Pitcher for flexible bags of liquid

Abstract

Our design is of a rigid pitcher for holding thin-wall flexible bags of liquid such as milk, juice, wine, or other liquids. The pitcher has no moving parts, is reusable, with sides, and bottom to support the bag of liquid placed inside the pitcher. The pitcher has an inner contoured shape along with a bottom surface with an elliptical shaped opening to allow air to escape as the bag of liquid is placed into the pitcher which provides for easy bag insertion into the pitcher. The pitcher has a molded spout with a narrow flared slit to hold the top front side that does not require the user to hold the bag with their fingers for a controlled pour. The pitcher has a handle rounded on all sides to provide a firm comfortable grip while holding the pitcher.

Description

Description Background: Today, many beverages, especially milk, are packaged and distributed around the world, including Canada, in flexible plastic bags in standard sizes ranging from 0.5 to 1.3 litres. These bags are placed in rigid reusable pitchers to facilitate upright storage and pouring. The end user places the bag of liquid into a pitcher and cuts off the top front corner of the bag to pour the liquid out of the bag. This bag-pitcher combination is used by millions of people but the overwhelmingly common pitchers suffer significant drawbacks that detract from the user experience, including an inner pitcher shape and dimensions that make it difficult to drop the bag into the pitcher, or an inner pitcher shape and dimensions that are large enough to provide for easy bag insertion but do not adequately support the bag once inserted, resulting in excessive bag movement and sloppy pours. These pitchers also lack support for the upper-front corner of the bag, requiring the user to use two hands while pouring: one hand to hold the pitcher handle, and one hand to hold the the bag during pouring to prevent spilling. These common pitchers have solid bottoms, and because the inside dimensions of the pitcher must align with those of the plastic bags to hold the bags upright, the fit of the bag to the pitcher is rather tight at the bottom. This tight fit does not allow air below the bag to easily escape as the bag is lowered into the pitcher which creates an air cushion below the bag inside the pitcher. The user must make accommodations by bending the side of the bag, inserting their fingers between the bag and the pitcher walls, shaking the bag, etc. to allow air to escape so the bag can reach the bottom of the pitcher. The result is inefficiency and frustration to the everyday task of putting a flexible bag into a pitcher and pouring liquid out of it. The common pitchers are designed such that several centimetres of the top of the bag are exposed and unsupported, which requires the user to hold the top front of the bag Page 1 of 4while pouring, or if the user is unable to hold the open corner of the bag while pouring, this can result in the unsupported bag moving around, causing messy pours. The typical pitchers are designed with a partial half-open oval curved handle. The curved portion is closest to the pitcher body and is gripped by the user’s fingers. The open portion of the handle away from the pitcher body is hollow with straight sharp edges that push into the user’s palm, creating an uncomfortable grip. Patent application 2524957-Raposo provides for a pitcher to hold the bag at the top using multiple moving parts with hinges that clamp the top length of the bag. Patent application 1254540-Farquharson provides for a pitcher that holds and seals the bag with a multi-part moving zipper-like mechanism that holds the bag and opens and closes the bag opening. While these inventions provide potential improvements to pitchers, they are complicated and involve multiple parts and sub-assemblies. Description of Drawings: • Figure 1 is an isometric drawing of the pitcher • Figure 2 is side view of the pitcher • Figure 3 is a top view of the pitcher • Figure 4 is a front view of the pitcher • Figure 5 is a side view of the pitcher showing a flexible bag of liquid being lowered into it. • Figure 6 is a side view showing a bag of liquid inserted into the pitcher and the top front of the bag resting in the spout slit • Elements of the figures are labeled as follows: 10 Pitcher device 11 Handle 12 Bottom surface 13 Bottom hole 14 Upper major diameter 15 Bulge area major diameter below upper major diameter Page 2 of 416 Major diameter below bulge area 17 Spout 18 Spout slit 19 Spout slit flared surface 20 Top opening 21 Flexible bag of liquid 22 Top front corner of flexible bag Detailed Description of Our Design: In our design, the pitcher

[10] is a rigid thin walled vessel made to hold flexible bags of liquid

[21] such as milk, juice or other liquids. The pitcher bottom

[12] has an opening or hole

[13] large enough to allow air to escape as the bag of liquid is placed into the pitcher, depicted in Figure 5. This is to minimize the creation of an air cushion, and to make the bag easy to place into the pitcher. At the top of the pitcher the inside elliptical shape has major and minor radii that provide an opening

