GB2430352A

GB2430352A - A receptacle with a compartment holding additive

Info

Publication number: GB2430352A
Application number: GB0519670A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Andrew Manson
Original assignee: Field Group PLC
Current assignee: Field Group PLC
Priority date: 2005-09-27
Filing date: 2005-09-27
Publication date: 2007-03-28
Also published as: GB0519670D0

Abstract

A receptacle 2, comprises at least one compartment 10 containing a substance for introduction to the receptacle 2. The compartment 10 is breakable open so as to allow the contents of the compartment 10 to be introduced into the receptacle 2. The receptacle may be for a beverage. Each compartment may be in a wall of the receptacle and may be of blister pack form. Alternatively, such a compartment may be provided in a lid for a receptacle.

Description

89276 213

RECEPTACLES

The present invention relates to receptacles and more particularly, but not exclusively, to drinking receptacles.

It is common to make a beverage by putting a concentrated liquid beverage, a dried beverage powder e g coffee or tea, into a cup or other receptacle, and adding water. The receptacle may be disposable, for example a paper cup. This is particularly common in fast food outlets, where a server will add the ingredients to the cup, add hot or cold water and serve the beverage to a customer.

In certain situations, however, this is not always convenient. For example, a user may not have a supply of the necessary dried or concentrated beverage and any associated creamer or sweetener to add to the receptacle. Also, should the dried or concentrated beverage be old, it may have lost its freshness and thus not produce a satisfactory beverage. Finally, making the beverage in this way may be messy and time consuming The present invention seeks to overcome the above problems and from a first aspect provides a receptacle, said receptacle comprising at least one compartment containing a substance for introduction to the receptacle, said compartment being breakable open so as to allow the contents of the compartment to be introduced into the receptacle Thus in accordance with the invention a receptacle, particularly a liquid receptacle, is provided with one or more compartments containing substances which can be broken out of the compartments into the receptacle.

Preferably a compartment contains a beverage additive, either in liquid or solid form Thus, for example, a compartment could contain a concentrated fruit juice additive or equally, for example, a dried beverage product such as coffee or tea Preferably the receptacle comprises a plurality of compartments This will potentially accommodate different additives, such as sweeteners, creamers and so on, or allow multiple doses of an additive to be accommodated, such that the strength of a beverage, its sweetness, milkiness and so on can be chosen by a user In order to retain freshness of its contents, a compartment is preferably sealed and airtight The compartment may be formed at least in part integrally with a wall of the receptacle. Thus, for example, an outer part of each compartment may be provided by a wall of the receptacle Preferably the inner wall of the compartment is formed by a frangible membrane, for example, a plastics or foil membrane which seals across the face of the compartment in order to retain the additive Thus a wall of the container may be provided with one or more recesses into which one or more additives can be placed and one or more membranes sealed over those compartments A separate membrane may be provided for each compartment, but in a preferred embodiment, a single membrane may seal a plurality of compartments.

In an alternative embodiment, the compartments may be formed separately from, and attached to, the receptacle For example, in one such embodiment the compartment may be formed as a blister pack mounted to a wall of the receptacle. The wall of the receptacle can, therefore, contain a suitable aperture to receive the blister pack This arrangement has the advantage that the compartments can be filled and sealed remotely from the point of manufacture of the receptacle Furthermore, the material of the compartments may be chosen as appropriate for the application For example, the outer wall of the compartment can be made transparent such that its contents may be viewed by a user The receptacle can be made from any suitable material It may, for example be moulded from an expanded plastics material. In the preferred embodiment, however, the receptacle is made from paperboard or carton board.

Preferably the receptacle has outwardly flaring side wall surfaces to allow a plurality of receptacles to be nested within one another Although the invention has been described above in relation to the compartments being formed in a wall of the receptacle, it will be quite possible for these compartments to be formed in a lid for the product Accordingly, the invention also extends to such a lid Moreover, the invention also extends to a wall of or for the receptacle having such compartments Some preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a receptacle in accordance with the invention; Figure 2 is a horizontal cross section through the receptacle of Figure 1, Figure 3 is a horizontal cross section through a variation of the construction shown in Figure 1; and Figure 4 shows a stage in the manufacture of the arrangement of Figure 1 With reference to Figure 1, a drinks receptacle 2 comprises a wall 4 which is made from a blank of foldable sheet material such as paperboard or cardboard The blank material 4 may be treated e g coated with a suitable material so as to make it waterproof Such board materials are well known in the art and need not be discussed further here. As shown in Figure 2, the bottom of the receptacle is closed by a base wall 6 in a known manner The wall 4 is provided with three generally elliptical apertures 8 through which project three compartments 10 formed in a blister pack 12 The blister pack 12 is adhered to the inner surface 14 of the wall in the regions around the apertures 8.

