WO1995004493A1

WO1995004493A1 - A tool for cleaning surfaces

Info

Publication number: WO1995004493A1
Application number: PCT/IT1994/000128
Authority: WO
Inventors: Loris Meliconi
Original assignee: Meliconi S.P.A.
Priority date: 1993-08-04
Filing date: 1994-07-27
Publication date: 1995-02-16
Also published as: ITBO930167U1; ITBO930167V0; IT232958Y1

Abstract

A tool (1) for cleaning surfaces, comprising a cleaning element (2) associated or associable to a support (4), and is characterised in that the cleaning element is made of a spongy elastomer material, and is directly or indirectly associated removably or permanently to a support which is also preferably made of an elastomer material, having mechanical characteristics which do not significantly change the mechanical characteristics of the cleaning element at least in relation to its elastic deformability with regard to squeezing, flexion and torsion; the support being also the grip of the tool, or the fixing element for a handle for the tool.

Description

Description.

A Tool for Cleaning Surfaces,

Technical Field.

The invention relates to a tool for cleaning surfaces, and in particular a brush or broom for cleaning floors, panels or walls. The specific field applicable to the invention is that including cleaning tools wherein the cleaning part of the tool coming into contact with the dirty surface is provided with a sponge or the like. The fundamental concept is to replace the traditional type of cleaning tool, such as a brush equipped with bristles fixed to a wooden or plastic support which in turn is fixed to a manoeuvring handle.

Background Art.

One example of the sponge-equipped type of tool is disclosed in French publication no. 1.124.337, which relates to a broom exhibiting a sponge block, which is held on a connecting support to a handle by a rod which by extending longitudinally in the central part of the sponge block is constrained in two receiving hooks exhibited on the lower surface of the support projecting by less than the breadth of the sponge block when not subjected to compression. Another prior art realization is disclosed in German publication no. 6.933.160, where a slim (or at least considerably slimmer than it is long and wide) cleaning body is folded along a median line about a rigid support rod associated by bolts to the throat of a support presenting a C-shaped transversal section and open downwardly for receiving the cleaning element, and connectable to a manoeuvring handle. The above-mentioned inventions are equipped with cleaning elements that are not very easily removable from their supports. Thus in order to clean the cleaning elements several not particularly simple operations are necessary: washing out, squeezing, at least a partial wringing, and all with the cleaning element still attached to the tool. Even where the element can be removed, the operation is not notably simplified. What is more, replacing a worn cleaning element is not at all rapid and simple due to the somewhat complex total assembly of the tool.

Simpler realizations exist in the prior art which allow easier manipulation of the cleaning element, wherein the connection between the cleaning element and the support is defined by more-easily releasable fixing means. One such realization is described in US publication no. 3,983,596, which discloses a brush equipping a cleaning element constituted by a block or sheet of compressible material such as a sponge, which is folded along its median line about one T-shaped end of a handle, the handle having already been passed through a central hole in the sponge. The sponge is gripped by a support keyed on the handle comprising a fork having prongs distanced by about a same distance as the breadth of the folded sponge. Even in the above invention, substitution and cleaning of the cleaning element, though simpler than in the other above-mentioned realizations, still has drawbacks, since, in order to bring the various components into the work configuration, the whole length of the handle has to be passed through the hole in the sponge block, and to add to that a bush associated to the fork has to be slid along the handle from one end to the other too.

To obtain a brush or broom wherein the cleaning element can easily be detached has been the aim of other realizations, generally equipping a cleaning element provided with rigid plates for connecting to a support in its turn associable to a handle or itself sporting a handgrip.

One such realization provides a brush wherein the cleaning element is a rectangular parellelepiped having two much larger faces than the remaining four; one of the larger faces being destined to contact with the dirty surface and the other being provided with two parallel stiff plastic plates exhibiting seats for receiving constraining means provided on the support. Another invention provides an animal or clothes brush provided with a manual grip constrained to a spongey cleaning element having on its side facing the handle element two rigid plastic plates both extending over about half of the cleaning element surface. These plates exhibit hooking organs which can be press-inserted into corresponding seats afforded by the support constituting the grip handle. The handle-cleaning element assembly can be folded along a median line not occupied by the rigid plates up until the two opposite portions of the cleaning element meet and press together, so that through squeezing together they wring out the liquids absorbed by the sponge of the cleaning element. The presence of the rigid plates allows of no other cleaning operation. The latter two solutions certainly provide greater ease of worn cleaning element substitution, but do not solve the problem of efficiently wringing the element where necessary. In the second of the latter two case it is possible to flex the element by bending it about a median line, no operations are possible which include twisting to get a really efficient wringing: not even complete squeezing is possible.

