WO1993001991A1

WO1993001991A1 - Pre-charged container

Info

Publication number: WO1993001991A1
Application number: PCT/GB1992/001126
Authority: WO
Inventors: Peter Preston
Original assignee: Linpac Plastics International Limited
Priority date: 1991-07-15
Filing date: 1992-06-22
Publication date: 1993-02-04
Also published as: GB9115306D0; AU2152892A

Abstract

In disposable plastics ingredient cups (1) the ingredients to make one cup of beverage are placed in the base (3) of each plastics cup (1) and then filled cups (1) are nested together to form a stack (4). The cups (1) usually include stacking features (5) to support the base (3) of a cup (1) nested inside it and to define a chamber (7) which receives and holds the beverage ingredients. According to this invention a disposable plastics ingredient cup (1) includes ingredients in pelleted or tableted form (6, 8, 9). By providing the ingredients in this form they are substantially dust free and, as a result, substantially no contamination of the sidewalls of the cups (1) takes place and they take up less space than conventional powdered ingredients so that the ingredient chamber (7) formed between adjacent nested cups (1) can be made with a smaller volume.

Description

Pre-charged container

BACKGROUND TO AND FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Disposable plastics ingredient cups are well known and widely used. The ingredients to make one cup of beverage are placed in the base of each plastics cup and then filled cups are nested together to form a stack. The top cup in each stack usually includes a lid or other retainer for its ingredients. The cups usually include stacking features such as a radially inwards projection towards the base of each cup which acts as a stop to support the base of a cup nested inside it and to define a chamber which receives and holds the beverage ingredients. Preferably the stacking features are arranged to form a substantially airtight seal. This helps keep the ingredients in the chamber "fresh" and attempts to hold the ingredients in the ingredient chamber. The beverage ingredients are often formed by powdered freeze dried beverages and invariably have a hygroscopic nature. The complete stack of ingredient cups is surrounded by an outer sealed water impermeable wrapping and thus, the seal between adjacent cups only has to provide a secondary seal to keep the ingredients fresh once the stack of cups has been unwrapped. It is desirable that the stacking features formed between adjacent cups have some flexibility so that the nested stack of cups can absorb shock loads applied to it during transport. EP-A-0,228,867 describes such an arrangement in detail where means are provided in the stacking features which flex to allow the stack to absorb shock loads applied to it. Nevertheless, as the stack of ingredient cups concertinas under the effect of shock loads, air is displaced from each ingredient chamber and this tends to carry with it some of the powdered beverage ingredients so that powdered beverage ingredients coat the side walls of the cups as air containing the beverage ingredients is forced through the annular gap between them during flexing of the stack. Once the outer wrapping is removed any beverage ingredient which is present between the nested side walls of the cups is exposed to the atmosphere and thus tends to absorb water vapour. This is especially true when the stack of cups is loaded into an automatic vending machine since the humidity inside such machines is often very high. As the powdered beverage ingredients absorb moisture from the atmosphere they tend to get sticky and so, when the cups are used they feel sticky and this sticky residue gets on the fingers of the users. Also, the cups do not look as clean and appealing as they should. Another problem with conventional ingredient cups is the size of the ingredient chambers that have to be provided between each pair of nested cups. The volume of this chamber must be sufficient to accommodate the maximum quantity of ingredient that is provided. However it is the volume of the ingredient chambers that determines the spacing between adjacent cups in the stack and hence the maximum number of cups that can be accommodated in each stack of given height. In general the greater the number of cups that can be accommodated in a stack of given height the better. Again as disclosed in our earlier patent specification it is also common to include anti-telescoping features in the sidewalls of plastics cups to prevent the stack telescoping to such an extent that nested cups jam into one another so that they cannot easily be denested in use.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to this invention a disposable plastics ingredient cup includes ingredients in pelleted or tableted form. By providing the ingredients in an ingredient cup in this form they are substantially dust free and, as a result, substantially no contamination of the sidewalls of the cups takes place in spite of a stack of such cups concertinaring to absorb shock loads in use. Another advantage of providing ingredients in this form is that they take up less space than conventional powdered ingredients so that the ingredient chamber formed between adjacent nested cups can be made with a smaller volume. This results in stacks of cups having a shorter height or, being able to nest more cups into each stack of the same height. This reduces the volume of ingredient cups both for transport and storage and, for example, enables an automatic vending machine to hold a greater capacity of cups and so not need to be re-filled so frequently. Preferably the plastic cups include sealing and resilient features as described in EP-A-0,228,867 so that the individual ingredient chambers formed between adjacent nested cups are substantially sealed but so that the cups can telescope to some extent to accommodate transport and shock loads applied to them. In general the ingredients in pelleted and tableted form have an appreciable mechanical strength and, as a result of this, it is possible to dispense with the provision of anti-telescoping features in the sidewall of the cups since, after the stack of cups has telescoped to a sufficient extent to accommodate shock or transient loadings applied to the stack the base of an inner cup engages the ingredients in pelleted or tableted form effectively to prevent further telescoping of the cups in the stack and hence prevent the cups from jamming together.

