Refrigeration – Using electrical or magnetic effect – Thermoelectric; e.g. – peltier effect
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-03
2003-02-18
Esquivel, Denise L. (Department: 3727)
Refrigeration
Using electrical or magnetic effect
Thermoelectric; e.g., peltier effect
C062S003620, C062S457100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06519948
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an insulated container for the refrigerated transportation of foods, substances and/or articles having a jacket surrounding a transportation space or area, a closable opening being provided for accessing the transportation space in the jacket.
2. Prior Art
Such insulated containers are known and are e.g. used as cooler bags in the leisure sector or as shopping bags for deep-frozen foods.
Such bags delay heating of introduced cooled products or foods. Using passive cooling elements it is also possible to precool the transportation space and in this way, following the insertion of the foods in the precooled transportation space, a cooling is obtained.
Such insulated containers are more particularly used as cooling containers for cooling foods, e.g. travel provisions. However, it is also possible to use insulated containers in the medical or clinical sector, e.g. for cooling medicaments or blood products.
The passive cooling elements comprise materials with a high heat capacity and/or high transition or latent heat for a solid-liquid phase transition. After a certain time the temperature of the passive cooling elements adapts to the ambient temperature, so that their cooling potential is exhausted and they must be cooled down again, e.g. in the freezing compartment of a refrigerator. In the case that such a cooling possibility is not available, the use of such passive cooling elements is disadvantageous, because after heating to ambient temperature they only represent useless ballast.
DE 197 28 539 A1 discloses active cooling devices, in which a volume is cooled e.g. by Peltier elements, i.e. by electric current. However, these cooling elements are not usable together with the known insulated containers, because in the latter there is no possibility of dissipating to the outside the heat extracted from the transportation volume.
In addition, in the case of the cooler bag known from DE 197 28 539 A1, a flexible foldable jacket is provided, so that the bag volume can be adapted to the given needs. This known cooler bag can only be designed with a relatively small transportation area or space for manual use. Even in the case of a comparatively small size and correspondingly low weight of the cooler bag, a manual transportation thereof, particularly if longer distances have to be covered, is very arduous and fatiguing.
The object of the present invention is to provide an insulated container permitting the use of passive and active cooling devices. In addition, the insulated container should be easy and inexpensive to manufacture.
A further object of the invention is to provide an insulated container for manual use, which permits a particularly effective cooling and which is also particularly light and easy to transport by hand over longer distances.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This object is achieved by an insulated container having a jacket, which surrounds a transportation area or space and in which a closable opening is provided for accessing the transportation space in the jacket and in said transportation space can be received an active cooling device with a heat exchange device and the jacket has at least one recess constructed for the reception and passage to the outside of the heat exchange device.
Appropriate developments of the invention are given in the subclaims.
A fundamental idea of this first aspect of the invention is to provide an insulated container with a recess or opening for receiving a heat exchange device of an active cooling device. Therefore the heat removed from the transportation space to be cooled by an inserted cooling element can be dissipated to the outside. Thus, use can be made of the advantages of active cooling. For example, through the use of an active cooling device cooling can take place at any desired time. In addition, the insulated containers according to the invention are characterized by particularly simple and inexpensive manufacture. Thus, the recess can be made in a conventional container, e.g. by simply punching or cutting.
In a second aspect of the invention an insulated container of the aforementioned type is further developed in that at least one active cooling device with an active cooling element and a heat exchange device is received in the transportation space, that the cooling device has a jacket for receiving foods, substances and/or articles, that in the jacket there is at least one recess and the recess is constructed for the reception and passing to the outside of the heat exchange device.
According to the invention the heat exchange device of the cooling device, which can e.g. be constructed in the form of cooling ribs, is placed in the recess and projects through it to the outside, which permits heat dissipation from the inside to the outside. The cooling element of the cooling device can be a thermoelectric cooling unit or element, particularly a Peltier element.
The bag, which is appropriately provided with a closable opening, can also be referred to as an inner jacket or bag and correspondingly the jacket can be referred to as an outer jacket or bag.
In a third aspect of the invention an insulated container of the aforementioned type is further developed in that at least one active cooling device with an active cooling element and a heat exchange device is received in the transportation space, that the cooling device has a bag for receiving foods, substances and/or articles, that in the jacket is provided at least one recess, which is constructed to receive and pass to the outside the heat exchange device and that the jacket is firmly or detachably coupled to a manually operable rolling device, which has at least two rollers, as well as a guide device.
A fundamental idea of this third aspect of the invention is that the jacket is coupled to a travelling or moving device, particularly a rolling device. In this way a user can easily move or roll the insulated container and need no longer carry it by hand for transportation purposes. According to the invention the jacket is firmly or detachably coupled to the manually operable rolling device. The detachable variant has the additional advantage that the moving device only has to be coupled to the jacket when it is actually required, i.e. if the insulated container is to be manually transported over a certain distance, whereas if this is not the case the jacket can be used without said moving device.
In a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention the moving device is constructed as a rolling device with at least two rollers and also a guide device. A user can control the movement of the insulated container with the aid of the guide device.
The guide device appropriately has two telescopable guide elements, particularly made from metal, and a handle connected thereto. The telescopability or possibility of drawing in and out the guide elements, which can e.g. be constructed as guide rods, advantageously permits a space-saving housing of the moving or rolling device if the latter is not required. Particular preference is given to an embodiment with two rollers, in which for movement purposes the insulated container is initially slightly tilted with the aid of the handle and the extracted guide rods or elements and can then be moved by pulling or pushing on the handle.
It is appropriate to select the weight or mass distribution on the rolling device in such a way that a torque around a roller axis is as small as possible, so that for stabilizing the rollable cooling container only limited force has to be used by the user.
The active cooling device represents a significant part of the total mass or weight of the movable cooling container. The active cooling device is consequently preferably placed on the rolling device in such a way that in manual rolling operation it is located on a side of a roller axis facing the centre of gravity of a transported product. In this way the torques resulting from the transported product and active cooling device are at least partly mutually compensated.
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Esquivel Denise L.
IPV Inheidener Produktions-und Vertriebagesellschaft mbH
Jacobson & Holman PLLC
Jones Melvin
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