Patent ID: 8245349

Claim:
A cleaning element, comprising: a fiber assembly comprising a plurality of fibers extending in a predetermined direction, a nonwoven fabric disposed on the fiber assembly, a first fusion bonded part extending in a cross direction crossing said predetermined direction to fusion bond the fiber assembly and the nonwoven fabric, and a plurality of second fusion bonded parts formed discontinuously in the cross direction at a lateral side of the first fusion bonded part to fusion bond the fiber assembly and the nonwoven fabric, wherein two adjacent second fusion bonded parts in the middle of the cleaning element are adjacent to each other in the cross direction with no other second fusion bonded parts in between, a distance between said two adjacent second fusion bonded parts is longer than that between each of the two adjacent second fusion bonded parts and an adjacent end of the cleaning element, wherein the fiber assembly includes a first fiber extending part and a second fiber extending part, the first fiber extending part having fibers each of which extends from one, fixed end at the first fusion bonded part to the other, free end on an end of the cleaning element in said predetermined direction, and the second fiber extending part having fibers each of which extends from one, fixed end at the second fusion bonded parts to the other, free end on the end of the cleaning element in said predetermined direction, wherein a fiber extending length of the second fusion bonded part is shorter than a fiber extending length of the first fiber extending part.