The present invention relates to lids for disposable containers, and particularly to a new and novel lid with a food compartment.
This application is related to U.S. Pat. No. 8,596,491 entitled “CUP LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” issued on Dec. 3, 2013; U.S. Pat. No. 8,695,845 entitled “TOP MOUNTING CAN CONTAINER” issued on Apr. 15, 2014; U.S. Pat. No. 8,381,935 entitled “CUP LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” issued on Feb. 26, 2013; U.S. Pat. No. 8,714,393 entitled “CUP LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” issued on May 6, 2014; U.S. Pat. No. 8,590,730 entitled “TOP MOUNTING CAN CONTAINER” issued on Nov. 26, 2013; U.S. Pat. No. 8,708,181 entitled “LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” issued on Apr. 29, 2014; U.S. Pat. No. 8,701,914 entitled “TWO-PART RECYCLABLE CUP” issued on Apr. 22, 2014; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/412,602 entitled “TOP MOUNTING BOTTLE CONTAINER” filed on Mar. 5, 2012; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/680,011 entitled “CUP LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” filed on Nov. 17, 2012; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/680,049 entitled “CUP LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” filed on Nov. 17, 2012; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/733,153 entitled “CUP LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” filed on Jan. 3, 2013; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/263,993 entitled “LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” filed on Apr. 28, 2014; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/269,016 entitled “A CONTAINER LID WITH ONE OR MORE CAVITIES” filed on May 2, 2014 all of which are by the same inventor of the present application. Each of these applications is incorporated herein by reference.
The increased popularity of fast food establishments, coupled with the popularity for consumption of food on-the-go has led to the need for more convenient food packaging.
Billions of disposable beverage containers are used every year. Often those containers are part of a larger meal, and current technology dictates placing a lid on the beverage container, and packing the food in a separate and detached container. This may be satisfactory for a consumer seated at a table. However, when the consumer must eat on-the-go, use of the current technology is problematic. Consider, for example, a consumer that is drinking the beverage and would like to access a breakfast sandwich. The consumer must set aside a beverage, and then use one hand to hold the bag and the other hand to access the sandwich, then set aside the bag and use both hands to open the sandwich packaging. As shown in this example, current technology does not allow for convenient on-the-go eating.
To address some of these problems, yogurt manufacturers have placed a small food container on the lid of a yogurt cup. The food container (often holding nuts or granola) must be removed from the yogurt cup and then flipped over and opened, then the contents are poured into the yogurt cup. It is therefore not possible to simultaneously access the contents of the yogurt cup and the contents of the food container; rather the food container must be completely disengaged from the cup to access either contents of the yogurt cup or the contents of the food container. The food container that attaches to the yogurt cup in an upside-down position has a limited food-volume capacity because its walls taper as they proceed upward toward the bottom of the upside down container. Without this tapering, the yogurt cup/food container complex would become top-heavy and cumbersome.
What is therefore needed is a lid that overcomes these shortcomings, and fosters convenient on-the-go eating.
The present invention provides an elegant solution to the needs described above and provides numerous additional benefits and advantages as will be apparent to persons of skill in the art. One aspect provides a beverage container lid with a food compartment, the lid includes an outer food container shell into which an inner food container shell is disposed. The outer food container shell has a coupling trough for attachment to the rim of a beverage container and forms a liquid-tight seal with the beverage container. The outer food container shell also includes a lower planar surface connected to the coupling trough which covers the top of the beverage container, and a beverage transfer hole extending through the planar surface. Also included in the outer food container shell is a riser wall connected to the coupling trough that defines, along with the lower planar surface, a cavity. Into the cavity is disposed the inner food container shell that has a food compartment side wall and a food compartment bottom connected to the food compartment side wall. The lid also includes a sip hole above the lower planar surface and a beverage conduit in fluid communication with the one beverage transfer hole. Thus the sip hole is in fluid communication with the contents of the beverage container.
