GB992921A - Automatic boot and shoe cleaning machine - Google Patents

Abstract

992,921. Footwear cleaning machines. A. P. PEDRICK, and W. J. MACIUPA. June 29, 1964, No. 25957/62. Heading A4F. In a footwear cleaning machine comprising a base plate on which a boot or shoe on a wearer's foot is placed for cleaning by rotary or other movable brushes, fluid pressure operated means is provided for advancing one or more of the brushes towards the surface of the footwear. When a foot is positioned on a base plate 1, Figs. 1 and 2, a toe cleaning brush 19 may be displaced axially thereby to close a switch 28 thereby energizing a motor 3 to rotate brushes 15 to 19 through belt and pulley and pinion gearing. The motor 3 also drives an air compressor 25 which delivers air under pressure to the space above cleaning fluid in a reservoir 21 and thence through tubing 22 and via headers 30, 32 to conduits 23 each connected to a hollow spindle 24, Fig. 7, keyed to a driving pinion 10, 11, 12 or 13 for a brush, 15, 16, 17 or 18. A further hollow spindle 41, slidable within and keyed to the spindle 24, and carrying the brush, is displaced by the air pressure to apply the brush to the fotwear surface while at the same time a ball valve 46 at the end of the spindle 41 is opened by the engagement of a pad 45 with the footwear surface, so that compresed air and cleaning fluid is delivered to said surfaces. The cleaning fluid is fed into the compressed air stream in the header 32 from the reservoir 21 through a distributer 34. A machine for cleaning two boots or shoes simultaneously is also described, and in another embodiment the brushes are reciprocated and not rotated. Specifications 184,321, 373,807, 393,189, 629,971 and 827,420 are referred to.