Patent Grant
9539783
The technology described herein relates generally to the field of container liners. More specifically, the technology described herein relates to open top containers, e.g., beverage cups, ice cream cups, soup cups, oatmeal cups, yogurt cups, etc., that are further adapted to provide for a replaceable liner, and the systems for making and using the same.
A cup is a general term for a vessel intended to contain beverages or liquid foods for drinking or consumption.
A paper cup is a cup made out of paper and often lined with plastic or wax to prevent liquid from leaking out or soaking through the paper. It may be made of recycled paper and is widely used around the world. Paper cups can be made from virgin paper; cups made from recycled content are limited to 10% recycled content by law.
Originally, paper cups for hot drinks were glued together and made waterproof by dropping a small amount of clay in the bottom of the cup, and then spinning at high speed so that clay would travel up the walls of the cup, making the paper water-resistant. However, this resulted in drinks smelling and tasting of cardboard.
Cups for cold drinks could not be treated in the same way, as condensation forms on the outside, then soaks into the board, making the cup unstable. To remedy this, cup manufacturers developed the technique of spraying both the inside and outside of the cup with wax. Both clay-coated and wax-coated cups disappeared with the invention of polyethylene (PE) coated cups; this process covers the surface of the board with a very thin layer of PE, not only waterproofing the board, but also allowing seams to be welded together. The waterproof PE lining makes it difficult to easily recycle paper coffee cups and renders cold drink cups unrecyclable. There are a few paper mills that will accept small quantities of hot drink cups for recycling.
Most paper cups are designed for a single use and then disposal or recycling. All cups have the following in common:
A bottom
Sidewall(s) attached to the bottom
An large opening at the top for filling and drinking sometime covered with a lid
Made from a material that will hold liquid for the life of use
Rigid enough to be picked up in one hand for carrying and consumption
Rigid enough to have a lid pressed on
Many cupped beverages are sold and consumed away from home and many beverages cupped at home are consumed away from home.
The advantage of selling and consuming beverages away from home and the inconvenience of returning or cleaning the cups after use has led to the widespread use of disposable cups. In order for these disposable cups to meet the minimum requirements they must both have significant strength for grasping and carrying and an inner surface that is impervious to the liquid and in the case of cold drinks an exterior surface impervious to accumulation of condensation during the life of use.
Since the cupped beverages sold away from home are generally inconvenient for the return of the cup, paper or plastic cups are generally used and disposed of after a single use. These cups require a considerable amount of material for strength and a liquid impervious surface that renders them very difficult to biodegrade, compost or recycle.
Also in the case of single use hot drink cups a method of protecting the hand from high temperatures is often a requirement. Cups filled at home and taken away must be brought back into a building in almost all cases for cleaning. Another problem with paper cups is that the seam on the side and lip of the cup creates an area where liquid can leak out when the lid is in place.
Over 6.5 million trees were cut down to make 16 billion paper cups used by US consumers in 2006, using 4 billion gallons of water and resulting in 253 million pounds of waste.
Very little recycled paper is used to make paper cups because of contamination concerns and regulations. Because most paper cups are coated with plastic, both composting and recycling of paper cups is uncommon.
Although paper cups are made from renewable resources (wood chips 95% by weight), paper products in a landfill may not decompose, or may release methane if decomposed anaerobically. The manufacture of paper usually requires inorganic chemicals and creates water effluents.
Paper cups may consume more non-renewable resources than cups made of polystyrene foam. A number of cities have banned XPS foam cups in take-out and fast food restaurants.
PE is a petroleum based coating on paper cups that can slow down the process of biodegrading. PLA is a biodegradable bio-plastic coating used on some paper cups. PLA is a renewable resource and makes paper cups more compostable, whereas PE is not renewable and is not compostable.
Traditionally paper cup and containers have a plastic liner adhered to the inside in order to make them waterproof. These liners cannot be easily separated from the paper at the end of the life of the container and the paper cup/containers are not designed to be washed, they are for single use only and therefore cannot be reused. Some efforts to recycle the hot-beverage paper container have been successful however this requires additional energy and significant fiber loss, also very few paper mills are equipped to handle this type of recycled material. Additionally the paper cup/containers with the plastic liners do not biodegrade completely and don not compost easily. Permanent cup/containers require washing between used that requires the use of hot water and soap.
