Patent Application
20080196415
The present disclosure relates to the cooling of beverages in portable personal drinking vessels or containers of the type carried on or about a person for having immediate, on-demand access to beverages such as water or popular sports drinks. Because the liquid beverage in the drinking container is carried on or about the individual, the liquid beverage soon reaches ambient temperature. Many individuals, however, prefer to drink a chilled or cooled beverage for quenching thirst, particularly, during periods of physical exertion where the individual is warm and/or perspiring. In circumstances where the individual will be in a location where there is no convenient access to water or other liquid beverages for prolonged periods of time, it is desirable to carry a supply of cooled drinking liquid on or about the person of the individual such as in a canteen or backpack.
Heretofore, the techniques employed for maintaining a personally carried supply of drinking liquid cooled overextended periods of time have employed thermos or vacuum sealed containers and pre-refrigerators gel filled chill blocks to maintain the liquid in the drinking container or reservoir chilled over an extended period of time. However, these have proven to be bulky and heavy inasmuch as there must be sufficient cooling ability present to lower the temperature of the entire mass of the drinking liquid carried by the individual.
Thus, it has been desired to provide a way or means of cooling liquid carried in a personal drinking vessel that needs to provide cooling only when the user is drinking.
The system of the present disclosure enables a user to carry a personal supply of drinking liquid on or about the person and draw liquid from the vessel through a drinking tube similar to a “straw” and have the liquid cooled as it is drawn from the container. Thus, the cooling required is only that which is necessary to cool the amount of liquid being drawn from the container as it is withdrawn. The system of the present disclosure thus does not require cooling the entire mass of liquid in the personal drinking container.
The system of the present disclosure, in one exemplary embodiment, provides a cap or cover for a personal drinking container such as a mug or bottle which has a self-contained electrically energized cooling unit through which the liquid being withdrawn from the container by the user passes and is cooled as it passes through the cap. The system employs a chamber with a tortuous passage for the liquid formed in a member having a relatively high thermal conductivity; and, a solid state thermoelectric cooling device which is powered by a source of electrical energy such as a battery contained in the cap is attached to the thermally conductive member. The system is thus relatively small, light in weight, and easily crafted to fit within a cap or housing which may be placed over the opening of the drinking container. The system includes a flexible tube for immersion of one end thereof into the liquid in the drinking container and a second tube is included extending externally from the cap through which the user draws liquid for drinking.
In another exemplary embodiment, the system includes a relatively small, lightweight chilling unit having a solid state cooling device which chills liquid passing from an inlet through a cooling chamber to the outlet. The system is intended for inline connection having a flexible tube connected to the inlet for connection to the reservoir of drinking liquid on or about the person, with another flexible tube connected to the outlet for the user to draw liquid there through from the cooling chamber. The system may be conveniently strapped to any article of apparel on the person or to a backpack or strapped about a part of the individual's body. A source of electrical energy, such as a battery, may be contained with the cooling unit or may be carried on or about the person remotely from the cooling unit and connected thereto by suitable flexible electrical leads. The personal drinking liquid sip cooling system disclosed and described herein thus provides a compact, lightweight and readily available source of on demand chilling of drinking liquid carried on or about the person and does not require chilling or cooling of the entire mass of drinking liquid carried in the container or reservoir, but cools only the amount of liquid withdrawn as it is withdrawn for drinking.
With reference to
The cap has a dome or cover portion 16 under which is disposed a sip cooling or chilling unit indicated generally at 18 and a source of electrical energy such as, for example, a battery 20. The cooling or chilling unit 18 includes a solid state cooling device 22 with electrical leads 24, 26 connected to an electrical switch 28 which is disposed to have an actuator 30 extending externally of the dome 16 for convenience actuation by the user. The switch is also connected to the source of electrical energy such as battery 20 by electrical leads 32, 34.
The chilling unit 18 has an outlet with a flexible drinking tube 36 connected thereto which extends outwardly of dome 16 through an opening therein; and, tube 36 is adapted for personal use by the user in withdrawing liquid from the jar 14. The chilling unit 18 has an inlet shown in dashed outline in
Although the cap 12 in the embodiment of
With reference to
Passage or chamber 44 is covered by plate 58 which may be attached to block 42 in any convenient manner, as for example, by suitable fasteners such as screws 60, it being understood that the plate 58 is sealed by any suitable expedient, as, for example, a gasket or curable sealant over passage 44 to prevent liquid escaping between the cover plate 58 and the block 42.
The block 42 and the cover plate 58 are formed of material of a relatively high thermal conductivity, as for example, aluminum or other suitable thermally conductive material. A solid state device such as a thermo electric device 62 is attached to the outer surface of plate 48 as shown in
If desired, a second cooling passage (not shown), similar to passage 44 may be formed on the opposite side of the block 42 and formed to communicate with the inlet down bore 50 and the outlet riser bore 56. If such a second passage is formed in the block 42, a second cover plate 64 is provided similar to plate 58 and a second solid state cooling device or thermo electric cooler 66 is attached to the outer face thereof with electrical lead 68, 70 extending therefrom for attachment to switch 28. The plate 64 is attached to block 42 by suitable fasteners, such as, screws, 72. The cooling unit 18 is thus a relatively small, lightweight, compact and easily energizable liquid chiller capable of cooling liquid passing from inlet port 36 to outlet port 52 with the power available from a small source such as a battery, for example, one or more M size batteries.
Referring to
The backpack 80 may contain a side pocket 88 into which the batteries for the cooling unit 74 are carried and the batteries are connected to the cooling unit 74 by flexible electrical leads 90, 92.
Referring to
The present disclosure thus describes a compact, small and lightweight drinking sip cooling system for cooling liquid as it drawn from a liquid container rather than cool all of the liquid in the container. The cooling system of the present disclosure may be either embodied in a form as a cap for an open container such as a jar or bottle, or may be configured for inline connection in a flexible drinking tube adaptable for use with any personal liquid drinking container.
The exemplary embodiment has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments. Obviously, modifications and alterations will occur to others upon reading and understanding the preceding detailed description. It is intended that the exemplary embodiment be construed as including all such modifications and alterations insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.
