EP0879190A1 - Recipient flexible portatif destine a garder des articles froids - Google Patents
Recipient flexible portatif destine a garder des articles froidsInfo
- Publication number
- EP0879190A1 EP0879190A1 EP97900507A EP97900507A EP0879190A1 EP 0879190 A1 EP0879190 A1 EP 0879190A1 EP 97900507 A EP97900507 A EP 97900507A EP 97900507 A EP97900507 A EP 97900507A EP 0879190 A1 EP0879190 A1 EP 0879190A1
- Authority
- EP
- European Patent Office
- Prior art keywords
- envelope
- articles
- need
- during transport
- cold
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Withdrawn
Links
Definitions
- This invention relates to a cold envelope having a purpose of holding articles cold that need to be kept cold during a modest transport period of time.
- Articles such as medicines, biological materials and the like are the type of materials that need to be transported typically from a central storage locality to a retail sales outlet.
- the challenge then has been to be able to provide a package which can be as small as possible and therefor as economic as possible in terms of the material needed to manufacture the holder while at the same time the package should provide an arrangement that can be used over a repeated number of times, which will take up a minimum amount of space, will reliably hold any articles therein within a selected temperature range over a selected period and will ensure that when articles are within the arrangement, they will be appropriately subjected to appropriate cooling.
- An object of this invention is to propose a cold pack for articles that need to be kept cold during transport which answers at least one of the above difficulties or provides the public with a useful alternative.
- a cold keeping envelope for articles that need to be kept cold during transport comprising an outer insulating envelope and an inner envelope or envelope like shape having liquid or liquid like material to be frozen held within a plurality of separate cells forming the inner envelope such that when the liquid or liquid like material is frozen solid, the inner envelope can be caused to open by relative rotation of adjacent frozen cells to allow for insertion of articles therein.
- This in preference, is directed to an envelope as a shape and proposes two envelopes or envelope and envelope like shape one encompassing the other in which the inner envelope or envelope like shape holds the material that will keep the inner articles cold.
- the conventional problem here though is if one uses an envelope shape, when liquid held within an inner envelope shape is frozen, this will be frozen rigid and one simply will not be able to easily open the envelope shape to get articles inside.
- the answer has been to divide the frozen materials into separate cells which extend into an envelope shape but such that the connections between each cell are not going to be made rigid by freezing at least at temperatures at which the liquid or liquid like material will be frozen solid so that the cells will pivot one with respect to another about their mutual joint areas.
- the simple result is that one has an inner frozen part which will be able to be flexed open to allow for an envelope opening so as to be able to put articles therein and even thereafter to be able to close the envelope so that the articles within the envelope shape and especially nested within the inner envelope shape can be assured of being adjacent frozen liquid or liquid-like materials and thus ensure that all parts of the article will be kept at a relatively uniformly cold temperature.
- a further problem is to provide an external envelope which can provide most effective insulation without being vulnerable to easy deterioration or being too heavy or too bulky and in this respect, a material that is conventionally used for postage and packing has been found to be ideal namely a sheet or sheets of plastics material in a bubble formation and in further preference, this has sides welded together to form an envelope shape thus forming the outer insulation envelope.
- Such material is transparent as conventionally supplied in its normally provided form and there is therefore provided in conjunction with this, in preference, an opaque heat reflective surface on the outer side of the outer envelope material.
- one of the problems could be that an article when quickly inserted by persons not thoughtfully considering the position could be to insert articles between the inner and outer envelope shapes.
- These types of materials can be pharmaceutical materials and the temperature range that is preferred lies between the range of 2°C to 8°C.
- the envelope has frozen liquid or gel on both sides of the envelope shape, then this can cause the interior to be colder than 2°C for at least some period of time and in accord with this further preferred improvement then it has been found that there is advantage in providing that the inner envelope shape has cells holding a liquid or liquid like material to be frozen where this is located on one side of the inner envelope shape only.
- a further preferred feature includes the incorporation of two layers of plastic retaining air in bubble-like formations.
- the temperature is kept within the desirable range of 2°C to 8°C over a longer period of time.
