Patent Application
20110290817
The present disclosure relates generally to a lid for a disposable container. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a lid having double parallel inner ribs for superior no leak sealing, an outer lid gripping feature for additional protection against accidental spilling, a pronounced elevated sipping spout and a circular indented channel on top of the lid, allowing for stacking a beverage container over another lid covered container, with additional stability provided by the curved rear surface of the sipping spout.
Prior art disposable lids are known in the art. Generally, the lids are made from a thermoplastic molded or pressed member and are disk shaped. Generally at a proximal location of the disk shaped member, the lid will include an aperture for drawing liquid from the container, which is connected to the lid. Lids known in the art include an annular rim that fastens onto the periphery of a beverage container. However, the prior art lids are often deficient in that if applied in haste or if the container is bent it is easy to include a slight gap or tolerance defined between the periphery of the annular rim and the periphery of the beverage container. Once a user picks up the beverage container and attempts to drink from the container, the lid may become separated from the container and spillage may occur. Also, it is often difficult to quickly and accurately assess whether the lid is properly secured to the beverage container. In addition, the gap or tolerance between the periphery and rim will likely cause the lid to become completely dislodged from the container in the event a user accidentally spills the container, resulting in spillage of the contents therein. Thus, lids known in the art do not achieve a satisfactory sealing or fastening arrangement with the rim of a beverage container and are therefore prone to contributing to accidental spillage and leaking.
Also, when stacked, generally one on top of another, the stacked lids tend to become unstable and may fall to the ground. This causes a problem as the fall can cause the lids to become unsanitary and soiled. A beverage provider will generally throw the soiled lids, causing unnecessary waste.
If the lid includes an aperture that is defined too close to the annular wall of the lid, or to the proximal most location of the lid, the user's bottom lip will contact an irregular surface of the lid to draw from the aperture. Thus, this creates a poor surface from which to draw liquid and further promotes accidental spillage.
Finally, it is advantageous to stack multiple lid covered beverage containers on top of one another. However, the lids known in the art do not allow such usage without a high risk that the containers will topple.
Thus, there is a need for an improved lid that obviates these risks and overcomes other deficiencies in the prior art.
As described herein, the various exemplary embodiments of the present invention overcome one or more of the above or other disadvantages known in the art.
One aspect of the present disclosure relates to a lid for a container. The lid comprises a container closure for securing to the brim of a beverage container. The container closure portion comprises a circular shaped disk member including a circumferential rim extending about a periphery of the container closure. The circumferential rim of the periphery of the circular shaped disk mates with the brim of the beverage container for sealing engagement therewith.
The circumferential rim includes an annular outer side wall, an annular inner side wall and an annular top wall, interconnecting the outer side wall and the inner side wall. The outer side wall is disposed opposite to the inner wall and is contiguous to the top wall. The annular side wall and the annular inner wall include at least one annular rib each.
In one aspect of the invention, the annular inner wall includes two parallel annular ribs disposed inwardly along an interior circumference of the inner wall and the annular outer side wall includes an annular rib disposed opposite and parallel to the annular ribs of the inner wall.
Thus, when the lid is used in conjunction with a beverage container, the annular ribs of the inner side wall and the outer side wall form a gripping area to secure the lid to the brim of a beverage container in a sealing engagement therewith to prevent leaking and accidental spillage.
In another aspect of the invention, the annular top wall includes a plurality of spaced openings or visual cues. The openings or visual cues provide for viewing of the brim of the beverage container over each quadrant of the lid when the lid is attached to the brim of the container. In this manner, when the lid is affixed to the brim, visual inspection of the lid with respect to the container is readily apparent and the structural integrity of the fastened lid in conjunction with the container can be assessed.
Thus, when the lid is positioned about the brim of the container and secured thereto by further pressing on the openings to affix the lid to the brim of the container, it will be possible to visually inspect that the lid is properly positioned and secured to the brim of the container. A secure fit of lid to container can therefore be achieved by pressing on the openings.
In yet another aspect of the invention, the lid includes a sipping spout spaced from a proximal most location of the lid and projecting upwards and extending from the container closure. The sipping spout comprises an aperture disposed on top of the spout. The sipping spout further comprises a base that is integral with the circular shaped disk. The base of the sipping spout has a width that is generally greater than the width of the top of the sipping spout.
The sipping spout is elevated and elongated and extends from a top side of the lid and further provides for an improved spout for drawing liquid from the container. Even more particularly, the present spout includes a rear surface with a curvature that is the same curvature as a container and allows a second beverage container to be stacked on the lid and supported by the rear surface.
A circular indented channel on the top of the container closure acts as a stiffening member and allows for stacking one lid covered cup over another with additional stability provided by the curved rear surface of the sipping spout.
According to yet another aspect there is provided a lid for fastening to a first beverage container rim. The lid comprises at least two support surfaces for receiving a second beverage container in a stacked configuration on a top of the lid opposite the first beverage container.
These and other aspects and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like drawings represent like components. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the disclosure, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. Moreover, the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.
It is contemplated that the teaching of the description set forth below is applicable to all types of packaging, including but not limited to disposable beverage cup containers made from styrofoam, compostable plastic or polymer material, thermoplastic, paper for coffee, tea, soda or other suitable material, as is readily appreciated by one skilled in the art. The present disclosure is therefore not intended to be limited to any particular container apparatus or configuration described in the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. It should be appreciated that the present invention may also be applicable to other types of containers and cups that are non-disposable, such as, for example, a vacuum sealed travel coffee cup.
In a preferred embodiment, the circumferential periphery 14 includes annular walls 16, 18, 20 for mating with the brim 7 of the beverage container 5.
