Patent Application
20160073806
The disclosure relates to ice restraining drinking container devices and more particularly pertains to a new ice restraining drinking container device for preventing ice from falling towards a person as the person is drinking fluid from the device such that the fluid is not splashed or otherwise spilled onto the person.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a vessel having a bottom wall and a perimeter wall that is attached to and extends upwardly from the bottom wall. The perimeter wall has an upper edge defining an access opening extending into the vessel. A screen is mounted in the vessel that traverses an interior of the vessel to define an upper portion and a lower portion within the interior. The upper portion is positioned above the screen and includes the access opening. The screen is positioned nearer to the access opening than the bottom wall. The screen has a plurality of apertures therein to allow fluid to pass through the screen. The plurality of apertures includes at least five apertures and the apertures each have an area less than 1.0 cm2. The screen is configure to prevent ice from moving from the lower portion into the upper portion when the ice is positioned in the bottom section and the vessel is filled with a fluid.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
A screen 28 is mounted in the vessel 12 and the screen 28 traverses an interior of the vessel 12 to define an upper portion 30 and a lower portion 32 within the interior. The upper portion 30 is positioned above the screen 28 and includes the access opening 20. The screen 28 is generally positioned nearer to the access opening 20 than the bottom wall 22. However, the screen 28 is also spaced from the upper edge 18 a distance equal to at least 3.0 cm and may be more than 6.0 cm from the upper edge 18. The screen 28 has a plurality of apertures 34 therein to allow fluid to pass through the screen 28. The plurality of apertures 34 includes at least five apertures 34 and the apertures 34 each have an area, or opening size, less than 1.0 cm2. Generally, the apertures 34 make up greater than 70%, and may be more than 80%, of the total surface area of the screen 28.
The vessel 12 has a break 36 therein to define an top section 38 and bottom section 40. The bottom section 40 includes the bottom wall 14. The upper 38 and lower 40 sections are removably attached together. A seal is formed when the upper 38 and lower 40 sections are attached together. As shown in
As is further shown in the Figures, the screen 28 may be attached to the top section 38. The screen 28 may be provided such that it is removable from the top section 38. The screen 28 may typically be positioned nearer to a lower edge 48 of the top section 38 than the upper edge 18 of the perimeter wall 16. More particularly, the screen 28 may be positioned at a juncture of the flange 46 and the perimeter wall 16 of the top section 38 or it may be positioned near a free edge of the flange 46. Alternatively, the screen 28 may be either non-removably attached to the top section 38 or integral to the upper suction 38 such that the screen 28 and top section 38 are of singular construction. Further, it should be understood that if the screen 28 is removable, it may instead be removably positioned in the bottom section 40 or removably positioned between the upper 38 and lower 40 sections.
In use, the user will place ice in the bottom section 40 of the vessel 12 and then secure the upper 38 and lower 40 sections together. Ice 50 will be positioned beneath the screen 28 so that the ice 50 cannot move into the upper portion 30 of the vessel 12 when the vessel 12 is tipped during pouring or drinking. The user will then fill the vessel 12 with a fluid 52 and this will generally include the fluid attaining a level above the screen 28. The user may then drink fluid from the vessel 12 without concern that the ice 50 will move towards the upper edge 18 causing spillage of fluid onto the user. The size of the apertures 34 and their overall area of coverage ensure even flow outwardly of the vessel 12 without concern that the ice 50 itself can move through the apertures 34. However, the ice 50 will still be able to effectively cool the fluid as intended.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
