Patent Application
20190150694
This invention relates to a cleaning device made from closed-cell, latex-free elastomer foam, and in particular, but without limitation, to a device suitable for picking up and/or collecting dirt, dust, debris and pet hair.
The present description will be understood more fully from the detailed description given below and from the accompanying drawings of various embodiments of the present embodiment, which, however, should not be taken to limit the present embodiment to the specific embodiments, but are for explanation and understanding only.
Pets, such as cats and dogs, are prone to shedding their hair throughout the year, which can find its way anywhere and everywhere, including floors, furniture, bedding, clothing etc. Pet hair can be difficult to clean up, especially from clothing or fabric furnishings, for example in residential and/or commercial areas, or car interiors, because it has a tendency to stick to, and bed into, fabrics. Various devices have been developed to help deal with unwanted pet hair.
Where possible, the use of a vacuum cleaner is considered to be one of the most efficient methods for removing pet hair. However, not only is this relatively time consuming, in some situations, the use of a vacuum cleaner is either not possible (e.g. if the user is not near a power source), or is contraindicated (e.g. vacuuming can sometimes damage clothing). Certain vacuum cleaners have been developed that are cordless and specially adapted for hair removal from clothing, but these can be costly and not very versatile.
Alternative devices, which do not require an electrical power supply, include brushes, rollers, and mitts etc., which are described in more detail below.
Firstly, brushes can be used to remove pet hair from animals before they are shed, i.e. at source. Indeed, regular brushing can reduce the deposition of unwanted hair, but brushes are generally inefficient at cleaning surfaces.
Secondly, rollers, for example lint rollers, can be used, which comprise a tacky or adhesive surface to which pet hair and other debris adheres in use. A drawback of lint rollers is that they often lose stickiness quickly, especially when used on dirty surfaces. Unless the adhesive surface can be replaced (which can be costly), the roller quickly loses efficacy.
Thirdly, mitts, which are adapted to be worn by a user glove-like, are often used to remove pet hair from animals, surfaces and clothing. The user wearing the mitt presses and rubs the mitt against a surface, e.g. clothing. Where the mitt is manufactured from an electrically insulative material, static charge builds-up on the mitt, thus attracting hair and dirt particles to the mitt via electrostatic attraction. Mitts are often made of rubber, and so can be washed and re-used, but suffer from the drawbacks of dexterity (left- or right-handedness) and sizing issues (a “one size fits all” mitt rarely fits every possible user).
It will be appreciated from the foregoing, that although cleaning devices exist that can be used to pick up pet hair and other debris, they can suffer from a lack of versatility, high ongoing cost, and a lack of efficiency. Thus, many pet owners tend to need a number of different devices for different scenarios i.e. a vacuum cleaner for removing hair from household surfaces and a roller for removing hair from clothing. This can lead to potentially unnecessary duplication.
A need therefore exists for a solution and/or alternative to the above problems associated with pet hair pick-up devices.
Various aspects of the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
According to an aspect of the invention there is provided a cleaning device suitable, in use, for picking up pet hair and particles, the cleaning device comprising a unitary, elastomeric main body comprising a face comprising an integrally-formed wiper blade and an integrally formed channel adjacent the wiper blade.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a cleaning device suitable, in use, for picking up pet hair and particles, the cleaning device comprising a unitary, elastomeric main body portion, the main body portion comprising at least one face comprising at least one integrally-formed wiper blade and at least one integrally formed channel adjacent the or each wiper blade.
The cleaning device comprises a wiper blade, by which we mean an edge that engages with a surface, and acts upon pet hair and other dust/dirt/debris particles. The wiper blade may therefore comprise a blade, and/or an edge and/or a tread or any other configuration of the like.
In use, the cleaning device's face can be moved across a surface to be cleaned. By so doing, the wiper blade lifts hairs and/or other dirt particles off the surface, and the hairs and/or dirt particles are retained and/or accumulated in the channel adjacent the wiper blade.
In certain and/or preferred embodiments of the invention, there is more than one wiper blade and/or more than one channel.
The cleaning device comprises a unitary main body portion, that is to say, manufactured from a single piece of elastomer. Conveniently, therefore, the main body portion can be manufactured by a moulding process, which may reduce manufacturing cost and/or complexity, and/or improve the durability of the device (e.g. as there are no parts to detach from the main body portion).
The main body portion is manufactured from a closed-cell, latex-free, elastomer foam.
