Technical Field

The disclosure relates to a mop bucket, particularly to an expandable mop bucket composed with a washing bucket and a dewatering bucket. Background

Mops and mop buckets are common cleaning tools, and the mop buckets are used to wash and dewater the mops. Existing mop buckets generally comprise a washing bucket and a dewatering bucket. For instance, a common mop bucket is generally an oblate cavity provided with an opening at the top, one part of the bucket body is provided with a washing bucket capable of containing certain water and washing a mop head conveniently, and another part of the bucket body is provided with a dewatering bucket containing a dewatering basket capable of rotating freely. A mop head is rotated through pressing the mop with hand, so that the mop head can be dewatered with centrifugal force.

There are some efforts to reduce the volume of mop bucket. For instance, Chinese Patent CN202636862 proposes a slide -type dewatering bucket. According to the disclosure, the upper edge of the dewatering bucket is provided with strip-shaped slide rail grooves on the left and right sides respectively, a dewatering basket is arranged inside a water retaining cover which can move forwards and backwards via the slide rail grooves of the dewatering bucket, the water retaining cover can move forward when not in use, so that the volume of the dewatering bucket can be reduced; and the water retaining cover can move backwards when in use, so that a mop can be placed into the dewatering bucket conveniently for washing and dewatering.

Chinese Patent CN202821250 discloses a foldable mop bucket. According to the disclosure, the foldable mop bucket comprises a washing bucket and a dewatering bucket, a bucket seat provided with the dewatering bucket at the upper part and a slide rail at the bottom, wherein the washing bucket can slide into or slide out of the slide rail of the bucket seat.

However, a convenient, stable and expandable mop bucket is still necessary, which can realize the convenience of a large-volume mop bucket when in use, and effectively reduce the volume for storage and transportation. Summary

The disclosed bucket provides an expandable mop bucket which can effectively reduce the volume for storage, which is convenient, stable and reliable in use.

In one embodiment, the expandable mop bucket comprises a washing bucket and a dewatering bucket provided with a dewatering basket, wherein said washing bucket is provided with an opening portion on a first side thereof, at least one part of said dewatering bucket moves into or out of said washing bucket through said opening portion, said washing bucket is provided with washing bucket connecting portions, said dewatering bucket is provided with dewatering bucket connecting portions oppositely and slidably matched with said washing bucket connecting portions, and said dewatering bucket can be partially connected into said washing bucket.

In one embodiment, the expandable mop bucket comprises a dewatering bucket supporting portion corresponding to a housing of said washing bucket, wherein the supporting bucket is assembled with the housing of said washing bucket to form a complete mop bucket housing when the dewatering bucket moves furthest into the washing bucket. It is understandable that the dewatering bucket enables the washing bucket and the dewatering bucket to be partially opened or closed via the movement of said opening portion. In other words, when the dewatering bucket moves furthest into the washing bucket, the washing bucket and the dewatering bucket are closed, or the mop bucket is closed; when the dewatering bucket moves furthest out of the washing bucket, the washing bucket and the dewatering bucket are partially opened, or the mop bucket is opened with the dewatering bucket being still partially contained in the washing bucket.

The expandable mop bucket includes at least one part or most part of the dewatering bucket move easily into or out of the washing bucket via the sliding between the washing bucket connecting portion and the dewatering bucket connecting portion, so that most part of the dewatering bucket can move out of the washing bucket for application of the washing bucket or the dewatering bucket, and the dewatering bucket will move furthest into the washing bucket to effectively reduce the volume for storage.

Besides, the expandable mop bucket is provided with the dewatering bucket supporting portion which is extended to the bottom of the mop bucket and corresponding to the shape and structure of the housing of the washing bucket, so the dewatering bucket can be effectively and stably supported, and reliability in practice is realized. Brief Description of the Drawings

These and/or other characteristics and advantages of the expandable mop bucket can be obviously understandable with the description of the embodiment in conjunction with the following drawings. The drawings are schematic, so not all details are presented in the drawings, and the drawings are not drawn to scale. In the drawings, identical or similar marks represent the same components or the components with similar function or structure.

