Refrigeration – Cooled enclosure – Portable receptacle
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-17
2001-11-13
Doerrler, William C. (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Cooled enclosure
Portable receptacle
C062S381000, C062S372000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06314751
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for chilling liquids in containers, and more particularly, to rapidly chilling beverages in cans.
2. Description of the Related Art
An all too frequent occurrence for a beer or soda drinker is to realize, upon opening the refrigerator, that no cold beer or soda is in sight. The typical scenario in this circumstance is to place a warm beer from the closet into the freezer, and wait about 20-30 minutes for it to cool to a desired drinking temperature. Obviously, it would be highly desirable to provide a practical way to cool the beverage in a much shorter time, and without running the risk of the beverage freezing.
Previous designs for beverage chilling devices have not enjoyed substantial commercial success, as is evident by the dearth of such devices in stores today. One such prior art design is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,405 to F. Cretzmeyer, III, which discloses a beverage cooling device having an ice receptacle with an open upper end. An electric motor is mounted in a track on the exterior of one of the receptacle walls, and is free to move upwardly and downwardly within the track. Ice is placed at the bottom of the receptacle and a beverage can is placed on top of the ice. A suction cup attaches the can to the motor through a shaft opening in the side wall of the receptacle. The motor then rotates the can to frictionally engage the can with the ice. U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,397 to B. Brande discloses a similar beverage container cooling device employing the same principle of rotating a can over a bed of ice. The device employs a side hand crank that rotates the can in frictional contact with the ice. A drawback to this technique, as well to the method in the '405 patent, is that any given time the ice only contacts a limited portion of the container, thereby limiting the speed at which the canned beverage can be cooled. In addition, the frictional contact with the ice limits the speed at which the rotation can occur.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,665 to C. Micallef is directed to a wine cooling apparatus including a bottle holder which holds a bottle within an ice and water mixture in a container that is rotatably mounted on a turntable. When the turntable is rotated, the container rotates and fins on the inside of the container stir the mixture and cause it to swirl around the surface of the bottle, thereby cooling the wine. This apparatus, however, appears to be complex and not easily adaptable to canned beverages.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In an illustrative embodiment of the present invention, a chilling apparatus for chilling a liquid in a container includes a compartment sized to accept and retain the container; and a coolant receptacle adjoining a side portion of the compartment, for retaining a coolant such as an ice/water mixture. The adjoining side portion has at least one aperture that allows the coolant to flow through to enter the compartment and surround the container therein. The liquid in the container is rapidly chilled via heat transfer between the container walls and the coolant when the container is rotated within the compartment. The rotation may be performed manually, e.g., via a hand crank and holding member attached to the top of the container, or automatically via an electric motor.
The apparatus is particularly useful to provide a practical way to chill canned beverages. Via typical manual or automatic rotation of the can, for example, cooling of the beverage from room temperature to an ice-cold temperature can be accomplished in less than two minutes. The apparatus may include a means for imparting wobbling rotation to the container to enable the liquid therein to be chilled even faster.
REFERENCES:
patent: 136632 (1873-03-01), Whipple
patent: 303815 (1884-08-01), Cramer
patent: 496922 (1893-05-01), Wadhams
patent: 2216762 (1940-10-01), Bolas
patent: 3316734 (1967-05-01), Crane
patent: 4078397 (1978-03-01), Brand
patent: 4164851 (1979-08-01), Bryant
patent: 4549409 (1985-10-01), Smith
patent: 4580405 (1986-04-01), Cretzmeyer
patent: 4813243 (1989-03-01), Woods et al.
patent: 4825665 (1989-05-01), Micallef
patent: 5005378 (1991-04-01), Ottenheimer
patent: 5282368 (1994-02-01), Ordoukhanian
patent: 5653123 (1997-08-01), Handlin
patent: 5966964 (1999-10-01), Pattee
Doerrler William C.
Frommer William S.
Frommer & Lawrence & Haug LLP
Savit Glenn F.
LandOfFree
Beverage chilling apparatus does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Beverage chilling apparatus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Beverage chilling apparatus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2607099