JPH09327426A - Spherical scrubbing brush - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a spherical scrubbing brush which can be mass-produced, has the surface whose all parts can be effectively used in the same condition, is capable of polishing corner parts of a pan, etc., and can be safely used without breaking fibers to be in a dangerous condition. SOLUTION: This spherical scrubbing brush is formed with three dimensionally crimped or zigzag shaped synthetic or natural fibers 1 in a stereoscopically entangled condition without direction. Further, fibers are collected in such a condition as to have spaces between fibers 1 to be in such a size of the whole shape as to be grasped in a hand. Collected synthetic fibers 1 are adhered to be combined at cross points and polishing particles 2 are adhered to the surface of fibers 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a scourer in which plastic fibers are gathered in a spherical shape.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Non-woven scrubbers, which are three-dimensionally assembled plastic fibers, are commercially available. This scourer is manufactured by three-dimensionally assembling plastic fibers to produce a non-woven fabric, adhering abrasive grains to the surface of the non-woven fabric via an adhesive, and cutting the non-woven fabric to which the abrasive grains are adhered into, for example, a rectangular shape. It The non-woven scourer cut into a rectangular shape is used by grasping it with a hand and rubbing the surface of the object to be polished. The scrubbing cloth in which abrasive grains are adhered to both sides of the non-woven fabric can be used as both sides for polishing.

[0003]

The scourer of this shape is
Suitable for uniformly polishing a flat surface over a wide area. However, it is not always possible to use it in an ideal state for the purpose of locally strongly polishing it. For example, in order to cleanly remove charring of a pot, strong charring of oil or the like adhering to the surface of a frying pan, and rust etc. on a metal surface, it is necessary to strongly press a local portion of the scrubbing blade and polish it. The square scrubbing brush cannot always be conveniently used for strongly pressing and polishing a local portion. This is because the whole shape is formed into a plate shape.

Further, the nonwoven scrubbing brush is not a thin sheet like paper. With a little cushion, you can press it against the surface of a pot and polish it. Therefore, there is a feature that the uneven surface can be polished finely. In order to take advantage of this feature, it is sufficient to make the non-woven fabric thick, but if the non-woven fabric is made thick, the manufacturing cost becomes high. For this reason, scrubbing is commercially available in which urethane foam or the like is bonded to one surface of the nonwoven fabric. Since urethane foam can be manufactured at a lower cost than non-woven fabric, it can be bonded to one side to manufacture a thick and excellent scrubbing brush at low cost. However, the scrubbing brush of this structure has a drawback that only one side of the non-woven fabric can be used and the life of the non-woven fabric abrasive material is shortened.

Further, a scourer having a flat surface cannot always be conveniently used, for example, when polishing an inner corner of a pot or a frying pan, that is, a corner between the bottom and the peripheral edge. This is because the plane scrubbing brush cannot be strongly pressed against the corner while it is held by hand. When polishing the corner portion, it is necessary to press a part of the back surface of the planar scrubbing brush with a finger to deform the scrubbing brush into an L-shape along the corner portion and polish it. If you press hard and polish in this state, there is a drawback that your fingers are slippery from the scrubbing brush. Because I haven't grabbed the scourer.

As a scrubbing brush that eliminates such drawbacks,
There is commercially available a product obtained by processing a metal such as stainless steel into a fibrous form and collecting the processed product into a size that can be held by hand. This shape of scrubbing brush can be polished on the entire surface,
Furthermore, there is a feature that you can polish the corners of pots etc. while grasping. However, since this scourer uses metal fibers, it has a drawback that if it is damaged and remains inside the pot or the like and mixes with food, it will be in a dangerous state. This is because the shortly cut metal fiber is like a knife.

The present invention was developed for the purpose of solving such drawbacks of the conventional scrubbing brush.
An important object of the present invention is to mass produce inexpensively,
The entire surface can be effectively used as a polishing surface under the same conditions, and the corners of pots, etc. can be gripped and conveniently polished, and further, it can be used safely without damaging the fibers and creating a dangerous state. To provide a spherical scourer.