The ingredients may have the form of a flat pellet, tablet or wafer that is circular and substantially the same size the base of each cup. In this case the ingredients may be formed into a single pellet, tablet or wafer which substantially fills the base of each cup. This arrangement ensures the smallest possible volume of ingredient chamber between adjacent cups. It is also possible to provide the ingredients by a number of thinner pellets or wafers each of substantially the same size as the base of the cup. By dividing a single pellet into two or three separate wafers this firstly increases its surface area to volume ratio to improve its solution or dispersion when water is added to produce a reconstituted drink. Also it enables the quantity of ingredient to be controlled easily by adding two or three wafers to make the reconstituted drink weaker or stronger.

It is sometimes more convenient to handle the ingredients in the form of pellets or tablets of smaller diameter. Such pellets or tablets also have a greater surface area to volume ratio and so are easier to dissolve or dispense in water. In this case, preferably there is only a single layer of pellets or tablets provided on the base of each cup. Even when more than one pellet, tablet or wafer is used the volume of the ingredient chamber required between adjacent cups is considerably less than when conventional powdered ingredients are used.

Hot water may be added to the ingredients to provide hot drinks such as coffee, tea and chocolate or, alternatively, cold water may be added to the ingredients to provide reconstituted fruit juices or fruit squashes. In this case, the pelleted or tableted ingredients may include effervescent material to provide a carbonated drink. The ingredient may also be arranged not to provide a beverage but, instead, a medication or a prophylatic liquid such as a mouthwash. Such ingre-dient cups are particularly useful in situations such as a dentist's surgery.

Where the ingredient cups are used with an automatic vending machine the cup may be arranged to be held by or sit on a vibrating device as water is added to improve the solution or dispersion of the ingre-dients. The vibration may be of ultra-sonic frequency. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Particular examples of ingredient cups in accor-dance with this invention will now briefly be described with reference to the accompanying drawings; in which:- Figure 1 is a cross-section through part of a stack of a first example;

Figure 2 is a cross-section through part of a stack of a second example; and, Figure 3 is a cross-section through part of a stack of a third example. DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EXAMPLES

Plastics cups 1 having a sidewall 2 and a base 3 are nested together to form a stack 4. The sidewall 2 of each of the cups 1 includes an annular radially inwardly projecting shoulder 5 which supports the base 3 of the next cup 1 nested inside it. The exact form of this projecting shoulder 5 is as described in EP-A-0,228,867 and includes means to allow the stack 4 to absorb shock loads applied to it. Ingredients in the form of a single flat disk like tablet 6 are loaded into the lower portion of each cup 1 and substantially fill ingredient holding chambers 7 formed between the bases 3 of adjacent nested cups 1.

The second example is generally similar to the first but in this case the ingredients are formed into smaller diameter tablets 8 and a number of these tablets 8 are loaded into the base of each cup 1. The diameter of the tablets 8 is less than that of the radius of the base 3 of the cup 1. Preferably the individual tablets 8 form only a single layer on the base of each cup 1 and again substantially fill the volume of the ingredient storage chamber 7 formed between adjacent nested cups 1. The third example is again generally similar to the first but in this case the ingredients are formed into a number of separate thinner wafers 9 of similar diameter to the disk like tablets 6. This enables standard wafers to be used to make stacks of ingredient cups of different strength by including, for example two wafers 9 in between each pair of cups 1 in one stack 4 to provide a weaker strength of drink, and three wafers 9 between each pair of cups 1 in another stack 4, as shown in Figure 3, to provide a stonger drink. All three examples of ingredient cup are provided in stacks of a pre-determined height and wrapped in a secondary wrapping 10 shown in chain-dotted lines only in Figure 1.

Claims

C L A I M S

1. A disposable plastics ingredient cup (1) charac¬ terised in that it includes ingredients (6, 8, 9) in pelleted or tableted form.

2. An ingredient cup according to claim 1, in which the ingredients have the form of a flat pellet or wafer (6, 9) that is circular and of substantially the same size as the base (3) of each cup (1) .

3. An ingredient cup according to claim 1 or claim 2, in which the ingredients are provided as a single pellet or tablet (6) .

4. An ingredient cup according to claim 2 , in which the ingredients are provided as a number of separate wafers (9).

5. An ingredient cup according to claim 1, in which the ingredients are provided in the form of a number of pellets or tablets (8) of diameter less than the radius of the cup.

6. An ingredient cup according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the cups (1) includes sealing and resilient features (5) so that individual ingredient chambers (7) formed between adjacent nested cups (1) are substantially sealed but so that the cups can telescope to some extent to accommodate transport and shock loads applied to them.

7. An ingredient cup in accordance with any one of the preceding claims, in which the pelleted or tableted ingredients (6, 8, 9) include effervescent material to provide a carbonated drink. 8. An ingredient cup according to any one of claims 1 to 6 in which the ingredients (6,

8, 9) provide a medication or a prophylatic liquid.

9. A stack of ingredient cups comprising a number of cups (1) in accordance with any one of the preceding claims, nested together and surrounded by a secondary wrapping (10).