Cascading series of thermally insulated passive temperature controlled containers
View Patent ↗A modular collection of components from which a variety of thermally insulated and thermal controlled containers can be assembled. The collection includes at least two differently sized sleeves of thermal insulation, and at least two differently sized sleeves of phase change material that are nestable with one another to form various thermally insulated and thermally controlled containers with various combinations of available payload, target temperature, guaranteed duration of thermal control, size of container and weight of container.
1. A cascading series of thermally insulated containers, comprising:
(a) a first container having a first payload retention chamber defined and surrounded by separately deployable first nestable sleeves of thermal insulation and phase change material, and
(b) a second container having a second payload retention chamber defined and surrounded by separately deployable second nestable sleeves of thermal insulation and phase change material,
(c) wherein the phase change materials surrounding the first and second containers are the same material, and the second container is nestable within the first container.
2. The cascading series of thermally insulated containers of claim 1 wherein each of the first and second sleeves of thermal insulation have a bottom end enclosed with an integrated layer of thermal insulation.
3. The cascading series of thermally insulated containers of claim 1 wherein the thermal insulation is vacuum insulated panels.
4. The cascading series of thermally insulated containers of claim 1 wherein the phase change material is water.
5. A cascading series of thermally insulated containers, comprising:
(a) a first container having a first payload retention chamber defined and surrounded by separately deployable first nestable sleeves of thermal insulation and phase change material, and
(b) a second container having a second payload retention chamber defined and surrounded by separately deployable second nestable sleeves of thermal insulation and phase change material,
(c) wherein the phase change materials surrounding the first and second containers are the same material, and second container is nestable within the first sleeve of thermal insulation.
6. The cascading series of thermally insulated containers of claim 5 wherein each of the first and second sleeves of thermal insulation have a bottom end enclosed with an integrated layer of thermal insulation.
7. The cascading series of thermally insulated containers of claim 5 wherein the thermal insulation is vacuum insulated panels.
8. The cascading series of thermally insulated containers of claim 5 wherein the phase change material is water.
9. A cascading series of thermally insulated containers, comprising:
(a) a first container having a first payload retention chamber defined and surrounded by separately deployable first sleeves of thermal insulation and phase change material,
(b) an intermediate container having an intermediate payload retention chamber defined and surrounded by separately deployable intermediate sleeves of thermal insulation and phase change material, wherein the intermediate sleeve of thermal insulation is nestable within the first sleeve of thermal insulation, and
(c) a second container having a second payload retention chamber defined and surrounded by separately deployable second sleeves of thermal insulation and phase change material, wherein the phase change materials surrounding the first, intermediate and second containers are the same material, and the entire second container is nestable within the intermediate sleeve of thermal insulation.
10. The cascading series of thermally insulated containers of claim 9 wherein each of the first, second and intermediate sleeves of thermal insulation have a bottom end enclosed with an integrated layer of thermal insulation.
11. The cascading series of thermally insulated containers of claim 9 , wherein the entire second container is nestable within the first container.
12. The cascading series of thermally insulated containers of claim 9 wherein the thermal insulation is vacuum insulated panels.
13. The cascading series of thermally insulated containers of claim 9 wherein the phase change material is water.
14. A modular collection of components comprising at least:
(a) three differently sized sleeves of thermal insulation including a smaller, a larger and an intermediate sized sleeve, and
(b) three differently sized sleeves of phase change material including a smaller, a larger and an intermediate sized sleeve all containing the same phase change material,
(c) from which at least the following thermally insulated containers can be assembled:
(1) a smaller payload single insulated container formed by nesting together the smaller sleeve of thermal insulation and the smaller sleeve of a phase change material,
(2) an intermediate sized payload single insulated container formed by nesting together the intermediate sized sleeve of thermal insulation and the intermediate sized sleeve of phase change material,
(3) a larger payload single insulated container formed by nesting together the larger sleeve of thermal insulation and the larger sleeve of phase change material, and
(4) at least one of:
(A) a smaller payload double insulated container formed by nesting together the intermediate sized sleeve of thermal insulation, the smaller sleeve of thermal insulation and the smaller sleeve of phase change material,
(B) an intermediate sized payload double insulated container formed by nesting together the larger sleeve of thermal insulation, the intermediate sized sleeve of thermal insulation and the intermediate sized sleeve of phase change material, and
(C) a smaller payload triple insulated container formed by nesting together the larger sleeve of thermal insulation, the intermediate sized sleeve of thermal insulation, the smaller sleeve of thermal insulation, and the smaller sleeve of phase change material.
15. The modular collection of claim 14 wherein each of the smaller, intermediate sized and larger sleeves of thermal insulation have a bottom end enclosed with an integrated layer of thermal insulation.
16. The modular collection of claim 14 wherein the larger sleeve of thermal insulation, larger sleeve of a phase change material, smaller sleeve of thermal insulation and smaller sleeve of phase change material can be nested together to form a double insulated container with dual layers of phase change material.
17. The modular collection of claim 14 wherein the thermal insulation is vacuum insulated panels.
18. The modular collection of claim 14 wherein the phase change material is water.