WO2008091094A1

WO2008091094A1 - Vacuum container

Info

Publication number: WO2008091094A1
Application number: PCT/KR2008/000392
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sung-Bok Jang
Original assignee: Living Sense Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2007-01-24
Filing date: 2008-01-22
Publication date: 2008-07-31
Also published as: KR200438581Y1

Abstract

Provided is a vacuum container for food. The vacuum container includes a body, a cover, a vacuum pump, and an inlet valve. The vacuum pump includes a cylinder, a piston, an opening/closing member, a spring, a packing, a ball, and a spring. The piston is inserted into the cylinder. The opening/closing member is provided at an upper part of the piston. The spring is provided at a lower part of the piston. The packing is formed at an outer surface of the piston. The ball is provided at an upper end surface of the inlet valve. The spring is provided at an upper part of the ball.

Description

VACUUM CONTAINER

Technical Field The present invention relates to a vacuum container, and more particularly, to a vacuum container having a vacuum pump installed at a cover and forcibly exhausting air outside, thereby keeping food for a long time.

Background Art

In general, it is of importance to keep food fresh such as diverse vegetables and fishes and cooked food. It is of importance to keep food fresh without deterioration until food is eaten. Food is deteriorated because the food contacts with microorganisms or other harmful materials contained in air if the food contacts with air for a predetermined time.

Korean Patent Application No. 20-2003-0003934 discloses a food safekeeping vacuum container for keeping food by discharging air outside a container and making the container vacuous to delay a speed of deterioration of food and prevent food from contacting with air.

The prior-art vacuum container includes a cover member, a piston member, a lower cap member, a first valve member, a valve guide member, a restoring member, a second valve member, and an upper cap member. The cover member covers a top of the container for housing food. The piston member having a cylindrical shape opened downward has a second outlet port on an upper surface to have a predetermined diameter at a center. The piston member is fitted to elevate and descend in a guide hole of the cover member. The piston member is caught at its low end by a catch jaw part provided at an upper end part of the guide hole 11 and is inserted to prevent an upward release. The lower cap member covers a lower end part of the guide hole and has a first outlet port at a center to have a predetermined diameter. The valve guide member is safely mounted inside the lower cap member. The valve guide member houses the first valve member to enable a minute motion of elevation and descent of the first valve member. A plurality of through-holes having minute diameters are provided on an upper surface of the valve guide member. The restoring member elastically supports the piston member. The second valve member controls opening/closing of the second outlet port provided at the piston member. The second valve member has a plurality of through-holes at an outer circumference of a plate surface. The upper cap member has a plurality of third outlet ports, which laterally communicate with the exterior, on an inner and upper surface for housing the second valve member.

However, the prior art provides a solution to a quick deterioration of food, but causes an inconvenience that food should be moved and put in the vacuum container after being cooked using a cooking pan, because a cook cannot directly cook with the vacuum container.

Disclosure

Technical Problem

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a vacuum container that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.

An object of the present invention is to provide a vacuum container for making slow a speed of deterioration of food using a vacuum pump.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a vacuum container for preventing a steam generated at the time of cooking food from being introduced into a vacuum pump.

Technical Solution

To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, there is provided a vacuum container. The vacuum container includes a body, a cover, a vacuum pump, and an inlet valve. The cover covers an upper part of the body. The vacuum pump makes an internal of the body vacuous. The inlet valve supports the cover and the vacuum pump. The vacuum pump includes a cylinder, a piston, an opening/closing member, a spring, a packing, a ball, and a spring. The piston is inserted into the cylinder and moves up/down. The opening/closing member is provided at an upper part of the piston and opened or closed by an internal pressure of the cylinder. The spring is provided at a lower part of the piston and elastically pushes up the piston. The packing is formed at an outer surface of the piston and prevents inflow of external air and outflow of internal air of the cylinder as adhered to an inner surface of the cylinder. The ball is provided at an upper end surface of the inlet valve and opens or closes an opening that is an air passage provided at a center of the inlet valve. The spring is provided at an upper part of the ball and elastically supporting the ball.

Advantageous Effects

According to the present invention, a vacuum container makes its internal vacuous using a vacuum pump and keeps food, thereby delaying a speed of deterioration of food.

Also, a vacuum container elastically supports a ball by a spring having a greater tension force than a steam pressure and having a smaller tension force than an air pressure, thereby preventing the introduction of steam into the vacuum pump and making food vacuum safekeeping possible at the same time of cooking.

