Patent Application
20210278145
The present invention relates to beverage cooling.
Many beverages, including beer, soft drinks, wines, and the like are not only packaged in cans but can also be consumed directly from the can. Such beverage cans are typically cooled by placing them in a refrigerator prior to consumption; several devices exist to maintain the cool temperature of the beverage once it is removed from the refrigerator for consumption, the most common being an insulator that surrounds the can during consumption.
Variously referred to a beer cozy, beer jacket or drink huggie, the koozie can be rigid or soft and flexible. It is believed that the original version of the koozie was introduced in Australia in the 1970s. In 1980, a woman named Bonnie McGough filed a patent application for an “insulated drink cozy” with insulating material sandwiched by outer fabric, which application resulted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,293,015 issued 6 Oct. 1981.
In 2013, a team at the University of Washington put together an experiment to discover if koozies actually work. The study attracted grant funding from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Science Foundation. The study concluded that koozies help to prevent canned drinks from warming up by preventing condensation from forming on the can. Dale Durran and Dargan Frierson, “Condensation, Atmospheric Motion, and Cold Beer”, 66 Physics Today 4, 74 (2013) (Available at https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.1958? journalCode=pto (accessed 11 Feb. 2020)).
While koozies help maintain the cold temperature after the beverage has been cooled, however, it is often desirable to cool a room temperature can and drink its contents on short notice, without having to wait several hours for refrigeration to cool the beverage. Perhaps the initial attempt to address this was the addition of fluids into the walls of koozies, which fluids can be frozen prior to use. A recent variant of this is the Chill Puck available from Chill Promotions, 3525 Oleander Avenue Alameda, Calif. 94502. The Chill Puck relies upon conduction via a plastic encapsulated gel that clips on to the bottom of a can. While perhaps helping maintain a cold temperature, the Chill Puck simply does not provide for sufficient heat transfer to achieve the quick cooling of room temperature beverages.
Thus, there exists a need to conveniently quickly cool down a beverage in a can from room temperature to a desirable drinking temperature. Currently there are many cumbersome methods to accomplish this task. The most common method simply involves placing the can(s) is a container filled with ice/ice water, such as an ice bucket. This method is often supplemented by rotation the can in the ice/ice water bath. There are also expensive commercial appliances that need to chill several cups of water before they are ready to cool a beverage. There are also other apparatus which require the beverage to be transferred to another vessel and a subset of those that require an additional transfer to another glass. All these separate vessels require cleaning.
For example, beyond ice buckets there also exist so-called high performance ice packs, which rely on conduction via half ice blocks shaped to partially surround cans. While inexpensive and capable of keeping beverages cool on the go—with a concave shape walls designed to cradle the can—these ice packs exhibit poor heat transfer properties as a layer of insulating plastic separate the frozen ice from the can and thus achieve little in cooling room temperature cans.
A crude attempt to cool down a beverage in a can utilizes a common drill with a specialized drill bit, such as the Spin Chill, which utilizes conduction and forced internal convection by spinning the can in a tub of ice. The Spin Chill was designed by ApexTek Labs 710 South Main Street, Gainesville Fla. 32601. This approach works, but requires use of a drill and a bucket or other source of ice/ice water.
One such commercially available attempt is the InnoChiller available from InnoChiller ApS, Havnegade 37 E 1. tv., 6700 Esbjerg, Denmark. The InnoChiller uses forced convection to create the “wind chill” effect, claiming to speed up the energy exchange by creating a high velocity air speed inside a compartment that holds the cans from a fan installed in the back end of the unit when in the freezer. This unit, however, is quite expensive, requires frequent charging to power the fan, and runs the risk of over chilling or freezing the beverage when in the freezer.
Another commercially available attempt is the Cooper Cooler Rapid Beverage & Wine Chiller available from RCS, Inc., 47 Overocker Road, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. 12603. The Cooper Cooler Rapid Beverage & Wine Chiller utilizes conduction with chilled water and spinning agitation. This unit, however, likewise is quite expensive, requires a constant power, and requires an initial set-up time to “power up”.
Still other apparatuses require the beverage to be transferred to another vessel and a subset of those that require an additional transfer to another glass. All these separate vessels require cleaning.
Thus, what would be beneficial would be an inexpensive, convenient, and economical way of quickly cooling room temperature beverages in can to a cold consumption temperature while avoiding the risk of over chilling or freezing the beverage.
This Summary of the Invention is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description section. This Summary of the Invention is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope or spirit of the claimed subject matter.