[0008]

The spherical scrubbing brush of the present invention has the following constitution in order to achieve the above-mentioned object.
A scourer is a three-dimensional crimp or zigzag-shaped plastic fiber 1 or natural fiber that is gathered in a three-dimensionally entangled state and is molded into a spherical shape of a size that can be gripped by hand. Has been done. Further, the collected plastic fibers 1 adhere and bond the intersections, and the abrasive grains 2 are attached to the surfaces of the fibers 1.

Furthermore, the spherical scrubbing brush according to claim 2 of the present invention is characterized in that the plastic fiber 1 having an uneven surface is used so as to be easily entangled.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. However, the examples shown below are examples of scrubbing brushes for embodying the technical idea of the present invention, and the scrubbing brushes of the present invention are not limited to the following.

Further, in this specification, in order to make it easier to understand the claims, the numbers corresponding to the members shown in the embodiments are set forth in the “claims” and “ In the column of “means”. However, the members shown in the claims are not limited to the members of the embodiment.

The scrubbing brush shown in FIG. 1 is of a size that allows the fibers 1 to be entangled in a three-dimensionally non-directional manner, and to be gathered in such a state that voids are formed between the fibers 1 so that the entire shape can be grasped by hand. For example, it is formed into a spherical shape of about 8 cm. However, the size of the scrubbing brush may be 5 to 10 cm, preferably 6 to 9 cm.

As the fiber 1, a plastic fiber 1 such as nylon or polyester, or a natural fiber such as coconut fiber or hemp can be used. Fiber 1 such as plastic fiber 1 and linen
Is formed into a three-dimensional crimped shape or a zigzag shape so that it is easily entangled. The zigzag shape is
For example, it has a shape obtained by bending the fiber 1 into a triangular wave, a rectangular wave, and a sine wave. Since the palm fiber has a three-dimensional crimped shape, it is not necessary to artificially process it into such a shape. The fibers 1 that are easily entangled can be formed into a spherical shape in a state where they are three-dimensionally aggregated without directivity and a gap is formed between the fibers 1.

A spherical scourer made using plastic fiber 1 has a fiber 1 thickness of, for example, about 170.
Denier. However, the scrubbing brush of the present invention does not specify the thickness of the plastic fiber 1. Plastic fiber,
For example, 10 to 300 denier, preferably 50 to
The optimum value is 200 denier, more preferably 100 to 200 denier. As for the natural fiber, a fiber having almost the same thickness as the plastic fiber is used.

Further, the plastic fiber 1 is optimally one whose surface is processed into an uneven shape. To make the surface uneven, for example, as shown in the enlarged view of FIG. 2, the adhesive 3 is unevenly applied in dots on the surface of the fiber 1, or the fiber 1 is partially thickened. Mold into different shapes.

The fiber 1 has abrasive grains 2 bonded to its surface. The abrasive grains 2 are bonded to the surface of the fiber 1 via the adhesive 1. Alumina or silicon carbide can be used for the abrasive grains 2. The size of the abrasive grains 2 is set to an optimum value depending on the application, but, for example, those having 120 to 400 mesh are preferably used. However, as the abrasive grains, those having 60 to 1200 mesh can be used depending on the use.
The adhesive 3 for bonding the abrasive grains 2 can also bond the intersections of the fibers 1. However, it is also possible to bond the fiber intersections by using an adhesive different from the adhesive that bonds the abrasive grains.

[0017]

EXAMPLE A spherical scourer is manufactured as follows. Example 1 About 170 denier nylon fibers are three-dimensionally crimped. In the three-dimensional crimp of the fiber 1, the fibers 1 are bundled and twisted together to form a rope, and the rope 1 is heated to deform the fiber 1. After cooling, the rope is unwound to obtain the fiber 1 that has been three-dimensionally crimped.

Three-dimensionally crimped nylon fiber,
As shown in FIG. 3, the fiber is supplied to a rotating trommel 4, and the fibers 1 are entangled and three-dimensionally assembled to form a substantially spherical outer shape. Trommel 4 has a longer overall length, or
The inclination angle can be made close to horizontal to make the ejected sphere larger. This is because it takes a long time to be discharged from the trommel 4. The trommel 4 aggregates nylon fibers into a spherical shape having a diameter of about 10 cm.

Nylon fibers gathered in a spherical shape are immersed in a paste-like adhesive in which abrasive particles are kneaded.
Then, squeeze with a roller to remove excess adhesive. As the adhesive, a urethane-based adhesive that is in a paste state when uncured is used.

