US3111700A

US3111700A - Yarn mop

Info

Publication number: US3111700A
Application number: US41299A
Authority: US
Inventors: James F O'brien; Philip K O'connor
Original assignee: Drackett Co
Current assignee: Drackett Co
Priority date: 1960-07-07
Filing date: 1960-07-07
Publication date: 1963-11-26
Anticipated expiration: 1980-11-26

Description

Nov. 26, 1963 J. F. oBRlEN ETAI.

YARN MOP Filed July 7, 1960 United States Patent O 3,111,700 YARN M? `Fames F. GBrien and Philip K. Connor, Riverside, li.,

assignors, by niesne assignments, to The Dracliett Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Unio Filed July 7, 196i), Ser. No. 41,299 2 Claims. (Ci. 15-229) This invention relates to a yarn mop and is particularly concerned with improved means for detachably securing a mop body to a mop head.

Heretofore, it has been customary to detachably secure a yarn mop body to the mop head so that when the mop body becomes dirty, it may be removed, washed, dried and reattached to the mop head. Acceptance by the consumer ultimately depends, to a large extent, upon the ease of detachment and reattachment of the mop body and the mop head.

ln accordance with the present invention, the mop body comprises an array of parallel yarn strands to which one edge portion of a welting has been transversely secured at a point intermediate the ends of the strands. The free edge portion of the secured welting contains a bead adapted to slide into an inwardly flared groove on the mop head. The groove and the welting may have corresponding shapes so that a secure gripping action of the mop body occurs. Preferably, as in the embodiment shown, the groove has a longitudinally slotted tubular configuration while the welting has a cylindrical shape with a radial tongue extending therefrom. The crosssectional dimension of the slotted tube substantially corresponds to or is only slightly larger than the cross-sectional dimension of the cylindrical shape of the welting. Thus the cylindrical shaped bead is rmly grasped by the tubular groove, especially if the lips of the slotted tubular groove converge to enclose the tongue portion of the welting.

The material used for the welting and for the mop head permits relatively simple insertion of the welting into or out of the groove through a small slot in the side or bottom wall of the groove. With such a detachable arrangement, only the mop body need to placed through a washing operation of cleaning. Obviously, this results in less wear and tear on the mop head and in longer life for the entire mop. When replacement is necessary, only the mop head need be discarded, thereby effecting a substantial saving.

In addition to all the above advantages, the mop of this invention retains many of the desirable features embodied in mops of the prior art. A swivel connection between the head and the handle is retained which permits rotation through 360 around a vertical axis and 180 around a horizontal axis. This facilitates moving the mop body into hard-to-reach places. The dense yarn structure of the mop head provides a sufficient quantity of dust adhering members to perform efficient dusting. And the entire mop, by reason of its simplified construction utilizing light weight materials, is easy to handle.

The structure by means of which the above mentioned and other advantages of the invention are attained will be described in the following specification, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, showing a preferred illustrative embodiment of the invention in which:

FGURE l is a perspective View of the mop body, mop head and attached handle;

FIG. 2 is a broken perspective view of the mop body, showing the strands in parallel arrangement with the welting aiiixed transversely across the array;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the mop head and body shown in FIGURE l, taken along line 3-3;

FIG. 4 is a bottom View of the mop head, showing the 3,lil,7b Patented Nov. 26, 1963 ICC downwardly faced slotted groove into which the welting of the mop body is inserted; and

FlG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the downwardly faced groove showing the welting in place as it appears during use of the mop.

Referring to the drawing, the mop comprises a mop body 2 flaring out from a mop head 3 which contains a swivel 4 for attachment to a handle 5 by a handle connecting means 6. It should be noted that the swivel 4 and the handle connecting means 6 may utilize structure other than the one shown.

The mop body 2 consists of a plurality of uniform and parallel arranged strands of yarn 9. The yarn is preferably made .of nylon or of a nylon blend so that the body may be washed in a conventional washing machine with a hot water solution of soap or detergent without damage to the strands of yarn.

Transversely affixed to the array of the parallel disposed yarns, as best seen in FG. 2, is a welting 10 which has an enlarged bead portion 13 and a longitudinal tongue portion il extending radially therefrom. It is preferred that the bead of the welting correspond to the shape of the groove 15 in the mop bead as more thoroughly described below. Also the tongue should have a thickness which corresponds to the width of the slot of said groove. A round solid bead for the welting as shown is preferred; however, any enlarged polygonal shape would be useful.

This welting is preferably made of a resilient plastic composition such as polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, polyamide, or similar resilient plastic substance. The tongue li extending from bead 13 is preferably sewn to the strands of yarn using nylon, cotton, rayon or other thread l2. The welting is sewn to the strands at a point intermediate the ends of the strands but nearer one edge thereof than the other, such as shown in FIG. 2. Such off-center afxation provides a proper uf body to the mop when it is assembled. The longer strands, on one side of the welting, comprise the exposed portion of the mop head where a greater length is required, and the shorter strands comprise the inner or center portion of the mop body located under the mop head. This arrangement provides a maximum amount of coverage of the mop body for the size of mop head used.