Suitably, the latex-free elastomer foam comprises ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA). Elastomers have several useful properties. First, they are resiliently deformable, which enables the main body portion, and in particular, the wiper blade or blades to conform, in use, to uneven surfaces, which may improve the efficacy of the device. Second, elastomeric materials, especially foamed elastomers, are relatively lightweight, and sometimes have a relatively high-friction surface, thus facilitating manual manipulation of the device. Third, elastomeric materials are generally good electrical insulators, which may facilitate the build-up of static charge on the face, blade or channel, which may facilitate picking-up and/or retaining hairs and/or dirt particles.
Suitably, the elastomeric material comprises a foam and/or resin elastomer material. Suitably, the elastomeric material comprises a closed-cell, foam/resin elastomer material. The use of a closed-cell elastomer foam/resin may be advantageous for several reasons. First, the closed-cell nature prevents or inhibits the device from absorbing water and/or moisture, which may facilitate cleaning the device (e.g. enabling it to be rinsed-off under running water) and/or improve its longevity (i.e. its surface may dry more quickly where water is not retained in the bulk of the material). Second, by using a closed-cell foam material, if/when the surface wears away, the fresh surface exposed underneath has the same closed-cell structure as the original surface, thus enabling the device to be used even after it has been damaged, worn-down, abraded, etc.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the main body portion is manufactured from closed-cell ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) resin. This material has been found to exhibit unexpectedly good cleaning characteristics due to its low electrical conductivity. This material is also durable, lightweight, has a low modulus of elasticity and is relatively durable. Another advantage of a closed-cell EVA resin is that it is generally smooth, which may prevent clogging. A further advantage of using a closed-cell, latex-free elastomer foam, such as EVA, is that it is hypoallergenic, and moreover is latex-free, enabling it to be used by latex-allergic users. EVA is considered to share characteristics with natural-rubber i.e. resilience and durability, but may be less expensive.
Suitably main body portion has anti-bacterial qualities. The body portion is manufactured from a closed-cell material, which may prevent bacterial growth. It is considered that bacteria generally culture poorly on non-porous surfaces, and usually will not survive longer than a few hours. Suitably, the body portion is provided with an anti-bacterial additive, which may further improve the anti-bacterial properties of the device.
EVA shares many characteristics associated with other rubber-like materials, which make it useful in manufacturing i.e. EVA can be processed like other thermoplastics as it shares a similar mouldable temperature threshold. As such, no special considerations are required to process the material and/or manufacture the device. EVA also has a relatively high friction coefficient, facilitating gripping the device, in use, and also improving the device's cleaning capabilities.
The channel is formed adjacent the wiper blade, and such a configuration may suitably facilitate retaining collected hair and/or dirt particles. In other words, hair and/or dirt lifted by the wiper blade can be immediately transferred into the channel, where it is retained, at least temporarily.
The wiper blade may comprise any one or more of the group comprising: a square edge; a tapered edge; a chamfered edge; and a rounded edge.
In certain and/or preferred embodiments of the invention, the channel typically may have a depth of between ˜2 and ˜20 mm, which has been found to be sufficient to accommodate hair and/or dirt particles collected during a typical cleaning operation.
The peripheries of the channel or channels may be sloped, which may facilitate guiding collected debris into the channel when the device is slid across a surface. The edges may be sloped at angles ranging from ˜30° to ˜50°, or any angle of the like, in which the slopes provide a shallow area around the channel. The sloped, shallow area, in use, may collect debris from wiper blade and facilitate the transfer of the debris from the shallow area to an area of relatively increased depth, e.g. near or at the midpoint of the channel. Suitably, the or each channel may be oriented in a variety of ways, and in a preferred embodiment of the invention, the wiper blade and channel extend both laterally and longitudinally such that the device can be used in any direction.
Advantageously, the main body portion may comprise a relatively narrow portion, such that the narrow portion can be fitted into “nooks and crannies” to remove debris from these usually hard-to-reach areas. This may offer an advantage over, for example, lint rollers, which are often unable to fit into small corners.
Preferably, the main body portion of the device comprises an ergonomic shape and/or dimensions, to facilitate a user grasping and using the device in one hand. The device may be approximately 5 cm in width and 17 cm in length, but it is appreciated that different dimensions may be used, and that different embodiments of the invention may be of completely different sizes, for example, smaller (e.g. pocket-sized) embodiments of the device may be 3 cm in width and 6 cm in length.
Advantageously, the device is reusable, by which it is intended that the device can be hand-wiped clean with a cloth to remove collected hair and/or dirt, or simply rinsed under running water. This is a much easier operation than separating hair/dirt from the bristles of a brush. The perpetual reusability of the device is considered to be advantageous both in terms of waste/material usage, and economic terms.
