US3011189A - Rug cleaning apparatus - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 5, 1961 s. DQ'HULSH RUG CLEANING APPARATUS 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed Dec. 16, 1959 INVENTOR. SHELDON DAVID HULSH iy/ HTTOR/UEV Dec. 5, 1961 S. D. HULSH RUG CLEANING APPARATUS Original Filed Dec. 16, 1959 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 s a R. L N M V m to m m 2 w a w a wl c T h, M m1. I" m 1 d u w. .n

m f l J T L w mi nTmRn/EV Dec. 5, 1961 s nql-luLsH 3,011,189

RUG CLEANING APPARATUS Original Filed Dec. 16, 1959 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 XNDAVID Huts BY m I J 76-5, ATTORNEY 3,011,139 RUG CLEANING APPARATUS Sheldon David Hulsh, 530 Park Ave, New York, N.Y. Original application Dec. 16, 1959, Ser. No. 859,965. Divided and this application Nov. 4, 1960, Ser. No.

2 Claims. (Cl. 15-49) the rotating brushes were supported for penetration into the rug surface only to the extent allowed by the wheels or rollers. The present invention employs no wheels or rollers and allows the cleaning brushes to penetrate quite deeply into the carpet pile for-maximum efiiciency, the entire rug cleaning apparatus being supported upon the rotating brush structure.

Moreover, when employing a moist powdered cleaning agent there exists a tendency for the rotating brushes to throw or scatter the cleaning agent about the room. This scattering action is obviously undesirable since the cleaning agent is removed from the brush area and hence cannot be utilized to advantage, together with the fact-that the scattered cleaning agent may easily be deposited upon the lower portions of the legs of furniture placed about the room. The rug cleaning apparatus according to the present invention completely eliminates the scattering of United States Patent the cleaning agent and hence concentrates the cleaning 7 agent-in the working region of the rotating brushes, thus also preventing the cleaning agent from being deposited upon the legs of furniture.

4 An additional feature of the rug cleaning apparatus .according to the invention is the provision of a locking device for fixedly securing the handle of the apparatus at .a desired inclination relative to the working head. This locking action is beneficial in that the working head may be then tilted by inclining the handle so that the rotating brushes engage the rug surface over a limited area to provide deeper penetration of the brush bristles and hence deeper cleaning. Accordingly, it is a primary object of the invention to provide a novel rug cleaning apparatus which dispenses with supporting wheels or rollers and is instead supported directly upon a system'of rotating brushes.

Another object of the invention is to provide a novel :rug cleaning apparatus which is provided with means for preventing the scattering of rug cleaning agents outwardly away from the rug cleaning apparatus due to the rotating motion of the cleaning brushes.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a novel rug cleaning apparatus employing a system of rotating brushes in which each brush feeds the cleaning agent into the active brushing region of another brush so that there is a region of overlapping brush action.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a novel rug cleaning apparatus employing a novel operating handle adjusting device by means of which the operating handle may be locked in a particular position relative to the working head. I

The foregoing and other objects of the invention will become apparent from a careful reading of the following specification in conjunction with an examination of the appended drawings, wherein: 1

, 3,011,189 .Patented Dec. 5, 1961 would be seen when viewed along the lines 33 of FIG- URE 1;

FIGURE 4 is adiagrammatic'bottom plan view similar to the showing of FIGURE 2 illustrating the non-scattering aspect of the apparatus in relationship to the moist.

powdered cleaning agent employed;

v FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary side sectional view of. the working head similar to FIGURE 3, but illustrating more details of internal construction;

FIGURE 6 is a fragmented section view as would be seen when viewed along the lines 6-6 of FIGURE 5 and illustrating certain structural details of the brushes and the means of securing each of the rotating brushes to the driving mechanism;

FIGURE 7 is a front elevational view of the working head of the apparatus, portions of the external casework being fragmented away to reveal certain of the details of the interior construction;

FIGURE 8 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the elements seen in the showing of FIGURE 5 as would be seen when viewed along the lines 8-8 of FIGURE 7;

FIGURE 9 is a reduced exploded view of a portion of the apparatus as seen in FIGURE 8 and illustrates most clearly various aspects of the elements comprising the handle adjustment and locking mechanism;

FIGURE 10 is a fragmentary elevational view illustrating those elements of the handle position adjusting mechanism which determine the maximum positioned adjustment of the handle that may be realized;

