GB2236174A

GB2236174A - Thermally-insulated container

Info

Publication number: GB2236174A
Application number: GB9018672A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Anthony Philip Herbert
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1989-09-11
Filing date: 1990-08-24
Publication date: 1991-03-27
Also published as: GB9018672D0

Abstract

A thermally-insulated container comprising at least one insulated tube section (1) and an insulated closure (9, 15) for each end of the tube maintains its contents at a temperature substantially different from that of the surrounding atmosphere. A spacer disc (21) may be located in the tube. The container may include an attachment strip. In a modular construction, a number of containers may be screw-fitted together to increase the storage capacity. An internal restriction may be provided in the tube for preventing cans from falling freely through the tube. <IMAGE>

Description

INSULATED TUBE This invention relates to an insulated tube, and more particularly to an insulated tube for maintaining its contents at a temperature substantially different from that of the surrounding atmosphere.

Various insulated containers have been designed with the intention of maintaining their contents at temperatures substantially different from that of the surrounding atmosphere, but a number of them have disadvantages. A vacuum flask is, for example, very fragile. A typical picnic cool box is bulky and cumbersome. When people are involved, for example, in outdoor activities such as hiking or golfing, they might wish to carry beverages in a container which is preferably neither fragile nor bulky.

Another disadvantage of the typical cool box is that, owing to its generally cuboid shape, a proportionately large area forms the opening of the box, such that when it is opened to remove items from the box the temperature difference between the interior and the exterior is not efficiently maintained.

This would obviously be detrimental if there were some items remaining in the box.

According to the present invention there is provided an insulating container comprising at least one tubular section having a heat insulating wall and an insulating closure for each end of the container, the tubular section being adapted to accommodate articles to be heat insulated from ambient temperature in a stack, the articles being removable in turn via an opening at one end of the container.

Additionally, each tube section may have on a first end an external screw-thread, and on a second end an internal screw-thread, wherein tube sections may be fitted together to form a container of extended length, such that the container is characterised by having one externally screw-threaded end and one internally screw-threaded end, and wherein the end closures comprise an insulated screw cap which fits over the externally threaded end, and an insulated screw-in plug which fits into the internally threaded end.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 illustrates a longitudinal section of a container according to one embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 illustrates an axial cross-section of the embodiment shown in Figure 1; Figures 3A and 3B show an external view of the embodiment of Figure 1; Figures 4A, 4B and 4C show an alternative means of support for the container of the invention; Figure 5 shows a suggested means of axially extending the length of the container shown in Figure 1.

Figure 6 illustrates one embodiment of thread detail on the container of the invention; Figure 7 illustrates a modification to the container according to the invention; and Figure 8 illustrates a further modification of the container according to the invention.

The embodiment shown in Figure 1 and Figure 3A illustrates an insulated container comprising a tube section 1 having an externally screw-threaded portion 2 at one end 7 and a complementary internally screw-threaded portion 3 at the other end 8 of the tube. The main central portion of the tube is double-walled having an internal wall 4 separated from an external wall 5 by insulating material 6. Figure 2 illustrates the axial cross-section of tube 1.

The end 7 of the tube is closed by means of a cap 9 which has internally screw-threaded sides 10 wherein the screw-threads 11 are formed to fit complementarily over screw-threaded portion 2. The central part of the cap is double-walled and internal wall 12 and external wall 13 are separated by a layer of insulating material 14.

The end 8 of the tube is closed by means of a plug 15 which has externally screw-threaded sides 16, wherein the screw-threads 17 are formed to fit complementarily inside screw-threaded portion 3. The plug is also double-walled, with internal wall 18 and external wall 19 being separated by a layer of insulating material 20.

At least one spacer, which in this embodiment is in the form of a disc 21, is free to move axially inside the container.

This disc may be made from or filled with insulating material 22.

The walls of the abovementioned elements are preferably made Ny light-weight, durable plastic, and the insulating material is preferably expanded polystyrene.

The internal diameter of the tube section is preferably chosen such that ring-pull beverage cans may be fitted inside. The container would then be particularly useful for carrying cans of cold drinks during the summer or cans of hot soup during the winter. Suggested dimensions for such a container are as follows: Tube 1: minimum internal diameter: 65 mm minimum external diameter: 105 mm minimum double walled thickness: 20 mm Disc 21: minimum thickness: 20 mm The internal container length shown in this embodiment is preferably sufficient to hold three standard sized cans of drink stacked end to end, or two of the longer cans sometimes used for beers or other drinks.

The dimensions of the container are then such that it is of convenient size for attaching to a back pack or a golf caddy, for example. To this end a hanging strap 23 such as shown in Figure 3B may be fitted to the outside wall of the tube by means of two fasteners 24.

An alternative means for attaching the container to a golf caddy, rucksack, school bag or the like, or to the waist or leg of the user, is shown in Figures 4A, 4B and 4C, where two or more guides 30 allow a strap 31 to be passed peripherally around part of the circumference of the container 1 to support the container, the strap then being attached to the golf caddy, bag etc.

The screw threads on the tube section and on the cap and plug described and illustrated herein are merely employed as an example of the way in which the parts of the container may be assembled. Additional embodiments are also envisaged wherein the parts of the container are joined together by means of interlocking lugs and protrusions, or any other suitable means.