- the double stack of bubble like formed plastic sheets can also be heat sealed together so as to form parts of lesser thickness which will encourage bending around such locations and by providing these are generally in align with the same patterns of the cells containing the material to be frozen, then when an envelope constructed in accordance with the described features is subjected to freezing and afterwards then opened to receive material to be transported, the opening will follow bending of the surfaces in accordance with the heat welded seams and therefore present a relatively neat box like shape appropriate to receive the material and to be subsequently sealed by a flap in the manner previously described in the other two specifications.
- this gel pack is then welded at its edges with respect to the remaining materials forming the envelope shape.
- a central cell and a plurality of side or perimeter cells adapted to allow for an opening shape in which the side cells will be caused to rotate so that a full opening position has each of the side cells substantially aligned at right angles to the planar orientation of the central cell.
- Such an arrangement as a further preferable feature reduces the rate at which heat is drawn from any product within the innermost insulating envelope so that it will implicitly take a lot longer for this to cool down to a below freezing temperature but at the same time, the otherwise frozen gel will be also increasing in temperature because of external exposure so that by the time the innermost envelope has within it a temperature approaching very close to zero, it would be a reasonable expectation that the frozen cells will be appropriately less cold so there will be a balancing of temperature differentials.
- FIG 1 is a perspective view of an envelope according to the embodiment
- FIG 2 is a perspective view of the other side of the envelope as shown in FIG 1 ;
- FIG 3 is a separated and exploded view of parts of the envelope as shown in FIGS 1 and 2;
- FIG 4 shows the next stage after FIG 3 by which the parts making up the inner envelope are now joined to the outer sheet
- FIG 5 is the welded together finished product
- FIG 6 is a side elevation of the finished product
- FIG 7 is a plan view of the product
- FIG 8 is a cross-sectional view along the lines 8,8 in FIG 7;
- FIG 9 is a cross-sectional view along the lines 9,9 as shown in FIG 7;
- FIG 10 is a cross-section showing in much more detail the elements forming the inner end of the envelope as shown in the preceding figures;
- FIG 11 is a side cross-sectional view again showing all of the elements in much greater detail
- FIG 12 is an exploded view of a second embodiment
- FIG 13 is the second embodiment in which the inner envelope is now located against the inner face of the outer insulating envelope and the drawing shows the two in an unjoined condition along each side;
- FIG 14 is the view of the arrangement as in FIG 13 when it is joined together along the peripheral sides;
- FIG 15 is a side view of the embodiment as in FIG 14;
- FIG 16 is a plan view
- FIG 17 is a cross-sectional view, partly schematic, showing the envelope in its opened form
- FIG 18 is a further cross-sectional view
- FIGS 19 and 20 are other perspective views from the external side of the second embodiment
- FIG 21 is a perspective view showing the several parts making up the envelope in accordance with this embodiment.
- FIG 22 is a perspective view where the elements have been joined together prior to forming the final envelope shape;
- FIG 23 is a perspective view of the envelope as finally constructed.
- the envelope 1 is intended to be of conventional envelope shape so that when not in use, and whether frozen or not, it will assume a substantially flat or planar shape so that a number of such envelopes can be stacked in storage or in a freezing compartment awaiting use without taking up substantial volume.
- an inner envelope shape is made by sheets of plastic having trapped cells of liquid between themselves in which liquid to be frozen is kept.
- These cells are perhaps best seen in FIG 3 in which it can be seen that there are a plurality of cells which are divided both longitudinally and laterally so that there is a middle longitudinal division at 4 and two lateral divisions at 5 and 6, each of these being such that whether the liquid in a respective cell such as 7 and 8 is frozen and therefore rigid, from cell to cell, they can bend simply because the plastic between them has excluded any frozen and therefore rigid material and the plastic is implicitly pliable.
- the next problem is to provide insulation so that the frozen liquids with enclosed articles can be kept in the cold state for as long as possible during transport.
- an outer envelope a sheet of plastics material which is formed so that there are retained between respective sheets of plastics, bubbles which are in the form of a plurality of side by side cylinder shapes trapping air.
- Such material is conventionally used for packing purposes and might be referred to in a conventional manner as a bubble pack. This material is conventionally used because it will provide substantial cushioning with very light weight and low cost.
- Such external reflective material 12 should be able to reflect radiant heat and a highly reflective silver coating has been used in the embodiment.
