The invention relates to a cup used to serve coffee, tea, milk and other similar drinks and made according to the preamble of claim 1.
WO 82/01813 discloses a shaped disposable insert and a holder thereof of the above mentioned kind. The insert is adapted in said holder having a bottom and side wall portions to define a receiving space for said insert. The insert comprises a thinwalled bottom portion and a sidewall joined thereto, said sidewall having a thinwalled lower portion and a relatively stiff upper portion . A relatively stiff upper collar is joined to and extending downwardly from an upper edge of the said sidewall. Furthermore the insert comprises means for locating said insert in said holder being formed by at least one projection extending anularly around one of the said stiff upper portion and said downwardly extending collar. This means are spaced from the insert upper edge and said projection engaging the sidewall portion of said holder near an upper edge of said holder to position said insert in said holder. The holder is characterised in a bottom portion and a sidewall to define receiving space for an insert. The holder sidewall has an inside surface and an outside surface and a recess extending annularly around upper portion of the holder sidewall in one of said inside surface and outside surface and adapted to receive a projection on an insert collar to locate the insert in the holder. The facing surfaces of the holder and of the insert comes into contact merely at the bottom surfaces and at the collar. The recess and the projection of the holder and of the insert are positioned in an intermediate level of the upper edge and of the lover edge of the collar.
WO 85/03490 discloses a drinking vessel comprising a first member adapted to hold liquid and a second vessel member associated with but separated from the first vessel member to form a barrier against the formation of condensation on the exterior surface of the second vessel member when cold liquid is contained in the first vessel member. In one embodiment, the first vessel member comprises a removable insert which conforms generally to the configuration of the second vessel member to form a double walled drinking vessel. A sanitari lip extends downwardly from the top edge of the insert and is proportioned and oriented to prevent a persons lip from contacting the second vessel member when the person takes a drink. The drinking vessel includes ribs or serrations or, preferably a plurality of protuberances and engagement ridges, ridge segments or recesses associated between the insert and the second vessel member to provide secure friction fit therebetween yet permitting the removal of the insert for disposal and subsequent replacement. The insert comes into contact with the first vessel only at the upper end, substantially in the region of the lip. The ribs or serrations are provided at the inner surface of the collar facing the outer upper portion of the surface of the second vessel member. The collar of the first vessel member is conical and oriented outwardly in the direction of the free edge. The free edge of the collar projects freely radially outward at a certain distance from the facing external surface of the second vessel member forming a sharp edge.
The aim of the invention is to provide a drink cup of the above mentioned type which may assure the maximum hygiene, avoid the loss of heat through the users hands, have a style and it may be of prized material and not fastidious for the user. Furthermore the invention aims to guarantee the ready application of the film to the container inside surface, without forming air pockets which prevent its adhesion and reduce its capacity allowing that the throwaway film stays fixed to the container during the use and can be readily removed subsequently.
The invention reaches the about mentioned aims with a drink cup of the kind described at the beginning which shows the combination of features of the characterising part of claim 1.
Claim 2 discloses a further improvement of the drink cup according to the invention.
Thus the invention provides a container for drinks, which may assure the maximum hygiene, avoid the loss of heat (in the case of hot drinks) through the user's hands, and, meanwhile, have a style and it may be made of prized material.
For these purposes the invention solves this problem with the application to the container of a covering constituted by a throwaway film made of waterproof proper material, having the shape of its inside surface.
The container and the throwaway film are made so that the throwaway film stays fixed to the container during the use and can be readily removed, subsequently.
The invention solves the problem of guaranteeing the ready application of the mentioned film to the container inside surface, without forming air-pockets which prevent its adhesion and reduce its capacity.
The invention is described in detail below, with the help of drawings illustrating particulars of the container and waterproof film.
The following drawings relate to the application of the invention either to a coffee or a tea cup, but the same devices could be used on containers, whichever shape and dimension they have.
In particular:
According to this invention, the cup is a set of a container (1) and a film made of waterproof material (4), having the shape of the container inside surface.
On its outside surface the container has a groove (2) parallel to the upper edge, distant one or two cm. from the edge itself (1a).
The groove (2) has such a dimension that it is able to lodge the semitoroidal section edge, which runs along the edge of the semitoroidal groove (5) of the film itself.
On the bottom of the container (1) there is a vent-hole (3), in order to facilitate both the film (4) application and its removing.
When the semitoroidal groove is placed on the edge of the container keeps fixed to it.
In accordance with the invention, the cups have any shape and dimension.