GB2428371A - A paint brush cleaning and storage device - Google Patents

Abstract

A container for cleaning and storing used paint brushes comprises first 5 and second chambers 6, the first chamber 5 being above the second chamber 6. Between the first 5 and second 6 chambers is a narrowed passageway and the first chamber 5 includes a sealable opening 7. In use a brush 2 is placed into the container through the sealable opening 7 and a suitable solvent is then poured into the container also through the sealable opening 7. The second chamber 6 acts as a reservoir for the solvent and the brush 2 is held so that the bristles are covered with the solvent. The second chamber 6 is preferably made from a flexible material so that it can be manually manipulated to agitate the solvent around the bristles of the brush 2. The second chamber 6 may also include a plurality of openings 4 so that when it is manipulated jets of solvent impinge on the bristles of the brush 2. The container is preferably formed from a laminate material that is impermeable to the components of the solvent and it may be formed by heat welding togther two sheets of material.

Description

The present relates to containers for holding used paint brushes. Ti a

paint brush is not cleaned immediately after use the residual paint on it dries and it is thereafter very difficult to clean the brush As a result people often throw used brushes away and buy new ones.

It is known to put used paint brushes in a container holding a suitable solvent. However most solvents evapourate quickly so unless the solvent is replenished at intervals there is a return to the original problem.

The present invention is concerned with solving this problem.

Accordingly the present invention provides a container for storing used paint brushes, the container being divided into first and second chambers, the upper chamber in use being mounted by suitable means so that it is above the second chamber and having a sealable opening through which a suitable solvent and at least one brush can be introduced into the upper chamber, the container being provided with a narrowed passageway between the two chambers through which a solvent can pass into the lower chamber so that in use a brush can be held in the upper chamber with at least its bristles covered with the solvent.

Preferably at least the lower chamber is made from a flexible material so that the lower chamber can be manipulated so as to agitate the solvent around its bristles so as to enhance the cleaning action of the solvent, though in a preferred embodiment the entire container is manufactured from sheets of flexible plastics material welded together.

In order that the present invention may be more readily understood an embodiment thereof will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a plan view of an embodiment of a paint brush container in accordance with the invention; Figure 2 is a similar view of a welding tool for use in spot welding sheets of plastics material together to manufacture the container of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a side view of the mould of Figure 2; Figure 4 is a diagrammatic cross section through sheet material used in the manufacture of the container of Figure 1, and Figure 5 is a diagram illustrating a welding process utilising the welding tool of Figure 2.

Referring now to Figure 1 this shows container 1 holding a paint brush 2. In the present embodiment the container has been manufactured from a folded sheet of flexible laminated thermoplastics material by welding the overlapping parts of the sheet together along the areas marked 3 and 4. As can be seen the welds 4 effectively divide the container into upper and lower chambers 5 and 6 but also define a passage through which a solvent can pass into lower chamber 6. The areas indicated at 4 are spot welds which narrow the passage still further so as to prevent a brush from falling into the lower chamber 6.

Chamber 5 is provided with a press seal 7 which when engaged holds the contents of the two chambers in an air tight environment. The uppermost end of chamber 5 is also provided with a hole 8 by means of which the container and its contents can be hung from a suitable projection.

In use the press seal in initially open and one or more used brushes placed in the container so that they are held substantially upright by the spot welds 4. The container is then filled with a suitable solvent so that at least the bristles of the or each brush is covered with the solvent. Finally the container is sealed and hung up using the hole 8, for example on a nail.

In order to accelerate the cleansing action of the solvent in the sealed container the walls of lower chamber 6 can be manipulated manually so that jets of solvent can be forced pasts the spot welds 4 to impinge on the already solvent-soaked brush hairs as showTl by the arrows in Figure 1.

The present invention is particularly suitable for use with paint brushes covered in oil paint as oil paint once dried is extremely difficult to remove.

Even if a brush used for oil painting and stored in the above manner is left for a long time it has been found that it is virtually immediately ready for use after removal from the container. Another advantage of the present invention is that particle of paint detached from the brush bristles will after a period of time gather in the bottom of the lower chamber so as to form a sedimentary deposit. Accordingly after the brush has been removed it is possible to decant the solvent for future use. Additionally removing the sedimentary deposit means that the container itself can be re-used.

Turning now to Figure 2 of the drawings this shows a welding tool 10 having a flat base 11 (Figure 3) from which projects a raised pattern shown at 12. As can be seen from Figure 2 the pattern is symmetrical. Each half of the mould along its line of symmetry corresponds to the welds on one side of the container shown in Figure 1.

The purpose of this arrangement of the mould is to enable the same mould to be used in the manufacture of containers such as the one shown in Figure 1 with different widths and depths as will now be described along with details of the preferred materials and method used in the manufacture containers according to the present embodiment of the invention.

