GB2138673A

GB2138673A - Device for the removal of hair from fabrics

Info

Publication number: GB2138673A
Application number: GB08310393A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Charles Anthony Bullows
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1983-04-18
Filing date: 1983-04-18
Publication date: 1984-10-31
Also published as: GB8310393D0; GB2138673B

Abstract

A tool for the removal of of animal hairs and/or fur from fabric, particularly clothing, furniture fabrics, and carpets comprises a rigid support (11) having a facing (12) of resilient material formed with a plurality of ribs 14a-14e) each having inclined side surfaces spaced laterally from each other. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Removal of animal hairs and/or fur The present invention relates generally to the removal of animal hairs and/or fur from fabric such as clothing, furniture or carpets on which it may have been deposited on falling from the animal.

One of the major disadvantages of keeping domestic pets, particularly cats and dogs, is the propensity of these animals to shed hair and/or fur more or less continuously but in larger quantities at certain times of the year. Because of its nature animal hair or fur presents particular problems in removal from fabric. First, the natural oils in the animals skin adhere to the hair and/or fur and cause a degree of bonding between the fur and/or hair and the fabric. Moreover, animal hair and fur is not smooth but incorporates "platelets" and/or fine fibrous surface features which tend to get interlocked with the fibres of a fabric.

Further, because of the manner in which the hair and/or fur is shed, particularly from an animal at rest lying on, for example a chair or sofa, where the fabric is locally warmed by the heat of the animal's body and continual movements as the animal adjusts its position causes the hair and/or fur to get partly interwoven with the fabric. On cooling the natural oils then become more adhesive increasing the difficulty of removal by conventional means. In fact, conventional means basically comprise brushes of normal type having bristles which may be of natural or synthetic fibres, are relative ineffective since the bristles pass over the hair or fur and cannot gain an adequate grip to overcome the compound adhesion described above between the hair or fur and the fabric from which it is to be removed.Even vacuum cleaners are inadequate since, again, the relatively low partial vacuum which they generate is not sufficiently strong to cause release of the fur or hair from the fabric and the cooling effect of the displaced air further hardens the natural oils and increases the difficulty of separation; The present invention is based, therefore, on an appreciation of the need to release animal hair or fur from its grip on fabric prior to removal. The present invention seeks to provide a tool for releasing animal hair or fur from fabric enabling its subsequent removal to be effected readily and easily.

According to one aspect of the present invention, therefore, a tool for releasing animal hair or fur from fabric such as clothing, furniture or carpets, comprises a rigid support carrying a resilient facing element having a face which is formed with a plurality of ribs, each rib having inclined side surfaces and being spaced from the adjacent rib by a distance such that facing inclined sides of adjacent ribs do not intersect.

Such a tool is used by drawing it over the surface of the fabric bearing the hair or fur to be removed. The inclined sides of the resilient ribs are slightly deformed by this contact and act frictionally to engage the hair or fur at the same time as flexing and deforming the fabric in such a way as to dislodge the hair or fur from the fabric.

Further stroking of the fabric with the tool causes the hair or fur to be displaced to a collection point where it can be gathered together and collected.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention the inclination of the sides of the ribs lies between 300 and 600 to the normal to the general plane defined by the crests of the ribs.

This general plane may be flat or curved, but in the preferred embodiment a flat plane encompasses the crests of the ribs. Again, in the preferred embodiment of the invention the inclination of the sides of the ribs lies at 450 to the normal to the plane defined by the crests of the ribs. If a curved plane encompasses the crests of the ribs this may be a single or cylindrical curve or a double curve, that is a surface having curvature in orthogonal planes.

The crests of the ribs themselves are preferably generally flat and of a certain width. This width may lie between 90% and 10% of the height of the ribs, that is the projection of the ribs from a plane defined by the surface of the element between the ribs.

The separation between the ribs at their bases (that is at the surface from which the ribs project) may likewise lie between 90% and 10% of the rib height. In the preferred embodiment of the invention the crests of the ribs themselves are generally flat and of a width between 90% and 10% of the height of the ribs themselves.

