Hand-Mounted Cleaning Tool

Abstract

The invention seeks to provide a hand-mounted cleaning tool comprising a palm portion and a finger-covering portion, wherein the finger-covering portion is provided with a scouring surface on a back side thereof.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 61 / 511,483, filed Jul. 25, 2011 and entitled “HAND-MOUNTED CLEANING TOOL”, which provisional application is incorporated herein in its entirety; and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to Canadian patent application 2,742,477, filed Jun. 9, 2011, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The invention relates to cleaning tools, and specifically to cleaning tools mounted or worn on a user's hand.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]The washing of food preparation, serving and eating wares is a widespread daily practice in much of the world, and it has been a common practice for millennia. The actual basic practice for cleaning such items as pots, dishes and cups has remained relatively stable over the centuries in terms of standard tools and methods, although the development of various cleaning implements to enhance the eff...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0011]The cleaning tool may take the form of a glove or mitt, or a portion thereof, and may be elasticized at the user's wrist for enhanced retention. Where the cleaning tool is in the form of a glove, the fingers are preferably shortened, which can help to enable adequate control of the objects to be cleaned while ensuring that the scouring surfaces are more easily directed and the application force controlled. The scouring surface may be located at a distal end of the finger-covering portion or along the length of the finger-covering portion, and may extend over the tip of the finger.

[0013]A cleaning tool in accordance with the present invention, therefore, can provide an effective cleaning solution that manifests the advantages of numerous cleaning functionalities in one tool. When a gentle cleaning is required, the palm of the tool can be used, providing a large cleaning surface to enable more efficient and thorough washing of soiled wares, and there are no scouring elements that could potentially damage sensitive ware coatings or painted finishes. When scouring is required, however, the user can curl the fingers over and apply the backs of the fingers to the soiled wares, enabling the action of the scouring surfaces against the encrusted particles. Different target wares can be cleaned effectively and safely with a single, easy-to-use cleaning tool.

Problems solved by technology

For example, it can be awkward to hold a dishcloth in one hand while attempting to manipulate the soiled wares with the other hand, and holding the wares with the dishcloth itself can be challenging given the slick coating of soapy water on the wares; the result is that a user must normally drop the dishcloth into the soiled water in order to handle the wares, and then pick up the dishcloth again, which process is repeated numerous times during a washing session.

Also, the dishcloth often ends up being compressed into a ball-shaped wad during the cleaning exercise, which reduces the effective cleaning area of the dishcloth and decreases the efficiency of the cleaning process.

In addition, the common dishcloth is designed to effect gentle scrubbing of wares, not scouring, and a user must therefore switch back and forth between the dishcloth and a separate scouring tool to remove encrusted particles, as applying more abrasive tools to sensitive wares such as coated cooking pots or painted dishes as the primary cleaning tool would be ultimately destructive.

U.S. Design Pat. No. D632,859 to Firouzman discloses a cleaning and scouring glove, but it is clear from the drawings that the abrasive scouring surface covers the entire palmar surface and accordingly cannot provide a cleaning experience akin to a dishcloth.

It appears to be entirely limited to the scouring of wares that are encrusted with undesirable build-up.

Again, as with Firouzman, the user would lose the benefits provided by the common dishcloth and would have a tool that appears to be too abrasive for cleaning certain objects.

While the combination of cleaning and scouring features is desirable, it is submitted that such a glove having scouring surfaces on the sides of the fingers would be awkward to use and would likely have reduced effectiveness.

In addition, ergonomic factors would suggest that using such a glove might introduce undesired strain to the user's hand and wrist.

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