Brushing – scrubbing – and general cleaning – Machines – Wiping
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-23
2001-10-02
Graham, Gary K. (Department: 1744)
Brushing, scrubbing, and general cleaning
Machines
Wiping
C015S077000, C134S009000, C134S12200P
Reexamination Certificate
active
06295684
ABSTRACT:
This invention deals with an apparatus which can be used to clean soluble markings from laminated sheets of paper or the like, which might be used in the gaming industry as playing cards or in other applications.
BACKGROUND
Gaming establishments, and in particular bingo halls, commonly use preprinted sheets of paper containing multiple bingo cards for sale to their customers. Of specific importance at present, and the problem which the present invention seeks to address, is that of the consumption of large quantities of paper as preprinted bingo cards. There are security concerns associated therewith, as well as purely environmental and economic concerns. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,971 to Khaladkar for further background.
Conventional paper bingo cards are thrown away after each game, since they are not reusable. Consumption of paper and ink makes up a large expense for bingo operators. For example, it is my understanding that approximately 52 million sheets of 11×17 inch bingo paper are used in the Province of Saskatchewan alone each year, which seems to equate to about 52 semi-trailer loads. Buying this paper represents a significant cost to bingo operators, not to mention the financial and environmental costs of the disposal of same once used. If the amount of paper used could be reduced ,the costs of operating a bingo would be positively affected.
Bingo establishments commonly have thousands of sheets of bingo paper “in inventory” at any one time. Many attempts have been made to lessen the cost and security risks associated with the holding of such inventory, with varying degrees of success.
It has been recognized that laminated paper and soluble marking ink might be employed rather than normal newsprint-type bingo paper, which would allow for the reuse of bingo cards. The use of a laminated paper with a fast-drying but soluble ink could lessen the consumption of paper considerably and lower the costs both to the operators and to the environment. Rather than moving about the bingo hall selling additional sheets of bingo paper between every game bingo workers could instead collect used cards for cleaning and sell cleaned cards or revalidate cards for replay in the system once a player used up the cards that they bought when they started.
Preferable to the cleaning of the sheets or gaming cards by the players at their tables, which would be messy, would be to have a large enough stock of reusable laminated bingo cards that used cards could be removed for cleaning elsewhere in the facility and clean cards could simply be sold.
The Khaladkar invention addresses many of the concerns of security and validation associated with the use of reusable card stock. The problem which the present invention seeks to address, however, is the need for an efficient method of wiping the used bingo cards clean. The number of sheets of cards which would be in play at any one time would mean that to manually wipe them clean would take significant manpower. This would seem to be one of the only limitations to the broad deployment of laminated reusable bingo paper in the gaming industry.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for the cleaning of solubly marked sheets of laminated paper or the like. The particular goal is to provide a method of washing for marked sheets of bingo paper so that reusable laminated bingo sheets could be used rather than the paper cards currently employed in the industry.
It is the further object of the present invention to provide a mechanized method of cleaning said laminated sheets, to minimize personnel and resource requirements in the employment of reusable laminated sheets.
The invention, an apparatus for use in the cleaning of solubly marked laminated sheets by a solvent, each of said sheets having at least one solvent impermeable face carrying soluble markings thereon, accomplishes its objectives comprising a cleaning surface, said cleaning surface having an intake end and an output end between which is defined a cleaning path; a sheet feeder which moves a solubly marked laminated sheet over the cleaning surface along the cleaning path from the intake end, with the solubly marked face of the sheet facing the cleaning surface, and deposits said sheet at the output end; a solvent source containing solvent; a plurality of sheet wipers disposed on the cleaning surface along the cleaning path, each sheet wiper having a wiping surface facing upwards from the cleaning surface which will contact the solubly marked face of a sheet as it is fed over the cleaning surface; the solvent source being in communication with the sheet wipers so that solvent is communicated from the solvent source to the wiping surfaces.
One or more sheet wipers could be used, each of which could take many forms. A first most basic embodiment of a sheet wiper would be a simple pad.
Another form of a sheet wiper which is specifically contemplated is a cleaning roller. The sheet wipers could be cleaning rollers, wherein each said cleaning roller is rotated the mounted on an axis transverse to the cleaning path; and has a portion thereof exposed along or above the cleaning surface which is the wiping surface, the remaining portion of each roller below the cleaning surface being the under-surface portion.
A rotary drive might be connected to such cleaning rollers. The cleaning rollers could be rotated either towards or away from the output end by the rotary drive, although rotation of the cleaning rollers towards the output end is particularly contemplated to provide the best cleaning results. In the case of an embodiment of the invention employing more than one cleaning roller as sheet wipers, the cleaning rollers might be linked to a rotary drive in tandem such that the rotation of all of the cleaning rollers would take place in the same direction and at the same speed. This would also reduce the amount of rotary drive equipment required.
In either the case of a cleaning pad, or a cleaning roller configuration, the solvent source might be a reservoir located directly below the cleaning surface wherein, in the case of the cleaning roller, the under surface portion of each cleaning roller would pass through the solvent contained in the reservoir as the cleaning roller was rotated, solvent thus being communicated from the reservoir to the cleaning surface as the cleaning roller continues its rotation and the under surface portion having been immersed in the solvent rolls into position as the wiping surface. In the case of the solvent source being a reservoir located below the cleaning surface wherein the sheet wipers were pads, solvent may even be communicated to the cleaning surface as simply as by allowing the portion of the pad below the cleaning surface to be immersed in the solvent and the solvent being drawn upwards to the cleaning surface through the pad.
Another method of communicating solvent from the solvent source to the cleaning surface would be to use permeable cleaning rollers, wherein the cleaning rollers are hollow with permeable walls and solvent would be communicated to the wiping surface of each roller from the solvent source by pumping the solvent into the rollers wherefrom it will flow out of the permeable walls of the roller onto the surface of the roller. In this case it would be necessary to employ a swivelling hydraulic coupling to apply solvent continuously to the roller as the roller was rotated.
As indicated above, one or more cleaning rollers might be used. The rotary drive for the rollers, if used, could be a motor. The rollers might be connected to the rotary drive by way of a belt, or chain, or otherwise.
To further improve the cleaning rollers, an interchangeable cleaning sleeve could be added on each cleaning roller. These could be changed as they wore out. A solvent-permeable rigid core might further be added to the sleeve in order to make its replacement simpler and to render the sleeve more robust in its use.
Furthermore, where a soft sleeve was used over top of the cleaning rollers, at least one cleaning sleeve
Frederiksen Mark D.
Graham Gary K.
Koley Jessen P.C.
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