Abrasive Hand Apparel

Abstract

Hand apparels, gloves and mittens, having abrasive material secured to the hand apparel at effective working areas such as extending beyond and partially around an extending member, finger or thumb, to afford cleaning and abrading contact with an object while providing various advantages and protections to the user.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Hand apparels providing liquid, bacterial, and temperature protection of the user's hands, while engaged in various household and industrial cleaning tasks, have gained great popularity in this and other countries. Such hand apparels, which include mittens and gloves, are commonly used in cleaning tasks which require the removal of residue encrusted on the walls of a container, as in an industrial application, to the removal of egg yolk dried on a fork in a household application. To remove such encrusted foreign bodies, steel wool or some other scouring agent may be used to abrade the foreign particles from the object. In addition, a cleaning cloth is often used in the cleaning operation to remove foreign bodies clinging but not bonded to the object. If the scouring agent could be secured to the mittens or gloves, then the agent would be conveniently maintained at a location to permit continued application and utilization while minimizing time wasted in locating such an agent. Also, such a scouring agent secured to the mittens or gloves could be conveniently substituted for the cleaning cloth whereby with light pressure the scouring agent would not abrade the object and yet effectively remove foreign bodies clinging to the object and with heavier pressure the same agent could effectively scour an area to remove the foreign bodies encrusted on the object.

One type of hand apparel, as previously discussed, is commonly known as a household glove because it is commonly used by a housewife in household applications and includes embossing of the glove to increase the gripping ability of the glove to prevent accidental slippage and subsequent damage or breakage of objects being handled. This embossing has provided some assistance in solving the slippage problem but the problem still remains. If the gripping power or gripping ability of the household glove, or other hand apparel, could be substantially increased, then, damage, economical loss and personal injury could be reduced.

Hand apparels, as above discussed, are commonly damaged by sharp objects, such as forks and knives penetrating the fingers of a household glove, and are thereby destroyed because they then no longer provide liquid protection to the user. Also, such penetration can cause personal lacerating injuries including bacterial infections of the user. Another problem common with female users is for a fingernail or thumbnail of the user to puncture the glove during normal use, which penetration essentially destroys the glove. If such a household glove could be structurally strengthened to prevent or inhibit such puncturing of the glove, then the length of use of such a glove could be substantially increased.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an apparatus providing an abrasive material on a hand apparel having particular utility for cleaning and abrading an object, and more particularly, to an abrasive material secured to at least one effective working area of a hand apparel being utilized by a user to afford abrading contact of the object, wherein the abrasive material is positioned to extend beyond and partially around the extreme end of one of the user's extending members, finger or thumb, to structurally strengthen the hand apparel and inhibit puncturing of the apparel and to afford convenient abrading of the object by the abrasive material being positioned adjacent to first and second surface areas of the extending member.

The apparatus of the present invention conveniently provides a scouring agent at the extreme end of one of the user's extending members, finger or thumb, to function as a cleaning cloth when light pressure is applied and to function as an abrading material when heavier pressure is used to force the material against the object as either is moved relative to the other. The abrasive material also increases the gripping power or gripping ability of the hand apparel to prevent accidental slippage and subsequent damage or breakage of the object being handled. Additionally, the abrasive material structurally strengthens the hand apparel to prevent puncturing of the hand apparel by relatively sharp objects being handled by the user and to prevent puncturing of the hand apparel by a fingernail or thumbnail of the user. Such sharp objects are commonly encountered when a user is groping in dishwater and a fork or knife is accidentally struck and caused to puncture the waterproof hand apparel. Of course, such penetration by a knife could additionally puncture the skin of the user and cause personal injury thereto.

These and other advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent from consideration of the following specification relating to the annexed drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a glove apparel of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a mitten apparel of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 illustrates a side-elevational view, partly in section, taken along lines 3--3 of the index finger of the glove apparel illustrated in FIG. 1.