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the expandable mop bucket, and the mop bucket presented in the figure is in a closed state.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the expandable mop bucket, and the mop bucket presented in the figure is in an open state.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the expandable mop bucket, and the washing bucket and the dewatering bucket in the figure are schematically disassembled and viewed from the left bottom or right bottom.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the expandable mop bucket, and the washing bucket and the dewatering bucket in the figure are schematically disassembled and viewed from the left or right top.

Fig. 5 is a top view of one embodiment of the expandable mop bucket, and the mop bucket presented in the figure is in the open state.

Fig. 6 is a side view of one embodiment of the expandable mop bucket, and the mop bucket presented in the figure is in the open state.

Fig. 7 is the partial enlarged view of the cross section of the connecting portion of the expandable mop bucket in an alternative embodiment.

Fig. 8 is the partial enlarged view of the cross section of the connecting portion of the expandable mop bucket in another alternative embodiment.

Fig. 9 is the schematic diagram of the cross section along the line A - A shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 10 is the schematic diagram of the cross section along the line B - B shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 11 is the schematic diagram of the dewatering bucket shown in Fig. 3. Detailed Description

Some embodiments of the present disclosure are described in details with the drawings; however, the content of the disclosure can be specific to various different forms and shall not be limited to the embodiments described herein; on the contrary, based on the description of the embodiments, the substantive content of the disclosure can be comprehended easily, so that technicians can make different changes without deviating from the essence of the disclosure.

The expandable mop bucket comprises a washing bucket and a dewatering bucket provided with a dewatering basket, wherein said washing bucket is provided with an opening portion on a first side thereof. At least one part of said dewatering bucket moves into or out of said washing bucket through said opening portion. Said washing bucket is provided with washing bucket connecting portions, said dewatering bucket is provided with dewatering bucket connecting portions oppositely and is slidably matched with said washing bucket connecting portions, and said dewatering bucket can be partially connected into said washing bucket.

According to one embodiment, the opening portion can be formed at the upper part of the first side of the washing bucket. The washing bucket can comprise two parallel washing bucket connecting portions respectively formed at upper edges of a second side and a third side of the washing bucket, wherein the first side of the washing bucket, which is provided with the opening portion, is intersected with the second side and the third side of the washing bucket. The dewatering bucket can comprise two parallel dewatering bucket connecting portions respectively formed at the upper edges of the second side and the third side of the dewatering bucket, wherein the second side and the third side of the dewatering bucket are corresponding to those of the washing bucket. For instance, wherein the upper edges of the second side and the third side of the washing bucket are respectively extended and turned over outwards to form the washing bucket connecting portion; and the upper edges of the second side and the third side of the dewatering bucket are respectively extended and turned over outwards to form the dewatering bucket connecting portion. According to one alternative embodiment of the disclosure, both the cross section of the washing bucket connecting portion and that of the dewatering bucket connecting portion can be of "n" shape (Fig. 7). According to another alternative embodiment, both the cross section of the washing bucket connecting portion and that of the dewatering bucket connecting portion can be of arc shape (Fig. 8). The dewatering bucket connecting portion can also be extended and turned over inwards to form a buckle. The cross section of the washing bucket connecting portion can be smaller than that of the dewatering bucket connecting portion. The inner surface of the dewatering bucket connecting portion is smooth, and the outer surface of the washing bucket connecting portion is also smooth. Besides, the dewatering bucket can also comprise a supporting portion extended to the bottom of the mop bucket. The shape, structure and size of the dewatering bucket supporting portion are corresponding to the shape, structure and size of a housing of the washing bucket. The dewatering bucket can also comprise a water baffle arranged above the dewatering basket. A water outlet is formed at the bottom of the dewatering bucket, and at least one side of said water outlet close to the middle of said dewatering bucket is provided with a downward extended portion. In addition, the profile of the opening portion of the washing bucket is matched with the cross-section profile of the dewatering bucket.

As shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, an expandable mop bucket 100 in one embodiment comprises the washing bucket 10 and the dewatering bucket 20. The washing bucket 10 is a roughly deep square cavity provided with an opening at the top, convenient for washing a mop (not shown). The dewatering bucket 20 is a roughly shallow square cavity provided with the opening at the top, wherein the dewatering basket 21 is arranged in said dewatering bucket 20 via a rotating shaft 26 (Fig. 9), so that the dewatering basket 21 can rotate freely around the rotating shaft 26 to realize dewatering of the mop in the dewatering basket 21. The water baffle 25 is arranged above the dewatering basket 21 to prevent water from being splashed in all directions.

