Patent Application
20120234790
The present invention relates to the field of baby bottles. More particularly, the invention relates to a baby bottle having sterilized features.
A baby bottle includes a vessel commonly made of polycarbonate, a teat commonly made of liquid silicone rubber or natural rubber, and a coupling which couples the vessel to the teat in a leak-proof manner.
Prior art baby bottles can be sterilized by boiling in hot water. However, these bottles are difficult to sterilize in boiling water due to their tendency to float.
Thus, practically, baby bottles are not sterilized but rather are only cleaned with hot soapy water.
The mouth of the bottles is narrower than of the vessels themselves, thus, washing too is difficult and usually insufficiently performed.
Disposable bottles were introduced. However, the structure of these bottles makes them relatively expensive since the sealing requires sealing elements of both the vessel and the teat.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,777,753 discloses a teat for feeding bottles for babies. The teat has a nipple portion for being fitted upon a bottle neck so as to grip around the latter. The bottle is gripped between a sealing lip and a cylindrical wall of the teat.
However, this gripping assumes that the bottle includes a thread or an oblique sealing lip. Thus, this bottle is not suited for being disposable.
All the methods described above have not yet provided satisfactory solutions neither to the problem of washing and sterilizing baby bottles, nor to manufacturing of inexpensive disposable baby bottles.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for providing sterilized baby bottles.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a solution to the above-mentioned and other problems of the prior art.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.
In one aspect, the present invention is directed to a baby bottle (10) comprising:
Each of the arms (26A, 26B) may comprise a protrusion (18) bending towards the wall (20) of the cup (12), thereby enhancing the elastic embracing.
The protrusion (18) of at least one of the arms (26B) may comprise bending towards a folded edge (52) of the wall (20), thereby the protrusion (18) prevents sliding of the vessel (12) out of the teat (50).
The vessel (12) may be formed as a cone, allowing packing a plurality of vessels of the same form in a compact manner,
thereby allowing packing a plurality of baby bottles (10) in a compact, disposable and sterile form.
The vessel (12) may be foldable, for allowing packing a plurality of vessels of the same form in a compact manner, thereby allowing packing a plurality of baby bottles (10) in a compact, disposable and sterile form.
The foldability of the vessel (12) may comprise a member selected from a group including: a bellows form diminishing the height, foldability diminishing the width.
The vessel (12) may comprise transparent zones (14) for viewing the contents level.
The reference numbers have been used to point out elements in the embodiments described and illustrated herein, in order to facilitate the understanding of the invention. They are meant to be merely illustrative, and not limiting. Also, the foregoing embodiments of the invention have been described and illustrated in conjunction with systems and methods thereof, which are meant to be merely illustrative, and not limiting.
Embodiments and features of the present invention are described herein in conjunction with the following drawings:
It should be understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.
The present invention will be understood from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, which are meant to be descriptive and not limiting. For the sake of brevity, some well-known features, methods, systems, procedures, components, circuits, and so on, are not described in detail.
The solution disclosed by the present invention to the above-mentioned problems is attaching a non-disposable teat to a disposable vessel.
Baby bottle 10 of the present invention includes a disposable vessel 12 for being substituted, and a non-disposable teat 50 for drinking the formula therethrough.
The formula is poured into disposable vessel 12 through mouth 56 thereof, and teat 50 then covers vessel 12 in a sealed manner, for drinking through a hole 64 of teat 50.
Unlike the prior art vessel of the baby bottle that is made of polycarbonate, disposable vessel 12 is preferably made of paper or a disposable plastic. Non-disposable teat 50 may also be made of liquid silicone rubber or natural rubber like the prior art teats.
Disposable vessels 12 may be designed to be compactly packaged together. A large amount of disposable vessels 12 may thus be compactly packaged together for marketing thereof, or with one non-disposable teat 50, or a small number of teats.
