S. C. Johnson Son, Inc.

Thomas Jaworski

Nathan R Westphal

Scott D Walter

Jeffrey L Harwig

Donald J Shanklin

Thomas A Helf

David J Houser

Kenneth W Michaels

Edward J Martens, Iii

David J Schram

Scott W Demarest

Peter M Neumann

William F Gordon

Cathal L Fahy

Steven B Mineau

Alex Mecker

Timothy R Bartlett

Michael Sawalski

Mark M Gipp

David A Tomkins

Heather R Schramm

Brian T Davis

Jose Porchia

Walter Sordo

Lea Kobeli

Simon M Conway

Chris A Kubicek

Stephen B Leonard

Mary Beth Adams

Padma Prabodh Varanasi

Evan A Sparks

Jeffrey L Crull

Jonathan N Mandell

Michael G Knickerbocker

Joel E Adair

John A Boticki

Franco Zobele

Paul E Larson

Amelia H Majerowski

Mark Niederberger

Thomas Froehlich

Jeffrey J Wolf

David H Leifheit

Darren K Robling

James L Bournoville

Rene Maurice Beland

Fukyuen Cheng

Seakee Chen

Dean R Holzberger

Kathleen M Laru

Lawrence Jon Fenske

Sandrine Lebas

Bradley G Harrison

Steven G Melnyk

René Maurice Béland

Jonathan M Mick

In Shr Tseng

Dennis Jon Beaumont

Paolo Campedelli

Tor H Petterson

Jonathan Rathbone

James W Yonker

Stephen M Doerr

Patrick Yeo Siok Hui

Ryan V Lee

Grace C Petterson

Kong Wai Ki

Tadahiko Nakagaki

Michael Thomas Milo

Nathan P Hendon

Grace Kim

Dik Man Yeung

Dragon Su

Krista Bangsund

Sydney Minnis

Kamfong Tam

William D Perez

Nick K L Wu

Terry S S Kong

Paul J Larson

Edward Martens

Edward J Iii Martens

A volatile material dispenser includes a housing and a dispensing mechanism disposed within the housing for emitting a volatile material. A faceplate is attached to the housing and provides an aesthetically pleasing look to the volatile material dispenser.

Volatile material dispenser having a faceplate

A volatile material dispenser includes a housing having at least one wall and a cavity disposed within the housing and a refill having a volatile material therein and a wick in contact with the volatile material and extending out of the refill. The dispenser further includes a heater arrangement disposed within the cavity and surrounding the wick when the refill is inserted into the dispenser. The heater arrangement provides a reduced power consumption of at least about 30% as compared to other similar volatile material dispensers that have an average rate of weight loss that is similar to or less than the volatile material dispenser.

Volatile material dispenser and method of emitting a volatile material

Volatile material dispenser

A device for that places a fluid container in fluid communication with a sprayer is disclosed. The device includes a container adapter that allows a dip tube to be attached to the fluid container rather than the sprayer. When the sprayer is removed from the fluid container, the dip tube stays in the fluid container. Refill fluid containers may come with the container adapter and dip tube installed. When the sprayer is attached to the fluid container, the adapter seals against the sprayer allowing fluid to be pumped from the fluid container by the sprayer. A sprayer connector with geometry that matches an inner or outer shape of the adapter is attached to and/or built into the sprayer. The sprayer connector is constructed to allow easy alignment of the sprayer to the fluid container. The sprayer connector and the container adapter also provide a unique attachment geometry to insure only containers with formulae compatible to the sprayer are pumped through the sprayer.

Device for attaching a dip tube to a fluid container

Bottle

Disclosed herein are navigational systems for automated robotic floor cleaners. RFID passive tags are positioned at specified areas of a floor to be treated so as to increase or decrease dwell time of the cleaning device adjacent the tags. An RFID interrogator on the robot learns from each tag its nature, and based thereon instructs the device to change the dwell time over specified areas. This permits areas of a carpet or other surface requiring extra or less treatment to be cleaned in an optimal manner.

