Patent Application
20180194525
The disclosure generally relates to a container system with a removable scoop.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Products come in a variety of forms such as powders, pellets, flakes, liquids, etc. that are packaged in different ways. For example, products may be packaged in sacks, boxes, cartons, bottles, and cans. Some of these containers may store a product for repeated use over an extended period of time. In other words, the container may store more product than will be used in a single setting. In these situations, a user may use a measuring scoop or cup to remove the desired amount of product while storing the remaining product for future use.
The present disclosure is directed to a container system that includes a lid, a first rail coupled to the lid, and a second rail coupled to the lid. A measuring scoop is configured to couple to the lid with the first and second rails. The measuring scoop includes a cup portion with a front rim, and a handle portion coupled to the cup portion. The front rim of the cup portion couples to the first rail and the handle portion couples to the second rail.
An aspect of the disclosure includes a container system with a lid, a first rail coupled to the lid, a second rail coupled to the lid. A measuring scoop is configured to couple to the lid with the first and second rails. The measuring scoop includes a cup portion with a first side ledge, a second side ledge, and a handle portion coupled to the cup portion. The first side ledge couples to the first rail and the second side ledge couples to the second rail.
Another aspect of the disclosure includes a container system with a container and a lid coupled to the container. A first rail couples to at least one of the container and lid. A second rail couples to at least one of the container and lid. A measuring scoop is configured to couple to at least one of the container and the lid. The measuring scoop includes a cup portion with a front rim, and a handle portion coupled to the cup portion, wherein the front rim of the cup portion couples to the first rail and the handle portion couples to the second rail.
Various features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will be better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying figures in which like characters represent like parts throughout the figures, wherein:
One or more specific embodiments of the present invention will be described below. These embodiments are only exemplary of the present invention. Additionally, in an effort to provide a concise description of these exemplary embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.
The embodiments discussed below include a container system with a removable scoop for removing measured amounts of product (e.g., powders, pellets, flakes, liquid, etc.) from a container. The removable scoop couples to the container system, which enables a user to easily retrieve as well as store the removable scoop for future use. The removable scoop couples to the container system with rails. For example, the removable scoop may include a cup portion that couples to a first rail and a handle portion that couples to a second rail. In some embodiments, the removable scoop may couple to the container system with rails that engage opposing side ledges on a cup portion.
As will be discussed in detail below, the removable scoop 12 couples to the container 14 and/or the lid 16 with rails 18 that are coupled to the container 14 and/or lid 16. The rails 18 may be integral to the container 14 and/or lid 16 (e.g., one-piece) or they may be separately attached (e.g., snap fit, compression fit, welded, etc.). In some embodiments, the container system 10 may include multiple pairs of rails 18 on the container 14 and/or the lid 16, which enable a user to attach the removable scoop 12 to the container 14 or lid 16. Furthermore, by including multiple pairs of rails 18, the container system 10 may also enable attachment of more than one removable scoop 12. For example, the container system 10 may include differently sized removable scoops (e.g., 1, 2, 3, or more differently sized removable scoops).
As illustrated, the container 14 and lid 16 have a generally rectangular shape. In other embodiments, the container 14 and/or lid 16 may have another shape (e.g., square, cylindrical, oval, trapezoidal, irregular, etc.). In order to contain product within a cavity 20, the container 14 and lid 16 couple together. For example, the container 14 and lid 16 may be cylindrically shaped and include respective threads that enable the lid 16 to threadingly couple to the container 14 when the lid 16 is circumferentially rotated about the container 14. In some embodiments, the container 14 and lid 16 may be snap fit together. In another embodiment, the container 14 and lid 16 may be compression fit together. For example, the container 14 may include a rim 22 that extends completely or partially about the opening 24 in the container 14. When the container 14 and lid 16 couple together (e.g., compression fit, snap fit, threadingly engaged), the rim 22 may engage the interior surface 26 of the lid 16 around the opening 28. In some embodiments, the rim 22 may not extend around the entire opening 24. For example, the rim 22 may include a gap 30 that facilitates insertion and removal of the removable scoop 12 from the lid 16. In some embodiments, the lid 16 may couple to the container 14 with a latch 32. As illustrated, in
In some embodiments, the container 14 and lid 16 may include a hinge 38 that cooperates with the latch 32 to open and close the container system 10. For example, the container 14 and the lid 16 may be coupled together with one or more hinges 38. The hinge(s) 32 may be a butt hinge, butterfly hinge, flush hinge, barrel hinge, concealed hinge, friction hinge, continuous hinge, or a combination thereof, etc. In some embodiments, the hinge 38 may be a flexible piece of material (e.g., plastic) that couples the container 14 to the lid 16.