According to one embodiment, as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, at least one part or most part of the dewatering bucket 20 can move into or out of the washing bucket 10; in other words, the mop bucket 100 can be kept in a closed state or an open state respectively. Fig. 1 illustrates a situation that the dewatering bucket 20 moves furthest into the washing bucket 10; and Fig. 2 illustrates a situation that the dewatering bucket 20 moves furthest out of the washing bucket 10. In the later situation, as shown in Fig. 2, the dewatering bucket 20 is at least partially contained in the washing bucket 10.

Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 are the breakdown stereogram of the mop bucket 100. To enable the dewatering bucket 20 to move into or out of said washing bucket 10, the opening portion 13 is formed at the upper part of the first side 10a of the washing bucket 10, orientated to the dewatering bucket 20, as shown in Fig. 4, to contain the dewatering bucket 20. Thus, the size and shape of the opening portion 13 are similar to the size and shape of the opposite sides of the dewatering bucket 20, so that the opening portion can be seamlessly matched with the dewatering bucket 20 simultaneously with containing the dewatering bucket, and the bottom of the dewatering bucket 20 is located at the edge of the opening portion 13.

To present the situation more clearly that the dewatering bucket 20 of the mop bucket 100 in one embodiment moves furthest out of the washing bucket 10 (i.e. open state), Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 provide a schematic overhead view and a schematic side view.

According to one embodiment, the washing bucket 10 and the dewatering bucket 20 can be oppositely and slidably matched with each other via individual connecting portions. Specifically, the washing bucket 10 is provided with the washing bucket connecting portions 12, and the dewatering bucket 20 is correspondingly provided with the dewatering bucket connecting portions 23, as shown in Figures 1 to 4. Specifically, the second side 10b and the third side 10c of the washing bucket 10, vertical to the first side 10a provided with the opening portion 13, are provided with the parallel washing bucket connecting portions 12 at the upper edges; the second side 20b and the third side 20 c of the dewatering bucket 20, vertical to the opening portion 13, are provided with the parallel dewatering bucket connecting portions 23 at the upper edges; and on each side, the cross section of the washing bucket connecting portion 12 is similar to that of the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23. For instance, the upper edges of the second side 10b and the third side 10c of the washing bucket 10, as well as the upper edges of the second side 20b and the third side 20c of the dewatering bucket 20, are turned over outwards to form an "n" shape opened downwards, as shown in Fig. 7 (enlarged view of x shown in Fig. 10). The cross section of the washing bucket connecting portion 12 is slightly smaller than that of the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23; in other words, the outer cross-section profile of the washing bucket connecting portion 12 is slightly smaller than the inner cross-section profile of the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23, so that the washing bucket connecting portion 12 is contained within the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23. In other words, the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23 is arranged above the washing bucket connecting portion 12 to form close fitting and free rotation.

Preferably, the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23 can be integrated with the dewatering bucket 20. For instance, the upper edges of the second side 20b and the third side 20c of the dewatering bucket 20 are extended and turned over outwards to form the dewatering bucket connecting portions 23, as shown in Fig. 7. Similarly, the washing bucket connecting portion 12 can be integrated with the washing bucket 10. For instance, the upper edges of the second side 10b and the third side 10c of the washing bucket 10 are extended and turned over outwards to form the washing bucket connecting portions 12, as shown in Fig. 7. Preferably, as shown in Fig. 7, the cross section of the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23 is provided with the buckle 231 turned over inwards and integrated with said dewatering bucket connecting portion 23. For instance, the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23 can be further extended and turned over inwards to form the buckle 231 for limiting vertical and lateral movement of the washing bucket connecting portion 12 or the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23 in the cross section shown in Fig. 7, so that the washing bucket connecting portion 12 or the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23 can only slide oppositely along the direction vertical to the direction of the cross section shown in Fig. 7, and the washing bucket connecting portion 12 and the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23 are protected from separation.

On the other hand, the upper edges of individual second sides 1 Ob & 20b and third sides 10c & 20c of the dewatering bucket 20 and the washing bucket 10 can be extended and turned over outwards to form the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23 and the washing bucket connecting portion 12, with the cross section being of arc shape or arch shape, as shown in Fig. 8 (varied case of x shown in Fig. 10). Meanwhile, the dewatering bucket connecting portion can be further extended and turned over inwards to form the buckle 231.

