Liquid-cooling container lid construction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing liquid container lids fail to effectively enable liquid pooling and heat transfer from lid-pooled liquid prior to liquid egression, leading to inefficiencies in cooling and potential leakage issues, especially with 'soup-on-the-go' containers where thermal expansion causes fit issues and leakage.
Innovation Solution
A liquid container lid construction featuring a damming insert with a liquid-pooling central portion, a liquid-letting inlet, and an outwardly extending peripheral seat flange, which forms an upper liquid-cooling compartment and a lower liquid-containing compartment, allowing for heat transfer and pressure equalization, and a resilient lid-to-container fastening system to prevent leakage during thermal expansion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If a conventional lid construction is used, then the lid can be simple in structure, but it fails to enable effective liquid pooling and heat transfer, resulting in insufficient cooling
Solution Approach 1:
The lid construction is segmented into multiple functional components: a lid body, a damming insert with liquid-pooling central portion, and a resilient fastening system. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function (pooling, cooling, sealing) independently while working together as an integrated system, resolving the contradiction between cooling efficiency and structural simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The damming insert acts as an intermediary element between the liquid container and the lid body. It creates the liquid-pooling central portion that facilitates heat transfer, serving as a mediator that enables effective cooling without requiring the lid body itself to be complex. The insert can be removed or replaced, providing flexibility while maintaining the cooling function.
2Reliability
If a rigid lid-to-container fastening system is used, then the structure is simple, but it causes leakage during thermal expansion
Solution Approach 1:
The fastening system uses a resilient element that changes its physical parameters (elasticity, compression force) in response to thermal expansion. As the container expands with heat, the resilient element compresses or deforms elastically, maintaining continuous contact and seal integrity without requiring a complex adjustable mechanism. This dynamic parameter adjustment resolves the contradiction between reliability and simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The fastening system is specifically designed to accommodate thermal expansion of the container. The resilient element allows for dimensional changes in the container due to heating while maintaining the seal, directly addressing the thermal expansion issue without adding excessive complexity to the fastening mechanism.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If no liquid pooling structure is provided, then the lid construction is simpler, but heat transfer from liquid is insufficient leading to potential burning
Solution Approach 1:
The damming insert with liquid-pooling central portion is installed in advance to create a dedicated cooling chamber. This preliminary structure ensures that liquid automatically pools in the central portion upon filling, initiating heat transfer before the user even accesses the liquid. The cooling action occurs automatically and preliminarily, preventing burn risk without requiring complex active cooling mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The liquid-pooling central portion creates a three-dimensional cooling chamber within the lid structure, adding a vertical dimension to the heat transfer process. Liquid pools in this elevated central portion, increasing the surface area exposed to ambient air and lid materials for heat dissipation before the user consumes the liquid, thereby reducing burn risk through dimensional enhancement rather than complex mechanical cooling.
4Ease of operation
If the lid allows direct access to liquid, then operation is simpler, but there is no cooling function and leakage risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The lid construction integrates multiple functions into a single system: the damming insert provides both cooling (through liquid pooling and heat transfer) and leakage prevention (through the damming action and resilient fastening). The liquid-pooling central portion serves dual purposes of cooling and controlling liquid flow, allowing easy access while maintaining seal integrity. This multi-functionality resolves the contradiction between operational simplicity and reliability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enables efficient liquid pooling and heat transfer from lid-pooled liquid, reducing leakage and improving user safety by maintaining a secure lid fit during thermal expansion, while allowing for direct access to hotter liquid contents.
Implementation Method 1
thermal expansion causes fit issues and leakage
Implementation Method 2
resilient lid-to-container fastening system to prevent leakage during thermal expansion
Implementation Method 3
heat transfer from lid-pooled or lid-compartmentalized liquid
Implementation Method 4
heat transfer from lid-pooled or lid-compartmentalized liquid prior to liquid egression
Data Source
AI summary
A liquid container orifice assembly, lid assembly, and unibody lid construction enable a user to outfit particularized liquid containers for enabling lid-based liquid-pooling or compartmentalization and heat transfer from lid-pooled or lid-compartmentalized liquid prior to liquid egression from a lid-outfitted liquid container prior to liquid consumption. All embodiments provide liquid re-directing or damming structures that operate to control the delivery of hot liquid for promoting heat loss from re-directed liquid flows. Certain structures cooperate with existing art to minimize leakage problems associated therewith. Other structures operate to particularly shape parceled liquid volumes for effecting rapid heat transfers therefrom. Still other structures harness material-philic properties of liquids for further effecting rapid heat transfers and liquid directional control mechanisms. Combinations of the various structural features here noted are also contemplated throughout the following specifications.