Cooling wrap

An improved wrap including a pouch formed by opposed inner and outer faces. A first blanket made of a heat absorbing material is integrally attached to a second blanket made of a heat insulating material. The joined first and second blankets are permanently insertable into the pouch. Fastening means are attached to opposite ends of the pouch so that the ends of the pouch may be secured together after the pouch has been wrapped around a fluid container. The fastening means also serve to hold the integrally connected first and second blankets in position within the pouch.

TECHNICAL FIELD 
The present invention relates to a flexible wrap used around a fluid 
container, such as a beverage can, for keeping the fluid cool. More 
particularly, this invention relates to a flexible and removable 
multi-layer wrap having an integral heat absorbing layer and a heat 
insulating layer. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Flexible wraps are used around individual beverage containers, such as cans 
or cups, for keeping the beverage cool. These wraps typically employ some 
type of heat absorbing material which extracts heat from the beverage. 
This material is usually precooled to enable absorption of heat. In 
addition, the heat absorbing material is often insulated by a layer of 
material with low thermal conductivity. One such prior device, known as 
the Ice Wrap, is manufactured by Cordy Corporation of Minnesota. This is 
described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/546,534 to Ken Hewlett, 
et al., inventor of the present invention filed on June 29, 1990 and 
entitled COOLING WRAP AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING. The Cordy Corporation 
device does not feature an integral heat absorbing and insulating blanket 
but requires the user to insert a cold pack into a pocket prior to each 
use. Since the wrap does not require cooling, the wrap and cold pack are 
usually stored separately and the potential for misplacing one or the 
other is present. 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,668 to Williamson discloses another example of a 
beverage cooler of this general type. In one embodiment, the cooler 
includes a pocket for receiving a coolant layer that has been pre-cooled 
in a refrigeration device. An insulation layer is located adjacent the 
coolant layer. Fasteners on the ends of the device are used to secure the 
ends together after the device has been wrapped around a beverage 
container. The fasteners may include Velcro strips. 
One problem in manufacturing these prior wraps, including that shown in the 
Williamson patent, is the difficulty in aligning the multiple layers 
thereof and securing them together. For example, the insulating layer 
comprises a relatively thick blanket of insulative fabric. This blanket 
has to be faced with the material forming the pocket for the coolant 
layer. Then, this assemblage has to be put into a sewing machine and sewed 
together. This can be relatively difficult to do, given the thickness of 
the materials and the need to keep them aligned while the assemblage is 
turned in the sewing machine during the sewing operation. 
Prior art wraps have also suffered from difficulty of manufacture and from 
the tendency of the heat absorbing material to move to undesirable 
locations. Upon applying prior art wraps, the localized force generated 
tends to reposition the elements of the wrap such that their performance 
is substantially degraded. 
It is one object of this invention to provide an improved flexible 
multi-layer wrap for keeping a fluid container cool including an integral 
heat absorbing and heat insulating layer permanently contained within the 
wrap. 
It is another object of the present invention to provide a heat absorbing 
material integrally fastened to a heat insulating material. 
It is a further object of the invention to provide a flexible wrap after 
substantial cooling of the wrap has occurred. 
Accordingly, an improved wrap of this invention comprises providing a pouch 
formed by opposed inner and outer faces. A first blanket made of a heat 
absorbing material is further provided to be integrally attached to a 
second blanket made of a heat insulating material wherein the joined first 
and second blankets are permanently insertable into the pouch. Fastening 
means are attached to opposite ends of the pouch so that the ends of the 
pouch may be secured together after the pouch has been wrapped around a 
fluid container. The fastening means also serve to hold the integrally 
connected first and second blankets in position within the pouch.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
A wrap according to the present invention is illustrated generally as 10 in 
the drawings. As is best shown in FIG. 3, wrap 10 includes a pouch 100 
having a rectangular outer layer 12 and a rectangular inner layer 14. The 
outer layer 12 of the pouch 100 is generally the same size as inner layer 
14 abutted against one face of outer layer 12. All of the layers 12, 14 
are made of a suitable durable, long-lasting fabric, e.g., rayon, nylon, 
etc. 