Embodiments of the invention shall now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Referring to
The main body portion 12 comprises a slightly convex, generally smooth upper face 14 leading to a nose portion 16, which comprises a series of slightly undercut grooves 18 extending in the lateral direction from one side 20 of the device 10 to the other 22. The slightly undercut grooves 18 form a series of wiper blades defined by edges 24 that project slightly beyond corresponding channels 26.
In use, the main body portion can be inverted (compared to how it is shown in
Alternatively, the device 10 can be canted slightly such that the nose portion 16 can be rubbed against a surface to be cleaned, in which case the series of edges 24 will facilitate lifting hair and dirt particles off the surface, where they are collected in the channels 26 immediately adjacent each respective wiper blade edge 24. Again, the collected hair and dirt particles so collected can be readily removed by hand, for example by wiping, or by rinsing the device under running water subsequent to the cleaning operation.
It can also be seen in
It will be appreciated that the configuration illustrated in
The underside of the device 10 of
The channels 32 comprise a relatively deep central portion 38, which slopes 40 at an angle of about 30 degrees at its ends to meet the lateral wiper blades 36. The side walls 42 of the channels 32 are substantially square to the longitudinal wiper blades 34. This configuration provides for two slightly different cleaning modes, namely: a more aggressive cleaning mode where the device 10 is moved side-to-side 46, whereby the square edges of the longitudinal wiper blades 34 scrape hair and dirt particles off a surface to be cleaned; and a less aggressive mode where the device 10 is moved longitudinally 48, in which the sloped surfaces 40 leading to the lateral wiper blades 36 lift hair and dirt particles more gently from the surface to be cleaned. In either case, collected debris accumulates in the channels 32, from where it can be wiped away, or rinsed from, the channels, using, for example, a cloth or running water, respectively.
A further embodiment of the invention is shown in
Viewed from the underside, as shown in
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, as can be seen in
The arched leading edge 112 of the device 110 (the first wiper blade) provides a concave inner surface 116 with a plurality of grooves 118 (somewhat akin to tyre treads) in it, configured so as to be engageable with the convex contours of an animal's body, in use. The radius of curvature 116 of the arch 112 will be dependent on the intended target animal, but will usually be around 60 mm. The under-surface of the arch forms a first wiper blade made up of a plurality of discrete block portions 120 separated by grooves 118, which can be seen more clearly in
The trailing edge 114 of the device 110 (the second wiper blade) is generally flat-bottomed, but also has grooves 130 in it separating discrete wiper blade block portions 132. The trailing edge 114 also comprises an inwardly-facing chamfered edge 136.
Located between the leading 112 and trailing edge 114 of the device 110 is located a central groove 140. The central groove 140 substantially extends the length of the device 110, and is adapted to collect hair and/or debris, in use.
In use, on an animal, the leading edge 112 of the device 110 could be considered to act as a groomer, in that it is adapted to disrupt the animal's fur, in a similar manner to a brush. Once the fur has been disrupted, any loose fur, or other debris may adhere to, or be picked up by, the wiper blades 120, 118 of the leading edge 112 and subsequently, by way of the chamfered edge 124 pass into the central groove 140 of the device 110. Collected fur is prevented/inhibited from leaving the central groove 140 by way of the trailing edge 114.
Additionally, or alternatively, the device 110 may be used on a flat surface e.g. flooring, in which only the generally planar trailing edge 114 of the device 110 is configured to engage with the floor surface. In this case, the loose hair and/or debris suitably passed under the arch formed by the leading edge 112, and is caught by the trailing edge 114 in the central groove 140 by its chamfered edge 136.
Near the rear end of the under surface of the device 110, as can be seen in
Referring to
Near to the front of the device 110, there is further provided two spaced apart shallow recesses or depressions 148, which usefully accommodate a user's fingers, in use, and thus may be considered to improve the ergonomic characteristics of the device 110. Nodules 1462 are also provided on the front upper surface of the device 110, which may be used to massage an animal, in use.
The invention is not restricted to the details of the foregoing embodiments, which are merely exemplary of the invention. For example, the shapes, sizes and dimensions, where indicated or inferred, are exemplary only, and other shapes and dimensions may be selected to suit different applications. Also envisaged by, and falling within the scope of the invention, is the combination of features from different embodiments of the invention, for example, the channels illustrated in
This application is a continuation of International Patent Application No. PCT/GB2016/051479, filed May 23, 2016, which is a continuation of United Kingdom Patent Application No. 1603791.3, filed Mar. 1, 2016 and a continuation of United Kingdom Patent Application No. 1508850.3, filed May 22, 2015.
