Patent Application
20120031907
This invention relates to disposable food containers used in Chinese take-out restaurants, and, more particularly, relates to a container that prevents accidental spillage of the liquid inside while allowing steam escaping relatively freely from the container.
Cooked foods generally contain solid substances, such as rice, meat and vegetable and liquid substances, such as oil, sauce and broth. In take-out restaurants, a food container used to store and transport such foods generally consists of a base portion and a lid portion made from a resilient polymeric material. On one hand, the lid has to be securely attached to the base to avoid accidental opening of the container and to prevent inside liquid from spilling out. On the other hand, in a closed environment, moisture generated and accumulated inside the container will quickly cause foods, especially vegetables, losing their original taste, texture and color. In order to prevent such thing from happening, people usually punch a hole through a container lid so that steam can escape from the inside of the container. However, the hole leaves a potential risk. In most case, a person buys a take-out food and will enjoy it later at another place. The irregular movement during carry often causes the liquid to jiggle and splash within the container. The jiggling and splashing can cause the liquid to spill out of the container and taint everywhere inside of the bag holding the container and other nearby items.
Many attempts have been made to provide a container and cover for preventing the splashing and spilling of liquids; however, such attempts have resulted in cups, containers, and covers that are expensive to produce, difficult and cumbersome to use, and/or inadaptable to the need in this situation. An example of a container lid that attempts to solve the splashing problem is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,052, issued Jul. 26, 1983 to Hayes. The Hayes lid disclosed a lid having a vent path, which has an inlet above and an outlet below the level of the lid. The path is constructed so that, as it extends from inlet to outlet, it traverses the lid from edge to axially opposing edge and back again. Although the Hayes lid solved the problem in his situation, it is inadaptable here since when the liquid flows into and blocks the path steam can no longer escape from the container, as Hayes described in his patent. Same problem exists in U.S. Pat. No. 5,988,426, issued to Stern. When the filter in the Stern patent, which is formed of a hydrophobic material and mounted over the vent hole, is tainted with liquids, its ventilating efficiency is greatly impaired. In addition, the cost of manufacturing such container in Stern is higher. U.S. Pat. No. 7,055,712, issued to Tang, disclosed a container for hot carry-out food includes a container body and a cover, each having flanges and the flanges defining a pair of seals between which is a condensation collecting chamber and radially outboard of an outermost seal is a second condensation collecting chamber which is continuously vented to atmosphere through radial venting passages or channels. Under elevated pressures, as might occur when hot food is packages in the container, the innermost seal opens permitting steam/gasses to vent into the innermost condensation collection chamber in which the steam might condense as condensate. Under higher internal container pressures, the outboard most seal may also open and vent gasses from the innermost condensation chamber through/into the outermost condensation collection chamber and continuously from the latter to atmosphere through a plurality of continuously open circumferential spaced radial venting passages or channels. Although a clever design, there are two problems in Tang's—(1) moisture can still be accumulated inside the container, and (2) the attachment between the lid and the base is not as secure as it should be.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a container to prevent spilling of liquid from the container while allowing steam to escape relatively freely from the container.
Another object of the invention is to provide such a lid that is relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture and to use.
In accordance with the above-stated objects, the present invention provides a vented container that consists of a lid and a base. The base has a planar bottom, base side walls extending vertically upward from said bottom, a base flange extending horizontally outward from said base side walls, an inverted, U-shaped base rim extending outward from said base flange, and multiple grooves of the same shape crossing horizontally on the top surface of said base rim. The lid has a planar top, lid side walls extending vertically downward from said top, a lid flange extending horizontally outward from said lid side walls, an inverted, U-shaped lid rim extending outward from said lid flange, multiple ridges, of a shape matching said grooves, crossing horizontally on the bottom surface of said lid rim, and a locking lip which extends vertically downward from said lid rim surface. Upon mating, multiple zip locks are formed between the lid rim and the base rim by grooves and ridges, and multiple channels are formed between said grooves and the bottom surface of said lid rim. In the preferred embodiment, grooves and ridges are arch-shaped, and the maximal diagonal of said channels is up to 1 millimeter, so that it prevents liquid from spilling out but allows steam pass through freely.
It is preferable that base and lid are stackable on a second base and lid, respectively, in order to save storing space.
The vented container of the present invention will be better understood by those of ordinary skill in the art and others upon reading the ensuing specification, when taken in conjunction with the appended drawings, wherein:
In the various figures of the drawings, like reference characters designate like parts.
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While preferred embodiments of the invention have been discussed and illustrated, it should be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art and others that changes can be made to the illustrated embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. For example, the grooves and the ridges could be of other geometrical shape. Also, the number of grooves and ridges could be in other ratio. Since such changes can be made to the illustrated embodiments while remaining within the scope of the invention, the invention should be defined solely with reference to the appended claims.
