Patent ID: 7631390

Claim:
A cleaning card for use in cleaning internal surfaces of machine components, said cleaning card including a substrate having a central plane between opposed surfaces thereof, a machine direction dimension defined between opposed end edges and a transverse direction dimension defined between opposed side edges, said opposed surfaces each having a plurality of discrete raised working areas for engaging and cleaning internal surfaces to be cleaned, at least some discrete raised working areas extending outwardly on each side of said central plane, said discrete raised working areas each including a peak and a peripheral wall having an edge remote from said peak, said peak of each raised working area being further from the central plane than the edge of the peripheral wall remote from said peak, and a plurality of raised, rigidifying areas having a configuration different from the raised working areas, at least one of said rigidifying areas extending outwardly on each side of said central plane and extending in the machine direction continuously over a majority of the machine direction dimension of the cleaning card, said cleaning card substrate having an effective working thickness that is greater than the nominal thickness between the opposed surfaces of the substrate, said raised, rigidifying areas being less resilient than said raised working areas and having an effective rigidifying thickness less than the effective working thickness and greater than the nominal thickness between the opposed surfaces of the substrate.