STRAP DOWN BEVERAGE HOLDER

Abstract

An insulated beverage container holder with a cover for protecting the opened beverage container from contamination from splashed water, dust, or other environmental contamination. The beverage holder has a strap which allows the beverage holder to be strapped to the frame of a raft or similar structure on bikes, canoes, kayaks, hot air balloons, and other structures.

Description

PRIORITY/CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/175,155, filed Jun. 12, 2015, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The presently disclosed technology relates to a beverage container. More particularly, the present invention is an insulated beverage container with a cap to prevent environmental contamination of an opened beverage.

BACKGROUND

There is a need for a beverage holder for use in situations where a can of beverage such as a soft drink or beer needs to be kept cold and at the same time needs to be protected from contamination from the environment. This is especially the case on a river trip in which a user is in a raft and wants to drink a cold beverage. At present a problem is that river water can splash onto the top of the can of beverage. It is possible for river water to be contaminated, such as with Giardia, which would cause the rafter to not want to drink his beverage after even one drop of river water had been splashed onto the top of the can or into the interior of the can. The solution at present is to dump out the beverage if there is any risk of contamination, and open a new container. The disclosed technology is for a beverage container which addresses the need to prevent contamination of the beverage from environmental factors.

SUMMARY

The purpose of the Summary is to enable the public, and especially the scientists, engineers, and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection, the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application. The Summary is neither intended to define the inventive concept(s) of the application, which is measured by the claims, nor is it intended to be limiting as to the scope of the inventive concept(s) in any way.

The claimed beverage holder is a foam container which has an upper and lower portion, which are attached to each other by one or more connecting cords. The container would typically be made of foam and would be approximately ⅜ of an inch thick of foam, with a flat top and a flat bottom. The bottom has a base plate which would typically be of a material such as plastic, which is more rigid and sturdy than the foam of the rest of the container. The base plate would have attached to it a securing strap which would be secured to some structure, such as a tube of a raft, a rowing frame of a raft, the handlebars of a bicycle, the hull, seat or thwart of a canoe or kayak, or various other devices which a person would use and where he would want to have handy a cool or hot beverage.

The upper container body can also have an air vent which allows air to be pressed out of the upper container body, as it is pressed over the top of a can of beverage. The foam is sufficiently snug against the contour of the beverage container that a way to release air makes securing the container easier.

As an option, the lower container body can also have an air vent to allow a can of beverage to be pressed into the lower container body.

One version of the device can utilize slots in the base plate for attaching the securing strap. For instance, the securing strap could go through two slots and have a buckle at one end and a tail at the other end which are connected around something such as the tube of a raft or other structure and tightened, and thus securing and positioning the beverage holder onto a raft or where the user wants it.

The securing strap can also be attached to the base plate by other means such as by riveting or other well known technologies.

The upper container body is attached to the lower container body by at least one attachment cord. A preferred method of attaching is to use two cables which attach the upper body to the lower body. Two cables allow the upper container body to be removed and moved to one side to allow a beverage can to be inserted or removed from the lower container body. When the upper container body is in place on the lower container body, external contamination from a river, or from other contaminants such as rain, dirt and dust is prevented.

The base plate can have a v shaped mounting contour on its underside, which can be used to secure the beverage holder to a mounting position such as bicycle handlebars. The mounting contour can be built into the base plate, or can be added to the base plate in the form of a foam wedge. In addition to the bicycle handlebars, the mounting contour can be used to attach the beverage holder to the frame of a bike, the frame of a raft, or any other element in which a hard round tube of any size would be used as the attachment point for the rubber wedge. The mounting contour may be made of foam, rubber, plastic, or other material with some resiliency to it. The mounting contour can have a slit on at least one side of it, or on both sides, to allow the strap to pass through keeping it secure and centered under the beverage holder. Having the strap passing through the entire system helps keep the beverage holder attached to the strap.

The beverage holder can have the sidewalls, top and bottom made of foam, or an embodiment can have the foam covered on the outside by a hard plastic outside casing.

