GB2554441A

GB2554441A - Protect a brush from premature failure

Info

Publication number: GB2554441A
Application number: GB1616448.5A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Renwick Richard
Original assignee: Brush Tech Ltd
Current assignee: Brush Tech Ltd
Priority date: 2016-09-28
Filing date: 2016-09-28
Publication date: 2018-04-04
Also published as: GB201616448D0

Abstract

A brush having at least one semi-rigid member 1 protruding from the brush back 3, where the protruding member or members are shorter than the brush bristles 2. The brush is intended for cleaning, particularly for window cleaning, and for use with a water fed pole (WFP). The short upstand members act to support the weight of the brush bristles when the bristles get bent during use. This protects the root 4 of the bristles from being distorted or damaged.

Description

(54) Title of the Invention: Protect a brush from premature failure Abstract Title: Brush with semi-rigid protrusions (57) A brush having at least one semi-rigid member 1 protruding from the brush back 3, where the protruding member or members are shorter than the brush bristles 2. The brush is intended for cleaning, particularly for window cleaning, and for use with a water fed pole (WFP). The short upstand members act to support the weight of the brush bristles when the bristles get bent during use. This protects the root 4 of the bristles from being distorted or damaged.

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Title

Protect a brush from premature failure.

Background

The cleaning of outside windows on residential streets has traditionally been done manually, utilising a ladder, a bucket of soapy water, a chamois or cloth and a window squeegee. The window cleaner climbed the ladder with the bucket of water to reach the top of the glass or indeed the windows at the upper stories of the building. The window cleaner then used the chamois cloth with the water and wiped the glass clean, and then using the squeegee dried the water from the glass. This traditional method of constantly climbing ladders and moving the equipment from window to window is fraught with dangers such as the possibility of falling from the ladder as well as manual handling of the ladder from window to window.

Over the last 10 years or so, window cleaning techniques on domestic and office buildings has changed from the traditional window cleaners using a ladder with a bucket and cleaning cloth to the safer method of using lightweight water fed poles which are commonly abbreviated to WFP. These telescopic poles are speciality designed for window cleaning and are produced using strong lightweight materials such as aluminium, glass fibre or carbon fibres. The upright working end of the pole has a soft brush at the end. The window cleaner stands on the ground a few meters away from the window, and then extends the brush end of pole to the window glass. Pure water is pumped up the pole to soak both the brush and the glass. Then by moving the pole, the brush is moved from side to side, or up and down, across the glass surface to clean it. Finally the brush is lifted away from the glass surface and the window is rinsed using the pure water. This WFP technique results in washing away the dirt from the glass. The WFP cleaning is vastly safer for the window cleaner than the traditional method and when the correct brush is used with the pure water, the WFP method has the added benefit of producing cleaner windows than the tradition method.

The lightweight WFP brushes are generally flat, around 200mm to 300mm long and 40mm to 70mm wide and are constructed with a lightweight none marking plastic brush back, from which extends 35mm to 80mm long, flexible, soft microfiber filament bristles. The bristles may be natural or synthetic or a mixture of both. For the purpose of this document whether the brush bristles are synthetic or natural we will call them bristles. Where the bristles protrude from the brush base, this area is called the root area. Many of the WFP brushes have bristles flaring out from the root base at say 45 degrees to help the tips of the bristles reach out to clean into the corners of the window frame and to make the bristle end of the brush a larger area than the base of the brush. These bristles are selected so that they do not damage the glass, or damage any coating on the glass or damage the window frame. The finer and softer the bristles the better the brush is at cleaning the glass. However, the disadvantage with such a soft brush is that with the weight of the pole, the leverage of the pole onto the brush head and the momentum of the pole movement in the cleaning action, the brush bristles eventually collapses in use, particularly when the brush is worked into the edge of the glass. At the edge of the glass, the bristles and the brush back hits the window frame or sill, so causing the bristles to deform and distort. Over time this brush distortion causes premature wear leading to fatigue on the bristle. The bulk of this bristle distortion occurs where the filament is joined to the brush back at the root area. This results in the brush bristles going out of shape, losing bristles through the fatigue and so reducing the cleaning performance. Generally, the larger the bristle flair in the brush, the greater the bristles get crushed and the faster the premature wear on the bristles occur.

Statement of invention

Our invention is an improved brush that is particular suitable for window cleaning, though this invention could be used with good effect in other brushing applications, in that any excess pressure on the bristle is transmitted to our invention and so the root of the bristle is protected, therefore any premature bristle distortion caused by the collapsing bristle at the root is eliminated.

Detailed description

Our invention is that we insert onto the brush back (3), throughout the brush, short semi rigid none marking upstands (1) to help protect the bristle (2) from distorting. For the purpose of this document we will call these ‘upstand elements’ (1). These upstand elements (1) radiate out from the brush back generally in the direction of the bristle or where the bristle may get bent to in use. As these upstand elements are more ridged than the soft bristle, they do not deform in use as easy as the soft bristle. These short bristle protection upstands elements (1) can be rubber like cylinders or indeed in the simplest form can be a short length of thermoplastic elastomer monofilament bundled into a cylinder shape. Other shapes of upstanding elements would also work equally as well. These short upstands (1) are approximately half the length of the brush bristle and act to help support the weight of the brush against the glass or window frame, therefore not allowing the soft bristle (2) collapsing near the root (4) area and also helping the brush from not to damage the window frame. Further upstand elements can be mounted all around the brush back (3) in different plains so to help protect any bristle flair (5) or special bristle configuration on the brush.

Claims

1. A brush, with a brush back, that has at least one short semi rigid upstand element protruding from the brush back.

2. A brush, with a brush back, that has at least one short semi rigid none marking upstand element protruding from the brush back and so when pressure is applied to the brush and the bristle distorts, the upstand element restricts the bristle distortion.

3. A soft brush suitable for cleaning, containing at least one semi rigid none marking upstand element that is shorter than the bristle monofilament.

4. A brush suitable for cleaning, containing at least one semi rigid none marking upstand element that is shorter than the bristle monofilament and so when pressure is applied to the brush and the bristle distorts, the upstand element restricts the bristle distortion.

5. A soft brush suitable for window cleaning, containing at least one semi rigid none marking upstand element that is shorter than the soft bristle monofilament

6. A soft brush suitable for window cleaning, containing at least one semi rigid none marking upstand that is shorter by 50% or less, than the longer bristle and the upstand element is fixed in such a manner as to protect the soft bristle from crushing and deforming the bristle at the root.

7. In brushing applications, any excess pressure on the brush bristle is transmitted to our upstand element and so the root of the bristle is protected, therefore any premature bristle distortion caused by the collapsing bristle at the root is eliminated.

Intellectual

Property

Office

Application No: Claims searched:

GB1616448.5

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