GB2460894A - Drink vessel cooler and stand - Google Patents

Abstract

A drink vessel cooler has a relatively heavy base 10, a column 11 upstanding from the base and at least one drink vessel carrier (15 fig 1) mounted at the upper end 12 of the column. The carrier has an inner sleeve 17 sized for surrounding the vessel and an outer sleeve 18 surrounding the inner sleeve. Between the inner and outer sleeves is a region into which a removable coolant container 19 is disposed. The coolant container can be removed from the carrier, chilled and then replaced in the clearance to cool or maintain cool a drink vessel disposed within the inner sleeve. The inner sleeve may be a high thermal conductivity metal, such as aluminium, and the outer sleeve may be a low thermal conductivity material. The coolant may be a high thermal capacity gel material, and the coolant container may be a flexible bag or a rigid annulus. The vessel cooler may include several arms or crossbars 13, and each arm or crossbar may be attached to a drink vessel carrier. The drink vessel which is cooled may be wine bottle or a beer can.

Description

DRINK VESSEL COOLER

This invention relates to a cooler for a vessel such as a bottle or can containing wine, lager, beer, a soft drink or the ke.

Coolers for vessels containing drinks are we known and widely used.

Some of those coolers are intended to hold just one vessel, such as a so-called wine cooler, whereas others are intended to hold large numbers of vessels aU containing drinks. Further, some coolers are active and extract thermal energy from the drinks vessels and discharge that extracted energy to initial atmosphere, whereas others are passive and either cool a drink by the cooler warming from a temperature lower than that of the drink, or merely serve to io maintain cool a pre-cooled drink. Even though the latter class of cooler is not, strictly speaking, a cooler, nevertheless it is conventionally referred to as a cooler. An example of such a device is a wine bottle cooler which consists of an insulated sleeve into which a pre-cooled wine bottle is placed and which serves to maintain cool that wine bottle as the contents of the bottle are slowly consumed.

Particularly in the case of wine bottles, it is a common practice in restaurants to provide a bucket containing water and ice and then partially to immerse a bottle in that bucket to maintain the bottle at a temperature of around 4°C. Though this works well from the point of view of maintaining the temperature of the wine in the bottle at a suitable low value, it is not very convenient in that the exterior of the bottle is always wet and care has to be taken when serving wine from the bottle to ensure that there are no water drips either on diners' clothes or on their food. There is the further disadvantage that frequently such a bucket s carried at the upper end of a stand which lacks stability in view of the weight of the bucket, water, ice and the bottle itself, at a raised position. In the event that the bucket and stand is knocked over, the water in the bucket will be spilt leading to inconvenience and possible further damage such as to a carpet or furniture.

t is a principal aim of the present invention to provide a drink vessel coo'er which addresses the issues discussed above, for a passive device intended to maintain cool a pre-cooled vessel containing drink intended to be consumed over a fairly short period of time following the placement of the io vessel within the cooler.

According to this invention, there is provided a drink vessel cooler comprising a relatively heavy base, a column upstanding from the base and at least one carrier for a drink vessel mounted at the upper end of the column, the carrier comprising an inner sleeve sized for surrounding the vessel, an outer is sleeve surrounding with dearance the inner sleeve, and a removable coolant container disposed in said clearance whereby the container may be removed from the carrier, chilled and then replaced in the clearance to coo' or maintain coot a carried drink vessel.

The coo'er of this invention is passive in that it does not require a source of power in order to extract heat from a vessel being maintained cool. In some respects, therefore, the cooler is akin to an ice bucket arrangement as described above, in that t is intended merely to maintain cool a pre-cooed drink, for the duration of the consumption of the drink following the opening of the vesseL However, the cooler does not have the disadvantage of an ice bucket in that it does not employ water and so the exterior of the vessel remains dry. This eliminates the likelihood of spillage or dripping on diners' clothes or food.

The container must be capable of fitting within the annular clearance between the inner and outer sleeves. It could comprise a hollow moulded plastics cylindrical annulus containing a coolant or could be in the form of a plurality of arcuate segments each able to be dropped into the annular clearance and to fit together side-by-side. Currently, the preferred embodiment employs a flexible bag which contains the coolant. Such a flexible bag may be divided into separate chambers each holding a quantity of the coolant, such that when the bag is arranged vertically, the coolant does not all run to the lower region of the bag but rather remains distributed over the area of the bag.

Conveniently, the flexible bag consists of two sheets joined together by seams along adjacent edges whereby the bag may be laid flat for storage and cooling is for example in a refrigerator or freezer but then the bag may be curved round into an annular form for accommodation in said clearance between the inner and outer sleeves.

Various coolants may be employed within the container but it is preferred that the coolant shou'd be both substantially inert and suitable for food use, in case there should be puncturing of the container leading to oss of coolant.

Preferably, the coolant is in the form of a gel. Such coolants are wefl known and widely used for examp'e in so-cal'ed freezer packs, intended for keeping coo' comestibles stored briefly within a cool-bag or cool-box for transport away from the domestic environment -for instance for a picnic.

Theinnersleofthecanierpreferablyisofarelativelyhighthermal conductivity metal, such as aluminium. Further, the Inner sleeve should be suitably sized for the Intended use and In general should be sized to accommodate a conventional wine bottle or drinks can. Though some bottles 6 and some cans are sized differently, the majority of wine bottles and cans currently available on the market are of closely similar sizes and thus the selection of a suitable size for the Inner diameter of the Inner sleeve to accommodatevess&sforaverywiderangeotdffferentddnksdoesnotpresent any great problem.

