Grooming/cleaning apparatus

• US 20050066464A1
• Filed: 05/21/2004
• Published: 03/31/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hartz Mountain Corporation (Unicharm Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Hartz Mountain Corporation (Unicharm Corporation)
• Inventors: McKay, William D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,364,380 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 15/169
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 13/002 Curry-combs; Brushes shearing sheep B26B19/24
• CPC Class Codes: A46B 17/06 Devices for cleaning brushes after use
• CPC Class Codes: A46B 2200/1093 Brush for use on animal A46B2200/1086 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A46B 5/04 shaped as gloves or finger-stalls or other special holding ways, e.g. by the tongue

Abstract

A cleaning apparatus includes a substrate with outward projecting bristles extending through a sheet or scrim impaled over the bristles. The substrate may be mounted on a support which may carry a handle. The sheets may be single sheets arranged in a stack over the bristles on one or more surfaces of the substrate or a roll of separable sheets disposed over the bristles.

Claims

1. A cleaning apparatus comprising:

a substrate;

a plurality of bristles extending from the substrate; and

a sheet disposed over the bristles.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:

the bristles are evenly spaced over the substrate.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:

the bristles have one of the same height and different heights.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:

the bristles have one of the same degree of resiliency and different resiliency.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:

the sheet is one of dry and absorbent, pre-moistened, dry and treated with a water activated material.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:

the sheet carries at least one of a cleaning medium, a deodorizing medium, a sanitizing medium, a medicament, a conditioning medium, a coloring medium, a lightening medium, a shine enhancing medium, and a detangling medium.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the sheet comprises:

a non-woven fabric sheet.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:

the bristles extend through the sheet.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:

the sheet is one of a plurality of separable sheets wound in a roll.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:

the sheet is one of a plurality of separable sheets arranged in a stack.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the substrate comprises:

means, carried on the substrate, for releasably locking ends of the substrate to the support.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the locking means comprises:

snap engagable mating surfaces formed on the substrate to snap connect separate portions of the substrate in a loop about the support.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the locking means comprises:

fasteners carried on the substrate for snap engagement with mating apertures carried on the substrate.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a support carrying the substrate.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 further comprising:

a handle extending from the support.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein:

the handle is non-movably fixed to the support.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein:

the handle and the support are rotatable with respect to each other.

18. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein:

the handle and support are formed with two separate connected handle and support sections, the two separate handle and support sections fixedly joined together.

19. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein:

the handle and the support are formed as one piece blow molded member.

20. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

a plurality of resilient fingers mounted on the support to releasably lock the substrate on the support.

21. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

the support having a wedge shape extending from a larger dimension adjacent the handle to an apex.

22. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the substrate comprises:

two hinged sections.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 further comprising:

means for mounting the substrate on the support.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein the mounting means comprises:

mating projections and apertures formed on spaced portions of the two hinged sections of the substrate.

25. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein the mounting means comprises:

snap connectors formed on the two sections of the substrate.

26. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

an enlarged diameter collar intermediate the handle and the support.

27. The apparatus of claim 26 further comprising:

a container having an open end for receiving the collar;

the container operative for containing fluid for application to the cleaning element when the handle and the support are disposed in the container.

28. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein:

the bristles extend substantially perpendicular to the substrate when the substrate is in a flat state;

at least certain of the bristles disposed at a non-perpendicular angle with respect to the substrate after the substrate has been mounted on the support.

29. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

the sheet having pre-formed apertures mountable over the bristles.

30. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

the substrate having opposed ends, one of the ends being offset from a plan of the substrate for overlapping engagement with the opposed end when the substrate is formed to the shape of the support.

31. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

the substrate formed of a flexible material to conform to the shape of the support.

32. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

a protective cap mountable over the sheet and the support to sealingly encompass the fabric sheet.

33. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein the protective cap comprises:

an open ended enclosure friction mountable to the support to sealingly mount the protective cap to the support about the sheet.

34. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein the protective cap comprises:

first and second hingedly coupled sections sealingly mountable about the sheet on the support.

35. The cleaning apparatus of claim 15 wherein:

the handle, the support and the substrate are integrally formed as a one-piece body.

36. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

an openable enclosure configured for sealingly receiving and surrounding at least the support.

37. The cleaning apparatus of claim 36 further comprising:

the enclosure configured for receiving the entire cleaning apparatus; and

a sealable aperture formed in the enclosure for permitting the disposition of a fluid into the enclosure for absorption by the cleaning element.

38. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

the substrate having a plurality of hinged contiguous sections wrappable around the support; and

bristles extending from at least one section of the substrate

39. The apparatus of claim 38 further comprising:

joining means carried on at least two of the sections of the substrate for releasable joining the ends of the substrate.

40. The apparatus of claim 38 wherein:

a bore extends through the substrate.

41. The apparatus of claim 40 further comprising:

a support engagable with the bore in the substrate.

42. The apparatus of claim 38 further comprising:

at least one sheet mounted on the bristles.

43. The apparatus of claim 42 further comprising:

apertures formed in the sheet for mounting over the bristles.

44. The apparatus of claim 42 further comprising:

means for holding the ends of the sheet around the substrate.

45. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1 wherein:

the substrate, after opposed ends are joined into a continuous body, defining a through bore having a cross section sized for receiving at least one user finger for manipulating the cleaning apparatus.