Patent Application
20140246048
The invention relates generally to surface treatment such as carpet cleaning, and more specifically to methods and apparatuses which can be used to agitate a carpet with a pad to work encapsulants or other cleaning agents into the carpet.
Surface treatment appliances are used in the home, office and other locations to treat floors and other surfaces. Various types of surface treating appliances are known for cleaning carpets, including appliances with oscillating and rotating brushes.
In one embodiment, a method of cleaning a carpet with a surface cleaning appliance having a pad mounted to a cleaning head is disclosed. The method includes applying a liquid solution including an encapsulant to a carpet to be cleaned, agitating the carpet by moving a pad across the carpet in a reciprocating motion, allowing the encapsulant to interact with dirt particles, and vacuuming the dirt particles and encapsulant from the carpet.
In another embodiment, a carpet cleaning appliance is disclosed. The appliance includes an appliance body, a cleaning head that is attached to the appliance head and has a moveable member, a pad removably attachable to the moveable member, a liquid reservoir adapted to contain a solution, and a liquid applicator to apply the solution to the carpet. The moveable member on the cleaning head is moveable relative to the appliance body in a reciprocating motion. The pad moves in a reciprocating motion with the moveable member and is configured to agitate a carpet and work an encapsulant into the carpet fibers.
It should be appreciated that the foregoing concepts, and additional concepts discussed below, may be arranged in any suitable combination, as the present disclosure is not limited in this respect.
The foregoing and other aspects, embodiments, and features of the present teachings can be more fully understood from the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The accompanying drawings are not intended to be drawn to scale. In the drawings, each identical or nearly identical component that is illustrated in various figures is represented by a like numeral. For purposes of clarity, not every component may be labeled in every drawing. In the drawings:
Surface treatment appliances, such as cleaning appliances with rotating and oscillating brushes, are used with various cleaning solutions to clean carpets in the home, office, and other locations. Surface cleaning appliances with rotating and oscillating pads are also commonly used for cleaning low knap loop carpet in office environments, however, in these environments the appliances are often operated by trained technicians. In addition, the rotating and oscillating pads used with these appliances are composed of moisture and dirt absorbing materials such as wool and/or polyester microfiber that must be cleaned at regular intervals for proper carpet cleaning to be achieved. Applicant has recognized that the use of an encapsulant solution in combination with a cleaning pad that moves in a reciprocating motion on a carpet and that absorbs little to no moisture and dirt is effective in cleaning the carpet in a low-moisture manner. Embodiments disclosed herein include a cleaning appliance and methods of using the appliance to clean a carpet by applying an encapsulant to a carpet and agitating the carpet to work the encapsulant into the carpet with a cleaning pad that moves in a reciprocating motion. In some embodiments, the pad has a non-absorbent portion which is effective in agitating the carpet without absorbing the encapsulant before the encapsulant has been worked into the carpet to interact with the dirt.
According to one aspect of the invention, a carpet cleaning appliance includes an appliance body, a cleaning head with a moveable member that moves relative to the appliance body, a pad with non-absorbent portions that is mounted to the moveable member, a liquid reservoir filled with an encapsulant, and a liquid applicator to apply the encapsulant to the carpet. In one embodiment, the appliance agitates a carpet to work an encapsulant into the carpet fibers by moving the pad in a reciprocating manner. The pad may be attached to one, two, or any suitable number of moveable members on the cleaning head. In some embodiments, the pad includes first and second connected pad portions that move toward and away from one another to agitate the carpet. Two or more pads which are not connected may be used in some embodiments. The pad may be configured such that it has both non-absorbent and absorbent portions. In some embodiments, the non-absorbent portion includes plastic loops such as polyolefin loops. In some embodiments, the pad may have one or more glide portions, such as a glide strip, to facilitate movement of the appliance on the carpet. In some embodiments, the appliance operates in a reciprocating manner to more effectively agitate the encapsulant into the carpet with the pad while resolving the frictional forces inside the machine. This may result in an effective use of the encapsulant while keeping the load transmitted to the operator very low as compared to traditional methods.