- a next problem however has been to ensure that any articles that might be inserted into the now frozen envelope 1 shall be surrounded by the frozen materials and to this extent therefore the forward most edges of the inner envelope material are welded at the mouth of the envelope shape to the outer envelope bubble material so that if the mouth is opened at all, both the inner and outer envelope is opened so that there simply cannot be access to the envelope other than into the central mouth so that any articles then inserted are sure to be located safely between the frozen cells forming the inner envelope.
- inner end of inner envelope shape at 17 is also adhered to the bottom or inner end 18 of the outer envelope so that when the inner envelopes liquid or liquid like materials are not frozen, these nonetheless will be kept spread out so that when they are frozen, they will remain in the essentially planar alignment as shown in FIGS 4 and 5 of the drawings.
- the sides are also welded together as shown in FIG 11 so that we have a composite sandwich joining along the full side of the respective inner and outer envelopes.
- closure flap 19 there is a closure flap 19 and this is adapted to be used to close fully around the otherwise open mouth 20 envelope there can in the embodiment be an appropriate adhesion material shown typically at 21 to ensure that the flap 19 will stay in a closed position during transport.
- the inner envelope shape is achieved by comprising cells have different shapes which facilitates the shape of the overall envelope when it is opened and the cells are frozen.
- the envelope 22 includes a central large cell 23 for each side and side cells shown typically at 24, 25, 26 and 27 and so on where in each case, these are located around the periphery of the centre cell 23 and at the corners are divided by a diagonal join shown typically at 28 so that the joins between the frozen cells will allow for a flexing of these joins and such that the cell shapes, in each case, will facilitate an open shape inside the envelope which is most efficient for holding a package of rectilinear shape.
- the envelope 31 is constructed of a metallised reflective material providing an outer layer shown at 32 and attached to this is the double layer of plastic bubble material shown at 33 this material being divided by heat seams as shown typically at 34 and finally there is a pouch containing gel at 35, this being divided by heat compressed seams shown typically at 36 which promotes the bending of the material even when the gel is frozen.
- FIG 22 shows the elements prior to final closure around the perimeter by heat sealing so that there is then formed an envelope shape however between a gel provided in frozen form by the pack 35, and the double layer of bubble pack material at 33.
- the envelope is otherwise economic to manufacture, relatively sturdy as far as long use is concerned and is safe to use for those who might otherwise be inexperienced in dealing with such products.
Abstract
L'invention concerne une enveloppe destinée à conserver des matières sensibles telles que des médicaments dans des plages de températures acceptables, pendant des durées permettant le transport des médicaments jusqu'aux receveurs. L'enveloppe de conservation à froid présente une enveloppe isolante extérieure et une enveloppe intérieure ou forme de type enveloppe comportant une matière liquide ou de type liquide à congeler, contenue à l'intérieur d'une pluralité de cellules séparées formant l'enveloppe intérieure, de sorte que lorsque la matière liquide ou de type liquide est congelée à l'état solide, l'enveloppe intérieure ou forme de type enveloppe puisse être encore ouverte facilement par une rotation relative des cellules séparées, ce qui permet l'insertion d'articles. L'invention concerne également des structures comprenant une enveloppe extérieure constituée d'un film à bulles d'air présentant une surface métallisée réfléchissante, réunissant les parties d'enveloppes intérieure et extérieure à double épaisseur de matière en film à bulles d'air, utilisant des cellules congelées uniquement sur une face de la forme d'enveloppe, ainsi que des formes et des emplacements relatifs de cellules facilitant le fléchissement des matières congelées.
