Abstract:
A flip mop apparatus has a handle; a mop head mounted on the handle; a sheet flipper mounted on the mop head; and a cleaning sheet mounted to the sheet flipper. The sheet flipper has an outside arm and an inside arm that are movable and configured to transpose between a first mode and a second mode for flipping the cleaning sheet that has a first edge mounted to the outside arm and a second edge mounted to the inside arm. The sheet flipper may have an inside gear in gear connection with an outside gear. The inside gear may have gear connection with the outside gear through an intermediate gear. The inside gear may have inside gear outside teeth meshing with intermediate gear teeth on the intermediate gear. Intermediate gear teeth also mesh with outside gear inside teeth.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention is in the field of floor mops. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    A variety of floor dusters and floor mops have been used for cleaning floors. The floor duster and floor mops typically provide a handle connected to a head that can swivel for traveling over a surface of a floor. Typically, a fabric such as a cloth or paper sheet is attached to the bottom of the cleaning head. The fabric has been made disposable for disposal after its cleaning surface is used. 
         [0003]    Since the fabric is disposable, it has been desired to provide a reversible cleaning pad. Cleaning pads such as shown in Poloichicchio entitled Cleaning Pads, U.S. Pat. No. 7,028,364 issued Apr. 18, 2006 provides for a cleaning pad which can be manually reversed, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Unfortunately, people really do not like to touch the mop head since it is dirty. One method to allow reversing while avoiding touching the mop head is shown in Gullicks entitled dual sided flip mop United States patent publication 20070107153 published May 17, 2007, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, uses a large clip for clipping a sheet that can then be reversed. 
         [0004]    A variety of mechanisms have been attached to mops for assisting in wringing, for example in Popeil entitled wringer mop, U.S. Pat. No. 3,699,603 issued Oct. 24, 1972, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, provides for a mop that has a wringing mechanism attached to a mop for manipulating the wringing of the mop head without touching the mop head. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    A flip mop apparatus has a handle; a mop head mounted on the handle; a sheet flipper mounted on the mop head; and a cleaning sheet mounted to the sheet flipper. The sheet flipper has an outside arm and an inside arm that are movable and configured to transpose between a first mode and a second mode for flipping the cleaning sheet that has a first edge mounted to the outside arm and a second edge mounted to the inside arm. 
         [0006]    The sheet flipper may have an inside gear in gear connection with an outside gear. The inside gear may have gear connection with the outside gear through an intermediate gear. The inside gear may have inside gear outside teeth meshing with intermediate gear teeth on the intermediate gear. Intermediate gear teeth also mesh with outside gear inside teeth. The inside gear is mounted to the inside arm and the outside gear is mounted to the outside arm. A main gear can be mounted on the mop head in rotational configuration relative to the mop head. The main gear may have main gear teeth that mesh with inside gear inside teeth. The inside gear is mounted to either the outside arm or the inside arm and the inside gear is mounted to either the inside arm or the outside arm. 
         [0007]    The mop head further may have a lower housing and an upper housing fitting over the lower housing. The mop head has a mop handle connection including a swivel joint mounted to a swivel joint base. The swivel joint base is mounted to the lower housing. The mop head further comprises an inside frame, and the inside frame has a swivel connection to the handle since the inside frame is mounted to the lower housing of the mop head. The outside arm may have a first slot for retaining the sheet, and the inside arm may have a second slot for retaining the sheet. The outside arm may have an outside arm inside portion angled to an outside arm terminal portion, and the inside arm may have an inside arm inside portion angled to an inside arm terminal portion. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]      FIG. 1  is an isometric exploded view diagram of the present invention. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  is a perspective view exploded view diagram of the present invention. 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  is a top view diagram of the present invention. 
           [0011]      FIG. 4  is a perspective view of the present invention in a first position. 
           [0012]      FIG. 5  is a perspective view of the present invention moving from the first position to a halfway position. 
           [0013]      FIG. 6  is a perspective view of the present invention moving from the first position to a halfway position. 
           [0014]      FIG. 7  is a perspective view of the present invention moving from the first position to a halfway position. 
           [0015]      FIG. 8  is a perspective view of the present invention in a halfway position. 
           [0016]      FIG. 9  is a perspective view of the present invention moving from the halfway position to the second position. 
           [0017]      FIG. 10  is a perspective view of the present invention moving from the halfway position to the second position. 
           [0018]      FIG. 11  is a perspective view of the present invention moving from the halfway position to the second position. 
           [0019]      FIG. 12  is a perspective view of the present invention in the second position. 
