Cup Lid

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the technical field of a cup lid, and in particular, to a cup lid able to allow liquid in a lid body to easily flow out of the lid body from a sip opening or a drink opening separately designed in the cup lid without interfering one another.

Related Art

Along with the increase of outdoor activities, thermos is becoming more and more important than ever because people tend to sweat a lot more than usual daily lives when doing exercises outdoors, such as hiking, mountain climbing, cross-country running . . . etc. Water supply in time is thus crucial to avoid dehydration. Due to different circumstances, there are different ways of water consumption. When taking a stroll in the park and feeling thirsty, people tend to suck water from the thermos through a straw, but when after a basketball game, people tend to gulp from the thermos. In order to cope with different situations, there are designs to deal with users'requirements for water. A published information U.S. Ser. No. 14/598,087 (hereinafter '087) filed on Jan. 15, 2015 claiming priority of U.S. 61/929,081 discloses a lid having a first opening and a second opening respectively defined in a spout. The first opening may provide a first fluid pathway to a fluid disposed in an attached container and the second opening may provide a second fluid pathway to a fluid disposed in the container. From the accompanying drawings, especially FIGS. 5 and 6, it is to be noted that the first opening 30 is defined in a bottom face of the spout 28 and the second opening 32 is defined in a raised wall 36. The first opening 30 is defined closely connect to the raised wall 36 such that when a user is trying to take a gulp of the liquid from the container, the user's mouth needs to cover all the first opening 30 and the second opening 32, which may easily block airflow from entering the container, which seriously hinders water flow. In addition to that, when the user tries to take a gulp and turn the lid to a different direction to allow liquid to flow directly to the first opening 30, liquid may still flow out of the container from the second opening 32.

Accordingly, it is necessary to provide a cup lid to allow liquid to flow out of the container either from the first opening or the second opening without interfering with one another.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention aims to overcome the defects of the prior art, and provides a cup lid, which solves the problem that the interfering problems occur between the first opening and the second opening.

A technical scheme for achieving the foregoing purpose is as follows:

The present invention provides a cup lid having a first opening defined in a bottom face of the lid body and having a length-width ratio being at least 1.2 and a second opening defined in a raised wall and distant from a closest edge defining the first opening for a previously determined distance.

Another aspect of the present invention is that the first opening of the cup lid is defined crossing the centre of the bottom face. That is, the centre of the bottom face falls within an area of the first opening.

Another important improvement of the present invention is that the raised wall where the second opening is defined has a tapered portion extending toward two opposite directions.

From a different aspect of the present invention, it is noted that the first opening provides a first fluid pathway and the second opening a second pathway, both of which are capable of communicating with liquid contained in a container configured to be attached to the lid.

In a different aspect of the present invention is that the lid further has a cover pivotally connected to the lid to selectively block the first opening and the second opening.

Still a different aspect of the present invention is that the cover has a first pillar firmly formed thereon and a second pillar firmly formed thereon so that when the cover is on top of the lid, the first opening and the second opening are blocked respectively by the first pillar and the second pillar.

Another technical improvement is that the first pillar and the second pillar are elastically received and confined in the first opening and the second respectively.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the cup lid constructed in accordance with one preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is still a perspective view of the cup lid constructed in accordance with the same embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIG. 1, but in a different angle;

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view of the cup lid of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, which is attached to a lid body; and

FIG. 4 is still a cross sectional view of the cup lid of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, where the cup lid is in an open status and the lid body is slanted in relation to a horizontal surface.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention will be further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

With reference to FIG. 1, a cup lid constructed in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention is provided. The cup lid includes a lid body 2 and a spout 3 firmly formed on a bottom face of the lid body 2. The lid body 2 has a first opening 21 defined in the bottom face thereof. It is to be noted that the center of the bottom face falls within an area surrounded by the first opening 21. The first opening 21 has a length L and a width W and L to W has a ratio >1.2, that is, L/W >1.2. The reasons to allow the center of the bottom face to fall within the area defined or surrounded by the first opening 21 or to have a L/W ratio >1.2 are to ensure that liquid contained within a container (not shown) is able to flow out of the first opening 21 smoothly.

The spout 3 has a half-circular-shape raised wall 31 formed on the bottom face of the lid body 2 and provided with a tapered portion 32 extending toward two opposite directions. Extending through the raised wall 31, there is a second opening 33. The first opening 21 provides a first pathway for fluid and the second opening 33 provides a second pathway for fluid. That is, when the cup lid of this embodiment of the present invention is securely attached to a container (not shown in this drawing), the liquid contained inside the container is able to flow out of the container via the first pathway or the second pathway depending on user's requirement and need.

