U.S. patent application number 11/656420 was filed with the patent office on 2008-07-24 for integral heat-resisting structure of a disposable drinking cup.
Invention is credited to Bob Chou.
Application Number | 20080173652 11/656420 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 39640238 |
Filed Date | 2008-07-24 |
United States Patent
Application |
20080173652 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Chou; Bob |
July 24, 2008 |
Integral heat-resisting structure of a disposable drinking cup
Abstract
The present invention discloses a heat-resisting disposable
drinking cup comprising: a cup body made by a plastic injection
molding and having a cup opening disposed at the top of the cup
body and folded outward to form a cup lip; several tens of radial
ribs integrally formed at the bottom of the cup lip of the cup
opening, and the radial rib is extended more than 1.5 mm from the
surface of the cup body but remained within the external periphery
of the cup lip of the cup opening, and the interval between two
adjacent radial ribs falls within a range of 3.about.5 mm, and the
height of each radial rib is less than 10 mm measured downward from
the cup lip of the cup opening; such that radiating fins can be
formed around the external periphery of the cup opening.
Inventors: |
Chou; Bob; (Valley Stream,
NY) |
Correspondence
Address: |
ROSENBERG, KLEIN & LEE
3458 ELLICOTT CENTER DRIVE-SUITE 101
ELLICOTT CITY
MD
21043
US
|
Family ID: |
39640238 |
Appl. No.: |
11/656420 |
Filed: |
January 23, 2007 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
220/592.17 ;
220/669 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B65D 2543/00509
20130101; B65D 2543/00555 20130101; B65D 2543/00296 20130101; B65D
2543/00685 20130101; B65D 2543/00731 20130101; B65D 2543/0062
20130101; B65D 2543/00537 20130101; B65D 2543/00796 20130101; B65D
2543/00092 20130101; B65D 1/265 20130101; B65D 43/0208
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
220/592.17 ;
220/669 |
International
Class: |
B65D 81/38 20060101
B65D081/38; B65D 8/00 20060101 B65D008/00 |
Claims
1. An integral heat-resisting structure of a disposable drinking
cup, comprising: a) a cup body, integrally formed by a plastic
injection molding, and having a cup opening disposed at the top of
the cup body, and folded outward to form a cup lip; and b) a
plurality of radial ribs, integrally formed at the bottom of the
cup lip of the cup opening, and extended at least 1.5 mm out from
the surface of the cup body but remained within the external
periphery of the cup lip of the cup opening, and an interval
between two adjacent radial ribs falling within a range of
3.about.5 mm, and the height of the each radial rib being less than
10 mm measured downward from the cup lip of the cup opening;
whereby a plurality of radiating fins are formed around the
external periphery of the cup opening.
2. The integral heat-resisting structure of a disposable drinking
cup as recited in claim 1, wherein the cup body and the radial ribs
are made of a polypropylene (PP) material or a polyethylene (PE)
material.
3. The integral heat-resisting structure of a disposable drinking
cup as recited in claim 1, wherein the radial rib has its upper
edge connected to the bottom of the cup lip of the cup opening, and
an edge tapered towards the cup body is formed at the bottom of the
radial rib.
4. The integral heat-resisting structure of a disposable drinking
cup as recited in claim 1, wherein the cup body further comprises a
circular groove disposed on a cup wall corresponding to the bottom
of the cup lip of the cup opening.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] The present invention relates to a heat-resisting drinking
cup, and more particularly to a portable coffee cup having radial
ribs integrally formed around the external periphery of a cup
opening of the cup for preventing the high-temperature heat from
being conducted directly to the outside or a handle of the cup.
[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0004] Drinking coffee or tea becomes an indispensable part of life
to coffee or tea drinkers. At an early stage, people usually drink
coffee or tea in restaurants or at home, but the style of our
living has changed, and chained coffee shops such as "Starbucks"
arise. People change their dining and drinking habits, and take-out
coffee is a good example of these changes.
