Patent Application
20140245551
The invention relates generally to surface treatment such as the cleaning of household surfaces, and more specifically to a surface treatment pad arrangement which is attachable to an appliance.
Surface treatment appliances are used in the home and office to clean and treat floors and other surfaces. Various types of surface treating appliances are known, including reciprocating cleaning appliances, which use individual cleaning pads that are attached to the cleaning head of the appliance.
In one embodiment, a surface treatment pad arrangement is disclosed. The pad arrangement includes a first treatment pad that has a surface-facing side configured to treat a surface and an attachment side adapted to attach to a surface treatment appliance. The pad arrangement also has a second treatment pad with a surface-facing side configured to treat a surface and an attachment side adapted to attach to the appliance. At least one connector connects the first and second pads and maintains the pads in a predetermined positive relative to each other when the attachment sides are situated for attachment to the appliance.
In another embodiment, a surface treatment pad arrangement is disclosed. The pad arrangement includes a first treatment pad with a surface-facing side configured to treat a surface and a second treatment pad with a surface-facing side configured to treat the surface. At least one connector connects the first and second pads and permits the pads to move towards and away from one another when the pads have their surface-facing sides in contact with the surface.
In still another embodiment, a surface treatment appliance is disclosed. The appliance includes an appliance head with two moveable members that move relative to one another. A surface treatment pad arrangement is removably attachable to the appliance head. The pad arrangement includes a first treatment pad with a surface-facing side configured to treat a surface, a second treatment pad configured to treat the surface, and at least one connector that connects the first and second pads. The connector(s) permit the pads to move relative to one another when the pads are attached to the moveable members on the appliance head.
In yet another embodiment, a method is disclosed. The method includes placing a surface treatment pad arrangement on a horizontal surface. The pad arrangement includes first and second treatment pads, each with a surface-facing side configured to treat a surface, and a least one connector that connects the first and second treatment pads. The method further includes attaching the pad arrangement to an appliance head by placing the appliance head on top of the pad arrangement.
It should be appreciated that the foregoing concepts, and additional concepts discussed below, may be arranged in any suitable combination, as the present disclosure is not limited in this respect.
The foregoing and other aspects, embodiments, and features of the present teachings can be more fully understood from the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The accompanying drawings are not intended to be drawn to scale. In the drawings, each identical or nearly identical component that is illustrated in various figures is represented by a like numeral. For purposes of clarity, not every component may be labeled in every drawing. In the drawings:
Surface treatment appliances, such as cleaning appliances which include reciprocating cleaning heads, are used to clean and treat floors and other surfaces in the home, office, and so on. Known reciprocating appliances use individual cleaning pads that are separately attached to the cleaning heads.
Applicant has recognized that by providing two or more pads connected together, various advantages may be realized as compared to using individual pads. Embodiments disclosed herein include surface treatment pad arrangements and methods of using the pad arrangements to treat a surface, such as by one or more of cleaning, polishing, steam cleaning, scrubbing, and so on.
According to one aspect of the invention, a pad arrangement includes two pads that are connected by one or more connectors. In some embodiments, the connectors may be constructed and arranged to maintain the first and second pads in predetermined positions relative to each other—the pads in these positions being alignable with corresponding moveable members on the appliance heads on the appliance. The pad arrangement also may be configured such that the pads are alignable both when the moveable members are in their innermost and outermost positions on the appliance head. As a result, a user can simply place the pad arrangement on a horizontal surface and then place the appliance head on top of the pad arrangement to attach the pads to the appliance. The user does not need to separately position the pads on the floor in a specific arrangement. In fact, the user can simply toss the pad arrangement on the floor in some embodiments, which also streamlines the process of switching pads if a user wishes to treat the same or different surfaces with several different pads during a single cleaning session.
In some embodiments, the connector (or connectors) allows the first pad and the second pad to move relative to one another when the pad arrangement is attached to the appliance head and each pad's surface-facing side is in contact with the surface to be treated. For example, when the connected pads are attached to a cleaning appliance that has reciprocating cleaning members, the pad arrangement allows the pads to move toward and away from one another when the reciprocating members are moving.
