GB2045740A - Device for cleaning handles - Google Patents

Abstract

A device for cleaning handles includes a cleaning tool 18 which comprises two support plates 24 and 26 between which a sponge plate 28 is clamped. A slot 30 whose shape corresponds to that of a handle 10 to be cleaned is formed in the three plates. The width of the slot in the two support plates is greater than that in the sponge plate. The device also includes a movable handle holder comprising a holder 80 and upper and lower clips 78 and 76 adapted to push a handle or a pair of handles through the slot. The sponge plate is deformed by the support plates so that its surfaces which define the slot bulge inwardly such that the slot is narrower in its central region than at its edge. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Device for cleaning handles The invention relates to a device for cleaning ceramic handles, for use with cups, pots and the like, including a cleaning tool which comprises two supporting plates and a sponge plate arranged between them, there being a slot corresponding to the shape of the handle extending through the three plates, the width of the slot in the two supporting plates being greater than that in the sponge plate, and a handle holder which is movable so as to push a handle or pair of handles through the slot.

As used herein the term sponge plate is used to mean a plate made from a spongy resilient material, for example a foam material, an open-pored foam material being preferred though the use of a closed-pored foam material is also contemplated.

British Patent No. 742146 discloses a cleaning device of this type in which the sponge plate is held fast between the two supporting plates without being deformed by them. In the reset position of this device the edges of the sponge plate defining the slot extend at right angles to the planes of the sponge plate and the supporting plates; these edges are only deformed when a handle is pushed into the slot. The slot in one of the two supporting plates is only slightly wider than the slot in the sponge plate and is narrow enough to trim handles which are pushed through it before they reach the slot in the sponge plate, and the edges of the latter slot then smooth the surface of the handles.

An object of the invention is to provide a device for cleaning handles with an improved polishing effect. This is particularly important in the case of baroque style and other handles which have projections on their periphery and differ more or less significantly from the approximately C-shaped outline of simple handles. In the device described above such handles frequently suffer damage if the slot through which the handles are pushed is narrow enough to completely smooth their surface.

In accordance with the present invention a device for cleaning handles includes a cleaning tool which comprises two support plates between which is a sponge plate, there being a slot formed in the three plates whose shape corresponds to that of a handle to be cleaned, the width of the slot in the two support plates being greater than that in the sponge plate, and a movable handle holder adapted to push a handle or a pair of handles through the slot, the surfaces of the sponge plate which define the slot being shaped to bulge inwardly so that the slot is narrower in its central region than at its edges. This means that in the central region between the two support plates, which may be termed the equatorial region, the width of the slot is less than in the region of the borders where the edges of the sponge plate defining the slot border terminate.

In other words the slot widens from the equatorial region towards the said borders; the width of the slot between the borders can be considered greater than the width of the handle so that even a handle which is of complex shape and/or itself not correctly shaped due to shrinkage or the like can be pushed into the slot in the sponge plate with force without fear of damage caused by jamming. As a result it is possible to make the slot very much narrower in its equatorial region than was previously the case and therefore to exert a much greater cleaning or smoothing pressure on the handle in this region than is possible with the device described above.Nevertheless the slot can be cut into the sponge plate in a simple known manner using a heated wire, since in the relaxed state of the sponge plate its edges defining the slot are at right angles to the surfaces which in use are contacted by the support plates, as is the case in the known device.

It has proved advantageous for the sponge plate to be compressed between the two support plates to less than half, and preferably between a quarter and a sixth, of its original thickness.

In the fixed position of the sponge plate the width of the slot is preferably so related to the ratio between the original and the compressed thickness of the sponge plate that the bulges on the sponge plate contact each other in the equatorial region and therefore close off the slot in the equatorial region.

The width of the slot in the support plates is preferably three to six times as great as the width of the slot in the sponge plate before the support plates are clamped together.

Further features and details of the invention will be apparent from the following description of one specific embodiment which is given by way of example with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings in which: Figure 1 is an elevation of a cleaning device in accordance with the invention partially in section; Figure 2 is a greatly enlarged scrap plan view in the direction of the arrows ll-il in Fig.

1; Figure 3 is a vertical section on the line Ill-Ill in Fig. 2; Figure 4 is a greatly enlarged view of the upper and lower clips seen in Fig. 1; and Figure 5 is a plan view in the direction of the line V-V in Fig. 4.

The device serves to trim and clean handles 10 which are connected to each other in pairs by a bar 1 2 from which they are subsequently separated. In order to make loading of the device possible with both hands the device illustrated can be so constructed that two pairs of handles 10 connected to each other by a bar 1 2 can be treated simultaneously.

Several such devices can be arranged at a set angular spacing around an incrementally rotatable working table so that it is possible to place uncleaned handles in a first device whilst at the same time a second device cleans handles which have already been introduced, cleaned handles are removed from a third device and a forth device is washed.

The device shown in Fig. 1 has a base plate 14 on which a water tank 1 6 is mounted. In operation, the tank is connected to supply and discharge pipes (not shown) and is filled almost to its upper rim with water. Four cleaning tools 1 8 for a respective handle 10 are fixed in the tank completely or substantially below the surface of the water.

The cleaning tools 1 8 are connected together in pairs by a common sole plate 20.

Each tool 1 8 includes two inner columns 22' and four outer columns 22" mounted on the sole plate 20. Each inner column 22' supports an inner part 24' of a lower support plate 24, an inner part 26' of an upper support plate 26 and an inner part 28' of a sponge plate 28 which is supported and retained between the two support plates 24 and 26. In a similar manner each pair of outer columns 22" supports an outer part 24" of the lower support plate 24, an outer part 26" of the upper support plate 26 and an outer part 28" of the sponge plate 28.The inner and outer parts of the three plates 24, 26 and 28 are spaced from each other by a slot the shape of which corresponds to that of a handle 1 0. The plates 24, 26 and 28 are held together by an adjustable tightening screw 34; independently of this the plates are secured to the columns 22' and 22" by screws 36.

