FULLY ADJUSTABLE INSULATING SLEEVE

Abstract

A fully adjustable insulating sleeve with an exterior fabric that is fully printable and which allows an easy hook fastener to attach to it at any point, with reverse side being an insulating hot or cold flexible material such as neoprene.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Insulating sleeves for hot or cold drinks so that they will retain a constant temperature sufficiently long for drinking, are well known and commonly referred to by the brand name “koozie”. Such an insulating wrap sleeve serves two substantial functions. It allows the beverage to retain heat or cold and secondly it insulates the beverage holders hand from the immediate sensation of either hot or cold. The major problem with most available commercial insulating sleeves is that they are not fully adjustable. Full adjustability is important to accommodate the circumference of many different size beverage containers. Most common sleeves are of a sufficient dimension to fit around a common soda pop can or beer can. They do not conveniently fit other dimension beverage containers. There is a need therefore for an insulating sleeve that is fully adjustable. Besides full adjustability the sleeve needs to have an exterior surface material that is fully ink compatible, and also an exterior surface that will easily allow a hook fastener to attach to the surface at any location. In this way full adjustability can be accommodated and the exterior surface can be used for promotion.

Other desirable features for a more universal insulating sleeve would include use of pull tabs to make the fully adjustable product easier for on and off wrapping around beverage containers, use of easily flexible materials, etc.

In short, the units commercially available and previously patented demonstrate through their short comings that there is a continuing need for an insulating sleeve that is 100% adjustable to fit the many and varying dimension beverage containers that are currently commercially available. Also, the exterior needs to be fully printable suitable for advertising material, company logos, and the like. It is a primary objective of the present invention to fulfill these needs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A fully adjustable insulating sleeve with an exterior fabric that is fully printable, and which allows an easy hook fastener to attach to the exterior fabric at any point, with reverse side being an insulating hot or cold material, such as neoprene.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a partially opened sleeve in perspective to allow viewing of the important details of construction.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the sleeve of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the sleeve.

FIG. 4 is another side elevational view showing the exterior of the hook fastener.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view along line 5-5 of FIG. 1 to best show the layers.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A presently preferred embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 1 which represents a partially open insulating coverage beverage sleeve 10. Beverage sleeve 10 is comprised of layered elongated strips. The first elongated outer strip 12 is covered with an easy loop cloth fabric 14 and then bonded to an inner strip 16 of insulating comprised material such as neoprene. Bonding is accomplished by melting the neoprene at the point of contact on a hot melt machine. The molten neoprene functions as the glue holding the outer strip 12 and the inner strip 16 joined together. The laminated layers are illustrated in FIG. 5.

It is best seen in FIGS. 1 and 4 a hook fastener strip 20 is attached adjacent one end of inner strip 16. Attached to hook fastener 20 adjacent its top end is easy open tab 22.

As depicted in FIG. 1 the insulating sleeve is only partially wrapped with its hook fastener open. The sleeve is fully adjustable in that it can be wrapped tighter with the hook fastener suitable for engaging at any desired location of the easy loop cover 14 of outer strip 12. This allows accommodation of any reasonable circumference container, which is a feature simply missing from those now available containers.

As best illustrated in FIG. 2, and as those of skill in the art readily understand, as the fastener strip 20 is pulled tighter the central opening 24 becomes smaller. Correspondingly if one desires to open up this central opening 24, one simply adjusts tab 22 with the hook fastener 20 becoming open, the interior opening 24 adjusts and then hook fastener 20 is closed down again, against the easy loop cover 14 of outer strip 12. The exterior easy loop cover 14 therefore allows full adjustability.

Certain structural features making this fully adjustable insulating sleeve easy to construct are part and parcel of this invention. For example, the interior strip 12 can be made of neoprene or foam rubber or other suitable flexible insulating material. The hook and loop fabric can be the commonly available brand known as Velcro® or other suitable hook and loop compatible fabrics. The exterior loop cover 14 of outer strip 12 can be made of nylon or polyester. The insulating material of the inner strip 16 can be neoprene foam rubber or other suitable flexible materials having insulative capacity and ideally non-skid properties. Neoprene is preferred.

It goes without saying that both the inner strip and the outer strip must be flexible materials to accommodate the wrapping feature.

In short, the combination of materials selected, locations of layers and the hook fastener and the tab all provide that range of adjustment ability to accommodate various bottles, cans and cups of various sizes and shapes, and allows construction of a fully adjustable insulating sleeve which can be made in a simple non-complex manufacturing process at an inexpensive cost.

No other known available insulating sleeve has this combination of advantages and features.

It is to be understood that the phraseology interior strip and exterior strip are made herein in context of their ordinary situation of wrapping around a beverage container. The preferred hook and loop fastener is Velcro®, others are also suitable and contemplated by this present invention.

It therefore can be seen that the invention accomplishes at least all of its stated objectives.

Claims

1. A fully adjustable insulating sleeve, comprising:

a first elongated straight edge outer strip member having an interior surface and an exterior surface, and opposing ends;

said exterior surface being an easy loop cloth fabric surface;

a second elongated straight edge strip of insulating material having opposite ends;

a heat bonding adhesive bonding the insulating material to the interior surface of said first elongated outer strip;

a hook and loop fastener attached to the interior of said second strip adjacent one of said ends;

said first and second strip members being substantially longer than the circumference of most common beverage containers so they may wrap around a container with an overlap, with the hook and loop fastener attaching to the exterior loop cloth fabric surface at any location desired to make the sleeve fully adjustable and to snugly wrap around a common beverage container.

2. The insulating sleeve of claim 1 wherein the exterior surface of said first straight edge strip member is a fully printable cloth material.

3. The insulating sleeve of claim 1 which has a pull tab attached to the one end of said first straight edge outer strip closest to the fastener.

4. The insulating sleeve of claim 1 wherein the second strip of straight edge insulating material is selected from the group consisting of neoprene, foam rubber, and other temperature insulating materials.