Brush cleaning device

April 21, 1964

T. COLAIANNI

BRUSH CLEANING DEVICE Filed Dec. 4, 1962

3,129,451

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United States Patent Office

3,129,451

Patented Apr. 21, 1964

3,129,451

BRUSH CLEANING DEVICE

Thomas Colaianm, 88—32 20th Ave., Brooklyn 14, N.Y.

Filed Dec. 4, 1962, Ser. No. 242,265

Claims. (CL 15—303)

The present invention relates to a brush cleaning device, in general, and to such device, which permits not only cleaning, but also sterilization of a plurality of brushes independently or simultaneously, in particular.

It is well known that comb cleaning devices have been known for an appreciable time, yet hair brushes were usually cleaned and disinfected or sterilized in beauty parlors as a rule manually, in spite of the fact that such cleaning is a time-consuming procedure.

It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide a brush cleaning device, which comprises means for supporting a plurality of hair brushes and wherein a rotary brush is coordinated to each of the hair brushes to be cleaned. Furthermore means are provided to sub- 20 ject the rotary brushes to a preferably substantially vertical reciprocating movement along the hair brushes, which cleans each of the coordinated brushes during such striking reciprocating movement.

It is another object of the present invention to provide 25 a brush cleaning device, in which a plurality of hair brushes is disposed for mechanical cleaning by means of rotary brushes and wherein the hair brushes are simultaneously subjected to a spray of steam, in order to bring about sterilization of the hair brushes during their me- 39 chanical cleaning.

With these and other objects in view, which will become apparent in the following detailed description, the present invention will be clearly understod in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is an exploded perspective view of the brush cleaning device;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary end view of the device; and member 15 comprises two oppositely disposed carriers 16 which are equipped with horizontally outwardly projecting pins 17, on which upper rollers 18 and lower roLers 19 are rotatably mounted. The upper rollers 18 are arranged towards the rear portion of the oppositely disposed carriers 16, while the lower rollers 19 are arranged at the most forward portion of the oppositely disposed carriers 16. By this arrangement, it is possible to have the rollers 18 run on the rear face of the posts 14, while the bottom rollers 19 run on the front face of the posts 14.

The oppositely disposed carriers 16 are rigidly connected by means of a connecting bar 20. An arm 21 projects forwardly from each of the carriers 16 and a plurality of shafts 22 are rotatably mounted across to and between the oppositely disposed arms 21. The shafts 22 are arranged parallel relative to each other and spaced apart at a distance substantially equal with the distance of the boards 11. Each of the shafts 22 has keyed thereto . a plurality of rotary brushes 23, the latter being axially spaced apart from each other for a distance substantially equal with the spaces provided between each pair of adjacent clamping means 12 on the boards 11, so that a rotary brush 23 is coordinated to each hair brush 13 to be cleaned, as will be set forth below.

The shafts 22 project through the arms 21 and carry at their outer ends outside of the arms 21 a sprocket wheel or belt pulley 24, whereby a single belt or chain 25 engages each of the sprocket wheels or belt pulleys 24 disposed adjacent each of the arms 21.

. One of the arms 21 has secured thereto a horizontally disposed board 26, which carries an electric motor 27 including a motor shaft 28 which has at its end a pulley or sprocket wheel 29, which drives the belt or chain 25 35 and thereby rotates simultaneously all shafts 22 and, hence all rotary brushes 23.

The motor shaft 28 has an additional pulley or sprocket m 3 » . «ή *y .be lines 3-i MAT’ ~ Vs“ fiTbS ““ ώ! to · ·“ 33 rotatably mounted between tb.

tained, that the brush cleaning device comprises a base 1, in which an electric heating body 2 is inserted and supported, the electric heating body being equipped with feeding cables 2'.

^{01 er}? ^Wlth water is disposed on top to the 45 secured between the posts 14. The longitudinal axis of heating body 2, the water m the boiler 3 being brought the shaft 33 is disposed in a vertical plane extending to a boiling point by means of the electric heating body 2.

The boiler 3 is preferably an elongated body having a bottom wall, side walls and a top wall 4, and a plurality Α^,,ν,.Α, _lullcls of nozzles 5 project upwardly from the latter and through 50 ber 15 will be lifted for wmch nozzles 5 steam produced in the boiler 3 escapes ' ' in upward direction. A casing 6 is mounted on top of the boiler 3, which casing 6 has an open bottom and an open top, yet is equipped with lateral slots 7, preferably in two oppositely disposed side walls 8 of the casing 6.

