BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a cleaning device, and more particularly to a mop.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a conventional mop. The mop includes a handle 1, a shift lever 2 pivotally disposed on the handle 1 to be shifted by a user's hand, a base seat 3 mounted at a bottom end of the handle 1, and a compression seat positioned under the base seat 3. The compression seat includes a pivot block 4 and two compression bodies 5. Each of the compression bodies 5 has an outer frame 51 and an inner plate 52. The inner plate 52 is mounted on a bottom face of the outer frame 51 and longitudinally slidable along the outer frame. Inner ends of the inner plates 52 are respectively pivotally connected with two lateral sides of the pivot block 4. Top faces of the outer frames 51 are respectively pivotally connected with two lateral sides of the base seat 3 via two links 6. The mop further includes a pull rod 7 passing through the base seat 3. A first end of the pull rod 7 is connected with the shift lever 2, while a second end of the pull rod 7 is connected to the pivot block 4. A foam rubber 8 is disposed under bottom faces of the inner plates 52 of the compression bodies 5. The foam rubber 8 has a length longer than that of the compression seat, whereby two ends of the foam rubber protrude from the compression bodies 5 to prevent the compression seat of the mop from colliding and damaging any furniture.
In the state of FIG. 1, the foam rubber 8 of the mop is straight and a user can use the mop to mop a floor. When the shift lever 2 is shifted upward as shown in FIG. 2, the compression seat is driven to move upward via the pull rod 7. At this time, the two compression bodies 5 are folded toward each other and retracted into the base seat 3. Under such circumstance, the foam rubber 8 is flexed and compressed by the compression bodies 5 to squeeze water out of the foam rubber.
Referring to FIG. 4, the compression bodies 5 of the mop are designed as slidable structures, whereby when compressed, two ends of the foam rubber can be moved to a position within the range of the compression bodies 5. In this case, the entire foam rubber can be compressed.
In practical use of the conventional mop, it is found that the compression seat is likely to bend and move into the base seat 3. This will affect the mopping effect. Referring to FIG. 1, in the conventional mop, the links 6 are vertically arranged. The distance between the top pivot points B of the links 6 is equal to the distance between the bottom pivot points A of the links 6. Also, neither the top ends nor the bottom ends of the links 6 are provided with any support. As a result, the links 6 tend to swing left and right. The compression bodies 5 are pivotally connected with the pivot block 4 so that the compression seat is bendable. When the mop is used to mop a floor and an action force F is applied to the compression seat between the two pivot points A, the compression bodies 5 are likely to move into the base seat 3. At the same time, the bottom ends of the links 6 will angularly move toward each other as shown by the phantom lines. Under such circumstance, it is hard to keep the compression bodies 5 straight. Therefore, it is inconvenient to use the conventional mop to mop the floor.
The conventional mop has another shortcoming existing in the compression process of the foam rubber. Please refer to FIG. 2. When the compression seat is pulled upward by means of the shift lever 7, the pivot block 4 pulls the inner plates 52 to swing the compression bodies 5 toward each other. At this time, the bottom ends of the links 6 will angularly inward move from the lowermost point (lowest position). During the swinging process of the compression bodies 5, the inner plates 52 simultaneously slide within the outer frames 51.
When the foam rubber 8 is squeezed, an elastic energy is conserved in the foam rubber for restoring the foam rubber to its original state. At a certain angle such as the angle shown in FIG. 3, the foam rubber 8 will have a maximum elastic force. The inner plate 52 has not yet reached the dead end of its travel and the elastic force of the foam rubber 8 will push the outer frame 51. Accordingly, the outer frame 51 will instantaneously slide outward to make a click sound when the inner plate 52 reaches the dead end of its travel along the outer frame 51. In the compression body 5′ as shown in the right side of FIG. 3, the inner plate 52′ has slid out of the outer frame 51′ to reach the dead end of the travel. At this time, the right end of the foam rubber 8 has moved to a position within the range of the outer frame 51′, while the inner plate 52 of the left compression body 5 has not yet reached the dead end of its travel.
During the compression operation of the foam rubber, the outer frames 51, 51′ will both quickly bound outward as shown in FIG. 4 to make two click sounds. This is likely to mislead a consumer that the product has a poor quality. In addition, after a period of use, the properties of the foam rubber will deteriorate and the elasticity of the foam rubber will weaken. In this case, the foam rubber will be unable to push the outer frame. As a result, it is impossible to totally move the foam rubber into the compression bodies.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a mop having a handle and a foldable compression seat pivotally connected to bottom end of the handle via two links. The links are unlikely to swing so that the compression seat can stably keep in a straight state for mopping a floor.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide the above mop in which the compression seat is designed with a slidable structure. When squeezing the foam rubber of the mop, the compression seat will not make any sound.
