Patent Application
20240225326
This application relates to beverage cup and cup holder with improved grip.
A disposable cup is a type of tableware and disposable food packaging. Disposable cup types include paper cups, plastic cups and foam cups. Expanded polystyrene is conventionally used to manufacture foam cups, and polypropylene or polystyrene is often used to manufacture plastic cups. It has been estimated that the average household discards around 70 disposable cups every year and that over one hundred billion cups are consumed in the US per year, and the UK uses several billion paper cups every year.
In the 1970s, Robert Leo Hulseman, (whose father developed a cone shaped wax coated cup that made water coolers popular in the 1950's) came up with the now-ubiquitous, red SOLO® cup which are made of thick, molded polystyrene. They are known for being able to withstand drops, easily stackable, and disposable while price accessible. Their characteristic red color may conceal the drinking contents. The SOLO® brand disposable cups are available in a variety of colors although the ubiquitous red color outsells other colors.
There have been other developments in disposable cups over the years such as what is known as “the Jazz design” that was prominently featured on disposable cups. The Jazz design was introduced in 1992, and is considered an icon of 1990s culture. The Jazz design has also become a meme and has gained a cult following. Cups with the Jazz design were initially manufactured by Sweetheart Cup Company, which was later purchased by Solo Cup Company in 2004. Solo continued production of the disposable cups, and the Jazz design would subsequently become known unofficially as Solo Jazz.
Another commonly viewed innovation in disposable cups is a separate disposable or reusable outer sleeve that have been made a corrugated paper sleeves, silicone sleeves and foam sleeves. These are often used for insulating hot drinks and have been made to improve grip.
Gripping has been a concern with disposable cups and molded disposable cups with gripping ridges including decorative logos have been proposed. Further a textured band of gripping projections has also been proposed in disposable molded cups.
There is a need to optimize gripping features in plastic disposable cups to yield effective efficient grip enhancing feature for disposable cups which does not alter to general cost or operation of the cup.
The various embodiments and examples of the present invention as presented herein are understood to be illustrative of the present invention and not restrictive thereof and are non-limiting with respect to the scope of the invention.
The present invention provides optimized gripping features in plastic disposable cups to yield effective efficient grip enhancing feature for disposable cups which does not alter to general cost or operation of the cup. The present invention can be used on reusable cups such as aluminum cups and on cup holders as detailed below.
One embodiment of the present invention provides a plastic disposable cup comprising: a plastic cup body; and a gripping band between about 1″ to 3″ formed in the plastic cup body above a horizontal midline of the cup, wherein the band includes a plurality of outwardly embossed gripping projections formed in an array, wherein the gripping projections projection have effective diameters of less than 0.2″.
One aspect of the present invention provides a gripping band for a cup to increase user grip comprising a plurality of outwardly embossed gripping projections formed in an array, wherein the gripping projections projection have effective diameters of less than 0.2″, wherein the embossed gripping projections have a pattern of offset horizontal circumferential rows.
One embodiment of the present invention provides as a silicon band for holding a cup to increase user grip including a silicon ring band body; and a plurality of outwardly embossed gripping projections formed in an array on the silicon ring band body in the band, wherein the gripping projections have effective diameters of less than 0.2″, and wherein the embossed gripping projections 2 are formed in a pattern of offset horizontal circumferential rows.
These and other advantages of the present invention are described below wherein like elements are represented by like reference numbers.
One embodiment of the present invention is shown in
One embodiment of the present invention is a plastic disposable cup 10 having a gripping band 14 between about 1″ to 3″, generally about 1-2″, and specifically 1.06″ in the embodiment of
The band 14 includes a plurality of outwardly embossed gripping projections 20 formed in an array. Each individual gripping projection 20 as shown is a semi-spherical projection having a diameter of 0.06″ +/−0.015″. The gripping band 14 embossed gripping projections 20 will have a “height” of 0.02″ +/−0.015″. The height is measured from the base of the embossed gripping projections 20 which is aligned with the remaining portions of the sidewall 12 of the cup 10, to the radially outward-most part of the projection 20. The thickness of the sidewall 12 is about 0.012″ such that the projection height is less than three times the sidewall 12 thickness generally less than two times this thickness.