Turning now to the figures,
The attachment side 12 of the cleaning pad 10 is configured to removably attach the pad 10 to the cleaning head 6 in some embodiments. The attachment side may include a hook and loop fastening material, which attaches to complementary hook and loop fastening material on the moveable members 8 of the cleaning head 6. The attachment side 12 instead may include any other suitable material for attaching the pad 10 to the cleaning head 6 as this aspect of the disclosure is not limiting. In some embodiments, the pad and the moveable members may be configured such that the pad wraps around the sides of the moveable members for attachment. Fastening devices such as clips, screws, snaps or interference fit arrangement may be used to removably attach the pads to the moveable members such that the attachment sides are removably attached to the moveable members even though, in some cases, the attachment sides themselves do not play a direct role in their attachment to the moveable members.
In some embodiments, the first and second pad portions 20, 22 reciprocate with the moveable members 8 to agitate the carpet 18. This movement may be accomplished by using the pad 10 with an appliance 2, which includes a reciprocating member at the cleaning head 6.
In some embodiments, the first pad portion 20 and the second pad portion 22 move toward and away from one another to agitate the carpet 18. In some embodiments, agitation also may be accomplished by rotating one or more pads on the carpet.
In one embodiment, upon agitation by the surface-facing sides 24a, 24b of the pad 10, the encapsulant 26 penetrates and disperses throughout the carpet 18 being cleaned. When the encapsulant 26 contacts dirt particles 28 in the carpet 18, as shown in
In some embodiments, the surface-facing sides 24a, 24b of the cleaning pad are configured to clean a carpet. In one embodiment, a cleaning element (such as a solution including an encapsulant) is applied to a carpet and then agitated and/or absorbed by the surface-facing sides 24a, 24b of the pad 10. In some embodiments, as shown by way of example in
In some embodiments, the surface-facing sides 24a, 24b and the attachment side 12 of the pad 10 all include the same material. In one embodiment, the sides 12, 24a, 24b include an abrasive material, e.g., a hook and loop fastener or any other abrasive material that is suitable for attachment and for agitation. In some embodiments, the non-absorbent portions 30 may include an abrasive sanding material such as sandpaper or a sanding pad. The non-absorbent portions 30 also may include any other suitable material for agitating a carpet, such as a material having a rake or teeth.
In other embodiments, the surface-facing sides 24a, 24b of the pad 10 include both absorbent portions 32 and non-absorbent portions 30. In some embodiments, the absorbent portions 32 and/or the non-absorbent portions 30 are capable of agitation or scrubbing. One such material capable of both scrubbing and absorbing is a mini-shag material with strands and/or loops. As shown in
In some embodiments, the absorbent portions 32 and/or the non-absorbent portions 30 are quilted. The quilting stitches may extend from the exterior edges of the first and second pad portions 20, 22 at a 30 degree angle, a 45 degree angle, a 60 degree angle, or any other suitable angle, in two directions to the opposed fabric edges. In one embodiment, the cross patterns form quadrilateral shapes or other polygon shapes. In some embodiments, the stitch pattern limits or prevents slippage of the pad layers relative to each other. Such slippage could reduce a pad's effectiveness at transmitting motion to the carpet in some embodiments.
In some embodiments, the surface-facing sides 24a, 24b include a glide portion to reduce friction while cleaning the carpet. For purposes herein, a glide portion is a portion of the surface-facing sides 24a, 24b which has a lower coefficient of friction than one or both of an absorbent portion 32 and an agitation portion 32. One type of glide portion is a glide strip 27, as shown in
The glide strips 27 may include polyester taffeta, 100 g/m2 and 70 Denier yarn. In one embodiment, there are a series of linings below the taffeta. As seen in the sectional view of the glide strips 27 in
In another embodiment, as depicted in
In some embodiment, the mini-shag material is weft terry knit on a course gauge machine 8 to 14 gauge. In one embodiment, the mini-shag material is 100% microfiber polyester, 8 oz./yd2 In some embodiments, the microfiber lengths are twisted together to form strands or loops.
