EP0507432A2

EP0507432A2 - Insulated containers

Info

Publication number: EP0507432A2
Application number: EP19920300788
Authority: EP
Inventors: & Clark Limited Poeton
Original assignee: Poeton & Clark Ltd
Current assignee: POETON and CLARK Ltd
Priority date: 1991-03-07
Filing date: 1992-01-30
Publication date: 1992-10-07
Also published as: GB9104819D0; EP0507432A3; GB2253334B; GB2253334A; GB9202006D0

Abstract

An insulated container for biologically degradable organic material, e.g. an insulated meal container, comprises a tray (2) and a removable lid (4) which may be fitted thereon. The tray (2) comprises a one-piece moulding (6) of foamed plastics material and defines a plurality of recesses (26) which accommodate respective receptacles, e.g. food receptacles (28). The lid (4) comprises a one-piece moulding (14) of resilient foamed plastics material and defines at least one recess (38) which accommodates a heat sink, e.g. constituted by a beverage container (40), which is push-fitted and retained in position in the recess by the resilience of the resilient plastics material.

Description

The present invention relates to insulated containers for biologically degradable material, that is to say organic material that is subject to decomposition or deterioration when exposed to e.g. ambient temperature for any significant period of time.
The invention is principally though not exclusively concerned with insulated meal containers of the type which contain all that is necessary for a complete meal including various food dishes, drinks, cutlery, glasses and the like. There is a considerable but as yet unsatisfied need for a meal container of this type, particularly for use at sporting functions or on picnics and the like, which can reliably contain all that is necessary for a complete meal and can maintain it relatively cool for an extended period of time but which is nevertheless readily portable and which is desirably sufficiently small that it may be used as a tray from which the food may ultimately be consumed.
The invention relates also to an insulated container for medical use, e.g. for transporting tissue or blood samples, which is compact but nevertheless maintains its contents cool for an extended period of time.
US-A 4024731, on which the precharacterising portion of claims 1 and 2 is based, discloses a cooled container comprising a body to which a lid is connected by hinges. Both the body and the lid are of sandwich construction comprising two outer layers between which is a layer of an insulating foam. Defined in the lid is a number of recesses in which complementarily shaped containers are received. These contain a freezable liquid and have a central aperture by means of which the containers are removably secured in position by locks provided within the recesses. The container disclosed in this prior specification is in the nature of a picnic box and can not also be used as a tray. It is also relatively expensive, both because it is of sandwich construction and because it is necessary to manufacture separate apertured freezable liquid containers. Whilst it is said that these containers may contain a beverage, it is troublesome to remove them from the lid due to the necessity of releasing the locks on the lid.
It is therefore the object of the invention to provide an insulated container which can fulfil the various objectives set forth above and, in particular, to provide a combined insulated meal container and tray which is compact and cheap to manufacture, in which the food is kept reliably chilled but which contains all the ingredients necessary for a full meal and which further provides a tray which may be supported on the knees of the user and presents an entire meal to him.
According to the present invention an insulated container for biologically degradable organic material comprises a tray and a removable lid which may be fitted thereon, the tray comprising a one-piece moulding of foamed plastics material affording a plurality of recesses accommodating respective organic material receptacles and the lid comprising a one-piece moulding of resilient foam plastics material affording at least one recess in which a heat sink is push-fitted and retained in position by the resilience of the plastics material.
The insulated container may be for medical use and in this event the organic material receptacles will contain blood, tissue samples or the like. In this event, the heat sink may comprise a block of cooled material of high thermal capacity or a container containing a cooled liquid of high thermal capacity and/or high latent heat of melting. The provision of the heat sink in the lid not only enables the tray to carry the maximum number of organic material containers but also results in it being located in the optimum position, that is to say above the organic material which is to be retained in a chilled state.
It is however preferred that the insulated container is a meal container containing a complete meal which is ready to eat and that a portion of the container constitutes a tray from which the meal may readily be eaten. In this event, it is preferred that the heat sink comprises a container, preferably of known commercially available type, containing a beverage, e.g. a can or a bottle of beverage, such as wine, water or fruit juice. The beverage container will be chilled before being inserted into the lid and is positioned optimally to maintain the food in the food receptacles at a low temperature. The fact that the beverage container is positioned in the lid rather than in the tray means that the tray may be relatively small and thus readily accommodated on the user's lap.
The fact that the lid and the tray are constituted by respective one-piece mouldings of foamed plastics material means that they are inherently very light and cheap to produce and have highly insulating properties.
It is preferred that the lid has two recesses accommodating respective beverage containers, containing e.g. water and wine, since this not only increases the choice of beverage available to the user but also results in an increased thermal capacity of the heat sink whereby the food will remain chilled for a longer period of time. It is preferred also that the lid affords an access recess communicating with the or each beverage container recess by means of which the user may gain access to the beverage container(s) and remove it manually from the associated recess against the resilience of the plastics material which was deformed on insertion of the beverage container. The access recess may also communicate with a storage recess accommodating a package which contains cutlery and/or condiments and is a push-fit within the storage recess. The accommodation of the cutlery and/or condiments in the lid rather than in the tray is a further factor which permits the tray to be relatively small and thus readily received on the user's knee.
It is preferred that only the outer edges of the tray and lid engage when they are fitted together, one of which carries an upstanding peripheral flange which is received in a corresponding peripheral recess in the other. The organic material, e.g. the food, is thus wholly enclosed by the plastic material which desirably has a thickness which at no point is less than 10mm. This results in the food being extremely effectively insulated from the atmosphere whereby heat permeates through the container to the food at such a slow rate that pre-chilling of the food coupled with the relatively large thermal capacity of the chilled beverage container(s) results in the insulated container being able to retain food chilled to a temperature at which no significant biological degradation occurs for an extended period of time of many hours.
Further features and details of the invention will be apparent from the following description of one specific embodiment which is given by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:-

