Patent Application
20070257162
The invention relates to a beverage container holder and, in particular, to an insulating beverage container holder system for stabilizing the beverage container on one or more surfaces.
Currently, beverage container holders are well known, designs of which generally fall into one of two categories. In the first category, the beverage container holders provide hands-free stability where the beverage container is susceptible to being jostled or toppled. For instance, automotive vehicles have beverage container holders to hold the beverage container while a driver operates the vehicle or otherwise occupies their hands.
Another category of beverage containers provide certain thermal or insulative properties. For instance, a type of insulative beverage container holder is well-known and popularized as the Koozie™ beverage container holder, which is often simply referred to as a cozy. The cozy has a body substantially comprised of a cylindrical portion and a round base portion generally closing a bottom side of the cylindrical portion. The round base commonly has a hole through its center to allow for drainage, such as produced when a cold beverage container resides in a warm, humid environment allowing moisture to condense on the surface of the container. The body of the cozy is made of an insulative foam. The cozy-type beverage container holder has been advertised as maintaining an aluminum can containing a beverage at a temperature of about 40 degrees or below for a time period three times longer than a can exposed to ambient air.
Boats are one of the most difficult vehicles on which to stabilize a beverage. As a boat moves with any significant speed across a surface of water, the boat will move up and down as it rides each wave, often bouncing up and down, as well as pitching to the port and starboard. Even at a standstill, boats are rocked by waves and by wakes traveling away from other boats. Smaller boats will lean to port or starboard simply by a person moving within a passenger area of the boat.
Most of the stability-type beverage container holders are generally fixed in position and include hard plastic components. As a result, the holders may be fragile or susceptible to impact damage, and the holders have a singular location at which the container can be placed. In a passenger compartment of a boat the passengers tend to move around, and boating accessories such as skis and fishing poles and coolers are moved around. These accessories may impact with stationary, rigid holders causing damage or simply breaking them. Additionally, a boat would need to be equipped with the holders all over, or otherwise a passenger would need to return to a particular spot repeatedly in order to drink from the beverage container and replace the container in the holder.
One of the benefits of the cozy-type holder is that the foam material has a lower density that water. As a result, the cozy holder and the beverage therein are able to float. Accordingly, the cozy holder is popular among people who enjoy time on boats and similar water-based pleasure craft.
Accordingly, there has been a need for an improved beverage container system allowing a beverage to be insulated and stabilized on a variety of surfaces.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a system for generally immobilizing a beverage container, particularly in a vehicle, is disclosed. The system includes a holder for receiving and retaining the beverage container, the exterior of the holder being generally covered with a first member including a first material that is mateable with a second material in hook-and-loop fashion. The second material maybe secured on surfaces in one or more of various places, such as in or on the vehicle. The surfaces may include generally horizontal surfaces or generally vertical surfaces, or surfaces somewhat oblique thereto. This allows the holder to be secured to these surfaces, such as a horizontal surface and a vertical surface, either singly or simultaneously, and to a selected one of a plurality of such surfaces. The holder may be formed of soft, resilient foam so that the beverage container may be generally immobilized and stabilized with an impact-resistant, or non-breakable, holder system.
In accordance with an additional aspect, a holder system for generally immobilizing and stabilizing a beverage container is disclosed including a holder having an outer surface with a generally cylindrical side surface portion and a generally planar bottom surface portion, a first member or material piece securable on a structure surface, and a second member or material piece securable on a structure surface, the first and second material pieces respectively releasably mateable with the cylindrical side surface portion and the bottom surface portion. The cylindrical surface portion and bottom surface portion may include respective vertical and horizontal layers adhered thereto for mating with the first and second members or material pieces. The vertical layer may generally cover the cylindrical side surface portion. The horizontal layer may generally cover the bottom surface portion. In one form, the first and second members or material pieces may be releasably mateable with the cylindrical side surface portion and the bottom surface portion in hook-and-loop fashion. In this form, the vertical and horizontal layers may be loop material, an the first and second members or material pieces may be hook material.
The first and second members or material pieces may be secured with respective structure surfaces, such as of a vehicle. The first and second members or material pieces may be secured in relative proximity, and the holder may be secured with the first and second members or material pieces simultaneously.
The holder system may include a plurality of first members or material pieces secured at a plurality of locations. The holder system may include a plurality of second members or material pieces secured at a plurality of locations.
The holder may be substantially comprised of foam material. The foam material may be resiliently compressible. The holder may be substantially comprised of insulative material.
In a further aspect, a holder system for generally immobilizing and stabilizing a beverage container is disclosed including a holder having an outer surface, the outer surface including a generally cylindrical side surface portion and a generally planar bottom surface portion, a member or material piece securable on a first structure surface, the member selectively releasably mateable with the cylindrical side surface portion and with the bottom surface portion. The material piece may include a hook-and-loop material portion, and the cylindrical side surface portion and bottom surface portion include a portion of hook-and-loop material portion mateable with the member material piece. This allows the member to be selectively located on a structure surface, and the holder may be secured therewith in regardless of the orientation of the structure surface.
Referring initially to
As used herein, the terms horizontal surface should be understood to mean a surface which is closer to horizontal than to vertical, and vertical surface should be understood to mean a surface with is closer to vertical than to horizontal. In using the beverage container holder system 1, it should be recognized that the horizontal or vertical surfaces will be generally aligned with either a base or a side of a beverage container held within the holder 4, and the angle at which the surface may be relative to horizontal or vertical is dependent on the ability of the beverage contain to retain the beverage therewithin.
The hook-and-loop material 14 generally comprises a pair of relatively thin sheet-like materials, one material being a hook material 16 and the other being a loop material 18. However, one of the materials 16, 18 may be formed integral with the body 6.
The body 6 is generally covered by one of the materials 16, 18 of the hook-and-loop material 14. As will readily be recognized, the hook material 16 may be substituted for the loop material 18 provided the loop material 18 is vice-versa substituted for the hook material 16 such that the system 10 is provided with a portion of hook material 16 and with loop material 18 in an opposed and mating relationship. In use, the holder 4 is typically carried by a person with an uncovered hand so that the person's palm in contact with the material 14. Due to the generally rougher texture of the hook material 16, it is preferred that the material secured on the body 6 be the loop material 18.
In
The body 6 is generally formed of a soft, resilient foam material with a density lower than that of water, in the manner described above for a cozy. Accordingly, the holder 4 is compressible, easily washed, floatable in water, and desirably used when boating. Additionally, the holder 4 is generally unbreakable. The body 6 includes a generally cylindrical portion 20, generally oriented vertically, and a bottom portion 22 which is generally oriented horizontally. The cylindrical portion 20 has a thickness, as can be seen in
Securement of the loop material 18 to the body 6 may be viewed in
As can be seen in
In addition or alternatively, the holder 4 may be stabilized and immobilized with a generally horizontal surface 46, best viewed in
In use, the holder 4 may be mated with one or more of the hook pieces 40, 48 to stabilize and immobilize the holder 4 with a beverage container therein. As shown in
While the invention has been described with respect to specific examples including presently preferred modes of carrying out the invention, those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are numerous variations and permutations of the above described systems and techniques that fall within the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
