Patent Publication Number: US-2015069067-A1

Title: Tray with a plurality of cavities for the freezing and storage of foodstuffs in specific volumes, and methods to stabilize said tray

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention relates to the field of food storage and freezing. More specifically, the invention comprises a tray with a plurality of cavities of specific volumes useful for cooking and calculation of caloric value, a lid, and possibly an external support structure, which is an improvement over current methods of storing and freezing foods and liquids. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     There are vast numbers of products available for the containment, transportation and storage of liquid and semi-liquid foodstuffs. There are also many products that that have been created for the freezing of foods, in various forms of trays. When freezing large quantities of foods and liquids, it is common practice for any number of containers to be used. These can include products specifically designed to freeze liquid, but not foodstuffs (such as ice trays), or products that are designed to store food in general within a single cavity (such as Tupperware or various sizes and types of bowls or other containers). 
     There are currently no food storage or freezing containers that have a plurality of cavities, where the cavities are of specific volumes, where the tray is designed to store or freeze foodstuffs in portions that are useful for cooking recipes. 
     In the current state of the art, ice trays are designed to freeze water in a variety of sizes and shapes, in a plurality of cavities, which are convenient for use in cooling a second body of fluid in a glass or other container. There is currently no ice tray available specifically designed to store or freeze foods or fluids for use in cooking. There are also no ice trays available that create a frozen product that is of a measured volume designed to be useful in cooking or in the calculation of caloric value. Ice trays that are currently available are made from either a hard plastic, or from silicone rubber. The majority of ice trays made from hard plastic do not come with a lid, and none of the currently available trays made from silicone have lids. Silicone ice trays are also designed with vertical sides that make it difficult to remove the resulting frozen product from the tray. 
     General food storage containers are designed to store larger portions of food or liquid, in a single cavity, that can be placed in the refrigerator or freezer. Containers of this type are designed to hold individual volumes that are larger than those held in the individual cavities of ice trays. When these containers are used to freeze and store liquids or food, their product is very large and creates an all-or-nothing scenario for the un-freezing of the liquid or food in question. The volume represented is rarely useful in a situation where the liquid or food will be used in the creation of a recipe, or in portion control, creating an excess, and commonly wasted, amount of food or liquid. 
     None of the currently patented or available products for the storage or freezing of foods and liquids are designed to hold specific volumes of substances in common standardized units of measure, neither imperial nor metric, that are useful in the preparation of food recipes, for a facilitated calculation of caloric value, or for meal portion control. 
     The current patent application pertains to an invention that is used for the containment, transportation and storage of liquids and other non-solid foodstuffs in portions of specific volumes. This allows for useful, specific volumes of liquid or food to be stored and/or frozen for use at a later date. These volumes are also useful in calculation of caloric values, and for easy management of portion size. 
     The invention consists of two main pieces: 
     1. A tray made from a flexible rubber or hard plastic 
     2. A lid made from a rigid material 
     The invention can also include an exterior structure that is attached to the tray to increase the dimensional stability, possibly necessitated by the flexible nature of the material from which the tray is made, and/or if the overall dimensions of the tray render the tray dimensional unstable when handled. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
       The figures in the present disclosure feature a tray with a plurality of cavities. The number of cavities present in the figures is four, and only serves as an exemplar of one possible embodiment covered by this patent. The number of cavities proposed in the current patent (a plurality) is intended to be more than one, and is therefore not limited to four. The present embodiment is also depicted as having horizontal dimensions that are different from each other (forming a rectangular tray). Different embodiments of the current invention can also have horizontal dimensions that are the same. 
         FIG. 1 : Exterior Side View of tray, larger horizontal dimension (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 2 : Exterior Side View of tray, smaller horizontal dimension (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 3 : Exterior Side View of tray with interior cavity visible (hidden line), larger horizontal dimension (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 4 : Exterior Side View of tray with interior cavity visible (hidden line), smaller horizontal dimension (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 5 : Cross-section of tray at center of cavity, larger horizontal dimension (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 6 : Cross-section of tray at center of cavity, smaller horizontal dimension (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 7 : Top view of tray showing the cavity opening&#39;s dimensions (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 8 : Top view of tray showing cavity openings and bottom dimensions of cavities (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 9 : Top view of the lid (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 10 : Side View of tray with lid attached, larger horizontal dimension (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 11 : Side View of tray with lid attached, smaller horizontal dimension (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 12 : Cross-section of tray with lid above, larger horizontal dimension (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 13 : Cross-section of tray with lid above, smaller horizontal dimension (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 14 : Side View of lid, larger horizontal dimension (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 15 : Side View of lid, smaller horizontal dimension (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 16 : Perspective View of tray (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 17 : Perspective View of tray with lid above (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 18 : Perspective View of tray with lid attached (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 19 : Perspective View of internal support structure (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 20 : Top View of internal support structure (one possible embodiment) 
         FIG. 21 : Side View of internal support structure, larger horizontal dimension (one possible embodiment) 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
       FIG. 1 : Shows an exterior side view of one possible embodiment of the current invention. The tray  100  can be made from any material of the family of silicones or plastics considered to be food-safe. In this embodiment, the view is the larger horizontal dimension of the tray, though the tray can have horizontal dimensions of equal length. This view also shows the lip  101  of the tray, which is continuous around the top of the tray. 
