AU2016390427B2 - Chiller container - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a chiller container (10) for use in an airline in-flight service cart (60), for service of food or beverages. The container (10) has a base (12), having an opening (24) formed by a first pair of opposed sides (16, 18), a front panel (20) and a rear panel (22), A floor (26) is bounded by the opposed sides (16, 18) and the panels (20, 22). Cover (14) for base (12) closes off opening (24) in a closed position and can be folded about fold line (28) which is generally perpendicular to the opposed sides (16, 18), to a partway open position in which the opening (24) is accessible.

Description

Chiller Cant mr

Technical Field

This invention relates to a container intended for use in connection with airline inflight service of food or beverages, Ba ckgrau nd of t e I n ventiort

Commercial passenger aircraft are designed with narrow aisles to maximise passenger seating, When food and/or beverage services are offered to passengers, the food or beverage is dispensed from a wheeled trot ley o cart which is designed to fit within the aisle and which is necessarily narrow. A typical airline cart Is about 300 mm wide^, 400 mm deep, and 920 mm high, with wheels about 50 mm high,, with a door allowing access to the interior.

The interior of a typical airline cart has a number of paired slides or runners, each pair designed to accept a tray with grooves along a pai r of sides, so that the tray may be stored within the cart, loaded with food or beverages, and partially drawn out for service of th food or beverage to assengers,

Food and beverage is usuaiiy loaded onto the aircraft by caterers who have stored them in a refrigerated facility, so that food and beverage are chilled when the aircraft is ready for take-off. However,, it is necessary to maintain food and beverage at a desired temperature for a required period of time during a flight, For example, some public health regulations require that food cannot be served unless it has been maintained at or below 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius). As another example, white wine is desirably served to passengers at a temperature of betwee 48 and 52 degrees

Fahrenheit {9 to 11 degrees Celsius).

The requirement to chill food or beverages during flight, especialiy long-hau! flights, can require the use of 'dry ice' - solid carbon dioxide, which cools as it sublimates. However, i dry ice can be used only once, adds to aircraft weight and costs a significant amount on an annua! basis. it is an object of the present invention, at least in some embodiments, to provide a chiller container whic can maintain food or beverage at a desired temperature, without the use of dry ice.

Disclosure of the invention

Accordingly, this invention provides chi!ier container for use in an airline in-flight service cart, the container including:

- a base avin ; - an opening formed by a first pair of opposed sides, a front panel and a rear panel; and

- a floor bounded by the opposed sides and the panels; and

- a cover for the base, adapted to close off the opening in a closed position wherein the cover is adapted to be folded about a fold fine, which is generally perpendicular to the pair of opposed sides, to. a partway open position in which the opening is accessible.

Preferably., the cover for the container is separate from the container.

In a preferred embodiment, the base has at least one ferrous insert and the cover has at least one side fiap containing a magnet, so that when the cover is in the closed position the cover is heid to the base by attraction between the magnet and the insert. More preferably, there is a plurality of flaps, each containing at least one magnet, it is also preferred that there is a plurality of other ferrous inserts spaced about the opening, so that when the cover is in the closed position the cover is held to the base by attraction between the magnets and the inserts. Further, when the cover is partway open, the magnets and ferrous inerts maintain the remainder of the cover dosed. The ferrous insert is preferably of iron or steel In this embodiment, the magnets preferably have a pull strength of about 5-6 kg, so that the cover is firmly held to the base in the closed position, but may be folded back by use of one hand when access is required. The fold line for the cover may be located at any desired position on the cover, !n one embodiment, it is located approximately half way between the front panel and the rea panel of the base. However, if desired, the fold line may be located closer to the front pane! or closer to the rear panel.

There ma be more than one fold line. For example, if there are two fold lines, the first fold line may be closer to the front panel and the second fold line may be closer to the rear panel. In th is embodiment, if the cover is folded at the first fold line, the access to the opening is more limited, but the contents of the container are less exposed to ambient tem eratures, if the cover is folded at the second fold line, the access Is less limited but there is more exposure to ambient temperatures. There may be more than two fold lines.

To enhance the abi lity of the container of the invention to kee contents chilled, it is preferred that the base of the container is designed to accept one or more low temperature inserts.