           [0020]      FIG. 13  is a diagram of a second embodiment sheet flipper. 
           [0021]      FIG. 14  is a diagram of a second embodiment sheet flipper. 
       
    
    
       [0022]    The following call out list of elements may serve as a reference for the figures.
     30  Mop Handle Connection     31  Swivel Joint     32  Swivel Joint Base     33  First Swivel Joint Hinge     34  Second Swivel Joint Hinge     35  Swivel Joint Hinge Opening     36  First Pair Of Swivel Joint Protrusion     38  Second Pair Of Swivel Joint Protrusion     40  Lower Housing     41  Inside Frame     42  First Set Of Ribs     43  Second Set Of Ribs     44  Top Retainer     46  Axle Support     47  Opening     49  Gear Device Depression     50  Upper Housing     51  Main Gear     52  Main Gear Tooth     53  Inside Gear     54  Intermediate Gear     55  Outside Gear     56  Main Gear Tabs     60  Inside Arm     61  Inside Arm Slot     62  Inside Arm Terminal Portion     63  Inside Arm Inside Portion     70  Outside Arm     71  Outside Arm Slot     72  Outside Arm Terminal Portion     73  Outside Arm Inside Portion     82  Inside Gear Outside Tooth     83  Intermediate Gear Inside Tooth     84  Outside Gear Inside Tooth     87  Outside Arm Shaft     88  Sheet     90  Retainer     91  Retainer Profile     95  Handle     99  Wire Head   
 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0063]    The mop has a handle and a head. The present invention is directed to the head of the mop. The head of the mop is mounted on the handle. The handle  95  can be a broomstick handle made of wood, plastic or a metal pole. The mop handle connection  30  connects between the mop handle and the mop head. The mop handle connection includes a swivel joint  31  that allows swiveling of the handle left and right as well as up-and-down. The swivel joint  31  is mounted in a hinge apparatus. The hinge apparatus preferably comprises a pair of swivel joint hinges, namely a first swivel joint hinge  33  and a second swivel joint hinge  34  protruding from a swivel joint base  32 . The swivel joint base  32  is fixedly attached to the mop head at an inside frame  41  so that the mop handle can steer the direction of the mop head travel. 
         [0064]    The pair of swivel joint hinges are formed as columns rising from the swivel joint base, and can be made of the same piece of material as the swivel joint base. The pair of columns form a yoke for retaining the swivel joint  31 . The swivel joint has a first pair of swivel joint protrusions  36  that fit into the swivel joint hinge openings  35  of the first swivel joint hinge and the second swivel joint hinge. The second pair of swivel joint protrusions  38  are on the swivel joint  31  and serve to allow left and right motion on a handle yoke opposite the swivel joint hinge  33 . 
         [0065]    The mop head has a top housing and a bottom housing. The upper housing  50  encloses an upper surface of the mop head and a lower housing  40  encloses a lower surface of the mop head. The inside arm  60  holds a first edge of a cleaning sheet, and the outside arm  70  holds a second edge of a cleaning sheet. An outside arm is mounted on the outside arm shaft  87 . The movement of the inside arm and outside arm are controlled by a main gear  51 . The main gear  51  has a pair of main gear tabs  56  that protrude from a top surface of the main gear  51 . The main gear  51  has a plurality of main gear teeth  52  disposed in a circumferential arrangement around the side of the main gear  51 . The main gear tooth  52  interacts with a plurality of teeth on an inside surface of an inside gear  53 . The inside gear  53  is oriented normal to the main gear  51  such that rotation of the main gear about an axis basically orthogonal to the floor results in rotation of the inside gear  53  in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. The inside gear  53  is meshed with intermediate gears  54 . Preferably, there are a pair of intermediate gears  54  for transferring motion of the inside gear  53  to an outside gear  55 . The intermediate gears  54 , reverse the rotation of the outside gear  55  relative to the movement of the inside gear  53 . 
         [0066]    The outside arm  70  has an outside arm shaft  87  that is connected to the inside gear  53 . When the outside arm  70  moves with the outside shaft  87 , the outside shaft  87  moves with and is connected to the inside gear  53 . The outside arm  70  has an outside arm terminal portion  72  at a right angle to an outside arm inside portion  73  when the sheet  88  is rectangular and has right angle corners. The outside arm terminal portion  72  preferably has a pair of outside arm slots  71  which can be used for connecting a sleeve of a cloth to the outside arm terminal portion  72 . Optionally, hardware such as a clip can be inserted into the outside arm slots  71  to allow connection and removable connection between the outside arm slots  71  and the cleaning cloth or cleaning sheet. Similarly, the inside arm  60  has an inside arm terminal portion  62  that is normally oriented at a right angle from an inside arm inside portion  63  when the sheet is rectangular and has right angle corners. The inside arm inside portion  63  is connected to and moves with the outside gear  55 . 
