Disposable Mop Head

Abstract

A disposable mop head made up of a support having a backing face over which are secured a number of elongated flexible sheets made of a material capable of collecting dust and light dirt. The sheets, which are distributed over substantially all of the backing face, are secured to it along one of their longitudinal edges and extend away from the backing face. They are also formed with slits that run from their other longitudinal edge and that terminate short of their edge secured to the backing face to create a mass of flexible mopping strips. The material capable of collecting dust and light dirt is a fibrous material such as paper, sisal, hemp, cotton, wool, flax, jute, crepe paper or the like natural fibrous material. It may also be a synthetic fibrous material.

Description

The present invention relates to a mop head of the disposable type, that is one that may be thrown away after limited number of uses.

It is known that conventional dust mop head made of cloth rapidly become charged with grime and, in order to preserve their usefulness, they must be removed from the handle and washed from time to time because the dust and light dirt have accumulated and have become ingrained in the cloth and can no longer be shaken off.

Now, washing of such dust mop heads is obviously highly inconvenient because, due to their heavy dirt content they cannot be washed together with other items. It is therefore necessary either to wash them by hand or to dedicate a full washing machine cycle to them alone.

It is therefore a main object of the present invention to provide a disposable mop head which can be manufactured at such a low cost that it can be thrown away after several uses. Another object is in the provision of a mop head capable of collecting dust and light dirt as efficiently as a cloth mop head.

In accordance with the above objects, the mop head of the invention comprises a support having a rectangular backing face over which a plurality of elongated flexible sheets, made of dust and light dirt collecting material, are secured by one of their longitudinal edges in such a way as to project from the backing face. The sheets are distributed over substantially all of the backing face and are obtained from one single band of collecting material folded in accordion fashion to create successive paired plies defining the sheets, the successive paired plies being connected to the backing face by folds that define the secured edges. Further, the sheets are formed with a plurality of slits running from their other longitudinal edges toward the secured edges but terminating short of the said secured edges to thereby create a mass of flexible mopping strips. Finally, the secured edges of plies located along two sides of the rectangular face are disposed closer than those at the center of the face whereby to create, along the sides, denser areas of mopping strips.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the mopping strips of the denser areas are longer than those between the denser areas.

In accordance with the invention, the dust and light dirt collecting material is a natural or synthetic fibrous material. Furthermore, it may be especially treated, in known manner, to attract and retain dust and light dirt. Natural fibrous material such as paper, sisal, hemp, cotton, wool, flax, jute, crepe paper or similar fibrous materials can be used. Also, by using an impervious material, the mop head may serve for washing floors.

It is believed that a better understanding of the invention will be afforded by the description that follows of various embodiments of the invention, having reference to the appended drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a partially completed mop head made according to a first embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevation view showing the mop head of FIG. 1 in a position of use;

FIG. 3 is an elevational view of a detail of the mop head, according to the invention, shown on an enlarged scale;

FIG. 4 is a prospective view showing part of a mopping sheet being secured to the support, and

FIG. 5 is an elevational view of a mop head according to a second embodiment of the invention.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 to 4, the mop head of this embodiment is formed of a flat support 10 having a backing face. The support is preferably flexible and may be a sheet of paper or of a fabric material. In known manner, this support will eventually be connected to a mop frame provided with a handle. The method of mounting the mop head on the frame not being a feature of the present invention, no further details will be added, for the sake of simplicity.

To this backing face 10 are secured a plurality of elongated flexible sheets 14 made of dust and light dirt collecting material, sheets 14 being secured to the backing face of the support 10 by one of its longitudinal edges while the remaining part of the sheets project away from the backing face. They are distributed over substantially all of the support 10. As will be noted from FIGS. 1 and 4, particularly, sheets 14 are formed with a plurality of slits 15 running from the other longitudinal edges and terminating at the secured edges 16 thereby defining a mass of flexible mopping strips 12, that is, the slits 15 may either run right up to or terminate short of the securing edges 16; the latter form being shown in FIG. 4.

In the particular form of embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 4 the strip-defining sheets 14 are obtained from several bands made of dust and light dirt collecting material, each band being centrally folded upon itself with the central folds defining the aforesaid securing edges 16. The said edges 16 may be secured to the backing face of the support 10 in any known manner such as by being glued, stitched, stapled or sewed thereon.

As shown in FIG. 1, the support 10 is preferably rectangular and the sheets 14 are disposed with their secured edges 16 extending along lines parallel to one long side of the rectangular face 10, each sheet having a length equal to the length of the support 10. The sheets 14 may also come in short lengths disposed side by side in lines parallel to the long side of the rectangular support 10.

It is however found more practical that each sheet 14 have a length that extends the full length of the support 10.

Preferably, and for greater efficiency in collecting dust and light dirt, the sheets 14 that define the flexible mopping strips 12 are disposed closer to one another along the two long sides of the rectangular backing face 10 then at the centre, thus creating denser areas of mopping strips. If the sheets come in short lengths it will be possible to provide such denser areas all around the four sides of the face 10.

In order to improve the dust collecting feature of the mop head, the strips 12 of the denser areas may be made longer than those at the centre of the backing face 10, as shown in FIG. 2.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5, the strip-defining sheets 20 are obtained from one single band folded in accordion fashion to create paired plies 22 connected by folds 24 defining edges that are secured on the backing face of the support 18. The paired plies 22 are slit in the same manner as the sheets 14 of FIGS. 1 and 4.

In this embodiment, as in the first one, the secured edges 24 of the paired plies 22 located along the two long sides of the rectangular support 18 may be disposed closer than those at the centre whereby to create, along these long sides, denser areas of mopping strips. Furthermore, the latter strips may also be longer than those located between the denser areas.

Under this embodiment of FIG. 5, it is obvious that the same result may be obtained by using a plurality of juxtaposed sheets, (disposed side-by-side) each being folded accordion fashion.

As previously mentioned, the dust and light dirt collecting material from which the flexible mopping strips 12 and 22 are made is a fibrous material, either natural or synthetic. Among suitable natural fibrous materials are: paper, sisal, hemp, cotton, wool, flax, jute, crepe paper. Obviously, synthetic fibrous material can also be used as well as material capable of generating static electricity to attract dust. Also, by using non-dissolving impervious material the mop head may be used for washing floors.

Claims

The embodiments of this invention in which an exclusive property or privelege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A disposable mop head comprising:

a. a support having a rectangular backing face;

b. a plurality of elongated flexible sheets made of dust and light dirt collecting material, said sheets being secured to said backing face by one longitudinal edge thereof and projecting from said face, said sheets being distributed over substantially all of said face and being obtained from one single band of collecting material folded in accordion fashion to create successive paired plies defining said sheets, successive paired plies being connected to said backing face by the folds thereof that define the said secured edges;

c. said sheets being formed with a plurality of slits running from the longitudinal edges thereof away from the edges secured to said face and terminating at said secured edges to thereby define a mass of flexible mopping strips, and wherein

d. the secured edges of plies located along two sides of said rectangular face are disposed closer to one another than those at the center of said face whereby to create, along said sides, denser areas of mopping strips.

2. A mop as claimed in claim 1, wherein the strips of said denser areas are longer than those between said areas.

3. A mop as claimed in claim 2 wherein said dust and light dirt collecting material is a fibrous material.