In some embodiments, the mini-shag material may be configured such that when the pad is placed on a carpet for cleaning, the shag material is compressed such that the shag height is even with the height of the glide strip(s). In some embodiments, this configuration would result in the compressed mini-shag material being between 4 mm and 5 mm lower than the extent of the olefin or other non-absorbent scrubbing section(s).
In some embodiments, the surface-facing sides 24a, 24b of the pad portions 20, 22 are configured differently from one another. In one embodiment, as shown in
In some embodiments, the absorbent portions 32 are separate from the non-absorbent portions 30. For purposes herein, a separate portion does not necessarily mean that a first section is distanced from a second portion. Instead, separate portions, such as sections 30 and 32 in one embodiment, may be immediately adjacent to one another and be considered separate portions. In some embodiments two types of material overlap one another, but if each material has a section that does not overlap with the material, there would still be considered to be two separate portion.
In some embodiments, the pad 10 includes one or more connectors 19. The connectors 19 may be made of elastic straps, elastic cords, or any other suitable material for connecting the pads and maintaining their relative positions. The connectors 19 also may be made of any other suitable material for permitting the first and second pads 20, 22 to move relative to one another when attached to the moveable members 8. In some embodiments the elasticity of the connectors 19 is greater than the elasticity of the first and second pads 20, 22. The elasticity of the connectors 19 also may be configured such that the first and second pads 20, 22 can move relative to one another, irrespective of the positions of the moveable members 8, when the pad 10 is attached to the appliance head 6. In some embodiments, the connectors 19 may not necessarily pull the treatment cleaning pads 20, 22 toward one another. For example, the connectors may be made of a non-elastic material such as string. In embodiments where the connector(s) do not include elastic material, the pad 10, and in particular the connector(s) 19, may be sized such that the arrangement 10 is sufficiently long to remain attached to the moveable members 8 when the moveable members 8 are in their outermost position on the appliance head 6. Although two connectors 19 are shown in
In some embodiments, the pads 20, 22 comprise a series of layers including a scrubbing layer, such as a monofilament material, a nonwoven or terry knit layer, and an attachment backing layer with hook and look fastening material. In one embodiment, the scrubbing layer, the nonwoven or terry knit layer, and the attachment backing layer are sewn together in a cross pattern. In some embodiments, the stitch pattern forms quadrilateral shapes or other polygon shapes. Other layers may be included with the pads in some embodiments.
Examples of other pads that can be used to clean a carpet are described in the U.S. non-provisional application filed Mar. 1, 2013, entitled Cleaning Pad Arrangement (attorney docket number E0465.70235US00), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
In yet another embodiment, a method of cleaning a carpet with an appliance 2 that has a pad 10 mounted to a cleaning head 6 includes applying an encapsulant 26 to the carpet 18 to be cleaned, agitating the carpet 18 with the pad 10 via reciprocating movement, allowing the encapsulant 26 to interact with the dirt particles in the carpet, and vacuuming the dirt particles 28 and encapsulant 26 from the carpet 18. In one embodiment, the encapsulant 26 is allowed to interact with the dirt particles 28 for an amount of time such that encapsulant 26 can penetrate, emulsify, and dehydrate the dirt particles 28. In some cases, the pad 10 includes non-absorbent portions, or is entirely non-absorbent. Two or more moveable members may be used to provide reciprocating motion, and in some embodiments, the moveable members may move toward and way from one another. The reciprocating motion produced by the appliance 2 may be a linearly reciprocating motion in some embodiments. In some embodiments, two or more moveable members may simultaneously move in the same direction.
While the present teachings have been described in conjunction with various embodiments and examples, it is not intended that the present teachings be limited to such embodiments or examples. On the contrary, the present teachings encompass various alternatives, modifications, and equivalents, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art. Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings are by way of example only.