The pervasiveness of coffee-to-go from coffee shops, fast food venues and restaurants has exacerbated the problem of recycling the portable single-use cups. An increasing number of environmentally conscious consumers are demanding that these establishments proactively tackle recycling and waste reduction. Initiatives to decrease the environmental impact of disposable cups include using a recycled-content cup sleeve instead of double-cupping; producing hot beverage cups with 10% post-consumer recycled fiber, and offering a discount to consumers to use their own reusable mugs or tumblers for their beverages.
In many communities, there is a dearth of commercial recycling facilities. Until this situation improves front-of-store recycling that is consumer friendly is needed. This effort will be a combination of new cup design, convenient collection, and recycling infrastructure. However developing recyclable cup solutions is vital.
A need exists to have a cup/container in which a plastic liner could be removed so that both the cup/container and liner can be recycled and the cup/container can biodegrade. In addition, a need exists with a permanent cup/container for the liner to be removed, thus eliminating the need to wash the cup/container.
Yet another need is to minimize manual assembly by having a machine to uniformly insert a liner into the cup/container and assist in the fitting of the liner snugly to the inside and outside of the cup/container. The liners need to be manufactured and configured to seamlessly feed into this machine and fit on the target cup, e.g. by a stretch-fit and/or shrink-fit process.
Related patents and published patent applications known in the background art include the following:
The foregoing patent information reflects the state of the art of which the inventor is aware and is tendered with a view toward discharging the inventor's acknowledged duty of candor in disclosing information that may be pertinent to the patentability of the technology described herein. It is respectfully stipulated, however, that the foregoing patent and other information do not teach or render obvious, singly or when considered in combination, the inventor's claimed invention.
In various exemplary embodiments, the technology described herein provides an improved recyclable food container/beverage cup having a replaceable liner and methods and systems thereof for inserting the replaceable liner into a cup.
In one exemplary embodiment, the technology described herein provides a cup having a liner positioned inside the cup and extending to the outside lip area of the cup, where the liner provides a hygienic, liquid impervious surface that can be separated from the cup structure, allowing for recycling and the placement of a new liner within the cup.
In another exemplary embodiment, the technology described herein provides a device and a method associated with the device. With respect to the device, it is an open top container inner liner having a close fitting outside cuff portion, which allows the liner to be removed, allowing the cup to be recycled or relined. This liner can be used in permanent, disposable and collapsible cups. Elements of the technology described herein are a cup, a liner and a device to insert and secure the liner for releasable attachment.
In yet another exemplary embodiment the system is configured as follows: Liners can be provided in a bundle, stack or roll or may be created from a roll. Each liner is configured to press, stretch-on or shrink-fit both inside and outside of a container and to fit snugly by cuffing to the outside of the container. A provisioning device engages a liner, positions the liner into the corresponding container and folds the cuff of the liner over the outside of the container. In an exemplary embodiment utilizing a shrink system, e.g. using forced hot air, the cuff is shrunken to create the close fit. In this embodiment the target cup is below the provisioning device and the provisioning device moves in a substantially vertical movement down to install the liner and cuff it, then up to be positioned to engage the next liner. In other embodiments the cup and provisioning device may be in a horizontal orientation or at orientations between vertical and horizontal, e.g. at 45 degrees.
In one embodiment the process can be described as follows:
In one embodiment, the process can further be described as follows:
In yet another exemplary embodiment the method of using the technology described herein involves the following:
In yet another exemplary embodiment the method utilizes a stretch liner, i.e., the top of the liner stretches over the lip of the cup to create a close fitting cuff, instead of a shrink liner and comprises:
One advantage of the technology described herein is that it eliminates the need for washing the cup.
Another advantage of the technology described herein is that it allows for the multiple reuse of the cup structure.
Another advantage of the technology described herein is that it allows the cup structure to be recycled.
Another advantage of the technology described herein is that it allows the cup structure to biodegrade.
Another advantage of the technology described herein is that it allows the cup structure to be compostable.
Another advantage of the technology described herein is that it ensure hygiene.
Another advantage of the technology described herein is that it allow for the use of 100% post-consumer (PC) waste in the cup structure.
Another advantage of the technology described herein is that it captures unconsumed beverage for processing.
Another advantage of the technology described herein is that it allows for the recycling of the liner.
