NZ198277A - Insulated food container - Google Patents

Description

\ 198277 & \ , 6DECI982_ PATENTS FORM NO. 5 9 PATENTS ACT 1953 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION NUMBER: 198277 DATE; 4 September 1981 COMPLETE AFTER PROVISIONAL A CONTAINER We, ROSS JOHN McKENZIE and PATRICIA WYNNE McKENZIE of 10 Ramsey Place, Karori, Wellington, New Zealand, British subjects and New Zealand citizens, hereby declare the invention, for which we preay that a patent may be granted to us and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: 198277 This invention relates to a thermally insulated container and more particularly to an insulated container for foods and beverages.

To the present time thermally insulated containers for foods and beverages have generally been fragile and easy to penetrate when coming into contact with sharp objects, thus losing the effect of insulation. There has also been problems in keeping such containers clean at all times due to the surfaces of the containers not being uniform.

An object of this invention is to reduce the aforementioned disadvantages, or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.

According to the invention there is provided a container having an upper sealing portion and a lower portion, the lower portion comprising a shell defining substantially inner and outer surfaces on either side of a substantially hollow interior cavity, a thermally insulating material provided within and substantially filling said cavity. The container of the invention thus has a lower or bottom thermally insulated portion which is adapted to receive fluids or other materials primarily foodstuffs at low or high temperatures generally at hot temperatures eg. hot drinks.

The bottom portion of the container may be moulded in a suitable mouldable material such as injection moulded in a thermally stable strong plastics material which may be reinforced eg. polypropylene, thereby forming a continuous inner and outer surface on each side of an internal cavity within which may be encased the thermal insulating material.

The continuous surface may be created as one integral shell or may be created in two or more parts; the parts being 198277 then conjoined together in such a manner as to create a substantially continuous surface. For example an upper part of the shell can be moulded separately from a base part, the two parts being then joined together, so as to provide a uniform exterior and interior to the container.

The insulating material may be of high insulation value polyurethane or similar foam. The foam may be added as a formed material prior to the jointing of the continuous inner and outer surfaces. Alternatively a flowable form of the foam may be injected through a small orifice in the shell and the orifice is then, if required, sealed. A flowable form of the foam includes a foam which is flowable or a precursor of a foam incorporating a foaming agent which is then foamed within the cavity.

The mouth of the bottom portion may accommodate and be sealed by a sealimg member such as a cap which may be substantially hollow and which may contain a suitable thermal insulating material. The sealing member itself may be made of the abovementioned thermally stable plastics material which may be reinforced and may be externally threaded to be engaged with an internal thread on the container so as to be fastenable thereto to close the insulated bottom portion.

A cup may be provided which may clip or otherwise removably engage the top of the bottom portion and over the sealing member. The cup may be of the aforementioned polypropylene material and may have a handle fastened thereto so as to facilitate its use as a cup.

A top portion of the container may be provided wherein the sealing member and cup as aforementioned are combined into one unit, and which is then screwed onto the mouth of the bottom portion of the container. 19827 The mouth of the bottom portion of the container may be sealed by a sealing member creating a seal between the upper surface of the mouth and internal surface of a top portion of a container.

The sealing member is preferably of resilient material and has an annular bearing surface. The sealing member hence may be disc-shaped in which an outer annular part forms the bearing and sealing surface and the inner web part is adapted to ensure that the bearing part is located in the correct position in addition the web part preferably contains perforations. The presence of such perforations has been found to assist in reducing the lateral force against the cup surface which tends to permit leakage of fluid out of the container. Without being bound by any theory it is considered that the perforations in the sealing member transfer pressure in the container into a cavity formed between the sealing member and the internal surface of the top portion of the container and hence direct the force upwardly rather than laterally.

Further objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description.

An example of the present invention will now be described although the description of the particular form is not to be taken to limit the scope of the invention as may be defined by a fair, large and liberal interpretation of the specification and modifications, alterations and additions may be made to the invention described without departing from the spirit thereof.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings accompanying the provisional specification; - :■ .-•/'VC? 198277 is a longitudinal sectional view through a bottom portion of a container according to the present invention; and is a sectional view through a sealing member for the container as shown in Figure 1; and is a side view of the cover for the container as shown in Figure 1; and a further preferred embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings; is a further schematic view through a bottom portion of a container in accordance with the invention; and is a perspective view of the base of the container as shown in Figure 4; and is a cross-sectional view through a combined cup and sealing member for a container.

The device consists of a bottom portion, an example of which is generally indicated by arrow 1 in Figure 1 and a sealing member eg. as shown in Figure 2. For example, the bottom portion may be constructed from any suitable material for example polypropylene or similar thermally stable plastics material, which is formed to the desired shape.