[20] at the upper diameter

[14] as shown in Figure 2 that is large enough to accommodate placing the flexible bag of liquid down into the pitcher, as depicted in Figure 5, but is also appropriately sized to hold the bag in place during pouring. Below this dimension, the interior shape elliptical major diameter becomes larger, creating a bulge area major diameter [15 ] which increases the interior volume at that part of the pitcher that is large enough to allow air to escape while a bag of liquid is placed in the pitcher; which helps to reduce an air cushion from forming in the pitcher below the bag as the bag is lowered into the pitcher. Below the bulge area diameter

[15] the elliptical shape major diameter of the interior becomes smaller

[16] to provide an appropriate fit between the pitcher inner diameters and the flexible bag of liquid. In total, the change in interior dimensions from the top down through the middle, to the bottom provide an interior that allows the flexible bag to be easily placed into the pitcher while also holding it firmly in place during pouring so the bag does not slip out. Our design features a spout area

[17] with a slit having curved protruding sides

[18] . The spout is designed to support the bag when the pitcher is at rest and when tilted Page 3 of 4forward during pouring. The spout area

[17] provides has a slit

[18] with an opening large enough to allow the top front corner of the bag

[22] to be easily pulled through the slit by the user while providing a close enough fit to hold the bag corner during pouring. The spout’s slit curves outward

[19] from the inside of pitcher creating an increased contact area between the slit interior surface and the bag corner that is pulled into the slit. The geometry of the slit surface area allows for the bag to be easily pulled into the slit, but inhibits the movement of the bag in the opposite direction and holds the bag in the slit during repeated pours and at rest. The slit

[18] is at the appropriate height to allow the user to pull a bag forward and into the slit such that the bag corner is secured but the opening in the top front corner of the bag

[22] is above the slit allowing liquid to pass through the hole when the pitcher is appropriately tilted. Because the top corner of the bag is secure in the slit

[18] as depicted in Figure 6, the user is able to have a smooth, clean pouring of the liquid, with only one hand holding the pitcher handle, and no requirement for the user’s second hand to hold the bag up during pouring. Our pitcher design has a handle [11 ]that is rounded on all sides and attaches at two points to the pitcher near the top and bottom of the pitcher body. This fully rounded design allows the user to completely grip the handle across a larger surface area of their fingers and palm. This provides the user the ability to grip the handle more firmly without the drawback of the handle flexing, or the edge of the handle uncomfortably digging into their palm. Page 4 of 4

Claims

Claims The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A rigid pitcher with thin wall and bottom, and hollow interior to hold flexible bags of liquid; a handle to hold, lift and tilt the pitcher; a hole in the bottom surface of the pitcher; a spout feature to support the top front open corner of a flexible bag of liquid; 2. The device in claim 1 has bottom surface with a hole in it large enough to allow air to escape while a bag of liquid is placed in the pitcher; said hole helps to reduce an air cushion from forming in the pitcher below the bag as the bag is lowered into the pitcher.

3. The bottom surface in claim 2 is a surface large enough to support the bottom of the bag while accommodating the hole in claim 2.

4. The device in claim 1 is has a hollow elliptical shaped interior with diameters, slope and taper that allows the bag of liquid to easily slide into the pitcher’s interior but adequately supports the bag once inserted; 5. The interior in claim 4 has an upper elliptical shape with major and minor diameters that is large enough to allow a milk bag to pass through as the bag is lowered into the pitcher.

6. The interior in claim 4 has an elliptical shape whose major diameter increases through several millimetres then decreases to create a bulge in the pitcher large enough to provide space for air to go while a bag of liquid is placed in the pitcher; said bulge reduces the formation of an air cushion in the pitcher below the bag as the bag is lowered into the pitcher.

7. The interior in claim 4 has an elliptical shape below the bulge feature in claim 6 with major and minor axes sized to firmly support the bag once fully inserted.

8. The device in claim 1 has a spout area in the top front of the device that supports top front of the bag with a pouring hole in it that supports the bag while the pitcher is sitting upright or is tilted while the liquid is being poured; 9. The spout in claim 8 has a narrow vertical slit several millimetres long that holds the top front of the bag such that the bag is held in the slit and pouring hole cut in the top Page 1 of 2front corner of the bag is above the top of the spout slit allowing for milk to pour out through the hole when the pitcher is lifted and tilted to pour the liquid out of the bag.

10. The vertical slit in claim 9 has dimensions and geometry that allow the top front corner of the milk bag to be easily pulled through it while maintaining contact between the surfaces of the vertical slit and the bag.

11. The vertical slit in claim 9 has curved surfaces arching from the inside of the pitcher to the outside that creates a protruding curved surface on the outside surfaces of the spout in the slit area with said geometry creating an increased surface area contact between the interior slit surface and the flexible bag inserted in the slit which holds the top front corner of the bag in place at rest and during pouring while still allowing sufficient liquid to pass. Page 2 of 2