Still other features and advantages of the presently disclosed and claimed inventive concept(s) will become readily apparent to those skilled in this art from the following detailed description describing preferred embodiments of the inventive concept(s), simply by way of illustration of the best mode contemplated by carrying out the inventive concept(s). As will be realized, the inventive concept(s) is capable of modification in various obvious respects all without departing from the inventive concept(s). Accordingly, the drawings and description of the preferred embodiments are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive in nature

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side view of the beverage holder of the invention mounted to a raft frame.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the mounting contour which attaches to the base plate of the beverage holder

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the bottom side of the beverage holder, showing the base plate and figurines raft.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the beverage holder of the invention showing the upper container body and the lower container body.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

While the presently disclosed inventive concept(s) is susceptible of various modifications and alternative constructions, certain illustrated embodiments thereof have been shown in the drawings and will be described below in detail. It should be understood, however, that there is no intention to limit the inventive concept(s) to the specific form disclosed, but, on the contrary, the presently disclosed and claimed inventive concept(s) is to cover all modifications, alternative constructions, and equivalents falling within the spirit and scope of the inventive concept(s) as defined in the claims.

FIG. 1 is a side view of the beverage holder (10) which is made up of a lower container body (16) and an upper container body (18). The upper and lower container bodies are preferably made of foam material. The interior of the lower and upper container bodies are sized for a particular size of beverage container, such as an aluminum can of beer or a can of pop or other beverage. Different dimensions such as taller, wider or narrower are also possible, to serve to cover a different size of container such as a long neck or wider beverage container. The upper and lower container bodies fit on the beverage container fairly snugly, and when the beverage container is pressed into the lower container body, its entry can be facilitated by a base plate air vent (26). When the upper container body is pressed onto the upper part of the beverage, an upper air vent (24) allows air to escape from the interior of the beverage holder.

The upper and the lower container bodies are connected by an attachment cord (28). This can take many forms of flexible cordage, and can be a woven nylon cord, a solid plastic cord, and with one useful example being a vinyl covered metal cable, which is attached to both the upper and lower container bodies. Shown in FIG. 1 is a raft frame (12) to which the beverage holder (10) is attached using a securing strap (14). Securing strap (14) can take a number of configurations, and would typically be a nylon strap with a buckle of some sort which secures the beverage holder onto the structure such as a raft frame.

Besides being mounted on a frame of raft, beverage holder can be mounted on a handlebar of a bicycle, onto a deck of a kayak, onto the thwart of a canoe, or other recreational devices in which a user would benefit from having a drink available.

Shown in FIG. 2 is a mounting contour (22), which is attached to the base plate (20) and on the bottom of the lower container body (16). The mounting contour is preferably made of soft foam or rubber, so that it can be pressed into the raft frame (12) by the securing strap (14) in order to hold the beverage holder (10) in place. The mounting contour (22) includes strap slots (30) which provide a passage through the mounting contour (22) for passage of the securing straps (14). Securing strap (14) passes through holes in the base plate (20) for attachment.

FIG. 3 shows the bottom side of a base plate (20) of the beverage holder (10). Shown in base plate (20) are strap slots (30) through of which the securing strap (14) passes. The base plate (20) can be an attachment to the lower container body and is typically made of a more rugged material.

The beverage holder (10) shown in FIG. 3 shows an embodiment in which two attachment cords (28) connect the lower container body and the upper container body. This is advantageous so that the beverage container can be accessible by removing the upper container body but can be sealed off again from environmental contamination by placing the upper container body over the top part of the beverage container. By use of the attachment cords (28), the upper container body is readily accessible and is not lost.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the beverage holder (10) showing the lower container body (16) the upper container body (18), the base plate (20), the air vent (24), and a left and right attachment cord (28) which secure the upper container body (18) to the lower container body (16). Also shown is securing strap (14) which in this example has a plastic buckle for securing the strap around a structure such as a raft.

Claims

1. A beverage holder for holding a container of beverage while preventing external contamination, comprising:

a cylindrical lower container body, with an insulated sidewall and a circular base, said lower container body further comprising a base plate with an attached securing strap;

a cylindrical upper container body, with an insulated sidewall and a circular top, and upper container body further comprising an attachment cord with a first end and second end, with said first end attached to said upper container body and with said second end attached to said lower container body;

wherein said securing strap is configured for attaching said beverage holder to an object such as a raft, and said beverage holder closes off said container of beverage from external contamination such as from river water, while providing insulation from heat transfer.

2. The beverage holder of claim 1 in which said upper container body further comprises an air vent which allows air to be expelled out of said holder, while preventing liquid from entering said beverage holder.

3. The beverage holder of claim 1 in which said base plate comprises slots for passage of said securing strap.

4. The beverage holder of claim 1 in which said securing strap is riveted to said base plate.

5. The beverage holder of claim 1 which further comprises two attachment cords connecting said upper and lower container bodies.

6. The beverage holder of claim 1 in which said base plate further comprises a mounting contour, in which a V shape is defined of a resilient material, for mounting said beverage holder to a smaller diameter tube.