AU2004100334A4 - Container for pre-packaged drinks and method of manufacture - Google Patents

Description

P001 Section 29 Regulation 3.2(2)

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION INNOVATION PATENT Application Number: Lodged: Invention Title: Container for pre-packaged drinks and method of manufacture The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us: CONTAINER FOR PRE-PACKAGED DRINKS AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURE This invention relates to containers for liquids, and is particularly, but not exclusively applicable to pre-packaged containers for drinks having two or more liquid ingredients.

One type of container that has been used in cocktail bars for cocktails consisting of two different liquids is a shot glass having an open upper end and a partition which divides the glass into two compartments, this partition extends from the base of the shot glass to below the upper peripheral rim of the shot glass to create an internal space to accommodate the lips of the end consumer. In use, a cocktail waiter pours two different liquids into the respective compartments and when a customer drinks from the shot glass both liquids can be drunk at the same time and mix in the mouth of the customer.

It is desirable to provide a container for liquids which can be used to contain pre-packaged cocktails in which the different ingredients of the cocktail are stored in separate compartments until the cocktail is ready to be drunk by the end consumer.

According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a prepackaged drink container for liquids having a base, a side wall or walls extending upwardly from the base to an upper peripheral rim, at least one partition which extends upwardly and preferably helically from the base to an upper edge substantially level with the upper peripheral rim to divide the container into at least two compartments, and a sealing membrane which is adapted to be sealed to the upper peripheral rim and to the upper edge of the at least one partition.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, the drink container is a cocktail glass or shot glass with the compartments filled with ingredients before the sealing membrane is applied.

According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a prepackaged drink including at least two ingredients comprising: a container having a base, a side wall or walls extending upwardly from the base to a height substantially level with the upper peripheral rim, and at least one partition which extends upwardly and preferably helically from the base to an upper edge substantially level with the upper peripheral rim thereby dividing the container into at least two compartments; two or more liquid ingredients in the at least two compartments; and a sealing membrane which is sealed to the upper peripheral rim and to the upper edge of the at least one partition.

In a further aspect of the invention there is provided a pre-packaged drink including at least two ingredients comprising: a container having a base, a side wall or walls extending upwardly from the base to a height substantially level with the upper peripheral rim, and at least one partition which extends upwardly and preferably helically from the base to an upper edge which is no lower than the upper peripheral rim thereby dividing the container into at least two compartments; two or more liquid ingredients in the at least two compartments; and a sealing membrane which is sealed to the upper peripheral rim and to the upper edge of the at least one partition.

The at least one partition of the drink container which extends upwardly from the base of the container to an upper edge which is substantially level with the upper peripheral rim of the container, separates the liquids contained therein and allows for a tight seal.

Preferably, the at least one partition extends helically from the base of the container to enhance the mixing effect of the ingredients when the sealing membrane is removed and the ingredients drunk.

The container may be formed from any convenient material suitable for drinks, such as glass or a plastics material. Preferably, the container is formed from an injection moulded plastics material.

The seal preferably comprises a membrane material, which may be formed from material such as polyester, metallic foil or other suitable material. The membrane is preferably applied to the upper peripheral rim and the upper edge of the partition in a heat sealing process, and for this purpose, the membrane may include a heat sealable laminate or lacquer on its face which is to be sealed to the upper peripheral rim and the upper edge of the partition.

The sealing membrane preferably also has a portion which extends beyond the upper peripheral rim to provide a tab to assist in easy removal of the sealing membrane when the ingredients are ready to be consumed.

According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a method for manufacturing a pre-packaged drink container for liquids including: providing a container having a base, a side wall or walls extending upwardly from the base to an upper peripheral rim, and at least one partition which extends upwardly and preferably helically from the base to an upper edge substantially level with the upper peripheral rim thereby dividing the container into at least two compartments; filling the compartments with different liquids; and sealing the compartments with a membrane sealed to the upper peripheral rim and to the upper edge of the at least one partition.

In the manufacture of a pre-packaged drink container made from a injection moulded plastics material, the at least one partition is designed to ensure that on shrinkage of the plastics material during moulding, which in the case of general purpose styrene typically occurs at a rate of 6 0 0 0 th of an inch per inch of plastics material, the said partition is no lower than the upper peripheral rim of the container. Preferably, the at least one partition is no lower than the upper peripheral rim and may be convex along its length, which extends the height of the partition above the upper peripheral rim of the container.

The usual method of applying a heat sealable membrane to the peripheral rim of a container is to use a heated flat metal sealing head which may be coated with Teflon (PTFE). The membrane seal is placed on the container to be sealed and clamped against the flat heated sealing head for a period of time at an elevated temperature to heat seal the membrane to the container rim. However, this method has been found to be unsatisfactory for sealing a membrane to an injection moulded rigid container with a central dividing partition owing to the difficulty of manufacturing a container from plastics material that has a rim and partition with a consistent height and flatness.

In a preferred method of the invention, a heat sealing head having a compliant material provided on a backing plate is used to heat seal the sealing membrane to the upper peripheral rim and to the upper edge of the partition.

Preferably, the compliant material is formed from rubber and more preferably from silicon rubber. The backing plate may be formed from metal, such as aluminium or steel. The sealing head is heated to an elevated temperature and is clamped against the sealing membrane and upper peripheral rim and upper edge of the partition for a period of time. The advantage of this method is that any imperfections in the height or flatness of the upper peripheral rim including machine marks left from tooling and particularly the upper edge of the partition of the injection moulded container including any convex portions of the upper edge of the partition can be accommodated with the natural sponginess of the silicon rubber providing an effective and even bond between the membrane seal and the upper rim and upper edge of the partition of the container.