In use, beverage cans may be stored below the disc 21 in space 25 shown in Figure 1. When a can is required for consumption, the end plug 15 is removed and a full can is extracted. Because the area of the end plug is proportionately small with respect to the container, very little alteration in the internal temperature of the tube results. The cans remaining in the container may then drop down towards the end plug with the disc resting on top, thus insulating the cans from empty space 26. When the contents of the can have been drunk, cap 9 may be removed from the tube and the empty can replaced in space 26 to maintain the disc on top of the full cans even if the container is inverted, and to be conducive to tidyness. It may also be possible to provide a bias to urge the disc towards the full cans rather than relying upon the empty cans.

If the capacity of the container shown in Figures 1 and 3A is considered to be insufficient, further modular tube sections similar to tube section 1 can be fitted together end to end by joining the externally threaded end of one tube to the complementarily internally threaded end of the next tube, as shown in Figure 5. It may be desirable to incorporate additional discs between the individual cans or sections.

The walls of container 1, as illustrated in Figure 1, are shown to be double-walled only in the central portion, and the threaded portions at the ends 7 and 8 of the tube are not shown as being insulated in any way. Figure 6 however illustrates in detail the screw-threaded join between two tube sections where each threaded end also has a double-walled configuration, thus providing better insulation at the join. This feature of the invention is of particular benefit in preventing heat loss/gain when an extended tube is formed in the manner described in Figure 5.

The embodiment of the invention described in Figure 1 is such that double-walled and insulated screw-threaded portions of the plug and cap would probably not provide significant improvements in the overall insulation of the container.

It is envisaged that, particularly when the extended container comprising several tube sections is used, removal of one article or can from the base of the tube might be difficult to control as a consequence of the weight of the other articles stacked above it in the container.

Accordingly it is suggested that a further optional feature might be added to the container, as shown in the cross section of Figure 7 from which details of the insulation have been omitted for clarity. The tube 1 is provided with a minor restriction comprising an inward protrusion 32 from the inner wall of the tube. The situation of this protrusion along the length of the tube is preferably chosen such that one article or can will fit freely below the protrusion in space 33, while the remainder of the cans are held by the protrusion against the pull of gravity in the space 34 when the container is upright. Insertion of the empty article or can at the top of the container would be sufficient to push the stack downwards such that the new bottom can moves past the protrusion and is in position to fall freely from the container when another full can is required.The protrusion is preferably made of resilient material such as foam plastic which could be adhered to the interior wall of the container by means of double sided tape or any other suitable means of attachment. The protrusion is preferably of variable size such that it accommodates cans having various different diameters.

Alternatively it is envisaged that a ring having flexible inward protrusions forming an opening slightly smaller than the diameter of a can may be fitted inside the container, at one end of the tube for example, to allow for the controlled removal of cans from the container, one at a time. The ring may be made of flexible plastic, such that the protrusions may be bent slightly to permit a can to pass through the ring on the application of sufficient force.

A further variation of the invention is envisaged, wherein each unitary tube section need only have a length sufficient to accommodate one can, such that the user may extend the container to hold any number of cans as required, and may choose the final length of insulating container most suited to his needs.

If an insulated container is required to hold only one can, then preferably only one unitary section having the length of one can is used. In this situation, it would be possible to form the tube section and end plug as a single item, as shown in Figure 8, where the cap 9 may be complementarily fitted to the open end as before. This closed tube section 35 could also be used as an alternative to the end plug 15 shown in Figure 1, thus forming the end closure of a container of extended length.

In the embodiment illustrated, the tubes were shown having circular cross-sections, this being the preferred shape for an insulated container for cans of drink and the like.

However, it is envisaged that for other uses the cross-sectional shape of the body of the tube could be non-circular, provided that the spacer has a complementary cross-section. In an embodiment wherein a container has a non-circular cross section, the tube sections might be joined together by means of circular threaded end portions as before, or might be mutually engaged by means of a frictional fit between the ends, which are then held together by clips such as case clips, or any other suitable fastening means.

Claims

CLAINS

1. A modular system forming an insulating container comprising at least one tubular modular section, having a heat insulating wall and at least one insulating closure, being adapted to accommodate articles to be heat insulated from ambient temperature.

2. A modular system according to claim 1 further comprising an insulating spacer that acts as an axially moveable insulating boundary within the tube.

3. A modular system according to claim 1 or claim 2 in which at least one end of each tubular section is provided with means for co-operatively engaging a closure or another tubular section.

4. A modular system according to claim 3 in which one end of each tubular section has an internal screw thread.

5. A modular system according to claim 4 in which one end of each tubular section has an external screw thread.

6. A modular system according to claim 4 or claim 5 wherein a first end closure comprises an insulated screw-in plug which fits into the internally threaded end of the tubular member.

7. A modular system according to claim 5 wherein a second end closure comprises an insulated screw cap which fits over the externally threaded end of the tubular member.

8. A modular system forming an insulating container comprising at least one tubular section having a heat insulating wall and an insulating closure for each end of the container, the tubular section being adapted to accommodate articles to be heat insulated from ambient temperature in a stack, the articles being removable in turn via an opening at one end of the container.

9. A modular system according to any preceding claim wherein a resilient restriction is provided in the interior of the container.

10. A modular system according to any preceding claim which is substantially double walled, providing a wall space which is filled with insulating material.

11. A modular system according to any preceding claim in which the tubular member has a circular cross-section and is dimensioned to accommodate cans of beverages.