Patent Application
20210196097
This disclosure relates generally to tools for cleaning surfaces such as counters, mirrors, windows, floors, walls, ceilings, and furniture surfaces and, more specifically, to a cleaning tool having removable cleaning materials.
Surfaces such as counters and floors often require cleaning to be free of dirt or debris. Surfaces may become soiled rapidly due to environmental contaminants such as dust and due to the deposit of dirt and debris and liquids by people, machines, and pets. Repeated cleaning is often necessary, and cleaning may require skin exposure to such environmental contaminants and cleaning chemicals on the hands of the person responsible for cleaning. Numerous devices and methods have been developed for returning a surface to a clean and dry condition. Sweeping or vacuuming is useful for removing loose dirt and debris, and mopping works well for removing liquids and certain debris from large surfaces such as floors.
Further, it is often not necessary to thoroughly clean an entire surface to return it to a clean condition. For example, a small spill or localized deposit of dirt and debris does not necessitate a vacuuming or mopping of the entire floor. The act of preparing and using a vacuum cleaner or mop for a small area is time consuming. Alternatively, a person may take a towel or disposable cleaning sheets such as a paper towel and clean the localized area. One advantage of a vacuum cleaners and mops are that they do not require contact of chemicals or contaminants with the skin during cleaning, which may cause irritation.
Another example of a light cleaning job is where the homeowner wishes to remove a light coating of dust or debris from a window or mirror. Use of a bucket and sponge or rag is unnecessarily involved since what is really needed is a light cleaning of the surface. A homeowner may wish to just return the surface to its optimal appearance without unnecessary steps. Therefore, there is a need for a simple device to quickly and easily clean a variety of surfaces. Antimicrobial cleaning products are well known in the art and in wide use. It is to be understood that cleaning solutions are known to include antibacterial, antiviral and other agents that kill organisms that may be harmful to human health. It is to be understood that such antimicrobial, disinfecting solutions can be used with cleaning devices known in the prior art and cleaning devices disclosed herein.
Smaller areas often require cleaning where mopping and vacuuming are impractical. For such smaller spills, scrubbing and the use of strong chemicals may be the most practical and efficient solution. Scrubbing often requires gripping, by a hand, of and absorbent material such as a paper towel, sponge, or rag. The absorbent material is then contacted with the material to be removed, and potentially a cleaning chemical. Here, the skin of the hand may also come into contact with the material to be cleaned and a cleaning chemical, potentially leading to irritation. Further, the use of gloves during scrubbing may irritate skin due to allergens in the glove material, such as latex, and there may be discomfort caused by having a rubber material in contact with the skin.
Therefore, there is a need for a cleaning tool that allows for the cleaning of small areas without the need for a vacuum or mop, while avoiding chemical irritation of the skin, or the need to use gloves, for a person cleaning.
The device and method of the present disclosure includes a hand held cleaning tool having a multi-functional, generally planar, lower surface for attaching a variety of cleaning fabrics and absorbent sheets, including fabric towels and paper towels. In one embodiment, the hand held grip has an upper portion that is molded and contoured to fit a hand, where the upper portion may be comprised of a soft foam for easy gripping. The lower portion may be comprised of a hard, rectangular plate, having sharp corners for cleaning hard to reach areas. The lower surface of the plastic block may include both a hook portion of a hook and loop fastener and an adhesive paper sheet or adhesive gel portion. The adhesive may be a reusable adhesive configured to bind and release a paper towel repeatedly.
According to a method of the present disclosure, the adhesive is configured to bind a cleaning sheet, which may be a paper towel, prior to application of the paper towel to a liquid, such that the bond formed between the paper towel and the adhesive persists even after exposure to a liquid during cleaning, whereas the adhesive would not generally bind a paper towel after it has absorbed a critical amount of liquid.
The adhesive may be a reusable dry adhesive, and may comprise a washable adhesive that allows for reuse after being exposed to a liquid such as water. At least one portion of the lower surface has an adhesive material, such as a washable adhesive, that is capable of binding a paper towel. The lower surface of the cleaning tool may also include a second type of binding material capable of binding a cloth or sponge. The adhesive material may be on a paper surface or may be a gel that directly bind a plastic lower portion of the handle. The adhesive paper may a stack of adhesive paper attached to the lower portion of the handle.
