Patent ID: 8186001

Claim:
A cleaning element, comprising: a base sheet and a holding sheet which are formed of nonwoven fabric and overlaid on each other, a fiber assembly, wherein the base sheet is sandwiched between the holding sheet and the fiber assembly, the fiber assembly including a plurality of fibers, a plurality of first fusion bonded parts including a first group and a second group of the first fusion bonded parts which are discontinuously formed along a predetermined direction to fusion bond the base sheet and the holding sheet, a pair of third groups of the first fusion bonded parts outside of the first group and the second group to fusion bond the base sheet and the fiber assembly, a holding space demarcated by the first group of the first fusion bonded parts and the second group of the first fusion bonded parts between the base sheet and the holding sheet, the holding space having an open end at least on one of both ends of the cleaning element in the predetermined direction, wherein a bonding thickness of the third groups of the first fusion bonded parts in a thickness direction of the fiber assembly is different from a bonding thickness of the first group of the first fusion bonded parts and a bonding thickness of the second group of the first fusion bonded parts.