The present invention relates to systems and methods for portably heating food and beverages. In particular, the present invention relates to a portable device for heating food and beverages without electricity.
In 2020 the world was plagued with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. With quarantine restrictions in place people began seeking solace in outdoor activities like camping. Campers with little to no experience found themselves venturing into the wild for recreation. Without experience in creating campfires to warm their food and beverages, many campers either didn't make campfires or irresponsibly created them putting nature and others at risk.
In addition to campers, many people desire to have a warm beverage when they are without the luxury of electricity. This happens on everyday commutes, walks, and other common types of travel. There exists a need in the art for a portable, quick and easy means to heat a food or beverage without using electricity or fire. There also exists a need to keep the food or beverage under continued heat for extended enjoyment. Therefore, there is a need for a non-electric portable heating apparatus and associated methods.
This background is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is made as to prior art and nothing within the background should be construed as prior art against the present invention.
Embodiments of the invention are directed to a non-electric portable heating apparatus including an upper section, a lower section, and a bottom. The upper section may include an upper void and an upper reaction chamber surrounding the upper void including dry reaction materials. The lower section may include a lower housing, a lower outer shell with lower outer shell apertures, a lower inner shell with lower inner shell apertures, a lower reaction chamber with dry mixture reaction materials surrounding the lower housing, a platform within the lower housing, at least one bladder containing water positioned on the platform, and a bottom.
The platform may be movable longitudinally within the housing and the lower outer shell apertures may be structured to rotatably align with the lower inner shell apertures. The bladder may be structured to expel water into the upper reaction chamber when the platform is moved longitudinally within the lower housing. The upper reaction chamber may be structured to produce an exothermic reaction when water enters the upper reaction chamber. The lower reaction chamber may be structured to allow air to flow therein when the lower outer shell apertures and the lower inner shell apertures are aligned. The lower reaction chamber may be structured to create an exothermic reaction when the lower outer shell apertures and the lower inner shell apertures are aligned and airflow enters the lower reaction chamber.
In some embodiments, one section of the lower housing may include a serrated grate configured to puncture the at least one bladder when brought in contact therewith. The grate may include cells structured to channel waterflow to the upper reaction chamber.
The upper reaction chamber may include a dry reaction mixture structured to create an exothermic reaction with water. Similarly, the lower reaction chamber may include a mixture structured to create an exothermic reaction with air.
In some embodiments, the lower outer shell apertures may form at least one of an image, shape, design, and logo. The platform ay be structured to move longitudinally within the bladder housing along a platform axis. Furthermore, the platform may be structured to move longitudinally within the bladder housing when the bottom is rotated thereby rotating the platform axis and actuating the platform via medial threading within a medial platform aperture.
Another embodiment may include a non-electric portable heating apparatus including an upper section, a lower section, and a bottom. The upper section may include an upper void and an upper reaction chamber surrounding the upper void including dry reaction materials. The lower section may include a lower housing, a lower outer shell with lower outer shell apertures, a lower inner shell with lower inner shell apertures, a lower reaction chamber surrounding the upper void including reaction materials, a platform with a platform aperture within the lower housing, at least one bladder containing water positioned on the platform, a platform axis extending the longitudinal length of the lower housing, a serrated grate separating the upper section and the lower section, and a bottom.
The platform may be movable longitudinally within the housing along the platform axis. The lower outer shell apertures may be structured to rotatably align with the lower inner shell apertures. The at least one bladder may be structured to be punctured by the serrated grate expelling water into the upper reaction chamber when the platform is moved longitudinally and pressed against the serrated grate. The upper reaction chamber may be structured to produce an exothermic reaction with water when water enters the upper reaction chamber. The lower reaction chamber may be structured to allow air to flow therein when the lower outer shell apertures and the lower inner shell apertures are aligned.
In this embodiment, the upper reaction chamber may include a dry mixture structured to create an exothermic reaction when mixed with water. The lower reaction chamber may include a mixture configured to create an exothermic reaction when mixed with air. The dry mixture reaction materials may be enclosed by a thin porous membrane. Furthermore, the at least one bladder may be doughnut shaped with a central hole that encircles the platform axis.
