Jacket for canned beverages

Abstract

An insulated jacket for cylindrical beverage containers utilizes lower and upper cylindrical body portions of insulating material wherein the upper body portion has an opening so shaped as to enable a person to consume the beverage without previous removal of it from the container. The body portions combine to form a closed-top jacket and have a hinge opposite from the opening and a latch below the opening for detachably holding the body portions in a closed relationship. The jacket thermally insulates the beverage and is reusable. Means are provided within the jacket to compensate for tolerances in both the jacket and the container and still retain the container firmly within the jacket.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field Of The Invention

This invention relates to U.S. Patent Office Manual of Classification, Class 215, subclass 13, relating to insulating type bottles or jars.

2. Description Of The Prior Art

Since one of the most common methods of packaging commercial beverages is in cylindrical beverage containers, i.e., cans, there is great demand for reusable individual insulators for these beverage containers. Characteristic of reusable insulated devices known in the art is a two piece insulated jacket taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3 092 277 entitled THERMAL JACKET FOR BEVERAGE CONTAINER issued June 4, 1963 to J. K. Brim, one piece of which can be removed to permit replacement of the container. These and other similar jackets now found in the prior art, however, do not permit the beverage to be consumed from the container without either removal of the jacket from the container or dispensing the beverage into some type of holder such as a glass. In either case, the top of the insulating jacket must be removed before the beverage is accessible. The present invention teaches a jacket which permits the consumption of beverage from the container without removal of the insulated jacket by using upper and lower cylindrical body portions of insulating material wherein the upper body portion has an opening therethrough which permits consumption of the contents without removal of the jacket. The jacket being separable enables reuse of it.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

1. general Statement Of The Invention

An insulated jacket for cylindrical beverage containers having an opening in the upper portion thereof through which the contents of the container can be consumed without previous removal from the container comprises upper and lower cylindrical body portions wherein the upper body portion has an opening of a size and shape to permit access for the user's mouth whereby the contents of the container can be consumed without removal of the jacket, the body portions combine to form a closed top cylindrical jacket, a hinge means for joining upper and lower body portions, the hinge means being opposite from the opening and a latch for detachably holding the upper body portion in closed relationship to the lower body portion. This insulated jacket permits beverage consumption directly from the beverage container without removal of the jacket. The insulated jacket may be reused since the beverage container is removable from the separable body portions of the jacket.

2. Utility Of The Invention

The container jacket of this invention is useful for allowing consumption of beverages from cylindrical containers while at the same time thermally insulating the beverage.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the insulated jacket containing a beverage can;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the jacket and beverage can;

FIG. 3 is a frontal vertical cross section of the insulating jacket and beverage can along reference line III--III in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a vertical cross section of the insulated jacket along reference line IV--IV of FIG. 2 without the beverage can;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the latch shown in the cross section of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a side view of the insulated jacket showing the jacket in the container loading or removing configuration.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a preferred embodiment of the insulated jacket 1 wherein an upper body 10 rests on a lower body 20 and forms a hollowed cylindrical shaped shell 1. The upper body 10 and lower body 20 are made of thermally insulating material, preferably expanded polystyrene. Beverage container 30 rests inside of the hollow shell or jacket 1. The means for securing upper body 10 and lower body 20 consists first of pivotally securing upper body 10 with hinge 40 to lower body 20. As can be seen particularly in FIG. 6, hinge 40 allows pivotal, upward rotation of upper jacket or cover 10 about hinge 40. Hinge 40 is preferably made from some reinforced material, i.e., "Lamical" belting which is an acetate product of Celanese Corporation of America. The hinge can consist of a strip of any suitable material which is flexible and has a high resistance to fatigue. It must also be of a material which can be effectively bonded to the jacket. The same material can be utilized for the hereinafter described latch arm 51.

The hinge 40 is bonded to the lower body portion 20 and the closure 10 by a suitable adhesive compatible with both the hinge and jacket materials. Such adhesives are commercially available and are well within the skill of the art to select.

In the preferred embodiment of the jacket the rear wall of the closure 10 at the hinge line is short. Therefore, to obtain an adequate area of bonding between the hinge 40 and the closure 10, the upper end of the hinge 40 is preferably extended over onto the top surface of the closure. This provides a strong, strain resistant bond to the top.

Opposite to hinge 40 on shell 1, latch 50 acts detachably to secure upper body 10 to lower body 20 so that when latch 50 is engaged as particularly shown in FIG. 4, pivotal rotation or opening of the upper body 10 about hinge 40 is prevented. As seen in FIG. 4 and more particularly in FIG. 5, the preferred embodiment of the latch 50 utilizes a flexible latch arm 51 which is attached to the cylindrical wall of upper body 10. A strip or patch of flexible material such as fabric equipped with a large plurality of loop elements 52 is attached to that portion of arm 51 which extends below junction 12, which is the innerface between upper body 10 and lower body 20. A corresponding strip or patch of material comprising a plurality of hook elements 53 is affixed to the external surface of lower jacket 20. The loops 52 and hook elements 53 are resilient and deformable and when pressed together become removably entangled, securing latch 50 and thus securing upper body 10 to lower body 20. Loops 52 and hooks 53 can be released from entangled engagement by positively pulling on the hook elements away from the loop element or vice versa. The loop and hook fabric elements 52 and 53 are available under the trademark "Velcro", more specific details of which may be had from U.S. Pat. No. 2 717 437 entitled VELVET TYPE FABRIC AND METHOD OF PRODUCING SAME issued Sept. 13, 1955 to George de Mestral and U.S. Pat. No. 3 114 951 entitled DEVICE FOR JOINING TWO FLEXIBLE ELEMENTS issued Dec. 24, 1963 to George de Mestral. The material is hereinafter referred to as "Velcro" loop material and "Velcro" hook material, a product of American Velcro, Inc.

