1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a disposable beverage cup, and more particularly to a disposable lid for the disposable beverage cup, which provides a spill proof ability to prevent any beverage leak especially when the disposable beverage cup is tipped.
2. Description of Related Arts
A conventional disposable lid of a disposable beverage cup on the current market, which is usually made of plastic, typically has a drinking hole arranged for a user to drink the beverage in the disposable beverage cup, and a vent hole that allows air venting into the disposable beverage cup therethrough for maintaining the balance of the pressure between the inside and outside of the disposable beverage cup. However, the conventional lid has several drawbacks.
A major drawback of the conventional lid is that the conventional lid provides a relatively weak sealing and leak proof ability. In other words, the disposable beverage cup with the conventional lid is inconvenient for carrying. Most of lids in the current market have exposed drinking holes and vent holes. An improved lid may further comprise a valve only provided at the drinking hole. However, the structure of the valve is complicated which will highly increase the manufacturing cost of the lid. In fact, none of the existing lid provides any seal to seal the vent hole of the lid.
Since the size of the drinking hole is larger than the size of vent hole, the beverage in the disposable beverage cup will be spilled out through the drinking hole when the disposable beverage cup is tipped. Accordingly, the beverage in the disposable beverage cup may be spilled onto a table, a floor, clothes, file documents, or inside a car, resulting in unnecessary trouble and loss. Worse yet, if the beverage is hot, consumer may get seriously burnt.
Furthermore, since the consumer must pay more attention on carefully holding the disposable beverage cup, he or she may loss focus on other things, which may cause potential hazard. For example, when the consumer carefully holds the disposable beverage cup during driving, he or she may loss focus on driving which may cause accident. Since the beverage is easy to leak out, some people may even pour out the beverage onto a road, or discard the disposable beverage cup onto a green area aside a road or a lawn of a front yard of a house and polluting our environment.
Another solution found in some fast-food restaurants or beverage shops is to provide a beverage tray which is made of cardboard for retaining the disposable beverage cup at the upright position. A beverage tray can typically hold four to six disposable beverage cups. It will be a waste when the customer only buys one or two disposable beverage cups but the seller still has to supply an oversized tray. It will increase the cost and produce additional trashes and possibly environment pollution.