       FIG. 2 : Shows an exterior side view of one possible embodiment of the current invention. In this embodiment, the view is the smaller horizontal dimension of the tray, though the tray  100  can have horizontal dimensions of equal length. The lip  101  can be seen in this view, and in combination with  FIG. 1  is shown to travel along the whole top edge of the tray uninterrupted. 
       FIG. 3 : This view is a side view of a larger horizontal dimension in a hidden line drawing of the present embodiment of the invention. The plurality of cavities  300  is visible in this view. This view also shows the wall created by two abutting cavities  301 . The wall intersects with, and is connected to  302 , the lip  101  of the tray, forming the basis of an integrated internal support structure  1900  ( FIG. 19 ) that helps add dimensional stability to the tray when the tray in manufactured from a flexible material, such as silicone. 
       FIG. 4 : This view is a side view of a smaller horizontal dimension in a hidden line drawing of the present embodiment of the invention. The plurality of cavities  300  is visible in this view. The interior wall  301 , the lip of the tray  101 , and their intersection  302  are also represented in this view, showing that with a plurality of cavities on both horizontal axes, supporting ribs are created along both horizontal axes, aiding in dimensional stability. 
       FIG. 5 : This view is a cross-section of the larger horizontal dimension of the present embodiment of the invention. This view shows the opening of the cavities  500  as larger than the bottom surface of the cavities  501 . This difference in dimension creates cavity sides  502  that are angled inward from the opening at the top of the cavity to the bottom wall of the cavity. These angled sides make it easier to remove the contents of the cavities when said contents are frozen. 
       FIG. 6 : This view shows the smaller horizontal dimension having the same wider opening  500  and narrower bottom surface  501  as in the previous horizontal dimension shown in  FIG. 5 , which creates the same angled wall  502  as  FIG. 5 , which aids in the easy removal of substances that are frozen in the cavities. 
       FIG. 7 : Top view of tray showing the plurality of cavities  300 , as well as the lip of the tray  101 . 
       FIG. 8 : This is a top view of the tray showing the top opening of the cavities  500 , as well as the smaller dimension of the bottom surface of the cavities  501 . This view also shows the top view of the interior ribs between the abutting cavities, as well as the intersection  302  of the lip  101  and the ribs  301  view of tray showing cavity openings and bottom dimensions of cavities. 
       FIG. 9 : This view shows a top view of the lid  900 , which can be made from any plastic that is food-safe, or a food-safe metal or ceramic, which may also have the added benefit of increased thermal conductivity to aid in the freezing of the contents of the tray, or a combination of the two. 
       FIG. 10 : This figure is a side view of the larger horizontal dimension in the current embodiment. The view shows the tray  100  with the lid  900  attached. When the lid  900  is attached to the tray  100 , the lid (made from a stiff material such as plastic, ceramic, metal or a combination thereof) adds dimensional stability to the tray when the tray is made from a flexible material. The lid also serves the purpose of food preservation by covering the openings of the cavities in the tray. 
       FIG. 11 : Side View of tray  100  with lid  900  attached, smaller horizontal dimension. 
       FIG. 12 : Cross-section of tray  100  with lid  900  above, along the larger horizontal dimension. This figure shows the channel in the lid  1200  and the indentation on the lip of the tray  1201  that overlap and inter-connect, creating a tight fit that aids in dimensional stability when the tray is made from a flexible material. 
       FIG. 13 : Cross-section of tray  100  with lid  900  above, smaller horizontal. This view shows the channel in the lid  1200  and the indentation in the lip of the tray  1201  that inter-connect. 
       FIG. 14 : Side view of lid  900  along the larger horizontal dimension of the present embodiment. 
       FIG. 15 : Side view of lid  900  along the smaller horizontal dimension of the present embodiment. 
       FIG. 16 : This figure is a perspective view of tray  100  in the present embodiment. 
       FIG. 17 : This figure is a perspective view of tray  100  with the lid  900  above. 
       FIG. 18 : This figure is a perspective view of tray  100  with the lid  900  attached. 
       FIG. 19 : This figure is a perspective view of the integrated internal support structure  1900  created by the different sized opening and bottom surface of the cavities as described in  FIGS. 5 ,  6 , and  8 . The view shows the lip  101  and ribs  301  created by abutting walls, as well where the two intersect and connect  302  to create a single support structure. This structure is an inherent feature of the product due to the specification of the larger opening, smaller bottom surface of the cavities, and abutting walls, and is not a separate piece. 
       FIG. 20 : This figure is a top view of the integrated internal support structure  1900 . The view shows the lip  101  and ribs  301  created by abutting walls, as well where the two connect  302  to create a single support structure. 
       FIG. 21 : This figure is a side view of the integrated internal support structure  1900 . The view shows the lip  101  and ribs  301  created by abutting walls.