Referring now to
Disposed on the annular inner side wall 16 are one or more annular ribs 24. The ribs 24 extend along an inner circumference of the inner wall 9 of the periphery 14 of lid 10 (shown in
In a preferred embodiment, the annular inner wall 16 includes two parallel ribs 24 disposed inwardly along an inner circumference of the inner wall 9 and the annular outer side wall 18 includes one annular rib 22 disposed opposite and generally parallel to annular ribs 24 of the inner side wall 16. Ribs 24 and 22 on inner side wall 16 and outer side wall 18 thereby form a gripping area to secure the lid 10 to the brim 7 of a beverage container 5 for a sealed mating configuration between the lid 10 and the container 5.
Annular outer side wall 18 is disposed a relative distance from the annular inner side wall 16 with rib 22b being shown on an inner surface 63 of the annular outer side wall 18. Annular rib 22b extends around the outer side wall 18. As can be seen, rib 22b includes a profile that is shaped from a top of rib element 22c to a bottom of channel 22a. Annular rib element 22c extends around the annular side wall 18, and is parallel to and spaced from channel 22a. Annular channel 22a and rib element 22c are formed intermediate relative to rib 22b. Preferably, rib 22b and rib element 22c provides for a redundant sealing surface for the rim 7 of the beverage container 5 whereby the rim of the beverage container is secured along channel 22a between the top annular wall 20 and the upper portion of rib 22b for sealing engagement with the exterior portion of the brim 7 of a beverage container 5
The annular top wall 20 of the lid 10 includes a plurality of spaced visual cues 11. The visual cues 11 provide for viewing of the brim 7 of the beverage container 5 when the lid 10 is attached to the brim 7 of the container 5. The position of the brim 7 of the container 5 is visible through the visual cues 11 when the lid 10 is securely affixed to the container 5, such that a position of the lid 10 with respect to the brim 7 of the container 5 may be readily ascertained.
In a preferred embodiment, the lid 10 of the present invention includes four visual cues 11. Referring to
Turning now to
Preferably, the sipping spout 26 includes a top side 28 that projects upward and extends a height h from a bottom most portion 30 of lid 10. In a preferred embodiment h is generally about 1 and ⅞ inches. In a non-limiting embodiment of the present disclosure, the height of sipping spout 26 is slightly less than about twenty five percent of the diameter of lid 10. Various configurations are possible and within the scope of the present disclosure. It will be appreciated by those reasonably skilled in the art that lid 10 may include various diameters and heights h based on the type of lid 10 and beverage container.
The top side 28 is generally smaller in length than a bottom side 25 (shown in
The spout 26 preferably includes a front lateral surface 32, shown in
Referring to
Turning now to
Referring now to
Additionally, the lid 10 includes a circular channel 42 indented in the lid 10. Preferably, the channel 42 is formed from a stamping or molding operation on the container closure 12. The container closure 12 surrounds at least a segment of the circular indented channel 42. The channel 42 preferably adds no weight to the container closure 12 and acts as a stiffening member to ensure that the container closure 12 does not deflect or bend when subjected to the appropriate stress. Circular channel 42 preferable includes a rectangular shaped cross section and a depth of several millimeters. Channel 42 also provides for a stable stiff support structure for the lid 10 and ensures that when drinking the spout 26 and the lid 10 will withstand forces and stress imparted on the spout 26 and the lid 10. Channel 42 preferably allows fluid disposed on the top side of the lid 10 to collect therein and drain through aperture 6.
As shown in
In addition, channel 42 assists with stacking lid 10 with a second lid 10′ as will be discussed herein. The channel 42 provides an additional guiding member, such that a second lid 10′ having substantially the same pattern will engage with channel 42 and orient the container closure 12 to assist with stacking the container closure 12 on another lid 10′. Less preferably, the channel 42 may include a rounded cross section or include a differently shaped feature but conforms to a bottom 44′ of a second beverage container 5′ for stacking.
Turning now to
Turning now to
Turning now to
The present lid 10 advantageously includes a spout 26 having a height h that engages with a second spout 26′ from underneath the spout 26′. Height h provides for an arrangement whereby spout 26 permits stacking a predetermined number of lids 10 with decreased risk of the lids 10 falling under the stress of their combined weight. Height h provides a combined locking stacked composite of lids 10 and 10′ wherein spout 26 provides support in the horizontal dimension that does not allow the second lid 10′ to become misaligned and fall as lid 10′ is grasped in the horizontal dimension. In this regard, spout 26 provides vertical and horizontal support to a second lid 10′.
Referring now to
Turning now to
Referring now to
Preferably, the lid 10 includes a primary sealing surface and a secondary sealing surface generally shown in
In this manner, ribs 24 of the inner side wall 16 engage the brim 7 on one side while ribs 22 engage the brim 7 along the outer side wall 18. Ribs 22, 24 are spatially arranged to coordinate with one another. Preferably, rib element 22c of an exterior surface of the annular outer side wall 18 includes a flared portion that facilitates the brim 7 engaging with the channel 62. The flared portion of rib element 22c is annular and exaggerated in width relative to the top wall 20 as shown. In this manner, preferably rib element 22c acts as a guiding member.
In another embodiment, the lid 10 may include at least two primary sealing surfaces. In another embodiment, the lid 10 may include at least two secondary sealing surfaces. Various configurations are possible and within the scope of the present disclosure.
Referring to
Thus, while there have shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the disclosure as applied to various specific embodiments thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the apparatus illustrated, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the disclosure. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention. Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements and/or method steps shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of design choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto.