FIGURE 11- is a fragmented sectional view taken through the handle locking key as seen when viewed along the lines 1111 of FIGURE 8;

FIGURE 12 is a fragmented sectional view as would be seen when viewed along the lines'12-12 of FIGURE 8; and s FIGURE 13 is a reduced fragmentary view as would be seen whenviewed along the lines 13-13 of FIGURE 8, and illustrating a latching device for holding the operating handlefiin an upright position. I

In these several views like elements are denoted by like reference characters. a The perspective view of FIGURE 1 shows generally that the rug' cleaning apparatus comprises an upright elongated hollow handle Ztl secured at its base to the operating head by a clamping block 21, and having atfixed to its upper. region an electrical switch 22 for controlling the energization of the drive motor by means of the electrical cord 23. The operating head is con: tained within a housing 24 and is secured thereto by the bolts and nuts 25 which may also be seen in the bottom view of FIGURE 2. Loosely'secured to the housing 24 and disposedperipherally thereabout is a skirt 26 provided with a front slotted opening 27. As best seen in FIGURES Z and 3, the skirt 26 is loosely supported on the housing 24-by means of a plurality of inwardly extending pins 28 fixedly secured to the skirt and projecting through correspondingly located vertically elongated slots'29 in the housing 24. The pins 28 and slots 29 permit a vertical and tilting movement of the skirt 26 relative to the housing 214 during operation of the apparatus, and it is this skirt 26 which provides the means for preventing scattering or throwing of the moist powdered cleaning agent when the brushes. are rotating;

As seen in the showings of FIGURES 2 and 3, the working head comprises a mounting plate 30 to the top side of which is secured an electrical driving motor 31 having a pair of right angle drives 32 formed integrally with the motor end bells and by means of which the motor rotor is coupled to the brush driving shafts 3-3 which extend below the mounting plate 3 0. The rotatable brushes 3d are seen to each have a central hub 35 and four bristle holding arms 36 lying along radii of a circle ninety degrees displaced from each adjacent arm. As best seen in the showing of FIGURE 6, the hub 35 is formed integrally with the arms '36 and includes a pair of counterbored bosses 3-7 which accept a pair of downwardly extending projections 38 formed on the underside of a hub top extension member 3 9. The hub top extension member 39 is centrally apertured to provide a receiving shaftway for the driving shaft 33 and is cross slotted at its upper end, as at 40, to receive the pins 41 projected centrally transversely through the driving shafts 33 adjacent the top of the latter. When the brushes are mounted upon the shafts 33 so that the pins 41 are disposed within the cross-slots 40, the brushes are forced to rotate with the driving shafts 3 3. The pins 41 extended through the drive shafts 33 are oriented so that the brushes 34 may only be mounted upon the shafts 33 in the manner illustrated in FIGURE 2 wherein the intermeshing arrangement of the brush arms 36 is clearly seen.

Returning again to FIGURE 6, it will be further observed that the hub top extension member 39 contains a depression 42 formed on the inside surface of the shaftway, and that the driving shaft 33 contains a spring pressed ball 43 biased radially outwardly by means of the spring 44. When the brush 34 is slipped upwardly onto the driving shaft 33, the ball 43 is pressed inwardly against the spring 44 until the hub'top extension memher 3 9 rides up sufficiently far on the shaft 33 to present the depression 42 opposite the ball 43-, whereupon the ball 43 moves radially outward under the urging of the spring 44 and partially into the depression 42 to latch the brush assembly upon the driving shaft 33. The spring force is sufficiently strong to retain the brush 34 upon the shaft 33, although'it is not so strong as to prevent relatively easy engagement and disengagement of the brushes upon the driving shaft 33-.

The brush assembly 34 is completed by a hub bottom extension member 45 of open-ended hollow cylindrical form, a bottom closure plate 46, and the bolts 4-7 which secure the entire brush assembly together in the manner illustrated in FIGURE 6. If desired, the tubular spacers 48 may be disposed about the bolts 47 Within the hub bottom member 4 as rigidifying elements. Finally, the brush arms 36 are each seen to be provided with a plurality of .rows of bristles 49 extending downward toward the rug surface for a distance somewhat greater than the depth of the hub structure.