The ribs may be straight or curved within the plane of the facing element. Preferably the ribs are rectilinear although curved ribs even circular ribs (in concentric patterns) may be provided within the scope of the present invention. If circular ribs are provided, there may further be provided arcuate ribs between adjacent circles.

As will be appreciated, each rib extends for a distance less than the corresponding dimension of the face of the facing element in the same direction. Longitudinally adjacent ribs are inclined to each other in the preferred embodiment, the inclination lying between 300 and 900.

Preferably the ribs are arranged in sets of parallel laterally adjacent ribs inclined with respect to a longitudinally adjacent set of ribs.

The material of the facing element may be a styrene rubber or a resilient plastics material.

The backing can be formed as a handle or may be constituted simply as a support with a separate handle attached or attachable thereto.

One embodiment of the present invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of the embodiment, illustrated with the facing surface directed upwardly; and Figure 2 is a cross section taken on the line 11-Il of Figure 1.

As can be seen from the drawings the tool comprises a backing generally indicated 11 of rigid material which may be plastics, metal or wood as convenient, provided it offers the required degree of support without flexing, and this is overlaid by a facing of resilient material 12 having a surface topography which will be described in detail below. Attached to the backing 1 1 is a handle 13 by means of which the tool can be grasped and operated conveniently.

Distributed over the face of the facing element 12 are a plurality of ribs 14 arranged in sets of laterally adjacent ribs identified with the subscripts a-e respectively. Each set of laterally adjacent ribs, for example the ribs 1 4b illustrated in the drawings comprise a short straight ridge having a flat crest or crown 1 5, two oppositely inclined side faces 16, 17 and are spaced from one another by a planar section 18 constituting the "valley floor" of the surface.

The height h of each rib 14 from the floor 18 to the crest 15 is in this embodiment substantially equal to the transverse dimension D at the root or base of the rib 14 so that the rib itself has a generally square aspect. It is important that the height h is not substantially greater than the width D in order to obtain the required properties of flexibility and resilience acting to separate the hair or fur from the fabric when the tool is drawn over it. Likewise, the angle of inclination of the sides 16, 17 (which is symmetrical) with respect to a normal passing through the plane of the surface element 12 is preferably sufficiently large to allow hair or fur removed from the fabric to "roll" into the space between adjacent ribs. For this purpose an inclination of between about 300 and about 600 is considered appropriate.

The width w of the crest 1 5 of each rib 14 is approximately equal to the separation s between adjacent ribs at the base, and these dimensions are both less than the height h of each rib. They may be only slightly less, say 90% of h or may be substantially less, say 10% of h.

With respect to the length of the facing element 12, that is parallel to the handle 13 as illustrated in Figure 1, the ribs 14 of each set 1 4a-1 4e are inclined at approximately 450, therefore being inclined at 900 to one another. This can be seen from the cross section of Figure 2 where the section through ribs 1 4a cuts through one rib whereas the section through ribs 1 4b extends exactly transversely of these ribs. Longitudinally adjacent ribs in different sets are contiguous so that, for example, a rib in the set 1 4a is continued by the longitudinally adjacent rib of the set 1 4b which in turn joins continuously end-to-end with the longitudinally adjacent rib in the set 1 4c and so on across the width of the tool. Each set of ribs, however, being inclined with respect to the other set as described above.

It has been found that with dimensions such as those outlined above the effectiveness of the tool when drawn over the surface of fabric is considerable, the tool acting to dislodge hair or fur from the fabric and to "roll" the thus dislodged hair or fur into balls which can easily be picked off the fabric by hand or removed with a vacuum cleaner.

Although inclined rectilinear ribs 14 in an effectively zigag pattern are illustrated, other configurations may be employed providing they have a satisfactory inclination with respect to the direction of stroke when the tool is being used.