A plurality of adhesive sheets are supported on the midportion of the base layer in a stack configuration. Each of the sheets has an outward face for gripping a cleaning sheet, such as a paper towel, and an opposed inward face for joining the adhesive sheets in the adhesive sheet stack. The outward face of each of the adhesive sheets is configured to contact a cleaning sheet. When the cleaning sheet becomes soiled, the cleaning sheet may be peeled away to expose the adhesive sheet for reuse. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the cleaning sheets are comprised of a non-woven material, such as paper. The cleaning sheets may be folded such that a first cleaning sheet may be bound by the adhesive sheet on the lower surface of the cleaning tool of the present disclosure.
In one embodiment, the hook portion of the hook and loop fastener is positioned at a perimeter of the lower surface of the plastic block and the adhesive portion is positioned centrally within the hook and loop portion on the lower surface of the plastic block. In one embodiment, the lower surface only includes an adhesive portion, without the hook and loop fastener portion. The second portion of the lower surface that binds a cloth or sponge may be a hook portion of a hook and loop fastener.
Each adhesive sheet in a stack may have a central portion bounded by an outer perimeter, with the outer perimeter having a first edge. The perimeters of the cleaning sheets are bonded to each other, except along the first edge, such that the plurality of adhesive sheets are retained in the stacked configuration.
A mount for storing the cleaning tool is contemplated within the present disclosure. Additionally, means for removing a soiled cleaning material, such as a release mechanism and tools such as tweezers, are included in some embodiments of the present disclosure.
A handle may be attached to the hand grip. The handle may rotate around the hand grip, thereby creating a gripping mechanism for grasping cleaning materials such as a cleaning sheet and providing a hands-free method for cleaning and disposing of cleaning materials. The handle or the hand grip may be hollow and capable of storing and dispensing cleaning solutions.
Referring to
Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed toward providing a cleaning tool and a method of using the cleaning tool. Certain details are set forth below to provide a sufficient understanding of the disclosure. However, it will be clear to one skilled in the art that the disclosure may be practiced without these particular details.
Referring to
A hand grip 12 of the cleaning tool 10 is curved whereas a lower portion 16 is flat. The lower portion has a width in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction that is greater than a width of the upper surface 16. The narrower width of the upper portion, or hand grip 12 corresponds to the narrowing necessary to cause the curved upper surface to have an arc length 24 about equal to the width of the lower surface. The radius of curvature of the curved hand grip 12 may vary with distance from the center of the cleaning tool 10. The radius of curvature preferably decreases with distance from the center. A front portion 18 of the hand grip 12 may be curved and extend to a point flush with the lower portion 16. Hand grip 12 may be extendable, through a telescopic rod, sliding bracket or other means as would be known to one of ordinary skill in the art, for overhead use and for lower cleanups such as liquid pet mess.
In other embodiments the hand grip 12 may be a handle or other device capable of being used to hold and object during cleaning, as would be known to one of ordinary skill in the art. The hand grip 12 of the cleaning tool 10 may be ergonomically designed to support the elbow and forearm while cleaning. This structure may not only reduce tension from the wrist, cervical vertebrae, shoulder and arm, but also effectively relieves pains from the arm, shoulder and neck muscles as well as localized pressure on the wrist. The cleaning tool 10 may be comprised of strong plastic, or memory foam.
Referring to
Adhesives according to the present disclosure may include dry adhesives and water-resistant, or washable, adhesives. A typical dry adhesive is reusable and releasable. A dry adhesive is intended to create a nondestructive temporary bond which may be undone and repeated many times without prohibitively degrading its adhesive performance between bond cycles. A dry adhesive must, according to the present disclosure, be capable of generating a bond to cleaning sheet 40 (as shown in
A typical size of a manufactured paper towel is a square 11 inches by 11 inches. Some paper towels have perforations to easily divide towels into 11-by-5.5-inch sections. Thus, the strength of the bond between the total surface area of the adhesive sheet 20 contacting cleaning sheet 40 must be of sufficient strength to support a wet paper towel of at least these sizes, as could be determined by one of ordinary skill in the art. The dimensions of the region adhesive sheet that contact cleaning sheet 40 may be adjusted to support a paper towel of a desired size. Cleaning sheet 40 sections may be linked through perforations and multiple sections may be removed at one time and folded prior to adhering to adhesive sheet 20. To support such use, bond area or the adhesive strength of the dry adhesive may be adjusted accordingly.