The function of the hub bottom structure including the extension member 45 and bottom closure plate 46 is to provide a post-like bearing support for the apparatus when the bristles 49 have penetrated into the rug to a particular depth. In those instances where it is desired to obtain deeper cleaning, the entire apparatus may be tilted downwardly either forwardly orrearwardly of its central post-like support as a fulcrum merely by elevating or depressing the operating handle 20 to a certain extent so that the plane of the brushes is inclined at an angle to the rug surface, thereby causing the bristles which at any instant are located toward the front or the rear of the machine, depending upon whether the handle 213 is raised or lowered, to penetrate further down into the carpet pile. One such canted position of the apparatus is illustrated in FIGURE 5 by the tilted dot and dash outline of the housing 2 4. It will be observed in this showing that while the housing 24 assumes a canted position, theperipherally surrounding skirt 26 does not so cant but remains substantially flush with the rug surface as a result of the skirt-to-housing coupling formed by the pins 28 and slots 29.

From this same showing and that of FIGURE 4 the confining action of the skirt is readily apparent because any of the moist powdered cleaning agent thrown outwardly by the brush rotation necessarily strikes the inside vertical wall of the skirt 26, falling back upon the carpet within the confines of the skirt, and hence remaining in the immediate vicinity of the rotating brushes which eventually work all of the confined cleaning agent into the nap of the rug. Of course, the cleaning agent which has been previously sprinkled upon the rug surface is constantly replenished in the brush region by passing thereinto throughthe front slotted opening 27 in the skirt 2 6 as the apparatus moves forward over the surface of the rug.

It will be observed that the bottom closure plate 46 of the cylindrical hub extension 45 is preferably conically shaped or tapered downwardly along and inwardly to.- ward the axis of rotation of the brush assembly to provide a coaxial pointed extremity 46a lying substantially in the horizontal plane of the free ends of the brush bristles 49. This pointed extremity or apex 46a of the conically shaped bottom plate 46 serves upon its penetration of the rug fibers not only to relieve the brush bristles from the full weight of the machine and to act as a fulcrum for tilting the front or rear of the machine downwardly, as hereinbefore described, but also and importantly to restrain the machine from any tendency to unduly slip or creep laterally under the influence of the rotating brushes. The tapered plate at the bottom of the central supporting post, while penetrating the nap of the rug sufiiciently to prevent uncontrolled side slip of the machine, nevertheless permits it to be easily shifted in any desired direction by the operators controlled manipulation of the machine handle, the taper of the plate 46 being such as to permit the post to ride over the rug nap in any direction along which the machine is pushed or pulled by its handle.

Understanding now the overall general organization of the rug cleaning apparatus, attention should be now directed toward the showings of FIGURES 8through 13 for an understanding of the adjustable locking mechanism by means of which the handle 26 may be non-shiftably secured to the operating head in any one of a continuous range of positions between two fixed limits. As seen in FIGURES 8, 9 and 10 the housing of the electrical motor 31 is cast so that the end sections 50 are of larger diameter than the central section 51, thereby forming an annular recess which extends centrally peripherally about the circumference of the motor 31. Extending inwardly from the end sections 50 into the annular space of the motor central section 51 are a plurality of lands 52 which constitute part of the stop mechanism determining'the extreme positions that the handle 20 may assume.

Disposed within the annular space and closely overlying a portion of the motor central section 51 is an arcuately curved plate 53 fitted at one end with a pair of laterally extending ears 54. As best seen in the showing of FIGURE 10, the width of the arcuate plate 53 is less than the distance between the lands 52 which face each other across the width of the motor central section 51, so that the arcuate plate 53 may slide peripherally within the annular channel. However, the lateral extent of the ears 54 is such that these ears abut the ends of a pair of lands 52 when the arcuate plate 53 is shifted peripherally about the motor central section 51 through an angle of approximately 60 and is hence confined Within this range of shiftable motion.

Disposed in overlying relationship to the arcuate plate 53 and forming one half of a circular pressure banding structure is an arcuately curved section 55 formed integrally at its top end with one half 56 of the clamping block 21, and terminating at its lower end in one half 57 of a bottom clamping block. The arcuate section 55 is apertured as at 58 in the region where it overlies the arcuate plate 53, and secured to the outer surface of the section 55 is a threaded bushing 59 having its threaded hole aligned in registry with the aperture 58 in the arcuate section 55. The arcuately curved section 55 is seen to extend halfway peripherally about the central motor section 51 and forms with a second section 66 acompletely encircling band about the motor central section. The second section 60 includes an arcuately curved section 61 terminating at its lower end in a clamping block half 62, and at its upper end in the other half 63 of the clamping block 21.

