COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

TITLE: SELF CLENING STEPS

Application No: 201621000959

Date of filed: 30 Dec 2015

Field of the invention:

This invention relates to footwear cleaning mechanism without external energy source. A
unit of the invention may be located at the first step of stair case entry into a building or it may be
placed inside a hallway or foyer of the building or at any other location where needed. There are
numerous other locations which would be desirable for the unit of the invention such as, golf
courses, residential and public buildings. Said invention is very useful in hospitals, clean rooms, etc.
where hygiene is at top priority.

Self-cleaning step includes combination of sector gear, pinions and idler gears driven by
sector gear, which is driven by potential energy of human weight, whenever human puts his foot
over oscillating top of the step. Idler gears are mounted in between pinions. There are three shafts
mounted on the pinions which carry bristles on its periphery to clean footwear. Whole assembly is
enclosed in a steel frame mounted at require location. Torsion spring is provided in order to
reposition the step. Dust or any particulate matter attached to footwear is collected in removable
tray provided at the bottom, which can be reinserted after cleaning.

Background of the invention:

In our day to day life we see different type of staircase, having different dimensions and
design, stair case is simply a number of steps. A set of steps formed to make it possible to pass to
another level on foot by putting one foot after the other on alternate steps to climb up or down the
stair. Stairs can be made of concrete, stone, wood, steel etc.

In many sensitive areas like defence, hospital, research laboratory, educational institute, outdoors
game e.g. golf, cricket cleanliness is important parameter. Steps are the basic element which is
responsible for climbing from one place to another so it is important to introduce such a mechanism
at the first step of stair case which directly cleans the footwear to maintain the cleanliness in such
areas. Self-cleaning steps is a mechanical steps designed for cleaning footwear by energy of user.

Some invention in prior art relates to an apparatus for removing debris or cleats from spikes and/or
attached to shoes, boots and other footwear and, in general, is employed while standing over the
device and placing one footwear across the top of the device to have the debris removed, and then
bringing the other footwear to be cleaned likewise. Examples of footwear having spikes and/or
cleats include golf shoes, baseball shoes, and so on.

In some devices soil is blown away by high pressure air ejected from a nozzle handled by a user,
but the removed soil scatters all around the area. In these mechanisms, soil attached to the shoes can
be removed, but chemicals attached to the shoes are not removed. In other device which includes
two large wheels with axial bristles and a shaft connecting the large wheels and having radial
bristles projecting outwardly from the shaft. The axial bristles projecting from the large wheels face

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two sides of a shoe, and the radial bristles contact a sole, by which soil attached to the shoe is
removed. Attempts have been made to use moisture together with compressed air.

In some devices brushes are rotated to contact a shoe to remove soil attached thereto. Soil removed
from the shoe may be collected by a vacuum, and air may be projected to remove an upper part of
the shoe. Further, hot air may be ejected from a device to dry the shoe.

Previous inventions uses external energy source. Collection of removed dirt and lower maintenance,
light in weight, with low costs, user friendliness, minimising swiping and labour cost, and operate
without any external source has been a big challenge to achieve. In view of the above, the present
invention has been made to operate without external source of energy, to provide a footwear
cleaning device which can effectively remove soil or particulate matter attached without scattering
it, when applying the potential energy of human weight. Present invention uses metallic parts,
polypropylene bristles, PA6 (Polyamide 6) plastic gear, and torsion spring etc.

Objective: The sole objective of this invention is to provide cost effective, non-attentive, user and
environmental friendly, without use of external source of energy, self-cleaning step which is used
for footwear cleaning. This invention uses user’s energy by simple mechanism for its operation, to
maintain cleanliness wherever necessary.

Brief description of the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a front view of a self-cleaning step that shows a layout of the elements of the self cleaning
step in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a photograph of a self-cleaning step of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a shows top view, front view and right hand side view of a self-cleaning step of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 shows a photograph of sectional view of a self-cleaning step of FIG. 1;

Summary

A self-cleaning step is a mechanised step, designed for removing dust or any particulate matter
attached to footwear and makes it clean to maintain cleanliness at sensitive areas like blood banks,
hospitals, research centres and many other public places where cleanliness is on priority.
Mechanism consists of rigid steel frame having shafts to rotate mounted on bearings. Bristles are
mounted along the shafts these shafts are driven by sector gear, pinions and idler gears. Torsion
spring is provided in order to reposition the upper part of step. Dust or any particulate matter
attached to footwear is collected in removable tray provided at the bottom.

This invention operates on principle of potential energy by human weight so that no

external source of energy needed to operate, which make this invention unique.