The strength of an adhesive bond is typically measured either in terms of its load bearing capacity at failure, or in terms of the energy dissipated during the separation of adhesive and adherent. This measured “maximum” adhesive strength of a dry adhesive bond will vary depending on many factors regarding both adhesive and adherend. Nonetheless, dry adhesives are capable of generating adequate strength for low and moderate load situations, as is the case for the present disclosure, particularly when bond area may be increased.
As illustrated in
Cleaning sheet 40 may be a conventional paper towel, as would be known to one of ordinary skill in the art. Paper towels may be packaged as a roll of perforated sheets or in stacks of pre-cut and pre-folded layers for use in paper-towel dispensers. Unlike cloth towels, paper towels are disposable and intended to be used only once. Paper towels soak up water because they are loosely woven which enables water to travel between the fibers. Paper towels have similar purposes to conventional towels, such as drying hands, wiping windows and other surfaces, dusting and cleaning up spills. Paper may be made from either virgin or recycled paper pulp which is extracted from wood or fiber crops. Paper towels are sometimes bleached during the production process to lighten the paper's coloration. Resin size may be used to improve the wet strength. Paper towels may be packed individually and sold as stacks, or are held on a continuous roll, and come in two distinct classes: domestic and institutional. Many companies produce paper towels, as would be known to one of ordinary skill in the art.
As shown in
Lower portion 16 may be an elongated piece of material such as plastic, metal or other material. Lower portion 16 may be a rectangular plate, block or sheet having four corners, such that the corners may be used to access hard to reach areas such as corners of windows or walls. Shapes other than rectangular are contemplated within the scope of the present disclosure. Lower portion 16 may be generally rectangular with a side-to-side width less than its front-to-back length. Adhesive sheet stack 22 and hook fastener portion 30 may be attached to lower portion 16 with an adhesive or other means of attachment, as would be known to one of ordinary skill in the art. Lower portion 16 may be attached to hand grip 12 with adhesives, screws, nails, pins, stakes, or other attachment means, which may be used to secure the lower portion 16 to hand grip 12.
The cleaning material according to the present disclosure may be of two types, where the first is a cleaning sheet capable of only binding to the adhesive, and the second being a cleaning material that will attach to a hook fastener portion 30 of a hook and loop fastener. In
In some embodiments, cleaning sheet 40 or other cleaning material may stay attached to the bottom of cleaning tool 10 such that it is ready for use. Additionally, if the cleaning sheet 40 is used to clean spills the cleaning sheet 40 may dry out and may be reused with the grip in place.
The aperture 62 at the back of cleaning tool 10 may be used to hang cleaning tool 10 on a hook, although other methods of storage are contemplated within the present disclosure, including by attaching cleaning tool 10 to loop sections to form a conventional hook and loop fastener attachment. A wall mounted holster or a counter top receptacle may also be used. Each storage means would allow for air flow to enable the sticky surface to dry.
Force applied to the top of cleaning tool 10 flattens the hooks while pushing the adhesive sheet 20 down in order to contact cleaning sheet 40. Such force, in this case, does not dislodge adhesive sheet stack 22 from the stack recess 24 as a pressure fit from all sides holds the adhesive sheet stack 22 in place.
Cleaning tool 10 may be comprised of a foam material such that it may compress for lower shipping costs. Cleaning tool 10, in this embodiment, would decompress when opened by a user. A smaller version of cleaning tool 10 may be utilized for areas with limited space. Scaling would be accomplished as would be known to one of ordinary skill in the art. A metal version of cleaning tool 10 could be used to clean restaurant cooking grills.
With regard to
As shown in
Alternative means for connecting handle 110 to hand grip 12 are contemplated within the scope of the present invention, including a spring-operated mechanism that may replace elastic band 146, wherein springs, or at least one spring, may be mounted between handle 110 and hand grip 12 to provide force to close the gap between upper gripping portion contact edge 122, wherein an edge may also be referred to as a surface, and lower gripping portion contact edge 124, wherein an edge may also be referred to as a surface, and thereby grip a cleaning sheet or cleaning element.
In view of the teaching presented herein, other modifications and variations of the present disclosures will be readily apparent to those of skill in the art. The foregoing drawings, discussion, and description are illustrated of some embodiments of the present invention, but are not meant to be limitations on the practice thereof. It is the following claims, including all equivalents, which define the scope of the invention.
The above description is presented to enable a person skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and is provided in the context of a particular application and its requirements. Various modifications to the preferred embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, this invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/732,287, filed Dec. 31, 2019. The above application is incorporated by reference herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16732287 | Dec 2019 | US |
| Child | 17103926 | US |
