U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
Information Products Division |
U.S. Patent Classification System - Classification Definitions
as of June 30, 2000
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Electronic Products Branch)
Class 300
BRUSH, BROOM, AND MOP MAKING
Class Definition:
This class is intended to cover machines, appliances, and
processes involving or for the performance of one or more of
the operations necessary in the manufacture of brushes,
brooms, or mops, except those of such general application to
other arts or articles as to have acquired a distinct status
elsewhere--as, for example, in nailing and stapling,
sewing-machines, wire-working, folding-machines,
woodworking.
In the terminology of the present classification the words
"brush" and "broom" are not used as synonymous, but as
connoting, in general, certain distinctions--as, for example,
of greater coarseness and stiffness in a broom than in a
brush, and of animal bristles, hair, or equivalent in a
brush, rather than the vegetable straw, splints, or
equivalent of brooms; also of the uniformly smooth periphery
and substantially circular cross-section which generally
characterize bristles, properly so called, in distinction
from broom materials.
Under brush-making machines are placed those which deal with
natural or artificial bristles of animal or vegetable origin
and of the characteristics above mentioned or which handle
metal bristles in an equivalent way to produce an implement
whose working face consists of the ends of a mass of such
bristles lying in substantially parallel and generally
mutually contacting relation. Those employing means for
cutting wire into uniform lengths and separately inserting
them in a backing are excluded along with means for molding
rubber bristles integrally with a backing. The latter is
placed in Class 425, Plastic Article or Earthenware Shaping
or Treating: Apparatus.
Under broom-making machines are included those which handle
broom "straw" or equivalent material or splints or
equivalents which are too stiff, heavy, coarse, or angular in
cross-section to be properly termed "bristles".
Because of indicated differences in the character of the
material handled the types of machines placed under the
respective stated heads are so different as to make it
extremely unlikely that a structure placed under one head
could anticipate one falling under the other.
Under mop-making machines are placed those dealing with
sheets, folds, fibers, or strands of spun, woven, or other
fabric in such manner as to assemble them into a more or less
amorphous mass capable of acting as a wiper, rather than as a
brush or broom, and in general of capillary absorption and
retention of foreign matter or of a suitable cleaning or
polishing substance. It is to be noted that in the use of a
wiper for cleaning purposes foreign matter to be removed is
carried away with the wiper, which is not the case with
brushes or brooms.
In the Encyclopedia Americana, edition of 1920, is an article
on brushes and brooms whose perusal will often prove useful
as a preliminary to a search in this class, due allowance
being made for some inaccuracies and omissions.
REFERENCES TO OTHER CLASSES
SEE OR SEARCH CLASS:
29, Metal Working, appropriate subclasses under 592 + for a
method including a step of nailing, stapling or clip
clenching and not elsewhere classified, and subclass 33.5
and 243.5+ for overedge assembly apparatus. See the note to
Class 227 below.
112, Sewing, subclass 6, for a sewing machine disclosed for
use in making brooms.
156, Adhesive Bonding and Miscellaneous Chemical Manufacture,
subclass 72, for the setting or embedding or tufts or
discrete elements onto a backing.
227, Elongated-Member-Driving Apparatus, appropriate subclass
for apparatus, of general utility, for applying a member,
e.g., nail, to work and see the reference above.
264, Plastic and Nonmetallic Article Shaping or Treating:
Processes, particularly subclass 243 which pertains
specifically to bristle or tufted article making by molding
or shaping of plastic materials.
425, Plastic Article or Earthenware Shaping or Treating:
Apparatus, subclass 805 for a cross-reference collection of
apparatus disclosed to make a brush or comb.
SUBCLASSES
Subclass:
1
Miscellaneous inventions relating to the making of brushes,
brooms, mops, or similar articles, not specifically
classifiable under succeeding titles in this class and not
having as sole function or operating one so generally useful
as to warrant placing them in some other specific art-such,
for example, as nailing and stapling, sewing-machines,
boring-machines, folding-machines, etc.
Subclass:
2
Machines for making brushes--i.e., implements whose working
face is constituted by the ends of a mass of natural or
artificial bristles assembled in parallel relation, in
distinction from brooms, composed of assembled splints,
stalks of broom-corn, or equivalent material, and from mops,
composed of assembled folds, strips, sheets, or strands of
spun or woven fabric.
(1) Note. Devices for drilling, filling, tuft-gathering,
feeding, or setting are excluded from this subclass, being
placed in subclasses 3 to 9, of this class; also
work-holders, for which see subclasses 10 and 11 of this
class.
SEE OR SEARCH CLASS:
29, Metal Working. See the search class note in the
definition of this class (300).
227, Elongated-Member-Driving Apparatus, appropriate subclass
for apparatus of general utility, for applying a member,
e.g., nail, to work, which is not provided for in the above
definition.
Subclass:
3
Devices for drilling holes in brush-backs and setting
bunches, knots, or tufts of bristles in the holes to form a
brush.