[0005] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 for a traditional disposable
drinking cup used for take-out coffee, the drinking cup is a paper
cup 10, and thus a joint 11 is disposed at the edge of a cup
opening, and such joint 11 is adhered by glue. Since the paper cup
10 contains a hot drink such as coffee or tea and its temperature
is very high, therefore the glue at the joint 11 may be melt slowly
within a few minutes after the adhesion, and coffee may leak from
the position of the joint 11. Furthermore, the internal edge of the
paper cup 10 is coated with a layer of water-resisting film 12 for
preventing water from moistening the whole paper cup or softening
the paper cup. Although a disposable paper cup 10 is convenient to
use, the surface of the disposable paper cup 10 will become very
hot after a few seconds after the hot water at 95.degree. C. is
poured into the cup, since the temperature at the external surface
of cup is decreased by 5.degree. C. only and remained at a high
temperature of 90.degree. C. after the heat is dissipated to the
external surface of the disposable paper cup. In addition, the
external surface of the disposable paper cup is a smooth surface
and the external surface of the paper cup touched by a user's palm
is almost equal to the whole thermally conducting area. When a user
drinks a hot drink, it is quite often that the user gets burned by
the hot drinking cup. Since the thermally conducting area is too
large, therefore heat may be dispersed to the outside easily, and
the cup no longer can provide a good heat preserving function
anymore.
[0006] Referring to FIG. 3 for a perspective view of a conventional
disposable plastic cup 20, the plastic cup 20 is formed by an
injection molding process, and thus it does not have a joint 11 as
in the paper cup 10 or a risk of leaking. However, the thermal
insulating effect of the plastic cup 20 is not as good as that of
the paper cup 10, and thus a user's hand may get burned easily.
Although the plastic cup 20 may have a plurality of circular lines
21 disposed at the periphery around the middle of the cup, the
circular lines 21 are just shallow lines provided for users to hold
the cup by a hand. The user's hand still will touch the surface of
the cup body, and the practical heat-resisting effect is poor.
Therefore, the circular lines 21 is provided simply for improving
the friction at the surface of the cup and facilitating users to
hold the cup by a hand.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] Although the conventional disposable paper cup 10 and
plastic cup 20 are convenient, these cups 10, 20 still have the
drawback of burning a user's hand easily when the cups 10, 20
contain hot drinks. Therefore, the prior art requires further
improvements by providing a heat-resisting drinking cup.
[0008] Therefore, it is a primary object of the invention to
provide an integral heat-resisting structure of a disposable
drinking cup, wherein the heat-resisting structure is integrally
formed and has no joint or a risk of causing a leaking problem.
[0009] Another objective of the present invention is to install
radiating fins at the external periphery of a cup opening of the
disposable plastic cup, so as to prevent a user's hand from
touching the surface of the cup body and enhance the effect of
preventing a user's hand from getting burned.
[0010] A further objective of the present invention is to use the
heat-resisting radiating fins to improve the friction for a user's
hand to hold the cup, so as to provide a more secured and
convenient grip of the cup.
[0011] In order to achieve the above-mentioned objectives, several
tens of radial ribs are integrally formed at the bottom of the cup
lip of the cup opening, and the radial ribs 40 are extended at
least 1.5 mm from the surface of the cup body, and an interval D
between two adjacent radial ribs falls within a range of 3.about.5
mm. Meanwhile, the height of each radial rib is less than 10 mm
measured downward from the cup lip of the cup opening. In this way,
a plurality of radiating fins are formed around the external
periphery of the cup opening. In addition, the high-temperature
heat can be prevented from being conducted directly to the outside
or a handle of the cup.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0012] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional disposable
paper cup;
[0013] FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of Section 2-2 as depicted
in FIG. 1;
[0014] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a conventional disposable
plastic cup;
[0015] FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of
the present invention;
[0016] FIGS. 5 and 5A are a cross-sectional view and a schematic
view of Section 5-5 as depicted in FIG. 4 respectively;
[0017] FIG. 6 is a schematic view of an application of the present
invention;
[0018] FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of Section 7-7 as depicted
in FIG. 6;
[0019] FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of a portion as depicted in FIG.
