techniques were tried over the years to
prevent the bags from opening during rewinding, but none were
considered to be successful. See Brief, pages 2-5.
The appellant’s solution to the problem was not to rewind
the coiled web, but to remove the web from the inside of the
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