The present invention relates to cleaning various surfaces by employing a tacky surface or sheet on a series of rollers. Some known devices for cleaning surfaces, such as floors, utilize a single roll of perforated sheets having a tacky surface. One problem that arises with these devices is the repeated need for tearing or cutting away the tacky sheets once those sheets become soiled. Furthermore, removing the soiled sheets requires that the user's hands come in contact with the dirt and/or other debris attached to the tacky surface. Also, known tacky roll devices can not work effectively on many surfaces, such as thickly piled carpet, grooved wood floors, grout-separated tile floors, mortar-jointed brick floors, etc., because the known tacky roll devices have little, if any ability to penetrate cracks, crevasses, and deeper layers of carpet, etc.
FIG. 1 is a side view of an exemplary embodiment of a rolling cleaning system 100 of the present invention. Rolling cleaning system 100 can include two large internal rollers 105 , 110 for storing and/or dispensing a continuous long sheet 115 having at least one tacky surface. Tacky sheet 115 can be, by way of example only, plastic or paper coated with an acrylic based adhesive with sufficient tack as to be useful in removing dirt and/or debris from a variety of surfaces. The tack can range between any two integer values in the numerical range of 50 to 500 g/25 mm, with a preferred range of tack between 200 to 300 g/25 mm.
Tacky sheet 115 can be rolled across the floor or surface via four contact rollers 120 , 125 , 130 , 135 . These contact rollers can be constructed from, for example, plastic, rubber, foam rubber, and/or metal, etc. A take-up roller 140 can be used to create a space for the introduction of a brush 145 , and/or to remove slack from tacky sheet 115 . Brush 145 can have stiff bristles, which can be constructed from, for example, nylon, plastic, natural fiber, animal hair, and/or metal, etc. The height of brush 145 can be adjusted by raising or lowering handle 150 , which can be attached to shaft 155 , which can connect brush 145 to a housing 170 .
Internal rollers 105 , 110 can be constructed of, for example, plastic and/or metal, and can be rotationally spring-loaded and/or clutched, e.g., akin to a window blind, to maintain tension in tacky sheet 115 and/or to facilitate the retrieval and/or advancement thereof. Tacky sheet 115 can be provided on, for example, one or two rollers sleeves (not shown) that can be placed onto or over one or both of internal rollers 105 , 110 . A roller sleeve can be constructed of, for example, cardboard, plastic, and/or metal. To avoid rotational slippage between the sleeve and the roller, the sleeves could be, for example, wider than the tacky sheet and secured to the roller with end caps, clamps or rubber bands.
