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Multi-c0mpartment pack for cooling or heating of productsRelated Patent Categories: Refrigeration, Chemical Reaction Or Solids DissolvingMulti-c0mpartment pack for cooling or heating of products description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060191272, Multi-c0mpartment pack for cooling or heating of products. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/830,260, filed Apr. 22, 2004, which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/880,703, filed Jun. 13, 2001, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/217,371, filed Jul. 11, 2000, entitled "MULTI-COMPARTMENT PACK FOR COOLING OR HEATING OF PRODUCTS". This application also claims priority to German Patent Application No. 100 32 799.0, filed Jun. 28, 2000. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to a multi-compartment pack for cooling or heating of products, in particular cosmetic or pharmaceutical products. BACKGROUND [0003] Pack variants for heating or cooling, especially for use on the human body, have been known for a long time. In most cases, these packs comprise an interior compartment, normally containing water, and an exterior compartment, containing, for example, a salt. When pressure is exerted onto the interior compartment, its wall tears open, whereby the water which gets into contact with the salt causes, depending upon the type of salt, an exothermal or endothermal reaction. For example, EP 454912 describes a cooling pack in which the separated compartments contain an ammonium salt and urea, if necessary, in order to achieve a very good cooling effect. [0004] U.S. Pat. No. 4,049,408 discloses a cooling pack for blood samples in which double-compartment containers containing ammonium nitrate in one compartment and water in the other compartment and being integrated in a wrappable cover are, after bringing together the two reacting components, wrapped around a cylindrical blood sample thus ensuring its cooling. [0005] A hot pack to be applied on the human body is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,047 in which water contained in an interior compartment having a perforation and water-free magnesium sulphate in a tightly sealed exterior compartment are brought into contact with each other. The exothermal reaction is used, for example, to warm up limbs of sportsmen in winter. [0006] It is an objective of the present invention to provide a pack unit comprising several compartments which may be used to quickly and effectively heat or cool a product on the basis of a chemical reaction in the compartments with the pack unit being at the same time simple to handle and to manufacture. [0007] The multi-compartment pack comprises a first compartment containing a solid matter or a liquid and an adjacent second compartment temporarily separated from said first compartment and containing a liquid, wherein, if the temporary separation of said compartments is eliminated, the substances in both compartments get into contact with each other and cause an endothermal or exothermal reaction, said pack being characterized according to the present invention in that at least one wall of the first compartment and one wall of the second compartment form at the same time a permanent whole contact area to a third compartment, which contains a product to cool or to heat; the first compartment and the second compartment are in contact with the third compartment solely via the contact area; the liquid present in both compartments after interrupting the separation at a sealing between the first compartment and the second compartment makes possible an interchange of heat by transfer via the whole contact area to the third compartment; and the third compartment comprises an opening easily to be opened from the outside from which the heated or cooled product can be taken out following the reaction between the substances contained in the first and second compartments. SUMMARY [0008] In the present invention, it is preferable that the contact area consists of a material inert towards the reaction partners and which has a good heat conductivity. Examples for a heat-conducting material are aluminum foil, that may be coated with a plastic material such as polyethylene, Saran, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polyester, polyvinyl acetate, polyvinyl chloride; copolymers of that polymers; and mixtures thereof. The polymers alone or as mixtures may also form the contact areas and the non-contact areas. [0009] The contact area may be formed as a corrugated or wafer-like structure in order to achieve a further extension of its surface. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0010] For the purpose of the present invention, the term "contact area" is meant to describe the area between each of the two compartments containing the heating or cooling substance and the liquid belonging to it, and the compartment containing the product that is to be heated or cooled. "Whole contact area" is the total area created by the sum of the contact areas of the first and the second compartment to the third compartment. [0011] For the multi-compartment pack according to the present invention, known salts or other substances may be used to cause an endothermal or exothermal reaction. For an exothermal reaction, it is advantageous if the first chamber contains a dry substance being selected among calcium oxide, calcium chloride, zeolite Beta, zeolite faujasite X, zeolite faujasite Y, zeolite ZSM-5, mordenite, and mixtures thereof. Other zeolites of the structural classes A, chabasite, ERI (erionite), MEL (ZSM-11), MTT (ZSM-23), OFF (offretite) may be used as well provided that they are commercially available, aluminium-rich, and thus hydrophile. [0012] Further materials may be used such as magnesium sulfate, sodium acetate, ferric chloride, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, zinc chloride etc. which should be anhydrous. [0013] For an endothermal reaction, the first compartment may contain a dry substance being selected among ammonium nitrate, urea, potassium chloride, stannic chloride, ammonium bromide, cobalt chloride, and mixtures thereof, all of them should be anhydrous. [0014] The ratio between the agents involved in the reaction to achieve a suitable exothermal or endothermal reaction can be determined by a person skilled in the art. Preferably, this ratio ranges between 1:0.8 and 1.3 with relation to the weight of the reactants being a chemical reaction agent (salt):water. The weight ratio between the reactants and the product to be cooled or heated can also be determined by a person skilled in the art and defines the degree of temperature change within the product itself. The range temperature change to be achieved for the product is 1.degree. C. 60.degree. C. [0015] Thus, it is possible for example in using the exothermal reaction to rise temperature by 15 to 30.degree. C. due to the reaction with water and thus to warm up the contacted cosmetic or pharmaceutical product by 5 to 20.degree. C. after a short waiting time of 0.1 to 3 minutes depending upon the dimensions of the contact area. [0016] Following the contact with water, the reaction temperature can be lowered e.g. by 20 to 40.degree. C., thus cooling down the contacted cosmetic or pharmaceutical product by 5 to 20.degree. C. after a short waiting time of 0.1 to 3 minutes depending upon the dimensions of the contact area. [0017] Preferably, water, particularly deionized water, is used as the liquid reaction component in the second compartment. Impurities in tap water may be detrimental to package stability and may affect reactions. [0018] In a preferred embodiment of the invention all compartments are formed to be flat with the ratio between the respective side wall height of one compartment and its length or width being in the range of 1:20-300 and wherein the contact area between the third compartment and the first compartment or the first and second compartments respectively represents the largest basic area of a compartment. [0019] In order to achieve a contact area as large as possible between the third compartment and the cooling or heating mixture generated by the reaction in the two other compartments, the dimension of the contact area of the third compartment in this embodiment is at least equal to the sum of the basic areas of the two other compartments. [0020] Further, it is preferred in this embodiment that the third compartment contains an amount of liquid or pasty substance ranging between 0.05 and 1.5 g per cm of the contact area. 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