Statement of the invention

A self-cleaning step includes steel rigid frame as a support structure which has two parts i.e.
upper and lower part. Upper part consists of three shafts with bristles which can rotate freely
supported by ball bearing at both ends of shaft. These bearings are mounted on upper part. At the
one side of upper part idler gears and pinions provided with one fixed sector gear. Upper part makes
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inclination with lower part gives rise of 2.5 inch in between lower part and lifted end of upper part.
When human puts his foot over the top of upper part it gets moved down because of potential
energy, causes the gears and pinion to rotate and hence the shafts, pinion having contact with fix
sector gear. Bristles mounted on shaft makes contact with footwear, cleans it. Lower part consists of
dirt collecting tray which is removable so at every morning sweeper can take out this tray to clean
and reinsert it. Both the parts are connected together using steel hinges. The complete assembly is
placed at entrance of required location.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION:

Although specific terms are used in the following description for sake of clarity, these terms
are intended to refer only to particular structure of the invention selected for illustration in the
drawings, and are not intended to define or limit the scope of the invention.

Referring to FIG. 1 is a front view of a self-cleaning step 70 in accordance with the preferred
embodiment of the present invention is approximately a construction that includes bottom steel part
05 and top steel part 10, dirt collecting tray15 at bottom with handle 20, one fixed sector gear 25 for
rotation of respective pinions and idler gears, three high grade plastic pinions 30 and two idler
gears 35 to make rotation between gears, ball bearings 40 at both side of upper part and three steel
shafts 45.

FIG. 2 shows a photograph of a preferred method of developing self-cleaning step 70 in

accordance with the present invention. It consists of bristles 50 mounted along the circumference of
shafts.

FIG.3 shows top view, front view and right hand side view of self-cleaning step 70 in
accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG.3, lower part 05 and upper part 10 of steel structure are bought together to
form a single rigid structure 70, dirt collecting tray 15 is mounted in lower part which can take out
with help of handle 20. Sector gear 25 is fixed to main frame and causes gears 30 and pinion35 to
rotate.

FIG. 4 shows a photograph of sectional view of a preferred method of developing self-

cleaning step70 in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention. Idle gears
are mounted on upper part by using bearing and pins 55. Upper part of steel structure held inclined
at an inclination angle 11.050 using torsion spring 60. These two parts of structure i.e. upper and
lower part are connecting together by using hinges 65 to form complete rigid structure 70.

The present invention has been described in sufficient details with a certain degree of particularity. It
is understood to those skilled in the art that the present disclosure of embodiments has been made by
way of examples only and that numerous changes in the arrangement and combination of parts may
be resorted without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed.

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Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A self-cleaning step for cleaning applications comprising:

A steel metallic structure consists of two parts i.e. upper and lower part. Upper part has a
fixed sector gear, three PA6 (Polyamide 6) plastic pinions, idler gears and, steel shafts with
polypropylene bristles on circumference, it is mounted on ball bearings at both side of
frame. Lower part of steel frame has dirt collecting tray which is removable.

2. The self-cleaning step as claimed in claim 1, wherein both the parts are joined together by
using hinges to form a unit.
3. When human puts his foot over the top of upper part it get moved down because of potential
energy which causes the gears and pinion to rotate which having contact with fixed sector
gear and hence the shafts.

4. The self-cleaning step as claimed in claim 1, wherein the material use for structure, gears,
bristles and torsion spring etc. are used as per application and can be change according to its
application and does not limits the invention.

5. The self-cleaning step, wherein model dimensions are designed as per its application and
can be vary according to its application and does not limits the invention.

6. The self-cleaning step, wherein model is design for average weight of person in India and
can be vary according to country and does not limits the invention.

7. Three gears and two pinions are used in present invention for its working and do not limit the
scope on invention.

8. Position and size of dirt collecting tray at bottom with handle can be changed as per
installation requirement.

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Abstract:

A self-cleaning step is a mechanised step, designed for removing dust or any particulate
matter attached to footwear and makes it clean to maintain cleanliness at sensitive areas like blood
banks, hospitals, research centres and many other public places where cleanliness is on priority.
Mechanism consists of rigid steel frame having shafts to rotate mounted on bearings. Bristles are
mounted along the shafts these shafts are driven by sector gear, pinions and idler gears. Torsion
spring is provided in order to reposition the upper part of step. Upper part makes inclination with
lower part gives rise of 2.5 inch in between lower part and lifted end of upper part. Dust or any
particulate matter attached to footwear is collected in removable tray provided at the bottom.

When human puts his foot over the top of upper part it gets moved down because of
potential energy, causes the gears and pinion to rotate and hence the shafts, pinion having contact
with fix sector gear. Bristles mounted on shaft makes contact with footwear, cleans it. Lower part
consists of dirt collecting tray which is removable so at every morning sweeper can take out this
tray to clean and reinsert it. Both the parts are connected together using steel hinges. The complete
assembly is placed at entrance of required location.

This invention operates on principle of potential energy by human weight so that no

external source of energy needed to operate, which make this invention unique.

The complete assembly is placed at entrance of any public place where there is much crowd,
rush of people and cleanliness is needed. Area of application of such gadget are sensitive areas like
defence, hospital, residential buildings, research laboratory, educational institute, outdoors game
e.g. golf, cricket cleanliness is important parameter.

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70 10
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30

05

15 35

20 10
25

Fig 1
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70
50

Fig 2
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Fig 3
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55 60
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70
Fig 4