The platform may be structured to move longitudinally along the platform axis when the bottom is rotated thereby rotating the platform axis and translating the platform via threading within the platform aperture. The platform may be structured to move longitudinally along the platform axis when a user applies external force to the apparatus bottom. In some embodiments, the at least one bladder is a plurality of bladders containing water.
Another embodiment of the invention may include a non-electric portable heating apparatus including an upper section, a lower section, and a bottom. The upper section may include an upper void and an upper reaction chamber surrounding the upper void including dry reaction materials. The lower section may include a lower housing, a lower outer shell with lower outer shell apertures, a lower inner shell with lower inner shell apertures, a lower reaction chamber surrounding the upper void including reaction materials, a platform within the lower housing, a plurality of stoppers within the lower housing, a bladder containing water positioned on the platform with a bulbous base, a spout, a bladder tip with slits forming pie shaped flaps, and an apparatus bottom.
The platform may be movable longitudinally within the housing. The lower outer shell apertures may be structured to rotatably align with the lower inner shell apertures. The bladder tip and a portion of the spout may be fixed within the upper reaction chamber and the bladder may be structured to expel water into the upper reaction chamber when the platform is moved longitudinally within the lower housing and the bulbous portion of the bladder is compressed against the plurality of stoppers. The upper reaction chamber may be structured to produce an exothermic reaction when water enters the upper reaction chamber and the lower reaction chamber may be structured to allow air to flow therein when the lower outer shell apertures and the lower inner shell apertures are aligned. The lower reaction chamber may be structured to create an exothermic reaction when the lower outer shell apertures and the lower inner shell apertures are aligned and airflow enters.
In this embodiment, the lower outer shell apertures may form at least one of an image, shape, design, and logo. The platform may be structured to move longitudinally within the lower housing when a user applies external force to the apparatus bottom. Additionally, the upper and lower reaction materials may be enclosed within a thin porous membrane configured to allow water and air to permeate therethrough.
The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The embodiment descriptions are illustrative and not intended to be limiting in any way. Other embodiments of the invention will readily suggest themselves to persons with ordinary skill in the art after having the benefit of this disclosure. Accordingly, the following embodiments are set forth without any loss of generality and without imposing limitation upon the claimed invention.
Directional terms such as “above” “below” “upper” “lower” and other like terms are used for the convenience of the reader in reference to the drawings. Additionally, the description may contain terminology to convey position, orientation, and direction without departing from the principles of the present invention. Such positional language should be taken in context of the represented drawings.
Quantitative terms such as “generally” “substantially” “mostly” and other like terms are used to mean that the referred object, characteristic, or quality constitutes a majority of the referenced subject. Likewise, use of the terms such as first and second do not necessarily designate a limitation of quantity. Such terms may be used as a method of describing the presence of at least one of the referenced elements or may provide a means of differentiating orientation. The meaning of any term within this description is dependent upon the context within which it is used, and the meaning may be expressly modified.
Referring to
Within the outside shell 103 at the lower section 102 may be lower outer shell apertures 107. In some embodiments the lower outer shell apertures 107 may be ventilation holes structured as grouped horizontal openings. In some embodiments this may resemble three rectangular or oval horizontal openings stacked on top of each other. However, one skilled in the art will appreciate that the lower outer shell apertures 107 may be structed as square, circular, oval, triangular, polygonal, a cluster of holes, or the like. In some embodiments the lower outer shell apertures 107 may be a cluster of holes forming a particular image, shape, design or logo.
The apparatus 100 may also include a seal 106 around the apparatus outside shell 103 proximate the bottom 105. In some embodiments the seal 106 may be a removable means to secure the lower section 102 to the bottom 105.
Extending from the bifurcating midsection 109 below the upper section 101 may be a bladder housing 203. The bladder housing 203 may be a shell within the lower section 102 of the apparatus 100 that may extend from the bifurcating midsection 109 to a bladder platform 204. Surrounding the bladder housing 203 may be a lower reaction chamber 212 structured to contain lower reaction material therein.