Subclass:
4
Devices for feeding formed bunches, knots, or tufts of
bristles to a brush-back and setting them in
previously-prepared holes in the back.
SEE OR SEARCH CLASS:
221, Article Dispensing, appropriate subclasses for article
dispensers (feeders) not otherwise provided for, and see the
class definition of Class 221 for a statement of the class
lines and for the disposition of related disclosures of
article and strip feeding processes and apparatus.
Subclass:
5
Devices for gathering bunches, knots or tufts, of bristles
from a stored mass and setting them in previously-prepared
holes in a brush-back.
SEE OR SEARCH THIS CLASS, SUBCLASS:
6
Subclass:
6
Devices for gathering bunches, knots, or tufts of bristles
from a stored mass and setting them in previously-prepared
perforations in a brush-back by means of a looped cord or
wire passing through the perforations and about the tuft and
afterward drawn taut.
Subclass:
7
Devices for gathering bunches, knots, or tufts of bristles
from a stored mass or magazine preparatory to insertion in a
hole or socket in a brush-back.
Subclass:
8
Devices for setting formed bunches, knots, or tufts of
bristles in holes in brush backs.
Subclass:
9
Devices for filling holes in brush-backs with bristles
individually deposited from a mass or magazine, generally by
shaking or other agitation, to form tufts, one for each
hole.
Subclass:
10
This subclass is indented under subclass 11. Devices for
holding brush-backs or blocks while being subjected to
drilling, tuft-setting, filling, or other brush-making
operations, except those for automatically positioning the
back or block to bring to the working point successive areas
corresponding to the desired positions of the tufts in the
completed brush, for which see this class, ....
SEE OR SEARCH CLASS:
269, Work Holders, appropriate subclasses. Class 269 is the
residual locus for patents to a device for clamping,
supporting and/or holding an article (or articles) in
position to be operated on or treated. See notes thereunder
for other related loci.
Subclass:
11
Holders for brush-backs or blocks operating to properly
position with respect to a drill and tufting device, a
tufting device alone, or other brush-making tool, successive
areas of the block or back corresponding to the desired
positions of the tufts in the completed brush.
Subclass:
12
Machines for making brooms--i.e., implements whose working
face is constituted by the ends of assembled splints,
broom-corn cuttings, or equivalent material, as distinguished
from the bristles of brushes, or the folds, strips, sheets,
or strands, of spun or woven fabric of mops, and excluding
those employing nails or staples, wound wire, or wire band.
SEE OR SEARCH THIS CLASS, SUBCLASS:
2 for machines for making brushes.
13 14, 15, for machines employing nails or staples, wound
wire, or wire bands.
16 for mop making machines.
Subclass:
13
Broom-making machines characterized by the presence of
nailing or stapling means especially adapted for securing
broom material in place.
SEE OR SEARCH CLASS:
29, Metal Working. See the search class note in the
definition of this class (300).
227, Elongated-Member-Driving Apparatus, appropriate subclass
for apparatus, of general utility, for applying a member,
e.g., nail, to work, which is not provided for in the above
definition.
Subclass:
14
Broom-making machines characterized by special means for
winding wire about the broom material and handle or stick to
secure them together.
SEE OR SEARCH CLASS:
57, Textiles: Spinning, Twisting, and Twining, subclass 4
for machines for making strands of indefinite length by
twisting hair or grass and winding a wrapping spirally
thereon.
Subclass:
15
Broom-making machines having provision for encircling the
broom material with an annular wire and compressing the same
to shape the broom and secure the material thereof to the
stick or handle.
Subclass:
16
Machines for so handling and securing sheets, strips, or
strands of spun, woven, or other fabric as to constitute a
mop, in distinction from a brush or broom.
Subclass:
17
Devices for cutting off or otherwise removing irregularities
of otherwise-completed brushes or brooms, so as to trim them
to desired size and shape.
Subclass:
18
Devices for combing or otherwise arranging bristles or other
brush or broom materials with their ends in a common plane or
for sorting them according to length or other characteristic,
or both.
SEE OR SEARCH CLASS:
19, Textiles: Fiber Preparation, appropriate subclasses.
Subclass:
19
Tools for performing some operation involved in the making of
brushes, brooms, or mops and not elsewhere classified because
of their special adaptation to this art.
Subclass:
20
Devices for setting handles in otherwise completed brushes,
brooms or mops.
SEE OR SEARCH CLASS:
29, Metal Working. See the search class note in the
definition of this class (300).
227, Elongated-Member-Driving Apparatus, appropriate subclass
for apparatus, of general utility, for applying a member,
e.g., nail, to work which is not provided for in the above
definition.
Subclass:
21
Inventions relating to special methods, manipulations, or
processes employed in the manufacture of brushes, brooms or
mops.
Information Products Division -- Contacts
Questions regarding this report should be directed to:
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Information Products Division
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Washington, DC 20231
tel: (703) 306-2600
FAX: (703) 306-2737
email: oeip@uspto.gov
Last Modified: 6 October 2000