The present disclosure relates to the field of drinking vessels. More particularly, present disclosure relates to a single piece, short stemmed, integral blow molded beverage vessel used as single serve drinking vessel or drinking vessel for regular uses, and a method for manufacturing the same.
Single serve beverage vessels, especially wine glasses provided with wide or narrow openings with a releasable lid over their opening are well known in the art. Further, the beverage vessels/containers come in different shapes and sizes and could be made of crystal or plastic or other material. Beverage containers, especially the wine glasses are made to present bouquet of a particular wine in a particular way. Thus, a glass for a white wine will have a narrow shape to concentrate the thin bouquet of the white wine. Similarly, a glass for a red wine has a wider shape to let the stronger bouquet disperse. Thus, makers of wine glasses or like beverage containers generally practice variations on these major themes known to them or practice variations based on type of wines.
Speaking about single serve wine drinking glasses, it has been acquired traditionally to have a stem in the wine glass apart from a bowl section that holds the wine and a base or foot section that provides support to the glass, when the glass is placed over a surface in an upright position. There are various reasons known to people that makes the stem a preferred part in the wine glasses or similar glasses, for example, presence of the stem provides an elegant look to the glass, allows to keep hand away and prevent warming the wine/beverage contained in the glass, avoid smearing the bowl section that hold the wine/beverage with greasy fingerprints and so on. Thus, having the stem in the wine glass is highly preferred by consumers.
Currently available single serve wine glasses are not very stable when they are used in a production line for prefilling the beverages or wine therein, especially currently available wine glasses tend to have larger stem and such glasses during their movement in the production line tend to spill or fall leading to breakage of the glasses. The larger stem creates a high center of gravity when the glass is prefilled for packaging in the production line. Consequently, a comparatively small tipping force can spill the content in the glass. The problem is exacerbated when the surface upon which the wine glass is resting is slightly uneven or is moving (for example in the production line).
In order to overcome the above shortcomings with larger stemmed glasses in the production lines, several inventors in the past proposed several beverage container designs that could eliminate the stem section and the base section to get blown wine glasses. Further, some of inventors proposed cylindrical shaped bowl right from top opening of the glass to the base of the bowl in order to ease the manufacturing of such glasses using the existing molding processes. Although, such designs could solve the shortcomings, however, the elimination of the stem and the base sections from the glasses also eliminates the aesthetic look of the glasses, leading to a loss of consumer interest on such glasses.
Furthermore, lots of existing beverage containers or single serve beverage containers, especially wine glasses are manufactured or designed in a way to have the bowl section, the foot section and the stem section as separate two or three parts, which are then assembled together using known methods to form the glass ready for use or prefilling in the production line. In one hand, manufacturing the bowl section, the foot section and the stem section as two or three separate parts increases production cost, and on the other hand, it brings in several manufacturing challenges when the parts are manufactured separately and then attached to each other to form the glass. For example, there are chances that the stem warps up or some air bubbles get formed within the stem during the process of such manufacturing.
Some of the examples include, WO2008020301 that discloses a two part drinking vessel comprising of a receptacle for holding a beverage and a base. The receptacle includes a cup portion and a hollow neck portion defining a filler opening closable by means of a stopper and through which the receptacle can be fitted onto the base by means of screwing mechanism.
Further, US20170135508 discloses about formation of the glass in possibly two or three parts and then physical attachment of the stem to the bowl or to the foot, or to both, by using suitable adhesive, or by thermal or mechanical attachment.
In the light of aforementioned background, there is a need for a single piece beverage drinking vessel, especially a wine glass that can provide more stability when used in a production line for prefilling the beverage/wine therein. The invention further proposes a single serve beverage glass or a beverage glass in general with relatively short stem that leads to no compromisation with respect to aesthetic looks of the glass, and is able to meet the different manufacturing challenges besides being affordable.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a single serve beverage container or a beverage glass for regular uses, especially a wine glass that's esthetic, compact and sturdy that can provide more stability and can withstand rigors of a production line when the glasses are prefilled with beverages, especially when such glasses are made of plastic or glass material.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a stemware for regular uses or a single serve beverage container for drinking, especially a wine glass with a short stem (with height just enough to hold the stem using a thumb and a fore finger), that lowers center of gravity when the glass is being prefilled in the production line thereby preventing spill or fall of the glass especially when the glass is resting on uneven surface or moving in the production line.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide the beverage container or the wine glass with a partially hollow stem or stem with a hollow cavity formed therein in order to avoid or overcome manufacturing challenges. The partially hollow stem of the glass not only increases beverage volume capacity of the glass but also aids in avoiding warping of the stem and formation of bubbles within the stem.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide the beverage container or the wine glass that's formed as a single piece, thereby making the beverage container more affordable.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a single piece beverage container or the wine glass with a bowl, a stem and a base, wherein the diameter of the base is preferably made more than the diameter of a lip formed on the top of the bowl, and lesser than the diameter of a belly of the blow, giving rise to an aesthetically blown glass design and more stability to the beverage container.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a one-piece, integral blow molded beverage vessel used as a single serve drinking vessel, the beverage vessel, comprising a stem with a first end and a second end, wherein the stem comprises of a partial hollow cavity extending in a direction from the first end to the second end, and a height substantial enough to allow holding of the stem using a fore finger and a thumb; a bowl with a lip having a predefined diameter configured on top, wherein the bowl comprises of a continuous bowl surface that laterally stretches between the lip to a maximum predefined diameter of the bowl, thereafter shrinks to merge with the first end of the stem forming a beverage retaining region with capability of holding a predetermined volume of beverage; a base with a predefined diameter, wherein the second end of the stem is merged centrally over a top surface of the base; and a removable sealing unit adapted for covering the lip of the bowl in order to ensure the beverage contained within the beverage retaining region doesn't come in contact with air and doesn't spill out during transportation.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a single piece, short stemmed blown drinking vessel used as a single serve drinking vessel, the method comprising the steps of: providing, a first mold; injecting a fusible material used for forming the drinking vessel into the first mold; cooling the fusible material injected inside the first mold to form a preform, wherein the preform comprises of: a base with a predefined diameter, a bowl substantially canonical in shape with tapered bottom with a lip on top with a predefined diameter, and a stem with a first end and a second end, wherein the stem comprises of a partial hollow cavity extending in a direction from the first end to the second end, and a height substantial enough to allow holding of the stem using a fore finger and a thumb; removing the preform out of the first mold; providing a second mold; placing the preform inside the second mold; heating, and blowing the preform to form the drinking vessel comprising: the stem with the first end and the second end, wherein the stem comprises of a partial hollow cavity extending in a direction from the first end to the second end, and the height essential to allow holding of the stem using the fore finger and the thumb, the bowl with the lip having the predefined diameter configured on the top thereof, wherein the bowl comprises of a continuous bowl surface that laterally stretches between the lip to a maximum predefined diameter, thereafter shrinks to merge with the first end of the stem forming a beverage retaining region with capability of holding a predetermined volume of beverage, and the base with the predefined diameter, wherein the second end of the stem is merged centrally over a top surface of the base; and covering the lip of the bowl using a removable sealing unit in order to ensure the beverage contained within the beverage retaining region doesn't come in contact with air and doesn't spill out during transportation.
These and other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description below, in light of the accompanying drawings.
The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of the present disclosure, as to its structure, organization, use and method of operation, together with further objectives and advantages thereof, will be better understood from the following drawings in which a presently preferred embodiment of the invention will now be illustrated by way of example. It is expressly understood, however, that the drawings are for the purpose of illustration and description only and are not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention.
Embodiments of this disclosure will now be described by way of example in association with the accompanying drawings in which:
The single piece, short stemmed, integral blow molded beverage container used as a drinking vessel and a method for manufacturing the same will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings which should be regarded as merely illustrative without restricting the scope and ambit of the disclosure.
The words “comprising,” “having,” “containing,” and “including,” and other forms thereof, are intended to be equivalent in meaning and be open ended in that an item or items following any one of these words is not meant to be an exhaustive listing of such item or items or meant to be limited to only the listed item or items. It must also be noted that as used herein and in the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
For the purpose of description, the terms “beverage container”, “drinking vessel”, “glass”, “drinking glass”, “wine glass”, “beverage glass”, “single serve beverage glass” or “a single serve beverage container” and any variations thereof are all used interchangeably to refer to the invention and should not be considered in any other sense. Further, in the accompanying
Although any systems and methods similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of embodiments of the present invention, the preferred systems and methods are now described with respect to
Referring to accompanying drawings, specifically to
Further, in the context of present invention, although the invention is described in terms of possibility to make the glass using plastic material, it should be understood that different material can be used for manufacturing of the proposed glass, such as crystal material, plastic material, regular glass material, or any other material commonly available commercially.