Still, the cup lid of the preferred embodiment of the present invention further has a cover 6 pivotally connected to the lid body 2. The cover 6 has a skirt 60 and a top face 601 formed on a rim of the skirt 60 to form a hollow space to encircle the top area of the lid body 2. For the purpose of this pivotal connection between the lid body 2 and the cover 6, the lid body 2 has a first pair of ears 22 firmly formed on a rim of the lid body 2 and the cover 6 has a second pair of ears 63 formed on an outer periphery of a skirt 60 of the cover 6. When the first pair of ears 22 is aligned with the second pair of ears 63, a pin 64 extends through the aligned first pair of ears 22 and the second pair of ears 63 so as to allow the cover 6 to be movably attach to the lid body 2. In order to strengthen the pivotal connection between the lid body 2 and the cover 6, a ledge 65 is sandwiched between the aligned first pair of ears 22 and the second pair of ears 63 and the pin 64 extends through the aligned first pair of ears 22 and the second pair of ears 63 and also the ledge 65 to finish the connection between the cover 6 and the lid body 2.

Furthermore, the cover 6 has a resilient-material-made first pillar 61 formed on an inner face of the top face 601 to correspond to the first opening 21. The first pillar 61 is sized and configured to fit into the first opening 21 such that when the cover 6 is pivotally moved on top of the lid body 2, the first pillar 61 is deformably fit into the first opening 21 to eventually cut off the first pathway. Still, a second pillar 62 which is made of a resilient material is formed on the top face 601 of the cover 6 to correspond to the second opening 33 of the lid body 2 such that when the cover 6 is pivotally moved on top of the lid body 2, the second pillar 62 is deformably fit into the second opening 33 to eventually cut off the second pathway.

With reference to FIG. 2, it is noted that an inner face of the raised wall 31 of the spout 3, where the second opening 33 is defined, is spaced away from a closest edge defining the first opening 21 for a previously determined distance D and due to the design of the tapered portion 32 of the raised wall 31, when a user is using the second opening 33 to sip or suck liquid from the container, due to the previously determined distance D and the L/W >1.2 of the first opening 21, the upper lip of the user (dashed lines) can only cover a portion of the first opening 21, allowing air to smoothly flow into the container to expedite liquid flowing out of the container.

Referring to FIG. 1 and still taking FIG. 2 for reference, as earlier discussed, the cover 6 is pivotally and detachably connected to the lid body 2 with the help of the first pair of ears 22, the second pair of ears 63 and the pin 64. After the cover 6 is pivotally moved to the top of the lid body 2 to allow the first pillar 61 and the second pillar 62 to deformably fit into the corresponding first opening 21 and the second opening 33, a lock device is provided to the cup lid so that the cover 6 may stay firmly on top of the lid body 2. The lock device includes a first locking element 71, such as a loop, provided on a side face of the cover 6 and a second locking element 72, such as a boss, provided on a side of the lid body 2. The boss 72 is made of a resilient material such that when the cover 6 is moved on top of the lid body 2, the boss 72 is deformably fit into the loop 71 to secure the lock status between the cover 6 and the lid body 2.

With reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, it is to be noted that when the cover 6 is securely connected to the lid body 2, the first pillar 61 and the second pillar 62 are respectively and deformably fitted into the first opening 21 and the second opening 33 to cut off the communication between the first opening 21 and the second opening 33 with the internal space of the container 1. Yet, after the cover 6 is pivotally moved away from the lid body 2, the communication between the first opening 21 and the second opening 33 with the internal space of the container 1 resumes. That is, the first opening 21 is directly in communication with the internal space of the container 1 and the second opening 33 is also in direct communication withe the internal space of the container 1 via a conduit, such as a straw 5. When the cover 6 is to be removed from the lid body 2, a switch 8 is provided and located on a side of the second locking element 72. The switch 8 includes a press 81 movably located on a side of the lid body 2 and having two studs (not numbered) extending toward an outer periphery of the lid body 2 to selectively contact the second locking element 72 and a spring 82 one end of which is securely connected to the outer periphery of the lid body 2 and the other end of which is securely connected to a side face of the press 81 so that when the press 81 is moved, for example being pressed, the spring 82 is able to provide a recoil force to push the press 81 back to its original position. When the press 81 is pressed, the two studs moves as well and eventually contact the second locking element 72 to force the second locking element 72 to deform. After the second locking element 72 is deformed, the second locking element 72 finally leaves the confinement of the first locking element 71 to allow the cover 6 to freely move away from the lid body 2.

The present invention is described above in detail with reference to the embodiments of the accompanying drawings, and a person of ordinary skill in the art may make various modifications to the present invention according to the above description. Therefore, some details in the embodiments shall not constitute a limitation on the present invention, and the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the scope of the appended claims.