CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of pending International patent application PCT/KR2010/000199 filed on Jan. 13, 2010, which designates the United States and claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 20-2009-0001022 filed on Jan. 30, 2009. The content of all prior applications is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a paper cup, and more particularly, to a paper cup including a heat insulating material that is not separable from a main body of the paper cup so that a user may hold the paper cup conveniently even when a hot or cold beverage is in the paper cup.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

For containing beverages such as coffee or juice, paper cups are mainly used in vending machines or coffee shops. FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional paper cup 1. The conventional paper cup 1 includes a cup main body 2 formed as a cylinder for containing the beverage, and a curled rim 3 formed on an upper end portion of the cup main body 2 for protecting lips of a user and improving configuration maintenance of the cup main body 2.

However, the conventional paper cup 1 is generally formed of thin paper, and thus, when hot coffee or cold juice is in the conventional paper cup 1, the user may experience difficulty in holding the conventional paper cup 1 due to heat or cold transferred to the hand of the user.

Therefore, coffee shops selling hot coffees in the paper cups 1 mainly use a holder 4 that is formed as a loop band fabricated using corrugated fiber board, so that the conventional paper cup 1 containg hot coffee is inserted into the holder 4.

However, as shown in FIG. 1, the holder 4 is inserted from a lower portion of the conventional paper cup 1, and thus, when the user puts the conventional paper cup 1 on a table or in a cup holder of a vehicle, the holder 4 is likely to separate from the conventional paper cup 1 and fall down on the table or the cup holder, for example. Therefore, when the user wants to hold the paper cup 1 again, the user must inconveniently insert the holder 4 on the table or the cup holder on the paper cup 1 again to hold the conventional paper cup 1.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a paper cup having an improved structure in which a heat insulating material is not separated from a cup main body of the paper cup so that a user may conveniently hold the paper cup in which a hot or cold beverage is contained.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional paper cup;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a paper cup according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the paper cup illustrated in FIG. 2 taken along a line III-III;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a paper cup according to another embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the paper cup illustrated in FIG. 4 taken along a line V-V.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to accompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a paper cup 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the paper cup 100 taken along line III-III.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the paper cup 100 according to the present embodiment contains beverages, for example, and is able to be held by a user, and the paper cup 100 includes a cup main body 10 and a heat insulating material 20.

The cup main body 10 is a cylindrical member having an open upper portion for receiving beverages from the open upper portion.

A curled rim 11 is formed at an upper end portion of the cup main body 10 so as to protect the lips of a user and improve the configuration maintenance of the cup main body 10. The curled rim 11 is formed by rolling the upper end of the cup main body 10 out.

The heat insulating material 20 is a member for reducing thermal conductivity between the beverage contained in the paper cup 100 and the hand of the user holding the paper cup 100, and may be, for example, non-woven fabric, corrugated fiber board, or aerated synthetic resin. In the present embodiment, the heat insulating material 20 is a transparent aerated synthetic resin.

The aerated synthetic resin used as the heat insulating material 20 is transparent so that characters or figures displayed on an outer wall of the cup main body 20 beneath the heat insulating material 20 may be recognized by the user through the heat insulating material 20.

The heat insulating material 20 is circumferentially attached to the outer wall of the cup main body 10 so as not to separate from the cup main body 10. A well-known adhesive having certain degrees of cold-tolerance and thermal-resistance is applied between the heat insulating material 20 and the outer wall of the cup main body 10 so as to attach the heat insulating material 20 to the cup main body 10.

When the paper cup 100 having the above-described structure is used, heat or cold of the beverage contained in the paper cup 100 is rarely transferred to the hand of the user holding the paper cup 100, even if the hot or cold beverage is in the paper cup 100. Thus, the user may hold the paper cup 100 continuously without any inconvenience from the hot or cold beverage.

In addition, since the heat insulating material 20 is attached to the outer wall of the cup main body 10, the heat insulating material 20 is not separable from the cup main body 10. Therefore, even when the user holds the paper cup 100 again after putting the paper cup 100 on a table for a while, the user may conveniently hold the paper cup 100 since there is no need to attach the heat insulating material 20 again to the paper cup 100, unlike the conventional paper cup 1 used with the holder 4.

On the other hand, the aerated synthetic resin used as the heat insulating material 20 is transparent enough for the user to recognize character information or figure information displayed on the outer wall of the cup main body 10 beneath the heat insulating material 20. Therefore, trademarks or advertisements of a beverage merchandiser, which are generally displayed on a paper cup, may not be covered by the heat insulating material 20 so that the user recognizes the trademarks or the advertisements.

FIG. 3 illustrates a paper cup 200 according to another embodiment of the present invention. The paper cup 200 includes the cup main body 10 and a heat insulating material 120 disposed on some parts of an outer wall of the cup main body 10. Since the paper cup 200 has the nearly same structure as that of the paper cup 100 according to the previous embodiment, differences therebetween will be described as follows.

The heat insulating material 120 of the paper cup 200 includes a first member 121, to which a part of the hand of the user holding the paper cup 200 contacts, and a second member 122, to which the other part of the hand of the user holding the paper cup 200 contacts, that is disposed on an opposite side to the first member 121.

According to the paper cup 200 having the above-described structure, since the heat insulating material 120 is attached to some parts of the outer wall of the paper cup 200, unlike the paper cup 100 in which the heat insulating material 20 surrounds the entire outer wall of the cup main body 10, an area of the aerated synthetic resin is reduced and manufacturing costs of the paper cup 200 may be reduced.

According to the present invention, since a heat insulating material is attached to an outer wall of a cup main body, a heat insulating material is not separable from the cup main body, and thus, the user may conveniently hold the paper cup even when a hot or cold beverage is in the paper cup.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims.