Heat-insulating container

Abstract

A heat-insulating food container includes an injection-molded container body having a bottom wall, a circumferential wall integrally connected to a periphery of the bottom wall and upwardly extending therefrom for defining an inner space and an upper open end, and vertical ribs vertically extending along the circumferential wall. The circumferential wall includes circumferential wall parts respectively having different diameters and arranged in such a manner as to form the circumferential wall with the diameter thereof decreasing in a stepwise manner as it advances downwardly, thereby forming corresponding stepped portions on an exterior surface and an interior surface thereof.

Description

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention[0002] The present invention relates to a heat-insulating container that is suitable for containing therein instant noodles or any other food blocks that can be served after pouring hot water therein, or containing therein a low-temperature food such as a deep-frozen or chilled food block.[0003] 2. Discussion of the Background[0004] In order to place instant noodles such as dried noodles, snack noodles, miso-soup, or hot coffee or cold beverage in a container, some specific structures are employed to provide heat-insulating capability to the container, thereby providing consumers with protection against burns, or ease hand grasping.[0005] An expanded polystyrene foam or any other types of synthetic resin foam, or injection-molding technique are employed to provide such a heat-insulating container, among which an injection-molded container made of polypropylene is frequently used due to a current social demand to an environmentally benign material. An ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] With the above arrangement, the container has an excellent heat-insulating capability and a relatively high strength structure. The container with the stepped portion can be made by a relatively small amount of a resin material, resulting in reduced material costs and light-weight structure, in comparison with the container provided with a thicker wall portion for obtaining a sufficient strength.

[0010] There may be provided a downwardly-facing subsidiary rib extending along the circumferential wall in the circumferential direction thereof with a predetermined clearance with respect to the circumferential wall. The thus arranged downwardly-facing subsidiary rib makes a double-layered structure in cooperation with the circumferential wall, so that the container body may be strengthened. In addition, the clearance defined between the downwardly-facing subsidiary rib and the circumferential wall prevents heat caused by hot water poured into the container body from straightly transmitting to the subsidiary rib. Thus, the user can easily grasp the container body with his or her fingers via the subsidiary rib.

Problems solved by technology

However, the thinner wall of the container poses a problem of deteriorating the strength of the container body.

Particularly, when in contact with hot water, the container itself is softened and easy to deform, resulting in the deterioration in strength of the body.

As a result, the user is unlikely to excessively feel hot via his or her fingers grasping the container 1.

Accordingly, the molten resin are hard to sufficiently flow along any vertical ribs, so that short shot may easy to occur.

This enhances the flow of the molten resin to the vertical ribs 7, but causes insufficient flow of the molten resin into thinner parts between the adjacent vertical ribs 7 on the circumferential wall 3a, which may result in uneven wall thickness of the container body 3 and a higher likelihood of short shot during the injection molding.

It is common that synthetic resin is somewhat softened and hence reduces its stiffness with heat.

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