Ammunition-holding beverage insulator

Abstract

A device for securely wrapping around a beverage container for the purpose of insulating and carrying it, the beverage insulating device for also securely carrying firearms ammunition cartridges.

Description

This non-provisional application claims the benefit of provisional application No. 61/690,015 filed Jun. 8, 2012.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A variety of insulating devices for reducing heat transfer to/from beverage containers have been developed in the prior art. These beverage insulating devices, or “koozies,” slow the rate at which the temperature of a cold or hot beverage will rise or lower toward the ambient air temperature, and they may also have the effect of making beverages visually distinguishable from each other—something that may be especially useful in an office refrigerator environment in which multiple people may store otherwise identical beverage cans and containers, for example.

Koozies have either an openable or permanently closed structure that friction fits around the circumference of a beverage container. They also are either bottomless or have bottom surface. Typically, openable structure koozies are formed by a strip or panel of insulating material that has cooperative fastening means disposed near opposing ends of the panel. In other words, the male portion of a snap button may be mounted near one end and the female portion near the other end, or the hook portion of a VELCRO system may be disposed near one end and the loop portion near the other, or a zipper assembly disposed at both ends. In any case, these kinds of fasteners enable a bottomless, openable structure koozie to be unraveled into a panel for easier, more thorough cleaning of its interior surface. On the downside, however, many openable structure koozies employ button snaps, zippers or narrow strips (in the circumferential direction) of hook and loop material that permit little or no deviation in the circumferential size of the koozie when it is fastened close. This lack of expandability can render a koozie usable with only the standard sized container for which it was designed. For example, it may be useful for insulating a standard-sized, aluminum beverage can, but not able to fit around a larger-diametered plastic sports bottle. Closed structure koozies tend to have similar expandability limitation issues. That is especially true in the case of those having bottom surfaces.

In addition to presenting limitations relative to their ability to conform to a range beverage container sizes, the present inventor has recognized that conventional koozies tend to be more functionally limited than may be desirable. More specifically, prior art koozies tend to serve only two purposes: (1) insulating the beverage container than they are place around (for the purpose of protecting a consumer's hand from the container's coldness and/or keeping the beverage cold (or warm) for as long as possible); and (2) making, through their outer decoration and overall construction, beverage containers more easily identifiable. However, it is appreciated by the present inventor that a koozie can additionally function as a device for retaining and carrying objects in addition and entirely unrelated to a beverage container.

Accordingly, the present inventor recognize an outstanding need to provide a beverage insulator that not only provides the traditional insulating and identifying functions, but that is adaptable to host a wide range of beverage container sizes, while identical ease and comfort of carrying. Furthermore, he also recognizes a concomitant need to provide such an insulator which doubles as a device for securely carrying some amount of firearms ammunition cartridges specifically—and a wide range of cartridge sizes at that. The present invention substantially fulfills these needs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to devices for thermally insulating beverage containers, and it is specifically directed to such a device that also is useful for securely carrying ammunition cartridges along its outer perimeter.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a carrying case for a beverage container.

It is another object of the invention to provide a carrying case for a beverage container that insulates the container from heat loss and protects a user's hands from the container chill or heat.

It is another object of the invention to provide a beverage insulator that holds ammunition cartridges of a variety of lengths and circumferences.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a top perspective view of a beverage insulator according to the present invention, the insulator shown in a closed configuration and retaining both a beverage can within its sleeve and a plurality of shotgun shells within its loop pockets;

FIG. 2 is a top perspective view of the said insulator, shown in an open configuration;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of said insulator, shown in an open configuration;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the outer surface of the sleeve; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the inner surface of the sleeve.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

This disclosure, as defined by the claims that follow, relates to a device for snugly wrapping around a cylindrical beverage container for simultaneous purposes of preserving the temperature of the contained beverage, enabling comfortable handling of an extremely hot or cold container and securely carrying multiple firearm cartridges. As used in this disclosure, “firearm cartridges” refers to virtually any cartridge containing a bullet, shot or other projectile that is fired by a handgun, rifle or shotgun. Also, although the present device is adapted to fit around beverage containers of a variety of shapes, dimensions and materials, the term “can” may be used, generically, to refer to all such containers.

The primary components of the present ammunition-holding beverage insulator 1 are an insulation sleeve 10, a series of loop pockets 24, and a carrying handle 30. The sleeve 10 can be alternated between a fully open position, as depicted in FIGS. 4 and 5, and a closed cylindrical configuration shown in FIGS. 1-3. The sleeve 10 is fabricated by any of a host of deformable materials that exhibit low thermal conduction and can serve to thermally insulate a beverage can 50. For example, it may be constructed of neoprene, foam material, polyester, vinyl or a combination thereof.

As can be most clearly seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, the sleeve 10 is actually a laterally elongate article of insulating material that has cooperative fastening means 16, 18 near both of its lateral ends. In the preferred embodiment depicted in the drawings, hook and loop fasteners 16, 18 are employed. A laterally wide strip of hook material 16 is attached to side of the sleeve 10 that constitutes its inner face 12 when in closed cylinder form, and a correspondingly wide strip of loop material 18 is attached to its outer face 14. So, when the sleeve 10 is wrapped around a can 50, the “hook end” should overlap the “loop end,” to the extent necessary to create a snug fit prevents the can 50 from sliding vertically against the sleeve 10, and the hook and loop strips 16, 18 are pressed into engagement to secure the enclosure. Nevertheless, snap buttons and zippers can alternatively be used to allow the sleeve 10 to attach to be closed.