The patches 52 and 53 can be small since a small area of interface between the loops and hooks will provide an adequate attachment between the upper and lower body portions of the jacket. The patches may be secured by any suitable adhesive. The particular adhesive selected will depend upon the base material. For example, if the latch arm is fabric, the adhesive for the patch would be different from that which would be used if the latch arm is a vinyl. If the jacket is of foamed polystyrene an adhesive compatible with this material must be used. Such adhesives are commonly available on the market and the choice of a suitable adhesive requires only a review of technical data on adhesives.

In order to make the beverage container readily accessible to insertion and removal and to facilitate proper meshing of upper body 10 to lower body 20, a means for indexing the body portions to each other is incorporated in this invention. In the preferred embodiment, the line of separation 12 forms an angular plane through shell 1, particularly shown in FIG. 4. By so doing, upper body 10 and lower body 20 have a preferred alignment in which latch 50 and hinge 40 are opposite from one another, when the body portions are meshed to form junction 12. Another means for preferentially aligning the upper and lower jacket could also incorporate the use of one or more indentions and projections between upper body 10 and lower body 20.

Jacket opening 11 along the top of the insulator, as seen in FIG. 2, conforms generally with the pie-shaped container opening 31. Jacket opening 11 also extends downwardly along the cylindrical wall of upper jacket or closure 10 in general alignment with container opening 31 so as to allow ready accessibility of the opening 31 to the user's mouth. As seen in FIG. 1, the opening 11 is generally diamond-shaped. Such a generally diamond-shaped opening may be used with almost any shape of presently commercially available container opening, i.e., triangular, circular, etc. If the container is the type requiring two openings in the top, i.e., one serving as a vent and the other for discharging the liquid, as shown in FIG. 2 in phantom, the opening 32 would have air supply because of the space created by the chime 33.

The air passage between container 30 and upper body 10 in the embodiment shown, traps air which aids in thermally insulating the beverage container. In another embodiment, seals might also be utilized around container opening 11 and along junction 12 so as to render the jacket essentially air tight when the container is inserted and the jacket is closed.

The maximum width of the opening 11 is along the juncture 16 between the top and sidewalls of the closure. This arrangement provides maximum access to the container opening 31 while exposing a minimum area of the container surface, thus minimizing thermal transfer. Jacket opening 11 in the preferred embodiment is generally placed along the center plane of the insulator as formed through latch 50 and hinge 40 shown by reference line IV--IV in FIG. 2.

A disc of resilient padding 60 is mounted in the bottom of the jacket. The disc may be of any suitable spongy material such as foam rubber or urethane. It may be secured to the jacket by a suitable adhesive or it may be left detached so it can be readily removed to facilitate cleaning the jacket.

OPERATION

To insert or remove a beverage container from the insulated jacket of the embodiment shown in the drawings, latch 50 is released by disentangling of the Velcro loops 52 and Velcro hooks 53. As shown in FIG. 6, the upper jacket 10 is then pivoted upwardly about hinge 40 to provide unobstructed access to the lower body 20 and permitting removal of or replacement of container 30. The container opening 31 in the beverage container 30 is approximately lined up by the user along the center plane between hinge 40 and the Velcro hooks 53. After approximate alignment of container 30 between hinge 40 and Velcro hooks 53, upper body 10 is pivoted downwardly about the hinge 40 to close the jacket. Because of the angle of junction 12, the latch arm 51 will be automatically aligned with the Velcro hooks 53. Pressure on arm 51 behind Velcro loops 52 will secure the Velcro loops 52 with the Velcro hooks 53, thus securing upper body 10 and lower body 20.

The pad 60 forms a resilient biasing means which urges the container upwardly. The space between the top of this pad and bottom face of the closure is slightly less than the height of the container 30. Thus, when the lid or closure 10 is closed the container is pushed downwardly against the pad 60. This forces the container to seat firmly against the closure 10 preventing the container from shifting lengthwise of the jacket or rotating to misalign the openings 31 and 11.

It will be understood that the various changes, details, materials, steps and arrangements of the parts, which have been herein described and illustrated in order to explain the nature of the invention, may be made by those skilled in the art within the principle and scope of the invention as expressed in the appended claims.

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. An insulated jacket for removably receiving cylindrical beverage containers of the type from which the contents can be consumed by drinking directly from an opening in one end of the container, said jacket comprising: a lower cylindrical body portion of insulating material, an upper cylindrical body portion of insulating material, said upper body portion having an opening therethrough having a maximum width along the juncture of its side wall and top wall, said opening extending into both said side and top walls and being of a size to provide access for the user's mouth whereby the contents of the container can be consumed without removal of said jacket, said body portions combining to form a substantially closed-top cylindrical jacket, hinge means for joining said upper and lower body portions, said hinge means being opposite from said opening; a latch for detachably holding said upper body portion in closed relationship to said lower body portion.

2. The insulated jacket for cylindrical beverage containers of claim 1 wherein the junction of the upper and lower cylindrical bodies forms an angular plane through said insulated jacket, the maximum spacing of said plane from the juncture of the side and top walls of said upper portion being opposite from said hinge.

3. The insulated jacket for cylindrical beverage containers of claim 1 wherein the lower cylindrical body portions contains a resilient pad at the bottom thereof for pressing the container against the upper body portion when said upper body portion is closed and latched for holding the container against both rotational and axial slipping.