US3518709A - Floor treating machine head assembly - Google Patents

Description

July 7, 1970 R, o, ZEMKE ETAL 3,518,709

FLOOR TREATING MACHINE HEAD ASSEMBLY Filed March 18, 1968 ILM fl L di 5) @ma ,z 4f da M United States Patent O FLOOR TREATIN G MACHINE HEAD ASSEMBLY Ronald 0. Zemke, St. Paul, and Robert H. Kleemeier,

Arden Hills, Minn., assignors to Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, St. Paul, Minn.

Filed Mar. 18, 1968, Ser. No. 713,639 Int. Cl. A471 11/164 U.S. Cl. --4 5 Claims ABSTRACT 0F THE DISCLOSURE A floor-treating machine head assembly for shampooing carpeting and for treating hard-surfaced floors comprises a drive block and a brush holder subassembly releasably attached thereto. The brush holder subassembly is readily removed to expose a holder which releasably engages fibrous pads for scrubbing or polishing hard-surface floors.

BACKGROUND `OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to floor treating machines and especially to rotary heads therefor. More particularly, it relates to a simple compact head assem'bly which may be used either to shampoo carpeting or to drive fibrous pads to scrub, wax, or polish a hard surface oor.

A typical housewife must maintain a Wide variety of floor surfaces, e.g., linoleum, asphalt tile, wood, and carpeting, each of which requires a specific type of care. The housewifes burden has Ibeen somewhat lessened by the commercial availability of lightweight twin head floor cleaning machines and carpet shampooing machines, the oppositely rotating heads of which allow her to have greater control over the machine for easier handling in small corner areas. Although no one machine employs a single treating head which is adapted for both carpet shampooing and floor cleaning, some machines are provided with interchangeable heads. Such is superficially appealing, but the practical effect of this arrangement is to complicate their use and increase the probability of losing one head or the other.

The typical prior art treating head has consisted of a circular brush block having tufts of long 'bristles extending from one face in an annular array, the bristles for treating hard-surface floors generally being stiffer than those for shampooing carpets. The driving motor of a machine with these treating heads is necessarily positioned well above the floor, limiting the ability of the machine to go readily under low furniture, and sometimes causing it to be unstable and difficult for the housewife to use and control. Further, most of these prior art treating heads are not able to grip steel wool pads or the newly popular low density fibrous abrasive pads for treating hard-surface floors.

SUMMARY Our invention provides a floor-treating machine head assembly which can be used both to shampoo carpeting, and to drive fibrous pads to scrub, wax, or polish hard surface floors, eliminating the need for either separate machines or separate treating heads to perform these diverse tasks. This novel head assembly also gives floortreating machines a low contour and allows them to go readily under furniture. The assembly is also inexpensive and readily attached to presently available floor-treating machines.

In accordance with our invention, we provide a floor treating machine head assembly which may be used in assembled condition for shampooing carpets and, with the carpet cleaning subassembly removed, for driving fibrous floor-treating pads to treat hard-surface floors. Manual re- ICC moval of the carpet cleaning subassembly exposes a holder for gripping fibrous oor treating pads of steel wool, lofty nonwoven abrasives of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. 2,958,593, or the like.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING Understanding of the invention will be facilitated by referring to the accompanying drawing, in which like numbers refer to like parts in the several views, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a Hoor-treating machine head assembly embodying the principles of our invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation view of the device of FIG. l, with parts broken away;

FIG. 3 is an end elevational view of the device of FIG. l, with parts broken away;

FIG. 4 is a view of the lower surface of the upper subassembly of our fioor-treating machine head assembly; and

FIG. 4 is a view of thel ower surface of the upper subassembly of the floor-treating machine head assembly.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The embodiment shown and described is that preferred for use with small lightweight twin-head floor-treating machines, the noncircular conformation permitting the path traversed by the peripheries of the head assemblies to overlap and eliminate any parting lines.

In the drawing, floor-treating machine head assembly 10 comprises drive block 20 and shampoo 'brush holder 40, the units being operatively interconnected by means of snap fastener 5l. The operation of the head assembly in total is described with reference to FIG. 1 with structural details being illustrated primarily in FIGS. 2 and 3. Located on the lower surface of drive block 20, is treating pad holder 21, having two outwardly projecting lobes 23 and circumscribed by downwardly projecting perpendicular peripheral flange 22. `On the upper surface of pad holder 21 is pedestal 24, to the upper surface of which is securely affixed drive shaft attachment 25 by means of screws 26 in threaded screw holes 27. The exact nature of drive shaft attachment 2S, which serves to operably connect head assembly 10 to the rotary drive shaft of a floor-treating machine will, of course, depend upon the specific floor-treating machine to which head assembly 10 is to be attached.

Annular basin 28, located in the center of drive block 20, and on the upper surface of treating pad holder 21, is defined by circular sidewall 29, floor 30, and the exterior periphery of pedestal 24. The exact shape and dimensions of basin 28 are not critical, provided it is capable of holding a small quantity of detergent and shampoo solutions as dispensed from the tank which is commonly mounted on floor-treating machines. Located in the floor 30 of basin 28 and within the perimeter of peripheral flange 22 are holes 31 through which detergent or shampoo solution is gradually dispensed to the surface to be treated. Centrally located in floor 30 of basin 28 and within the confines of peripheral flange 22 is snap fastener receptacle 32 for operatively releasably attaching brush holder `40.

Shampoo brush holder `40 comprises arched frame 41 dened by structural rib 42 and surface 43. Under the weight of a floor-surfacing machine, the center portion of the arch is forced downward, thereby presenting a substantially fiat lower face and insuring more uniform contact with the floor surface. Frame 41 is preferably of the same general dimensions as drive block 20, having two outwardly extending lobes `44.