It will be appreciated that when in use containers according to the present invention may be required to hold highly volatile substances such as paint strippers for periods which may be as long as several months at a time. Thus a material such as polythene which readily lends itself to welding into bags by heat sealing is unsuitable as in practice it is by no means impermeable to the volatile components of commercial paint strippers and white spirit. Accordingly the present embodiment uses special laminated sheets in the manufacture of the containers.

Referring now to Figure 4 this shows a cross section through two walls of the container of Figure 1. The laminated material shown in this cross section comprises a layer 20 of polyester, a layer 21 of PVDC or acrylic, a layer 22 of epoxy resin which acts as a gas barrier for the volatiles found in paint strippers and a layer 23 of polythene. The layers are not shown to scale. In a preferred embodiment of the invention a single sheet made up of the four layers layers 20 to 23 is folded to provide the cross section shown in Figure 4 with the polythene layer 23 providing the inner walls of a container and layer its outer walls. A weld caused by heat welding is shown at 24. Thus when the container is holding a solvent any gaseous volatiles released from the solvent are stopped by the epoxy resin layer 22 Referring now to Figure 5 of the accompanying drawings this shows diagrammatically the basic principles which lie behind a preferred method of manufacturing containers in accordance with the present invention. In this Figure 30 indicates a roll carrying a sheet 31 which is drawn from the roll during the manufacture of the containers.

As the flat laminated sheet is drawn from the reel its left hand side as shown in Figure 4 is folded over so that prior to welding the containers using the weld tool described with reference to Figures 2 and 3 the outer edges of the sheet are each provided with one half of a continuous strip seal 32 which when individual welded containers are cut from the folded sheet will provide the seal 7 shown in Figure 1, This provision of the strip seal is carried out by a known sealing form attachment shown at 33. Once past the sealing form attachment the edges of sheet 31 are positioned one above the other so that the two halves of the strip seal are in direct alignment. The next step is that in which the welding tool, suitably heated, is pressed downwardly onto a platten at a welding station 34 so that the effect of the combined pressure and heat causes the welding tool to heat-weld the layers of polythene immediately below the welding tool to generate the welded areas 3 and 4.

It can now be appreciated how the symmetrical pattern of the welding tool enables containers of different widths to be manufactured. Each time the welding tool carnes out a single welding operation it will generate the welds 3 and 4 for one side only of two adjacent containers.

Thus during a manufacturing run the sheet 31 is advanced by the desired container width after each welding step and that at each welding step during a run one container will be completed and the next container half welded. Thus by altering the pitch with which the sheet 31 is advanced containers of different widths can be manufactured using the same welding tool. Additionally by using sheets of different widths it is also possible using the same welding tool to manufacture containers of varying lengths.

Once the containers have been welded they pass to a hole punching station shown at 35 where the holes 8 (Figure 1) are produced by a suitable punch. The last step of the manufacturing process is that of cutting completed containers at a cutting station indicated at 36.

Claims (1)

1. \Vhat I claim is: 1) A container for storing used paint brushes, the

   container being divided into first and second chambers, the upper chamber in use being mounted by suitable means so that it is above the second chamber and having a sealable opening through which a a suitable solvent and at least one brush can be introduced into the chamber, the container also being provided with a narrowed passageway between the two chambers through which a solvent can pass into the lower chamber so that in use a brush can be held in the upper chamber with at least its bristles covered with the solvent 2) A container according to claim 1 wherein at least the lower chamber is made from a flexible material so that the lower chamber can be manually manipulated so as to agitate the solvent around its bristles so as to enhance the cleaning action of the solvent 3) A container according to claim 2 wherein the division between the two chambers is provided with a plurality of openings, so that when the lower chamber is compressed jets of solvents impinging on the bristles of a brush mounted in the container as a series ofjets.

   4)A container according to claim 3, wherein the entire container is manufactured from sheets of flexible plastics material heat welded together.

   5)A container according to claim 4 wherein the sheet material is laminated in at least three layers with an inner layer which is substantially impermeable to volatile components of substances which can be used as paint strippers.

   6)A container according to claim 5 wherein said inner layer is either PVDC or acrylic.

   7)A container according to either claim 4 or claim 5 wherein the outer layer of each of the two walls of the container is a polyester, and the inner layer is polythene.

   8)A container according to claim 6 wherein there is a layer of epoxy resin between the inner polythene layer and the substantially impermeable layer.

   9) A method of manufacturing a container according to any one of the preceding claims comprising heat welding together two superposed sheets of flexible material using a welding tool symmetrical about its longitudinal axis, the welding tool having on either side of the longitudinal axis a welding pattern which is capable of molding one side of the container, advancing the superposed sheets a container width over a platten to a molding stage for each molding step, bringing the mold into contact with the superposed sheets so as to form two halves of two separate containers, and cutting at a cutting stage completed containers from the sheets.

   9) A method according to claim 8 wherein the superposed sheets of laminated material are folded halves of a single sheet.