For purposes of securing the arcuate curved plate 53 in fixed relationship to the surrounding banding structure including the arcuate sections 55 and 61, the arcuate plate 53 includes a vertically turned portion 64- which terminates in an outwardly turned flange 65. The flange 65 abuts and seats upon a stepped formation 66 formed integrally with the clamping block half 56, and the clamping block half 63 includes an internally forwardly projecting portion 67 which abuts the vertical portion 64 of the a-rcuate plate 53 when the two halves'of the clamping block 21 are assembled together. The banding structure is secured together as shown in FIGURE 8 by means of the bolts 68 and 69 which respectively secure together the two halves 56 and 63 of theclamping block 21, and the halves 57 and 62 of the lower clamping block.

The shank of a key '70 is threadedly engaged with the bushing 59 and is projectable by rotation through the aperture 58 in the arcuate section 55 into bearing engagement with the outer surface of the arcuately curved plate 53. When the key 70 is not screwed tightly down against the arcuately curved plate 53, the entire banding assembly, which carries the handle 20, is free to shift peripherally about the motor central section 51 wit in the limits imposed by the ears 54 of the arcuate plate 53, but when the key'70 is screwed down tightly against the arcuate plate 53 the latter is pressed firmly against the surface of the motor central section 51 and thereby locks the handle 20 in a particular position.

Also seen in the showing of FIGURE 8 as disposed within the upper clamping block 21 is an electrical plug type connector 71, from the bottom portion of which extends a pair of electrical conductors 23 which act as a continuation of the conductors of the electrical cord 23. The conductors 23' extend downwardly through an aperture in the vertical portion 64 of the arcuately curved plate 53, pass through the motor housing as at 72 and ultimatelyinto the motor 31. The plug connector 71 permits ready disassembly of the handle 21 from the operating head when such is desired. The conductors 23' are concealed and protected by an overlying curved plate 73 anchored atits top end under the stepped formation 66 of the half 56 of the clamping block 21, and anchored at its lowered end by means of the bolt 76 projected therethrough and theadingly engaged with the arcuate section 55. The curved plate 75 is, of course, apertured as at 77 to permit passage therethrough of the threaded shank of the key 70.

6 In order to provide a guideway for the banding structure including the arcuately curved sections 55 and 61, the motor end section walls 50 are recessed downward toward the bottom of the motor central section 51 to provide a pair of facing ledges 78 between and upon which the curved sections 55 and 61 may ride. The ledge structures 78 thus prevents lateral shifting of the banding structure 7 and confine the motion of the latter solely to the aforedescri'bed peripheral shifting about the motor central section 51.

Finally, FIGURE 13 illustrates a spring clip structure by means of which the handle 20 may be releasably secured in an upright position without resorting to the looking arrangement brought into operation by rotation of the key 70. The spring latch arrangement is seen to comprise a U-shaped spring clip 79 secured to the motor mounting plate 30 which clip grasps the bottom terminal projections of the two halves 57 and 62 of the banding structure lower clampingblock. While sufficient spring pressure is applied to maintain the handle 20 in an upright position, the handle 20 may be readily released from the clip by a backward directed pull requiring relatively little force.

Having now described my invention in connection with a particularly illustrated embodiment thereof, it is to be understood that various modifications and variations will occur from time to time to those persons normally skilled in the art without departing from the essential spirit or scope of the invention, and accordingly, it is intended to claim the same broadly as well as specifically as indicated by the appended claims.

What is claimed as new and useful is:

1. In a brush type cleaning apparatus a device for locking an operating handle in a desired position comprising, a generally cylindrical motor housing containing a motor for driving the cleaning brushes, said motor housing being formed with a substantially centrally located circumferentially extending annular recess, a banding structure rotatably shiftably disposed Within said recess and extending completely peripherally thereabout, said banding structure terminating above said motor in a clamping block assembly adapted to receive and retain the operating handle, a friction plate disposed between a portion of said banding structure and the underlying portion of said annular recess, said friction plate being fixedly secured to said banding structure for rotation therewith, and pressureapplying means associated with said banding structure for pressing said friction plate firmly against the bottonrsurface of said annular recess to non-shiftably clamp the banding structure thereto in a desired position.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said annular recess contains a pair of spaced apart fixed stops, and wherein said friction plate includes stop engaging arms engageable with said stops, whereby said banding structure is shiftable between fixed limits and is clampable at any point intermediate such limits.

References Cited in the file of this patent FOREIGN PATENTS 164,783 Australia Aug. 24, 1955

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