A platform 9 is disposed at the bottom of the casing 6, which platform 9 has a plurality of bores 19 disposed in the same pattern as and complementary to the nozzles 5 arranged in the top wall 4 of the boiler 3, in order two opposite carriers 16. Preferably two cam discs 34 are keyed to the. shaft 33, which cam discs 34 are adapted to engage continuously corresponding follower rollers 35 rotatably mounted on an axle 36 which is rigidly Oa^TtrQ^ Τ,λ+,τ,,α 4.L. _ £ Λ I ,« 1 . .. . ^J * , , a — Aw_JloILLlul,i_al cvAia υϊ tile shaft 33 is disposed in a vertical plane extending through the longitudinal axis of the axle 36.

Due to the continuous engagement of the cam discs 34 u « ^r°^U®^{rs 35}’ ^{the entire su}PP°rting memλ j-cc '---------T ^a sfroke which is identical with the difference between the smallest radius and the largest radius of the cam discs 34. Since the follower rollers 35 are rotatably, but otherwise immovably mounted on the axle 36, the entire supporting member 15 performs 55 a vertical reciprocating movement, upon starting the electric motor 27, jointly with all of the shafts 22 and thus with the rotary brushes 23, the latter being subjected simultaneously to rotation. Since each of the rotary brushes 23, being a part of the supporting member 15 TIArTi-irrwc r» —__ί_____ζ· . ’ ♦ t-r----- —·*—zv, UXLV1VVJ p«AOO“ mg over each of the hair brushes 13 coordinated thereto, the rotary brushes 23 bring about a mechanical cleaning of the hair brushes 13 during such reciprocating substantially vertical movement. In order to permit such re65 ciprocatmg substantially vertical movement, the shafts 22 are assembled or secured to the arms 21 after extending through the slots 7 of the casing 6 or by any other suitable means well known to the men skilled in the art, t— ~ . . .· that the shafts 22 can move in the slots Ηπτΐπο· ιΐτοϊ—

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zation of the hair brushes 13 is desired, though such sterilization can be obtained independently from the meS rfti ^{D0ZZleS 5 int}° ^{a correspondin}s ^bore 60 P^forms a’vertical reciprocating movement thereby past wot tne piattorm 9. . mg over each of ths hair i-x

A plurality of vertically disposed boards 11 are secured to the. platform 9 spaced apart from each other at a predetermined distance in coordination with the bores 10 provided in the platform 9, which boards 11 are disposed substantially parallel to each other and are equipped with clamping means 12 adapted to suspend the brushes 13, one of which is shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings by the clamping means 12.

vertical direction, which posts 14 are adapted to operate as tracks for a supporting member 15. The supporting

3,129, 3 chanical cleaning, steam will extend from the nozzles 5 into the casing 6 and move upwardly along the hair brushes 13 to escape finally through the slots 7 of the casing 6.

During the reciprocating movement of the supporting 5 member 15, the carriers 16 will move upwardly and downwardly, respectively, along the posts 14, whereby the upper rollers 18 will engage the rear face of the posts 14 and the lower rollers 19 will engage the front face of the posts 14. The cam discs 34 will, during 10 rotation thereof, bring about a lifting of the supporting member 15, while the downward or return movement is achieved by the weight of the supporting member or unit 15, so that continuous engagement is brought about between the outer face of the cam discs 34 and the fol- 15 lower rollers 35.

It is also possible to remove the boards 11 together with the platform 9 as one unit and insert the hair brushes 13, while being removed from the device, and upon insertion of the platform 9 with its boards 11 into the 20 casing 6, all hair brushes 13 clamped to the boards 11 can be subjected to the cleaning and sterilization process as set forth above.

In order to obtain simultaneously the mechanical cleaning of the hair brushes 13 by the rotary brushes 23, as 25 well as the sterilization by escape of the steam, it is possible to operate the electric motor 27 by a thermostat (not shown) in such manner, that the electric motor starts operation only upon obtaining a predetermined steam temperature, so that the mechanical cleaning takes 30 place only after steam has been formed in the boiler 3. Additionally, a time switch (not shown) can be provided for the electric motor 27, in order to shut off the operation automatically after a cleaning operation for any predetermined time period, as for instance, 5 to 10 minutes.

As clearly shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the lowermost position of the carrier 16 is shown in full lines in FIG. 2, while the uppermost position is indicated in dotted lines.

While I have disclosed one embodiment of the present invention, it is to be understood that this embodiment is given by example only and not in a limiting sense, the scope of the present invention being determined by the objects and the claims.