As shown, in some embodiments the lower section 102 may include an apparatus shell 103 containing the lower outer shell apertures 107. It may include a small space 209 between the lower outer shell 103 and an inner vented layer 210 more central to the apparatus. This small space 209 may be structured to minimize friction and allow for the lower outer shell 103 to move around the inner vented layer 210. In some embodiments, a thin porous membrane 211 may surround an interior of the lower reaction chamber 212, which may allow for reaction materials to be contained within the chamber without escaping from the ventilation apertures. The porous nature of the porous membrane 211 may allow for air to enter the membrane and react with its contents without having the reaction materials prolapse. However, some embodiments may not include the porous membrane 211 and reaction materials may simply be housed within the lower reaction chamber 212.
The bladder platform 204 may be a supportive bottom to the bladder housing 203 and in some embodiments may be structured to slide longitudinally within the bladder housing 203.
In other embodiments, a user may simply press against the bottom 105 of the apparatus 100 and manually force the bladder platform 204 into the serrated grate 215. In some embodiments the bladder platform 204 may not host a bladder 225 at all. Instead, the bladder platform 204 may simply act as a plunger applying pressure to the bladder housing 203 that may be filled with liquid. Once force is applied to the bottom 105 of the bladder platform 204 in this embodiment, that pressure is applied against the liquid contained within the bladder housing 203. This pressure alone may cause for the unenclosed water to be forced into the upper section 101.
However, in other embodiments the apparatus 100 may not include the bottom section 275 and the bladder platform 204 may serve as the bottom 105 of the apparatus 100. In this embodiment, when a user applies force to the bottom 105, they are actuating the bladder platform 204 directly and forcing either the bladder 225 into the serrated grate 214 or an empty chamber filled with water toward the upper section 101.
Also depicted is a different type of bladder 302 that may be used with the apparatus 100. This bladder 302 may be structured with a bulbous base portion 307 that may contain water 303. Attached to the bulbous base portion 307 may be a spout 301, which may be an elongated neck extending from the bulbous base portion 307 to a bladder tip 305. In some embodiments, the bladder tip 305 and a portion of the spout 304 may be fixed within the upper reaction chamber 208.
The bladder tip 305 may include slits that in some embodiments may be crossed to form pie-shaped flaps within the bladder tip 305. The pie-shaped flaps may be rigid enough to prevent water 303 from unintentionally entering the upper reaction chamber 208. However, the slits in conjunction with the pie-shaped flaps may be structured to allow water 303 to flow from the bladder 302 into the upper reaction chamber 208 when proper force is applied to the underside of the bladder 302.
When the water 303 enters the upper reaction chamber 208, a water-mixture combination 311 creates an exothermic reaction causing heat 310a to warm the upper section 101 and the cupholder 201.
In the embodiment illustrated in
Again, one skilled in the art will appreciate that both the inner shell apertures 402 and the lower outer shell apertures 107 may be any number of shapes and configurations depending on need, preference and circumstance. By way of non-limiting example, they may be structed as square, circular, oval, triangular, polygonal, a cluster of holes, or the like. In some embodiments they may be a cluster of holes forming a particular image, shape, design or logo.
The lower section 102 of the apparatus 102 may be structured so that the apparatus outside shell 103 may turn 404 in a clockwise or counterclockwise motion to align the lower outer shell apertures 107 with the inner shell apertures 402. This turn 404 may be achieved due to threading along the lower section 102 of the apparatus 100. Furthermore, when the apparatus outside shell 103 at the lower section 102 is twisted it may break the seal 106.
By way of non-limiting example, a user may utilize the device by first activating the upper section 101 heating features. This may be accomplished by the user actuating the bladder platform 204 toward the bifurcating midsection 109. That externally applied force may continue until the bladder platform reaches a position proximate the bifurcating midsection 109 and forces water 303 into the upper reaction chamber 208. This may cause the upper section 101 to quickly produce heat 310a. The user may then place their desired contents within the cupholder 201 for quick heating. Next, the user may break the seal 106 by twisting 404 the apparatus shell 103 at the lower section 102 until the inner and outer shell apertures 402, 107 are aligned. This may cause the lower section 101 to produce heat 310b over an extended period of time. Because the cupholder 201 may be infused with heat conducting material, the cupholder 201 contents will be quickly warmed and remain warm for an extended period of time.
This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 63/084,026 titled “Non-Electric Portable Heating Apparatus and Associated Methods” filed on Sep. 28, 2020, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63084026 | Sep 2020 | US |