7; and
[0020] FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of a cup cover combined
with a disposable drinking cup in accordance with the present
invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0021] Referring to FIG. 4 for a perspective view of a preferred
embodiment of the present invention, the invention comprises: a cup
body 30 formed by a plastic injection molding process and made of a
polypropylene (PP) material or a polyethylene (PE) material. The
cup body 30 has a cup opening disposed at the top of the cup body
30 and folded outward to form a cup lip 31 around the cup opening,
and these elements constitute the structure of a general plastic
cup.
[0022] The present invention is characterized in that several tens
of radial ribs 40 are integrally formed at the bottom of the cup
lip 31 of the cup opening as shown in FIGS. 5 and 5A, and the
radial ribs 40 are extended at least 1.5 mm from the surface of the
cup body 30, and an interval D between two adjacent radial ribs 40
falls within a range of 3.about.5 mm. The results of experiments
show that the interval D can prevent a user's palm or finger from
touching an external surface 33 of the cup body 30 while the user
is holding the cup. If the interval D is too large and exceeds 5
mm, then the user's finger may touch the external surface 33 of the
cup body 30 easily and may even get burned. If the interval D is
too small, then the convection of air for dissipating heat within
the interval will be decreased, and the heat of the hot drink in
the cup body 30 will be conducted to an outer distal surface of the
radial ribs 40 (which is the contact surface with the user's finger
or palm) through the external surface 33. Therefore, it is
necessary to have an appropriate interval D between two radial ribs
40, or else the heat-resisting effect cannot be maximized.
[0023] In FIG. 6, the radial ribs 40 formed around the external
periphery of the cup opening are in the form of radiating fins to
provide a holding portion for users to hold. Such arrangement not
only provides the heat-resisting effect, but also improves the
secured grip of the holding portion.
[0024] Referring to FIG. 7 for a cross-sectional view of the
present invention, the radial ribs 40 are disposed at the bottom of
the cup lip 31 of the cup opening, and their protruding length
falls within the external periphery of the cup lip 31. Referring to
FIG. 8 for an enlarged view of a portion of FIG. 7, the width W of
the cup lip 31 of the cup opening is approximately equal to 5 mm,
and the protruding length L of the radial rib 40 preferably falls
within the range of 1.5 mm.about.4 mm, and an upper edge 41 of the
radial rib 40 is connected to the bottom of the cup lip 31 of the
cup opening, and its height H is at least 10 mm measured downward
from the cup lip 31 of the cup opening, and an edge 42 tapered
towards the cup body 30 is preferably formed at the bottom of the
cup body 30, so as to improve the comfort and facilitate a user's
palm or finger to grip the cup body 30.
[0025] The cup body 30 further includes an outwardly protruding
circular groove 32 formed on a cup wall corresponding to the bottom
of the cup lip 31 of the cup opening. The circular groove 32 is
provided for preventing the drink in the cup body 30 from spilling
out from the cup opening. In FIG. 9, the circular groove 32 is
provided for embedding and fixing a cup cover 50, so that an
external edge of the cup cover 50 can be latched simultaneously
inside and outside the cup opening to improve the securing
effect.
[0026] With the foregoing technical measures, the disposable
plastic cup of the present invention can overcome the shortcoming
of burning a user's hand easily. In addition, the radial ribs 40
are integrated with the cup body 30 as a whole, and thus there will
have no leaking problem of the paper cup. The present invention
definitely can overcome the shortcomings of the conventional
disposable drinking cup.
[0027] With the foregoing technical measures and extensive
researches and experiments, the present invention definitely can
achieve the expected effects and overcome the foregoing
shortcomings of the prior art.
[0028] Many changes and modifications in the above-described
embodiments of the invention can, of course, be carried out without
departing from the scope thereof. Accordingly, to promote the
progress in science and the useful arts, the invention is disclosed
and is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended
claims.
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