US2895718A

US2895718A - Water power heater or cooler for nursing bottles

Info

Publication number: US2895718A
Application number: US706817A
Authority: US
Inventors: John B Prather
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1958-01-02
Filing date: 1958-01-02
Publication date: 1959-07-21
Anticipated expiration: 1976-07-21

Description

July 21, 1959 J. B. PRATHER 2,895,718

WATER POWER HEATER OR COOLER FOR NURSING BOTTLES Ori inal Filed Oct. 19, 1955 -.f6 g l# I/ @Q7-1 i 4 f Vf l if A -l E 1:, J6

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INVENTOR.

United States Patent C WATER POWER HEATER vR COOLER FOR NURSING BOTTLES John B. Prather, Yonkers, N.Y.

Continuation of abandoned application Serial lllo. v541,410, October 19, 1955. This application January 2, -1958, Serial No. 706,817

12 Claims. (Cl. 257-74) This invention relates to apparatus for warming or cooling bottles, and more especially nursing bottles, by transfer of heat between the bottle and a surrounding stream of water.

It is an object ofthe invention to provide an improved apparatus for receiving a bottle and for rotating the bottle while immersed in a bath of water. The relative movement of the water over the outside surface of the bottle -and the radial movement of the fluid in the bottle greatly facilitates the heat transfer by preventing the formation vof any stationary surface layers of liquid against the outside or inside of the bottle. The power for rotating the bottle is supplied yby a ow of water into a vessel in which the bottle is held.

This invention is an improvement on the apparatus described in my Patent #2,639,897. The structure of this invention is simpler and less expensive to make than that disclosed in my patent. This application is a continuation of my application, Serial No. 541,410, filed October 19, 1955 and now abandoned.

It is an object of the invention to make a bottle-warming or cooling device, of the character indicated, with a minimum number of parts and with the parts of such shapes and contours that they can be molded from plastic material with simple molding apparatus. Another object is to provide such a bottle warmer or cooler made of component parts which are constructed and related so that they can Ibe assembled quickly and Iwith a minimum of labor in the manufacture of the product.

In the preferred construction of the invention, the vessel for holding the bottle and the water is made of only two parts secured together and enclosing a rotor which lis of one-piece construction. To further simplify the construction and reduce the manufacturing cost, the rotor is contained in the vessel without any fastening means. Gravity is relied upon to hold the rotor in position when the vessel is in an upright position, and the interior of the vessel is made with a change of diameter providing a shoulder above the rotor for preventing the rotor from falling out when, and if, the vessel is turned upside down.

The apparatus will -be described as a bottle warmer, but it will be understood that it can be used for cooling.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear orbe pointed out as the description proceeds.

In the drawing, forming a part hereof, in which like reference characters indicate corresponding parts in all the views:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary sectional view through a bottle-warming apparatus made in accordance with this invention;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary sectional view, on the line 2-2 of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is a reduced-scale, plan view of the apparatus shown in Figure 1.

The apparatus includes a vessel having a base 11 which extends outwardly and then downwardly. The

Patented July 21, 1959 ice 2 l vessel 10, with its base 11, is preferably a one-piece, plastic molding with its upper portion constituting a side wall 12 of the vessel. At the upper end of the side wall 12 there is an inwardly extending lip 1.4 for assisting in the centering of bottles in the vessel 10, and it also strengthens tthe molding.

The vessel 10, referred to previously as preferably of one piece, has a bottom element 16 with a circular'ridge 18 in contact with the under surface of the molding which constitutes the side wall of the vessel 10. This ridge 18 has a cylindrical inner face of a diameter substantially equal -to that of the inside surface of the side wall 12- immedia-tely above the ridge 18. The inside diameter of the side wall 12 decreases at a shoulder 21 located at a small distance above the bottom of the side wall 12 for the purpose of limiting the upward movement of a rotor 25.

The peripheral edge of the bottom element 16 is shaped to lit into a counter bore 27 in the base 11, and the parts are preferably held together by adhesive, or fusion bonding, at the locations where the top face of the ridge 18 contacts with the underside of the base 11, and at the location where the peripheral portion of the bottom element 16 ts against the surface of the counter bore 27.

Where the -bottom element 16 .is spaced from the undersurface of the base 11, a chamber 30 is formed. Water is supplied to this chamber through a fitting 32 extending upwardly from the base 11 around a port 34. The fitting 32 is preferably molded as one piece with the base 11. A rubber hose 36, attached to the fitting 32, is connected Ito a warm water faucet by a slip-on fitting such as commonly used for connecting sprayhead hoses to household faucets. Water ilows from the hose 36, through the fitting 32 and port 34, into the chamber 30.

