Patent Grant
8528146
This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/671,769 filed on Jul. 15, 2012, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates to a cleaning apparatus and more particularly, to a cleaning apparatus for cleaning/brushing swimming pools or other things alike.
Cleaning devices for swimming pools or the like, such as swimming pool brushes, have been around for many years. Pool brushes typically incorporate and array of bristles with distal ends intended to follow the contour of the pool surface to provided for application of the solutions and dislodging of deposits and growth clinging to the surface. The conventional pool brushes are typically configured to follow a wide swath across the flat side or bottom wall of the pool. But modern pools often take numerous different shapes, thus have many of sharp or curved corners, ridges, crevices, risers and, depressions. These designs result in difficulties for using conventional pool brushes to clean the modern pools. Thus those working in the pool cleaning business have been left with the choice of either utilizing multiple brushes of different configurations for achieving the entire pool cleaning process or consuming inordinate time cleaning the large area surfaces with smaller specially contoured brushes or utilizing a larger area brush and leaving the contoured areas inadequately cleaned.
U.S. PreGrant Patent Publication No. 2009/0282633 to Fuller discloses a large area brush with a transversely projecting arcuate mounting bar and an array of generally radically projecting, discrete bristles which terminate at their distal extremities in working ends, evenly spaced to cooperate to form a flat plane that services as the working surface for the brush bristles. The laterally outwardly disposed discrete bristles are relatively long and will serve to, when compressed against a pool surface, flare laterally outwardly for cleaning of the curved surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,148,466 to Smitelli discloses a pool brush for cleaning narrow areas of pool such as corners and stairs, which has a brush head with a substantially cylindrical body and semi-spherical rounded ends. All the brush bristles are perpendicular to and uniformly mounted to the brush head. Each of the adjcent bristles on the rounded surfaces is angled from one another.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a simple, large area pool brush for easily cleaning swimming pools, regardless of the angle or shape of the pool. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, there is disclosed a cleaning apparatus which provides the means for cleaning/brushing a swimming pool or other things alike. Said cleaning apparatus comprises of:
i. a main body comprising a plurality of brush sections and each brush section comprising:
ii. a tension device that attaches to said main body;
iii. fasten means that connect each brush section to one another that makes up the main body;
iv. a shaft-like piece that is attached to the main body at one end and slides into an extension handle at the other end, said shaft-like piece further comprising a tension clip which locks the shaft-like piece into said extension handle.
By placing said apparatus up against the surface being cleaned or brushed, each brush section moves independently of one another, and automatically adjusts and contours to all the different shaped corners, edges, tight spots and even the vertical and horizontal parts of the steps/stairs, at the same time. No matter which position the sections of the cleaning apparatus are in, there is always a clean edge of brushes making contact with the surface. The apparatus will flex from the flat position all the way to a 90 degree angle, and everything in between. Said device can be made with a memory metal (spring steel) or out of other tension material options. Thus this apparatus will permit the user to easily and quickly clean/brush a swimming pool or things alike without having to move the apparatus around, in sometimes uncomfortable positions, and eliminating the having to make the many extra strokes required in tighter areas and corners, where the non-flexible brushes will not fit, or contour to.
The more important features of the invention have thus been outlined in order that the more detailed description that follows may be better understood and in order that the present contribution to the art may better be appreciated. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter and will form the subject matter of the claims that follow.
Before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
The foregoing has outlined, rather broadly, the preferred feature of the present invention so that those skilled in the art may better understand the detailed description of the invention that follows. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter that form the subject of the claims of the invention. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they can readily use the disclosed conception and specific embodiment as a basis for designing or modifying other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention and that such other structures do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention in its broadest form.
Other aspects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description, the appended claim, and the accompanying drawings in which similar elements are given similar reference numerals.
The present invention discloses a cleaning apparatus which the main body is made up of individual brush sections that can bend flexibly and independently to one another.
Referring to
Referring to
The main body 100 is made up of several individual brush sections that are connected via fasten means, as shown in
The shaft-like piece 200, that is attached to the main body 100 at one end and slides into an extension handle 300 at the other end, further comprises of a tension clip 210. There are two holes 220 at both sides of the shaft-like piece. When the shaft-like piece 200 slides into the extension handle 300, the tension clip expands and the two ends of the tension clip stick out through the holes to lock the shaft-like and extension handle together.
When the cleaning apparatus is applied against the surface being cleaned or brushed, each brush section moves independently of one another. Therefore, it can automatically adjusts and contours to all the different shaped corners, edges, tight spots and even the vertical and horizontal parts of the steps/stairs, at the same time. Each one brush section or a group of individual brush sections can bend from the flat position all the way to a 90 degree angle, and everything in between, as shown in
While there have been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to the preferred embodiments, it will be understood that the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention and not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Obvious modifications or variations are possible in light of the above teachings. The embodiments discussed were chosen and described to provide the best illustration of the principles of the invention and its practical application to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated All such modifications and variations are within the scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims when interpreted in accordance with the breadth to which they are entitled.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4554699 | Simmons | Nov 1985 | A |
| 6148466 | Smitelli et al. | Nov 2000 | A |
| 20090282633 | Fuller et al. | Nov 2009 | A1 |