Referring now to the embodiments illustrated in the drawings, wherein like reference characters designate like or corresponding parts throughout the several views, there is shown in FIG. 1 a combined glove apparel 10 having particular utility for cleaning and abrading an object. The glove apparel 10 includes a hand apparel or glove 12, an abrasive material 14, and securing means 20 for securing the abrasive material 14 to the glove 12. The glove 12, which is constructed of a flexible rubberylike material to provide liquid protection in the present embodiment but could be constructed of a relatively porous material when such liquid protection is unnecessary, substantially covers effective working areas of a hand of a user (areas that the user would utilize to force an abrasive against an object) such as the palm face area 24, thumb area 26, finger tips including a first area 28 of the finger tip substantially covering the finger print area of the finger 29 (as illustrated in FIG. 3) and a second area 31 of the finger tip including the area extending around the finger and terminating adjacent to the fingernail 30, the hand area 33 opposite to the palm face area 24 and the palm area 35 between the thumb and index finger to provide encircling of an object positioned therebetween by the abrasive material 14. The fingers other than the index finger 29 mentioned above and the thumb also include first and second areas, to receive abrasive material 14, similarly located as the first and second areas 28, 31 of the index finger 29. In addition to the above-listed effective working areas, other areas of the hand are also effective depending on the particular need and use by the user. The abrasive material 14 of the present invention, which need not contain a mineral when the material itself is sufficiently abrasive, is relatively flexible to provide greater conformity of the abrasive material to the object and is illustrated in the present embodiment as including a relatively flexible porous material 15, such as loosely and randomly woven nylon which of itself is effective for cleaning and abrading in light duty applications, and an abrasive mineral 16 to provide greater abrasion of the object. One such abrasive material is manufactured by the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company under the trademark of "Scotch Brite." Another such abrasive material could include a relatively flexible backing material, such as cloth, and a mineral secured thereto. The extension of the abrasive material 14 beyond and partially around the extreme end of the extending member, such as the index finger 29 as shown in FIG. 3, structurally strengthens the glove 12 in the area adjacent to the extreme end of the extending member to inhibit the horny scale of the upper surface of the extending member, fingernail 30 or thumbnail (not shown), from penetrating the glove 12. The extension of the abrasive material 14 beyond and partially around the extreme end of the fingertip or thumbtip, provides the user of the glove apparel with an abrasive material positioned at a very effective working area of the hand of the user. Such positioning of the material 14, allows the user to scour in inside corners and crevices and also allows the user to conveniently apply a greater amount of abrading pressure to an object, because the material 14 extends around the fingertip or thumbtip, then could be readily applied from another working area of the hand. The user may, by applying a light amount of pressure to the material 14 against an object, utilize the abrasive material 14 as a cleaning cloth or alternatively apply a heavier amount of pressure and utilize the material 14 for scouring or abrading an object. To further clean and abrade an object, a soap or scouring powder could be added to the material 14. The securing means 20 includes a relatively flexible rubberylike (when dry) adhesive 21 to eliminate the necessity of making holes in the glove 12, which is to provide liquid protection in the present embodiment, to secure the material 14 to the glove 12.

In referring now to the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, the combined hand apparel includes a mitten apparel 39 comprising a rubberylike mitten 40, which is constructed similarly to the glove 12 to provide liquid protection when such protection is necessary, an abrasive material 14, and securing means 20 for securing the material 14 to the mitten 40. The mitten 40 substantially covers similar effective working areas of the hand as described above in reference to the glove apparel 10. The abrasive material 14 extends from beyond and around the fingertips of the user to beyond and around the thumbtip of the user, to allow effective and efficient fingertip and thumbtip cleaning and scouring by the user and to provide additional encircling and gripping of an object to be abraded.

The glove 12 and the mitten 40 have their cuffs turned back upon themselves, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, to act as liquid traps to prevent liquid from running down the arm of the user. As the size of the gloves and mittens are varied to correspond to varying hand sizes, the material 14 will be maintained in relatively similar positions on each glove or mitten and in relatively similar positions in relationship to fingertips and thumbtips (and other effective working areas) of the varying sized hands.

It is apparent that a person skilled in the art could make modifications, improvements and the like to the present invention and all such modifications, improvements and the like are deemed to be within the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Claims

What is claimed as the invention is:

1. An apparatus providing an abrasive material on a hand apparel having particular utility for cleaning and abrading an object, said apparatus comprising in combination:

a hand apparel made of waterproof rubberylike material substantially covering effective working areas of a hand of a user;

an abrasive material capable of abrading an object, the abrasive material including a cushion of relatively flexible porous material to provide greater conformity of said abrasive material to the object and for strengthening the hand apparel, said material positioned on at least one effective working area of the apparel and on the exterior of the apparel opposite where a fingernail of a user's member would ordinarily contact the interior surface of the apparel, the said cushion lying between object and fingernail to substantially prevent said fingernail from penetrating the rubberylike material and destroying the integrity thereof; and

securing means for securing said abrasive material to said hand apparel to afford abrading and cleaning contact of the object by said hand apparel.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said hand apparel includes a mitten and said abrasive material is positioned on said mitten to extend beyond and partially around the extreme end of at least one of the user's fingers and positioned on said mitten to extend beyond and partially around the extreme end of the user's thumb.

3. An apparatus according to claim 2 wherein said abrasive material is positioned between the thumb area of said mitten and the index finger area of said mitten to provide encircling of an object to be abraded positioned between the thumb and index finger of the user.

4. An apparatus according to claim 3 wherein said abrasive material includes an abrasive mineral secured to said porous material to provide greater abrasion of the object.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said hand apparel includes a glove and said abrasive material is positioned on said glove to extend beyond and partially around the extreme end of at least one of the user's fingers and positioned on said glove to extend beyond and partially around the extreme end of the user's thumb.

6. An apparatus according to claim 5 wherein said abrasive material is positioned between the thumb area of said glove and the index finger area of said glove to provide encircling of an object to be abraded positioned between the thumb and index finger of the user.

7. An apparatus according to claim 5 wherein said abrasive material includes an abrasive mineral secured to said porous material to provide greater abrasion to the object.

8. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said securing means includes a rubberylike adhesive to provide relative flexibility of the finger and thumb portions of said apparel having said flexible porous material secured thereto.