US20030189046A1

US20030189046A1 - Drink can

Info

Publication number: US20030189046A1
Application number: US10/406,547
Authority: US
Inventors: David Quispe Gonzalez
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2002-04-05
Filing date: 2003-04-03
Publication date: 2003-10-09
Also published as: DK1350729T3; PT1350729E; ATE317802T1; EP1350729A1; ES1051674U; SI1350729T1; DE60303584D1; ES1051674Y; EP1350729B1; ES2258707T3; DE60303584T2

Abstract

This drinks can is made up of a hollowed out sheet body (1) that has a vertical sheet forming a dividing wall (2), its entire periphery fixed to the base (12) to the side wall (11) and to the lid (13) of the drinks can; said vertical wall divides the internal space of the can into two separate compartments (21 and 22) which contain two separate drinks; the lid (13) has some separate easy opening means (21a and 22a) in the areas corresponding to each one of the separate compartments (21, 22) to enable their separate opening and corresponding valves (21b and 22b) that only allow the drink contained in one compartment (21 and 22) to exit when the can is tilted towards the corresponding side of said compartment (21 and 22).

Description

RELATED U.S. APPLICATIONS

Not applicable.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

REFERENCE TO MICROFICHE APPENDIX

Not applicable.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention refers to an improved drink can, being of the type that is made up of a hollowed out sheet body, having a side wall that extends from the base upwards, and with a lid whose edge is fixed in a permanent way around the periphery of the upper part of the side wall; said lid being fitted with an easy opening device, which includes a line of weakening that outlines a part of the lid which can be torn away by means of a ring pull.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

At the present time drink cans are widely known, having a hollowed out sheet body and a lid that is fitted in an immovable way to the mouth of the lid, the lid having a line of weakening aimed at forming the outline of an opening for the extraction of the drink when the breaking of the lid is made by means of lifting the ring pull.

These cans form an internal space in which the drink is kept until the moment of its opening, and they are sized to contain the amount of drink that approximately corresponds to one consumption.

When the consumer wishes to make combination of two different drinks, for example: lemonade-beer, beer-soda water, lime-lemon, etc., he/she must use the contents of two cans, or of one can and a bottle that contain the corresponding drinks. This causes a problem, on one hand because of the high cost of the consumption, due to the need of purchasing two drink containers, and on the other hand, because the amount of drink obtained greatly exceeds the normal amount consumed, which in the majority of cases means wastage of a significant part of same. This is especially so on taking into account that once the cans have been opened they cannot be used to keep the drink for a later consumption as they lack the means to close them.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to solve the problems mentioned, the idea has been thought up of an improved drink can, aim of the invention, that has some constructional peculiarities aimed at allowing the packing of two different drinks in the same can and keeping them separate on the inside.

The drink can, aim of this invention, of the previously mentioned type, that is made up a hollowed out sheet body, having a side wall that extends from the base upwards, and with a lid being fitted with an easy opening device; it has the peculiarity that the hollowed out sheet body, forming the can has an internal vertical wall fixed to the entirety of its periphery at the bottom, to the side surface and to the drink can lid, forming two independent compartments inside said can for the purpose of containing two different drinks.

Thanks to the incorporation of this dividing wall, the drink can is able to hold two drinks separately that can be consumed on separate occasions or together forming a mixed drink, which resolves the problem explained in the previous section.

According to the invention, the can lid has separate means of easy opening in the zones corresponding to each one of the compartments. This facilitates the individualized opening and extraction of the drink contained in same.

Likewise, the compartments have been provisioned with respective valves connected to the area of the location of the easy opening device in order to allow the exit of the drink contained in one compartment when the can is inclined towards the corresponding side of said compartment keeping the other exit closed.

Therefore, the aim of these valves is to prevent the involuntary spilling of the contents of any one of the compartments while the can is inclined in the opposite direction, in order to extract the contents from the other compartment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to complete the description that is going to be made below and for the purpose of helping to give a greater understanding of its characteristics, the present description is accompanied by a set of drawings, which are by way of illustration and not by way of limitation. [0014]
FIG. 1. Showing a perspective view of the improved drinks can, in the lid of which, the means of opening of each one of the inner compartments can be seen. [0015]
FIG. 2. Showing a schematic section view of the can in a vertical plane in which the vertical wall can be seem which divides the can into two separate compartments for different drinks. [0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As can be seen from the referred to drawings, the drink can has a hollowed out sheet body, generically referenced in its entirety as ([0017] 1) and which is made up of a side wall (11) that extends from the lower base (12) and by an upper enclosing lid (13) fixed around its periphery to the upper part of the side wall (11) in an immovable manner.
On the inside of the hollowed out sheet body ([0018] 1) there is a vertical sheet forming a dividing wall (2), with it's entire periphery fixed to the base (12), to the side wall (11) and to the lid (13).
Said vertical wall ([0019] 2) divides the internal separate space of the hollow body (1) into two compartments (21 and 22), which contain two separate drinks.
In turn, the lid ([0020] 13) has some easy opening means (21 a and 21 b) represented schematically by the respective ring pulls in the areas corresponding to each one of the separate compartments (21 and 22).
In the example of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the compartments ([0021] 21 and 22) have some easy opening means (21 a and 22 a) connected to the respective compartments with some valves (21 b and 22 b) that only allow the exit of the drink contained in one compartment (21 and 22) when the can is tilted sideways corresponding to said compartment (21 and 22).
Once having sufficiently described the nature of the invention, in addition to an example of its preferred embodiment, to whom it may concern let it be known that the materials, shape, size and arrangement of the elements described can be modified provided that it does not mean an alteration to the essential nature of the invention that is claimed below. [0022]

Claims

I claim:

1. Drinks can, of the type that is made up of a hollowed out sheet body (1), having a side wall (11) that extends from the base upwards (1), and with a lid (13) whose periphery is fixed in a permanent way around the periphery of the upper part of the side wall (31); said lid (13) being fitted with an easy opening device, which includes a line of weakening that outlines a part of the lid which can be torn away by means of a ring pull and characterised in that the hollowed sheet body (1) has a dividing wall (2) on its inside that is fixed along the entirety of its periphery to the base (12), to the side surface (11) and to the lid (13) of the drinks can; this arrangement forms two separate compartments (21 and 22) on the inside of said can for the purpose of containing two separate drinks; and in that the lid (13) has some easy opening means (21 a and 22 a) connected to the respective compartments at the areas corresponding to each one of the compartments (21 and 22) for their individualized opening and the separate extraction of the drinks contained in same.

2. Drinks Can, according to the previous claim, characterised in that the compartments (21 and 22) have connected to the areas of location of the opening means (21 a and 22 a) corresponding valves (21 b and 22 b) that only allow the drink contained in one compartment (21 and 22) to exit when the can is tilted sideways towards the corresponding said compartment (21 and 22).