Frame 41 has tubs 45 attached on each side thereof at joints 46. These tubs 45 are defined by peripheral flange 47 which extends above rib 42 to interlock with peripheral flange 22 and form a cooperative complementary interlocking means which keeps brush holder 40 from rotating with respect to drive block 20 during use. Extending downwardly from frame 41 at the ends thereof is wall 48, which denes an area in which are located an array of perpendicularly disposed vertically oriented fibers 49 adapted to shampoo carpeting. Fibers 49 are perpendicularly anchored in and held in place by resin 33. It has been found that 15 mil X-shaped polyethylene fibers, with about 1/2 inch exposed, are extremely suitable. Located within the confines of structural rib 42 are holes 50 which preferably match and cooperate with holes 31 to deliver shampoo suds from annular basin 28 to the carpet surface. Centrally located at the axis of frame 41 is threaded snap fastener stud 51 which is complementary with snap fastener receptacle 32, providing a convenient means of attaching brush holder 40 to drive block 20 to form treating head assembly 10. For convenience in use, snap fastener 51 should be readily connectable and disconnectable by a housewife while still holding the head assembly securely together during use.

As described, head assembly is readily attachable to a oor-treating machine for efficient carpet shampooing. When one desires to scrub, wax, or polish hard-surface floors, shampoo brush holder 40 is readily snapped loose from drive block 20 to expose treating pad holder 21. Located within the perimeter of peripheral flange 22 is an array of perpendicularly disposed headed fibers 34, anchored and held in place by resin 33, adapted to engage and khold fibrous treating pads of steel wool, lofty nonwoven abrasive products, or the like. The fibers are preferably arranged such that treating pads of relatively small surface area can be used to produce high surface contact pressure for efficient treating.

Surveys have indicated that machine shampooing of carpeting is becoming more prevalent than machine treating of hard surface floors. Ideally then, a floor-treating machine head assembly should be primarily suited for carpet shampooing and readily convertible for cleaning of hard surface floors as we have described. It should be noted that the reverse is entirely satisfactory; i.e., the carpet cleaning fibers 49 can be located on drive block 20 and the fibers 34 for engaging and holding fibrous floortreating pads can be located on holder 40.

What we claim is:

1. A floor treating machine head assembly, having special utility for use in treating both carpeting and hardsurface fioors, said head assembly comprising in combination:

a drive block having on its upper surface a means for attachment to the drive shaft of a tioor treating machine and on its lower surface an array of perpendicularly disposed fibers,

a holder comprising a frame positioned below and operatively releasably attached to said drive block, an array of perpendicularly disposed fibers being fixed on the lower surface of said holder,

cooperative complementary fastener means on said drive block and said holder for connecting and disconnecting said drive block and holder,

cooperative complementary rotation-preventing means on said drive block and holder to prevent relative rotation therebetween when said assembly is in use,

one of said fiber arrays being adapted to shampoo carpeting and the other of said fiber arrays'being adapted to engage and hold fibrous floor treating pads of steel wool, lofty nonwoven abrasive products, or the like, whereby said head assembly may be used in assembled condition for treating one type of floor covering and, with the holder removed, for treating, another type of floor covering.

2. A floor treating machine head assembly, having special utility for use in cleaning both carpeting and hard surface floors, said head assembly comprising in combination:

a drive block having on its upper surface a means for attachment to the drive shaft of a floor-treating machine and on its lower surface an array of perpendicularly disposed fiber means adapted to engage and hold a fibrous oor treating pad of steel wool, lofty nonwoven abrasive products or the like, to facilitate the treatment of hard-surface floors,

a carpet cleaning brush holder positioned below and operatively releasably attached to said drive block, said holder having on the lower surface thereof an array of perpendicularly disposed fibers adapted to carpet shampooing,

cooperative complementary fastener means on said drive block and brush holder for connecting and disconnecting said drive block and brush holder,

cooperative complementary means on said drive block and brush holder to prevent relative rotation therebetween when said assembly is in use,

whereby said head assembly may be used in assembled condition for shampooing carpets and, with the carpet cleaning brush holder removed, for driving fibrous floor treating pads to treat hard-surface floors.

3. The floor-treating head assembly of claim 2, further characterized by having a plurality of horizontally extending lobes, whereby a plurality of treating head assemblies can be rotated in overlapping configuration to eliminate parting lines and consequently eliminate streaks on treated oors.

4. The Hoor-treating head assembly of claim 3 wherein the last named means comprises a downwardly extending peripheral flange on the drive block and an upwardly extending peripheral ange on the brush holder, said flanges being cooperatively complementary and interlocking to prevent relative rotation therebetween when said assembly is in use for cleaning and shampooing carpeting.

5. The floor-treating head assembly of claim 4, further characterized by having an annular basin on the upper surface of said drive block, said basin having at least one hole in the floor thereof and being capable of holding detergent and shampoo solutions and delivering same to the treated surface for effective treating of floor surfaces.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,933,846 11/1933 Finnell 15-49 X 2,672,634 3/1954 Burnham 15-28 FOREIGN PATENTS 237,159 9/ 1945 Switzerland.

EDWARD L. ROBERTS, Primary Examiner UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3.518,709 Dated my 7. 1970 1nvencor(s) Ronagtd O, Zemke and Robert H. Kleemeier It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 2, lines 19-20 reading "FIG. 4 1s a view of thel ower surface of the upper subassembly of the floor-treating machine head assembly" should read FIG. 5 1s a view o1' the upper surface or the lower eubassembly of the floor-treating machine head aseemb1y,'.

BELL) Attest:

ma u nm I: I. me um Ofn oolsissioner of Pawn FORM P04050 "0.69, USCOMM-DC BOS7SPD Il u iv novllllllllr rlanrllla omc: A Il" 0-"5-1

Images