US20020006306A1

US20020006306A1 - Pump water soap dispensing mechanism

Info

Publication number: US20020006306A1
Application number: US09/823,790
Authority: US
Inventors: Jack Gregory
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2000-03-30
Filing date: 2001-03-30
Publication date: 2002-01-17

Abstract

A dispensing valve unit, adapted to be quickly filled with tap water, permitting the user to selectively rotate for dispensing selections, then pump to deliver soap and water or water only to an outlet. Composing a pair of partially interfitted tubular assemblies, forming there between an upper pump piston assembly and a lower soap valve cylinder assembly. The pump handle assembly is adapted to hold water and includes a piston and seal means and substantially right angle fill port. The cylinder assembly is operatively mounted to a mop base with cam means. The cylinder includes a locking collate and inner valve seat. Located within the cylinder is a pair of shiftable valve bodies. Upper body is a soap valve dispensing capsule, including a valve follower stem that protrudes of a ball end there of. The valve capsule is positioned to interactively engage cylinder valve seat cooperatively defining two different fluid passage way. The lower valve body includes a protruding tube cam means.

First passage way: both valves are shifted up stream, lower valve pushes the ball stem end of upper valve away from cylinder seat, while holding soap valve closed. Pump water flows around past upper valve through lower valve and out tube for rinse water.

Second passage way: both valves are shifted down stream, upper valve is against cylinder seat, lower valve is spaced back from upper valve. Pump water flows through upper valve, mixing with soap through lower valve out tube for soapy water.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is broadly concerned with cleaning mop or brush assembly, which is designed to be self-contained with a supply of soap and water held internally. The user can rapidly fill the handle reservoir from the home sink water tap, or remove and fill the soap dispensing valve capsule. The user can selectively deliver a mixture of liquid soap and water, rinse water only, or can mop without dispensing soap or water. More particularly, the invention pertains to a removable soap dispensing valve capsule assembly. A selectively shiftable ball check assembly can be relatively positioned at discrete locations for the respective user-selected delivery options. A pump handle reservoir delivers pressurized water.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Traditional home mopping, particularly with sponge mops, involved filling a bucket with water and mixing with soap, then mopping with soap. When rinsing is started, there is usually a number of trips to the sink spicket to dump and fill the rinse bucket with clean water. At times, it can be messy and time-consuming. Broadly speaking, mops and mopping have changed little over time.

I feel that my self-contained soap and water dispensing mop invention with its facility to move around to deliver soapy wash or rinse directly to area to be mopped is a real improvement. Also, the ability to rapidly fill the reservoir handle from sink taps and the long-lasting (between fill-ups) on board soap dispensing capsule make it a complete solution and always ready to use at a moment's notice.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Turning now to the drawings and, particularly, FIG. 1, a soap and water dispensing [0006] mop unit 14 is illustrated. The mop unit 14 includes a tubular pump piston reservoir handle assembly 21 adapted to be operatively is coupled with a forwardly extending tubular cylinder valve assembly 16. The lowermost end of 16 is operatively coupled with an obliquely oriented mop 18. In broad terms, the mop unit 14 is designed to hold a supply of water and liquid soap, and to be selectively shiftable between two positions, namely a soap dispensing position where a mixture of water and soap is pump-delivered to the mop 18, and a rinse wherein only water is pump-delivered to mop 18. The mop 18 itself is entirely conventional.
The tubular pump [0007] piston handle assembly 21 includes substantially right angle fill port 17 on tubular body 141, FIGS. 1-1. Attached adjacent to fill port 17 is a fill cap closure formed out of elasitor material 26, FIGS. 2-3, that presents an outwardly projecting sealing lip 29. Affixed internally is reed valve 41 that is adapted to communicate with vent hole 26 in cap 26. Attached to the lower smallest diameter end of tubular body 33 is piston head 30, including valve seat bore 31, check ball 40, spring 37, and retainer 46. Located in an external groove 149 is an O-ring 22, positioned upstream from piston head 30 and affixed to tubular body 141, is an outwardly projecting lobe 15.
[0008] Cylinder valve assembly 16 includes a larger tubular end formed into a collet 138, further including a locking ring 45 located in exterior groove 61, FIG. 5. The collet end of 138 also includes at least two axial extending slots 39, one being wide enough to receive lobe 15 of pump handle assembly 16. At the lower end of the tubular assembly 16, there is a small diameter tube section with external groove and axial aligned slot 108 through one wall. Internally located at the start of the small diameter is a valve seat 70, FIGS. 1-2. Held internally abutting valve seat 70 is a soap valve capsule 20 that is shiftable and removable. The soap valve capsule 20 includes a resilient cap closure 49, a tubular body 66, and in the lowermost end, there is a groove 55. Running laterally from groove 55 is a small port 77 that terminates in radial groove 56. The outwardly extending shoulder 93 and radial groove 71 both serve to hold in place cap 74 that has a ball end 88, and an exit port 91, FIGS. 1-2, also including a concentric bore 140 that serves to hold spring 46, and to guide valve follower 83, and flat rubber valve 87. Valve 87 has a small concentric hole 97 that receives a small protruding end of valve follower 89 located in the confines of port 35.
Located internally adjacent down stream is a shiftable [0009] check valve assembly 12, FIGS. 1-2, which includes a valve body 98, having two internal ports, 107 and 119, and valve seat 124, further including an O-ring 116 located in an external groove 125. Internal bore 119 holds in place a check ball 101 and a spring 103. Affixed to body 98 and protruding outwardly is a dispensing tube 113 that has two internal ports, 96 and 120. Dispensing tube 113 is positioned to extend through slot 108, and to further protrude out of obliquely oriented slot 49 where it serves as a cam lobe against the walls of the oblique slot 49 of the mop assembly 18. Assembly 16 is attached to mop 18 with a set screw 131.
The use of [0010] mop unit 16 with dispensing valve assembly will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1-2. In this discussion, it will be assumed that soap valve capsule 20 is filled with soap and that pump handle 21 is filled with tap water. If the user decides to dispense a soap and water mixture, while grasping with both hands, one hand around the pump assembly 21 and the other around the lower valve dispensing assembly 16, he or she will rotate clockwise the whole unit 14, causing dispensing lobe 113 to move down to lower end of oblique slot 49 as shown in FIGS. 1-2. It will be observed that the ball end 88 of valve 20 is against shoulder 70 when a user pulls back pump handle assembly 21, and a charge of water is pulled down from water reservoir area 77 of pump handle assembly 21 past ball check assembly 30 into cylinder area 136.
When [0011] pump handle assembly 21 pushes forward, it forces water in the cylinder area 136 down annular passageway 19 through port 77 and groove 56, forcing flat valve 87 to open. This causes soap from port 35 to mix with water. The soapy water continues past ball check 101 and out through dispensing tube 113, delivering soapy water.
When the user decides to dispense rinse water, the [0012] mop unit 14 is rotated counterclockwise. It will be observed, FIGS. 3-6, that dispensing tube 113 has moved all the way up the oblique slot 49. It causes valve assembly 12 and soap valve capsule assembly 20 to shift up stream, moving the ball end 88 away from shoulder 70, thus opening a complete annular passageway around soap valve capsule 20, also causing the end 139 of valve assembly 12 to push against follower 83 holding the valve 87 closed. Now every time the pump handle is pumped, it forces water down annularly around soap valve capsule 20, past ball check 101, and out dispensing tube 113 to deliver rinse water.
To remove and refill soap capsule as needed, the user rotates [0013] locking ring 45 until relief 27 is aligned with slot 39 of valve dispensing assembly 16. The pump handle assembly 21 is further pulled and removed. The cylinder valve assembly 16 is then tilted downward to drop out soap valve capsule 20 into the user's hand. The user further removes cap 49, FIGS. 4-1, fills as needed, replaces cap 49, and drops it back into valve assembly 16.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary view of a preferred soap and rinse dispensing mop; [0014]
FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of FIG. 1 with the uppermost end, broken away above pump piston head and soap capsule, abutting cylinder seat; [0015]
FIG. 3 is a side view of pump body and cap, both ends being fragmentary sections; [0016]
FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of soap vale capsule with fill cap, displaced above; [0017]
FIG. 5 is a fragmentary top view of cylinder body and mop head including fragmentary, sectional locking ring and cam dispensing tube; [0018]
FIG. 6 is a fragmentary, sectional view, broken away at the middle of soap valve capsule, showing capsule, spaced away from cylinder seat. [0019]