Clearly the direction of stroke must not be parallel to the length of the ribs, but less clearly, although empirically determined, the stroke is preferably inclined at an angle other than 900 to the length of the rib in order to have the beneficial effect. For this purpose it is required that the ribs 14 substantially retain their shape under the pressure exerted during use.Tests have been carried out using ribs of substantially greater height than width and a degree of resilience sufficient to allow substantial flexing, but it was found that these did not act to remove the hair or fur as effectively as the embodiment described hereinabove because, it is believed, the flexing allowed the lateral surfaces of the ribs to contact the surface of the fabric whereas the removal of hair or fur is believed to be most effectively achieved by the contact of the corners between the inclined side faces 16, 17 and the crest 1 5 of each rib causing slight deformation of the fabric as it is drawn over the surface, coupled with the natural frictional resistance of the resilient material itself.

As will be seen from Figure 1 the face of the tool has a generally oval shape with a slightly pointed end facing away from the handle 13 to allow access to corners in furniture where hair and/or fur can collect, so that this can be removed readily. The tool also has right angle corners between the main working face and the edges, as can be seen on the section of Figure 2, which again facilitates use of the tool right up to the edge of a fitted carpet or the seat of a chair.

It has been found that the tool described hereinabove is particularly suitable for removing fur and/or hair from upholstery where the fabric is stretched relatively tightly, but is also usable on clothing, even while being worn, since the ribs tend to flatten and stretch the material during use.

Previously stretched upholstery, such as on chairs or car seats or the like are particularly effectively cleaned by the tools of the present invention, however.

Claims

1. A tool for removing animal hair or fur from fabric such as clothing, furniture or carpets, comprising a rigid support carrying a resilient facing element having a face which is formed with a plurality of ribs, each rib having inclined side surfaces and being spaced from the adjacent rib by a distance such that facing inclined sides of the adjacent ribs do not meet.

2. A tool as claimed in Claim 1, in which the inclination of the sides of the ribs lies between 300 and 600 to the normal to the general plane defined by the crests of the ribs.

3. A tool as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, in which the general plane in which the crests of the ribs lies is flat.

4. A tool as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, in which a general plane in which the crests of ribs lies is curved.

5. A tool as claimed in Claim 4, in which the said general plane has a double curvature, namely one curved in two orthogonal directions.

6. A tool as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which the crests of the ribs themselves are generally flat and have a width lying between 90% and 1 0% of the height of the ribs in a direction orthogonal to the general plane in which the crests of ribs lie.

7. A tool as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which the separation between the ribs at their bases, that is effectively at the surface of the facing element, from which the ribs project, is between 90% and 1 0% of the rib height.

8. A tool as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which each rib extends longitudinally for a distance less than the corresponding dimension on the face of the facing element in the same direction.

9. A tool as claimed in Claim 8, in which each of the ribs is rectilinear.

10. A tool as claimed in Claim 9, in which longitudinally adjacent ribs are inclined to each other, with the angle of inclination between a rib and its neighbour at one end being in the opposite sense from the angle of inclination between the said rib and its neighbour at the opposite end to constitute, in effect, a heringbone structure.

1 A tool as claimed in Claim 10, in which the inclination between adjacent ribs lies between 300 and 900.

12. A tool as claimed in Claim 10, in which the inclination between longitudinally adjacent ribs is 900.

13. A tool as claimed in Claim 10, in which laterally adjacent ribs are parallel to one another each rib in the set being inclined, with respect to a longitudinally adjacent rib of the longitudinally adjacent set by the same angle as the other ribs in the set.

14. A tool as claimed in any of Claims 1 to 8, in which the ribs are curved.

15. A tool as claimed in Claim 14, in which the ribs are formed as closed circular ribs in concentric patterns with arcuate ribs in the spaces between complete circles.

16. A tool as claimed in any preceding Claim in which the facing material is made from a styrene rubber.

17. A tool as claimed in any of Claims 1 to 16 in which the facing is made from a resilient plastics material.

18. A tool as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which the said rigid support carrying the resilient facing element is formed with a linear or arcuate extension constituting a handle by which the tool can be gripped and manipulated by a user.

19. A tool for removing animal hair or fur from fabric such as clothing, furniture, carpets or the like, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as shown in, the accompanying drawings.