BROOM WITH A FINE DUST SWEEPING ELEMENT

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a broom, specifically a broom head that is made of a single mold and therefore is a single-piece molded article. The broom includes a base member having two opposite faces, a bottom face and a top face. The base member is elongated along a longitudinal direction between first and second ends. An array of bristles intended to perform the sweeping activity protrudes from the bottom face and a rod receptacle configured to receive a rod for handling the broom protrudes from the top face. Each of the bristles of the array is spaced apart from any other bristle. To facilitate utilizing the broom also to sweep small particles, the broom further includes a fine dust sweeping element that protrudes from the bottom face, typically from an edge of the base member extending between the first and second ends.

Claims

1. A broom head, comprising: an elongated base member extending between first and second ends and defining a base member plane with a base width and top and bottom faces; a rod receptacle arrangement formed on or attached to the top face and configured to receive a rod end portion along a rod axis; a fine dust sweeping element extending downwards from the second face to a continuous sweeping edge defining an edge line normal to the rod axis the base member plane spanning at least the majority of the length between the first and second ends, the sweeping edge is defined between the base member plane and the bristles plane; and an array of bristles protruding from a bristle support portion of the bottom face, said bristle support portion constituting a major portion of the bottom face, distal edges of the bristles defining a bristles plane parallel to the base member plane lower than said edge line; the base member, the array of bristles and the fine dust sweeping element are a single-piece molded article.

2. The broom head of claim 1, wherein the single-piece molded article is made of an elastomeric material.

3. The broom head of claim 1, wherein the fine dust extends downward from a longitudinal edge of the base member.

4. The broom head of claim 1, wherein the sweeping edge line is in a plane parallel to and in between the base member plane and the bristles plane.

5. The broom head of claim 4, wherein a first distance between the base member plane and the sweeping edge line is greater than half of a second distance between the base member plane and the bristles plane.

6. The broom head of claim 1, wherein the bristles have a typical length, shorter than double the edge distance defined between the bottom face and said edge line.

7. The broom head of claim 6, wherein said edge distance is between 70% and 95% of said typical length.

8. The broom head of claim 1, wherein the rod axis that is angled with respect to the base member plane.

9. The broom head of claim 8, wherein the rod receptacle arrangement is pivotable allow a change of an angle between the rod axis and the base member plane.

10. The broom head of claim 8, wherein the rod receptacle arrangement is part of the single-piece molded article.

11. The broom head of claim 1, comprising two fine dust sweeping elements, each extending downwards from two opposite longitudinal edges of the base member.

12. The broom head of claim 1, wherein the fine dust sweeping element is planar and defining a fine dust sweeping element plane about normal to the base member plane.

13. The broom head of claim 12, wherein the sweeping element plane is parallel to at least some of the bristles.

14. The broom head of claim 1, wherein end bristles proximal to the first and second end are angled with respect to other bristles in said array.

15. The broom head of claim 14, wherein the fine dust element is at a front side of the broom head and defines downwardly extending plane with side element edges, in a front view of the broom head a majority of the bristles of said array are formed behind said downwardly extending plane, and wherein said end bristles extend laterally beyond said side element edges.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0032] In order to better understand the subject matter that is disclosed herein and to exemplify how it may be carried out in practice, embodiments will now be described, by way of non-limiting example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0033] FIGS. 1A-1D are schematic illustrations of different views of a non-limiting embodiment of a broom according to an aspect of the present disclosure. FIG. 1A is a perspective view showing the broom from the fine dust sweeping element side: FIG. 1B is a front view of the broom; FIG. 1C is a side view of the broom: FIG. 1D is a perspective view of the broom from the opposite side of the fine dust sweeping element.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] The following figures are provided to exemplify embodiments and realization of the invention of the present disclosure.

[0035] Reference is being made to FIGS. 1A-1D, which are schematic illustrations of different views of a non-limiting example of the broom according to an aspect of the present disclosure. The broom 100 includes an elongated base member 102 extending between first and second ends 104 and 106 and having a certain base width W. The base defines a base member plane BP and includes a first, top face 108 and a second, bottom face 110. A rod receptacle 112 protrudes from the first face 108 and defines a rod receptacle axis RA that forms an acute angle ? with the base member plane BP such that at least a portion of the 2-dimensional projection of the rod receptacle 112 does not overlap with the base member 102. In other words, the rod receptacle 112 is tilted with respect to the base member 102 towards a first edge thereof 113.

[0036] A bristles array 114 protrudes from a bristle support portion 111 on the second, bottom face 110 of the base member 102, such that each bristle extends between the second face 110 and a respective bristle edge 116. The bristle edges 116 define together a bristles line BL that is defined in a bristle plane BP that is parallel to the base member plane BMP. The bristles array 114 includes a central bristles group 118 and two flanking bristles groups 120 at both sides of the central bristles group 118. The central bristles group 118 consists of parallel bristles having directionality normal to the base member plane BMP. The flanking bristles groups 119 consist of bristles forming different angles with respect to the base member plane BMP. The vertical length, i.e. the length along the axis normal to the base member plane BMP, of the bristles of the central group and the flanking groups is substantially equal. The term substantially should be understood as a deviation of up to +10%, at times up to 5%, 4%, 3%, 2% or up to 1%. This means that the absolute length of the bristles of the flanking groups is greater than the length of the bristles of the central group.

[0037] A planar fine dust sweeping element 120 protrudes from the first edge 113 of the second face 110 and defining a fine dust sweeping element plane FSP normal to the base member plane BMP and the bristles plane BP. In other words, the fine dust sweeping element plane FSP is parallel to the directionality defined by the bristles of the central bristles group 118. Thus, the bristles array 114 protrudes from the second face within the boundaries defined by the first and second ends 104 and 106 along the longitudinal dimension of the base member, and by the planar fine dust sweeping element and a second edge 115 of the base member along the transverse dimension of the base member. The planar fine dust sweeping element 120 extends between the second face 110 and a sweeping edge 122. The sweeping edge 122 is continuous and it lies on a sweeping edge plane SEP that is parallel to the base member plane BMP and the bristles plane BP. The fine dust sweeping element 120 extends along a first vertical length L1, namely the vertical length between the second face and the sweeping edge 122. The base member plane BMP and the bristles plane BP are distanced at a second vertical length L2. The vertical length is along a vertical axis VA that is normal to the base member plane BMP. The first vertical length L1 is shorter than the second vertical length L2 in a manner allowing the following: (i) sweeping a surface with the bristles array without the sweeping edge engaging the surface, when the base member plane is oriented at a first range of angles with respect to the surface; and (ii) sweeping a surface with the sweeping edge and optionally some of the bristles engaging the surface, when the base member plane is oriented at a second range of angles with respect to the surface. In other words, the configuration of the broom of the present disclosure allows to perform standard sweeping activity with the bristles array and in case there is a necessity to sweep small particles, the continuous sweeping edge of the planar fine dust sweeping element engages the surface to be cleaned to facilitate the sweeping of said small particles.

[0038] Thus, the first vertical length L1 is designed to be between 3-15% shorter than the second vertical length L2.

[0039] The base member 102, the rod receptacle 112, the bristles array 114 and the planar fine dust sweeping element 120 are integral with another and they are all a single-piece molded article made from a single mold. Furthermore, the single-piece molded article that includes the base member 102, the rod receptacle 112, the bristles array 114 and the planar fine dust sweeping element 120 is made of rubber or silicone rubber. This provides the broom with unique characteristics and significantly improve the performance thereof with respect to other known brooms in the art.