In another aspect, the lid includes a hinge connected to a cover and to the inner food container shell. The cover may have a grip handle. The cover may also have a complementary snap-lock structure and the inner food container shell may have a snap-lock structure, wherein the snap-lock structure and the complementary snap-lock structure mate with each other when the cover is closed, thus maintaining the cover in the closed position. The cover may inhibit heat transfer into or out of the food compartment when the cover in the closed position.
For the convenience of use in grabbing food contained in the food compartment, a first portion of the food compartment side wall may generally follow a first diameter and a second portion of the food compartment side wall may generally follow a second diameter, wherein the first diameter is smaller than the second diameter. The difference in the diameters allows a user to more easily grab the food in the food compartment.
In yet another aspect, the outer food container shell may also include a coupling structure adjacent to the riser wall, and the entire outer food container shell may be monolithic. The inner food container shell may include a complementary coupling structure adjacent to the food compartment side wall, where the complementary coupling structure mates with the coupling structure and forms a liquid-tight seal. The inner food container shell may also be monolithic.
In yet another aspect, the lid may include a food compartment cover that has a cover, a hinge connected to the cover, and a hinge-snap structure. The food compartment cover may be monolithic. The hinge-snap structure of the food compartment cover is constructed to detachably mate with the complementary hinge-snap structure located on the inner food compartment shell.
Other aspects may include strengthening ribs, alignment structures, vent holes and multiple beverage access holes in various positions. The sip-hole may be part of a raised mouth piece.
The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not meant to be exhaustive. Other aspects, objects, and advantages of this invention will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims.
The invention can be better understood with reference to the following figures. The components within the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed on clearly illustrating example aspects of the invention. In the figures, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the different views and/or embodiments. It will be understood that certain components and details may not appear in the figures to assist in more clearly describing the invention.
Following is a non-limiting written description of example embodiments illustrating various aspects of the invention. These examples are provided to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to practice the full scope of the invention without having to engage in an undue amount of experimentation. As will be apparent to persons skilled in the art, further modifications and adaptations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, which is limited only by the claims.
In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. Particular example embodiments of the present invention may be implemented without some or all of these features or specific details. In other instances, components well known to persons of skill in the art have not been described in detail in order not to obscure unnecessarily the present invention.
Referring to
The inner food container shell 125 also has a snap-lock structure 135 (illustrated as a groove) and the cover 110 has a complementary snap-lock structure 140 (illustrated as a tongue). When the cover 110 is closed (shown in
The inner food container shell 125 also has a raised mouth piece 150 with a sip hole 155. The raised mouth piece 150 is configured as a narrow structure that fits comfortably between the lips of the user. The sip hole 155 is in fluid connection with the beverage contained in the beverage container 1000. This is discussed in further detail below with reference to
The food compartment 105 is surrounded by a food compartment side wall 160 (that descends from the upper edge surface 227 of the inner food container shell 125) and has a food compartment bottom 165. Preferably, the food compartment side wall (or walls) 160 does not follow a constant diameter.
Turning to
A lower planar surface 205 is connected to the coupling trough 195 and covers the top of the beverage container 1000. Throughout this disclosure the terms “above” and “below” will be used, and are intended to mean the following: “above” is a location that is vertically higher when the lid 100 is attached to a beverage container 1000 resting on a horizontal surface; and “below” is a location that is vertically lower when the lid 100 is attached to a beverage container 1000 resting on a horizontal surface. Likewise, “lower,” “raised” and “upper” are defined by the same reference frame.
Within the lower planar surface 205 is a beverage transfer hole (or holes) 210, that allows the beverage contained in the beverage container 1000 to flow into the outer food container shell 185. A riser wall (or walls) 215 rise away from the coupling trough in a generally vertical direction. At the top of the riser wall 215 is a coupling structure 220 (shown as a ring) that mates with a complementary coupling structure 225, thus detachably fixing the outer food container shell 185 to the inner food container shell 125. Because of the flexibility of the materials used, the coupling structure 220 and the complementary coupling structure 225 snap together and form a liquid-tight seal. The top of the riser wall 215, which is coupling structure 220 and the complementary coupling structure 225, defines an upper edge surface 227. It is from this surface 227 that the food compartment side wall 160 descends and forms the food compartment 105.