One of the aims of the present invention, therefore, is to obviate the above drawbacks by providing a solution wherein the cleaning element can be removed and replaced from and on the support element, the principal aim being to provide a tool wherein the cleaning element and its support are made such that the cleaning element, even though associated to the support, can be easily elastically deformed by flexion, torsion, squeezing and like actions, so that it can be thoroughly cleaned.

Disclosure of the Invention.

The invention provides that the tool for cleaning dirty surfaces comprises a cleaning element associated or associable to a support, and is characterised in that the cleaning element is made of an elastomer material, preferably spongey, and is directly or indirectly associated removably or permanently to a support which is also preferably made of an elastomer material, having mechanical characteristics which do no significantly change the mechanical characteristics of the cleaning element at least in relation to its elastic deformability with regard to squeezing, flexion and torsion. The support, according to the invention, is also the grip of the tool, or the fixing element for a handle for the tool. The cleaning element is, as mentioned above, is preferably realized in elastomer material of a spongey type and can be variously conformed, either as a cake or'a block depending on intended use, and can be directly gripped by means of the support or may be manoeuvred by attaching a handle, and can even have a broom handle attached if so desired.

When the tool is used as a scrubbing handbrush, the cleaning element is preferably stably constrained to the support doubling as a grip, the support will preferably be of elastomer material with the above-mentioned mechanical characteristics such as to enable elastic deformation of especially but not exclusively the cleaning element for the necessary cleaning operations. When the tool is used as a broom, the cleaning element preferably exhibits, in a single body, one or more beams being insertable by threading into a corresponding and similarly-shaped seat exhibited by the support. The beams are made of elastomer material such that the cleaning element when detached from the support can be elastically deformed in any way, such as, for example, by squeezing, flexion and wringing.

In a possible embodiment, the seat into which the beam inserts is constituted by one or more longitudinal channels afforded by the support in its side facing the cleaning plane: the coupling between the cleaning element and the support is made preferably by sliding the beams into the seat in a perpendicular direction to that in which the tool is moved during a surface cleaning operation.

The cleaning element can thus be easily removed from the support element but at the same time the fixture obtained by inserting the beam into the channel or channels consititutes a solid constraint to force reactions during a cleaning operation.

Further characteristics and advantages of the present invention will better emerge from the detailed description that follows, of an embodiment of the invention, illustrated in the form of a non-limiting example in the accompanying drawings, in which: figure 1 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of the tool as a brush, with the cleaning element and the support element unattached; figures 2 and 3 are a perspective view of the cleaning element of figure 1 showing how it can be elastically deformed by torsion and bending; figure 4 is a second embodiment of the tool as a broom, shown in a side view with the cleaning element associated to the support element; figure 5 is a second embodiment of the invention in the shape of a brush, with the support and cleaning elements unattached; figure 6 is a profile view of the cleaning element of figure 5 in a possible further embodiment; figure 7 is a profile view of a section of a further embodiment of the invention, with the cleaning element attached to the support element; figures 8 and 9 are profile views of two further embodiments of the tool in the shape of a brush, with the cleaning element associated to the support element; figure 10 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the tool in the shape of a brush, directly grippable by means of the support element and with the cleaning element attached permanently to the support. With reference to figures from 1 to 9, the invention provides a tool 1 for cleaning surfaces, comprising a cleaning element 2 made of spongey elastomer material and being associable to a support 3 through means for stably and releasably constraining one to the other. The support 3 is also preferably made in an elastomer material having mechanical characteristics such as not significantly to vary the mechanical characteristics of the cleaning element 2 at least with regard to flexing, torquing or wringing it. The means for constraining the cleaning element 2 to the support 3 are embodied by one or more beams 4 which, as shown in the figure and described hereinbelow, can be variously conformed and are insertable, for example by sliding, in corresponding seats 5 in the support 3. The beams 4 constitute a stable constraint between the support 3 and the cleaning element 2 during cleaning operations, and at the same time enable the cleaning element 2 to be separated by unsliding from the support 3 when the cleaning element 2 is worn or very soiled. The support 3 can exhibit means for constraining to a manoeuvring handle, such as, for example, a collar 32. The preferably spongey elastomer cleaning element 2 is in a single body with the one or more beams 4. The constraint between the cleaning element 2 and the support 3 can be created during the manufacturing phase of the cleaning element 2 itself, for example by press- forming, exploiting the physical-chemical reaction of the material of the cleaning element 2 to obtain a sort of welding body between the beams 4 and the support 3. Such an association can also be realised subsequently to the realisation of the cleaning element 2 by glueing the two parts together.

