Patent Application
20160129409
This disclosure relates generally to blenders, and, more particularly, to thin-walled glass-lined blender jars.
Blender jars are used with blenders to hold items, e.g., food items, that are to be processed by, for example, liquefying, chopping or pureeing. Blender jars include an integral rotating blade, or are removeably coupled to a collar assembly having a rotating blade. The blade is rotated by a motor to which a blender jar is coupled. Typically, a lid is placed on the blender jar to prevent, for example, spattering.
Thin-walled glass-lined blender jars are disclosed. An example thin-walled glass-lined blender jar includes a thin-walled glass liner, and a plastic structural shell around the glass liner providing structural support for the glass liner. In some embodiments, a rib of a side wall of the plastic shell is positioned in a rib of a side wall of the glass liner. In some embodiments, side walls of the glass liner and plastic shell may taper inward from bottom to top retaining the glass liner within the plastic shell. In some embodiments, the plastic shell comprises a non-structural member selected for at least one of ornamentation, decoration, and/or aesthetics.
Conventional blender jars are made entirely from glass or entirely from plastic. While conventional glass blender jars do not retain odors and do not scratch easily, they can break and may be limited in size due to manufacturing processes and/or weight, especially for a large capacity blender jar. For example, a glass blender jar having a capacity of greater than 56 oz. may be too heavy for many consumers, which limits glass blender jar capacity. While conventional plastic blender jars can be molded to be lighter, more impact resistant and to provide larger capacities, they tend to retain odors and scratch easily, e.g., with hard items such as frozen food items. Sound is often a concern with conventional blender jars, as sound isolation is traditionally not contemplated for conventional blender jars.
Thin-walled glass-lined blender jars are disclosed herein that overcome at least these problems. The examples disclosed herein have thin-walled glass liners that are, for example, press-fit or molded into a plastic outer structural shell, which provides structural support for the thin-walled glass liner. Example thin-walled glass liners have a thickness similar to that of a coffee maker carafe (e.g., 3-4 millimeters (mms)), and/or approximately half the thickness of a conventional glass blender jar (e.g., 6-10 mm), depending on, for example, glass material(s) used, and/or plastic shell design. Accordingly, the example blender jars disclosed herein can be approximately half or less than half of the weight of a conventional glass blender jar, which is significant as consumers increasingly desire larger blender jars. In the examples disclosed herein, the thin-walled glass liner provides, among other things, reduced weight, clean-ability, and minimal odor retention, while the plastic outer shell provides structural support to at least partially compensate for the reduced thickness of the glass liner, and provide impact protection, sound isolation and/or additional decorative features. Additionally, an air gap and/or insulation can be provided between the glass liner and the plastic outer shell to deaden sound. Further still, a vacuum could be provided between the glass liner and the plastic outer shell, which would further reduce noise as sound does not travel in a vacuum.
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The plastic shell 116 includes a side wall 118 and a bottom wall 120 that define a cavity 122 in which the glass liner 102 is received, molded or placed. The bottom wall 120 of the plastic shell 116 includes an aperture 124 that opens into the aperture 114 of the glass liner 102 at an upper end, and further opens into a base portion 126 of the plastic shell 116. The base portion 126 is used to couple the blender jar 100 to a blender base for driving the blade assembly within the cavity 112 of the glass liner 102. As shown, the plastic shell 116 includes a handle 128 for engagement by a user.
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In some examples, the plastic shell 116, 216, 316 is bonded or sealed to the glass liner 102, 202, 302 to enhance, for example, washability. Additionally, the plastic shell 116, 216, 316 and the glass liner 102, 202, 302 may have an air gap or a vacuum between them to provide additional noise dampening when the blender jar 100, 200, 300 is in use because sound cannot travel through a vacuum.
The glass liners 102, 202, 302 could be made of a borosilicate glass material. However, other materials are contemplated. It is also contemplated that the glass liners 102, 202, 302 may have a thickness between 3 to 4 mm. Of course, other thicknesses are contemplated depending on glass material properties and/or the extent of structural support provided by a plastic outer shell 116, 216, 316.
Additionally or alternatively, the plastic shells 116, 216, 316 need not cover all the glass liners 102, 202, 302, but may instead have an arrangement of ribs, members, braces, etc. that provide needed structural support for the glass liners 102, 202, 302. For example, as shown in
In this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” do not exclude the plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Further, conjunctions such as “and,” “or,” and “and/or” are inclusive unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. For example, “A and/or B” includes A alone, B alone, and A with B. Further still, connecting lines, or connectors shown in the various figures presented are intended to represent exemplary functional relationships and/or physical or logical couplings between the various elements. It should be noted that many alternative or additional functional relationships, physical connections or logical connections may be present in a practical device. Moreover, no item or component is essential to the practice of the embodiments disclosed herein unless the element is specifically described as “essential” or “critical”.
Although certain example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture have been described herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the claims of this patent.