To achieve the above and other objects, the mop includes a handle, a base seat fixedly disposed at a bottom end of the handle, and a compression seat mounted under the base seat. The compression seat includes a pivot block and two compression boards. Each compression board includes a fixed board and a slide board slidable relative to the fixed board. Inner ends of the slide boards are pivotally connected with two lateral sides of the pivot block respectively. A foam rubber is disposed under bottom faces of the slide boards. The inner ends of the slide boards can slide out of the inner ends of the fixed boards. Each slide board has a sliding dead end. The mop further includes two links each having a top end and a bottom end. The top ends of the links are respectively pivotally connected with two lateral sides of the base seat. The bottom ends of the links are respectively pivotally connected with the fixed boards. When shifting a shift lever mounted on the handle, the compression seat is driven and moved into the base seat to squeeze the foam rubber or moved out of the base seat to stretch the compression boards from the pivot block.
In the stretched state, the two links are tilted and a distance between bottom pivot points of the links is larger than a distance between top pivot points thereof. In addition, outer lateral faces of the links abut against two lateral sides of the base seat, which serve as support points for locating the links. Accordingly, when using the mop to mop a floor, the bottom ends of the links are unlikely to swing inward. Therefore, the compression seat can stably keep straight without easily moving into the base seat.
During the compression process of the foam rubber, the slide boards will slide out of the fixed boards to reach the dead ends. Therefore, the fixed boards are prevented from instantaneously bounding.
The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings, wherein:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a front view of a conventional mop;
FIGS. 2 to 4 show the compression process of the foam rubber of the conventional mop according to FIG. 1;
FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of a mop according to the present invention;
FIG. 6 is a perspective generally exploded view of the preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along line 7-7 of FIG. 5;
FIG. 8 is a bottom perspective view of the fixed board of the preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along line 9-9 of FIG. 7;
FIG. 10 shows the link mechanism of the present invention;
FIG. 11 is a sectional view taken along line 11-11 of FIG. 5;
FIGS. 12, 13 and 15 show the compression process of the foam rubber of the present invention; and
FIG. 14 is a cross-sectional view showing that the slide boards of the compression boards are positioned at the dead ends.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Please refer to FIG. 5. According to a preferred embodiment, the mop 10 of the present invention includes a handle 20, a shift lever 30, a base seat 40, two links 50, a compression seat 60 and a drive rod 85.
The shift lever 30 is mounted on the handle 20 and can be pivotally rotated up and down.
Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, the base seat 40 is a hollow body, which is fixedly disposed at a bottom end of the handle 20. The base seat 40 has two seat sections 42 on two lateral sides thereof. The two seat sections 42 define therebetween a space 44 with an opening, which is directed downward.
Top ends 51 of the links 50 are respectively pivotally connected with bottom ends of the seat sections 42 via pivot shafts 52. Bottom ends 55 of the links 50 are pivotally connected with the compression seat 60 via pivot shafts 56. The top ends 51 of the links 50 are positioned in the base seat 40, while the bottom ends 55 of the links 50 protrude out from the base seat 40.
The compression seat 60 includes a pivot block 62 and two compression boards 64. Inner sides of the compression boards 64 are respectively pivotally connected with two lateral sides of the pivot blocks 62 via pivot shafts 65, whereby the compression seat 60 is a bendable structure.
Each compression board 64 includes a fixed board 70 and a slide board 75. Lugs 71 are disposed on upper face of the fixed board 70 for pivotally connecting with the bottom ends of the links 50. Referring to FIG. 8, a rail 73 is longitudinally formed on bottom face of the fixed board 70. Key sections 74 are disposed on two sidewalls of the rail to narrow the opening of the rail. An inner end of the slide board 75 is provided with a pivot section 76. An insertion rib 77 is disposed on top face of the slide board 75. The insertion rib 77 has a cross-sectional shape with wider head section and narrow stem section. Four latch holes 66 are formed on the slide board 75. The insertion rib 77 of the slide board 75 is inserted in the rail 73 of the fixed board 70 as shown in FIG. 9, whereby the slide board is slidable relative to the fixed board. The fixed boards 70 of the compression boards 64 are pivotally connected with the links 50. The pivot sections 76 of the slide boards 75 are pivotally connected with the pivot block 62. Further referring to FIGS. 8, 9 and 11, each fixed board 70 is formed with four elongated slots 72 positioned on two lateral sides of the rail 73 corresponding to the latch holes 66 respectively.
