Patent Application
20080313971
This invention relates to a dropcloth, in particular, an improved dropcloth that includes, inter alia, a slip reducing feature.
Historically, dropcloths have been used by painters, whether professionals, or do it yourselfers, in either case, to protect surfaces of various materials, inter alia, such as metal, plastic, tile, and wood, whether walls, flooring, and/or furniture from fugitive drips. The basis for such usage is primarily driven to eliminate the need to repair and/or replace such surfaces, by merely incurring the cost of efforts of deploying a dropcloth in the work zone.
However, one issue of many exists in the work zone, which is primarily encountered by the worker who needs to walk around on top of the deployed dropcloth, namely, slippage. This is experienced at times, when the worker is standing on a ladder and leans side to side, or out forwards or backwards and the ladder moves relative to the flooring due to the dropcloth, although the more common occurrence of slippage is when the worker walks about the dropcloth, wherein the interface between the dropcloth and flooring does not remain static, thereby contributing to the worker's injury. This issue is only further exacerbated when the work zone includes or encompasses a stair case. The safety of the worker is key, and when the stair case has a slick surface, e.g., hard wood, a dynamic interface is almost inevitable between the underside of the dropcloth and the topside of the flooring when a worker walks about the dropcloth, and due to the nature of staircases, the probability of injury incurred by failing and the severity of the injury is greatly increased. In this regard, there is a need for a slip reducing dropcloth.
The present invention is directed to an improved dropcloth having the primary advantage of increased safety by providing slip reducing features.
Other objectives, advantages, and novel features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The following drawings, in which like reference characters indicate like parts, are provided for illustration of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention in any manner whatsoever.
The following descriptions of the preferred embodiments are presented to illustrate the present invention and are not to be construed to limit the claims in any manner whatsoever. In reference to the drawings, namely
The dropcloth 1 is made from a material having a weight in the range of about four (4) to sixteen (16) ounces per square yard fabric weight prior to infusion, although it is preferred to be made from a material having a weight in the range of about eight (8) to ten (10) ounces per square yard fabric weight prior to infusion.
The slip reducing feature 14 comprises a non-linear contoured topographical surface, such as dot technology, wherein each dot 14a has a diameter D and a height H, wherein said feature 14 is infused with said material, although it is envisioned that other shapes maybe used, e.g., stars, squares, or other polygons having a contact surface CS that is either smooth or non-smooth, i.e., the CS is topographical itself, wherein the contact surface CS is defined as the surface of the dot that ultimately interfaces with the desired work surface, e.g., floor, furniture, staircase etc. The slip reducing feature 14 is made from polyvinylchloride, rubber, Kevlar®, taken alone or in any combination thereof, or with any other common material known in the industry.
In a preferred embodiment illustrated in
In a preferred embodiment, each dot 14a is spaced equidistant S1=S2 S3 etc., wherein each space S is about one-sixty fourths ( 1/64″) of an inch to about one-half (½) inch. Although it is envisioned that there may be a plurality of spacing therebetween, eg., S1≠S2≠S3. Optionally, said dots 14a viewed collectively, form a pattern comprising a word, number, artistic design or combination thereof, such as PoppyTools or other slogan and/or company name as illustrated in
All of the above referenced patents; patent applications and publications are hereby incorporated by reference. Many variations of the present invention will suggest themselves to those of ordinary skill in the art in light of the above detailed description. All such obvious modifications are within the full-intended spirit and scope of the claims of the present application.
