Cleaning system
AssigneeRyko Canada, Inc.
InventorDaniel J. MacNeil
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods, systems and apparatuses for are disclosed for cleaning a vehicle wheel surface on a vehicle wheel with a brush. A brush may comprise a plurality of resilient brush elements having varying lengths. The methods may provide for rotating the brush elements such that at any time during at least some of the plurality of brush elements are in engagement with the wheel surface. The wheel surface may be engaged by brush elements that have a length that changes cyclically and the brush elements may also cyclically vary the contact pressure between brush elements and the vehicle surface.
Claims24
A system for cleaning a vehicle wheel, said system comprising a brush mounted on a longitudinally oriented shaft for rotation in a path centered around the shaft at a suitable height to clean said wheel, said brush comprising a plurality of resilient scrubbing members extending different radial distances from said shaft to engage said wheel, such that said scrubbing members exert cyclically varying pressure against said wheel while said brush is rotated, wherein said rotation is about an axis offset from a center of a circular envelope of said brush defined by the smallest circle that circumscribes all of said scrubbing elements of said brush, at rest.
A brush assembly for mounting on a shaft defining a rotational axis in a system to clean a vehicle wheel, said brush assembly comprising first and second brush components, each of said first and second brush components comprising a plurality of resilient scrubbing members extending differing distances from said shaft, such that said resilient scrubbing members exert cyclically varying pressure on said wheel while said brush assembly is rotated;
- said first brush component being mounted on said shaft at a first angular position, and said second brush component being mounted on said shaft at a second angular position different from said first angular position, such that said first and second brush components rotate out of phase with each other;
- wherein said rotational axis is offset from a center of a circular envelope of said brush defined by the smallest circle that circumscribes all of said scrubbing elements of said brush, at rest.
A method of cleaning a vehicle wheel surface on a vehicle wheel with a brush, said brush comprising a plurality of resilient scrubbing members having varying lengths, said method comprising rotating said brush to scrub said wheel with said scrubbing members, such that at any time during said rotating at least some of said plurality of scrubbing members are in engagement with said wheel surface, such that the lengths of scrubbing members engaging said wheel surface change cyclically and said scrubbing members exert cyclically varying contact pressure against said vehicle surface, wherein said rotating is about an axis offset from a center of a circular envelope of said brush defined by the smallest circle that circumscribes all of said scrubbing elements of said brush, at rest.
A system for cleaning a vehicle wheel surface on a vehicle wheel, said system comprising:
- (a) a rotator
- (b) a brush on said rotator comprising a plurality of resilient scrubbing members extending differing distances from said rotator;
- said rotator operable to rotate said brush about said rotator such that at any time during rotation at least some of said plurality of resilient scrubbing members are in engagement with said wheel surface, such that the lengths of scrubbing members engaging said wheel surface change cyclically and said scrubbing members exert cyclically varying contact pressure against said wheel surface, wherein said rotator is mounted on an axis offset from a center of a circular envelope of said brush defined by the smallest circle that circumscribes all of said scrubbing elements of said brush, at rest.
A wheel cleaning device having a brush mounted for rotation about a hub proximate a wheel of a vehicle, said brush having a plurality of resilient scrubbing members extending differing distances from said hub to engage said wheel, such that said resilient scrubbing members exert cyclically varying pressure against said wheel while said brush is rotated, wherein said rotation is about an axis offset from a center of a circular envelope of said brush defined by the smallest circle that circumscribes all of said scrubbing elements of said brush, at rest.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.