Figure 1 is an end view of a combined meal container and tray in accordance with the invention comprising a tray and a lid in the assembled configuration;
Figure 2 is a plan view of the tray of the container shown in Figure 1; and
Figure 3 is a perspective view of the lid, when inverted, of the container shown in Figure 1.

The meal container is of overall cuboidal shape, that is to say rectangular in plan and elevation, and comprises a main body 2 and a lid 4 which may be fitted together to define an internal space for the accommodation of a meal. The main body 2 is adapted to be used as a tray supported on the user's knees and will be referred to below as a tray.
The tray 2 comprises a relatively shallow one-piece rectangular moulding 6 of expanded polystyrene material, which is typically only 30 to 40mm thick and is accommodated within an outer decorative open-topped cardboard container or shell 8. Secured to the tray 2 is a webbing strab 10 with a fastener, in this case a buckle 12, at each end. The strap 10 may be secured to the tray in many ways but in this case it passes through an aperture (not shown) situated adjacent each end of the base of the shell 8 on its longitudinal centre line and is thus accommodated between the moulding 6 and the shell 8 over most of its length and is optionally secured to one or both of them, e.g. by adhesive.
The lid comprises a relatively deep one-piece rectangular moulding 14 of expanded polystyrene material which is typically 100 to 150mm deep. The moulding 14 is accommodated within an open-bottomed outer decorative cardboard container or shell 16 whose outer wall extends down substantially beyond the moulding 14. A webbing fastening or carrying strap 18 is secured to the lid 4 and passes through four spaced holes (not shown) on the longitudinal centre of the top of the shell 16. Two of these holes are situated adjacent respective ends of the shell 16 and two are situated closer to the centre. The free ends of the strap 18 pass out through the holes at the ends of the shell 16 and the strap is situated between the moulding 14 and shell 16 and is connected thereto by adhesive between each end hole and the adjacent holes. Between the two inner holes the strap 18 extends outwardly in a loop 20 which constitutes a carrying handle.
As seen in Figure 2, the tray moulding 6 has a flat upper surface 22 surrounded by a peripheral recess 24, 5 to 10mm wide and deep. Formed in the surface 22 is a number, in this case five, of shallow recesses 26, each of which, in use, receives the base of a respective food receptacle 28 (shown in phantom lines). The surface 22 also has one or more, in this case two, shallow circular recesses 30 whose diameter is the same as that of associated drinking glasses which will be described below.
Extending around the outer edge of the lid is a peripheral flange 32 whose end surface is stepped and carries a further flange or bead 34 on its outer edge whose width and depth correspond to those of the recess 24 in the tray. Within the flange 32 is a generally rectangular space which has a base 36 and a depth which is only a fraction of that of the entire lid. Formed in the base 36 is a number of recesses, of which two, designated 38, are elongate and parallel and dimensioned to receive a proprietory beverage bottle as a push-fit. In use, these recesses 38 receive and retain a respective beverage bottle 40 (shown in phantom lines), e.g. of water and wine, purely by virtue of a slight deformation of the plastics material and no separate securing means are provided or necessary. Whilst the surfaces of these recesses may be smooth, in this case they are each provided with a number of ribs 42 which are preferentially deformed when the beverage containers are inserted. Communicating with at least one side, and in this case both sides of each recess 38 is an access recess into which the user may insert his fingers for the purpose of engaging the beverage bottles 40 and removing them against the resilient force exerted on them by the deformed polystyrene foam material. In this case, an access recess 44 communicates with the outer edge of each recess 38 and a common transverse access recess 46 extends between the inner edges of the two recesses 38. The common access recess 46 intersects a further storage recess 48 which extends parallel to the recesses 38 and, in use, accommodates a package 50, shown in phantom lines, containing cutlery, condiments and the like which is also push-fitted into position and retained there by the resilience of the foam material. The base 36 of the recess also affords two circular recesses 52 in which two drinking glasses 54, shown in phantom lines, are push-fitted and retained by the resilience of the foam material. The base 36 also carries a number of shallow integral projections or pads 56 dimensioned to engage the lids of the food receptacles 26 carried by the tray to ensure that they do not become dislodged during transport.
When the meal container is to be used, receptacles 26 containing chilled food are inserted into the recesses 28 in the tray and project above the upper surface 22 of the tray. Chilled bottles 40 of e.g. wine and mineral water are push-fitted into the drink recesses 38 in the lid and a package 50 containing cutlery and condiments is push-fitted into the storage recess 48 in the lid. A drinking glass 54 is then push-fitted into each circular recess 52. The lid is then inverted and placed on the tray and the bottles, cutlery and glasses are all retained in position within their respective recesses by the resilience of the deformed foam material. The edges of the lid and tray, i.e. the bead 34 and recess 24, are of matching complementary shape leaving no gap between them. The free ends of the strap 18 are secured to the strap 10 by means of the buckles 12 and the handle 20 may then be used to carry the entire meal container.
The food in the various containers is accommodated within the space defined by the lid and the tray and is maintained cool by the chilled bottles which act as a heat sink and are positioned in the ideal position for this purpose, namely above the food. Very little thermal energy passes through the walls of the container due to the highly insulative properties of the expanded polystyrene which is arranged to have a thickness which is at no point less than about 10mm, even at the base of the various recesses.
The food is maintained reliably chilled for many hours. When it is to be consumed the lid is removed and the tray is sufficiently small, due to the fact that the bulky bottles are carried in the lid, that it may simply be positioned on the user's knees. The glasses are removed from the lid and placed in the recesses in the tray and the bottles and cutlery are simply removed from the lid by hand and for this purpose access is gained to them by way of the access recesses 44,46.
It will be appreciated that numerous modifications may be effected to the construction described above. Thus, the outer cardboard shells are not essential but merely desirable for aesthetic reasons. As an alternative or an addition to the buckles 12, the two straps may be welded or heat-sealed together, if they are made of heat sealable material, and this will act as a reliable tamper indicator. Whilst the drinks containers have been described as bottles, any commercially available drinks containers may be used, such as cans.

