GB2308419A - Bicycle chain cleaning apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

Bicycle chain cleaning apparatus in which the chain 3, while still on the bicycle, is drawn through a housing which is in two parts 1,2 assembled together around the chain. As it is drawn through, it drives a sprocket 25 which in turn drives brushes 20-23 which brush the chain and feed cleaning liquid from a sump 42 on to the chain 3. There may be an upper cleaning liquid reservoir 44, from which liquid can be fed by a valve 48. Wiper brushes 40 may be provided to remove excess liquid.

Description

BICYCLE CHAIN CLEANING APPARATUS This invention relates to bicycle chain cleaning apparatus.

It has long been appreciated that the efficiency of propulsion on the one hand and chain life on the other may be increased if the chain on a bicycle is kept clean and lubricated. In some types of bicycle, the entire assembly of main drive sprocket, chain and rear sprocket is surrounded by a chain case, but although this assists in keeping dust and grit away from the chain, it is not very effective in the long term. Also, since the chain cannot be seen, it is forgotten, and the need for lubrication can be easily overlooked. Even if lubrication is undertaken, it is not easy to do because of the inaccessibility of the chain, and parts of the chain may be underlubricated. Cleaning requires disassembly of the chain case, which is laborious.

In many types of bicycles, especially those with derailleur gear assemblies, the provision of a dustexcluding chain case is impractical.

For really thorough cleaning, the chain should be removed, immersed in cleaning liquid, thoroughly brushed, dried, lubricated and reassembled. This uses a lot of cleaning liquid, which must then be disposed of, and is very messy and laborious. Most bicycle owners will not make the effort, even if they have the necessary mechanical skill. It is accordingly much preferred to clean the chain while it is still on the bicycle.

Simple brushing with cleaning solvent is usually satisfactory to remove dust, caked lubricant and grit, but it is not easy with a brush to access all sides of the chain, while it is still on the bicycle, to effect proper cleaning. The problem has exercised inventors since the last century: U S Patent specifications 574621 and 635778 disclose double brush devices, and U S Specification 648724 a combined brush and solvent tray.

More recently Canadian specification 2110023 and EP-B0217856 have disclosed further brush constructions adapted for chain cleaning.

These disclosures, however, are all of devices which are messy to use, and where dirty solvent tends to be distributed to an undesired extent. Suggestions have been made in the past to enclose the brush(es) while carrying out chain cleaning and a variety of proposals are known from DE-A-921132, US-A-3931991, US-A-4578120, US-A4593923 and NL-A-9000343. These all disclose chain cleaning apparatus where rotatable brushes are located in a housing through which the chain is passed for cleaning and which acts as a reservoir for cleaning fluid.

The effectiveness of cleaning depends strongly on the vigour of the relative movement between brush and chain.

In most of the enclosed systems described in these specifications, the brushing action is not very vigorous, at least not on all sides of the chain. Only NL-A-9000343 discloses a sprocket wheel within the housing and which is arranged to drive a rotatable brush. The arrangement disclosed, however, does not clean adequately between the rollers of the individual links of the chain, i.e. those parts of the chain into which the teeth of the sprocket engage.

According to the present invention there is provided apparatus for cleaning a bicycle chain which comprises a housing, apertures in the housing through which a chain may enter and leave the housing, a rotatable sprocket wheel in the housing positioned to intersect and be driven by a chain extending from one aperture to the other, rotary brushes driven by the sprocket wheel and bearing bristles dimensioned to engage the sides of a chain engaged with the sprocket wheel, and two radial brushes driven in rotation by rotation of the sprocket wheel, located on opposite sides of the path of a chain extending between the apertures, and the bristles of which are dimensioned to engage the top and bottom of such chain.

The sprocket wheel may be fast to the rotary brushes or to one of the radial brushes.

In such apparatus, as the lower run of the chain (which is usually more accessible than the upper run, is drawn through the casing its sides are brushed by the rotary brushes and its top and bottom by the radial brushes, which are preferably driven so that the bristles as they brush the top and bottom of the chain are moving in the direction opposite to the movement of the chain.