A beverage can cooler in accordance with the principals of the present invention presents an inexpensive, convenient, and economical way of quickly cooling room temperature beverages in can to a cold consumption temperature while avoiding the risk of over chilling or freezing the beverage. In accordance with the principals of the present invention, a frozen tube is adapted to securely surround the can, the frozen tube utilizing high heat capacity/thermal mass to wick heat from the beverage in the can. Contained within the frozen tube, a plurality of fins act as a heatsink; in an alternative aspect in accordance with the principles of the present invention, the heat sink could be utilized alone, in the absence of the frozen tube. The presence of the fins act as a heatsink by increasing convective, conductive, and radiative heat dissipation if used without the ice and conductive heat dissipation if used with the ice. Thus, the fins reduce need for high thermal heat capacity of previous designs.
The heatsink should be in close proximal connection with the can. In one aspect in accordance with the principals of the present invention, the heatsink can comprise a split design and define a hinge, allowing the heatsink to expand around the can and achieve sufficient contact pressure/surface area for condition between the two elements conducting thermal transfer.
In one aspect in accordance with the principals of the present invention, the heatsink can be placed in a mold, the mold filled with water, and the water and heatsink frozen. The conductive heatsink helps dissipate the heat into the high thermal ice mass. The ice also allows the device to function in a non-subzero environment and can eliminate the risk of freezing the beverage.
This Summary of the Invention introduces concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary of the Invention is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
The accompanying Drawings illustrate several embodiments and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the present invention according to the example embodiments. It will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that the particular arrangements illustrated in and described with respect to the Drawings are merely exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting of the scope or spirit of the present invention or the claims herein in any way.
As noted above, in the above reference Drawings, the present invention is illustrated by way of example, not limitation, and modifications may be made to the elements illustrated therein, as would be apparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art, without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention.
As previously described, there is a need to conveniently and quickly cool down a beverage from room temperature to a desirable drinking temperature. Currently there are many cumbersome methods to accomplish this task. Some require filling a large vessel with ice and water and others are a bit more elaborate and involve rotating a beverage in cold water: a popular do-it-yourself method attaches a beverage to a drill and spins the beverage can in salted ice water, which has evolved into specialized drill bits designed for this purpose. There are also expensive commercial appliances that need to chill several cups of liquid before they are ready to cool a beverage. Other apparatus require the beverage to be transferred to another vessel and a subset of those that require an additional transfer to another glass. All these separate vessels require cleaning.
In accordance with the principals of the present invention, a beverage can cooler is provided that provides a low cost, convenient, and economical way of quickly cooling room temperature beverages in a can to a cold consumption temperature while avoiding the risk of over chilling or freezing the beverage. In accordance with the principals of the present invention, a frozen tube is adapted to securely surround the can, the frozen tube utilizing high heat capacity/thermal mass to wick heat from the beverage in the can. Contained within the frozen tube, a plurality of fins act as a heatsink; in an alternative aspect in accordance with the principles of the present invention, the heat sink could be utilized alone, in the absence of the frozen tube. The presence of the fins act as a heatsink by increasing convective, conductive, and radiative heat dissipation if used without the ice and conductive heat dissipation if used with the ice. Thus, the fins reduce need for high thermal heat capacity of previous designs.
The heatsink should be in close proximal connection with the can. In an aspect in accordance with the principals of the present invention, the heatsink can comprise a split design and define a hinge, allowing the heatsink to expand around the can and achieve sufficient contact pressure/surface area for condition between the two elements conducting thermal transfer. The split design can be closed-biased with the hinge around the outer diameter of the beverage can. A preferred placement of the hinge can be about 180 degrees from a slot (directly across the diameter), but the hinge could be contained at other suboptimal locations. The heatsink should be comprised on a material having good heat transfer capabilities, such as a conductive material like aluminum, copper, silver, gold, tungsten, diamond, cubic boron arsenide, graphite, and the like. The hinge can be a living hinge that can be extruded with the heatsink as part of a one piece manufacturing process, with the living hinge providing the closed bias.
Thus, the high thermal conductive heatsink is able to expand and clamp around the diameter of the beverage can. It is helpful to maintain surface contact with the walls of the beverage can and allowing the heatsink to expand and contract helps accommodate manufacturing tolerances both for the heatsink and slight variation in beverage can diameters. Also this clamping pressure lowers the thermal resistance between the two surfaces transferring thermal energy. A beverage can cooler in accordance with the principals of the present invention avoids use of a heatsink manufactured to a tight tolerance which would not be as effective in adjusting to different can tolerances and cost more to manufacture.