The low temperature insert for use with the container of the in vention in this embodiment may be an ice sheet (in which water in smalt separate compartments is frozen) but preferably contains known material such as gel or liquid which may he frozen quickly and which attains: ambient temperature slowly. Such inserts are generally known for use in portable coolers, for example, and are reusable - they may be refrozen and used for many cycles. The base of the containe preferably includes, on the interior of one or more of the opposed sides and panels, a pocket designed to receive the low temperature insert. To maximise the interior space available for food or beverage in the container, it i preferred that the low temperature insert is relatively narrow. In one embodiment, the base has a pocket on each of the panels and opposed sides, so that food or beverage in the container is surrounded b low temperature inserts on ail four sides.

The container of the invention may be made of any desired and appropriate materia!. The base may be made from a material different from that of the cover. Each may be made from a mixture of different materials, It is preferable that the material or materials used provide an adequate degree of waterproofing, to prevent leakage of liquids, and that they meet food hygiene standards.

In a preferred embodiment, the base is made from a plurality of layers: an outside layer of polyvinylchioride (P¥C), and one or more inner layers of insulated aluminium foil, such as a foil-faced bubble wrap.

The cover may be made from the same material as the base, or simply from PVC, using one or more layers,, of sufficient rigidity. The fold line may be formed by a crease in the material of the cover, or by making the cover in more than one piece, the pieces being joined so that there is flexibility for folding at the join.

The cover may have side flaps and front flap and rear flaps extending down to cover part of the opposing sides and the front and rear panels, respectively. There may be one or more magnets in each flap and corresponding ferrous material In the base.

Each of side flaps may have a notch or other means to prevent the flap from interfering with the folding of the cover. Apertures or slits may separate the flaps from each other. in the embodiment of the invention where the base has one or more pockets, each may be made of a synthetic mesh, open at the top to receive a low temperature insert.

The container of the invention may be used in a standard airline cart drawer, usually made of polypropylene and having grooves on opposing sides to run on slides on the interior of the cart. In this embodiment, the container of the invention will be supported in the drawer and may not need to be made of material which is self- supporting. Optionally, Base 12 has reinforcing struts or other means to provide any necessary rigidity. in another embodiment the container of the invention is used alone without a cart drawer and has means such as grooves or a similar arrangement to run on the slides on the interior of the cart, if airline carts are designee! in the future with grooves instead of runners, the arrangement on the containe may be reversed, so that the opposed sides of the base have run ne s.

The container of the invention preferahiy has a handle on the outside of the base to aid in drawing the container out of the cart in use. The handle may be of any suitable design; one example is shown in the drawings.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The invention will now be described in connection with a non-limiting preferred embodiment illustrated by the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view from the front of an embodiment of the container of the invention., with the cover in the closed position;

Figure 2 a perspective view from the rear of the container of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a front view of the container of Figure 1;

Figure is side view of the container of Figure 1;

Figure S is the same view as that of Figure 1, but showing the cover folded back for access;

Figure 6 is the same view as that of Figure 2, but showing the cover folded back for access; Figure 7 Is the same as Figure 5, except that ferrous material and magnets are shown in dashed outline;

Figure 8 shows a frortt view of a typical airline cart, door open, with a single cart drawer inserted; an s Figure 9 is a perspective view of the cart drawer included in Figure 8.

Detailed Description of the Drawings and pecsription of the Preferred Embodiment

It will be appreciated that the drawings are not all drawn to the same scale,

Referring first to Figures 1 to , chiller container 10 has a base 12 and a separate cover 14.

I D Base 12 has a fust pair of opposed sides 16 and IS, a front pane! 20 and a rear panel 22.

Cover 14 closes off opening 24 in the closed position, which is shown in each of Figures 1 to 4. (Part of openin 24 and floor 26 are shown in Figure 5.)

Cover 14 has a fold line 28 shown in dashed outline. Fold Sine 28 is generally

perpendicular to opposed sides 16 and 18. Cover 14 also has side flaps 32 and 34, front is flap 36 and rear flap 38, Each of side flaps 32 and 34 has a notch 40, so that side flaps 32 and 34 do not interfere with the folding action of cover 14, Front flap 36 and rear flap 38 are separated from side flaps 32 and 34 by apertures 42.

Base 12 has a handle 44 for easy gripping when drawing container 10 from the cart (described in relation to Figure 8). 0 Turning now to Figures 5 and 6,, cover 14 is shown having been folded back about fold line 28, to a partway open position in which opening 24 is accessible, in use, the flight attendant need draw container 10 from the airline cart only sufficiently to access the part of opening 24 which has been exposed.

(i Synthetic mesh pockets 46 are attached to each of side panels 16 and 18/front pane! 20 and rear panel 22, so that low temperature inserts {not shown) may be put into pockets 46 t rough mouths 48 located at their u er borders. Food or beverage in container 10 is thus surrounded by low temperature inserts. Each of side panels 16 and 18, front panel 20 and rear panel 22 is made more rigid by reinforcing 50.

Base 12 is made from an outer layer of PVC and multiple layers of aluminium foil-faced bubble wrap, visible on floor 26 at 52.

Referring now to Figure 7, container 10 has a magnet 54 (shown in dashed outline) in each of flaps 36 and 38 and two magnets 5 in each of flaps 32 and 34, one on either side of notch 40. A separate iron insert 56 (shown in dashed outline) extends along a substantial part of each of sides 16 and 18, front 20 and rear 22, close to opening 24. When cover 14 is folded back about fold line 28 as shown in Figure 7, the rear part of flaps 32 and 34 and flap 38 remain connected to base 12 by attraction between the respective magnets 54 and the iron inserts 56, preventing ingress of warm air into container 10 at those locations.

Tests ha ve shown that the container of the invention is capab le of maintaining food or beverage at a desirable low temperature in-flight for at least 24 hours.

In Figu e 8 a typical airline service cart 60 has sides 62 and 64, a fixed rear panel 66 and a door 68. The cart is mounted on wheels 70.

Inside cart 60, runners 72 (only some are labelled) are secured in pairs to sides 62 a d 64. A typical tray 74 is shown mounted on a pair of runners 72. in use, several trays 74 would be mounted on the runners inside cart 60.

Details of tray 74 are shown in Figure 9. Tray 74 has a floor 75 and handles 76 on each of front and rear panels 78 and 80, Grooves 82 run along each side 84 of tray 74, to mate with runners 72 of cart 60. Container 10 is designed to fit snugly in tray 74, which measures about 265 mm in idt , 370 mm in depth and 105 mm irs height. Grooves 82 are approximately 12 mtn high. instead of contain r 10 being designed to fit into tray 74, container 10 may be used without tray 74, provided container 10 has sufficient rigidity, in such an embodiment, container 10 wiil have tM same approximate width arid depth as tray 74 and wiil have grooves like grooves 82 along each side 32 and 34 for mating with runners 72.

Industrial Applicability

As will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the various arts, the Invention disclosed herei is not limited to the examples- set out and represents a significant advance in the relevant art, enabling efficient maintenance of low temperatures for food o beverages for Inflight service, for both long haul and short haul flights- Changes, modifications and variations may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Claims (1)

1. A chille container for use in m airline in-f!tght service cart, the container including:

   - a base havi g:

   - an opening formed by a first pair of opposed sides, a front panel and a rear panel; and

   - a floor bounded by the opposed sides and the panels; and

   - a cover for the base,, adapted to close off the opening in a dosed position- wherein the cover is adapted to be folded about a fold line, which is generally perpendicular to the pair of opposed sides, to a partway open position in which the opening is accessible.

   The container of claim 1, wherein the base has at least one ferrous insert and the cover has at least one flap containing a magnet, so that whe the cove is in the dosed position the cover is he id to the base by attraction between the magnet and the insert

   Th container of claim ¾ wherein the cover has two side flaps, a front flap and a rear flap extending down to cover part of the opposing sides and the front and rear panels, respectiveiy, in the closed position.

   The container of claim % wherein each fiap has a magnet and the base has ferrous inserts correspondi g to each magnet,

   The container of claim 3 or 4, wherein each of the side flaps has a notch.

   The container of any one of claims 3 to 5, wherein the flaps are separated from each other by a ertures. 7, The container of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the fold line is located approximately half way between thefront panel and the rear panel of the base,

   8. The containe of any one of ciaiiTts 1 to 7, wherein the base of the container has one or more interna! pockets, each designed to accept a temperature insert,

   5 9, The container of any one of claims 1 to S, which Is designed to be

   accommodated in a cart tray having means for sliding into the cart,

   10, The container of any one of claims 1 to 8, which has means for sliding into the cart.

   11. The container of claim 9 or 10, wherein the means includes run tiers or grooves. 10 12. The container of claim 1 wherein there is more than one fold line on the cover.