Patent Application
20100224645
This invention relates generally to covers, caps, lids, or cover assemblies for a beverage container such as a travel coffee mug or a thermally insulated drinking vessel. Specifically, the invention relates to moveable lids or covers for beverage containers.
Beverage containers, thermally insulated and other types, have become increasingly popular with the public for use with hot beverages, such as coffee, or with cold beverages. Hot beverages impose the most demanding thermal requirement on a beverage container while cold beverages typically place a lower thermal load on the beverage containers. One type of insulated beverage container has sidewalls manufactured from metal, particularly stainless steel, to withstand the high thermo-mechanical loading. Another type of insulated beverage container is manufactured with a plastic double wall, wherein the interstitial space between the inner and outer walls is filled with air, a foamed material, or some combination thereof.
A conventional beverage container is typically covered with a cover, a lid, a cap, or some combination of the above to reduce heat loss from the container and to reduce the likelihood of the beverage in the container spilling. One example of a beverage container covered with a lid is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,703 to Karp. Karp discloses a travel mug comprising a container and a lid in combination. The container includes a handle and an annular lip extending from an inner surface of the container. The lid includes a body having a perimeter sized to form a seal with a portion of the annular lip. The lid includes a cylindrical well with a vertical dividing wall that permits the lid to be rotated by hand. Two retaining arms extend from the underside of the lid and engage the annular lip to couple the lid with the container. The container includes diametrically opposed gaps in the annular lip that operate as passageways for the retaining arms. The lid, in turn, further includes diametrically opposed notches that are alignable with the gaps in the annular lip to permit drinking from the otherwise sealed container. One drawback of the travel mug described by Karp is that the container must be specially manufactured with dedicated structure (i.e., the annular lip) to engage the arms of the lid.
Another example of a beverage container with a cover is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,951 to Feltman, Ill, et al. (Feltman). Feltman describes a cover comprising a cap and a lid. The cap includes an inner groove to retain the cap on the container. The lid is rotatably mounted in the cap with a ring fitting that engages a complementary ring in the cap. Yet another example of a beverage container is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,173 to Mason, et al. (a dispending assembly with two spaced, thermally insulating dispensing members rotatably mounted to one another and where one of the dispensing members engages the beverage container).
In addition, other examples of drinking receptacles with covers, lids, caps, or the like are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,748 to Albert (describing a cover with a poppet valve), U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,631 to Albert (describing a cover with a finger-operated valve), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,642 to Nergard (describing a cover with a valve assembly). In these descriptions, the valve is moveable to an open position, which permits removal of the beverage from the container, and moveable to a closed position, which substantially maintains the beverage within the container. In the aforementioned containers, the respective covers, lids, caps, and the like have numerous components generally arranged in a fairly complex assembly. Hence, one drawback of these containers is that the covers, lids, caps, and/or the like include numerous pockets, recesses, corners, and other interstitial zones that are often difficult to clean and thus maintain in a hygienic condition.
Yet another type of beverage container and cover combination is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,763,964 to Hurlbut et al. (Hurlbut) assigned to the assignee of the present invention. Hurlbut describes a lid with a rocker arm that is moveable between an open and a closed position. The lid attaches to the beverage container and includes both drinking and venting apertures and respective basins or recesses formed in the lid. The rocker arm includes venting and drinking seals for sealing the respective apertures in the lid when the rocker arm is in the closed position. The rocker arm is detachable from the lid to facilitate cleaning of the lid and the rocker arm. When drinking a beverage from the container, the rocker arm is rotatable from its closed position to its open position about only a single axis. The cover disclosed by Hurlbut is extremely successful with respect to use ergonomics, hygiene, fluid integrity, etc. However, it is somewhat expensive to manufacture.