Applications Claiming Priority (7)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUPN7763/96 | 1996-01-29 | ||
| AUPN7763A AUPN776396A0 (en) | 1996-01-29 | 1996-01-29 | Cold envelope |
| AUPN9161A AUPN916196A0 (en) | 1996-04-10 | 1996-04-10 | Cold envelope |
| AUPN9161/96 | 1996-04-10 | ||
| AUPN3773/96 | 1996-11-22 | ||
| AUPN377396 | 1996-11-22 | ||
| PCT/AU1997/000047 WO1997028064A1 (fr) | 1996-01-29 | 1997-01-29 | Recipient flexible portatif destine a garder des articles froids |
Publications (2)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| EP0879190A1 true EP0879190A1 (fr) | 1998-11-25 |
| EP0879190A4 EP0879190A4 (fr) | 2001-02-07 |
Family
ID=27157873
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| EP97900507A Withdrawn EP0879190A4 (fr) | 1996-01-29 | 1997-01-29 | Recipient flexible portatif destine a garder des articles froids |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| EP (1) | EP0879190A4 (fr) |
Citations (3)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US5005374A (en) * | 1990-04-27 | 1991-04-09 | Chillynex Corporation | Thermal wraps |
| US5237838A (en) * | 1992-05-22 | 1993-08-24 | Merritt Munson Carolann | Portable refrigerated cosmetic carrying bag |
| US5352502A (en) * | 1993-03-05 | 1994-10-04 | Fuller Sheila P | Foldable freeze gel wrap |
-
1997
- 1997-01-29 EP EP97900507A patent/EP0879190A4/fr not_active Withdrawn
Patent Citations (3)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US5005374A (en) * | 1990-04-27 | 1991-04-09 | Chillynex Corporation | Thermal wraps |
| US5237838A (en) * | 1992-05-22 | 1993-08-24 | Merritt Munson Carolann | Portable refrigerated cosmetic carrying bag |
| US5352502A (en) * | 1993-03-05 | 1994-10-04 | Fuller Sheila P | Foldable freeze gel wrap |
Non-Patent Citations (1)
| Title |
|---|
| See also references of WO9728064A1 * |
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| EP0879190A4 (fr) | 2001-02-07 |
Similar Documents
| Publication | Publication Date | Title |
|---|---|---|
| US6223551B1 (en) | Portable flexible container for keeping articles cold | |
| ES2338384T3 (es) | Caja de carton con aletas plegables. | |
| US5237838A (en) | Portable refrigerated cosmetic carrying bag | |
| CN101754898B (zh) | 隔热运输袋 | |
| EP0389257B1 (fr) | Sachet souple renforcé pour faciliter le versement | |
| ES2237388T3 (es) | Embalaje flexible que se puede volver a cerrar. | |
| JP4317265B2 (ja) | 凍結と解凍に使用するバッグ、成形型、装置および方法 | |
| US4998646A (en) | Flexible pouch contoured to facilitate pouring | |
| US6450685B1 (en) | Resealable metalized thermal bag | |
| US20080066490A1 (en) | Compartmentalized refrigerant wrap | |
| US20090046956A1 (en) | Transparent pouch with zipper access opening | |
| US20130129261A1 (en) | Insulating Material | |
| US20230257186A1 (en) | Thermally insulated flexible container | |
| US20050111764A1 (en) | Dual compartment plastic bag | |
| JPS62501064A (ja) | 等温パツケ−ジ | |
| EP0879190A1 (fr) | Recipient flexible portatif destine a garder des articles froids | |
| JPH1081347A (ja) | 小出し機能付き袋 | |
| CA2270748C (fr) | Sac de transport isole | |
| US20120014624A1 (en) | Insulated Bag for Ice Storage | |
| JP3025936U (ja) | 食品容器 | |
| US20080075814A1 (en) | Emergency food packaging | |
| JPH0226837Y2 (fr) | ||
| JPH0614660Y2 (ja) | 化粧品ケース | |
| JP3021516U (ja) | 飲料水袋 | |
| JP3015966U (ja) | 食料品ケース |
Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| PUAI | Public reference made under article 153(3) epc to a published international application that has entered the european phase |
Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009012 |
|
| 17P | Request for examination filed |
Effective date: 19980729 |
|
| AK | Designated contracting states |
Kind code of ref document: A1 Designated state(s): AT BE CH DE DK ES FR GB GR IE IT LI LU MC NL PT SE |
|
| A4 | Supplementary search report drawn up and despatched |
Effective date: 20001228 |
|
| AK | Designated contracting states |
Kind code of ref document: A4 Designated state(s): AT BE CH DE DK ES FR GB GR IE IT LI LU MC NL PT SE |
|
| 17Q | First examination report despatched |
Effective date: 20030318 |
|
| STAA | Information on the status of an ep patent application or granted ep patent |
Free format text: STATUS: THE APPLICATION IS DEEMED TO BE WITHDRAWN |
|
| 18D | Application deemed to be withdrawn |
Effective date: 20060801 |