However, as explained above, the removable scoop 12 may couple to the lid 16 and container 14 at different locations (e.g., bottom walls, sidewalls).
The removable scoop 12 includes a cup/scoop portion 66 and a handle portion 68 that couple to respective rails 18. Specifically, the cup portion 66 includes a front rim 70 that enables a rail 18 to hold/retain the cup portion 66 between the rail 18 and the interior surface 26 of the container 14. The handle portion 68 is likewise held/retained between a rail 18 and the interior surface 26 of the lid 16. In some embodiments, a rail 18 couples to a distal end 72 of the handle portion 68. As illustrated, the rails 18 may be spaced from each other a distance 76 to accommodate coupling to the front rim 70 of the cup/scoop portion 66 and the distal end 72 of the handle portion 68. In this way, the rails 18 may block axial shifting of the removable scoop in axial directions 77, 78, and therefore unintentional detachment from the container 14 or lid 16.
To facilitate measurement of product, an interior surface 86 and/or an exterior surface 88 of the cup portion 66 may include measurement markings 90. The markings 90 may be numbers, words, letters (e.g., ml, mm, oz., etc.), symbols (e.g., lines), or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, the removable scoop 12 may include a clear, transparent, semi-transparent material (e.g., plastic) that enables a user to simultaneously see the markings 90 and the amount of product in the cavity 80.
In order to couple the removable scoop 12 to the container system 10, the cup portion 66 includes the front rim or ledge 70 and the handle portion 68. As explained above, the front rim 70 and handle portion 68 couple to respective rails 18 that hold the removable scoop 12 within the lid 16 or the container 14. For example, a rail 18 may extend over an entire length 92 of the front rim 70. In some embodiments, a rail 18 may extend over a portion of the front rim 70 instead of the entire length 92. Likewise, a rail 18 may extend over an entire length 94 of the distal end 72 or a portion thereof. When coupled, the rails 18 contact a bottom surface 96 of the front rim and a bottom surface 98 of the handle portion 68 to pin/hold the top surface 100 of the front rim 70 and the top surface 102 of the handle portion 68 against the container 14 and/or lid 16.
As illustrated, the length 92 of the front rim 70 and the length 94 of the distal end 72 may be greater than the width 82 of the cavity 80 to increase a contact area with the rails 18. However, in some embodiments the length 92 of the front rim 70 and/or the length 94 of the distal end 72 may be less than or equal to the width 82 of the cavity 80.
In some embodiments, the cup portion 66 may include side ledges 104, 106 that enable the removable scoop 12 to couple to the rails 18, instead of using the front rim 70 and handle portion 68. The side ledges 104, 106 have respective lengths 108 and 110. When coupled to the container system 10, the rails 18 may extend over the entire lengths 108, 110 of the side ledges 104, 106 or a portion thereof. The rails 18 contact respective bottom surfaces 112, 114 of the side ledges 104, 106 to pin/hold the top surface 116 of the side ledge 104 and the top surface 118 of the side ledge 106 against the container 14 and/or lid 16.
As illustrated, the lengths 108 and 110 of the side ledges 104, 106 may be greater than the length 84 of the cavity 80 to increase the available contact area with the rails 18. However, in some embodiments, the lengths 108 and 110 of the side ledges 104, 106 may be less than or equal to the length 84 of the cavity 80.
In operation, the walls 162 block axial movement in axial directions 168, 170 while the ledges 164 block movement in axial direction 172, and the surfaces 26, 61 block movement in axial direction 174. In some embodiments, the removable scoop 12 and rails 18 may form a compression fit that retains the removable scoop 12 in contact with the rails 18. For example, the cavity 166 may be smaller than the cross-section of the front rim 70, the handle portion 68, or side ledges 104, 106. In some embodiments, the removable scoop 12 may include retention features 140 that snap fit and/or compression fit with corresponding retention features 160 on the rails 18. For example, a recess retention feature 160 on the rail 18 may couple to a protrusion retention feature 140 on the removable scoop 12 or vice versa. As illustrated in
While the invention may be susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and have been described in detail herein. However, it should be understood that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed. Rather, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following appended claims.
