Refrigeration – Cooled enclosure – Portable receptacle
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-17
2002-02-26
Bennett, Henry (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Cooled enclosure
Portable receptacle
C062S389000, C062S371000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06349559
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCES
There are no applications related to this application filed in this or any foreign country.
BACKGROUND
It is commonly the case that cooler chests mix food and ice within an enclosure. This results in the temperature of the food being reduced, and promotes heat transfer from the food to the ice. A few cooler chests, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,611, issued Sep. 30, 1997 to Gene Kirk Quigley, have disclosed a separate food compartment within the cooler chest. Similarly, another strategy is to enclose the ice in a container; some such ice containers are refreezable.
In spite of such developments, a problem still exists in adding ice to coolers having separate ice and food areas. Ice cubes tend to melt somewhat prior to being loaded into a cooler, and then tends to refreeze into larger masses. Such masses may be difficult to squeeze into an area designated for ice storage. As a result, regions within the ice storage areas may not fully filled with ice, and the cooling ability of the cooler chest is degraded.
Additionally, heat transfer from the food storage area to the ice storage area is often impeded by structures which provide unintentional insulation. Similarly, heat flow into the cold ice water formed from melting ice is often reduced due to lack of a direct thermal passage between the food storage area and the cold ice water.
And further, the food storage area may be difficult to access, due in part to interference with structures forming the ice storage area, or due to the need to move ice to access the food compartment.
What is needed is a cooler chest with an ice-surrounded food compartment that provides easy access to the ice storage ares, whereby ice may be conveniently added in a manner that allows some compound chunks of multiple ice cubes to be easily added. The cooler chest must also provide thermal conductivity between the ice storage areas and food storage areas. Similarly, there should be thermal conductivity between the melted ice water and the food storage area. The food and ice storage areas should both be easily accessed.
SUMMARY
The present invention is directed to an apparatus that satisfies the above needs. A novel cooler chest includes an outer container that encloses a food-carrying inner container. The cooler allows easy access to the ice storage areas defined between the inner and outer containers, and easy access to the food storage area. The cooler chest provides thermal conductivity between the ice storage areas and food storage areas, and between the melted ice water and the food storage area.
The cooler chest with ice-surrounded food compartment of the present invention provides some or all of the following structures.
(A) An outer container
20
includes a body having a base
27
and sidewalls formed of curved outer and inner surfaces
21
,
22
between which is carried an insulation layer
26
. Handle surfaces
23
are defined on the outer surface. An ice storage area
102
is defined between the curved inner surface
22
and outer sidewall surface
61
of the inner container
60
. Access to the ice storage area is improved by the direction of curve of the inner surface
21
, which flares outwardly form an ice entry passage
100
for the loading of ice. A perimeter rim
24
defining a notch
25
engages the outer lid
40
. A recessed region
28
defined in the base supports and secures the inner container. Ice water troughs
31
, optionally defined in the base, allow water produced by the melting ice to circulate in contact with the base of the inner container.
(B) The outer lid
40
defines a sloping sidewall
43
having a perimeter rim
41
and tongue
42
which engage the perimeter rim and notch of the outer container
20
. A handle surface
44
is defined on the sloping sidewall, allowing convenient removal of the outer lid. The flat top
45
and sloping sidewalls
43
are filled with an insulating material
46
, which reduces heat conduction into the outer container.
(C) An inner container
60
is carried entirely within the outer container
20
. In use, a portion of the base
66
of the inner container is inserted into the recessed region
28
defined in the base
27
of the outer container
20
. The inner container is thermally conductive between its outer and inner surfaces
61
,
62
, allowing heat to be transferred from items of food stored within the inner container to ice and cold water carried within the ice storage area
102
defined between the outer and inner containers
20
,
60
. A handle surface
63
is defined on the outer surface, and allows the inner container to be easily removed form the outer container and carried. A perimeter rim
64
defines a notch
65
that engages the inner lid.
(D) An inner lid
80
is sized to seal the inner container
60
. A perimeter rim
81
and tongue
82
engage the perimeter rim
64
and notch
65
of the inner container
60
. A sloping sidewall
83
defines a handle surface
84
that allows easy removal of the inner lid. A flat top portion
85
of the inner lid may optionally support four feet
86
. The feet support the inner surface
47
of the outer lid, thereby reducing the area over which the outer lid must span unsupported.
It is therefore a primary advantage of the present invention to provide a novel cooler chest with ice-surrounding food compartment that separates ice and food, each with separate compartments.
Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a cooler chest with ice-surrounding food compartment wherein the outer container has a curved sidewall, particularly wherein an upper rim of the curved sidewall flairs outwardly, thereby allowing the more convenient loading of ice into an ice storage area defined between the inner and outer containers.
A still further advantage of the present invention is to provide a cooler chest with ice-surrounding food compartment, wherein the base of the outer container defines a recessed region, whereby a portion of the base of the inner container may be located within the recessed region thereby holding the inner container in place, and optionally the base of the outer container may define ice water troughs, whereby water melted from the ice may circulate in contact with the base of the inner container.
Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the specification and the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 307341 (1884-10-01), Shaw
patent: 1369367 (1921-02-01), Thomson
patent: 3591194 (1971-07-01), Vega
patent: 4498312 (1985-02-01), Schlosser
patent: 5329787 (1994-07-01), Friday
patent: 5568735 (1996-10-01), Newkirk et al.
patent: 5671611 (1997-09-01), Quigley
patent: 5845515 (1998-12-01), Nelson
Bennett Henry
Jiang Chen-Wen
Thompson David S.
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