The present disclosure relates generally to hand-holdable containers and, more particularly, to containers having multi-component lid systems to allow the containers to be opened in different ways for different purposes.
Hand-holdable containers with removable lids are a well-known means for carrying beverages or other items. Recent designs known as “shaker cups” have become popular due to their portability, ease of use, and ability to aid a user in mixing the contents of the shaker cup. Shaker cups are used to mix and dispense a variety of liquefied foods and beverages. They typically include a means to hold the cup, such as a handle or hand grips, to enable a user to drink the beverage. One common use of a shaker cup is to mix a protein powder with water in the same container from which the user drinks the mixed protein powder and water. Shaker cups can be convenient for users who desire to mix and consume food or beverages while on the go.
A variety of shaker cups are commercially available. A simple shaker cup typically includes a cup and a lid. A user introduces the ingredients to be mixed into the cup, attaches the lid to the cup to seal the items inside the cup, and shakes the sealed cup to mix the ingredients together. Some shaker cups include a whisking or mixing element, which can be attached to the cup or the lid or can be an independent component that moves freely within the shaker cup as the cup is shaken.
A hand-holdable container may be summarized as including: a bottle including a top wall, a side wall, and a bottom wall that define an interior space, an opening in the top wall that is in fluid communication with the interior space, and a first handle formed in the side wall; a lid that is structured to be threadedly engaged with the top wall of the bottle and to cover the opening in the top wall of the bottle, the lid including a mouth; and a cap that is structured to be threadedly engaged with the lid and that is sized and shaped to cover the mouth of the lid, the cap including a second handle.
hand-holdable container may be summarized as including: a bottle having a top wall and an opening in the top wall; a lid that is structured to be threadedly engaged with the top wall of the bottle in a first rotational direction and to cover the opening in the top wall of the bottle, the lid including a mouth; and a cap that is sized and shaped to cover the mouth of the lid and to be threadedly engaged with the lid in a second rotational direction that is opposite to the first rotational direction.
A hand-holdable container may be summarized as including: a bottle having an interior, a top wall, an opening in the top wall in communication with the interior, and a knob extending upward from the top wall; a lid that is structured to be threadedly engaged with the top wall of the bottle and to cover the opening in the top wall of the bottle, the lid including a mouth and a releasable latch structured to be locked to the knob; and a cap that is structured to be threadedly engaged with the lid and to cover the mouth of the lid.
A hand-holdable container may be summarized as including: a bottle having an interior, a top wall, and an opening in the top wall in communication with the interior; a lid that is structured to be threadedly engaged with the top wall of the bottle and to cover the opening in the top wall of the bottle, the lid including a mouth and a strainer that is structured to extend downward into the bottle; a mixing element structured to be coupled to the strainer and to extend into the bottle from the strainer; and a cap that is structured to be threadedly engaged with the lid and to cover the mouth of the lid.
The foregoing features and advantages of the present disclosure will be more readily appreciated as the same become better understood from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
In the following description, certain specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of various disclosed implementations. However, one skilled in the relevant art will recognize that implementations may be practiced without one or more of these specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, etc. In other instances; well-known structures or components or both associated with hand-holdable containers have not been shown or described, such as handles, sealing means for lids, and mixing elements, in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring descriptions of the implementations.
Unless the context requires otherwise, throughout the specification and claims that follow, the word “comprise” and variations thereof, such as “comprises” and “comprising” are to be construed in an open inclusive sense, that is, as “including, but not limited to.” The foregoing applies equally to the words “including” and “having.”
Reference throughout this description to “one implementation” or “an implementation” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the implementation is included in at least one implementation. Thus, the appearance of the phrases “in one implementation” or “in an implementation” in various places throughout the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same implementation. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more implementations.
