Cleaning and liquid contact with solids – Apparatus – With means to movably mount or movably support the work or...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-21
2002-04-02
Stinson, Frankie L. (Department: 1746)
Cleaning and liquid contact with solids
Apparatus
With means to movably mount or movably support the work or...
C134S149000, C134S900000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06363954
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the general field of painting accessories and is particularly concerned with a paint roller cleaning device.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Paint roller assemblies are commonly used by both commercial painters and owners for fast and efficient painting of flat surfaces such as walls, ceilings and the like using various types of paints and other finishes. Typically, a paint roller assembly includes a handle attached to a rotatable cylinder or wire frame which slidably fits into and frictionally holds a removable roller cover. The paint roller assembly allows for rotation of the roller cover to pick up paint from a tray or container and to roll a thin layer of the paint over the surface being painted.
Conventional paint roller covers typically include an inner cylindrical tube made out of a suitable material such as cordwood or a suitable polymeric resin. The inner tube is typically covered with a nap made of a suitable material capable of absorbing and distributing paint and other finishes. Typically, the nap is made out of a tufted fiber, a carpet like fabric, a polymeric foam or any other type of covering that will hold and apply paint and other finishes relatively uniformly to a flat surface.
Typically, after use, the paint roller cover is either cleaned for reuse or discarded. Many paint roller covers, specially those with a heavy nap are expensive and therefore justify cleaning for reuse. Furthermore, increased environmental concerns have lead to a concurrent trend towards reuse of roller covers or at least cleaning thereof prior to their discarding.
The development of latex based paints has significantly lessened the amount of effort and work that is required to clean paint roller covers after painting so that they can be reused. Indeed, latex based paints, while in a wet state, are readily water soluble and, thus, paint roller covers can simply be cleaned with water. On the other hand, enamel based paints require that the paint roller covers be soaped in turpentine or similar solvents to remove the paint and then washed with preferably soap and water to remove the turpentine or other solvent.
Whether latex or enamel based paints are used, cleaning of paint roller covers require a significant effort if all of the paint is to be removed from the fiber forming the nap. Although the removal of most of the paint from the nap may prove to be difficult it is nevertheless important since any paint which remains in the nap fibers lessens the reusable life of the roller and reduces the efficacy of the paint roller cover even after only one use.
In the past, rollers have typically been cleaned in a bucket or a sink by simply emerging them in a suitable liquid and vigorously rubbing the fibers by hand to ensure that all of the paint was loosened and removed. This method while being one of the simplest is also one of the messiest and most time consuming. Indeed, the person cleaning the paint roller cover inevitably gets paints onto its hand or arm which must be in time washed off. Also, the sink or bucket becomes coated with paint, and, thus, must be cleaned and rinsed after the paint roller cover is cleaned. Furthermore, the process must be repeated several times in order to obtain a clean roller cover.
Another method which has often be used involves simply squirting the paint roller cover with a stream of water from a garden hose whether the paint roller cover has been soaped or not previously in a suitable solvent depending on wether enamel or latex based paints were used. However, when washing a paint roller with a garden hose it is difficult to control the force of the spray and also the angle at which it impinges the paint roller cover. Also there is no way that the paint roller cover elements can be vigorously robbed so as to loosen and remove the paint without first putting the hose down. Again, this method although simple is both inconvenient in time consuming.
In an attempt to circumvent the herein above mentioned problems, several devices have been proposed to clean paint roller covers. These devices usually include cylindrical containers which enclose the paint roller cover, together with some type of spraying means for directing a stream of water against the paint roller cover. These prior art devices may eliminate, to some extent the problems associated with the other conventional methods. By directing a high pressure stream of water against the nap of the paint roller cover, the paint is generally loosened and removed more easily. However, these prior devices typically appear to be somewhat complicated and, in most instances, relatively expensive.
Other prior art attempts have been made to provide mechanical cleaners so that they may be used repeatingly for cleaning with a certain amount of success paint roller covers. The more sophisticated cleaners have used electric motors and water driven turbines to spin the roller while it is being cleaned. One common approach has been to direct a water spray substantially tangentially against the paint roller cover, causing into spin on the applicator handle or on a separate mandrel. None of the prior art cleaners which have been marketed have met with wide consumer acceptance thereby indicating the hidden or unobvious complexity of a seamingly simple device. The failings of the priorate attempts, as attested by the absence of any widely accepted cleaning device, have resulted from various inadequacies of the prior art devices which are either overly complex for useful operation or too simple to function properly.
Apart from being either overly complex or too simple most prior art paint roller cover cleaners suffer from at least three major drawbacks. First, most prior art cleaners simply do not allow for a dual mode of operation in which the intended user may choose either to soap at least a section of the nap prior to or after using the conventional tangential water spray technique. This proves to be a major drawback since, in some instances such as when thick nap or a viscous paint is used, it may prove to me highly desirable to be able to sequentially soak and spin clean the pain roller covers.
Also, most prior art paint roller cover cleaners do not allow for easy and ergonomical switch between a spin cleaning and a spin drying operation. In other words, although some prior art attempts have proposed the use of spin drying for drying the paint roller covers once they have cleaned, these prior art devices do not provide a structure which facilities the switch between spin cleaning and spin drying operations. Of course, devices offering both soaking and spin cleaning capability as well as readily accessible spin drying capability are even more difficult to find.
Third, both prior art devices simply do not provide a structure that facilitates the strategic positioning of the stream of spray of cleaning liquid so that it can be easily directed against the paint roller cover through a range of angles which optimizes cleaning and accommodates rollers of various diameters.
Accordingly, their existing a need for an improved device for cleaning paint roller covers. Advantages of the present invention include that the proposed paint roller cover cleaning device allows an intended user to selectively soak at least a portion of the paint roller cover nap or spin clean the nap using a generally tangential spray of cleaning liquid in a conventional fashion. Alternatively, the intended user may even use both the soaking and spin cleaning method not only sequentially but also simultaneously.
Also, the proposed paint roller cover cleaning device allows an intended user to quickly and ergonomically switch from a cleaning to a spin drying operation by nearly moving the spray nozzle along the casing of the cleaning device.
Furthermore, the proposed paint roller cover cleaning device allows for selective positioning of the cleaning spray nasal both longitudinally along the length of the paint roller cover and radially along the thickness of the nap so as to provide a means for having an optim
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