         [0067]    The motion of a sheet flipper flips the sheet  88  so that a user can use the opposite side of a sheet after using a first side of a sheet for wiping the floor. This allows more than one use of a sheet, since a sheet has a pair of surfaces which can be called a front side and a backside, or otherwise a first side and a second side such as by any naming convention including the terms a primary side and a secondary side or by the letters side A and side B. The operation of the sheet flipper is synchronized. The outside arm  70  swings from a left side of the mop head to the right side of the mop head and can reciprocate back to the left side of the mop head. The inside arm  60  can also swing from a left side of the mop head to the right side of the mop head. The inside arm and outside arm are arranged so that they do not strike each other while swinging past each other. The inside arm is configured to be inside the outside arm. The outside arm passes over the inside arm when swinging past the inside arm. The inside arm and outside arm are configured to be swinging simultaneously as in a scissor action in a balanced and opposing movement. 
         [0068]    A number of gears for making the scissor action sheet flipper can be stored in a gear device depression  49 . The gear device, namely the inside gear  53 , the outside gear  55  and the intermediate gears  54  preferably fit in a gear depression  49  which retains the gears in a housing  40 . Another optional feature of the present invention is that the sheet may have a string or elastic cord passing from one end of the sheet to another end of the sheet, such as any string or elastic cord passing from a first end of the sheet to a second end of the sheet, or such as a string or elastic cord passing from a right end of the sheet to a left end of the sheet. The gear device may have an opening in the outside gear for allowing passage of the outside arm shaft  87  to connect between the outside arm and the inside gear so that the inside gear rotates with the outside arm. 
         [0069]    The inside frame  41  can be made as a removable portion or removable modular portion from the lower housing  40 . The inside frame preferably includes a plurality of ribs such as a first set of ribs  42  and a second set of ribs  43  which engage with slots in a top surface of the lower housing. The inside frame  41  preferably also includes an axle support  46  and an opening  47  to allow the lower housing  40  to connect to the swivel joint base  32  without the swivel joint base  32  interfering with the main gear  51 . The main gear  51  is preferably made with a hollow portion in the middle so that the main gear  51  turns around the swivel joint base  32  in a motion that can be clockwise in one direction require counterclockwise in the opposite direction. 
         [0070]    A top retainer  44  can engage with the upper housing  50  or snap together with the upper housing  50  to secure the inside frame  41  to the upper housing  50 . The inside frame  41  can be made as a frame shaped structure with a number of gaps  45  between the ribs on the frame structure. 
         [0071]    The sheet  88  reverses in orientation and is attached at each end to the flipping arms of the sheet flipper. The second embodiment sheet flipper can be used with the present invention for flipping the sheet. The sheet flipper can be made with gearing, and can also be made by a wire spring which can be a single length of flexible wire with a retainer fit over the wire. The wire can be of resiliency similar to a wire coat hanger. As seen in  FIG. 13 , a wire spring having a wire head  99  comprises a loop for biasing a retainer  90  across a retainer profile  91 . The retainer  90  can be slid down the retainer profile  91  so that the outside arm  70  moves to the right while the inside arm  60  moves to the left. The inside arm terminal portion  62  passes over the outside arm terminal portion  72 . The inside arm  60  an outside arm  70  can be attached to a pole handle for improved stability. The ends of the inside arm terminal portion  62  and the outside arm terminal portion  72  can be hooked for receiving ends of sleeves of a sheet  88 . The retainer profile  91  is narrow at the top and wider at the bottom. The retainer profile  91  is adapted to the retainer  90 . The retainer  90  is a collar such as a loop of fabric or leather or wire, or a plastic which slides down to constrict the retainer profile members  91  and reverse the positions of the inside arm terminal portion  62  with the outside arm terminal portion  72  which also reverses the cloth or paper cleaning sheet  88 . The wire head  99  is optional, and the radius of curvature is variable for variable stiffness according to the stiffness of the metal used in the spring. 
         [0072]    Therefore, while the presently preferred forms of the invention has been shown and described, and several modifications thereof discussed, persons skilled in this art will readily appreciate that various additional changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, as defined and differentiated by the following claims.