Patent Application
20200016638
Detailed embodiments of the present disclosure are described herein; however, it is to be understood that disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the present disclosure, which may be embodied in various alternative forms. Specific process details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present disclosure in any appropriate process.
The terms used herein are for the purpose of describing exemplary embodiments only and are not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” or “comprising,” when used in this specification, do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more components, steps, operations, and/or elements other than a mentioned component, step, operation, and/or element.
The embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and which show, by way of illustration, specific example embodiments. The following detailed description is not intended to be taken in a limiting sense.
Further, the elongated body 14 may have, but not limited to, a solid cylindrical shape and circular cross section. The elongated body 14 may have a length in the range of, but not limited to, 5 inches to 36 inches and may have a diameter of about 1.75 mm. In addition, pipe cleaner tool 10 has a first end 142 and a second end 144 on the opposite sides of the elongated body 14. Both the first end 142 and the second end 144 have respective sharp edges cut out on the elongated body 14 to facilitate scrapping action. The material for making the pipe cleaner tool 10 (or the elongated body 14) may be, but not limited to, solid Polylactic Acid (PLA) material. In general, the Polylactic Acid (PLA) is biodegradable and has characteristics similar to polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), or polystyrene (PS). PLA may be derived from renewable resources like corn starch or sugar cane. Cost effectiveness is another advantage of using PLA as a material for pipe cleaner tool 10. The process used for making the pipe cleaner tool 10 may be, but not limited to, extrusion of PLA.
The present invention offers a number of advantages. Firstly it provides a cost effective and easy to implement tool for cleaning components clogged with dirt, sand, tar or grease. Additionally, the PLA allows the pipe cleaner tool to be flexible and the curved and flexible elongated body of the pipe cleaner tool enables a spring-like movement to allow the 360-degree cleaning and scrapping of the internal surface of the pipe. This provides an advantage over the prior art that used metallic pipe cleaners which are rigid. Also, the flexibility of the elongated body allows insertion of one of the first end or the second end into components having complicated shapes/bends to perform cleaning action.
The terms and descriptions used herein are set forth by way of illustration only and are not meant as limitations. Examples and limitations disclosed herein are intended to be not limiting in any manner, and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art will recognize that many variations are possible within the spirit and scope of the disclosure, and their equivalents, in which all terms are to be understood in their broadest possible sense unless otherwise indicated.
Various modifications to these embodiments are apparent to those skilled in the art from the description and the accompanying drawings. The principles associated with the various embodiments described herein may be applied to other embodiments. Therefore, the description is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown along with the accompanying drawings but is to be providing broadest scope of consistent with the principles and the novel and inventive features disclosed or suggested herein. Accordingly, the disclosure is anticipated to hold on to all other such alternatives, modifications, and variations that fall within the scope of the present disclosure and appended claims.