As seen in the
The stem 16 has a height substantial enough to allow holding of the stem 16 using a fore finger and a thumb of a user as shown in the
The beverage vessel 10 further includes a bowl 12 with a lip 14 on its top. The lip 14 consists of a predefined diameter (marked as A, in
The bowl 12 further includes a continuous bowl surface 13 that laterally stretches between the lip 14 to a maximum predefined diameter or belly region (the diameter marked at point B in the
The beverage vessel 10 further includes a base 18 with a predefined diameter (marked with arrows G in the
The beverage vessel 10 further includes a removable sealing unit 22, 24. The removable sealing unit consists of a foil 22 as shown in the
In the context of present invention, two layer sealing is applied over the lip 14 of the glass 10 to ensure the beverage 20 contained within the beverage retaining region doesn't come in contact with air and doesn't spill out during transportation etc. It should be understood that, even different other single layer sealing method can be applied over the proposed beverage glasses with or without some design modification related to the lip 14. For example, a peel of layer with strong bond formation feature may alone be used over the lip 14, or any cap with locking features that engages with the lip 14 can be used for sealing the lip 14.
Furthermore, according to an embodiment, in a scenario, when the above described beverage vessel 10 is not used as a single serve beverage glass. The proposed beverage vessel can be used as a regular beverage glass or a glass with or without a removable sealing unit 22, 24, preferably without a removable sealing unit 22, 24. For example, when used by users in their home.
Further, there is provided a method of manufacturing the proposed beverage vessel 10. Unlike the existing stemware glasses, wine glasses, or other beverage containers with the stem, that require different parts such as a bowl, a stem and a base to be made or manufactured separately and then attached or assembled together, the present invention proposes a method for manufacturing the proposed blown beverage vessel 10 as one piece unitary component, with a short stem 16 with higher stability without compromising the aesthetic appearance of the beverage vessel 10 and at the same time could be very cost effective as it could eliminate the need to separately manufacture various parts of the beverage vessel.
The method of manufacturing a single piece, short stemmed blown drinking vessel 10 used as a single serve drinking vessel will now be described in detail along with some reference to the
The method then includes a step of cooling the fusible material injected inside the first mold to form a preform 70 as represented in the
The step of manufacturing then includes a step of removing the preform 70 out of the first mold. The method further includes providing a second mold (not shown). The second mold is preferably a blow mold where the heating and blowing is carried out over the formed preform 70, which is referred to as “integrated blow mold process” for the purpose of this invention. The glass could be blown by various means, for example pumping continuously hot air inside or by means of any known processes. The integrated blow mold process includes a step of placing the preform 70 inside the second mold. The integrated blow mold process further includes steps of heating, and blowing the preform 70 to transform the preform 70 into the drinking vessel 10 as shown and described with reference to
Although the manufacturing process as described herein, is implemented as a two step method using two different molds, the first mold and the second mold. First mold to carry out injection molding process in order to form preform 70, and then second mold used to carry out the integral blow molding processing to form a blown shaped glass as a final product, it should be apparent to the person skilled in the art that with advancements in the technology, person in the field, can visualize use of a single mold (instead of using two different molds), to carry out combined injection molding and the integral blow process.
Further the method includes a step of covering or sealing the lip 14 of the beverage vessel 10 outputted from the integrated blow mold process. The covering or sealing is preferably done using a removable sealing unit 22, 24 in order to ensure the beverage contained within the beverage retaining region doesn't come in contact with air and doesn't spill out during transportation.
Although the present invention is described with respect to manufacturing of proposed beverage vessel 10, it should be understood that the proposed process can be used to form beverage glasses of varying shapes and sizes as well and thus the disclosure here should not be considered limited to the exemplary embodiments and processes described herein.
Although particular embodiments of the invention have been described in detail for purposes of illustration, various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
The present application claims the priority benefits of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/503,228, filed on May 8, 2017, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62503228 | May 2017 | US |