Preferably the radial brushes are driven by permanently engaged gearing, most preferably one being engaged with a gear fast to the sprocket wheel and the other by mutually engaged spur gears fast to the two radial brushes.

The housing preferably includes, located below the brushes when the apparatus is in use, a lower sump which may act as a reservoir for cleaning liquid into which at least one, and preferably more than one, of the brushes dips when the sump is filled to a suitable level.

Preferably adjacent the aperture through which the chain leaves the housing are wiping members, for example further bristles or resilient rubbery vanes, adapted to remove liquid from the chain and let it flow under the influence of gravity towards the base of the housing.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, the housing is formed in two parts, an upper portion including one radial brush and a lower portion including the sprocket wheel and the other brushes, and means are provided to separate the two parts so that they may be assembled together round a chain, and to hold them together round the chain while the chain is moved through the housing.

Such holding means may desirably include a hook or like engagement member which can be engaged with part of the bicycle frame to hold the housing against movement as the chain is pulled through it.

The upper portion of the housing may include a chamber which may be filled with cleaning liquid (e.g. via a suitable filler opening), and from which liquid may be released to flow on to the path of the chain through the housing, e.g. by a simple spring-biased shut valve, openable by pressing an actuating button or other member accessible from outside the casing.

The housing is preferably made from appropriately cleaning material resistant plastics, and the brushes from plastics moulded hubs and inset bristle arrays, the brushes being removable from the casing for cleaning. By suitable design, the brushes may be a resilient press fit into appropriate sockets in the housing walls.

The invention is illustrated by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic side view of a chain cleaning apparatus according to the invention; Figure 2 is a top view of the apparatus of Figure 1 Figure 3 is an end view of the apparatus of Figure 1 showing certain internal detail Figure 4 is a diagrammatic central axial section through the apparatus of Figure 1 Figure 5 is a top view of the apparatus of Figure 1 showing certain internal detail, and Figure 6 is a view of an alternative form of apparatus according to the invention, similar to that shown in Figure 4, but with larger diameter radial brushes.

Throughout the Figures, like reference numbers are used for like parts. Referring first specifically to the apparatus shown in Figures 1 to 5, this consists of an outer housing or casing formed of a lower section 1 and an upper section 2. These may be separated as explained below and reassembled round a bicycle chain 3, conveniently around the lower run of the chain. The chain is of conventional construction, each link consisting of a roller, two sideplates and a pin holding the sideplates and the sideplates of the adjacent link together and passing through the roller.

Pivoted on two stub axles 10 moulded on lower section 1 are two extension arms 11,12 each of which has a hollow cap surrounding its end set on stub axle 10. The skirt of the cap has a cutout at one point sufficiently large to allow a stud 14 moulded on each side of section 2 to pass through it. The ends of arms 11 and 12 are joined by a diabolo-shaped member 16, and when this is swung down (from the position shown in Figure 2) to position 19 shown on Figure 1, the cutouts lie vertically above studs 10. One end of section 2 has two apertures through which a pair of slightly arcuate generally upright projections 17 moulded as part of section 1 may be passed. Seen from the viewpoint from which Figure 1 is seen, they curve to the right, though they are not visible in figure 1 as they are rather short.In order to fit section 2 on to section 1, the left hand end of section 2 is raised, the projections allowed to engage in the apertures and the section 2 is then swung down to the position shown in Figure 1, with studs 14 passing through the cutouts in the cap skirts. If the angular position of arms 11 and 12 is now varied, the cap skirts prevent studs 14 rising and section 2 is thus held firmly on to section 1.

Internally of section 2 of the casing are three brushes, two rotary brushes 20,21 and one radial 22. A further radial brush 23 is mounted in section 2. Brushes 20 and 21 are fast with a sprocket 25, and the outer face of brush 21 carries a toothed ring 27. The bristles on brushes 20 and 21 are in the form of two rings of bristle tufts facing towards one another and of such length that they can reach the surface of the sides of the chain 3.

Toothed ring 27 is meshed with a toothed gear 30 fast to brush 22, and brush 22 is fast with a further toothed gear 32 which meshes with a toothed gear 33 fast to brush 23 when sections 1 and 2 are assembled together.