The main body 16 of the blister pack 12 is vacuum formed from a transparent plastics material, and the compartments 10 formed in the blister pack 12 are sealed by a metallic or other foil member 1 8 which extends across the open mouth of all three compartments 10 Each of the compartments 10 contains an additive 20 for the beverage In one particular example, a first additive may be a powdered beverage such as coffee or tea, the second additive may be a sweetener such as sugar or saccharine and the third compartment may contain a creamer, such as powdered milk These additives will typically be filled and sealed into the blister pack 12 at a location remote from the location where the blister pack 12 is mounted to the wall 4.

As illustrated in Figure 4, the blister pack is preferably mounted to the wall 4 prior to that wall being folded up into its final shape, in order to facilitate manufacture When a user wants to make a beverage, he or she may burst one or more of the compartments 10 by pressing inwardly, thereby breaking the frangible foil 18, thereby releasing the contents into the receptacle He or she may then add hot water The user may choose which compartments to break open depending on his or her taste preferences.

Turning now to Figure 3, an alternative embodiment of receptacle is shown In this embodiment, rather than being formed in a separate blister pack 12, compartments 30 are formed, at least in part, integrally in the wall 4 of the cup. This can be done, for example, by pressure forming the blank in the appropriate area(s) to form the necessary number of indentations in the wall Then, individual additives 32 may be filled into the indentations when the wall blank is flat, and a frangible membrane 34 then sealed, e g heat sealed, across the open mouth of each compartment 30 The wall blank 4 may then be folded and made up into the cup wall A beverage can then be formed in the same manner as with the first embodiment described above It will be understood, for example, from Figure 1, that in the preferred arrangement shown, the wall 4 of the receptacle 2 slopes outwardly, allowing receptacles to be nested within one another for transport and storage purposes. This will make then particularly suitable for e.g vending applications.

It will be appreciated that various modifications can be made to the embodiments described above without departing from the scope of the invention.

For example, individual membranes 18 may seal the respective compartments 10.

Also, individual blister packs 12 may form individual compartments 10

Claims

Claims 1. A receptacle, said receptacle comprising at least one

compartment containing a substance for introduction to the receptacle, said compartment being breakable open so as to allow the contents of the compartment to be introduced into the receptacle
2. A receptacle as claimed in claim 1 wherein said compartment contains a beverage additive
3 A receptacle as claimed in claim I or 2 wherein the receptacle comprises a plurality of compartments
4. A receptacle as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said compartment is I
5 sealed and airtight.

A receptacle as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said compartment is formed, at least in part, integrally with a wall of the receptacle.
6 A receptacle as claimed in claim 5 wherein an outer part of said compartment is provided by a wall of the receptacle.
7 A receptacle as claimed in claim 5 or 6 wherein the inner wall of the compartment is formed by a frangible membrane
8 A receptacle as claimed in claim 6 or 7 wherein the wall of the container is provided with a recess to form the compartment
9 A receptacle as claimed in any of claims Ito 4 wherein said compartment is formed separately from, and attached to, the receptacle
10. A receptacle as claimed in claim 9 wherein said compartment is formed as a blister pack mounted to the wall of the receptacle.
11 A receptacle as claimed in claim 10 wherein the wall of the receptacle comprises an aperture to receive the blister pack
12 A receptacle as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the receptacle is made from paperboard or cartonboard.
13. A receptacle as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said receptacle has outwardly flaring side wall surfaces to allow a plurality of receptacles to be nested within one another.

14 A receptacle as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said compartment is formed in a lid of or for the receptacle.

A lid for a receptacle, said lid comprising at least one compartment containing a substance for introduction to the receptacle, said compartment being breakable open so as to allow the contents of the compartment to be introduced into the receptacle 16 A wall for a receptacle, said wall comprising at least one compartment containing a substance for introduction to the receptacle, said compartment being breakable open so as to allow the contents of the compartment to be introduced into the receptacle.