EP0272940A2

EP0272940A2 - Holders

Info

Publication number: EP0272940A2
Application number: EP19870311415
Authority: EP
Inventors: Paul Frederick Sweet
Original assignee: Unilever PLC; Lever Industrial Ltd; Unilever NV
Current assignee: Unilever PLC; Unilever NV
Priority date: 1986-12-24
Filing date: 1987-12-23
Publication date: 1988-06-29
Also published as: GB2200534B; GB2200534A; GB8630853D0; EP0272940A3

Abstract

A holder for holding and propelling a fibrous cleaning pad in a floor cleaning machine, which holder comprises a pair of spaced apart, generally parallel and coaxial circular disc-like members (1.2), namely an upper disc member (1) provided with means (3) for engaging directly or indirectly with a drive motor of the floor cleaning machine and a lower disc member (2) having a generally planar lower surface provided with means (5) for holding a fibrous cleaning pad; the upper and lower disc members being resiliently connected by means of a regularly arranged array of leaf springs (6), each spring being secured at one end to the upper disc member and at its other end to the lower disc member, and the springs being arranged with their longitudinal axes generally tangential to the radii of the disc members.

Description

This invention is concerned with improvements in and relating to holders for cleaning pads used in rotary floor cleaning and/or polishing machines and the like.
Basically, a rotary floor cleaning and/or polishing machine comprises a support frame which is commonly provided with wheels at its rear end and, optionally, at its front end, on which frame are mounted guide handles and an electric drive motor with a generally vertical drive shaft which engages, directly or through a speed-reduction mechanism, with a disc-like holder for a cleaning pad , the holder being provided with a plurality of projections extending from its lower surface to engage with a cleaning pad. Such machines have served effectively for many years but are not without disadvantages. In particular, such machines generally rely upon deformation of the cleaning pad itself to allow for imperfections in the floor surface to be cleaned and this can give rise to problems, especially in the case of machines having a high designed pad speed, for example of the order of 500 rpm or more.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved resilient cleaning pad holder, which holder is particularly suitable for use with high speed machines.
According to the invention there is provided a holder for holding and propelling a fibrous cleaning pad in a floor cleaning machine, which holder comprises a pair of spaced apart, generally parallel and coaxial circular disc-like members, namely an upper disc member provided with means for engaging with a drive motor of a floor cleaning machine and a lower disc member having a generally planar lower surface provided with means (e.g. a plurality of elongate holding members projecting downwardly therefrom) to engage with a fibrous cleaning pad; the upper and lower disc members being resiliently connected by means of a regularly arranged array of leaf springs, each spring being secured at one end to the upper disc member and at its other end to the lower disc member, and the springs being arranged with their longitudinal axes generally tangential to the radii of the disc members.
The invention also provides a floor cleaning machine provided with a fibrous cleaning pad holder as defined above.
In accordance with a further embodiment of the invention the upper and lower disc members are also provided with further torsional coupling means in addition to the leaf springs, namely a central two-part coupling comprising a downwardly extending coupling member connected to the upper disc and an upwardly extending coupling member connected to the lower disc, each coupling member being provided with projection engaging with projections in the other disc and some or all of the projection being made of a resilient elastic material. The projections are so arranged as to permit vertical displacement of the two disc members relative to each other.
In order that the invention may be well understood reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is an exploded perspective view of a holder in accordance with the invention;
Figure 2 is a side view of the holder shown in Figure 1; and
Figure 3 is an underneath view of the holder shown in Figures 1 and 2.

As shown in the drawings, a holder in accordance with the invention comprises a pair of generally parallel and coaxial disc-like members, namely an upper disc member 1 and a lower disc member 2. Upper disc member 1 is provided with a central hub 3 having a tubular aperature 4 provided with an internal screw thread (not shown) for engagement (directly or indirectly such as via a speed-reduction mechanism) with the drive shaft of a drive motor of a floor polishing machine. Lower drive member 2 is provided with an array of downwardly projecting elongate holding members 5 for engagement with a fibrous cleaning pad. As shown in the drawings, see especially Figure 3, holding members 5 comprise so-called single-fill filaments arranged in concentric rows, the filaments being angled slightly to the vertical and to opposite hands in adjacent rows, as described in GB-A-2132078. The arrangement of holding members described in that specification is preferred for use in the holding members of the present invention but, of course, other arrangements of downwardly projecting holding members can be employed provided that they serve to hold and propel fibrous cleaning pads.
Disc members 1 and 2 are connected by means of leaf springs 6, each of which is connected, at its upper end, to upper disc member 1 and, at its lower end, to lower disc member 2. As shown in the drawings the springs are substantially planar but they may be curved in form.
Springs 6 are arranged in a regular array with their longitudinal axes generally normal to the radii of the disc members 1 and 2 at the mid points of the springs. Spring 6 should be so arranged that their upper ends lead when the holder is rotated by the action of the drive motor of the polishing machine. Suitably disc members 1 and 2, which will generally have diameters of from 30 to 55 cm especially 30 to 50 cm, are spaced apart, by the action of springs 6 under no load conditions, at a distance of 10 to 50, preferably 25 to 35 mm. The degree of resilience or stiffness of spring 6 may be expressed in terms of the amount of force required to press discs 1 and 2 together through a given distance and this is suitably from 0.5 to 10, preferably 1.0 to 5.0 kg/cm. As shown, leaf springs 6 are simple springs but they may, of course, take the form of multileaf spring systems. Springs 6 are preferably, as shown, located towards the outer margins of disc members 1 and 2 and, thus, are suitably at least half a radius from the centre of the discs, preferably two-thirds of a radius from the disc. Preferably disc members 1 and 2 are connected by at least three springs 6, especially 4 to 8 such springs.

Claims

1. A holder for holding and propelling a fibrous cleaning pad in a floor cleaning machine, which holder comprises a pair of spaced apart, generally parallel and coaxial circular disc-like members (1, 2), namely an upper disc member (1) provided with means (3) for engaging with a drive motor of the floor cleaning machine and a lower disc member (4) having a generally planar lower surface provided with means (5) for holding a fibrous cleaning pad; the upper and lower disc members being resiliently connected by means of a regularly arranged array of leaf springs (6), each spring being secured at one end to the upper disc member and at its other end to the lower disc member, and the springs being arranged with their longitudinal axes generally tangential to the radii of the disc members.

2. A floor cleaning machine provided with a fibrous cleaning pad holder as claimed in claim 1.