PERSONAL BEVERAGE WARMERS AND COOLERS FOR VEHICLE SEATS
Example personal beverage warmers and coolers for vehicle seats are disclosed. A disclosed example apparatus to regulate the temperature of a beverage near a seat of a vehicle, the apparatus includes: a base including a thermally conductive material that conducts heat in a direction that is at least one of to or from a container seated thereon, a thermoelectric device thermally coupled with the base and to be energized to exchange heat with the base, and a heat exchanger thermally coupled with the thermoelectric device and a liquid medium to exchange heat therebetween.
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This application claims the priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/347,927, filed on May 25, 2010, and entitled “Beverage Warmer and Cooler for Aircraft Passenger Seats”, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE DISCLOSUREDisclosed embodiments generally relate to apparatuses for beverage temperature control, and, more particularly, to beverage temperature control or regulation apparatuses for vehicle seats.
BACKGROUNDVehicles defined herein to include an automobile, a train, a truck, a boat or an aircraft, typically provide cupholders for holding beverage containers such as glasses, cups, bottles, cans and/or mugs. The cupholders are generally provided in the vicinity of crew member and passenger seats. For example, a cupholder may be provided in an armrest or console adjacent to a person's seat, but may also extend from a dashboard or other surface of the vehicle. The cupholders generally include a recessed portion which holds the beverage container in a stationary upright position relative to the vehicle while the vehicle accelerates, decelerates, or tilts forward, backward and to either side.
SUMMARYExample beverage temperature control or regulation apparatuses for vehicle seats are disclosed. A disclosed example personal beverage warmer and cooler apparatus to regulate the temperature of a beverage near a seat of a vehicle, the apparatus includes: a base including a thermally conductive material that conducts heat in a direction that is at least one of to or from a container seated thereon, a thermoelectric device thermally coupled with the base and to be energized to exchange heat with the base, and a heat exchanger thermally coupled with the thermoelectric device and a liquid medium to exchange heat therebetween.
A disclosed example seating area of a vehicle includes a temperature regulating apparatus having a base including a thermally conductive material that conducts heat at least one of to or from a container seated thereon, a thermoelectric device thermally coupled with the base and to be energized to exchange heat with the base, and a heat exchanger thermally coupled with the thermoelectric device and a liquid medium to exchange heat therebetween.
The seating area may include an additional temperature regulating apparatus.
A disclosed example method includes energizing a thermoelectric device at a vehicle seat to a first state to cool a beverage container thermally coupled to the thermoelectric device when a first user input is received; and energizing the thermoelectric device to a second state to heat the beverage container when a second user input is received.
The method may also include exchanging first heat between the thermoelectric device and a heat exchanger; and exchanging second heat between the heat exchanger and a liquid medium.
Energizing the thermoelectric device to the first state may include applying an electrical current to a Peltier device, and energizing the thermoelectric device to second state may include applying an opposite electrical current to the Peltier device.
The first user input may correspond to a first position of a switch, and the second user input may correspond to a second position of the switch.
For any of the examples, the liquid medium may be air, the apparatus may also include a fan that blows air in thermal contact with the heat exchanger.
For any of the examples, the thermoelectric device may be energized by a power supply to heat the base and/or to cool the base.
For any of the examples, a switch may be used to change a polarity of a power supply that energizes the thermoelectric device, wherein a first state of the switch may cause the power supply to cool the base, and a second state of the switch may cause the power supply to heat the base.
For any of the examples, the base may include a lock that mates with a key of an extension insert to secure the extension insert on the base, the extension insert may be dimensioned to receive a container holding the beverage.
For any of the examples, the base may include a recessed portion dimensioned to receive a container holding the beverage.
Any of the examples may include a power supply and a processor, the processor may control the power supply to maintained a temperature of the beverage.
A beverage in a beverage container held in a cupholder generally does not stay at a desired temperature. Over time, the temperature of the beverage generally trends toward the ambient air temperature of a vehicle. For example, a hot beverage such as coffee or tea may not be kept hot, and a cold beverage such as fruit juice or soda may not be kept cold for a time period long enough to enable the person to fully enjoy the beverage at their desired or preferred temperature. Thus, a person may only have a limited time to drink a beverage before its temperature becomes undesirable. While insulated beverage containers may mitigate this problem, insulated beverage containers are generally not convenient because a beverage needs to be transferred from its original container into the insulated beverage container prior to consuming the beverage. Additionally, the temperature of a beverage in an insulated beverage containers still trends toward the ambient temperature, and a person may still only have a limited time to drink a beverage before its temperature becomes undesirable, even if that limited time is greater than if the beverage were not in the insulated beverage container.
