Refrigeration – Cooled enclosure – Portable receptacle
Reexamination Certificate
2002-11-20
2004-06-01
Doerrler, William C. (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Cooled enclosure
Portable receptacle
C062S457100, C062S457900, C062S371000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06742354
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention generally relates to a portable cosmetic case and more specifically concerns a portable cosmetic case having a compact carrying case and refrigerable device that reduces or avoids melting problems associated with the exposure of cosmetics to heated environments.
PROBLEM
Many conventional cosmetic products, such as lipsticks, lip balms facial foundations, contain a base material which is generally a wax-like, cream-like or petroleum based substance. These substances are generally heat sensitive, meaning they become more liquid like when exposed to heat. When these substances are subjected to heat they become undesirably messy and unusable by the user. These cosmetic products can become subjected to heat when a user is storing or transporting these products in warm climates. There are known in the prior art, devices that attempt to solve this problem of storing and transporting cosmetic products while in warm climates.
Some of these known prior art devices are large sized and use bulky removable refrigerated liners, which enables a user to carry large amounts of a sundry of cosmetics, but that have inherently large void spaces between the cosmetics and the carrying case liner. These large void spaces require large bulky refrigerated liners to keep the void space and the cosmetics refrigerated. Oftentimes a user desires to carry a few cosmetic products, such as lipstick or lip balm, because of increased mobility or activity, such as traveling to and from the swimming pool, golf course or tennis court. The prior art devices are not designed to satisfy this need to easily store and transport, under refrigerated conditions, a few smaller cosmetic products in a compact case.
Users with active lifestyles don't wish to tote or carry another large bag, in addition to their purse, golf bag or tennis bag. There is a need for a smaller compact refrigerated cosmetic case that slips into a purse, golf bag or tennis bag, thereby eliminating another bulky bag to carry around. Presently, these prior art bulky devices are not designed to fit into a users purse or other personal carrying container, such as a golf bag or tennis bag.
In addition, these prior art bulky devices inherently are thermodynamically inefficient, because, among other reasons, they include large openings that allow large amounts of ambient temperature air to enter into the cosmetic cooler, thereby increasing the temperature within the bag, each time a user opens the bag to access the interior of the cosmetic product. Once this ambient air enters the known devices the large void space is heated up as well, which creates a greater load on the refrigerating device employed. This is thermodynamically inefficient.
It is more thermodynamically efficient when the cosmetics are generally in direct contact or close proximity with the cooling apparatus, such as a freezable packet or liner, however most known cosmetic coolers place the cosmetics loose in large tote-sized bags that have cooling devices around the perimeter of the bags and therefore the cosmetics and cooling devices do not directly contact each other. Therefore, these prior art devices waste much of their cooling capacity, cooling void spaces within the coolers. This large void space requires large refrigerable liners to chill the cosmetics and the inherent void space.
There are known prior art devices that include large bulky cooling liners that are folded to conform to the inside perimeter of the large tote-sized bag. These can take up more space than desired in a users freezer when freezing the liquid contained in the cooling devices. In addition, they are cumbersome to remove from and place into the carrying bag. Further, these large bulky cooling liners add significant amount of weight to the tote-sized bag.
Information relevant to attempts to address these problems can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,226 issued Jan. 9, 1990 to Abtahi; U.S. Pat. No. 6,021,642 issued Feb. 8, 2000 to Guinn; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,457 issued Nov. 17, 1992 to Lombardi, Jr. However, each one of these references suffers from one or more of the following disadvantages: bulky storage compartment, large void spaces or clumsy large cooling devices.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a small compact cosmetic carrier that has little or minimal void space between the cosmetic and cooling device with small easy to freeze cooling devices and that are compact enough to be able to be carried easily or stored in a user's purse or other carrying bag, without being another article to be carried separately, like a purse, portable chair or umbrella.
SOLUTION
The above-described problems are solved and a technical advance achieved by the present invention by using a carrying case that includes two panels that are attached to each other thereby creating a compact thermodynamically efficient cavity for the cooling of cosmetics, such as lipstick and lip balm for active users.
In particular, the present invention includes two panels that are each constructed of two layers of a protective material and an insulating material layer located between the two layers of protective material of each panel, to create a sleek slim width carrying case. Further, the panels are attached or folded together around most of their common perimeter to create a compact design that keeps the cosmetics contained in close proximity to the refrigerable device and insulated panels, thereby creating a compact case that has a truly thermodynamically efficient design and that can be carried within a purse, tote, golf bag or tennis bag. Part of the novel compact design of the present invention is that it provides for minimal void space.
The present invention provides minimal void space within the cosmetic case, so the cooling source does not waste cooling capacity to large void spaces within the cosmetic case. In particular, the present invention's compact design allows for the insertion of cosmetics between the two panels to create a snug fit between the cosmetics and the insulated panels. Further, void space is almost reduced to zero, due to the fact that the panels normally collapse back on themselves due to the compact design. Therefore, the user can fill or partially fill the cosmetic case with cosmetics and where there would normally be void space with prior art devices, the present invention provides panels that collapse together thereby, eliminating the need to waste cooling capacity to chill the void space. The present invention further provides a compact refrigerable device that is easy to handle and refrigerate.
The novel present invention further includes a refrigerable device that is compact and is easy to remove from and place into the carrying case. The refrigerable device is shaped to fit into the carrying case's design, thereby adding refrigeration capabilities to the cosmetic case without denigrating its compact and thermodynamically efficient shape. The refrigerable device is smaller than prior art devices and is easily and unobtrusively stored in a user's freezer.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4892226 (1990-01-01), Abtahi
patent: 5163457 (1992-11-01), Lombardi, Jr.
patent: 5237838 (1993-08-01), Merritt-Munson
patent: 5361603 (1994-11-01), Merritt-Munson
patent: 5988879 (1999-11-01), Bredderman et al.
patent: 6021642 (2000-02-01), Guinn
Smith et al., Temperature Controlled Shipping Containers, Jan. 23, 2003, US PGP, p. 17.
Doerrler William C.
Patton & Boggs LLP
Zec Filip
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