Description of Drawings

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional diagram illustrating a vacuum container according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional diagram illustrating a vacuum pump that is a constituent element of a vacuum container according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; and

FIGS. 3 to 5 are cross-sectional diagrams illustrating a use state of a vacuum container according to the present invention.

Best Mode for Carrying out the Invention

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional diagram illustrating a vacuum container according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional diagram illustrating a vacuum pump that is a constituent element of the vacuum container according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 3 to 5 are cross-sectional diagrams illustrating a use state of the vacuum container according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the vacuum container 50 mainly includes a body 52, a cover 54 covering an upper part of the body 52, and a vacuum pump 10 installed at a top of the cover 54.

The body 52 can put, keep, and cook food. The cover 54 covers the upper part of the body 52. The cover 54 has gaskets 58 at both ends. The gaskets 58 are provided in positions corresponding to both ends of the body 52. The gaskets 58 prevent external air from being introduced into the body 52 when internal air is forcibly discharged outside the body 52 by the vacuum pump 10. A relief valve 56 is formed at one side of the cover 54. The relief valve 56 relieves outside a steam generated at the time of cooking food with the container 50. When the container 50 gets vacuous by the vacuum pump 10, the relief valve 56 introduces air, thereby enabling opening of the cover 54. Referring to FIG. 2, the cover 54 is opened at a center. Inlet valves 26 are provided at both ends of the opened center of the cover 54. A cylinder 12 is fitted to an outer circumference surface of the inlet valve 26. The cylinder 12 surrounds an outer circumference of the inlet valve 26. A lower part of the cylinder 12 is adhered to an upper part of the cover 54. The cylinder 12 defines a space (S) with a piston 14 fitted into the cylinder 12. The cylinder 12 exhausts air from the space (S) outside, sucks air from the container 50 by a pumping operation of the piston 14, and exhausts the sucked air outside.

The piston 14 pumps air while moving up/down as inserted into the cylinder 12, thereby exhausting air from the cylinder 12 outside. A spring 18 is provided inside the cylinder 12, in detail, under the piston 14 in order for the piston 14 to pump air during up/down movement. Thus, the spring 18 elastically supports the piston 14 when the piston 14 descends.

Packings 16 are formed at both outer surfaces of the piston 14. The packings 16 are formed from the both outer surfaces of the piston 14. According to up/down movement of the piston 14, the packings 16 move as being in contact with an inner wall surface of the cylinder 12. The packings 16 prevent inflow of external air and outflow of internal air. An opening 24 is provided at an upper part of the piston 14 and allows air to escape out of the cylinder 12. An opening/closing member 22 is provided over the opening 24. When the piston 14 descends, the opening/closing member 22 elevates by a pressure of an internal air of the cylinder 12 and opens the opening 24, thereby allowing the internal air to escape out of the cylinder 12 via an air outlet passage 40. When the piston 14 elevates, the opening/closing member 22 closes up the opening 24 and prevents the external air from being introduced into the cylinder 12. The internal of the cylinder 12 can be vacuous because the opening/closing member 22 opens and closes the opening 24 acςording to the up/down movement of the piston 14.

A switch 20 for descending the piston 14 is provided over the piston 14. When the switch 20 is pressed, the piston 14 descends and the descended piston 14 again elevates by the spring 18, thereby enabling a pumping operation.

The inlet valve 26 serves as a passage for allowing an internal air of the container 50 to be introduced into the vacuum pump 10 when the vacuum pump 10 performs a pumping operation.

The inlet valve 26 has an upper end surface 42 and a lower end surface 44. An opening 38 is provided at a center of the upper and lower end surfaces 42 and 44. The opening 38 is used as a passage for introducing the internal air of the container 50 into the vacuum pump 10.