The container 100 includes a cutout portion 114 that extends diagonally between the two second side walls 106 and in which is located the side handle 110. The cutout portion 114 is bounded at its inner periphery by a diagonal wall 116 extending between the two second side walls 106, at its upper periphery by an upper wall 118 extending between the diagonal wall 116 and the side handle 110, and at its lower periphery by a lower wall 120 extending between the diagonal wall 116 and the side handle 110. Transitions between the upper wall 118, the diagonal wall 116, the lower wall 120, and the two second side walls 106 are curved or rounded. The side handle 110 has a cylindrical shape having a radius of curvature matching the radius of curvature of the edges 112, so that the edge 112 between the two second side walls 106 seamlessly forms a portion of the side handle 110. The degree of curvature or radius of these described components and features is again a matter of design choice for aesthetic purposes as discussed above. While the handle 110 is cylindrical, it can have other geometric shapes, although the cylindrical shape is chosen to provide uniformity in appearance with the other rounded features of the container 100.
The lid 126 includes a releasable latch (described further below) that includes a button 128 that is actuated by a user to release the latch and thereby enable a user to unscrew the lid 126. The cap 122 is mounted to the top wall 102 of the lid 126, and it includes a main body 130 secured to the top wall 102 and a top handle 132 that extends upwardly from the main body 130 of the cap 122. The main body 130 of the cap 122 has a shape generally comprising a square top wall 140 with curved side walls 142 that extend from the square top wall 140 downwards to meet the top wall 102 of the lid 126. The top handle 132 extends upward from the main body 130 and diagonally across the main body 130 between two opposite corners of the square top wall 140 of the main body 130. The shape of the top handle 132 as well as its cross-sectional diameter is selected for aesthetic reasons, in particular to complement the aesthetic appearance of the bottle 124 with the side handle 110, cap 122, and lid 126.
As illustrated in
The spout 152 includes a hollow cylinder 220 that extends upwards from the top surface 102 of the lid 126, and threads 158 extending helically around an outer surface of the hollow cylinder. At a location near the end 222 of each of the helical threads 158 where the threads 158 approach the bottom of the hollow cylinder of the spout 152, respective vertically extending ridges 160 extend from the bottom of the hollow cylinder of the spout 152 to the threads 158.
The cap 122 is secured to the lid 126 by screwing the cap 122 onto the lid 126, such as by engaging the curved wedges 148 with the helical threads 158 and turning the cap 122 until the vertical grooves 150 are engaged with the vertical ridges 160 (e.g., for a quarter-turn) to lock the cap 122 in place on the lid 126. As the cap 122 is secured to the lid 126 in this manner, the cap seal 162 is compressed within the annular space of the cap 122 between the top wall 140 of the cap 122 and the top end of the spout 152, thereby sealing the cap 122 to the lid 126. For container 100, the cap 122 is turned clockwise with respect to the lid 126 when looking down on the container 100 to threadably fasten the cap 122 onto the lid 126. In alternative implementations, the curved wedges 148 and helical threads 158 can be structured so that the cap 122 can be turned counter-clockwise to attach the cap 122 to the lid 126.
As shown in
At a top end of the mixing element 182 is a vertical groove 188 extending radially outward from the mixing element 182 along a portion of its length and a plurality of partial circumferential openings 190 extending along a portion of a circumference of the mixing element 182. The vertical groove 188 and circumferential openings 190 correspond to the ridges 172 and 174, respectively, and are used to couple the mixing element 182 to the strainer 168. For example, the mixing element 182 has an inner diameter approximating an outer diameter of the strainer 168. A user can slide the mixing element 182 over the strainer 168, with the ridge 172 engaging the groove 188, until the ridges 174 snap into the openings 190 and thereby lock the mixing element 182 to the strainer 168.