Turning now to the figures,
The attachment sides 12a, 12b are configured to removably attach the surface treatment pad arrangement 10 to the appliance head 6 in some embodiments. The attachment side may include a hook and loop fastening material, which attaches to complementary hook and loop fastening material on the appliance head 6. The attachment sides 12a, 12b instead may include any other suitable material for attaching the pad arrangement 10 to the appliance head 6 as this aspect of the disclosure is not limiting. In some embodiments, the pad arrangement and the moveable members may be configured such that the pad arrangement wraps around the sides of the moveable members for attachment. Fastening devices such as clips, screws, snaps or interference fit arrangement may be used to removably attach the pads to the moveable members such that the attachment sides are removably attached to the moveable members even though, in some cases, the attachment sides themselves do not play a direct role in their attachment to the moveable members.
Though the pads shown in this embodiment are rectangular, it should be appreciated that the first treatment pad 14 and the second treatment pad 16 may be any suitable shape. The first pad 14 and the second pad 16 also may be different sizes from one another, though they are shown to be the same size in the illustrated embodiment.
The pad arrangement may be used with a reciprocating cleaning appliance. When such a cleaning appliance is in use, the moveable members on the appliance head reciprocate in the same straight line in opposite directions with each other. In one embodiment, the moveable members move toward and away from one another. When cleaning pads are attached to the moveable members, the pads reciprocate with respect to one another and clean the floor. Of course, the various pad arrangements disclosed herein may be used with cleaning appliances other than reciprocating cleaning appliances. In some embodiments, the connector 18 permits the first and second treatment pads 14, 16 to move relative to one another when the pads are attached to the moveable members 8 and each pad's surface-facing side 20a, 20b is in contact with the surface to be treated. In one embodiment, the first and second treatment pads 14, 16 move towards and away from one another when attached to the moveable members 8.
In some embodiments, the connectors 18 may not necessarily pull the treatment pads 14, 16 toward one another. For example, the connectors may be made of a non-elastic material such as string. In embodiments where the connector(s) do not include elastic material, the pad arrangement 10, and in particular the connector(s) 18, may be sized such that the arrangement 10 is sufficiently long to remain attached to the moveable members 8 when the moveable members 8 are in their outermost position on the appliance head 6.
Although two connectors 18 are shown in these embodiments, it should be appreciated that there may be only one connector in some embodiments, as shown in
The surface-facing sides 20a, 20b of the first and second treatment pads 14, 16 may include any of a number of types of materials for treating a variety of surfaces. In some embodiments, the surface-facing sides 20a, 20b are configured to treat a hard surface, such as hardwood flooring, by cleaning and/or polishing. In some embodiments, such as the one shown in
Although the surface-facing sides 20a, 20b of the hard-surface cleaning pads 14, 16 are shown to be identical in
The surface-facing sides 20a, 20b also may be configured to clean a carpet, in which a cleaning element is applied to a carpet and then agitated and/or absorbed by the pad arrangement 10. In some embodiments, as shown by way of example in
In some embodiments, the agitation portions 26 and/or the absorbent portions 24 are stitched or quilted to further connect layers of the pad to one another and/or to provide a material surface with slightly varying height. In some embodiments, the stitching may form a pattern. The stitches may extend from the exterior edges of the first and second pads 14, 16 to the opposed fabric edges at a 30 degree angle, a 45 degree angle, a 60 degree angle, or any other suitable angle The stitches may cross to form a pattern. In one embodiment, the cross patterns form quadrilateral shapes such as diamonds, or other polygon shapes. In some embodiments, the stitching limits or prevents a sliding of the pad layers relative to one another. Such sliding, if not limited, may reduce a pad's effectiveness at transmitting motion to the carpet. In some embodiments, the surface-facing sides 20a, 20b include a glide portion to reduce friction while cleaning the carpet. For purposes herein, a glide portion is a portion of the surface-facing sides 20a, 20b which has a lower coefficient of friction than one or both of an absorbent portion 24 and a agitation portion 26. One type of glide portion is a glide strip 27, as shown in