It should been noted that the riser wall 215 is not completely vertical; rather it flares out and may accomplish the flaring either gradually or in steps. The embodiment shown in
Located within the outer food container shell 185, and adjacent to the coupling trough 195 is a beverage overflow channel 230. This channel 230 is formed in part by the coupling trough 200 (shown in more detail in
The outer food container shell 185 may also have a strengthening rib 240, that may perform two functions: first, it strengthens the overall lid 100 structure and second, the rib 240 can act as an alignment structure that restricts the position of the outer food container shell 185 relative to the inner food container shell 125. Specifically, the food compartment side wall 160 follows a larger diameter (see
The view angle of
When the inner and outer food container shells 125, 185 are snapped together and coupled to the rim 200 of the beverage container 1000, and the beverage container 1000 is tilted toward the user's mouth, the beverage in the beverage container 1000 flows through the at least one beverage transfer hole 210 that is cut through the lower planar surface 205. After passing through the at least one beverage transfer hole 210, the beverage continues through the beverage conduit 270 formed by the riser wall 215 and the food compartment side wall 160, and passes through the sip hole 155 that is centered in the top horizontal wall of the raised mouth piece 150.
The outer food container shell 185, the inner food container shell 125 and the food compartment cover 190 can be manufactured using a variety of conventional techniques, including but not limited to thermoform. Thermoforming is a manufacturing process where a plastic sheet is heated to a pliable forming temperature, formed to a specific shape in a mold, and trimmed to create a usable product. The sheet is heated in an oven to a high-enough temperature that it can be stretched into or onto a mold and cooled to a finished shape. Thermoforming is a reliable and inexpensive technique that is used for conventional beverage container lids.
The unique three-piece lid described above creates a three-dimensional shape when the pieces are combined that would be impossible to manufacture using thermoforming to make a single piece. But by having separate pieces that mate precisely with each other, the complicated three-dimensional shape is possible including, for example, the beverage conduit 270 that is formed which allows a user to access the beverage contained in the beverage container 1000.
Each of the three pieces—i.e., outer food container shell 185, the inner food container shell 125 and the food compartment cover 190—are monolithic, meaning that they are created by a single and uniform sheet of plastic. This also allows these pieces to be made from different materials. For example, the outer food container shell 185 may be an opaque black so as to visually mask the flow of the beverage (like coffee) along the inside of the riser wall 215. The inner food container shell 125 may be an opaque white which provides a more visually appealing presentation of the food within the food compartment 105. And the food compartment cover 190 may be constructed of transparent plastic, allowing the user to visually verify that the food contained in the food compartment 105 is indeed what was ordered.
The types of material would be apparent to one of skill in the art and may include by non-limiting example PP (polypropylene), PET (polyethylene terephthalate), CPET, RPET Polyethylene (HDPE/LDPE), styrene, HIPS, HMWPE, PP/PE blends, custom blends of thermoplastics (which may or may not include post-consumer or post-industrial content) and other proprietary blends of thermoplastics.
The invention has been described in connection with specific embodiments that illustrate examples of the invention but do not limit its scope. Various example systems have been shown and described having various aspects and elements. Unless indicated otherwise, any feature, aspect or element of any of these systems may be removed from, added to, combined with or modified by any other feature, aspect or element of any of the systems. As will be apparent to persons skilled in the art, modifications and adaptations to the above-described systems and methods can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, which is defined only by the following claims. Moreover, the applicant expressly does not intend that the following claims “and the embodiments in the specification to be strictly coextensive.” Phillips v. AHW Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1323 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (en banc).
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