According to one embodiment, the compact design may feature a widening shape from bottom to top, as depicted in
Thus, unlike the prior art baby bottles which require cleaning and sterilizing the vessels, disposable vessels 12 may be marketed clean and sterilized for a single use of each.
This embodiment is disadvantaged of requiring a non-standard teat.
Baby bottle 10 is leak-proof due to contact between surrounding complementary edge 52 of vessel 12 and edge 54 of teat 50.
According to this embodiment, disposable vessel 12 includes a top 48 having a narrow mouth 56, which may fit the size of a standard teat. This thus allows using a standard teat 50.
According to one embodiment, top 48 is inherent within disposable vessel 12.
The embodiment of
Baby bottle 10 is leak-proof due to contact between surrounding edges 60 and 62 of top 48 and of teat 50 respectively, which is based on the springy feature of teat 50.
Since mouth 56 of disposable vessel 12, made of paper or plastic, is not firm, a firm mouth 28 may be attached to mouth 56 of vessel 12 in a sealed manner, for avoiding bending mouth 56 of vessel 12. Firm mouth 28 is thus sealed to teat 50. Firm mouth 28 is disposable, together with vessel 12.
According to another embodiment, the compact design may feature foldability provided by a bellows form.
In order to allow packaging many vessels 12 together, each vessel 12 is foldable, diminishing the height thereof.
According to another embodiment, each vessel 12 is foldable, diminishing the width thereof.
The embodiments of
Unlike the embodiment wherein top 48 is inherent within disposable vessel 12, according to the embodiment of
This embodiment allows using a standard teat 50. Also, this embodiment provides the packaging feature depicted in
Baby bottle 10 is leak-proof due to contact between surrounding complementary edges 52 and 58 of vessel 12 and of coupling 48, respectively.
Vessel 12 may be designed for fitting several standards of teats 50. For example, each of depressions 22 and 24 of disposable vessel 12 may fit a different size of a teat.
Vessel 12 may include notches and transparent zones 14 for viewing and measuring the water level.
According to this embodiment baby bottle 10 is leak-proof due to contact between surrounding wall of vessel 12 and arms 26A and 26B splitting from teat 50.
Since the sealing is based on sealing elements 26A and 26B of teat 50 only, baby bottle 10 may include a disposable vessel 12 for being substituted, and a non-disposable teat 50.
Arms 26A and 26B are disposed parallel to the wall 20 of vessel 12, forming a fork 16 embracing wall 20 inside and outside it.
The sealing is not based on edge 52 of vessel 12, but only on wall 20 of vessel 12, which is commonly formed smooth and thus suits the sealing of the present embodiment.
Preferably, not the surface of arms 54 seal, but rather protrusions 18 of each arm 54 which are bent towards wall 20 make the sealing. Thus the springy feature of the material of teat 50 presses protrusions 18 onto wall 20, enhancing the sealing between arms 54 and wall 20.
According to a preferred embodiment vessel 12 may be a standard inexpensive (e.g. 10 cents) disposable cup, preferably a paper cup (coffee cup) withstanding heat. Edge 52 at the top of a standard paper cup includes a fold or a roll of the paper.
This folded edge 52 of vessel 12 is inserted within fork 16 of teat 50 sealing the connection.
According to this embodiment fork 16 provides also a mechanical barrier from vessel 12 sliding out. Arm 26B is bent not only to press wall 20 but also towards folded edge 52 of vessel 12.
Edge 52 at the top of the standard paper cup which includes the fold is trapped by the bent edge 54B upon inserting edge 52 of vessel 12 therein.
In the figures and/or description herein, the following reference numerals have been mentioned:
The foregoing description and illustrations of the embodiments of the invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the above description in any form.
Any term that has been defined above and used in the claims, should to be interpreted according to this definition.
The reference numbers in the claims are not a part of the claims, but rather used for facilitating the reading thereof. These reference numbers should not be interpreted as limiting the claims in any form.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 211715 | Mar 2011 | IL | national |