Another advantage of the technology described herein is that it reduces the consumption of a natural resource.
Another advantage of the technology described herein is that the liner works as a gasket to prevent leakage at the seam with the lid in place.
Another advantage of the technology described herein is that an air gap can be created between the liner and the container inside structure to create insulation to protect the hand and maintain the beverage temperature.
Another advantage of the technology described herein is that once the liner has been inserted the cups can be stacked by inserting one liner-filled cup into another liner-filled cup, thus minimizing the footprint of multiple cups.
Traditionally, drinking from a cup with a plastic liner is quite unpleasant because the plastic is drawn into the mouth when sipping or the plastic sticks to the consumer's lips. The technology described herein eliminates this problem because it is held close enough to the outside wall of the cup so that during the drinking process neither is the liner pulled into the mouth nor does the liner stick to the consumer's lips. In addition, the close cuff is not bunched as might occurs when a liner is held with an elastic band or draw string, but is substantially smooth around the outside edge of the cup allowing for more comfort to the lips, plus it does not contribute to dribbles.
Structurally the liner and receptacle are separate, yet they fit very close together until it is desired to separate them and then they separate easily. When liners need to be fit closely to the inside of the receptacle they are generally adhered to the inside making them extremely difficult to separate from the paper which make the receptacle difficult to recycle or biodegrade. The technology described herein has the paper of the cup and the plastic of the liner as separate components, thus facilitating recycling and biodegrading, plus the liner can be used with a permanent cup eliminating the need for washing between every use.
The technology described herein is illustrated with reference to the various drawings, in which like reference numbers denote like device components and/or method steps, respectively, and in which:
Before describing the disclosed embodiments of this technology in detail, it is to be understood that the technology is not limited in its application to the details of the particular arrangement shown here since the technology described is capable of other embodiments. Also, the terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.
In various exemplary embodiments, the technology described herein provides a cup/container liner system, comprising an open top cup/container and a liner that fits closely on the outside. These components are related as follows: the liner is inserted into the cup/container and is cuffed over the outside of the cup/container in a close fitting manner. The liner may or may not fit closely on the inside.
In the cuffing process the liner can be stretched or shrunk to fit snuggly on the exterior of the cup/container. This stretching/shrinking can be done manually, mechanized or a combination of manual and mechanized.
In at least one embodiment the liner creates a gasket over the seam of the container. The liner is configured for displaying recycling and/or disposal information. The cup/container can be made from either disposable or non-disposable material.
The cup/container may be made from 100% recycled and post-consumer recycled material. The cup/container may or may not be leak proof. The liner is configured for the capture and control of unconsumed contents.
The liner can eliminate the need to wash the cup/container prior to reuse. The liner may be formed in a variety of configurations. The liner may be clear or any degree of opacity. The liner may be inserted, cuffed and close-fit either by hand, device or automated/semi-automated machine.
In at least one embodiment, e.g., the “Cup” version, the technology described herein comprises a paper/permanent cup with a liner that fits snugly to the inside of the cup so that the liner does not bear any of the load of the content. The liner folds over the rim of the cup and fits snugly to the outside of the cup so the lips of the drinker contacts the liner. The liner fits in such a way that it does not interfere with the lidding and un-lidding of the cup and helps provide a seal in the area between the lid and the seam of the cup. The liner is in close communication with the cup, yet capable of being released.
In yet another embodiment, e.g. the “Container” version, the technology described herein is comprised of a paper/permanent container with a liner that fits to the inside of the container so that the liner folds over the rim of the cup and fits closely to the outside of the cup is such a way that the cuff of the liner remains primarily in contact with the outside of the container, which contributes to a neat appearance and assists in the application and removal of a lid. Rolling the liner to the outside also provide an area at the top of the rim configured to bond a lid seal.
Referring now to
Although this technology has been illustrated and described herein with reference to preferred embodiments and specific examples thereof, it will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that other embodiments and examples can perform similar functions and/or achieve like results. All such equivalent embodiments and examples are within the spirit and scope of the technology described herein and are intended to be covered by the following claims.
The present non-provisional patent application claims the benefit of priority of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/427,476 which is entitled “REPLACEABLE CONTAINER LINER, SYSTEMS AND METHODS THEREOF”, which was filed on Dec. 28, 2010, and which is incorporated in full by reference herein.
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