Still referring to FIG. 3, layers 12, 14 are secured together in a first 
step to form pre-formed pouch 100. In this regard, the layers 12, 14 are 
superimposed over one another with the peripheral edges joined together by 
stitching 102. In one embodiment of the invention, layers 12 and 14 are 
sewn together with their exterior surfaces "face-to-face" so as to form an 
inside-out pouch which is turned right side out when the integral heat 
absorbing blanket and insulating blanket is inserted. 
It is important to note that the words "inner" and "outer" when applied to 
layers 12, 14 refer to the inner and outer sides of the wrap 10 when wrap 
10 is placed around a beverage container 20 as shown in FIG. 1. 
An entrance opening 104 is advantageously provided into the pouch 100 by 
transversely slitting the inner layer 14. Thus, pocket 100 has an open 
slit transverse end and comprises a longitudinally extending pocket for 
receiving an integral heat absorbing and insulating blanket 25 as 
described hereafter. Opening 104 should be somewhat shorter than the width 
of blanket 25 in order to facilitate holding the blanket in place during 
assembly. 
Referring now to FIG. 2, in manufacturing a wrap 10 according to this 
invention, the first step is to form or provide a pre-formed pouch 
assembly 100 as just described, i.e. having inner and outer layers 12, 14 
as set forth above forming a pouch. Then, insulation and heat absorbing 
blanket 25, which is constructed as follows, is slipped into outer pouch 
100 through slit 104. The heat absorbing and insulating blanket 25 is 
formed by joining a heat absorbing layer 30 to an insulating layer 40. The 
heat absorbing layer could be any flexible material consisting of a high 
heat capacity. The heat insulating layer could be any insulating material 
flexible enough to be non-destructively wrapped and suitably bent to be 
installed into the pouch 100 through slit 104. The two layers 30 and 40 
are advantageously bound together with glue using a hot glue gun at glue 
lines 43. Alternatively, the layers may be thermally bonded at the edges 
36. The heat absorbing and insulating blanket 25 is, therefore, 
mechanically stable and will tend to resist bunching and folding relative 
to the entire wrap assembly. The unit 25 will be conveniently referred to 
herein as "the blanket 25". The heat absorbing material may have any of 
numerous suitable forms. One preferred form is to use a material which 
does not freeze solid even when chilled. Thus, heat absorbing blanket 30 
will be flexible even when it is chilled to allow wrap 10 to be wrapped 
around container 20. Note that the heat absorbing layer 30 may preferably 
be a plastic bag containing a non toxic, refreezable and reusable cold 
pack gel 32 of a type which is commercially available. Layer 30 preferably 
includes edges 34 and the gel is contained between the edges 34 in 
compartment 31. The edges 34 are of a suitable width and length so as to 
allow them to be sown through when the fastening means 110, 112 are 
attached without puncturing the gel compartment 31. The insulating layer 
40 may advantageously be comprised of an open or closed cell 3/8" prime 
urethane foam cushion or similar materials. 
Alternatively, it would be possible to use in blanket 30 a heat absorbing 
material which does freeze solid when chilled. In such a case, however, 
the covering for the heat absorbing blanket would be formed with a 
plurality of transverse compartments in which the heat absorbing material 
is contained. These compartments would be separated by transversely 
extending score lines. These score lines are necessary to allow wrap 10 to 
be bent around container 20. 
Referring again to FIG. 3, blanket 25 is sized to fill approximately all of 
the interior space of pouch 100. In addition, blanket 25 is made of 
compressible materials to allow the blanket to be compressed as it is 
inserted into slip 104. Blanket 25 is then pushed into the pouch 100 until 
it clears slit 104, after which blanket 25 will expand to substantially 
fill pouch 100. The expansion of blanket 25, which occurs naturally after 
the constriction formed by slip 104 is passed, will conveniently keep 
blanket 25 retained in pocket 104 since it is now too big to fall back out 
of slip 104 once it re-expands inside of pouch 100. 
