Cooling insert for a container
A cooling inserted into a regular cooling chest as a unit. The cooling insert consists of a multiple of hollow panels that are hinged together at their edges by adhesive tapes or extruded layers on panels that are continued between adjacent panels. The hollow panels are constructed of thin walled plastic materials. A freezable substance is inserted into the hollow panels constituting a cooling medium that will permeate through the thin walls of the hollow panels to keep food and/or drinks in a cooled state.
The invention relates to a container assembly, and more particularly to an insert to be inserted into an insulated container. An item which is included in virtually all outdoor activities, whether it be boating, camping, fishing, spending a day on the beach, or going on a picnic, or construction sites, is a cooler to keeps drinks and perishable foods cold and safe to eat. Although a few types of coolers are available which use electricity to provide chilling air, the vast majority rely on supplies of ice or reusable gel packs placed within the cooler to keep the interior cold. Drawbacks encountered when ice is used is that the ice occupies a lot of space in the cooler when it if frozen and when it melts the food placed into the container can become soggy. Another drawback is, when placing cold gel packs into the container, is the gel packs also take up a certain amount of space. There are known cooling containers or chests that have hollow side walls that are being filled with a cooling gel to keep the food and/or drinks in a cooled state. However, in such containers the cooling medium stays remote from the items to be cooled in the container.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTIONThe inventive concept eliminates the above drawbacks by placing another substitute container made up of hollow side walls which are filled with a cooling gel or dry ice. The inserted container complements the shape of the cooler. The various panels that make up the container consists of hollow and foldable panels that can be collapsed into a compact package when the not in use. The hollow panels can be made of thin plastic walls that allow the cooling medium to easily permeate through the thin walls into the interior of the cooler. The various panels are hinged together to allow an easy deployment when needed or desired. The hollow panels are useful for inserting a plurality of slim gel packs therein or for injecting dry ice into the same.
In
The various panels could be hinged together by using adhesive tapes like packing tapes having fiber reinforcements therein or tapes known as duct tapes. In either application, the adhesive should be strong enough so that they cannot become unglued when being handled numerous times. A preferred way of making the hinges at the edges of the panels is to form the hinges during an extrusion of the panels, whereby an outer layer of the panels is extended onto an adjacent panel which forms a layer thereon. Thereby, a layer between the panels forms a reliable hinge.
In
At this point it is reiterated again that all panels described in the above described specification are hollow to receive a re-freezable material therein. The medium can be the well known gel packs. Suitable cold thermal media can include a high molecular weight silicone and water mixture, for example. In some embodiments, the thermal media can be a “unigel” comprising a mixture of about 98.2% water and 1.8-2.1% solids, wherein the solids can comprise 80-85% sodiumcarboxymethylcellulose, 10-16% sodium benzoate, and 4.6% cross-linkers. In other embodiments, the thermal generator can comprise two or more chemicals which when mixed together create an endothermic reaction. The chemicals can be kept segregated by a known encapsulating technique until it is desired to generate cold thermal energy. This would bc the case when a cooling chest is to be filled with food items or drinks. The assembled cooling insert would be inserted into the cooling chest first and then the encapsulated chemicals would be released whereby the cold medium could permeate through the thin wall of the hollow panels to the interior of the cooling chest. The hollow panels could also be pre-filled with a freezable gel that remains cold for several hours.
Claims
1. A cooling insert to be inserted into a regular cooling chest and snugly fitting therein, said cooling insert consisting of a multiple of hollow panels that have means thereon to be hinged to each other, said hollow panels being filled with a cooling medium.
2. The cooling insert of claim 1, wherein said means for hinging consists of adhesive tapes placed at respective edges of said hollow panels.
3. The cooling insert of claim 1, wherein said hollow panels are subdivided into at least two hollow panels, said subdivided hollow panels having means thereon to be hinged to each other.
4. The cooling insert of claim 1, wherein there is a bottom hollow panel, a hollow panel on each side, a front hollow panel. A rear hollow panel and a top cover hollow panel.
5. The cooling insert of claim 4, wherein said bottom hollow panel has a thicker dimension than the remainder of said hollow panels.
6. The cooling insert of claim 4, wherein said bottom hollow panel has upstanding ledges at each lateral side thereof, the height of said upstanding ledges is at least twice the thickness of each of said hollow panels.
7. The cooling insert of claim 1, including magnets placed at various edges of said hollow panels to enhance the stability of said cooling insert once it is fully deployed.
8. The insert cooling device of claim 1, wherein each of said hollow panels has a further insulating layer placed on an outside of said hollow panels facing an inside wall of said cooling chest.
9. The insert of claim 9, wherein said further insulating layer is a hollow layer.
10. The insert of claim 1, wherein said means for hinging includes a continuous layer on said panels between adjacent panels.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 18, 2007
Publication Date: Dec 18, 2008
Inventor: George John Botich (Naples, FL)
Application Number: 11/818,932
International Classification: F25D 3/00 (20060101);