Patent Application
20050273962
A wide variety of brushes are known, for painting, dusting, and cleaning of a variety of objects from teeth, to sinks, flooring, and clothing. Different sizes of brushes are better adapted for different uses, as are different lengths and types of bristles. Although a given household may have numerous brushes, it is sometimes desirable to utilize a single brush for considerably different applications.
It is desirable, for example, to use a relatively soft brush for cleaning soft plastics, leather and the like, and a relatively harder bristled brush for cleaning among crevices in a tire rim or wheel, or along the rim of an automobile trunk. Since the perceived hardness (flexibility) of the bristles relates in part to the effective length of the bristles, it would be desirable to have a single brush in which the length can be adjusted.
British patent 614241 (“Improvements in Dabbing Brushes for Woolen Combs” addressed the problem of bristles being worn down during use. There, however, the brushes were carried by a mechanical carriage rather than being hand-held, and the solution was to clip the worn tips of the bristles, and to rotate in backup brushes.
Thus, there is still a need for brushes where the bristles can be repeatedly effectively lengthened or shortened as needed by the user.
The present invention provides apparatus, systems and methods in which a brush has a slidable collar that effectively shortens the bristles to a desired plurality of lengths.
The collar preferably slides with respect to a support in a manner that effectively locks the collar in predetermined positions. The locking mechanism can be purely frictional, but preferably also used a detent, or any other suitable device that provides discrete stops. Such stops are preferably no more than 2 cm apart, and can advantageously be spaced no more than 1 cm apart. Contemplated devices can have 2, 3, 4, 5, or more stops.
Restricting of the bristles in this manner is thought to be particularly useful where the effective length of the bristles is reduced by at least 50%, and more preferably at least 75%. Thus, a collar operating on a brush with bristles averaging about 10 cm in length when the collar is in a home position could effectively reduce the length of the bristles to only 5 cm, or even down to 2.5 cm or less.
Among the benefits is that the effective shortening of the bristles increases the effective stiffness of the bristles. A single brush could therefore be well adapted to both brushing dust off of a GPS (Global Satellite Positioning) display screen, and removing debris from around the rim of a tire.
The sliding collar can be used on a wide variety of brushes, including brushes having widely different sizes. Particularly contemplated brushes have standard brush width of 2″ (≈5 cm).
Preferred brushes have a handle that includes a least one ergonomic adaptation. An exemplary ergonomic adaptation is a soft touch material that improves the “feel” of the brush.
In yet other aspects of the invention, brushes can be marketed specifically with respect to the slidable collar feature, and focusing on the applicability to automotive use.
Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention, along with the accompanying drawings in which like numerals represent like components.
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The handle 20 can comprise any suitable material, including wood, metal and/or hard plastic. In this particular example, the handle 20 is plastic about 1.5 cm thick, and has an ergonomically desirable soft touch material 22 on top and bottom to improve the “feel” of the brush. Handle 20 also has a hole 25 for hanging the brush 10, and an advertising medallion 27.
Bristles 30 can comprise any suitable material, depending on the application. For general automotive use the bristles are preferably nylon. In these scale drawing figures, the bristles have a longest effective length of about 2″ (≈5 cm).
Collar 40 is generally rhombohedral in shape, although it has an indented portion 42 to facilitate gripping by a user. There is also a medallion 44 that includes a logo or other trademark. Collar 40 can also be made of any suitable material, but is preferably made of the same hard plastic used for handle 20.
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Thus, specific embodiments and applications of a slide lock brush have been disclosed. It should be apparent, however, to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those already described are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein. The inventive subject matter, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims. Moreover, in interpreting both the specification and the claims, all terms should be interpreted in the broadest possible manner consistent with the context. In particular, the terms “comprises” and “comprising” should be interpreted as referring to elements, components, or steps in a non-exclusive manner, indicating that the referenced elements, components, or steps may be present, or utilized, or combined with other elements, components, or steps that are not expressly referenced.
