Nonabrasive bottle brush

Abstract

A bottle brush comprising a handle connected to a bristle brush head composed of a single piece of molded thermoplastic material. The bristle brush head member comprises an integrated one-piece cylindrical core with a longitudinal axis from which a plurality of monolithically formed bristles extend radially outwardly. The handle includes an internal reservoir connected to a reservoir conduit tube channeling a cleaning fluid to the distal end of the brush head. The brush head further includes a reservoir plug with an internal recess containing a nipple brush. The nipple brush can be hinged to the end cap such that it can swivel from a first position inside the recess to second position in which it is exposed.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the nonabrasive bottle brush of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view of a nonabrasive bottle brush taken along lines 3-3 of FIG. 1, and looking in the direction of the arrows showing the bottle brush with the recess for the nipple brush.

FIG. 4 is an additional exploded view of a nonabrasive bottle brush.

FIG. 5 is an additional cross sectional view of a nonabrasive bottle brush taken along lines 3-3 of FIG. 1, and looking in the direction of the arrows showing the bottle brush with the recess for the nipple brush.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many different forms, there are shown in the drawings and will be described in detail, several specific embodiments, with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to the embodiments illustrated.

As shown in FIGS. 1 through 3, nonabrasive bottle brush 8, includes handle 10 with bristle brush head member 12 encasing distal end 36 of handle 10 and nipple brush 14 hinged at proximal end 38.

Bristle brush head member 12 is generally cylindrical in shape and preferably composed of a single piece of monolithically formed, molded thermoplastic elastomer. Thermoplastic elastomers have the advantage of being able to be processed by thermoplastic techniques (unlike elastomers), yet still yield a material with elastomeric properties when cooled. Some of the commercially available thermoplastic materials include segmented polyester thermoplastic elastomers, segmented polyurethane thermoplastic elastomers, segmented polyamide thermoplastic elastomers, blends of thermoplastic elastomers and thermoplastic polymers, and ionic thermoplastic elastomers. While several of these, and yet others, can be used as the material for the integrated present invention, a preferred thermoplastic elastomer is a styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene block copolymer such as the SINOFLEX™ brand TPRP344-62 SEBS and the KRATON™ brand Polymers SEBS G Series. A preferred thermoplastic elastomer would have the following properties: a Shore OO of approximately 60 (generally equivalent to a Shore A reading of approximately 20), a specific gravity of 0.87, a tensile strength of 0.97 MPA, a break elongation greater than 800% (ASTM B-412), and a melt flow index of approximately 10.

Bristle brush member 12 is not limited to a thermoplastic elastomer material. Bristle brush member 12 can also be composed of a number of other low durometer or low hardness elastomers. These materials include but are not limited to silicons, polyvinyl chlorides, thermoplastic elastomers, thermoplastic rubbers, and thermoplastic urethanes.

Handle 10 includes reservoir plug 18, internal reservoir 34, and reservoir conduit tube 88. Reservoir plug 18 here comprising entire proximal end of the device, including recess 32 in which nipple brush 14 is contained.

Nipple brush 14, in one embodiment, is composed of nylon nipple brush bristles 40 attached to coated twisted wire base 42 and hinged to reservoir plug 18 at proximal end 36 such that it can swivel from a first position, in which nipple brush 14 is generally contained in recess 32, to a second position in which nipple brush 14 is generally exposed and extends outwardly from handle 10. Nipple brush 14 can be hinged to reservoir plug 18 through the use of nipple brush swivel 64. Nipple brush swivel 64 includes swivel notch 66. Swivel notch 66 aids a user in manually swiveling nipple brush 14 out when it is inside recess 32. Twisted wire base can also be capped with wire cap 70, preferably made of nylon or plastic. Wire cap 70 can help prevent twisted wire base 42 from unraveling.

FIGS. 3 and 5 are cross sectional views of one embodiment of the present invention, in which nipple brush 14 is exposed for use in FIG. 3 and retracted in FIG. 5. FIGS. 3 and 5 show cross sectional views of bottle brush 8 with recess 32. As shown in these figures, bristle brush head member 12 includes cylindrical core 46 with longitudinal axis 90 and a plurality of brush bristles 30 extending radially from the core. Bristle brush head 12 has also has a plurality of distal end bristles 22 protruding from the top of the bristle brush head 12. Distal end bristles 22 extend outwardly from bristle brush head 12 at an angle between 0 and 90 degrees from longitudinal axis 90. Distal end bristles 22 can aid in scrubbing the bottom of a baby bottle.

Internal reservoir 34 and reservoir conduit tube 88 are formed of a single unit. Internal reservoir 34 can contain a cleaning fluid which can be channeled by reservoir conduit tube 88 to tube opening 24 at distal end 36 of handle 10. Tube opening 24 allows the passage of a cleaning fluid to the surface being scrubbed by the bristles of the bottle brush. The reservoir conduit tube 88 also has a notch 52 located near distal end 36 to limit the flow of such fluids.

FIGS. 3 and 5 also show reservoir plug 18 removably attached to internal reservoir 34 such that removing reservoir plug 18 provides access to internal reservoir 34. Reservoir plug 34 is removably attached to internal reservoir 34 through the use of screw type threading 20.

As further shown by FIGS. 3 and 5, when encased by bristle brush head member 12, reservoir conduit tube 88 extends through cylindrical core 46 of bristle brush head 12 such that tube opening 24 extends to distal end bristles 22. Internal reservoir 34 and reservoir conduit tube 88 are aligned and preferably made of a substantially clear plastic material. This allows a user to observe the level and flow of the cleaning fluid while using the bottle brush.