The bottom portion 1 comprises a shell defining substantially continuous inner and outer surfaces of either side of a substantially hollow interior cavity 2.

The interior cavity 2 is adapted to contain insulating material 3 so as to provide necessary thermal insulating effect to keep the contents of the container at the desired temperature.

The container in Figure 1 has at the top thereof an opening or mouth 4 which is substantially wide enough to allow Figure 1: Figure 2: Figure 3: Figure 4; Figure 5: Figure 6: 1982 the passage of most types of foods and beverages. The opening 4 can have an internal thread 5 to engage a sealing member eg. a cap as described in Figure 2.

Referring to Figure 2 a cap generally indicated by arrow 11 may be constructed from polypropylene or similar thermally stable plastics material, which is formed to a desired shape and which may have a hollow interior cavity 6 formed by the cap's substantially continuous shell which is preferably adapted to contain a thermally insulating material 7 as aforementioned in Figure 1.

The cap in Figure 2 may have an external thread with which to engage with a corresponding thread on, and thus to seal the opening of the bottom portion as described in Figure 1.

Referring to Figure 3 the cover can be substantially in the form of a cup, an example of which is generally indicated by arrow 10 which may be constructed from polypropylene or similar thermally stable plastics material, which is formed to a desired shape.

A handle 8 may be provided thereon. The cover may be releasably attached to the outside of the container by being securable about the container surface 9.

The bottom portion of the container as indicated by arrow in Figure 4 is formed in two parts with a base 12 and an upper part 13.

The two parts of the container form the shell of the container and are bonded together to form a substantially continuous inner and outer surface defining a cavity 14.

The base 12 or the container in Figure 5 can contain in the base surface thereof one or more orifices 15 through V 198277 which thermally insulated material can be introduced within the cavity.

The insulating material may be comprised of polyurethane or similar foam which may be injected in flowable form through orifices 15 into the interior cavity or added into the upper part 13 as a moulded item prior to the jointing of the base part 12 with upper part 13 to form the shell of the container.

The combimed cup and sealing member of the container as generally indicated by arrow 10 in Figure 6 may comprise a cavity 16 at the upper part thereof formed by the substantially continuous shell of the top portion. The interior cavity 16 may contain thermally insulating material.

Between the upper surface 20 (Figure 4) and internal surface 21 of the top portion of the container a sealing means 17 is provided which is adapted to seal the mouth of the bottom portion of the container when the top portion is secured to the bottom portion by means of for example an internal thread 18 engaging with an external thread 22 (Figure 4).

In a preferred embodiment of this invention the sealing means 17 may be of resilient material and have an annular bearing surface. It may be disc-shaped and have perforations 19 provided thereon. It is considered that these perforations reduce the pressure acting laterally against the walls of the cup which has been found to occur with some other sealing means which has in turn led to leakage. ..o- 8 l$2ZT7

Claims (14)

WHAT WE CLAIM IS . V

1. A container comprising a bottom portion and a sealing member which are ccnplementarily threaded so that the sealing member can be mounted on the bottom portion so as to seal an opening therein, the bottom portion comprising a shell defining substantially continuous inner and outer surfaces on each side of a substantially hollow interior cavity, and thermally insulating material provided within and substantially filling said cavity, the sealing member having a bearing surface which sealingly engages with the inner surface of the bottom portion of the container.

2. A container as claimed in claim 1 in which the shell is injection moulded.

3. A container as claimed in claims 1 or 2 where the shell is moulded in polypropylene.

4. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3 where the thermal insulating material is high molecular value polyurethane.

5. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4 where thermal insulating material in flowable form is injected into said substantially hollow interior cavity.

6. A container as claimed in any one of the claims 1 to 5 wherein the sealing member comprises a cap which is substantially hollow.

7. A container as claimed in claim 6 where the cap contains a thermal insulating material.

8. A container as claimed in claims 6 or 7 where the cap is externally threaded to engage with an internal thread on the bottom portion of the container so as to be fastenable thereto and to close the insulated bottom portion. f' v i . !■ -v.v.V l. W21 - 9 -

9. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8 additionally having a cup which grips onto the top of the container and over the cap. 5*

10. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to^ wherein the sealing member comprises a cup which is internally threaded !l'^ 1 to engage with an external thread adjacent the opening of the container so as to be fastenable thereto to close the insulated bottom portion of the container.

11. A container as claimed in claim 10 wherein the bearing surface of the sealing member is made of a resilient material.

12. a container as claimed in either of claims 10 or 11 where the bearing surface of the sealing member is annular.

13. A container as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 12 wherein the bearing surface of the sealing member is disc-shaped.

14. A container as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 13 wherein the sealing member has perforations provided therein. BALDWIN, "SOtAs. CAREV^ ATTcfeMlviS FOR THE APPLICANTS