Brush for use in steam cleaning devices

Abstract

A floor cleaner brush arrangement includes a housing having mounted thereto a plurality of adjacent rotating brush assemblies. The rotating brush assemblies each include bristles extending there-from downwardly to the floor and outwardly into an overlapping and intermeshing relationship with the bristles of the brush assembly or assemblies adjacent thereto. The bristles of adjacent brush assemblies cooperate when rotating to contact the floor in overlapping fashion to eliminate cleaning blind spots.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims the benefit of Chinese Patent Application No. 201220197451.5, filed May 4, 2010, the entire teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention is related to steam cleaning appliances, and more specifically to an improved brushing arrangement for use in a steam cleaning appliance.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Steam cleaning appliances are widely used for cleaning surfaces such as floors. Steam can effectively dissolve dirt and stains and it eases cleaning when used in cooperation with other cleaning accessories.[0004]Typical steam cleaning appliances for surfaces such as floors most often include either the combination of steam and a mopping cloth or the combination of steam and a bristled brush. However, mopping cloths are inadequate for removing stubborn stains and grime, and brushes require laborious back and forth scrubbing.[0005]In order to solve the above problems, combini...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention is a steam cleaner with a brushing mechanism that can effectively clean surfaces without leaving any blind spots or damaging the surface. The brushing mechanism has the advantage of being economical and convenient to replace only the worn bristles, which is important because the outer and center bristles may wear at different rates during use, and different brush assemblies may wear at different rates during use.

Problems solved by technology

However, mopping cloths are inadequate for removing stubborn stains and grime, and brushes require laborious back and forth scrubbing.

To overcome the above-described blind spot and to satisfy the need to brush in numerous various directions, a laborious and repeated back and forth passing of the entire device over the surface would naturally be required.

Furthermore, because the brushes would naturally need to be rotating at a high speed in usage to scrub effectively, and because such brushing is naturally frictitious and in accumulation would be naturally abusive to the surface being cleaned, and because such a back and forth passing would naturally result in much of the surface being repeatedly and unnecessarily scrubbed in the same direction, the surface to be cleaned would naturally be subjected to an excessive amount of abuse.

Thus, such a device would be naturally inclined to cause excessive damage to the surface.

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