The seat 5 on the support 3 can be one or two channels developing along the section of the support 3 which is destined to face the dirty surface, perpendicular to the cleaning direction, such as to constitute, once the cleaning element 2 has been associated to the support 3 by inserting the beam 4 into the seat 5, a solid constraint so that during a cleaning operation the cleaning element 2 and the support 3 will not come apart.

In the embodiment of figures 1, 2 and 3, the cleaning element 2 is a rectangle or block of spongey elastomer material. The beam 4 attached to the cleaning element 2 is T-shaped and in a single body comprises a strip 49 and two curved moldings 4a and 4b projecting from the upper face of the strip 49, parallel one to the other and separated from one another by a groove 4c for slidingly inserting in a seat 5 exhibited by the support 3 comprising two channels 5a, 5b parallel one to the other and also to the cleaning plane, and separated by a rib 5c complementary to the groove 4c and opening into a longitudinal slot which itself is open externalwise.

The beam 4 is made of elastomer material, such that the cleaning element 2 when detached from the support is elastically deformable and thus can be flexed, squeezed and wrung, as shown in figures 2 and 3.

As illustrated in figures 1, 2 and 3, the strip 49 can have an enlarged base 49a, broader than the strip 49 itself, in order to associate better to the cleaning element 2 by providing a larger contact surface between the cleaning element 2 and the support 3. Still with reference to figure 1, the cleaning element 2 extends in length and breadth over a greater area than the corresponding extensions of the support 3, so as to improve the tool's efficacy as a brush.

When the tool 1 is conformed as a broom, as illustrated in figure 4, the cleaning element 2 is preferably a strip made of spongey elastomer material. In the illustrated example, the beam 4 constrained to the cleaning element 2 can exhibit a T-section, with the two lateral wings projecting from the cleaning element 2 and inserting in a channelled seat 5, exhibited by the support 3, which channels are two in number and parallel both to one another and to the cleaning plane, while they are perpendicular to the cleaning direction and open out into a groove which is itself open externalwards in order to receive the beam 4.

Figure 5 shows the tool 1, embodied as a handbrush, provided with a cleaning element 2 constituted by a rectangular parallelpiped cake 2, once again made of spongey elastomer material and exhibiting on two opposing faces 21a. 21b, two beams 4a, 4b constituting two guides insertable in corresponding seats 5a, 5b on the support 3. Once more, F indicates the insertion direction of the cleaning element 2 into the support 3.

In this embodiment, two different cleaning surfaces 22',

22'' are defined, which can be alternated as the need arises.

A similar embodiment is shown in figure 6. Here, again two distinct cleaning surfaces 22', 22'' are usable, and similarly to the embodiment of figure 5, two beams 4a, 4b, are associated in a single body to the block 2' , along two opposite faces 21a, 21b. The beams 4a, 4b together exhibit a T-shaped section, with the two lateral wings being constituted by strips 24a, 24b extending longitudinally along the lateral faces 21a, 21b of the cake 2 ' and also developing to some extent in breadth such as to contact with the cake 2 ' over a considerable area so that the forces extered on the support 3 are transmitted to the cake 2'.

The central wings of the T-beams, which are preferably in a single body with the strips 24a, 24b face externalwards of the cake 2' and function as guides for sliding insertion in corresponding facing channels 5a, 5b, exhibited by the support 3, like in figure 4.

With reference to all the illustrations, the support 3 and the beams 4 can be made in the same material such as efficently to couple the support 3 and the cleaning element 2. Further, the support 3 is shaped such as to avoid damaging furniture when in use.

In figure 9 the support 3 is provided with a means for connecting to a handle (not illustrated) which can be inserted in the collar 32 in the direction indicated by M in the drawing, and is then kept in an inclined position (at an angle of less than 90 degrees, to be specific) with respect to the cleaning plane.

The coupling between the cleaning element 2 and the support 3 is secured by a beam 4 exhibiting a portion 44 having a similar breadth to the breadth L of the cleaning element 2, connected in a single body to an ellipsoid or oval molding 45 extending longitudinally along the surface of the cleaning element 2 facing the support 3. The molding 45 is insertable in a complementarily-shaped seat 5 exhibited by the support 3 along its longitudinal development. In the embodiment of figure 7, the tool (a brush in this case) is provided with a cleaning element 2 in a single body with an H-section beam 4 is associated, with one wing of the H-shape associated to the cleaning element 2 while the other wing is constrainable to the support 3.

