Beverage and food containers, outwardly directed foam
AssigneeAppleton Papers Inc.
InventorsJohn Charles DeBraal, John MacKay Lazar
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Beverage and food containers made from sheet material, and methods of making such containers. Such container comprises a layer of paperboard and an expanded foam layer applied as a coating in a liquid carrier, and affixed to a paperboard substrate layer. The expanded foam has a remote surface preferably defined by intermingled peaks and valleys. The sheet material can include a protective cover layer overlying the remote surface. Such cover layer can comprise paper, plastic film, or foamed thermoplastic. The sheet material can include a heat seal layer, with the paperboard substrate layer between the heat seal layer and the expanded foam layer. Preferred composition for the foam layer is PVDC or AMM.
Claims54
A thermally insulating beverage or food container, comprising:
- (a) a bottom wall;
- and
- (b) a side wall extending upwardly from said bottom wall, and having an outer surface and an inner surface, said side wall comprising
- (i) a substrate layer comprising paperboard, and
- (ii) an expanded foam layer having a projected area and defining a remote surface thereof, remote from said paperboard substrate layer, the remote surface being defined by intermingled peaks and valleys, the peaks of the remote surface representing about 25 percent to no more than about 65 percent of the projected area of the remote surface, and
- (iii) a contact layer for contacting contents of said beverage or food container, and defining the inner surface thereof,
- said paperboard substrate layer being disposed between said expanded foam layer and said contact layer.
A thermally insulating food or beverage container, comprising:
- (a) a bottom wall;
- and
- (b) a side wall extending upwardly from said bottom wall, and having an outer surface and an inner surface, said side wall comprising
- (i) a substrate layer comprising paperboard, and
- (ii) a non-syntactic expanded foam layer comprising expanded products of polymeric microcapsules expanded in accord with an earlier-applied heating process, and affixed to the substrate paperboard layer, said expanded foam layer having been applied as a coating of heat expandable microcapsules on said paperboard substrate layer, sufficiently continuous as applied to said substrate layer to substantially cover any uncoated areas of said substrate layer within overall boundaries defined by said expanded foam layer, when said microcapsules were expanded to form said expanded foam layer, so as to prevent a user's finger from descending into such uncoated area and touching said substrate layer when holding said container.
A thermally insulating food or beverage container, comprising:
- (a) a bottom wall;
- and
- (b) a side wall extending upwardly from said bottom wall, and having an outer surface and an inner surface, said side wall comprising
- (i) a substrate layer comprising paperboard, and
- (ii) an expanded foam layer comprising expanded products of polymeric microcapsules expanded in accord with an earlier-applied heating process, and affixed to the substrate paperboard layer, said expanded foam layer having been applied as a coating of heat expandable microcapsules on said paperboard substrate layer, said expanded foam layer having a pre-expanded net wet coating thickness of about 0.001 mm to about 0.076 mm,
- said container, when containing a hot liquid at 100 degrees C., having an outer surface temperature sufficiently cool that an average person can continuously hold such container without temperature-related discomfort.
A thermally insulating food or beverage container, comprising:
- (a) a bottom wall;
- and
- (b) a side wall extending upwardly from said bottom wall, and having an outer surface and an inner surface, said side wall comprising
- (i) a substrate layer comprising paperboard, and
- (ii) an expanded foam layer comprising expanded products of polymeric microcapsules expanded in accord with an earlier-applied heating process, and affixed to the substrate paperboard layer, said expanded foam layer having been applied as a coating of heat expandable microcapsules on said paperboard substrate layer, and having been sufficiently continuous as applied to substantially cover said substrate paperboard layer within overall boundaries defined by said expanded foam layer when said microcapsules were expanded to form said expanded foam layer, so as to prevent a user's finger from descending into such uncoated area and touching said substrate layer when holding a container made from such substrate sheet material,
- said expanded foam layer comprising about 60 weight percent to about 90 weight percent expanded microcapsules and about 40 weight percent to about 10 weight percent binder.
A method of fabricating a thermally insulating beverage or food container having a bottom wall, a side wall, an inner surface, and an outer surface, the method comprising:
- (a) forming a composite thermally insulating paperboard container substrate material by
- (i) forming a mixture comprising heat expandable polymeric particles and a liquid carrier,
- (ii) applying a coating of the mixture to a paperboard substrate layer to thereby form a coated substrate layer having a pre-expanded net coating thickness of about 1 micron to about 76 microns,
- (iii) applying heat to the coated substrate layer and thereby softening and expanding the polymeric particles, and converting the coating of polymeric particles into a layer of expanded foam particles bonded to each other and to the paperboard substrate layer, thereby forming the composite thermally insulating paperboard container substrate material, and
- (iv) applying and bonding a layer of a film-forming polymer to the paperboard substrate layer;
- (b) cutting a container side wall blank from the composite paperboard container substrate material;
- and
- (c) forming the container side wall blank into a container side wall and fabricating such side wall with suitable bottom material to form the insulating beverage or food container.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.