Disposed along the outer surface 14 of the sleeve 10 are a series of fabric loop pockets 24. In the preferred embodiment, these loop pockets 24 are formed by virtue of a single elastic material strip 20 being discontinuously attached to the sleeve surface 14 along laterally spaced vertical seams 28. The spacing of these seams forms side-by-side cylindrical, bottomless loops that are sized to snugly hold small gauge cylindrical cartridges 40. To better ensure that the cartridges 40 don't fall through the loops 24, they should be placed so that the flange 46 which typically resides along the rim of a shotgun shell cover 44 or bullet casing will abut and be retained by the upper rim 26 of the pocket loop 24. Nevertheless, because the pocket material is elastic, they expand to also retain larger diameter cartridges 40. Moreover, in one embodiment of the present insulator 1, pocket loops 24 have different sizes intended to house different sized cartridges 40. Also, the loops 24 do not have to be formed from a single material strip 20.

Finally, to facilitate more carrying ease, a fabric handle 30 is attached to the sleeve by virtue of ends end portions being sewn to the sleeve's inner surface 12.

It is understood that substitutions and equivalents for and combinations of various elements set forth above may be obvious to those skilled in the art and may not represent a departure from the spirit of the invention. Therefore, the full scope and definition of the present invention is to be set forth by the claims that follow.

Claims

1. An ammunition-holding beverage insulator comprising:

an insulating sleeve for wrapping around a cylindrical beverage can, wherein the sleeve has an inner surface that faces the can and an opposing outer surface;

a carrying handle; and

a plurality of loop pockets disposed along the sleeve outer surface, the loop pockets for retaining ammunition cartridges.

2. The beverage insulator of claim 1, wherein said loop pockets are generally cylindrical enclosures having open tops and bottoms, wherein their respective top rims retain the flange that resides along the rim of an ammunition cartridge.

3. The beverage insulator of claim 1, wherein said insulating sleeve is fabricated from insulating material.

4. The beverage insulator of claim 3, wherein said insulating sleeve material is selected from the following group: neoprene, foam, vinyl and polyester.

5. The beverage insulator of claim 1, wherein said insulating sleeve is a panel having means for fastening the panel to itself in order to form a cylindrical enclosure.

6. The beverage insulator of claim 5, wherein said fastening means comprises at least one of the following: (a) hook and loop material; (b) a snap button(s); and (c) a zipper.

7. The beverage insulator of claim 2, wherein said ammunition cartridge is a shotgun shell.

8. An ammunition-holding beverage insulator comprising:

an insulating sleeve for wrapping around a beverage can, wherein the sleeve is a laterally elongate panel having an inner surface that faces the can and an opposing outer surface, wherein means for fastening the panel to itself so as to substantially form a cylinder are disposed near both lateral ends, and wherein this fastening means enables the sleeve cylinder to be circumferentially adjustable to retain beverage cans having a range of diameters;

a carrying handle;

a strip for retaining ammunition cartridges along the sleeve outer surface, wherein the strip is discontinuously attached to the sleeve so as to form multiple loop pockets within each of which an ammunition cartridge can be retained.

9. The beverage insulator of claim 8, wherein said loop pockets are generally cylindrical enclosures having open tops and bottoms, wherein their respective top rims retain the flange that resides along the rim of an ammunition cartridge.

10. The beverage insulator of claim 8, wherein said retaining strip is fabricated of elastic material, whereby said loop pockets are circumferentially elastically expandable.

11. The beverage insulator of claim 8, wherein said insulating sleeve is fabricated from insulating material.

12. The beverage insulator of claim 11, wherein said insulating sleeve material is selected from the following group: neoprene, foam, vinyl and polyester.

13. The beverage insulator of claim 8, wherein said fastening means comprises laterally elongate strips of hook and loop material, wherein the lateral lengths of such strips enables circumferential adjustment of said sleeve cylinder.

14. The beverage insulator of claim 9, wherein said ammunition cartridge is a shotgun shell.

15. An ammunition-holding beverage insulator comprising:

an insulating sleeve for wrapping around a beverage can, wherein the sleeve is a laterally elongate panel having an inner surface that faces the can and an opposing outer surface, wherein means for fastening the panel to itself so as to substantially form a cylinder are disposed near both lateral ends, and wherein this fastening means enables the sleeve cylinder to be circumferentially adjustable to retain beverage cans having a range of diameters;

a carrying handle; and

loop pockets disposed along the sleeve outer surface, the loop pockets for retaining ammunition cartridges, wherein at least two of the loop pockets are diametrically sized to retain different sized such cartridges.

16. The beverage insulator of claim 15, wherein said loop pockets are substantially cylindrical enclosures having open tops and bottoms, wherein their respective top rims retain the flange that resides along the rim of an ammunition cartridge.

17. The beverage insulator of claim 15, wherein said insulating sleeve is fabricated from insulating material.

18. The beverage insulator of claim 17, wherein said insulating sleeve material is selected from the following group: neoprene, foam, vinyl and polyester.

19. The beverage insulator of claim 15, wherein said fastening means comprises hook and loop material.

20. The beverage insulator of claim 16, wherein said ammunition cartridge is a shotgun shell.