In one embodiment, the absorbent portion 24 is a mini-shag material with a plurality of strands or loops having a pile length of at least 5 mm. In some embodiments, the strands or loops may have a pile length of between 2 mm and 10 mm. In still further embodiments, the strands or loops may have a pile length of between 1 mm and 15 mm. In one embodiment, the mini-shag material is 100% polyester, 15.45 oz/yd2, with 20 wales by 26 courses per inch. In some embodiment, the mini-shag material is weft terry knit on a course gauge machine 8 to 14 gauge. In some embodiments, the mini-shag material is weft terry knit on a course gauge machine 8 to 14 gauge. In one embodiment, the mini-shag material is 100% microfiber polyester, 8 oz/yd2. In some embodiments, the microfiber lengths are twisted together to form strands or loops. In some embodiments, the mini-shag material may be configured such that when the pad is placed on a surface for treating, the shag material is compressed such that the shag height is even with the height of the glide strips 27. In some embodiments, this configuration would result in the compressed mini-shag material being between 4 mm and 5 mm lower than the extent of the olefin or other non-absorbent scrubbing section(s). In some embodiments, the surface-facing sides 20a, 20b of the pads 14, 16 are configured differently from one another. In one embodiment, as shown in
In some embodiments, the surface-facing sides 20a, 20b include absorbent portions 24. The absorbent portion 24 may include an absorbent material that has any suitable density, for example a density of between 0.01 grams per cm3 and 0.2 grams per cm3, though any suitable density may be used. The density of the material may be constant throughout each pad, or may vary through the pad thickness and/or along the width and/or length of the pad. In other embodiments, the surface facing sides 20a, 20b include abrasive portions 26, which may include polyester, polypropylene, or any other suitable material. In still other embodiments, the surface-facing sides 20a, 20b include a combination of absorbent portions 24 and abrasive portions 26. It should be appreciated that the absorbent portions 24 and abrasive portions 26 on the pads 14, 16 show in FIGS. 3 and 7-15 may include different materials. The first and second pad 14, 16 also may have a backing layer (not shown) included on the pads to provide structural stability.
In some embodiments, the absorbent portions 24 are separate from the agitation portions 26. For purposes herein, a separate portion does not necessarily mean that a first portion is distanced from a second portion. Instead, separate portion, such as portions 24 and 26 in one embodiment, may be immediately adjacent to one another and be considered separate portions.
In some embodiments two types of material overlap one another, but if each material has a section that does not overlap with the material, there would still be considered to be two separate portions.
The surface treatment pad arrangement 10 also may include a tab 28 that extends outwardly from either or both of the first treatment pad 14 and the second treatment pad 16 to allow a user to remove the pad arrangement 10 from the appliance head 6. It should be appreciated that the tab 28 can be located on any of the exterior edges of the pad arrangement 10 and that the pad arrangement 10 can have more than one tab 28. As shown in
Examples of other pads that can be used to treat a surface in combination with embodiments disclosed herein are described in a U.S. non-provisional application filed Mar. 1, 2013, entitled “Cleaning Pad Arrangement”, under attorney docket number E0465.70235US00, and in a U.S. non-provisional application filed Mar. 1, 2013, entitled, “Surface Treatment Pad and Appliance”, under attorney docket number E0465.70236US00, each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
According to some embodiments, a method of attaching the pad arrangement 10 to the appliance includes placing the surface treatment pad arrangement 10 on a horizontal surface with the surface-facing side 20a, 20b of each pad 14, 16 in contact with the surface to be treated, and placing the appliance head 6 on top of the attachment sides 12a, 12b of the pad arrangement 10 to attach the pad arrangement 10 to the appliance 2. The method also may include treating the surface with the appliance 2 once the pad arrangement 10 is attached to the appliance head 6, and removing the pad arrangement 10 from the appliance head 6 once the user finishes treating the surface. In one embodiment, treating the surface includes applying a treatment or cleaning solution to the surface and/or pads prior to treatment with the pads.
In yet another embodiment, a method of removing the surface treatment pad arrangement 10 from the appliance 2 includes stepping on the tab 28 of the pad arrangement 10 and pulling up on the appliance 2 to remove the pad arrangement 10 from the appliance head 6. The method for removing the surface treatment pad arrangement 10 also may include inverting the appliance 2 to expose the pad arrangement 10, grasping the tab 28, and pulling on the tab 28 to remove the pad arrangement 10 from the appliance head 6.
A method of manufacturing various surface treatment pad arrangements disclosed herein includes providing two pads and connecting the two pads with at least one elastic connector.
While the present teachings have been described in conjunction with various embodiments and examples, it is not intended that the present teachings be limited to such embodiments or examples. On the contrary, the present teachings encompass various alternatives, modifications, and equivalents, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art. Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings are by way of example only.
