US2969556A - Floor cleaning machine - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 31, 1961 J. GRASMANN, JUN.

FLOOR CLEANING MACHINE Filed Nov. 20, 1958 IN VEN TOR. J'. Gr w 6122 0,1223%;

FLOOR CLEANING MACHINE Josef Grasmann, Jun., 1 Weissenbach, Frankenfels, Lower Austria Filed Nov. 20, 1958, Ser. No. 775,167

(Ilaims priority, application Austria Nov. 23, 1957 '4 Claims. (Cl. 15-49) This invention relates to a floor cleaning machine which comprises one or more motor-driven roller brushes for floor scrubbing, which are rotatably mounted in a wheeled frame, and a receiver for dirty water.

Such machines are already known in which the motordriven and floor-scrubbing disc brushes have roller brushes associated with them, which throw the dirty water over baflies into a container for dirty water. In these machines the containers for dirty water must be disposed on a very low level near the floor. For this reason their volume is small so that they cannot take up a large quantity of dirty water. Furthermore, the dirty water tends to be spilled in the case of a jerk, These machines have also the disadvantage that the drying brush (roller brush) as Well as the scrubbing brush is subjected to wear.

It has also been proposed in floor cleaning machines to associate withthe disclike scrubbing brush a drum of rods which is spaced from the floor and the rods of which have scrubbing cloths attached to them, which wipe. off the dirty water as the drum rotates. The cleaningof this machine is very complicated and time-consuming and a clean floor is not obtained.

Moreover, machines of this type are known, in which the rotating brush roller used for scrubbing has associated with it a receiver for dirty water consisting of a foamed rubber roller, which is arranged in axial parallelism with the brush roller and takes up the dirty water from the floor and delivers it to a container for dirty water by means of a pressure roller and stripping bar which are in engagement with the foamed rubber roller. The durability of the foamed rubber roller is very small because the constant friction on the floor and at the stripping bar causes a very high Wear thereof. The dirty water which penetrates more deeply into the sponge escapes the stripping bar and leaves traces on the floor at the ends of the roller.

In order to provide a container for dirty water having a larger capacity it has already been proposed to arrange the container for dirty water in floor cleaning machines on a higher level above the floor and to transfer the dirty water from the floor to the container by means of an endless belt, preferably a mop, which is guided on rollers, wipes on the floor and takes up water, which is squeezed out of the endless mop by means of squeeze rollers over the container for dirty Water. In one of these known machines the belt revolves at a lower velocity than the scrubbing brush and the roller-shaped scrubbing brush throws water against that part of the floor-wiping endless belt which rises from the floor. Thus, part of the water is removed from the floor by the scrubbing brush. In these machines the wiping endless belts as well as the scrubbing brushes form transfer means for dirty water which are in rubbing engagement with the floor and are subjected to wear. For this reason means are provided for readjusting the wiping belt relative to the floor. These machines can also be cleaned only with difficulty and are fairly complicated in construction.

In all known floor cleaning machines the transfer mem- Patented Jan. 31, 1961 ber for dirty water, whether it consists of a foamed rubber roller or a wipmg belt, is in rubbing contact with the floor and subjected to wear. This disadvantage is avoided according to the present application by the provision of transfer means for dirty water which comprise one or more smooth transfer drums, rollers or the like which are spaced from the floor and disposed in axial parallelism with the roller brushes and engaged by a'stripping bar disposed along a genera-trix of the drum todeliver the dirty water, which has been thrown up by the roller brushes, to a container for dirty water, in a manner known per se. The roller brush or brushes are covered at the top by an easily detachable guard, which extends overthe transfer drums.

As a result of the construction of the machine according to the invention only the roller brush is subjected to wean The dirty water thrown up adheres to the smooth transfer drum spaced from the floor during the rotation thereof so thatthe floor is freed from the dirty water in a clean manner and without leaving traces- The smooth transfer roller enables an easy cleaning of the machine.

An illustrative embodiment of the invention is shown I in the accompanying drawing. Fig. 1 is a front elevation and Fig. 2 a top plan view showing a floor cleaning machine according to the invention.

