Floor cleaning mop and squeezing mechanism therefor

Abstract

A cleaning mechanism comprises a handle, a mop head connected to the handle, and a cleaning head of absorbent material (i.e., absorbent strips or a sponge, etc.) connected to the mop head and disposed beneath a lower surface thereof. A strainer mounted on a pail includes an upwardly facing surface, and a retainer lip for receiving an edge of the mop head to form a fulcrum about which the mop head can be swung for compressing the cleaning head between the upwardly facing surface of the strainer and the downwardly facing surface of the mop head. The downwardly facing surface of the mop head is of convex curvature when viewed in side elevation, and the upwardly facing surface of the strainer is of complementary concave curvature. This achieves a uniform squeezing of the cleaning head when the mop head is swung about the fulcrum to compress the cleaning head between the surfaces of the mop head and strainer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.