In one embodiment of the invention, blanket 25 is folded in half lengthwise 
and held in place by a tooling mechanism having an angular shape suitable 
for holding the folded blanket 25 in place in an upright position. Pouch 
100 is fabricated by sewing layers 12 and 14 "inside out". That is, with 
their decorative exterior faces abutting each other. The pouch 100 may 
then be rolled up similar to a sock and then drawn over the top of the 
tooling mechanism and blanket, covering both but now inverted so as to 
show the exterior faces. An operator can then pull the new inserted 
blanket out of the tooling mechanism. The blanket 25 will expand to fill 
the pouch, which now has its exterior surfaces showing, (i.e. which is 
"right side out"). 
Now referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, after insulation blanket 25 is installed, 
the next step is to provide suitable fastening means on opposed ends of 
wrap 10 and on opposite faces thereof. Preferably, the fastening means 
comprises first and second strips 110 and 112 of Velcro material, i.e. a 
hook and pile fastener. Thus, first strip 110 comprises a strip of Velcro 
pile material and second strip 112 comprises a strip of Velcro hook 
material. Desirably, strips 110 and 112 are simply sewn in a transverse 
direction to the opposed faces of jacket assembly 100 as indicated by 
stitching 114. However, any other suitable fastening means or attachment 
methods could be used in place of Velcro strips 110 and 112 and stitching 
114. 
One of the fastening strips, i.e., Velcro pile strip 110 is sewn to outer 
layer 14, across slit 104. Thus, fastening strip 110 effectively closes 
the entrance opening to pouch 100 after blanket 25 is inserted therein for 
permanently retaining blanket 25 in pouch 100 during use over the normal 
life of wrap 10. The other fastening strip, i.e. Velcro hook strip 112 is 
sewn to the opposite end of pouch 100. It is important to note that the 
fastening strips also are sewn through edges 34 of blanket 25 so as to 
further locate blanket 25 within the pouch and hold it in place. Once the 
fastening means has been attached to jacket assembly 100 as just 
described, wrap 10 may be used. 
Wrap 10, according to this invention, is easier to manufacture than prior 
art wraps of this type. It is much easier to sew the layers 12, 14 forming 
pouch assembly 100 together when blanket 25 is not sandwiched therein. 
Then, it is relatively easy to simply slip blanket 25 into pouch 100 
formed to receive it. The use of one of the fastening strips 110 and 112 
positioned on top of slit 104 is a convenient and inexpensive way of 
closing the entrance to pouch 100 and permanently uniting blanket 25 to 
pouch 100. 
As can be appreciated, the invention is used by placing it in a cold area 
and letting heat escape from the wrap. The wrap is used by pressing the 
releasable hook and pile fastener strips 110 and 112 together. 
After wrap 10 is installed, and beverage container 20 starts to absorb 
ambient heat from the environment, that heat is transferred into heat 
absorbing blanket 30, causing the blanket to gradually warm up and lose 
its stored coldness. In other words, the cold temperature stored in heat 
absorbing blanket 30 is traded off for any heat accumulating in container 
20 tending to heat the beverage. The use of insulating blanket 40 helps 
slow down the rate at which heat is transferred into the environment. The 
net effect of the operation of wrap 10 is that the beverage in container 
20 stays cooler than it would otherwise. This is a desirable advantage for 
keeping drinks cool longer. 
This invention has been described herein in considerable detail in order to 
comply with the Patent Statutes and to provide those skilled in the art 
with the information needed to apply the novel principles and to construct 
and use such specialized components as are required. However, it is to be 
understood that the invention can be carried out by specifically different 
equipment and devices, and that various modifications, both as to the 
equipment details and operating procedures, can be accomplished without 
departing from the scope of the invention itself.