Embodiments of personal beverage warmers and coolers that address at least some of the above problems are disclosed herein. The disclosed personal beverage warmers and coolers may be included in a vehicle to hold a beverage container and maintain a beverage within the beverage container at a desired temperature until the beverage has been consumed. The personal beverage warmers and coolers disclosed herein may be, for example, located in the vicinity of a person's seat, a sleeping cabin and/or at any another location within the vehicle where a person may be present during a journey, e.g., a lounge area where persons may gather to enjoy food and beverages in each other's company. Additionally or alternatively, the disclosed personal beverage warmers and coolers may be located in a pilot's cabin and/or in a galley for use by the crew of the vehicle. The personal beverage warmers and coolers may be configured or enabled by each person to keep warm beverages such as coffee, tea, and hot chocolate at their desired warm temperature(s). Likewise, the personal beverage warmers and coolers may be set or enabled by each person to keep cold beverages such as soda, water, and wine at their desired cold temperature(s). In this way, each person may consume their beverages at their own pace and at their desired temperature(s).
The example personal beverage warmer and cooler disclosed herein may be an embodiment of a personal heating and cooling device, which in various embodiments may also used for heating and cooling storage of food and/or other personal items that may benefit from or need to be stored at a temperature other than an ambient air temperature. For example, some medications may need to be stored at a temperature lower than ambient air temperature while also being conveniently accessible to the person.
Embodiments of personal beverage warmers and coolers disclosed herein feature a compact design and a light weight structure, both of which facilitate their widespread deployment throughout an aircraft for use by individual persons, unlike traditional refrigeration systems that are typically concentrated in galleys for use by cabin crew on behalf of all persons. In various embodiments, the disclosed personal beverage warmers and coolers may be integrated with aircraft heat-sink systems and/or other aircraft components to increase operational efficiency.
The DC power supply 260 of
The DC power supply 260 of
The personal beverage warmer and cooler 300 of
As shown in
The mug 410 and extension inserts 450 and 460 of
Functions of the exemplary personal beverage warmer and coolers disclosed herein may be controlled by a controller according to instructions of a software and/or firmware program executed by a processor of the controller. Alternatively, some or all of the disclosed embodiments may be implemented using any combination(s) of fuses, ASIC(s), PLD(s), FPLD(s), FPGA(s), discrete logic, hardware, firmware, etc. Also, some or all of the disclosed embodiments may be implemented manually or as any combination of any of the foregoing techniques, for example, any combination of firmware, software, discrete logic and/or hardware. The software program (e.g., machine-readable instructions) may be stored in any number and/or type(s) of tangible computer-readable storage media or non-transient computer-readable storage media. As used herein, “computer-readable storage medium” expressly excludes any medium on which a signal propagates. The software program may be written in a computer-programming language (e.g., C, C++, etc.) compiled to be executable by the processor of the controller. Examples of types of computer-readable storage media include, but are not limited to, a magnetic storage media (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk drive, and a magnetic tape), optical recording media (e.g., a compact disc (CD), a digital versatile disc (DVD), etc.), an electronic storage media (e.g., an integrated circuit (IC), a read-only memory (ROM), a random-access memory (RAM), an electronically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), and a flash memory), a quantum storage device, a cache, and/or any other storage media in which information may be stored for any duration (e.g., for extended time periods, permanently, brief instances, for temporarily buffering, or for caching). The storage medium may also be distributed over network-coupled computer systems (e.g., a network-attached storage device, a server-based storage device, and/or a shared network storage device) so that the program instructions are stored and/or executed in a distributed fashion.
Embodiments may be disclosed in terms of functional block components and various processing steps. Such functional blocks may be realized by any number of hardware and/or software components configured to perform the specified functions. For example, the embodiments may employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements, processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, and the like, which may carry out a variety of functions under, for example, the control of one or more microprocessors or other control devices. When elements of the embodiments are implemented using software programming or software elements, the embodiments may be implemented using any programming or scripting language such as C, C++, Java, assembler, or the like, with the various algorithms being implemented by any combination of data structures, objects, processes, routines and/or other programming elements. Furthermore, the embodiments could employ any number of conventional techniques for electronics configuration, signal processing and/or control, data processing and the like. The word “mechanism” is used broadly herein and is not limited to mechanical or physical embodiments, but can include software routines in conjunction with processors, etc.
The particular implementations shown and disclosed herein are illustrative examples or embodiments of the invention and are not intended to otherwise limit the scope of the invention in any way. For the sake of brevity, conventional electronics, control systems, software development and other functional aspects of the systems (and components of the individual operating components of the systems) may not be described in detail. Furthermore, the connecting lines, or connectors shown in the various figures presented are intended to represent exemplary functional relationships and/or physical or logical couplings between the various elements. It should be noted that many alternative or additional functional relationships, physical connections or logical connections may be present in a practical device. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as” or “for example”) provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate the disclosed embodiments and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention unless otherwise claimed. Moreover, no item or component is essential to the practice of the invention unless the element is specifically described as “essential” or “critical”.
