Patent Publication Number: US-7222898-B1

Title: Carpet kicker

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of the Invention 
   The invention generally relates to a carpet kicker, and more particularly to a carpet kicker that can push a free end a carpet forward for the laying a carpet, such that the carpet can be pulled, spread and fixed smoothly on the floor. 
   2. Description of the Related Art 
   Carpets are commonly laid on the floor of our home or office and give us an indoor warm and comfortable feeling. However, carpets must be laid evenly and smoothly on the floor, or else the carpets will be uneven, not only affecting its appearance, but also creating a problem of stumbling people easily. 
   If a large carpet is laid, a user usually cannot pull and spread the thick and heavy carpet smoothly by hands, and thus a carpet kicker is needed for the job. 
   Referring to  FIG. 1 , a prior art carpet kicker  70  is used to hold a free end of a carpet  62  to push it towards a pin board  60  at a wall, and the carpet kicker  70  includes a rectangular main body  71 , a kicking unit  72  installed at a front end of the main body  71 , a plurality of protruding pins  73  disposed at the bottom surface of the kicking unit  72  for hooking and pulling the carpet  62 . The height of the protruding pin  73  can be controlled by a knob  74 . The main body  11  includes a cushion  75  disposed at an end of the main body  11 , and carpet kickers of this sort are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,374,023. 
   When the carpet kicker  70  is in use, a user presses the main body  71  by hands, and pushes the cushion  75  in the arrowed direction by knees, such that the kicking unit  72  holds and moves the carpet  62  gradually towards a pin board  60  on a wall, and finally hooks an edge of the carpet  62  to a hook pin  61  of the pin board  60  to spread and fix the carpet  62 . However, such method is time-consuming and laborious, and using knees to push the cushion  75  for a long time will become an issue of professional safety. 
   Referring to  FIGS. 2 and 3  for another prior art carpet kicker  80 , the carpet kicker  80  comprises an air pressure input end  81  connected to an air compressor  90  for providing air pressure to a housing  83  through a handle  82 . The housing  83  includes a piston (not shown in the figure) for controlling a piston rod  85  to move forward and backward axially, and an external end of the piston rod  85  is connected to a hooking rod  86 , and the bottom of the hooking rod  86  includes a hook  861 . Further, a kicking unit  84  is installed at the bottom of a front end of the housing  83 . Although the carpet kicker  80  intends to pull the carpet  62  pneumatically, its application still has the following problems: 
   1. Since the piston is driven pneumatically to move the piston rod  85 , therefore an external air compressor  90  is needed to supply air pressure which is inconvenient to users. In other words, users have to carry a heavy and expensive air compressor  90  for the use of the carpet kicker  80 , and it thus makes the application impractical. 
   2. Since the interval D between a pin board  60  for fixing the carpet  62  and a skirting board  64  at the wall is only 5 mm˜10 mm, and the design does not allow the hook  861  to be installed within the interval D, and it often makes the carpet kicker  80  useless. If the interval D of the pin board  60  is increased to allow the installation of the hook  861 , the carpet will produce creases easily and affect the appearance of the carpet adversely. 
   3. More importantly, the carpet kicker  80  uses the hooking rod  86  to hook a fixed end of the pin board  60 , and then the piston board  85  is moved back and forth to pull components such as the housing  83 , handle  82  and kicking unit  84  indicated by dotted lines in the figure to move towards the wall synchronously. Furthermore, the method of using the protruding pin  841  to drive and pull the carpet  62  towards the pin board  60  is not too practical, because all of the actions for hooking and pulling the carpet  62  are centralized at the hook  861 , and the pin board  60  is lifted by the hook  861  when the carpet  62  has not been pulled evenly yet. Therefore, such method of pulling the carpet still has its inevitable drawbacks and requires further improvements. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   Therefore, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a carpet kicker, and the entire carpet kicker is fixed, and only a kicking unit holds and pushes a carpet towards a wall, so as to make the man-machine interface more convenient and achieve the effect of smoothly pulling and evenly spreading the carpet open quickly. 
