This application claims priority to Taiwanese Invention Patent application Ser. No. 11/211,5373, filed on Apr. 25, 2023, and incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
The present disclosure relates to a lid for a container, more particularly to a lid that allows direct drinking of liquid therefrom.
Referring to
However, the environmentally friendly cup lid 1 is not provided with a buffer space between the mouth portion 14 and the drinking port 10 for the liquid to retain, and the guide groove 141 is directly connected to an annular surface 131 of the peripheral portion 13. Thus, when the container is tilted and the liquid flows out through the drinking port 10, the liquid is easily ejected directly from the drinking port 10, and further overflows from a groove surface of the guide groove 141 to two opposite sides thereof and then to the annular surface 131 of the peripheral portion 13. Hence, the liquid cannot be collected in the guide groove 141 and is prone to overflow from the corners of a mouth of the user.
Currently, cup lids 1 with the mouth portions 14 available on the market are mostly made of plastic, not pulp.
Therefore, an object of the present disclosure is to provide a lid for a container that can alleviate at least one of the drawbacks of the prior art.
According to this disclosure, the lid is configured to cooperate with the container to define a receiving space, and includes a cover portion, a connecting portion, and a mouth portion.
The cover portion includes a supporting wall, a connecting wall having a position difference with the supporting wall along a first axis, and an intermediate wall interconnecting inner edges of the supporting and connecting walls. The connecting wall has an outlet for communicating the receiving space with the outside. The connecting portion is connected to a periphery of the cover portion, and is configured to detachably connect with a mouth portion of the container. The mouth portion of the lid includes a mouth inner wall connected to and extending upwardly from an outer edge of the connecting wall along the first axis.
The mouth inner wall, the connecting wall and the intermediate wall cooperatively define a buffer space having an opening configured to be opposite to the container. The buffer space has opposite wide and narrow space areas. The wide space area has a maximum width along a second axis substantially perpendicular to the first axis that is greater than a maximum width of the narrow space area along the second axis and a maximum width of the outlet along the second axis. The mouth inner wall has a middle arcuate portion facing the wide space area, and two side arcuate portions each of which is connected between one end of the middle arcuate portion and a portion of the inner edge of the supporting wall. The side arcuate portions are spaced apart from each other along the second axis. The middle arcuate portion has a curvature smaller than a curvature of each side arcuate portion.
Other features and advantages of the disclosure will become apparent in the following detailed description of the embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is noted that various features may not be drawn to scale.
Before the disclosure is described in greater detail, it should be noted that where considered appropriate, reference numerals or terminal portions of reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements, which may optionally have similar characteristics.
Referring to
The cover portion 2 includes a supporting wall 21, a connecting wall 22 having a position difference with the supporting wall 21 along the first axis (X), an intermediate wall 24 interconnecting inner edges of the supporting wall 21 and the connecting wall 22, and a surrounding wall 23 extending downwardly from and connected to an outer edge of the supporting wall 21 and radially spaced apart from the intermediate wall 24. A length (L1) of the connecting wall 22 along the third axis (Z) is more than 90% of a length (L2) of the supporting wall 21 along the third axis (Z). The connecting wall 22 has an outlet 221 extending from an outer surface to an inner surface thereof along the first axis (X), and a recess 222 that is indented from the outer surface thereof, that is spaced apart from the outlet 221 along the third axis (Z), and that is adjacent to the supporting wall 21 along the third axis (Z).
Referring to
Referring to
The stopping portion 5 surrounds the first axis (X), is formed around an inner surface of the outer sidewall 42, and includes a plurality of protruding ribs 51. Each protruding rib 51 cooperates with an adjacent one of the protruding ribs 51 to define a gap 501 therebetween. Each protruding rib 51 has a highest point and a lowest point along the first axis (X) that cooperatively define a contact area (51a) therebetween. Each protruding rib 51 forms an angle (θ1) with the end edge 421 that ranges from 15 degrees to 45 degrees, preferably, 25 degrees.
Referring again to
In this embodiment, the buffer space 60 is generally fan-shaped, and has a wide space area 601 including the outlet 221, and a narrow space area 602 opposite to the wide space area 601 and including the recess 222. The wide space area 601 has a maximum width (W1) along the second axis (Y) that is greater than a maximum width (W2) of the narrow space area 602 along the second axis (Y), and the maximum width (W2) of the narrow space area 602 is greater than a maximum width (W3) of the outlet 221 along the second axis (Y).
The mouth inner wall 61 has a middle arcuate portion 611 connected to and extending upwardly from the outer edge the connecting wall 22 along the first axis (X) and facing the wide space area 601, and two side arcuate portions 612 spaced apart from each other along the second axis (Y). Each side arcuate portion 612 is connected between one end of the middle arcuate portion 611 and a portion of the inner edge of the supporting wall 21. The middle arcuate portion 611 forms an angle (θ2) with the first axis (X) that ranges from 5 degrees to 15 degrees, preferably, 10 degrees. The middle arcuate portion 611 has a curvature smaller than a curvature of each side arcuate portion 612. Moreover, a maximum width (W4) of the middle arcuate portion 611 along the second axis (Y) is greater than the maximum width (W3) of the outlet 221 but smaller than the maximum width (W1) of the wide space area 601. Specifically, the maximum width (W1) of the wide space area 601 is slightly larger than the maximum width (W4) of the middle arcuate portion 611.