RFID navigational system for robotic floor treater

Tread structures, wave motion navigational controls, and ramp up recovery controls are provided to an autonomous floor cleaner to reduce wheel slippage. The floor cleaner delivers liquid to the floor as part of the cleaning process. Wheels on the device are provided with relatively deep peripheral grooves to minimize the contact surfaces of a sprocket wheel and to accommodate the layer of liquid on the floor. In the event of wheel slippage, or to prevent wheel slippage, the device is designed to move forward with a slight side-to-side wave action caused by periodically altering the relative speeds of two drive wheels. There is also provided a slippage recovery mode where the drive wheels shut down or greatly slow when severe slippage is sensed, followed by a slow ramp up of speed.

Methods to prevent wheel slip in an autonomous floor cleaner

A cartridge is disclosed comprising a reel-to-reel roll of cleaning material, for use in a hand-held or robotic cleaning device. The cartridge provides either an electrostatic dust cloth or wet mop, and includes a fluid reservoir for maintaining the wet mop cloth during use. A dust bin is also provided on the cartridge, and includes a hinged lid for providing selective access to the dust inside of the bin. A motor, optical sensor, and fluid pump inside of a cleaning apparatus control the operation of the reel-to-reel cloth, and control fluid delivery to the wet cloth.

Surface treating device with cartridge-based cleaning system

A method and apparatus for controlling emission of fragrances into a given area such as a room or a region of a yard; and more particularly the creation of a desired atmosphere within the given area. In addition, the invention involves a volatile substance dispensing device () having mounted therein a plurality of reservoirs () storing a volatile substance, and a plurality of atomizer assemblies () for emitting volatile substances communicated thereto by the reservoirs (). Preferably, a microcontroller () controls the emission of the volatile substances in accordance with preferred programs.

Dispensing of multiple volatile substances

A robotic surface treating device that can perform carpet sweeping, hard-surface dry sweeping/wiping, and hard-surface sweeping/mopping is disclosed. The robotic surface treating device includes a sweeper brush, a dust bin for collecting debris from the brush, a reel-to-reel sheet of cleaning material, and a fluid delivery system for delivering fluid from a fluid reservoir onto the sheet of cleaning material and/or onto the surface to be treated. The dust bin, reel-to-reel sheet of cleaning material, and the fluid reservoir are separately installed from the top of the device, and may be separately removed for replacement.

Surface treating device with top load cartridge-based cleaning system

A diffusion device comprises a bottom portion having a bottom cover disposed thereon. The device further includes a top portion having a top cover disposed atop the bottom portion and a pump assembly disposed between the top cover and the bottom cover. First, second, and third arm portions extend from the pump assembly, wherein the first, second, and third arm portions include first, second, and third piezoelectric devices, respectively, attached thereto.

Diffusion device and method of diffusing

An apparatus for dispensing a volatile substance includes an electromechanical dispenser attached to a pivot arm, and a cartridge for holding a plurality of reservoirs each containing a volatile substance. The cartridge is rotatable such that any one of the reservoirs can be positioned in an engagement position, in which the volatile substance can be dispensed. The cartridge has a cam feature consisting of a contoured circumferential surface that alternately rises and falls. The pivot arm operates in tandem with the cam feature such that, when the cartridge is rotated, the dispenser alternately engages and disengages from successive reservoirs, and remains out of the path of motion traversed by the reservoirs as the cartridge rotates from one engagement position to a subsequent engagement position. The electromechanical dispenser may be a piezoelectrically actuated vibratory type liquid atomization apparatus, and the volatile substance may be a fragrance.

Electromechanical apparatus for dispensing volatile substances with single dispensing mechanism and cartridge for holding multiple receptacles

An active material cartridge comprises a frame and an active material refill. The active material refill comprises at least one reservoir having an active material therein and a protrusion extending from a first end thereof. The active material refill is disposed on and attached to the frame.

Active material emitting device

A valve assembly can automatically dispense aerosol content from an aerosol container at predetermined intervals without the use of electric power. A diaphragm at least partially defines an accumulation chamber that receives gas propellant from a portion of the can during an accumulation phase. Once the internal pressure of the accumulation chamber reaches a predetermined threshold, the diaphragm moves, carrying with it a seal so as to unseal an outlet channel, and thereby initiate a spray burst of the main active chemical. The diaphragm assumes its original position when the pressure within the accumulation chamber falls below a threshold pressure.

Dispensing valve

Growing community of inventors

Racine, WI, United States of America

Thomas Jaworski