   Another object of the present invention is to provide a carpet kicker that can be used as a standalone device or used together with several other carpet kickers, so that the carpet can be pushed and spread synchronously, so as to save construction time and achieve the effect of spreading the carpet more evenly and smoothly. 
   In order to achieve the above-mentioned objects, a carpet kicker includes: 
   a) a housing having a containing space, a front end, and a rear end; 
   b) a handle installed above the housing; 
   c) a motive power device installed in the containing space of the housing and having a motor for supplying electric power through an external power cable, the clockwise and counterclockwise rotations of the motor being controlled by a switch outside the housing, the motor being coupled to a reducer, a first gear being installed at an output axle of the reducer, a second gear being driven by the first gear to rotate a second gear in the housing; 
   d) a gear rack engaged with the second gear and driven by the second gear, a front section of the gear rack being extended out of a front end of the housing; and 
   e) a kicking unit coupled to a front end of the gear rack and linked by the gear rack, a bottom surface of the kicking unit having a plurality of protruding pins for hooking and holding a free end of the carpet to move forward and pull and spread the carpet. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
       FIG. 1  is a schematic view of a prior art manual carpet kicker; 
       FIG. 2  is a perspective view of a prior art pneumatic carpet kicker; 
       FIG. 3  is a schematic view of using a prior art pneumatic carpet kicker; 
       FIG. 4  is a side view of a first preferred embodiment of the invention; 
       FIG. 5  is a cross-sectional view of a first preferred embodiment of the invention; 
       FIG. 6  is a schematic view of using a first preferred embodiment of the invention; 
       FIG. 7  is an exploded view of a positioning device of the present invention; 
       FIG. 8  is a cross-sectional side view of using a second preferred embodiment of the invention; 
       FIG. 9  is a top view of using a second preferred embodiment of the invention; and 
       FIG. 10  is a side view of a third preferred embodiment of the invention. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
   Referring to  FIGS. 4 to 6 , a first preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises:
         a housing  10 , having a containing space  11 , a front end  12  and a rear end  13 ;   a handle  14 , disposed above the housing  10  and provided for a user to hold;   a motive power device  30 , installed in the containing space  11  of the housing  10  and including a motor  31 , for supplying required electric power through an external power cable  311 , and a switch  312  outside the housing  10  is used for controlling the clockwise and counterclockwise rotations or stop of the motive power device  30 . In this preferred embodiment, the switch  312  is installed at a side of the handle  20  to facilitate users to control and operate the carpet kicker, but it is not limited to such position and any other appropriate position can serve the same purpose. Further, the motor  31  is connected to a reducer  32  for retarding the speed and increasing the output torque. A first gear  33  is installed at an output axle, and the first gear  33  drives a second gear  34  in the housing  10  to rotate. In this preferred embodiment, the first gear  33  is smaller than the second gear  34 . Besides increasing the torque, such arrangement also prevents possible interference to the second gear  34  for driving a gear rack  40 .       

   The gear rack  40  is engaged with the second gear  34  and driven by the second gear  34 , and the front section of the gear rack  40  is extended out from the front end  12  of the housing  10 . In other words, the gear rack  40  can be rotated by the second gear  34  to move back and forth linearly. 
   Further, a kicking unit  50  is connected to a front end of the gear rack  40  and moved with the gear rack  40 , and the bottom surface has a plurality of protruding pins  51 , and the height of the protruding pins  51  can be controlled by a knob  52 , but it is a prior art, and thus its internal structure will not be described here. 
   From the imaginary lines indicated in  FIG. 6 , it is known that when the motor  31  is turned on, the first gear  33  and second gear  34  can drive the gear rack  40  to extend forward linearly and push the kicking unit  50  to move forward. When the gear rack  40  is extended and linked with the kicking unit  50  to move forward, the protruding pin  51  hooks a free end of the carpet  62  to be spread to the top of the pin board  60 , and a hook pin  61  hooks the carpet  62  to complete the operation of spreading the carpet. Further, foam  63  is placed under the carpet  62  before the carpet is laid. 