Consequently, there is need for a beverage container with a covering device that overcomes at least some of the aforementioned drawbacks.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a cover assembly for an insulated beverage container, which is easy to use and maintain, which is leak proof, and which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture. The invention achieves the above objects, as well as other objects and advantages, by providing a cover and/or a cover assembly for a beverage container or similar receptacle. A ball and socket assembly couples the cover to the beverage container and allows the cover to be polyaxially rotatable with respect to the beverage container. By way of example, a socket member extends from the cover and rotationally engages a ball member that extends from the beverage container. The socket member may include extendable and biasly separable arms. Once the ball member is coupled to the socket member, the cover is moveable from a closed position to a variety of open positions. In addition, an amount of friction within the ball and socket assembly enables the cover to be maintained in the variety of open positions with respect to the beverage container without auxiliary support or assistance.
Preferred and alternative embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the following drawings:
In brief, the ball and socket assembly 111 includes a ball member 113 and a socket member 114. In the preferred embodiment, the ball member 113 is formed as part of and located at a distal edge of the cap 108 while the socket member 114 is formed as part of the cover 110. In another embodiment (not shown), the ball member 113 is formed as part of the cover 110 while the socket member 114 is formed as part of the cap 108. In another embodiment, the ball member 113 is rotationally received by or engaged by a socket member 114 to allow the cover 110 to rotate polyaxially relative to the cap 108.
The cap 108 includes a first basin 126 that slopes downward from a lip 128 toward and into a deeper, second basin 130. The lip 128 is formed as part of a sidewall 129 of the cap 108. The first basin 126 is contoured and sized to help reduce spillage of the liquid in the receptacle 102 if the receptacle 102 is tipped or tilted. The second basin 130 slopes downward toward a drinking opening 132, which is in fluid communication with the receptacle 102 (see
The ball and socket assembly 111 permits cooperation between the ball member 113 and the socket member 114 so that the cover 110 is polyaxially rotatable with respect to the cap 108 and/or with respect to the receptacle 102. In the illustrated embodiment, the socket member 114 includes a pair of spaced apart arms 136 extending from the lower surface 118 of the cover 110. The arms 136 are biasly separable and include opposing, arcuate surfaces 138a, 138b for rotationally engaging the ball member 113. In the preferred embodiment, the cover 110 can be rotated upwards away from the first basin 126 of the cap 108 and then compound rotated and placed behind the receptacle 102. When the cover 110 is behind the receptacle 102, the cover 110 is substantially removed from the user's view when drinking from the receptacle 102 and most, if not all, of the cover 110 is positioned below the lip surface 122 of the cap 108. Thus, the polyaxial rotation permitted by the ball and socket assembly 111 advantageously allows the cover 110 to be moved out of the way when drinking while keeping the cover 110 connected to the receptacle 102. Another advantage is that the cover 110, because it remains attached to the cap 108 during use, is less susceptible to being dropped, misplaced, or lost.
Further, as the cover 110 is rotated, an amount of friction between the ball member 113 and the socket member 114 allows the cover 110 to stay in a desired position relative to the cap 108 after the moving force is removed. For example, the use may rotate the cover 110 upward and away from the cap 108 to a slightly open position to allow the liquid in the receptacle to cool. In this example, the amount of friction in the ball and socket assembly 111 would maintain the cover 110 in the slightly open position without any additional assistance or support. In addition to the surface friction between the ball member 113 and the socket member 114, it is appreciated that the flexibility of the arms 136 of the socket member 114 may also operate as one of the design parameters for controlling the ease with which the cover 110 can be rotated relative to the cap 108. By way of example, the arms 136 are elastically bendable by an amount sufficient to release the ball member 113 and then spring back to their original configuration. In one embodiment, the flexibility of the arms 136 of the socket member 114 and/or the amount of friction in the ball and socket assembly 111 is sufficient to permit the cover 110 to be removed and replaced from the cap 108 for the purpose of cleaning.
While various embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, as noted above, many changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the cap or beverage container may have the extendable arms comprising the socket member while the cover includes the ball member. In addition, the ball member 113 may be coupled to the cap 108 while the socket member 114 is coupled to the cover 110. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not limited by the disclosure of the preferred embodiment. Instead, the invention should be determined entirely by reference to the claims that follow.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/670,917 filed Feb. 2, 2007.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 11670917 | Feb 2007 | US |
| Child | 12787146 | US |