By contrast, It Is preferred for the outer sleeve to be fomied froni a material having a low thermal conductivity in order to reduce the thermal energy transferred across the outer sleeve to the pre-chilled coolant within the container. For example, the outer sleeve could be formed from a plaslics material but If a more attractive appearance Is requIred, the outer sleeve could 16 belntheformofasandwlchwlththeouterlayerofametalsuchasalumlnlum or chromium-plated steel and an Inner layer of an InsulatIng material.

The or each carder should have a bottom wall supporting both the Inner and outer sleeves, the carrier being mounted elther directly or indirectly on the column by way of the bottom wall. In one embodiment, there Is a single carrier whIch Is mounted centrally at the upper end of the column; such a cooler Is particularly suitable for use with a single wine bottle and thus as a replacement for an Ice bucket, for example In a restaurant environment Another possibility Isfortheretobeaserlesofarmsprojectlnggenerallyradlallyfromtheupper end of the column with each arm supporting at least one carder. A preferred embodiment has four such arms arranged at right angles and with a drink carrier provided on each arm; such a cooler is suitable for carrying cans of beer, lager or the like perhaps on a patio for consumption in the course of an outdoor meal. With this preferred embodiment, it is of course possible to provide a further carrier centrally at the upper end of the column or even two or more carriers on each arm.

The base should have sufficient mass and spread to ensure stability in use, having regard to the intended use and the number of carriers provided at the upper end of the column. Conveniently, the base comprises a circular disc io of metal, such as steel.

By way of example only, several specific embodiments of cooler of this invention will now be described in detail, reference being made to the accompanying drawings in which:-Figure 1 is a side view of a first embodiment of cooler having two carriers, with one of the carriers having the outer sleeve cut away for clarity; Figure 2 is an isometric view of the carrier of Figure 1, with one outer sleeve wholly removed for clarity; Figure 3 is a plan view on the cooler of Figure 1 but with both outer sleeves present; Figures 4A and 4B are isometric and plan views of a second embodiment having four carriers; and Figures 5A and 5B are isometric and plan views of a third embodiment having a single carrier.

Referring initially to Figures 1 to 3 there is shown a cooler comprising a circular base 10 for example of mild steel and supporting a tubular steel column 11. Supported at the upper end 12 of the column 11 is a crossbar 13 secured to the upper end 12 by means of a knurled bolt 14 threaded into the upper end of the column, the crossbar 13 extending equally to each side of the column.

Two carriers 15 are supported one on each end of the crossbar 13, each carrier consisting of a base wall 16 from which upstands inner and outer sleeves 17,18 with an annular clearance between those sleeves. In Figure 1, the outer sleeve is shown partly cut away from the left-hand carrier, for the sake of clarity.

io Conveniently, each carrier may be removably supported on the crossbar 13 to allow removal of the carriers for cleaning.

Located in the clearance between the inner and outer sleeves is a container 19 for a gel coolant, the container being in the form of a flexible bag sub-divided into individual compartments 20 as shown on the left-hand arm in is Figure 1 Each compartment contains a measured quantity of coolant gel and by dividing the container into those compartments, the draining of the gel to the lower region of the container is prevented.

The coolant gel takes the form of a substance which can be cooled for example in a domestic freezer while still remaining pliable. The gel should be substantially inert and food-safe; such gels are well known and widely used in so-called freezer packs. Each container 19 for the coolant may be provided with projecting tabs (not shown) along one edge, to facilitate handling of the container and in particular the extraction of the container from the clearance between the inner and outer sleeves.

The inner sleeve 17 s made of aluminium, in order to ensure good thermal conductivity between the container of coolant and a drink vessel placed within the inner sleeve. The outer sleeve 18 may be made of a plastics material so as to have a reduced thermal conductivity as compared to the inner sleeve and so to provide some thermal insulation. If an aesthetic appearance is required for the outer sleeve, it may be made from a plated plastics material or could be of metal but in the latter case it would be advantageous to provide a layer of thermal insulation of the inner surface of the outer sleeve.

It is advantageous for the cooler, as a whole, to be made highly io attractive and thus both the base 10 and column 11 may be chromium plated or made from a material such as polished stainless steel. Further, the cooler may be personalised for example by providing the base 10 with wording, lettering, a logo or the like. This could be embossed to upstand from the base, etched into the base or cut out of the base. Equally, the external surfaces of the outer is sleeves 18 could similarly be personalised or otherwise decorated.

Referring now to Figures 4A and 4B, there is shown a modification of the cooler of Figures 1 to 3. This modified cooler has a pair of arms 23 arranged to extend mutually at right angles with each pair of arms supporting two carriers 24, one at each end of each arm. The two arms are notched centrally to inter-fit and so as to be held at right angles when clamped to the upper end of column 11, by means of bolt 14. In all other respects, the cooler of this embodiment corresponds to that of Figures 1 to 3 and so like parts are given the same reference numbers and will not be described again here.

The cooler of Figures 5A and 5B differs from those described above in that there is a single carrier 26 provided centrally at the upper end 12 of the column 11. Such a carrier may be appropriate'y dimensioned for a botUe of wine or champagne. It is envisaged that such a cooler may find particular use in the restaurant industry, as a direct replacement for a conventional ice bucket and stand.

All of the above embodiments of cooler are used in essentially the same way. The or each container of coo'ant 19 is extracted from the associated annular clearance between the inner and outer sleeves 17,18 of each carrier io and is then chilled in a domestic or industria' freezer. When sufficiently cool, the container is curved round into an annular shape and dropped into the annular clearance. Thereafter, a pre-cooled drink vessel such as a wine bottle or beer can may be inserted into the carrier and it is envisaged that the content of the vessel will be maintained cool by the effect of the container of chil'ed coo'ant surrounding the vesse', for the period of time taken to consume the content of the vessel.