   In the technical characteristics of the present invention, the motive power device  30  of the housing  10  pushes the kicking unit  50  forward to spread the carpet  62 , and such operation is identical to the traditional method of using the whole carpet kicker to pull the carpet as shown in  FIGS. 2 and 3 . Further, the motive power device  30  of the invention only requires users to plug the external power cable  311  to an indoor power socket to obtain power supply without the need of using an air compressor as the power source. Further, an output power socket  313  is disposed at a lateral side of the housing  10  for supplying power to the next carpet kicker which is used simultaneously, and such arrangement makes the application more convenient and quicker. 
   In the present invention, a rear end  13  of the housing  10  is coupled to a positioning device  20 , and its detailed structure is illustrated by the exploded view as shown in  FIG. 7 . The structure comprises: 
   a connecting board  21 , with its upper section facing a rear end  13  of the housing  10  and having a first latch groove  22  facing inward and disposed on both sides, two side grooves  15  embedded into the housing  10 , at least one longitudinal hole  23  disposed at the upper end of the connecting board  21  and secured to the housing by a bolt  24 , a second latch groove  25  facing outward and disposed at a lower end of the connecting board  21 , and a transversal hole  26  disposed on the surface of the connecting board  21 ; 
   an L-shape board  27 , installed in the second latch groove  25  and a horizontal short side  271  at the bottom of the L-shape board  27  being extended from a bottom surface  251  of the second latch groove  25 ; and 
   a braking element  28 , installed at a backside of the connecting board  21  and comprising a solenoid  281  and an adjustable rod  282 , and an external end of the adjustable rod  282  being passed through a transversal hole  26  of the connecting board  21  and coupled to the L-shape board  27 , and the solenoid  281  being operated for controlling the displacement of the L-shape board  27 . 
   Referring to  FIGS. 8 and 9  for the second preferred embodiment of the present invention, the foregoing assembly of the positioning device  20  rotates the kicking unit  50  at 180° backward by using the pivoting element  53  as an axis to loosens the bolt  24  to move the positioning device  20  downward to a specific height and uses the solenoid  281  of the braking element  28  for the operation, so as to push the adjustable rod  282  outward and drive the L-shape board  27  to move outward. The horizontal short side  271  at the bottom surface is hooked to the bottom of the skirting board  64  to fix the housing  10  without a deviation or an inclination. When the L-shape board  27  is positioned, the carpet kicker can be removed, and thus several carpet kickers can be used simultaneously as shown in  FIG. 9 . A user simply needs to operate the first carpet kicker (A) to control the second one (B), the third one (C) and so on. The external power cable  311  of a third carpet kicker (C) can be connected to the power socket  313  of the previous carpet kicker (B), (A) to serve as a master system of the first carpet kicker (A), and other kickers (B), (C) become subsystems operated in parallel to push the kicking unit  50  towards the pin board  60  and also spread the carpet  62 . Such arrangement not only saves lots of time, but also provides the quality of an evener and smoother carpet and many advantages over the prior art that has to spread the carpet  62  piece by piece. 
   Referring to  FIG. 10  for a third preferred embodiment of the present invention, the second latch groove  25  of the connecting board  21  of the positioning device  20  is provided for embedding an internal latch board  291  of a cushion  29 . A user can push the cushion  29  at the rear end of the housing  10  by knees in order to push the kicking unit  50  forward and drive the carpet  62  to move forward in the arrow direction. In the carpet kicker  80  as shown in  FIGS. 2 and 3 , the housing  83  and kicking unit  84  are pulled by the piston rod  85 , and thus the user&#39;s knees cannot catch up with the operation to push the cushion  87 . Compared with the prior art carpet kicker  80 , the present invention is obviously more convenient and practical. 
   Many changes and modifications in the above-described embodiments of the invention can, of course, be carried out without departing from the scope thereof. Accordingly, to promote the progress in science and the useful arts, the invention is disclosed and is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.