The cleaning element 2 is of a breadth L greater than the breadth L' of the support 3 and the beam associated to it exhibits wings of differing breadths: the longer wing is equal in length to the breadth L of the cleaning element 2, while the shorter wing is not longer than the length of the seat 5. The tool thus is stable and easily manoeuvrable, and transmission of mechanical force to the cleaning element 2 is made more efficient. In the embodiment of figure 8 the connection between the cleaning element 2 and the support 3 is obtained by means of a dovetail beam 4 which can sliding enter a seat 5, as in previous embodiments, exhibited by the support 3, which once more is shaped to complement the beam 4. In the embodiment of figure 10, the cleaning element 2 can be directly asociated to the support 3, which is this case acts also as a grip 33. The coupling between the cleaning element 2 and the support 3 can be realised as illustrated, for example, in figure 1 or in figures from 5 to 9.

Claims

Claims .

1. A tool for cleaning surfaces, comprising a cleaning element associated or associable to a support, and characterised in that the cleaning element is made of a spongey elastomer material, and is directly or indirectly associated removably or permanently to a support also made of an elastomer material and having mechanical characteristics which do no significantly change the mechanical characteristics of the cleaning element at least in relation to its elastic deformability with regard to squeezing, flexion and wringing; the support being also the grip of the tool, or the fixing element for a handle for the tool.

2. A tool for cleaning surfaces, comprising a cleaning element associated or associable to a support, wherein the cleaning element is made of a spongey elastomer material and exhibits one or more beams for inserting removably by sliding insertion in at least one seat afforded by the support and shaped such as to receive the beams; said beams being made of an elastomer material such that the cleaning element, detached from the support, can be elastically deformed by squeezing, flexing and axial or transversal torsion.

3. A tool for cleaning surfaces as in claim 2, wherein the seat exhibited by the support is constituted by at least one channel developing on the face of the support which is turned towards the cleaning surface, perpendicular to the direction the tool is moved in during a cleaning operation, such that, with an insertion of the beam into the seat, a constraint is created between the cleaning element and the support in at least one direction.

4. A tool for cleaning sufaces as in claim 2 or 3, in a brush embodiment, wherein the cleaning element is a cake or block of spongey elastomer material, provided with an T-section elastomer beam comprising a strip and two moldings projecting from an upper face of the strip, said moldings being parallel one molding to another and separated one from another by an intermediate groove; the moldings being insertable in a seat exhibited by the support, which seat comprises two parallel channels separated by a rib which rib is complementarily shaped with respect to the groove.

5. A tool for cleaning surfaces as in claim 2 or 3, in a broom embodiment, wherein the cleaning element is a spongey elastomer strip and is provided with an elastomer beam exhibiting a T-shaped transversal section having wings projecting from the cleaning element which wings insert in a complementarily-shaped seat afforded by the support and embodied by two parallel intercommunicating channels.

6. A tool for cleaning surfaces as in claim 2 or 3, in a brush embodiment, wherein the cleaning element is a rectangualr parallelepiped cake made of elastomer material and exhibiting two opposite lateral faces and two elastomer beams constituing two guides insertable in seats afforded by the support and embodied by two facing parallel channels.

7. A tool for cleaning surfaces as in claim 2 or 3, wherein the cleaning element is constituted by a cake or block made of spongey elastomer material and exhibits at a surface facing a dirty surface an H-section beam in which one wing of the H-section is permanently associated to the cleaning element and another wing of the H-section is constrainable to the support by sliding into a complementarily-shaped seat afforded by the support.

8. A tool for cleaning surfaces as in claim 2 or 3, in a brush embodiment, wherein the cleaning element is constituted by a T-section rectangular parallelepiped cake permanently associated to the cake longitudinally along two opposite lateral faces of the cake; central wings of the T-section beams facing externalwards of the cake and constituting guides slidably insertable in facing channels afforded in the support.

9. A tool for cleaning surfaces as in claim 1, in a handbrush embodiment, wherein the cleaning body is stably associated to the support and the support is provided with a grip such that the brush can be held directly by the support.

10. A tool for cleaning surfaces as in claim 2, in a handbrush embodiment, wherein the seat afforded in the support exhibits at least one channel developing on a face of the support turned towards the cleaning surface and perpendicularly to a direction in which the tool is moved during cleaning, such that once the beam is inserted into the seat, a constraint is created against a dissociation of the cleaning element and the support at least according to that direction.

11. A tool for cleaning surfaces as in claim 4, wherein the strip is provided with a base having a length which is equal and a greater breadth than corresponding dimensions of the strip, such that a connection area between the strip and the cleaning element is increased.

12. A tool for cleaning surfaces in claim 2, 3 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, or 11, wherein the support and the beam or the strips exhibited by the cleaning element are made in a same elastomer material.