The mop according to the present invention further includes an foam rubber 80, which is elongated. Two connection plates 82 fixedly disposed on top face of the foam rubber 80. Buckles 84 are disposed on top faces of the connection plates 82 for latching in the latch holes 66 of the compression boards 64 as shown in FIG. 11. Accordingly, the foam rubber 80 is detachably and replaceably mounted under the bottom face of the compression seat 60. Top ends of the buckles 84 of the connection plates 82 extend into the slots 72 of the fixed boards 70. A gap is defined to space each buckle 84 from the inner end wall 721 of each slot 72.
The drive rod 85 is preferably a U-shaped rod body. The drive rod 85 extends through a through hole 46 formed on the top section of the base seat 40. A bottom end of the drive rod 85 passes through the through hole 63 of the pivot block 62 of the compression seat 60 to connect with the pivot block 62. A top end of the drive rod 85 is connected with the shift lever 30. When shifting the shift lever, the compression seat 60 is driven via the drive rod 85.
In use, the shift lever 30 is shifted down as shown in FIG. 5. At this time, the compression seat 60 is pushed out of the bottom end of the base seat 40 and the pivot block 62 and the compression boards 64 are stretched to straighten the foam rubber 80 for mopping a floor.
Referring to FIGS. 7 and 10, in the stretched and straightened state, the distance D between the bottom pivot points, (that is, the pivot shafts 56), of the links 50 is larger than the distance C between the top pivot points, (that is, the pivot shafts 52), of the links 50. In other words, the two links 50 are tilted rather than vertical. Accordingly, an angle θ is contained between the length of each link 50 and a vertical line. The angle θ is within a range from 20° to 75° and preferably from 25° to 45°, for example, 30°. The bottom ends of the links 50 are outward inclined. In addition, the outer lateral faces of the links 50 are leant on inner wall faces of the bottom ends of the seat sections 42 respectively as shown in FIG. 7. The outer lateral face of each link 50 is provided with an abutment section 58 in abutment with the seat section 42 as a support point. Accordingly, when using the mop 10 to mop a floor, the bottom ends of the links 50 are unlikely to swing inward. Therefore, the compression seat 60 can stably keep straight without easily inward bending. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 10, the bottom ends of the links 50 are positioned on outer sides of the vertical lines E of the top pivot points, (that is, the pivot shafts 52), of the links 50. Therefore, before the bottom pivot points, (that is, the pivot shafts 56), of the links 50 inward pass over the vertical lines E, it is hard for the links 50 to inward swing.
Please refer to FIG. 12. When squeezing the foam rubber 80, the shift lever 30 is pulled up, whereby via the drive rod 85, the compression seat 60 is pulled into the space 44 of the base seat 40. At this time, the two compression boards 64 are swung relative to the pivot block 62 and folded toward each other. In the meantime, the slide boards 75 slide within the fixed boards 70. The inner ends of the slide boards 75 gradually slide out of the inner ends of the fixed boards 70. Also, the bottom ends of the links 50 gradually inward angularly displace to incline the compression boards 60. When the bottom ends of the links 50 move from the position of FIG. 12 to the lowermost point of FIG. 13, the slide boards 75 have reached the dead ends of their travels. Please refer to FIG. 14. The buckles 82 of the connection plates 80 of the foam rubber abut against the inner end walls 721 of the slots 72 as the dead ends of the travels of the slide boards. Under such circumstance, the slide boards cannot be further slid relative to the fixed boards. Therefore, when squeezing the foam rubber, although the foam rubber will conserve elastic energy, the elastic energy will not cause sliding of the fixed boards. Then, as shown in FIG. 15, the two compression boards 64 are completely folded to each other to squeeze the water out of the foam rubber 80.
It should be noted that the dead ends of the slide boards 75 are not limited to that of FIG. 14. Please refer to FIG. 7. A raised section a is disposed on bottom face of each fixed board 70 and a raised section b is disposed on top face of the slide board 75. The raised section b can abut against the raised section a as a locating dead end of the slide board.
According to the above arrangement, the links 50 of the mop have locating effect and are hard to swing inward the base seat. Accordingly, the compression seat 60 can keep straight without swinging or bending. Therefore, the mop of the present invention can be more conveniently and efficiently used to mop a floor.
Moreover, it can be known from FIGS. 12 to 15 that the links are tilted to avoid instantaneous bounding or clicking of the components of the mop.
The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the present invention, not intended to limit the scope thereof. Many modifications of the above embodiments can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.
Patent Application
20110185523