The mouth outer wall 62 forms an angle (θ3) with the first axis (X) that ranges from 5 degrees to 15 degrees, preferably, 10 degrees. As such, a distance between the mouth outer wall 62 and the middle arcuate portion 611 along the third axis (Z) gradually tapers from one ends thereof that are proximate to the connecting portion 4 to the other ends thereof that are away from the connecting portion 4 along the first axis (X).
Referring again to
The receiving space 70 is adapted for receiving liquid, and communicates with the outside through the outlet 221. When the lid of the first embodiment is moved toward the container 7 along the first axis (X) and is sleeved on the mouth portion 71 thereof, the mouth portion 71 is inserted into the accommodating space 40 until it presses against the abutment end wall 43 of the connecting portion 4. At this time, the accommodating space 40 of the connecting portion 4 receives the mouth portion 71 of the container 7, and the inner and outer sidewalls 41, 42 of the connecting portion 4 respectively press against and clamp therebetween inner and outer sides of the mouth portion 71 of the container 7, and the abutment end wall 43 of the connecting portion 4 presses against a top side of the mouth portion 71 of the container 7.
Hence, with the inner and outer sidewalls 41, 42 and the abutment end wall 43 frictionally contacting the inner, outer and top sides of the mouth portion 71 of the container 7, respectively, they can form three tight rings from inside to outside after the lid of this embodiment is engaged to the container 7. More importantly, the protruding ribs 51, through upper portions of the contact areas (51a) thereof, can press against a peripheral surface of the mouth portion 71 of the container 7. At this time, since a portion of the mouth portion 71 of the container 7 falls into the gaps 501 formed between adjacent ones of the protruding ribs 51 and is in frictional contact with the outer sidewall 42 and the protruding ribs 51, the protruding ribs 51 can engage the mouth portion 71 of the container 7 to prevent the container 7 and the lid of this disclosure from rotating relative to each other.
Referring to
It is worth to note that, since the distance between the mouth outer wall 62 and the middle arcuate portion 611 is tapered with a wide bottom and a narrow top, the upper and lower lips of the user can be as close as possible when they come into contact with the mouth portion 6, so that the liquid can accurately and completely enter the mouth of the user. Moreover, since the shape, height and angle of the mouth portion 6 exactly match the sipping angle of the mouth of the user, comfort during drinking can be enhanced.
When the user stops drinking the liquid and places the container 7 upright, the liquid remaining in the middle arcuate portion 611 can flow along the curvature and slope of the middle arcuate portion 611 toward the wide space area 601 and be limited in the buffer space 60, or can flow back into the receiving space 70 through the outlet 221.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Through the aforesaid configuration, the inner and outer sidewalls 41, 42 and the abutment end wall 43 of the connecting portion 4 can be similarly in frictionally contact with the mouth portion 71 of the container 7 to form three tight rings from the inside to the outside. More importantly, the protruding ribs 52 can similarly press against the mouth portion 71 of the container 7 through the contact area (52a). At this time, since a portion of the mouth portion 71 of the container 7 falls into the gaps 502 formed between adjacent ones of the protruding ribs 52 and is in frictional contact with the outer sidewall 42 and the protruding ribs 52, the protruding ribs 52 can engage the mouth portion 71 of the container 7 to prevent the container 7 and the lid of this embodiment from rotating relative to each other.
Referring to
Hence, with the protruding rib 54 blocking the bottom of the mouth portion 71 of the container 7, the lid of this embodiment and the container 7 can be prevented from moving away from each other along the first axis (X), thereby preventing the lid of this embodiment from accidentally disengaging from the container 7.
It should be noted that the protruding rib 54 is not limited to being formed on the inner surface of the outer sidewall 42 by processing the outer sidewall 42 the second time. In other variations of this embodiment, as shown in
Moreover, it should be noted that, when the lid of this embodiment is connected to the container 7, the protruding rib 54 is not limited to block the bottom of the mouth portion 71 having an inverted U-shaped cross section, but may also be used to block the mouth portion 71 having a circular cross section, as shown in
Through the above description, the advantages of this disclosure can be summarized as follows:
In the description above, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details have been set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that one or more other embodiments may be practiced without some of these specific details. It should also be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” an embodiment with an indication of an ordinal number and so forth means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic may be included in the practice of the disclosure. It should be further appreciated that in the description, various features are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of various inventive aspects; such does not mean that every one of these features needs to be practiced with the presence of all the other features. In other words, in any described embodiment, when implementation of one or more features or specific details does not affect implementation of another one or more features or specific details, said one or more features may be singled out and practiced alone without said another one or more features or specific details. It should be further noted that one or more features or specific details from one embodiment may be practiced together with one or more features or specific details from another embodiment, where appropriate, in the practice of the disclosure.
While the disclosure has been described in connection with what are considered the exemplary embodiments, it is understood that this disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiments but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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112115373 | Apr 2023 | TW | national |