Preferably, the inner surface of the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23 is smooth, and the outer surface of the washing bucket connecting portion 12 is also smooth, which facilitates the sliding between the two. Thus, as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23 is arranged above the washing bucket connecting portion 12, and the washing bucket connecting portion 12 is in sliding fitting with the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23, so that the dewatering bucket 20 and the washing bucket 10 can be pushed or pulled conveniently; at least one part or most part of the dewatering bucket 20 can move into or out of the washing bucket 10 through the opening portion 13, so that the mop bucket 100 can be kept in the closed status or the open status respectively, the volume can be reduced for transportation and storage, a large use space can be realized, washing can be carried out in the washing bucket 10, and dewatering can be carried out in the dewatering bucket 20.

According to one embodiment, the first side 20a of the dewatering bucket 20, which is at the bottom of the dewatering bucket and close to the first side 10a of the washing bucket 10, is provided with a water outlet 24 at the edge, as shown in Figures 3, 9, 10 and 11. Fig. 9 is the schematic diagram of the cross section along the line A - A shown in Fig. 5, and Fig. 10 is the schematic diagram of the cross section along the line B - B shown in Fig. 6. The water outlet 24 is formed at the bottom of the dewatering bucket 20, and at least one side of said water outlet close to the middle of the dewatering bucket 20 is provided with a downward extended portion 241, as shown in Fig. 11. For clarity, the dewatering basket 21 is not shown in Fig. 11. The downward extended portion 241 is extended to the space below the edge of the opening portion 13 of the washing bucket 10, thereby realizing a retaining function to guarantee that the dewatering bucket 20 incompletely moves out of the washing bucket 10 when the mop bucket 100 is opened; besides, the downward extended portion 241 of the water outlet 24 is formed on one side of the water outlet 24 close to the middle of the dewatering bucket 20, so the water outlet 24 is always kept within the washing bucket 10, and water from the dewatering bucket 20 will only flow into the washing bucket 10 through the water outlet, without overflowing, as shown in Fig. 9 in which the arrow refers to the flow direction.

According to one embodiment, the dewatering bucket 20 is provided with the supporting portion 22 at the edge of one side far away from the washing bucket 10, as shown in Figures 2 to 4 and Figure 9, so that the supporting portion, together with the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23, the washing bucket connecting portion 12 and the edge of the opening portion 13 of the washing bucket 10, stably supports the dewatering bucket 20. The supporting portion 22 can be integrated with one side of the dewatering bucket 20, or additionally arranged outside the edge of one side of the dewatering bucket 20. In the embodiments shown in Figures 2 to 4 and Fig. 9, the supporting portion 22 is additionally arranged outside the edge of one side of the dewatering bucket, extended downwards from the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23 to the bottom of the mop bucket 100; in other words, the height of the supporting portion is approximately the same as that of the mop bucket 100, and the supporting portion can support the dewatering bucket 20 and provide appropriate fitting between the dewatering bucket connecting portion 23 and the washing bucket connecting portion 12. Additionally, in the embodiments shown in Figs. 2 through 4 and Fig. 9, the shape, structure and size of the supporting portion 22 correspond to the shape, structure and size of the housing of the washing bucket 10. In other words, when the mop bucket 100 is closed, the supporting portion 22 is assembled with the housing of the washing bucket 10 to form a consistent and complete housing of the mop bucket 100, becoming one part of the shape of the closed mop bucket 100 and symmetric to one side of the dewatering bucket 20 far away from the housing of the washing bucket 10, as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2. Thus, a large area of supporting can be provided when the mop bucket 100 is opened, and peripherally consistent supporting can be provided when the mop bucket is closed, to effectively and stably support the dewatering bucket, so that reliability in practice is realized. As shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, the housing of the washing bucket 10 can be provided with a handle 11 which is convenient for a user to move the mop bucket 100.

The specific embodiments of the disclosure just exemplarily illustrate the principle and function of the invention, but not to limit the invention. Technicians familiar with the field shall understand that, any change and improvement of the disclosure based on and not deviating from the spirit and scope of the disclosure are within the scope of the disclosure.