Claims

I claim:

1. A dispensing valve unit adapted to be quickly filled with tap water, permitting the user to selectively rotate the said dispensing valve unit to deliver soap and water, or water only to an outlet.

The said dispensing valve unit comprising:

a pair of partially interfitted tubular assemblies forming there between an upper pump assembly and a lower cylinder assembly. A said pump handle assembly is adapted to store water and includes piston means and substantially right angle fill port. A said lower cylinder assembly is operatively mounted for selectable rotation to a mop base fitted with cam means. Said lower cylinder assembly includes collet locking means and an inner valve seat; located within said cylinder is a pair of shiftable valve bodies:

the upper said valve body is a soap valve capsule adapted with a fill cap, and a soap reservoir, and soap dispensing valve including a stem valve follower that protrudes out through a ball end thereof; the said valve body is removable for refill. The said upper valve body is positioned, wherein the said ball end can interactively engage said cylinder valve seat cooperatively, defining two different passageways; the lower said valve body includes outwardly protruding tube that serves as a cam lobe against said cam means;

the first passageway:

both said valve bodies are shifted upstream wherein lower said valve body pushes the said stem ball end of upper said valve body away from said cylinder valve seat, while holding said soap valve closed; pumped water will flow down around upper said valve body out said to for rinse water delivery.

the second passageway:

both said valve bodies are shifted downstream wherein upper said valve body abuts said cylinder seat, and lower said valve body is spaced down away from said stem ball end; pumped water flows down through upper said valve body through said said soap valve and out tube to deliver soapy water.

2. A dispensing valve unit of claim 1 said fill port being substantially right angle from cylinder.

3. A dispensing valve unit of claim 1 wherein said cylinder assembly is operatively mounted for selectable rotation on a mop base.

4. A dispensing valve unit of claim 1 wherein complete valve unit structure is mounted to a mop base.

5. A dispensing valve unit of claim 1 said soap valve capsule adapted with fill cap and soap reservoir, and is removable to refill as needed.

6. A dispensing valve unit of claim 1 wherein ball valve end of said soap valve capsule interacts with said cylinder seat to cooperatively define two different fluid passages.

7. A dispensing valve unit of claim 1 wherein a said lower valve body is axially shifted by the rotation of cam means.

8. A dispensing valve unit of claim 1 wherein shifting up of said lower valve body against said valve stem holds said soap valve capsule away from said cylinder valve seat, while holding said inner soap valve closed.

9. A dispensing valve unit of claim 1 wherein said upper pump assembly can be removed to allow the removable of said soap valve assembly to refill with soap as needed.

10. A dispensing valve unit of claim 1 wherein said soap valve presents a flat resilient sealing surface surrounding soap metering stem, and sealing against a seat surface made up of two protruding radial sealing surfaces with at least one water port between, including a hole in the center for soap communication and to receive said metering stem.