Bristle brush head member 12 is secured to reservoir conduit tube 88 of handle 10 by cylindrical core 46 firmly encasing reservoir conduit tube 88.

FIG. 3 also details that the end of the nipple brush 14 located the farthest from hinge 64a can be bent approximately 180 degrees onto the remainder of the twisted wire base 42. This bending creates a plurality of end nipple brush bristles 72 that extend axially outward from twisted wire base 42. Nipple brush bristles 72 can aid in cleaning the interior tip of a nipple for a bottle.

FIGS. 2 and 4 show exploded views of one embodiment of the present invention. As shown by these figures, bristle brush head 12 can be further secured to reservoir conduit tube 88 through the use of collar 60. The collar secures bristle brush head 12 to reservoir conduit tube 88 through a pair of annular notches, first annular notch 82 and second annular notch 84, each located on the interior surface of collar 60. First annular notch 82 engages bristle brush head annular ring 62, protruding from the bottom of cylindrical core 46 of the bristle brush head 12. Second annular notch 84 engages reservoir tube annular ring 68, emanating from handle 10. As shown best in FIG. 4, the collar is formed of two semicircular pieces that can be adhered or sonically welded together.

The exploded views of FIGS. 2 and 4 also show that the reservoir plug is preferably made of two molded plastic pieces connected together. The pieces can be connected together by adhesives, mechanical fasteners, or can be sonically welded together.

The foregoing description and drawings merely explain and illustrate the invention and the invention is not limited thereto, as those skilled in the art who have the disclosure before them will be able to make modifications and variations therein without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A bottle brush for cleaning bottles, said bottle brush comprising: a handle having a distal end and a proximal end opposite to said distal end; anda bristle brush head operably attached to the handle at said distal end, the bristle brush head comprising a monolithically formed one-piece brush head member of molded thermoplastic elastomer including a substantially cylindrical core with a longitudinal axis and a plurality of brush bristles extending radially from said cylindrical core.

2. The bottle brush of claim 1 wherein the bristle brush head member further comprises a plurality of distal end bristles protruding from the top of the bristle brush head member, the distal end bristles extending at an angle ranging between 0 and 90 degrees relative to the longitudinal axis of said cylindrical core.

3. The bottle brush of claim 1 wherein the handle includes an internal reservoir, a reservoir conduit tube, and a reservoir plug, the reservoir plug being removably attached to the internal reservoir such that removing the reservoir plug allows access to the internal reservoir connected to the reservoir tube, the bristle brush head member encasing the reservoir conduit tube at the distal end of the handle, said reservoir tube terminating at the distal end of said handle, proximate to the distal end of said bristle brush head member.

4. The bottle brush of claim 1 wherein the bristle brush head is secured to the handle by a collar, the collar having a first annular notch and a second annular notch, said first annular notch and said second annular notch securing the bristle brush head to the handle by engaging a bristle brush head annular ring and a handle annular ring, respectively.

5. The bottle brush of claim 1 further comprising a nipple brush oriented at the proximal end of the handle.

6. The bottle brush of claim 5 wherein the end cap contains an internal recess used to house the nipple brush.

7. The bottle brush of claim 6 wherein the nipple brush is hinged to the end cap such that it can swivel from a first position in which it is generally housed within the end cap, to a second position in which it is generally exposed.

8. The bottle brush of claim 7 wherein the nipple brush is hinged to the end cap by a nipple brush swivel.

9. The bottle brush of claim 8 wherein the nipple brush swivel has a swivel notch used to facilitate manual deployment of the nipple brush.

10. The bottle brush of claim 7 wherein the nipple brush comprises nylon bristles connected to a twisted wire base.

11. The bottle brush of claim 10 wherein the twisted wire base is comprised of coated twisted wires.

12. The bottle brush of claim 11 wherein the nipple brush has a nipple brush distal end located at the end of the nipple brush farthest from a hinge point, the hinge point being the location where the nipple brush is hinged to the end cap, the nipple brush distal end being bent approximately 180 degrees onto the remainder of the twisted wire base.

13. The bottle brush of claim 12 further comprising a wire cap, the wire cap covering the nipple brush distal end in order to prevent the twisted wire base from unraveling.

14. The bottle brush of claim 2 wherein the reservoir plug is removably attached to the reservoir tube through the use of screw type threading.

15. The bottle brush of claim 4 wherein said collar is maintained in position relative to the brush head member annular ring and reservoir tube annular ring by a sonic weld.

16. The bottle brush of claim 4 wherein the reservoir and reservoir conduit tube are each composed of a substantially clear plastic material.

17. The bottle brush of claim 2 wherein the thermoplastic elastomer is a styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene block copolymer

18. A bottle brush comprising: a handle; anda bristle arrangement attached to the handle, the bristle arrangement having a plurality of bristles, the bristles being composed of a thermoplastic elastomer.

19. A bottle brush comprising: a handle; anda bristle arrangement encasing a portion of the handle, the bristle arrangement molded of a monolithically formed, single piece of material, the material being one of a group of elastomeric materials including silicons, polyvinyl chlorides, thermoplastic elastomers, thermoplastic rubbers, and thermoplastic urethanes, the bristle arrangement including a cylindrical core, said bristle arrangement including a plurality of radial bristles extending radially outwardly from said cylindrical core.