As the disclosed embodiments are described with reference to illustrations, various modifications or adaptations of the methods and or specific structures described may become apparent to those skilled in the art. All such modifications, adaptations, or variations that rely upon the teachings of this disclosure, and through which these teachings have advanced the art, are considered to be within the spirit and scope of the invention. Hence, these descriptions and drawings should not be considered in a limiting sense, as it is understood that the invention is in no way limited to only the illustrated embodiments.
It will be recognized that the terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having,” as used herein, are specifically intended to be read as open-ended terms of art. The use of the terms “a” and “and” and “the” and similar referents in the context of describing the embodiments (especially in the context of the following claims) are to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural. Furthermore, recitation of ranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each separate value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. Finally, the steps of all methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.
Claims
1. An apparatus to regulate the temperature of a beverage near a seat of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
- a base including a thermally conductive material that conducts heat in a direction that is at least one of to or from a container seated thereon;
- a thermoelectric device thermally coupled with the base and to be energized to exchange heat with the base; and
- a heat exchanger thermally coupled with the thermoelectric device and a liquid medium to exchange heat therebetween.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the liquid medium is air, the apparatus further comprising a fan that blows air in thermal contact with the heat exchanger.
3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the thermoelectric device is to be energized by a power supply to heat the base.
4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the thermoelectric device is to be energized by a power supply to cool the base.
5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a switch that changes a polarity of a power supply that energizes the thermoelectric device, wherein a first state of the switch causes the power supply to cool the base, and a second state of the switch causes the power supply to heat the base.
6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the base further includes a lock that mates with a key of an extension insert to secure the extension insert on the base, the extension insert dimensioned to receive a container holding the beverage.
7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the base further includes a recessed portion dimensioned to receive a container holding the beverage.
8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:
- a power supply; and
- a processor to control the power supply to maintain a temperate of the beverage.
9. A seating area of a vehicle, the seating area comprising a temperature regulating apparatus including:
- a base including a thermally conductive material that conducts heat at least one of to or from a container seated thereon;
- a thermoelectric device thermally coupled with the base and to be energized to exchange heat with the base; and
- a heat exchanger thermally coupled with the thermoelectric device and a liquid medium to exchange heat therebetween.
10. The seating area of claim 9, further comprising a second temperature regulating apparatus including:
- a second base including second thermally conductive material that conducts heat to or from a second container seated thereon;
- a second thermoelectric device thermally coupled with the second base and energized to exchange heat with the second base; and
- a second heat exchanger thermally coupled with the second thermoelectric device and a second liquid medium to exchange heat therebetween.
11. The seating area of claim 9, wherein the liquid medium is air, the temperature regulating apparatus further comprising a fan that blows air in thermal contact with the heat exchanger.
12. The seating area of claim 9, wherein the thermoelectric device is to be energized by a power supply to heat the base.
13. The seating area of claim 9, wherein the thermoelectric device is to be energized by a power supply to cool the base.
14. The seating area of claim 9, further comprising a switch that changes a polarity of a power supply that energizes the thermoelectric device, wherein a first state of the switch causes the power supply to cool the base, and a second state of the switch causes the power supply to heat the base.
15. The seating area of claim 9, wherein the base further includes a lock that mates with a key of an extension insert to secure the extension insert on the base, the extension insert dimensioned to receive a container holding the beverage.
16. The seating area of claim 9, wherein the base further includes a recessed portion dimensioned to receive a container holding the beverage.
17. A method comprising:
- energizing a thermoelectric device at a vehicle seat to a first state to cool a beverage container thermally coupled to the thermoelectric device when a first user input is received; and
- energizing the thermoelectric device to a second state to heat the beverage container when a second user input is received.
18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:
- exchanging first heat between the thermoelectric device and a heat exchanger; and
- exchanging second heat between the heat exchanger and a liquid medium.
19. The method of claim 17, wherein energizing the thermoelectric device to the first state comprises applying an electrical current to a Peltier device, and energizing the thermoelectric device to second state comprises applying an opposite electrical current to the Peltier device.
20. The method of claim 17, wherein the first user input corresponds to a first position of a switch, and the second user input corresponds to a second position of the switch.
Type: Application
Filed: May 25, 2011
Publication Date: Dec 1, 2011
Applicant: B/E Aerospace, Inc. (Wellington, FL)
Inventor: Qiao Lu (Placentia, CA)
Application Number: 13/115,210
International Classification: F25B 21/04 (20060101); F25B 21/02 (20060101);