Tubular knit fabric having alternating courses of sliver fiber pile and cut-pile for paint roller covers

#The present invention relates generally to knit pile fabrics that may be used to produce paint rollers, and more particularly to a tubular knit pile fabric that is manufactured with the pile extending from the outer side thereof and in an extended length, small diameter configuration, the tubular knit pile fabric subsequently being separable into shorter tubular segments that may be secured to paint roller cover cores to produce seamless paint rollers.

#The two inventions which have had the greatest impact on paint application are the invention of the paint roller in the 1930's and the development of water-based paint in the late 1940's. While water-based paints are easy to mix, apply, and clean up, there is little doubt that the paint roller has been the greatest single time saving factor in the paint application process, allowing large surfaces to be painted with a uniform coat of paint quickly and easily. Typically, paint rollers are comprised of two components, namely a handle assembly and a paint roller cover for installation onto the handle assembly.

#The handle assembly consists of a grip member having a generally L-shaped metal frame extending therefrom, with the free end of the metal frame having a rotatable support for a paint roller cover mounted thereon. The paint roller cover consists of a thin, hollow cylindrical core which fits upon the rotatable support of the handle, with a plush pile fabric being secured to the outer diameter of the paint roller cover. The core may be made of either cardboard or plastic material, with which material is used for the core generally being determined based upon the selling price of the paint roller cover. The pile fabric is traditionally applied as a strip which is helically wound onto the outer surface of the core with adjacent windings of the fabric strip being located close adjacent each other to provide the appearance of a single continuous pile fabric covering on the core.

#These and other advantages of the present invention are best understood with reference to the drawings, in which:

#FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a segment of tubular cut-pile knit paint roller fabric made according to the teachings of the present invention with the cut-pile extending outwardly, showing a tubular knit base having cut-pile segments extending outwardly therefrom;

#FIG. 2 is a schematic isometric depiction showing an end of a tubular paint roller cover fabric illustrated in FIG. 1 about to be slid onto the outer surface of a core member over an adhesive located on the outer surface of the core member;

#FIG. 1 shows a first exemplary embodiment of a tubular-shaped knitted covering 100 for a paint roller having pile fibers 102 made up of alternating courses of sliver fiber pile and cut-pile extending from a lightweight knit backing or base material 104, that is knitted according to one of the methods and using an apparatus of the type disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/871,307 and in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/249,455. As will be readily understood by those having skill in the art, the tubular knit segment 100, having a pile 102 made up of alternating courses of sliver fiber pile and cut-pile, may be readily pulled over and affixed to a core 106 by an adhesive 105, as illustrated in FIGS. 2-4, to form a completed roller cover 107 according to one of the methods shown in the inventor's commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/740,119, 12/015,612, 12/100,050, 12/132,774, or another appropriate manner, without the necessity for resorting to helically wrapping a strip of pile fabric about the core as was required in prior roller covers.

#Referring next to FIG. 5, a segment of the tubular knit segment 100 having a pile 102 made up of alternating courses of sliver fiber pile and cut-pile is shown in schematic form, from the outside thereof, to illustrate the knit of the knit base material 104, and the manner in which tufts of sliver fiber 108 and loops of cut-pile fiber 110 are woven into the knit base material 104 to form the pile 102 made up of alternating courses of sliver fiber pile and cut-pile. Those skilled in the art will at once realize that while the tufts 111 of the sliver fiber 108 shown in FIG. 5 include only a few fibers each for added clarity and understanding of the construction of the pile fabric 20, tufts 111 of sliver fibers 108 in the pile 102 of the tubular sliver knit segment 100 will actually include sufficient sliver pile fibers 108 to help form a pile 102 that is sufficiently dense for the intended use of the tubular shaped knit segment 100 in the manufacture of a paint roller cover 107.

#The preferred embodiment of the knit paint roller fabric having alternating courses of sliver fiber pile and cut-pile of the present invention produces a tubular knit paint roller fabric segment 100, having alternating courses of sliver fiber pile and cut-pile, as shown in FIG. 1 that may be continuously knitted in an extended length. It may be seen from a top edge 112 of the knit base material 104 that the tubular knit segment 100 has an essentially circular cross section. The tubular knit segment 100 may be knitted in as long a length as desired, notwithstanding that FIG. 1 only shows a relatively short segment of the tubular knit segment 100.