When the adhesive is uncured, it is put into a mold 5 shown in FIG. 4 and the aggregated fibers 1 are molded into a spherical shape having a diameter of about 7 cm. The assembled nylon fiber is a mold 5
The adhesive is hardened in a state where it is squeezed a little more densely with.

After the adhesive is hardened, the mold 5 is opened, and the scourer shaped into a sphere is taken out. The mold 5 has an inner surface coated with a release agent in advance so that the mold 5 can be easily released from the mold.

The scrubbing brush produced as described above had an ideal spherical outer shape, was easy to hold in the hand, was easy to hold, and was able to efficiently and cleanly polish a pot or the like. In particular,
I was able to efficiently polish the recess like the boundary between the bottom of the pot and the surrounding wall by holding the scrubbing brush with my hand.

In the above manufacturing method, the abrasive particles are mixed with the adhesive agent for adhering the fibers. The abrasive particles are coated with the adhesive agent for adhering the fibers to remove the excess adhesive agent, and then the spheres. It can also be adhered by spraying with air on the surface of. further,
It is also possible to mold the fibers into a spherical shape using a mold and then apply an adhesive to the surface and adhere the abrasive grains when the adhesive is uncured.

[Example 2] A spherical scourer was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 1 except that coconut husk fiber was used as the fiber, and this scrubbing brush was also conveniently used like the scrubber of the example. did it.

Example 3 An adhesive was applied to the fibers to form irregularities on the surface of the fibers in the preceding step of collecting the nylon fibers into a spherical shape. A predetermined amount of this fiber was collected and collected, and the fibers were entwined and collected into a spherical shape like making rice with both hands. The aggregate of fibers was made into a spherical scrubbing brush in the same steps as in Example 1 to. As described above, the fibers having irregularities on the surface have a feature that the fibers are easily entangled in the assembled state and can be easily aggregated into a spherical shape.

[0026]

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The spherical scrubbing brush of the present invention is characterized in that it can be inexpensively mass-produced using plastic fibers and natural fibers, and that the entire surface can be effectively utilized as an extremely wide polished surface. This is because the spherical scrubbing brush does not have to be used on both sides or one side as a polishing surface like a conventional scissors cut into a rectangular shape, but can use the entire surface as a polishing surface in the same manner. In particular, the spherical scrubbing brush has the advantage that the polishing surface can be easily changed by changing the gripping part and can be used conveniently. This considerably lengthens the life of the scrubbing brush, and realizes the feature that an object can be efficiently polished with abrasive grains.

Further, the spherical scrubbing brush of the present invention can realize the feature that the corner portion of a pot or the like can be conveniently polished. This is because the spherical scourer can be deformed into a shape along the corner portion without deforming the entire shape along the corner portion into an L-shape unlike the conventional square scourer. In particular, the scrubbing brush of the present invention, which is capable of gripping the entire scrubbing brush and polishing the corner portion of a pot or the like, has a feature that the scrubbing brush can be surely held and the corner portion can be efficiently polished. Further, since the portion pressed by the corner portion is considerably thick, it has an excellent cushioning property and the corner portion can be evenly polished.

Furthermore, since the spherical scourer of the present invention is formed into a spherical shape by entwining plastic fibers and natural fibers, the scissors like fibers aggregated with metal fibers are damaged and mixed into foods and the like. Without becoming a dangerous state,
Features that can be used safely are also realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a spherical scourer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the surface of the spherical scourer shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a manufacturing process of a spherical scourer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing an example of a mold for molding a spherical scourer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Fiber 2 ... Abrasive Grain 3 ... Adhesive 4 ... Trommel 5 ... Mold

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A three-dimensional crimp or zigzag-shaped plastic fiber (1) or a natural fiber is entangled in a three-dimensionally non-directional manner and has a gap between the fibers (1) to form a whole. Shaped into a spherical shape that can be held by hand, and assembled into a plastic fiber
A spherical scourer in which the intersections of (1) are glued and bonded together and the abrasive grains (2) are attached to the surface of the fiber (1). 2. The spherical scourer according to claim 1, wherein the surface of the plastic fiber (1) is uneven.