Patent Grant
8459493
Not Applicable.
Not Applicable.
The invention disclosed broadly relates to the field of personal eating and drinking devices, and more particularly relates to the field of children's cups and bowls.
Conventional personal eating and drinking devices, such as cups, bowls and plates, are usually designed such that the user is sitting at a table while eating and drinking. Consequently, personal eating and drinking devices are usually made to be picked up, used and then placed back down on the table, thereby freeing the user's hands to manipulate other eating devices. A user, for example, may have a cup of milk and a plate of cookies on the table in front of him and use both items at separate times.
In cases where the user is sitting on a couch or in the back seat of the car, however, the method in which personal eating and drinking devices are used changes. The user no longer picks up the device, uses it and places it back down. When sitting on a couch or in the backseat of a car, the user must often keep the personal eating or drinking device in his hand indefinitely, thereby occupying his hand and eliminating its use elsewhere. A user, for example, may have a cup of milk in one hand and a plate of cookies in the other hand. Although the user can drink his cup of milk, the user would not have a free hand to pick up a cookie and place it in his mouth. This poses a problem when using conventional personal eating and drinking devices in unconventional places or positions, such as sitting on a couch or the backseat of a car. This problem is further compounded when the user is a child and there is an increased risk of spillage, dropping the personal eating or drinking device or tilting it at an angle.
Consequently, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above, and particularly for a more efficient and easy-to-use personal eating and drinking device for use in unconventional places or positions.
Briefly, according to an embodiment of the present invention, a device for eating and drinking is disclosed. The device includes a substantially cylindrical container for holding a liquid and a substantially bowl-shaped element having a tubular element extending through a central axis of the bowl-shaped element, wherein a lumen of the tubular element fits securely around a top portion of the cylindrical container.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of the preferred embodiments of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
The subject matter, which is regarded as the invention, is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other features and also the advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The present invention solves the problems with the prior art by providing an eating and drinking device that combines a cup and a bowl. The cup and bowl combination allows a user to hold a cup including a liquid and a bowl holding a solid food in one hand, thereby freeing the other hand to pick up the solid food and eat it. The present invention is advantageous since it allows a user to hold a liquid and a solid with one hand when in an unconventional place or position, such as sitting on a couch or the backseat of a car. The present invention is further advantageous since it facilitates eating and drinking for a child by providing a covered “sippy cup” device, where there is an increased risk of spillage, dropping the personal eating or drinking device or tilting it at an angle. Finally, the present invention is further advantageous since it is manufactured using a minimum number of pieces and moving parts, which facilitates repair and results in a lower probability of failure or malfunction.
The cover 106, cap 108 and straw 110 may be composed of a flexible, dishwasher-safe material such as rubber or a rubber composition.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the bowl-shaped element 104 is coupled to the cylindrical container 102 using threaded elements, in the same way that collar 208 has a threaded element 210 that is coupled to the threaded element 204 of the cylindrical container 102.
One or more of the elements of the device 100 may be manufactured from a plastic or rubber compound using any variety of processes, such as injection molding, fusible core injection molding and thermoforming.
Injection molding is a manufacturing technique for making parts from thermoplastic material in production. Molten plastic is injected at high pressure into a mold, which is the inverse of the product's shape. After a product is designed by an industrial designer, molds are made by a mold-maker from metal, usually either steel or aluminum, and precision-machined to form the features of the desired part. Injection molding is widely used for manufacturing a variety of parts and is the most common method of plastic production. The most commonly used thermoplastic materials are polystyrene, ABS or acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, nylon, polypropylene, polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride or PVC.
Injection molding machines, also known as presses, hold the molds in which the components are shaped. Presses are rated by tonnage, which expresses the amount of clamping force that the machine can generate. This pressure keeps the mould closed during the injection process. Molds separate into at least two halves (called the core and the cavity) to permit the plastic part to be extracted. In general, the shape of a part must not cause it to be locked into the mould. For example, sides of objects typically cannot be parallel with the direction of draw (the direction in which the core and cavity separate from each other). They are angled slightly. Pins are the most popular method of removal from the core, but air ejection, and stripper plates can also be used depending on the application. Most ejection plates are found on the moving half of the tool, but they can be placed on the fixed half.
Molds are built through two main methods: standard machining and EDM machining. Standard machining, in its conventional form, has historically been the method of building injection molds. With technological development, computer numerical control (CNC) machining became the predominant means of making more complex molds with more accurate mold details in less time than traditional methods.
The electrical discharge machining (EDM) or spark erosion process has become widely used in mold making. EDM is a simple process in which a shaped electrode, usually made of copper or graphite, is very slowly lowered onto the mould surface (over a period of many hours), which is immersed in paraffin oil. A voltage applied between tool and mould causes erosion of the mould surface in the inverse shape of the electrode.
Fusible core injection molding or lost core injection molding is a specialized plastic injection molding process. It is used in the manufacture of molded components with cavities or undercuts, which would not be possible with tools having demoldable cores. The process consists of three essential steps. First, a core consisting of a low melting point metal is poured in the shape of the cavity specified for the molded component. This is inserted into the injection mold in the second step and injected with plastic. Molded component and core are both demolded and, in the third step, immersed in a heated bath to melt out the core. The bath temperature is selected to be somewhat higher than that of the core alloy's melting point, but not so that the injected part would be damaged. Induction heating of the core metal in the heated bath reduces the melt out time to a few minutes. Liquid core metal collects on the bottom of the heated bath and is usable for a new core.
Thermoforming is a manufacturing process for thermoplastic sheet or film. The sheet or film is heated between infrared, natural gas, or other heaters to its forming temperature. Then it is stretched over or into a temperature-controlled, single-surface mold. Cast or machined aluminum is the most common mold material, although epoxy and wood tooling are sometime used for low volume production. The sheet is held against the mold surface unit until cooled. The formed part is then trimmed from the sheet. The trimmed material is usually reground, mixed with virgin plastic, and reprocessed into a usable sheet. There are several categories of thermoforming, including vacuum forming, pressure forming, twin-sheet forming, drape forming, free blowing, and simple sheet bending.
In one embodiment of the present invention, one or more of the elements of device 100 may be manufactured from a material that is a solid color (or multiple solid colors), a transparent color (or multiple transparent colors) or may include a pattern or other series of multiple colors in a variety of selections. In another embodiment of the present invention, one or more of the elements of device 100 may include graphics, designs, logos, pictures, or any images that can be applied to the surfaces. The graphics may be embedded in the material comprising the device 100 or the graphics may be stamped, painted, stenciled, laser etched, printed, engraved or silk-screened onto the exterior or interior surfaces of the device 100.
Although specific embodiments of the invention have been disclosed, those having ordinary skill in the art will understand that changes can be made to the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The scope of the invention is not to be restricted, therefore, to the specific embodiments. Furthermore, it is intended that the appended claims cover any and all such applications, modifications, and embodiments within the scope of the present invention.
This utility patent application claims priority to provisional patent application No. 61/460,297 filed on Dec. 30, 2011. The subject matter of provisional patent application No. 61/460,297 is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
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| 61460297 | Dec 2010 | US |