The frame 1 has affixed thereto at the bottom the axle 2 for the floor wheels 3 and at the top the drive-motor 4', which consists, preferably of an electric motor and' the rear end face of which is provided with the handle bars 5, The front end of the motor has a housing 6 flanged thereto, in which the driving shaft 7 is rotatably mounted, which is an extension of the motor shaft. At'the end of the housing 6 the roller brushes, 11, arranged on both sides, are rotatably mounted in-the housing; they are driven from the driving shaft through the intermediary of the bevel wheels 12, 13 to rotate at high speed in the counterclockwise direction. Between the roller brushes 11 and the floor wheels 3 the smooth transfer drums 15 are rotatably mounted in the housing 6. The roller brushes throw the dirty water against these transfer drums, which are driven through the intermediary of a worm 16 mounted on the shaft 7 and a worm wheel 17 affixed to the shaft 18 of the transfer drums 15 to rotate at low speed in the clockwise sense.

In experiments, a speed ratio within the limits of 10:1 to 25:1 between the roller brushes 11 and the transfer drum has proved suitable.

The frame 1 has further affixed thereto the container 21 for dirty water. The top longitudinal edge 21a of this container is formed as a stripping bar and constantly engages a generatrix of the cylinder formed by the transfer drums 15. This container receives the dirty water fed to it from the drum 15 by means of the stripping bar 21a. It is obvious that the container 21 may also be affixed to the housing 6 andbe spring-loaded to engage the drum at the stripping bar 21a. Alternatively, the stripping bar 21a may be separately affixed to the container 21 and consist of soft, elastic material, such as rubber, or of hard material, e.g. in the form of a ground steel bar.

The brush rollers 11 are covered by a guard 24, which is easily detachably afiixed by a knurled screw 25 to a boss 26 of the housing 6. The guard 24 has aflixed thereto on its inside a resilient strip 27, preferably of rubber, which is fringed at its free longitudinal edges by cuts and with the fringes engages the brush so that water drops running down from the guard will be delivered to the brush in distributed condition (as a spray) and the brush will not throw drops of dirty water on the floor. The guard plate 24 together with the insert 27 collects the dirty water which is thrown by the roller brushes 11 upwardly beside the transfer rollers and can also be cleaned easily because it is readily detachable.

, -For cleaning-the floor with the machine accordingvto the invention soap suds, cleaning solution orthelike is applied to the floor, which'is then treated with the machine. I

It is obvious that-the'floor cleaning machine according tothe invention is not restricted to the illustrative embodiment shown. For instance, the rollerbrush and the transfer drum could be made integral and the two rotating machine members-roller brush and transfer drumcan be driven at one end if the frame of the machine is appropriately designed. Alternatively, two of the sets shown in the drawing could be arranged one behind the other in'one machine or two roller brushes could throw the dirty water onto a transfer drum which is disposed between them and which in this case is correspondingly larger in size. The floor cleaning machine according to the invention can be supplemented by an applying device which contains the cleaning agent so that the scrubbing liquor may also be applied to the floor by the machine, e.g., by means of the roller brushes.

What I claim is:

1. A floor cleaning machine which comprises a frame having wheels adapted to carry said frame on a floor, at least one floor scrubbing roller brush rotatably mounted in said frame, at least one smooth-surfaced cylindrical transfer member rotatably mounted in said frame and closely spaced from said brush in the radial direction thereof, said transfer member being spaced from the floor in axial parallelism with said roller brush, a motor carried by said frame, transmitting means carried by said frame and operatively connecting said motor to said roller brush and transfer member to drive said roller brush at a relatively higher speed and said transfer member at a relatively lower speed, said roller brush being adapted to contact the floor and when thus driven beingadapted to throw dirty water from the floor onto said transfer member, a container carried by said frame, and a stripping member having an edge which engages said transfer member along a generatrix thereof and an upwardly facing surface extending from said edge downwardly into said container, whereby water is stripped by said stripping member from said transfer member during the rotation of the latter and is guided by said surface into said container.

2. A floor cleaning machine as set forth in claim 1, in which two of said wheels are provided to carry said frame and said motor consists of an electric motor having a motor housing and a motor shaft and which comprises a tubular housing affixed to said motor housing and containing said transmitting means, said transmitting means comprising a driving shaft operatively connected to said motor shaft,.a bevel gear arranged to transmit movement from said driving shaft to said roller brush, and a worm gear arranged to transmit movement from said driving shaft to said transfer member, said roller brush and transfer member being rotatably mounted in said tubular housing.

3. A floor cleaning machine as set forth in claim 1, which comprises a guard carried by said frame and covering the roller brush at the top and extending over said transfer member.

4. A floor cleaning machine as set forth in claim 3, which comprises a strip of resilient material which is affixed to the inside of the guard and has a free longitudinal side edge formed with fringes, which are defined by cuts and engage said brush.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Likshis Sept 23, 1941

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