The second end 203 of the releasable latch 192 includes a notch 200 facing inward toward the outer cylindrical wall 178 from the second end 203 of the latch 192, and an actuation arm 202 extending outwardly from the arcuate body 193 in a direction opposite the notch 200. The notch 200 and the actuation arm 202 are integrally formed with the latch 192, preferably by having the body 193 curve inward to form the notch 200 and curve outward to form the actuation arm 202. The exact radius of curvature of the actuation arm 202 visible to consumers is a matter of design choice and is selected to aesthetically match the other curvatures in the container 100 to form an overall appealing appearance to consumers. Ideally, the notch 200 and the actuation arm 202 are aligned so the notch 200 extends towards the actuation arm 202 that in turns extends in the same direction and away from the notch 200. The actuation arm 202 extends away from the notch 200 and through a matching opening 209 in a corner 211 of a side wall 213 of the lid 126 (see
As such, the actuation arm 202 forms a button 128 that can be pushed by a user, which causes the resilient arcuate body 193 to bend. Preferably the body 193 is held in place by a first stabilizer fin 196 extending outwardly from the outer cylindrical wall 178 and by a second stabilizer or fin 198 extending inwardly from the side wall of the lid 126 so that the long sides 199 of the body 193 bear against the fins 196, 198 and maintain the actuation arm 202 in an outwardly located position relative to the lid 126. The actuation arm 202 can be rigid relative to the arcuate body of the latch 192, so that a user can push the button 128 to bend the arcuate body 193 of the latch 192 and move the notch 200 outward and away from an engaging member or knob 214, as described further with regard to
As the lid 126 is secured to the bottle 124 in this manner, the lid seal 212 is compressed within the annular space of the lid 126 between the top wall 102 of the lid 126 and the top end of the spout 204, thereby sealing the lid 126 to the bottle 124. For the container 100, the lid 126 is turned clockwise with respect to the bottle 124 when looking down on the container 100 to screw the lid 126 onto the bottle 124. In alternative implementations, the curved wedges 180 and helical threads 210 can be structured so that the lid 126 can be turned counter-clockwise to screw the lid 126 to the bottle 124.
In some implementations, the direction in which the cap 122 is turned to secure the cap 122 to the lid 126 is the same as the direction in which the lid 126 is turned to secure the lid 126 to the bottle 124. In other implementations, the direction in which the cap 122 is turned to secure the cap 122 to the lid 126 is the opposite of the direction in which the lid 126 is turned to secure the lid 126 to the bottle 124. Such implementations prevent or reduce the chance that the lid 126 is unintentionally unsecured from the bottle 124 when the cap 122 is removed from the lid 126, and that the cap 122 is unintentionally unsecured from the lid 126 when the lid 126 is removed from the bottle 124.
In some implementations, the direction in which the button 128 is pressed to release the latch 192 from the knob 214 is the same as the direction in which the lid 126 is turned to remove the lid 126 from the bottle 124. Such implementations make it easier for a user to remove the lid 126 from the bottle 124. In other implementations, the direction in which the button 128 is pressed to release the latch 192 from the knob 214 is the opposite of the direction in which the lid 126 is turned to secure the lid 126 to the bottle 124. Such implementations make it more difficult for a user to remove the lid 126 from the bottle 124, such as to child-proof the container 100,
The various implementations described above can be combined to provide further implementations, Aspects of the implementations can be modified, if necessary to employ concepts of the various patents, applications and publications to provide yet further implementations. Further, a designer having ordinary skill in the art will understand that certain aspects of the disclosure as shown in the Figures, such as balance, symmetry, specific curvatures, and relative lengths of components, may be modified for cosmetic purposes without affecting the function and performance of the product.
These and other changes can be made to the implementations in light of the above-detailed description. In general, in the following claims, the terms used should not be construed to limit the claims to the specific implementations disclosed in the specification and the claims, but should be construed to include all possible implementations along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. Accordingly, the claims are not limited by the disclosure.
This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application 62/328,521 filed Apr. 27, 2016, which application is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/US2017/029706 | 4/26/2017 | WO | 00 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62328521 | Apr 2016 | US |