Comprises/comprising and grammatical variations thereof when used in this specification are to be taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components or groups thereof, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a pre-packaged drink in accordance with the invention; Figure 2 is a top plan view of the pre-packaged drink of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a perspective view of the container for the pre-packaged drink of Figure 1; Figure 4 is a top plan view of the container of Figure 3; Figure 5 is a front view of the container of Figure 3; and Figure 6 is a side view of the container of Figure 3.

The pre-packaged drink shown in Figure 1 comprises a container 10 for liquids, and a sealing membrane The container 10 has a base portion 11 and a liquid containing portion 12 defined by a side wall 13 which extends upwardly from the base portion 11 and terminates in an upper peripheral rim 14. The base portion 11 has a domed base and a substantially cylindrical skirt 16 extending downwardly from the base As shown in Figures 1, 3, 5 and 6, the side wall 13 is tapered and extends outwardly and upwardly from the cylindrical skirt 15 of the base portion 11. The container 10 also has a partition 17 which extends helically and upwardly from the domed base 15 to substantially the same level or above the level of the upper peripheral rim 14 to divide the liquid containing portion 12 of the container 10 into two compartments 18. The partition 17 has an upper edge 19 which is substantially level with but at least no lower than the upper peripheral rim 14. The container is preferably formed from an injection moulded plastics material.

The seal 20 preferably comprises a heat sealable membrane 21 which is generally circular in shape having a tab portion 22 extending outwardly from one side of the membrane.

The heat sealable membrane 21 may be formed from a material, such as a die-cut polyester or aluminium, and is preferably coated on one surface with a heat-sealable lacquer or laminate.

In use, the two compartments 18 of the container 10 are filled with different liquid ingredients for a drink and the seal 20 is applied to seal the liquid ingredients within the container It is particularly important for the seal 20 to be sealed effectively not only to the upper peripheral rim 14 of the container, but also to the upper edge 19 of the helical partition 17 which divides the container 10 into the two compartments 18.

This is because the helical partition may be slightly convex or include a convex portion along its length which extends the height of the partition 17 above the upper peripheral rim 14 of the container.

For this purpose, a heat sealing head having a compliant material, such as silicon rubber bonded to a metal backing plate, is used. In a preferred method of manufacture, the sealing head is heated to an elevated temperature, e.g. of about 2000C and is clamped with its compliant surface against the sealing membrane 21 and the upper peripheral rim 14 and the upper edge 19 of the partition 17 for a period of time, preferably one second. This sealing process has been found to produce an effective and even bond between the periphery 24 of the sealing membrane 21 and peripheral rim 14 and also between a diametrically extending portion 29 of the membrane 21 and the upper edge 19 of the partition 17 regardless of any variation in the height or flatness of the peripheral rim 14 and the upper edge 19 of the partition 17 which may be caused by the injection moulding process used to form the container It will be appreciated that various modifications and alterations may be made to the embodiments of the present invention described above without 6 departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. For example, the container may be provided with two or more partitions which divide the container into three or more compartments for liquids. Also, although the preferred embodiment is described above in relation to a pre-packaged container for drinks, it is envisaged that the container could have other applications for containing other types of liquids.

Claims (4)

1. A pre-packaged drink container for liquids having a base, a side wall or walls extending upwardly from the base to an upper peripheral rim, at least one partition which extends upwardly and preferably helically from the base to an upper edge substantially level with the upper peripheral rim to divide the container into at least two compartments, and a sealing membrane which is adapted to be sealed to the upper peripheral rim and to the upper edge of the at least one partition.

2. A pre-packaged drink including at least two ingredients comprising: a container having a base, a side wall or walls extending upwardly from the base to a height substantially level with the upper peripheral rim, and at least one partition which extends upwardly and preferably helically from the base to an upper edge substantially level with the upper peripheral rim thereby dividing the container into at least two compartments; two or more liquid ingredients in the at least two compartments; and a sealing membrane which is sealed to the upper peripheral rim and to the upper edge of the at least one partition.

3. A pre-packaged drink including at least two ingredients comprising: a container having a base, a side wall or walls extending upwardly from the base to a height substantially level with the upper peripheral rim, and at least one partition which extends upwardly and preferably helically from the base to an upper edge which is no lower than the upper peripheral rim thereby dividing the container into at least two compartments; two or more liquid ingredients in the at least two compartments; and a sealing membrane which is sealed to the upper peripheral rim and to the upper edge of the at least one partition.

4. A method of manufacturing a pre-packaged container for liquids including: providing a container having a base, a side wall or walls extending upwardly from the base to an upper peripheral rim, and at least one partition which extends upwardly and preferably helically from the base to an upper edge substantially level with the upper peripheral rim thereby dividing the container into at least two compartments, filling the compartments with different liquids; and sealing the compartments with a membrane sealed to the upper peripheral rim and to the upper edge of the at least one partition. A container according to claim 1, a pre-packaged drink according to claim 2 or 3 or a method according to claim 4 wherein the sealing membrane comprises a heat sealable membrane and is applied to the container by a heated sealing head having a compliant material on at least one surface. DATED this 6th day of May 2004 PERMANENT PROMOTIONS PTY LTD WATERMARK PATENT TRADE MARK ATTORNEYS 290 BURWOOD ROAD HAWTHORN VICTORIA 3122 AUSTRALIA JRG/UIP1074AU00