Paint applicator cleaning device

Abstract

A device for cleaning a paint brush B has a shaft 1 is fast in a hub 2 moulded around the shaft. Opposite from the shaft, the hub has a spigot 3 with an external screw thread 4 and a socket 5 having bore 6 opening at the end of the spigot with a counter-bore 7. A step 8 is provided at the inner end of the counter bore. At a larger diameter portion 9 of the hub, it has a small collar 10, providing at an end face 11 an abutment 12. Behind the collar is a circumferential groove 14. A paint brush tip locator 21 is partially housed in the socket 5. It has an inner stem 22, which has a bore 23 with a bottom 24 forming an abutment for a spring 25. The stem 22 is a clearance size in the bore 6. Outwards of the stem is an external collar 26, which is a clearance size in the counter-bore 7. Within the stem, outwards of the bottom 24, the tip locator has a series of step 28 in a socket 29 opening at the outer end of the locator and sized to receive a paint brush handle tip. This socket end has an outer diameter 30 intermediate the diameter of the stem 22 and the collar 26. The end portion of the socket is bifurcated with two divergent U-shaped nicks 31. When the tip locator is extended out of the socket or at least no longer accurately radially located by it, it still located by the paint-brush-handle shank holder 41, now described. It is a plastics material moulding with a tubular portion 42 having an internal screw thread 43, complementary to the external screw thread 4. Two tangs 44 extend from the tubular portion. The tangs are diametrically opposite each other and carry jaws 45 at their distal ends. At their proximal ends, the tubular portion has an internal collar 46, with an internal diameter 47 less than the internal diameter of the thread 43. The diameter 47 is a clearance diameter for the tip socket 29 of the tip locator. Thus the internal collar 46 performs the dual functions of the radially locating the tip locator and longitudinally locating against the action of the spring 25, in a position determined by the position to shank holder with respect to the hub. Long handled brushes can of course hold the tip locator further within the socket of the hub.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.