To the right of brush 22 in section 1 is a set of wiper brushes 40 engaging the bottom of chain 3.

The lower portion of section 1 forms a hollow sump 42, while formed in upper section 2 is a reservoir 44 fillable with cleaning liquid via a filling aperture 46 and from which liquid may be allowed to flow by depressing a spring-loaded valve member 48, the lower conical end of which seats in an outflow port 49 in the floor of reservoir 44. Just below port 49 is a spreader plate 50 which spreads cleaning liquid over the width of chain 3 when member 48 is depressed.

In use, if chain 3 is moved from left to right as shown in figure 1, it drives sprocket 25 and in turn all the rotary and radial brushes, and is then wiped by brush assembly 40.

Conveniently, sump 42 is first filled with cleaning liquid to a depth sufficient to be picked up by rotating brushes 20, 21 and 22, and so transported on to the chain 3. After the entire length of chain has been saturated with liquid and brushed, by rotating the pedal of the bicycle backwards for several revolutions, the liquid in the sump is dirty and the apparatus may then be removed from the chain and the dirty liquid disposed of.

Preferably, although the chain is by now cleaner, it is then rinsed by reassembling the apparatus round it, filling reservoir 44 with clean liquid, and then pulling the chain 3 through the apparatus while depressing member 48, so allowing fresh cleaning liquid to rinse the chain and collect in sump 42.

As chain 3 is pulled through the apparatus, the apparatus must be held from movement to the right as seen in Figure 1. This may be achieved in the case of a chain on a bicycle with a derailleur gear by moving member 16 to the position shown in Figure 2 and just above and behind the lower jockey wheel of the derailleur gearing. In the case of a hub-geared bicycle, the apparatus may simply be held by the left hand (while the right hand is turning the pedal crank), with member 16 in the position indicated at 19' on Figure 1.

Figure 6 shows an alternative embodiment which functions in exactly the same way though the detailed design is different from the apparatus shown in Figure 4. The main difference is that brushes 22 and 23, which brush the chain vigorously in the direction opposite to its movement, are larger.

Claims (12)

1. Apparatus for cleaning a bicycle chain which comprises a housing, apertures in the housing through which a chain may enter and leave the housing, a rotatable sprocket wheel in the housing positioned to intersect and be driven by a chain extending from one aperture to the other, rotary brushes driven by the sprocket wheel and bearing bristles dimensioned to engage the sides of a chain engaged with the sprocket wheel, and two radial brushes driven in rotation by rotation of the sprocket wheel, located on opposite sides of the path of a chain extending between the apertures, and the bristles of which are dimensioned to engage the top and bottom of such chain.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the sprocket wheel is fast to the rotary brushes.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 or 2 wherein, as a chain is drawn through the apparatus, the radial brushes are driven so that their bristles as they brush the top and bottom of the chain are moving in the direction opposite to the movement of the chain.

4. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the radial brushes are driven by permanently engaged gearing.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4 wherein one radial brush is engaged with a gear fast to the sprocket wheel and the other driven by mutually engaged spur gears fast to the two radial brushes.

6. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the housing includes, located below the brushes when the apparatus is in use, a lower sump which may act as a reservoir for cleaning liquid and into which at least one of the brushes dips when the sump is filled to a suitable level.

7. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein adjacent the aperture through which the chain leaves the housing are wiping members adapted to remove liquid from the chain and let it flow under the influence of gravity towards the base of the housing.

8. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the housing is formed in two parts, an upper portion including one radial brush and a lower portion including the sprocket wheel and the other brushes, and means are provided to separate the two parts so that they may be assembled together round a chain, and to hold them together round the chain while the chain is moved through the housing.

9. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the upper portion of the housing includes a chamber which may be filled with cleaning liquid and from which liquid may be released to flow on to the path of the chain through the housing.

10. Apparatus according to claim 9 wherein the liquid release is effected by a spring-biased shut valve, openable by pressing an actuating button or other member accessible from outside the housing.

11. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the housing is made from plastics material, and the brushes are removable from the housing for cleaning by flexure of the housing, the brushes being a resilient press fit into appropriate sockets in the housing walls.

12. Apparatus for cleaning a bicycle chain substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.