Claims

An insulated container for biologically degradable organic material comprising a main body and a removable lid which may be fitted thereon, the lid defining at least one recess which accommodates a heat sink, characterised in that the main body (2) comprises a one-piece moulding (6) of foamed plastics material which defines a plurality of recesses (26), that the recesses (26) accommodate respective organic material receptacles (28), that the lid comprises a one-piece moulding (14) of resilient foamed plastics material and that the or each heat sink (40) is push-fitted into the associated recess (38) in the lid (6) and is retained in position therein by the resilience of the resilient plastics material.
An insulated meal container comprising a main body and a removable lid which may be fitted thereon, the main body accommodating food receptacles, the lid defining at least one beverage container recess which accommodates a beverage container acting as a heat sink, characterised in that the main body (2) comprises a one-piece moulding (6) of foamed plastics material which defines a plurality of recesses (26), that the recesses (26) accommodate respective food receptacles (28), that the main body (2) is adapted to serve as a tray from which food may be eaten, that the lid (4) comprises a one-piece moulding (14) of resilient foamed plastics material and that the or each beverage container (40) is push-fitted into the associated recess (38) in the lid (4) and is retained in position therein by the resilience of the resilient plastics material.
An insulated meal container as claimed in claim 2 characterised in that the or each beverage container (40) is of known commercially available type.
An insulated meal container as claimed in claim 2 or claim 3 characterised in that the lid (4) defines two recesses (38) accommodating respective beverage containers (40).
An insulated meal container as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 4 characterised in that the lid (4) defines at least one access recess (44,46) communicating with the or each beverage container recess (38) by means of which the user may gain access to the or each beverage container (40) and remove it manually from the associated recess (38).
An insulated meal container as claimed in claim 5 characterised in that the lid (4) further defines a storage recess (48) which accommodates a package (50) which contains cutlery and/or condiments and is a push-fit within the storage recess (48) and that an access recess (46) communicates with the storage recess (48).
An insulated meal container as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 6 characterised in that the lid (4) and the tray (2) are received in and secured to a respective outer cover (16,8).
An insulated meal container as claimed in claim 7 characterised by a carrying strap (18), a support strap (10) and fastening means (12), the carrying strap (18) being secured to the outer cover (16) containing the lid (4) and defining a handle portion (20) and having two free ends, the support strap (10) being secured to the outer cover (8) containing the tray (2) and having two free ends, the free ends of the carrying strap being connectable to the free ends of the support strap by the fastening means, whereby the meal container may be carried by the handle portion (20) when the support strap is connected to the carrying strap.
An insulated meal container as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 8 characterised in that only the outer edges of the lid (4) and tray (2) engage when the tray and the lid are fitted together, that one of edges carries a peripheral flange (34) and the other of the edges defines a peripheral recess (24), and that the peripheral flange (34) is received in the peripheral recess (24) when the tray and the lid are fitted together.
An insulated meal container as claimed in any one of claim 2 to 9 characterised in that each food receptacle (28) is closed by a respective cover and that the lid (4) affords a plurality of projections (56) which engage and retain the covers in position when the lid is fitted on the tray.