A ball 34 is provided over the opening 38 and has a greater diameter than the opening 38. Like the opening/closing member 22, the ball 34 opens the opening 38 by pressure. When an internal pressure of the vacuum pump 10 is lower than that of the container 50, the ball 34 is pushed up by the internal pressure of the container 50 and thus, enables a flow of the internal air of the container 50 into the vacuum pump 50. The ball 34 pushed up using a pressure difference opens and closes the opening 38 by a spring 32. The spring 32 is fitted at one end to a- step jaw 30 of a plate 28 provided above the ball 34 and supports the ball 34 at the other end. While the spring 32 elastically supports the ball 34, an air pressure of the vacuum pump 10 is lower than that of the container 10 if part of .the internal air of the vacuum pump 10 is discharged outside. At this time, the ball 34 is pushed up owing to a pressure of the internal air of the container 50. Thus, the spring 32 positioned above the ball 34 is again compressed. The internal air of the container 50 is introduced in a space (P) via the opening 38 provided under the ball 34 and then, is introduced into the space (S) of the vacuum pump 10 via openings 36a and 36b provided above the space (P) . However, the spring 32 is not compressed by a pressure of a steam (W) generated at the time of cooking food with the container 50 and keeps supporting the ball 34. This is because the spring 32 is set to have a smaller tension force than an air pressure and have a greater tension force than a steam pressure.

An operation of the above-constructed vacuum container 50 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5 below.

Referring to FIG. 3, the piston 14 connecting with the switch 20 descends if the switch 20 is pressed. After that, the piston 14 descends, thereby compressing internal air of the cylinder 12. The internal air of the cylinder 12 pushes up the opening/closing member 22 provided above the piston 14 and escapes out of the opening 24 provided at the piston 14 and escapes outside via the air outlet passage 40. After that, the descended piston 14 is restored to the original state by the spring 18. The internal of the cylinder 12 is lower in pressure than the internal of the container 50. Referring next to FIG. 4, the internal of the vacuum pump 10 is in a low pressure, thereby increasing an air pressure of the container 50. Due to this, the internal air of the container 50 is pushed toward the opening 38 of the inlet valve 26. After that, an air pressure of the container 50 results in elevation of the ball 34 closing up the opening 38 and thus compression of the spring 32 elastically supporting the ball 34. After that, the internal air of the container 50 flowing through the opening 38 is again introduced and collected within the vacuum pump 10. If the vacuum pump 10 is filled with a predetermined air, the spring 32 again elastically supports the ball 34 and closes up the opening 38. Next, if the vacuum pump 10 is in a pumping operation and has a lower internal pressure than the container 50, the vacuum pump 10 is again filled with the internal air of the container 50 by the above operation. If the operation is repeatedly performed, the internal of the container 50 becomes vacuous resultantly. Thus, a speed of deterioration of food can be delayed. Referring to FIG. 5, a pressure of a steam (W) generated at the time of cooking food by the container 50 cannot push up the ball 34. That is why the spring 32 supporting the ball 34 is set to have a smaller tension force than an air pressure and to have a greater tension force than a steam pressure. The reason why the spring 32 is set to have the greater tension force than the steam pressure is that the introduction of the steam (W) into the vacuum pump 10 results in easy stain and destruction of the spring 18 and other constituent elements and disablement of a long time use because of occurrence of malfunction. After that, the steam (W) filled in the container at the time of cooking food escapes outside via the relief valve 56 provided at the cover 54 of the container 50 and then, the container 50 can be made vacuous using the vacuum pump 10.

Next, the cover 54 of the container 50 closed up vacuously can be simply uncovered by introducing air into the relief valve 56.

Industrial Applicability

As described above, the present invention provides a vacuum container for making its internal vacuous using a vacuum pump and keeping food, thereby delaying a speed of deterioration of food. Also, the present invention provides a vacuum container for elastically supporting a ball by a spring having a greater tension force than a steam pressure and having a smaller tension force than an air pressure, thereby preventing the introduction of steam into the vacuum pump and making vacuum safekeeping of food possible at the same time of cooking.

While the present invention has been described and illustrated herein with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention that come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents .

Claims

1. A vacuum container comprising: a body; a cover covering an upper part of the body; a vacuum pump for making an internal of the body vacuous, the vacuum pump comprising: a cylinder; a piston inserted into the cylinder and moves up/down; an opening/closing member provided at an upper part of the piston and opened or closed by an internal pressure of the cylinder; a spring provided at a lower part of the piston and elastically pushing up the piston; a packing formed at an outer surface of the piston and preventing inflow of external air and outflow of internal air of the cylinder as adhered to an inner surface of the cylinder; a ball provided at an upper end surface of the inlet valve and opening or closing an opening, which is an air passage provided at a center of the inlet valve; and a spring provided at an upper part of the ball and elastically supporting the ball; and an inlet valve supporting the cover and the vacuum pump.

2. The vacuum container of claim 1, wherein the spring has a greater tension force than a pressure of a steam generated from the container.