Hand held snow shovels, plows snow rakes and brushes for moving and removing snow have been around for a long time. Hence it is common knowledge that to remove snow or like material from the driveway, sidewalks or the like it is necessary to have a shovel or blade made of a material that is hard enough to resist abrasion, flexing fatigue, and the usually wear and tear that snow shovels encounter, and still be able to support the weight of the snow or like material, but still be light weigh enough to be wielded in a fashion that is consistent with shoveling snow. Considering the problem, for hard surface snow removal, the past art gives us more solutions than there are problems. Ref: to U.S.PTO web site advanced search ccl/294/54.5 this profuse reservoir of patents is for a common purpose, to be able to do the job faster and or easer. As a result there have been many attempts at dual edged shovels and articulating blades or handles, however most of the past art has not come to fruition since it has proved to be too expensive, clumsy, heavy or slow, due to the material used in the manufacturing of the devices, over engineering, or just the mechanical nature of the inventions or a host of other reasons. It seems just the opposite is true for the prior art concerning a slightly softer and or more delicate surface such as synthetic, or plastic decks and steps, wooden decks, and steps or the like, and more delicate still, carpeted porches and steps or the like. Not many, if any, examples exist of a snow removal tool designed specifically for these softer surfaces that would easily scar, scratch or otherwise be damaged using a hard plastic or metal blade. One example of a dual purposes snow removal tool is U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,829 but in the past the only thing that has been widely available is a common broom, which is hugely inefficient in regards to effort and time when one is working to clear more than just a small area of snow or like material. Finally past art concerning removing snow from automobiles one could site many types of squeegees or brushes most of which fail to provide an adequate combination of snow removal tool attributes, namely light and strong. The virtues of the lighter weight brushes is taken out of existence by having too repeat the same stroke too many times for too little results. If the snow is too deep or heavy the squeegees that can do large areas or handle the deep heavy snow are generally too heavy and do not provide adequate protection for the paint on a vehicle with one notable exception U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,250. This is a great tool for taking the snow off the cars, but the shortfall is that it can't convert to scrape the ground where the snow is dumped. No dual purpose. So with the past art we usually find many different types of tool configuration for three different types of surfaces, with some dual purpose tools in patent only as the production viability of the dual tool reality has heretofore been mostly an illusion, that's the problem when removing a lot of snow from a lot of cars in a large parking lot like an automobile dealership or a driveway with several cars parked there. The process of removing the snow is like a production line where one must push or pull the snow off from the cars only to trample it down between the cars, making it not only difficult to remove but very slippery, icy and dangerous to walk on. Often times the snow will become encrusted onto the black top, cement or other surfaces, because the sun can't get in between the cars to melt the snow or like material away, it can't be removed with the current art as a hard plastic or metal shovel will damage the cars paint. A snow blower may do even more harm. So it sometimes becomes necessary to move all of the cars and plow the entire lot with a snow plow truck which is very time consuming and costly to the dealer principal, business owners, and home owner. Thus what is needed is one tool that can safely, quickly, and inexpensively remove snow or the like material off of and immediately out from between the vehicles as well clear off the driveways, porches, steps, windshields & windows on cars, regardless of their respective underlying material compounds of cement, wood, synthetics, plastics, carpet, paint, glass, etc. while in the cold wet weather, without having to go for a different tool. That will avoid scratching or marring the finish of the vehicles. To remove snow off all of these surfaces stated above without damage of any kind. Without having to spend time on the encumbrances of the prior art. The invention disclosed and claimed in this application presents a solution to all of these and other problems.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds