The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 19, 2000
Filed:
Mar. 30, 1999
Robert Dam, Aurora, IL (US);
Other;
Abstract
A beverage cup and cupholder system made in accordance with the principles of the present invention includes a beverage cup 10 and a cupholder 50. The beverage cup 10 includes a sleeve 13, a liner 19, and a base 20. The base 20 includes an O-ring 22, a plate 23, a heating element 27 and spring terminals 28a, 28b. The heating element preferably exhibits a variable PTC effect. The base further includes a contact ring 25 and a contact disk 29. The cupholder 50 is adapted to mate with the base 20 of the beverage cup 10. Preferably, the cupholder 50 has recessed land areas 57, 58 which lie below a plane of support 53 for the beverage cup 50. The recessed land areas 57, 58 are electrically isolated from each other. The cupholder includes spring contacts 52, 54 which are adapted to receive connections from an external source of electrical current. The spring contacts 52, 54 extend into the recessed land areas 57, 58. The beverage cup 10, when filled with a hot beverage, is placed into the cupholder 50. As the beverage cup 10 is placed into the cupholder 50, the contact disk 29 and contact ring 25 automatically align with the recessed land areas 57, 58 and make contact with the spring contacts 52, 54. The use of a heating element 27 having a PTC effect maintains a beverage at a desirable equilibrium temperature for an extended period of time.