There are depressions 40 (Figure l) in the top face of the ridge 18 for admitting water from the chamber 30 into the vessel in which the bottle is to be warmed. More than two depressions 40 can be provided if more jets of liquid are desired. The depressions 40 extend obliquely through the ridge 18 and when assembled with lthe base 11, constitute nozzles for projecting streams of water tangentially against the rotor 25. There are blades 44 on the rotor 25 in position to be struck by the streams of water from the nozzles 4i). The construction thus provides an impulse-type, water-driven turbine by the flow of water from the chamber 30 into the vessel 10.

The rotor 25 has a stud 46 extending downwardly into a bushing 48 which is cylindrical and serves as a bearing for the rotor 25. The stud 46 is preferably of onepiece construction with the upper part of the rotor 25, and the construction is preferably a plastic molding. It will be understood, however, that the parts of the apparatus can be made of other materials, such as metal, if desired.

The bushing 48 is preferably made of metal, such as brass, so as to prevent the greater wear which would result if the stud 46 turned in a plastic bearing. The bushing 48 tits into an opening through a hub 50 at the -center region of the bottom element 16. There is a flange 52 extending outwardly from the upper end of the bushing 48. This flange 52 spaces the bottom surface of the rotor 25 from the top surface of the bottom element 16 and serves as a thrust bearing for the rotor 25.

For running clearance, the radial length of the blades 44 is made slightly less than the radius of the inside surfaces of the wall 12 and the ridge 18 which are adjacent to the periphery of the rotor 25. However, the inside diameter of the wall 12, above the shoulder 21, is slightly less than that of the rotor 25 so as to prevent 3 the rotor from moving upwardly beyond the shoulder 21. The top surface of the rotor 25, above the blades 44, has a diameter less than the inside diameter of the side wall 12 above the shoulder 21 so that if the rotor rises until the blades touch the shoulder, there is still space between the top of the rotor and the inside surface of the wall 12 for the escape of liquid upwardly in the vessel. This prevents the building up of excessive pressure under the rotor. This provides an inexpensive and effective construction for preventing the rotor 25 lfrom falling out of the bearing 48 when the apparatus is turned upside down.

'The apparatus is used for heating a nursing bottle 55, shown in dot-and-dash lines in Figure 1. Nursing bottles are not all of identical size but the vessel is made large enough to receive any of the'nursing bottles ordinarily used, and the apparatus operates equally well with bottles of substantially smaller diameter than the vessel 10. The bottle 56 is placed on the rotor 25. It is not necessary that the bottle be centered on the rotor, but the appearance of the apparatus when operating is Iimproved if the bottle is concentric with the rotor and does not have an eccentric wabble as it rotates.

The bottom of the rotor 25 near its peripheral edge slopes downwardly toward the'axis of the rotor. Thus, the stream of water, impinging against the rotor, has a substantial component of upward thrust which compensates a part of the weight of the bottle and thus reduces the friction of the rotor on the thrust bearing flange 52. If the water streams are very strong, the entire weight of the bottle 56 is compensated by the upward thrust of the water, and the rotor 25 oats, but any substantial upward displacement is prevented by the shoulder 21. Ordinarily, the apparatus is constructed so that there is slight seepage of water into the running clearance of the stud 46 in the bushing 48 so as to provide water lubrication for the bearing. n

The water which flows into the vessel 10 passes upwardly around the peripheral edge -of the rotor 25 and through the clearance between the bottle 56 and the side wall 12. This water has a helical movement as it travels upwardly in the vessel across the surface of the bottle. The resulting turbulent ow facilitates transfer of heat from the water to the bottle, as previously explained. The radial movement of the liquid in the bottle caused by the difference in density of hot and cool liquid, and. the effect of centrifugal force, aid heat transfer substantially. It will be understood that the apparatus can also be used for cooling a bottle, if desired, by the use of cool water instead of warm in operating the apparatus. At the top of the vessel 10, the water overflows and streams down the outside of the vessel into the sink or basin in which the apparatus stands while being used.

The preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, but changes and modifications can be made without departing from the invention as defined in the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. Bottle-warming or cooling apparatus comprising a vessel for holding a bottle or the like, a base at the lower end of the vessel, a rotor in the lower part of the vessel, the rotor having blades and having a top surface on which the bottle is supported, a bottom element which closes the lower end of the vessel and extends under said base, the base and bottom element having confronting faces in contact with one another over a portion of their areas, at least one of the confronting faces having a portion spaced from but covered by the other face to provide a water chamber, a channel formed in at least one of the confronting faces and covered by the other face to provide a passage, the passage being in position to discharge water from the water chamber into the lower part of the vessel in a generally tangentialV direction with respect to the rotor and into impingement with the blades of the rotor to rotate the rotor and the bottle supported thereby,

and means securing the base to the vessel with said confronting faces in contact over the substantial areas of their extent.

2. The bottle-warmer or cooling apparatus described in claim 1 and in which the water chamber is of substantial angular extent around the circumference of the vessel and the channel is one of a plurality of channels at angularlyspaced locations in position to direct a plurality of streams against the blades of the rotor to distribute the water more uniformly around the vessel.

3. The bottle-warming or cooling apparatus described in claim 1 and in which the bottom element fits into the lower end of the base and the confronting faces include annular areas around the periphery of the base in contact with one another and bonded together, and the bottom element has an annular ridge on its face that confronts the base and that contactswith and is bonded to the confronting face of the base, and the channel is formed in the top surface of the annular ridge.

4. Bottlewarming or cooling apparatus comprising a vessel for holding a bottle or the like, a rotor in the lower part of the vessel in position to support the bottle in the vessel, the vessel having means defining a passage through which liquid is discharged against the rotor in a generally tangential direction, the vessel having a bottom opening larger than the rotor and through which the rotor is inserted into said vessel, a bottom element closing the bottom opening of the vessel and secured to said vessel to form a composite structure, the rotor being rotatably supported by the bottom element and being movable up and down with respect to the vessel and the bottom element, the diameter of the inside peripheral extent of the vessel immediately above the rotor being smaller than the diameter of the rotor whereby upward movement of the rotor is limited and the rotor is prevented from falling out of the apparatus when the vessel is turned upside down.

5. The bottle-warming or cooling apparatus described in claim 4 and in which the inside diameter of the vessel is slightly larger than the diameter of the rotor for a portion of the height of the vessel at the lower end thereof to provide a running clearance for the rotor in the vessel above the bottom element.

6. The bottle-warming or cooling apparatus described in claim 4 and in which there is a cylindrical recess in the base and in which the lower portion of the rotor is located, and the rotor has a stud extending downwardly therefrom into a cylindrical bearing at the center of the recess.

7. Bottle-warming or cooling apparatus comprising a cylindrical vessel having a side wall for receiving at least the lower part of a bottle, a base on which the vessel rests on a support, an end wall forming the bottom of the vessel, a rotor in the lower end of the vessel with a top surface on which the bottom of the bottle rests, the rotor having a diameter only slightly less than the diameter of the wall of the vessel nearest to the periphery of the rotor for restricting flow of water from under the rotor upward to increase the difference in water pressure below and above the rotor and counter-balance a substantial part of the weight of the bottle, the rotor having blades projecting downwardly from the peripheral portion of the bottom surface of the rotor, and at least one water inlet located near the periphery of the rotor and extending in a generally tangential direction with respect to the rotor to directa jet of water against the blades for driving said rotor, theend wall, the under side of the rotor and the side walls of the vessel below the rotor enclosing,

` a pressure chamber from Iwhich the water exhausts upin claim 7, and in which the vessel includes an upper part having its top portion generally cylindrical and its bottom portion of greater cross section than the top portion and extending downwardly around its periphery to form a recessed lower end, and a lower .part that fits into the recessed lower end of said upper part, the lower part having a peripheral section in contact with and in sealed relation to the bottom portion of the upper part, and having an annular section radially inward from the peripheral section and spaced from the recessed lower end of said upper part to form a water supply chamber, and having an annular ridge in sealed relation to said recessed lower end in position to form an inner wall of the water supply chamber and having a middle section that is the end wall forming the bottom of the vessel.

11. The bottle-warming or cooling apparatus described in claim 10, and in which the annular ridge has a top face, and the water inlet for directing a jet of water against the blades is a depression in the top face of the ridge.

12. Tlhe bottle-warming or cooling apparatus described 'in claim 7, and in which at least -a portionl of the side walls of the vessel extends inwardly above the rotor and provides an abutment for preventing the rotor from falling out of the vessel when the vessel is turned upside down.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Townshend Feb. 21, 1956