The sponge plate 28 is made from resilient and abrasion-proof foam plastics material or foam rubber and in its free state is a flat plate.

The inner part 28' of the sponge plate 28 of each cleaning tool 1 8 has an outer rim 38' whose shape is the same as the internal profile of the handle 10, and in its free state, i.e. before the sponge plate 28 is clamped between the support plates 24 and 26, it extends at right angles to the planes of the two support plates. In a similar manner the outer part 28" of the sponge plate 28 has an inner rim 38" whose shape is the same as the external profile of the handle 10 and in its free state also lies at right angles to the planes of the two support plates 24 and 26 and parallel to the rim 38'.

The support plates 24 and 26 which are substantially rigid and may be made of stainless steel are of equal dimensions but smaller that the sponge plate 28. The inner parts 24' and 26' of the plates 24 and 26 have an outer rim 38'. Similarly the outer parts 24" and 26" of the plates 24 and 26 have an inner rim 40" which is set back in relation to the inner rim 38" of the sponge plate 28.

The sponge plate 28 is compressed beetween the support plates 24 and 26 as shown in Fig. 3 to approximately one fifth of its original thickness and as a result the re gions which do not lie between the support plates are deformed into bulges 42' and 42't, the edges 38' and 38" of which face each other and are convex. The edges 44' and 44" at the boundary between the edges 38' and 38" and the originally flat upper and lower surfaces of the sponge plate 28 are a distance A apart which in the illustrated example is approximately a quarter of the distance B between the opposing edges of the upper and lower plates 26 and 24.Thus the slot 30 defined by the sponge plate has a width A level with the edges 44' and 44" and from there becomes progressively narrower until it reaches zero in a central or equatorial region 46 halfway between the support plates 24 and 26. The bulges 42' and 42" thus butt against each other in the equatorial region 46, optionally with a slight contact pressure.

The illustrated device also has a handle holder consisting of two vertical posts 50 mounted on the base plate 14 and connected to each other at the top by a yoke 52, and two cylindrical guide columns 54 also mounted on the base plate on which a lower crosspiece 56 and an upper crosspiece 58 are guided so as to be vertically movable. The lower crosspiece 56 is supported on the base plate 14 by means of compression springs 6Q which are arranged coaxially around the guide columns 54. The upper crosspiece 58 is fixed to the lower end of a vertical piston rod 62, the piston of which moves in a pneumatic cylinder 64. The cylinder is fixed in turn to the lower end of a vertical piston rod 66, the piston of which moves in a cylinder 68 of greater length than the cylinder 64 mounted on the yoke 52.Vertical set screws 70 are screwed into the upper crosspiece 58 and these can press against the lower crosspiece 56 as shown in Fig. 1.

On the lower crosspiece 56 are mounted two pairs of lower clips 76 which extend in a common horizontal plane and each have a shape corresponding to that of a pair of handles 1 0, the width of the clip 76, how ever, being smaller than that of the corre sponding handle 10, so that the clips 76 can be pushed vertically through the cleaning tools 1 8 which are arranged directly below them. The same applies to two corresponding pairs of upper clips 78 which are mounted on the upper crosspiece 58 directly above the lower clips 76. Each pair of lower clips 76 on the lower crosspiece 56 has a space within which is a beam 80 of U-shaped cross-section open at the top, into which the bar 1 2 connecting a pair of handles 10 fits.

At the beginning of each operating cycle both piston rods 62 and 66 are retracted as far as possible into their respective cylinders 64 and 68, so that the upper crosspiece 58 is in an upper position, whilst the lower crosspiece 56 is held by the compression springs 60 approximately in the position shown in Fig. 1. Two pairs of handles are placed on the lower clips 76 with their bars 1 2 in the beams 80. Then the upper piston rod 66 is extended so that the upper crosspiece 58 is lowered to the position shown in Fig. 1 in which the set screws 70 prevent it from moving any closer to the lower crosspiece 56. The set screws 70 are set so that the handles 10 are held firmly between the clips 76 and 78 under a slight pressure but without deformation. The upper piston rod 62 is now further extended and the upper crosspiece 58 moves further downwards, moving the lower crosspiece 56 with it. As a result the clips 76 and 78, together with the handles 10 held fast between them, are pushed through the cleaning tools 1 8 so that the handles lose the roughness resulting from the earlier casting or pressing and are smoothed so that even after subsequent firing substantially no trace of the roughness remains.

Claims (6)

1. A device for cleaning handles including a cleaning tool which comprises two support plates between which is a sponge plate, there being a slot formed in the three plates whose shape corresponds to that of a handle to be cleaned, the width of the slot in the two support plates being greater than that in the sponge plate, and a movable handle holder adapted to push a handle or a pair of handles through the slot, the surfaces of the sponge plate which define the slot being shaped to bulge inwardly so that the slot is narrower in its central region than at its edges.

2. A device as claimed in Claim 1 in which the sponge plate is compressed between the two support plates to a thickness of less than half of its original thickness.

3. A device as claimed in Claim 2 in which the sponge plate is compressed to between a quarter to a sixth of its original thickness.

4. A device as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 3 in which the central regions of the surfaces of the sponge plate which define the slot are in contact.

5. A device as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 4 in which the width of the slots in the support plates is between three and six times greater than the width of the slot in the sponge plate before the support plates are clamped together.

6. A device for cleaning handles substantially as specifically herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.