One of the main challenges of the heatsink design of the present invention is that to achieve best performance a large temperature differential is desired. In ideal conditions, the environment that the heatsink is in is below the freezing point of liquids (0 degrees C.). In this environment, the device will chill a room temperature beverage in minutes; however, there is a risk of over chilling and freezing the beverage. An additional modification in accordance with the principals of the present invention prevents over chilling and freezing the beverage by adding an additional amount of ice around the heatsink and removing it from the subzero environment. In this embodiment, the heatsink would be put in an insulating vessel, water would be added around the heatsink, and then frozen to form an ice block around the heatsink. When there is a desire to cool a beverage, the device would be removed from the subzero environment and put into a refrigerator or room temperature environment. The ice would continue to wick heat away from the heatsink, and the heatsink would wick heat away from the beverage until beverage was removed or the systems reached thermal equilibrium above the freezing point of the beverage. This reduces material cost, increases total thermal heat capacity, and eliminates the risk of freezing. This also uses conduction and a much quicker way to thermal transfer heat (vs convection or forced convection)
In one aspect in accordance with the principals of the present invention, the heatsink can be placed in a mold, filled with water, and frozen to prepare the frozen tube adapted to securely surround the can for use. Ice is one of the most practical materials to use because a user can fill tap water around the heatsink at room temperature and put it in the freezer to create ice around the surface area of the heatsink. Ice/water is also a low cost material and ready available. Ice has very high heat capacity and is inexpensive, but has low thermal conductivity; the heatsink increases the thermal transfer of the contents of the beverage to a cold mass of high heat capacity. The colder this thermal mass is the faster the thermal transfer takes place. The conductive heatsink helps dissipate the heat into the high thermal ice mass. The ice also allows the device to function in a non-subzero environment and can eliminate the risk of freezing the beverage. This cold mass can be stored in a freezer so that it is ready on demand.
By adding fin geometry, there is greater convection and radiation thermal transfer to the freezer. Utilizing a beverage can cooler in accordance with the principals of the present invention with the fins alone would work well if the beverage is chilled in a cold environment; whereas by utilizing a beverage can cooler in accordance with the principals of the present invention with ice surrounding the heatsink, chilling in a room temperature or refrigerator environment reduces the risk of over chilling and freezing the beverage. The thermal heat capacity of the cold mass could be calibrated to only withdraw enough thermal energy so as to chill and not freeze the beverage. For the heatsink to be expandable with low force in this embodiment, it is preferred that the ice is also split in two halves—or thin at the point of the hinge so the ice can be easily broken—with one block on each side of the hinged or living hinged element.
Generally, one or more different embodiments may be described in the present application. Further, for one or more of the embodiments described herein, numerous alternative arrangements may be described; it should be appreciated that these are presented for illustrative purposes only and are not limiting of the embodiments contained herein or the claims presented herein in any way. One or more of the arrangements may be widely applicable to numerous embodiments, as may be readily apparent from the disclosure. In general, arrangements are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice one or more of the embodiments, and it should be appreciated that other arrangements may be utilized and that structural, logical, software, electrical and other changes may be made without departing from the scope or spirit of the present invention. Particular features of one or more of the embodiments described herein may be described with reference to one or more particular embodiments or figures that form a part of the present invention, and in which are shown, by way of illustration, specific arrangements of one or more of the aspects. It should be appreciated, however, that such features are not limited to usage in the one or more particular embodiments or figures with reference to which they are described. The present disclosure is neither a literal description of all arrangements of one or more of the embodiments nor a listing of features of one or more of the embodiments that must be present in all arrangements.
Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the title of this patent application are for convenience only and are not to be taken as limiting the present invention in any way.
Devices and parts that are connected to or in communication with each other need not be in continuous connection or communication with each other, unless expressly specified otherwise. In addition, devices and parts that are connected to or in communication with each other may communicate directly or indirectly through one or more connection or communication means or intermediaries, logical or physical.
A description of an aspect with several components in connection or communication with each other does not imply that all such components are required. To the contrary, a variety of optional components may be described to illustrate a wide variety of possible embodiments and in order to more fully illustrate one or more embodiments. Similarly, although process steps, method steps or the like may be described in a sequential order, such processes and methods may generally be configured to work in alternate orders, unless specifically stated to the contrary. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may be described in this patent application does not, in and of itself, indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. The steps of described processes may be performed in any order practical. Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously despite being described or implied as occurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because one step is described after the other step). Moreover, the illustration of a process by its depiction in a drawing does not imply that the illustrated process is exclusive of other variations and modifications thereto, does not imply that the illustrated process or any of its steps are necessary to one or more of the embodiments, and does not imply that the illustrated process is preferred. Also, steps are generally described once per aspect, but this does not mean they must occur once, or that they may only occur once each time a process, or method is carried out or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some embodiments or some occurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in a given aspect or occurrence.
When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readily apparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of a single device or article. Similarly, where more than one device or article is described herein, it will be readily apparent that a single device or article may be used in place of the more than one device or article.
The functionality or the features of a device may be alternatively embodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly described as having such functionality or features. Thus, other embodiments need not include the device itself.
Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimes be described in singular form for clarity. However, it should be appreciated that particular embodiments may include multiple iterations of a technique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless noted otherwise. Process descriptions or blocks in figures should be understood as representing modules, segments, or steps in the process. Alternate implementations are included within the scope or spirit of various embodiments in which, for example, functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionality involved, as would be understood by those having ordinary skill in the art.
In more detail and referring to
Contained within the frozen tube 10 a plurality of fins 14 act as a heatsink 12. In an alternative aspect in accordance with the principles of the present invention, the heat sink 12 can be utilized alone, in the absence of the frozen tube. The presence of the fins act as a heatsink by increasing convective, conductive, and radiative heat dissipation if used in the absence of the frozen tube and conductive heat dissipation if used with the frozen tube. Thus, the fins 14 reduce need for high thermal heat capacity. Referring to
The hinge 21 can comprise a living hinge that can be extruded with the heatsink 12 as part of a one piece manufacturing process with the heatsink 12. The living hinge 21 can provide the closed bias.
Referring to
As previously described, in one aspect in accordance with the principals of the present invention, the heatsink 12 can be placed in a mold 27, filled with water, and frozen to prepare the frozen tube 10 adapted to securely surround the can for use. Ice has very high heat capacity and is inexpensive, but has low thermal conductivity. The conductive heatsink 12 helps dissipate the heat into the high thermal ice mass. The ice also allows the device to function in a non-subzero environment and can eliminate the risk of freezing the beverage.
As previously described, the heatsink 12 can define a channel slot 23 which, in conjunction with the hinge 21 define the split design comprising two halves 16, 18, allowing the heatsink 12 to expand around the can and achieve sufficient contact pressure/surface area for condition between the two elements conducting thermal transfer. To facilitate the split design comprising two halves 16, 18, the mold 27 can define a channel slot indentation 36 and a hinge indentation 38. The channel slot indentation 36 and the hinge indentation 38 further defined fin slots 41 into which the fins 14 of the heatsink 12 adjacent to the channel slot 23 and the hinge 21 fit. This can be seen in
In addition to defining a channel slot 23 and a hinge 21, the heatsink 12 of
This can be seen in
To calculate the thermal and fluid interactions in a simulated environment of a beverage can cooler in accordance with the principals of the present invention, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Computational Thermal Dynamics (CFD) analysis software was utilized. Heat transfer analysis was conducted between elements from initial starting temperature conditions to show the resulting temperature over time as the beverage cools and the ice melts.
To start, the geometry of a beverage can cooler in accordance with the principals of the present invention was created in 3-D Computer Aided Drawing (CAD) software and imported into CFD software. The material properties were applied with the necessary conductivity and heat capacity. Then, boundary conditions and temperature were assigned. The underlying equations of state were solved. These equations of state are related to the conductive heat transfer and natural convection in the fluid caused by thermal gradient and currents. Post processing tools such as planes and color plots were overlaid onto the model and the mesh to communicate the results. “Mesh” refers to the wireframe structure that is applied to the CAD model in the CFD analysis. The mesh is a serious of nodes and connection points. The simulation is run on each node to determine the temperature and fluid flow. The tighter the mesh, the more accurate the analysis.
To optimize the design of a beverage can cooler in accordance with the principals of the present invention, the fins are of a proper thickness and length to quickly transfer heat to the ice. The thickness of the base of the fins was chosen to properly extract heat from the outer surface of the can. The thickness of the fins was chosen to optimize the amount of heat being extracted from the base, and also optimize the amount of surface area with the ice. The gap between the fins (the thickness of the ice between the fins) was sized such that the ice goes through its phase change when the optimal temperature of the can has been reached. The profile consists of a specifically designed taper and curvature. To promote heat transfer due to conduction within the material of the device, the taper of the fins was designed to minimize the material while still keeping the fin thickness wide at the base. The curvature of the fins optimizes the surface area while minimizing the overall diameter of the device.
The volume of ice and thus the diameter of the mold were sized such that the ice goes through its phase change when the optimal temperature of the beverage has been reached. To account for variations in beverage starting temperature and freezer temperature/settings, the user can control the volume of water poured in to the device. For example, if the can is stored in a hot environment, then more water could be poured; contra wise, if the freezer temperature is colder, less water could be poured. The mold could have visual indicators (fill lines) corresponding to the appropriate temperature differentials between the can and the freezer.
Referring to
While a beverage can cooler in accordance with the principals of the present invention has been described with specific embodiments, other alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, in the alternative embodiment where the heat sink is utilized alone, a fan could be added to provide forced convection. As an additional example, an electro-mechanical means could be added to induce agitation such as for example by spinning the can or rotating, stopping, and rotating the whole device in the opposite directions. Accordingly, it will be intended to include all such alternatives, modifications and variations set forth within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