Further, the gripping band 14 embossed gripping projections 20 will have a pattern of offset horizontal circumferential rows and a spacing of about two to six projection diameters, here 0.28″ +/−0.015″, between each projection in each row, except in a logo area 16 if a logo area 16 is within the band 14 as in the embodiments of
A logo area 16 that is free of embossed gripping projections 20 may optionally be included within the band 14 as shown in the embodiments of
A variety of projection 20 shapes may be used such as shown in
The disposable plastic beverage cup 10 with improved grip formed by band 14 and projections 20 according to the present invention is designed to be formed by thermoforming, schematically shown in 12 which is a manufacturing process where a plastic sheet forming sidewalls 12 of the cup 10 is heated to a pliable forming temperature in an oven at stage 40, formed to a specific shape in a mold at stage 50, and trimmed to create a usable product cup 10 in stage 60. The sheet, or “film” when referring to thinner gauges and certain material types, is heated in an oven to a high-enough temperature that permits it to be stretched into or onto a mold and cooled to a finished shape of the cup 10.
In the a method of high-volume, continuous thermoforming of thin-gauge products such as the cup 10 of the present invention, plastic sheet is fed from a roll or from an extruder into a set of indexing chains that incorporate pins, or spikes, that pierce the sheet and transport it through an oven 40 for heating to forming temperature. The heated sheet then indexes into a form station 50 where a mating mold and pressure-box close on the sheet, with vacuum then applied to remove trapped air and to pull the material into or onto the mold along with pressurized air to form the plastic to the detailed shape of the mold. The detailed shape includes the conventional cup together with the band 14 projections 20, logo area 16 and logo 24. Plug-assists are typically used in addition to vacuum in the case of the taller, deeper-draw formed part 10 of the invention in order to provide the needed material distribution and thicknesses in the finished part or cup 10. After a short form cycle, a burst of reverse air pressure is actuated from the vacuum side of the mold as the form tooling opens, commonly referred to as air-eject, to break the vacuum and assist the formed part 10 off of, or out of, the mold. A stripper plate may also be utilized on the mold as it opens for ejection of parts 10. The sheet containing the formed parts or cups 10 then indexes into a trim station 60 on the same machine, where a die cuts the parts 10 from the remaining sheet. The sheet web remaining after the formed parts 10 are trimmed is typically wound onto a take-up reel or fed into an inline granulator for recycling.
The projections 20 and the gripping band 14 are designed to facilitate and enhance gripping features and manufacturing in a thermoforming process. The individual projections 20 and the band 14 in total can be easily manufactured by thermoforming techniques without additional costs of material nor wear on the molding equipment. In addition to enhanced gripping, the band 14 yields a tactile response to the user that can also improve the overall function of the cup 10. The cup 10 remains stackable and all the other utilitarian functions of the cup 10 remain intact.
The band 14 of the present invention can also minimize cracking of the cup 10 that can occur with excessive pressure by the user. The tactile feedback of the band 14 can help minimize the “over gripping” that can lead to cup failure.
As noted the band 14 can be interrupted on one or two sides with a logo space 16 and the logo 24 may be separately embossed, or possibly printed as known in the art. The logo spaces 16 when located within in the band 14 will be limited so as to not interfere with the gripping advantages of the band 14 with no more than two such spaces or area 16 in the band 14.
The projections 20 on the band 14 also assist in stacking of the cups 10 preventing vacuum coupling of the stacked cups 10 that can otherwise occur in some cup designs.
The present invention yields an improved disposable plastic cup design as shown but may be used for non-disposable cups including those made of other materials such as aluminum.
In view of the many possible embodiments to which the principles of the disclosed technology may be applied, it should be recognized that the illustrated embodiments are only examples and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the disclosure. Rather, the scope of the disclosure is at least as broad as the full scope of the following claims.
We therefore claim all that comes within the scope of these claims and their equivalents.
This application claims the benefit of United States provisional patent application Ser. No. 63/437,920 filed Jan. 9, 2023 titled “Beverage Cup with Improved Grip and Cup Holder with Improved Grip” which application is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63437920 | Jan 2023 | US |
