Patent Publication Number: US-4059865-A

Title: Shoe cleaning mat

Description:
The innovation concerns a device for cleaning shoe gear in the configuration of traversible mat of rubber, synthetic material or metal, providing recesses or depressions arranged between grate-formed webs. 
     With such mats which are placed in the region of entry doors of buildings, preferably in recesses of the floor, there are to be removed or stripped away dirt or contamination adhering to the shoe gear. The mat webs which simultaneously must take up the entire loading are subjected accordingly to a considerable wear, otherwise the cleaning effect thereof is extremely nominal, especially with respect to dirt or parts thereof which as the consequence of the composition thereof, the moisture thereof or for other reasons, adhere securely to the soles, since this dirt resists the movement between the shoes and the webs of the mat during movement or walking on the mat. 
     The object of the innovation is now to improve the effectiveness of the device upon the shoe gear by way of arrangement of brushes projecting over the webs (walking or traversing surface). 
     Inventively, this object becomes resolved with brush bodies which are held in the recesses between the webs and having brushes thereof projecting over the webs. 
     The innovative arrangement of the brushes involves not being installed directly in the material of the mat but rather in brush bodies which are insertable in the mat thereby offering production or finishing of the brushes in a cost advantageous manner on the one hand and accordingly on the other hand also still providing for the device the advantage that worn brushes can become replaced easily and the wear of the mat base body becomes considerably reduced since the webs still only have a supporting function but no cleaning function anymore. 
     In a preferred embodiment of the innovation, there are projections provided on the walls of the recesses which can be multi-cornered or round which engage over or into the brush body. In this manner, the brush bodies are held so rigidly in the mat that the same cannot become lost during cleaning and/or bending of the mat and upon wearing away of the brushes, the same can still be easily interchanged. The recesses of the mat can be closed at the bottom or floor or can be provided with perforations and the brush bodies can be rings of circular form or angular or cornered configuration. The dirt brushed off from the shoe gear falls through the perforations or breakthroughs and ring openings in the brush bodies and the dirt becomes caught in the bedding of the mat out of which the dirt can become removed from time to time. 
     The cleaning effect of the innovative device can be adapted or matched to the particular requirements with the selection of the brush stiffness, brush elasticity and brush return-setting force, as well as the length of the projection of the bristles or brushes over the walking or traversing surface of the mat and the distribution thereof over the mat surface. Thereby, it has proved especially valuable to arrange the bristles or brushes in the brush bodies so that the bristles project at an incline as to the upper surface of the mat and extend therefrom whereby the bristles or brushes develop the greatest cleaning effect during the slightest wear. By way of the incline position of the bristles or brushes, the same brush or sweep because of the elasticity thereof both during stepping thereon and also by way of the return-setting effect automatically during lifting of the shoe soles therefrom which means without the otherwise conventional to and fro cleaning movement of the shoe gear. 
    
    
     Certain sample embodiments of the innovation become described with respect to the drawings. These and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly from the following specification in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective section view of a device for cleaning the shoe gear; 
     FIG. 2 is a section taken longitudinally along line II--II of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is a section corresponding to that of FIG. 2 through a different embodiment of the innovation; 
     FIG. 4 is a section similar to that of FIG. 2 through a further innovative device for cleaning of shoe gear. 
    
    
     Referring now to the drawings in detail, the treading-off or stepping-off device embodied as a mat consists of a base body 1, preferably of rubber or synthetic material with which a multiplicity of round depressions or recesses 3 of which the bottom provides passages or breakthroughs 4 (FIGS. 1 and 2) or of which the bottoms are closed (FIGS. 3 and 4) there are annular or ring-formed brush bodies 5 inserted therein. On the walls of the recesses, there are projections 6 or 6&#39; provided which engage over the brush bodies 5 (FIG. 2) or in a groove 7 extending around the outer periphery thereof (FIG. 3) into the brush bodies 5&#39; and thereby holding the brush bodies removably in the recess 3&#39;. The bristles or brushes 10 anchored in the brush bodies 5, 5&#39; project at an incline over the upper surface of the base body 1, 1&#39; so that the brushes carry out the cleaning effect upon shoe gear during stepping or walking upon the mat while the weight of the individual stepping or walking on the mat is carried by the webs 2, 2&#39;. 
     With the embodiment according to FIG. 4, it is to be noted that the closed bottom of the recess 3&#34; is provided with a mushroom-formed stud or projection 8 which cooperates with an undercut or inner groove 9 of the brush body 5&#34; for holding the brush body 5&#34; in the recess 3&#34;. 
     There is possible also to produce the base body 1 including the projections 6 or 8 of metal. The holding of the brushes is likewise possible in such a base body 1 in the described manner when the brush bodies 5 consist of corresponding elastic work material. 
     It is, of course, to be understood that the present invention is, by no means, limited to the specific showing in the drawings but also comprises any modification within the scope of the appended claims.