NOVELTY ICE CUBE

GLACON INEDIT

English Abstract

A novelty ice cube includes a transparent or translucent hollow plastic
housing in the
shape of an ice cube, which defines an interior cavity. A light is disposed
within the interior
cavity. A power source is disposed within the interior cavity and provides
power to the light.
A translucent diffuser cap is disposed within the interior cavity and overlies
the light. The
housing with the light, power source and diffuser has a bulk density of
greater than .675. The
bulk density is achieved, without the use of fillers, by having selected
thickened regions
integrally formed in the housing.

Claims

What is Claimed is:
1. A novelty ice cube, comprising:
a transparent or translucent hollow plastic housing in the shape of an ice
cube and
defining an interior cavity;
a light disposed within the interior cavity;
a power source disposed within the interior cavity and providing power to the
light;
a translucent diffuser cap disposed within the interior cavity and overlying
the light;
the housing with the light, power source and diffuser having a bulk density in
excess
of .675, the bulk density being achieved, without the use of fillers, by
having selected
thickened regions integrally formed in the housing.
2. The novelty ice cube of Claim 1, wherein the bulk density of not less than
.675 and not
more than .925.
3. The novelty ice cube of Claim 2, wherein the bulk density is in a narrower
preferred range
of approximately .800 to approximately .900 to approximate the buoyancy of
ice.
4. The novelty ice cube of Claim 1, wherein the bulk density is greater than
1.000 to
intentionally cause the housing to sink to a bottom of a liquid container.

Description

CA 02641223 2008-10-10
1
TITLE:
Novelty Ice Cube
FIELD
The present invention relates to a novelty ice cube
BACKGROUND
Novelty ice cubes made from polymer plastic are too light, and tend to float
on top of
the water. For this reason, a filler is used to adjust the buoyancy by
increasing the weight; so
that the novelty ice cube not only looks, but behaves like a real ice cube. An
example a
novelty ice cube that uses a filler to adjust buoyancy is United States Patent
6,416,198
(Vanderschuit).
SUMMARY
Accordingly, there is provided a novelty ice cube which includes a transparent
or
translucent hollow plastic housing in the shape of an ice cube, which defines
an interior
cavity. A light is disposed within the interior cavity. A power source is
disposed within the
interior cavity and provides power to the light. A translucent diffuser cap is
disposed within
the interior cavity and overlies the light. The housing with the light, power
source and
diffuser has a bulk density of greater than .675. The bulk density is
achieved, without the use
of fillers, by having selected thickened regions integrally formed in the
housing.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
These and other features of the invention will become more apparent from the
following description in which reference is made to the appended drawings, the
drawings are
for the purpose of illustration only and are not intended to in any way limit
the scope of the
invention to the particular embodiment or embodiments shown, wherein:
THE FIGURE is a side elevation view, in section, of a novelty ice cube.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The preferred embodiment, a novelty ice cube generally identified by reference
numeral 10, will now be described with reference to THE FIGURE.

CA 02641223 2008-10-10
2
Novelty ice cube 10 consists of a translucent hollow plastic housing 12 which
is in the
shape of an ice cube. Housing 12 defines an interior cavity 14. A light 16
consisting of
several light emitting diodes 18 (LED) is disposed within interior cavity 14.
A power source
in the form of a battery 20 is also disposed within interior cavity 14 and
provides power to
light 16. It is preferred that either a manual switch 22 or a liquid activated
switch be provided
to selectively control when power is supplied from battery 20 to light 16. A
translucent
diffuser cap 24 is disposed within interior cavity 14. Diffuser cap 24
overlies and serves to
"soften" the glare from light 16. As will be discussed below, housing 12 with
the light 16,
battery 20 and diffuser cap 24, has a bulk density of not less than .675 and
not more than
.925. This bulk density is achieved, without the use of fillers, by having
selected thickened
regions, designated by reference numeral 26, integrally fonned in housing 12.
Cautionary Warnings:
It is difficult to mould thicker plastics for small items, such as imitation
ice cubes,
without distortions. This is a particular problem with imitation ice cubes, as
they are lighted
from the inside and all imperfections become magnified. In order to create the
ice cubes,
without distortions, the cooling time for each item had to be substantially
increased. Whereas
an ice cube with a cavity using filler can be produced in quantities of
approximately 10,000
per day, production will have to reduced to allow increased time for cooling.
If care is not
taken in cooling the plastic, cracks will appear in the ice cubes, rendering
them unusable and
aesthetically unacceptable.
An exposed LED is very bright. With an imitation ice cube that uses filler,
the
brightness is not a problem, as the filler tends to diffuse or soften the
light. A solution had to
be developed for this problem. The solution was to place a translucent cap
over the LED.
An imitation ice cube must behalve like an ice cube. An imitation ice cube
that rides
high in the water, bobbing up and down like a cork is not realistic.
Conversely, an imitation
ice cube that sinks toward the bottom is also not realistic. The table below
reflects a number
of imitation ice cubes that were first "float" tested and then measured:

CA 02641223 2008-10-10
3
Floatation Table
FLOATATION CUBE EXTERNAL INTERIOR BULK
ATTITUDE WEIGHT CUBE VOLUME DENSITY
GRAMS VOLUME CC GMS/CC
CC.
1. Sinker 42.846 40.678 2.51 1.053
2.Imitator 29.938 36.03 11.43 0.831
3. Imitator 29.942 35.642 11.09 0.840
4. Imitator 27.46 38.33 15.14 0.716
5. Imitator 39.885 28.039 11.68 0.786
6.Imitator 29.921 34.683 11.59 0.863
7. Imitator 27.554 37.85 15.14 0.716
8. Imitator 30.021 38.417 11.37 0.781
9. Imitator 30.134 36.196 11.99 0.833
10. Imitator 29.821 34.577 11.33 0.862
11. Floater 23.125 40.716 19.37 0.568
12. Floater 23.103 38.271 19.57 0.604
From the above Floatation Table, it can be seen that the weight in grams,
external
cube volume and buoyancy cavity volume of each ice cube was determined. This
enabled a
calculation of cube bulk density to be made. The imitation ice cubes with a
bulk density of
less than .675 were determined to be too light and designated "floaters" that
did not
realistically resemble ice. It was determined that a range of.675 to .925 was
a useful range if
one was trying to imitate ice. The optimum range was determined to be
approximately .800 to
.900. During the course of experimenting, ice cubes with a bulk density of
greater than 1.000
were designated "sinkers" However, it was determined that these "sinkers"
provided a
desirable effect under certain circumstances. For example, a number of sinkers
at the bottom
of a punch bowl created a desirable light effect within the contents of the
punch bowl.

CA 02641223 2008-10-10
4
In this patent document, the word "comprising" is used in its non-limiting
sense to
mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically
mentioned are not
excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article "a" does not
exclude the
possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context
clearly requires that
there be one and only one of the elements.
The following claims are to understood to include what is specifically
illustrated and
described above, what is conceptually equivalent, and what can be obviously
substituted.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various adaptations and
modifications of the
described embodiments can be configured without departing from the scope of
the claims.
The illustrated embodiments have been set forth only as examples and should
not be taken as
limiting the invention. It is to be understood that, within the scope of the
following claims,
the invention may be practiced other than as specifically illustrated and
described.

Representative Drawing