The mop head contains a longitudinally slotted downwardly faced groove 1S defined by relatively spaced inner and outer concentric Walls or iianges 15A and iSB depending from its lower face 3A. The maximum crosssectional dimension of which is substantially equal to or slightly larger than the cross-sectional dimension of the bead 113. The lips of the groove are spaced from each other by a distance only slightly greater than the thickness of the tongue 1i of the welting. An entry slot 16, formed in one wall or in the bottom of groove 15, permits insertion of the bead. Such insertion is accomplished by first grasping the mop body so that the strands are doubled back at the point where the welting is ailixed to the strands. One end of the bead is then threaded into the groove through entry slot 16, and the entire welting pulled into and around groove 15. Since the length of the welting and the Width of the array of strands affixed thereto corresponds to the circumference of the mop head, one complete revolution back to slot 16 will be made as the welting is pulled into the groove. At this point, the mop body is assembled with the mop head and the mop is ready for use.

Although the mop head is shown as being circular in horizontal cross-section, it obviously could be of other shape. The circular shape is preferred because such configuration requires the least force to pull the welting through the groove. Furthermore, this configuration facilitates dusting hard-to-reach areas because it permits the yarn of the mop body to swivel under and around furniture, including furniture having short legs.

It is preferred that the mop head be made of plastic, preferably polyethylene, polypropylene, or similar resilient plastic which is deformable immediately after being formed but which has a tendency or memory to return to its original shape, hereinafter for convenience termed shape return memory. Of course, other material may be used, such as rubber, metal, wood and the like. Plastic is preferred because it lends itself to an economical molding operation to manufacture the part. And, in use, there is less tendency to mar furniture if the mop head should be accidentally bumped against the furniture.

In the manufacture of the mop head, an injection or extrusion technique is preferably employed. With such a technique, the head with the grooves therein can be molded in one piece. This is accomplished by using a simple 2-piece mold with the parting line of the mold at the circular edge or just beneath the rim portion of the mop head. A male projection on the lower half of the 2-piece mold forms the downwardly faced grooved in the mop head. With removal of the work piece from the mold while both are still hot and the work piece is still deformable, no splitting of the outside or inside rim of the groove will occur even though the groove has a narrow opening at the lips. And the shape return memory of the plastic material employed reforms the groove to substantially the same shape after the mold has been removed.

As indicated, a swivel member 4 is provided in a centrally disposed portion of the mop head. This swivel permits a wide angle of travel of the mop handle in multi-directional paths.

Swivel 4 is preferably made of a high impact, tough rigid, styrene-type thermoplastic resin to provide the necessary strength to the connection between the handle and the mop head. Suflcient clearance is provided between swivel 4 and mop body 3 to permit easy rotation.

Obviously, other modications not enumerated may 4. be incorporated without departing from the true scope and spirit of the novel concepts of this invention.

We claim:

1. A mop comprising a mopl head having a pair of relatively concentric annular iianges projecting down- Wardly therefrom, said flanges being radially spaced and defining between them a continuous annular groove presenting a downwardly opening mouth, one of said anges having a lip portion projecting partially across said mouth of the groove, a mop body comprising a resilient flexible .Welting having an enlarged beading along one edge of greater width than said mouth circumferentially slidably disposed in said groove inwardly of said lip, and a relatively narrower tongue portion projecting outwardly through the mouth of said groove, a plurality of mop strands being secured to said tongue portion, the radiali?, inner said ange being formed with an entry slot extending upwardly therein from its lower edge and of sucient width for insertion therethrough of said enlarged beading portion circumferentially into and along the groove, said beading being wholly disposed within said groove with its ends urged outwardly away from said slot by the resiliency of the flexed beading.

2. A mop as defined in claim 1 in which said beading and said tongue portion are unitarily formed of a resilient plastic material.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,713,374 Burlat May 14, 1929 2,542,263 Schultz Feb. 20, 1951 2,673,124 Mellor Mar. 23, 1954 2,686,328 Kirby Aug. 17, 1954 3,006,011 Littleton Oct. 31, 1961 3,027,584 Bean Apr. 3, 1962 FOREIGN PATENTS 459,954 Great Britain Jan. 19, 1937 802,418 Great Britain Oct. 1, 1958

Claims

1. A MOP COMPRISING A MOP HEAD HAVING A PAIR OF RELATIVELY CONCENTRIC ANNULAR FLANGES PROJECTING DOWNWARDLY THEREFROM, SAID FLANGES BEING RADIALLY SPACED AND DEFINING BETWEEN THEM A CONTINUOUS ANNULAR GROOVE PRESENTING A DOWNWARDLY OPENING MOUTH, ONE OF SAID FLANGES HAVING A LIP PORTION PROJECTING PARTIALLY ACROSS SAID MOUTH OF THE GROOVE, A MOP BODY COMPRISING A RESILIENT FLEXIBLE WELTING HAVING AN ENLARGED BEADING ALONG ONE EDGE OF GREATER WIDTH THAN SAID MOUTH CIRCUMFERENTIALLY SLIDABLY DISPOSED IN SAID GROOVE INWARDLY OF SAID LIP, AND A RELATIVELY NARROWER TONGUE PORTION PROJECTING OUTWARDLY THROUGH THE MOUTH OF SAID GROOVE, A PLURALITY OF MOP STRANDS BEING SECURED TO SAID TONGUE PORTION, THE RADIALLY INNER SAID FLANGE BEING FORMED WITH AN ENTRY SLOT EXTENDING UPWARDLY THEREIN FROM ITS LOWER EDGE AND OF SUFFICIENT WIDTH FOR INSERTION THERETHROUGH OF SAID ENLARGED BEADING PORTION CIRCUMFERENTIALLY INTO AND ALONG THE GROOVE, SAID BEADING BEING WHOLLY DISPOSED WITHIN SAID GROOVE WITH ITS ENDS URGED OUTWARDLY AWAY FROM SAID SLOT BY THE RESILIENCY OF THE FLEXED BEADING.