Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02764474 2012-01-11
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention incorporates elements of insulating holders for beverage
containers, as well as
those of heaters and heating or cooling methods.
BACKGROUND OF THE ART
Many commercially popular beverages (ex. coffee, tea, hot chocolate) are made
to be
consumed at or near the boiling point of water. The high temperatures of these
beverages can
cause discomfort or even burns in the hands of individuals consuming them. In
response to this
challenge, an insulating sleeve was developed by Jay Sorensen in 1993 (US
patent #5425497).
The main feature of such a sleeve is to provide an insulating layer which
impedes heat transfer
from the hot beverage into the drinker's hand. Today a wide variety of cup
sleeves, both
disposable and reusable, exist. However, all of these sleeves are designed for
use with a
beverage that is already at a temperature undesirable for holding, and none of
them provide
useful options for rapidly reheating a beverage that has already reached
equilibrium with the
ambient temperature.
For example, US patent 2863037 describes a beverage container which can reheat
beverages
contained therein through electrical means. However, this design is
inconvenient as it requires
that purchased beverages be transferred from a commercial disposable cup to
the container.
Thus, the container must be cleaned between uses. Additionally, its reliance
on an electrical
outlet for electrically-generated heat greatly reduces its portability.
Additionally, Canadian patent
application 2512674 describes a heating sleeve which uses electrical means to
heat a
beverage. This design combines the desired salient features of reheating and
portability, but it
still requires electrically-generated heat from batteries. Once more, the
reliance of this design on
electrically-generated heat reduces its effective portability.
Thus, there exists a need for a sleeve which insulates the drinker's hand from
heat transfer, can
reheat said beverage in a reusable way, and which is effortlessly portable.
The proposed device
makes use of chemical energy in place of electrical as a means to generate
heat, as in the
heating pad described by Canadian patent 2380664. This reusable and portable
device is used
for therapeutic purposes and is based on the reversible, exothermic (heat-
generating)
solidification of a solution of sodium acetate. The proposed device integrates
a chemically-
generated heat exchange into the insulating sleeve designed by Sorensen. In
order to avoid
heat transfer into the hands of drinker, the proposed device is made up of two
materials with
different heat transfer coefficients such that it preferentially directs heat
transfer into the
beverage while providing insulation to the drinker.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention is an insulating holder for a beverage container comprising of
a largely cylindrical
sleeve having an outer side, an inner side, and an internal compartment (Fig.
2). The internal
,
compartment contains a material which can be activated to transfer heat,
either from the
surroundings to the material, or vice-versa.
The heat-transferring material has sufficient thermal capacity to either heat
a beverage from
ambient temperature to between 40 and 50 degrees celsius, or to cool a
beverage from ambient
CA 02764474 2012-01-11
temperature to between 0 and 10 degrees celsius. The inner surface is
comprised of a material
with high thermal conductivity, allowing heat to efficiently pass between the
sleeve and the
container placed within. The outer surface of the sleeve is comprised of an
insulating material to
protect the user's hand from heat produced by the sleeve itself, or that
produced by the
beverage.
The heat-transferring material is also reusable in that it can be used to heat
or cool a beverage,
then be regenerated by some means, such as placing in boiling water or a
freezer, in order to
allow reuse with a new beverage. Preferably, the entire sleeve is resistant to
the regeneration
conditions, allowing it to be used as a whole object, without requiring the
removal of the inner
material for regeneration.
Preferably, the entire sleeve is made of elastic materials, allowing the
sleeve to be adjusted to
any common size and shape of beverage container. In another embodiment (Fig
1), the sleeve
is not made of elastic material, but is instead designed with dimensions to
fit a common size of
coffee mug, for example a large paper cup like those used by major coffee
chains, or a common
style of insulated mug. In this embodiment, a variety of dimensions could be
produced to fit
different cup sizes.
If the sleeve is made of elastic materials, it can take a largely cylindrical
form, as the nature of
the materials will allow it to take the form of most containers with which it
would be used. If the
sleeve is not elastic, it will take a more tapered shape, allowing it to
conform to a given range of
cup sizes due to a decreasing diameter towards the lower end of the sleeve.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
FIG 1. is a front perspective view of the sleeve placed on a commercial
beverage container
FIG 2. is a cross-section of the sleeve depicting the internal heat-generating
compartment (A),
the heat conducting layer (B) and the heat insulating layer (C).
