Heretofore, there have been various attempts to collect grease and oil drippings from motor vehicles. These prior art attempts have taken the form of a catch pan or a mat placed beneath a vehicle oil pan. When the pan or mat has collected as much oil as it can reasonably hold it is emptied, as in the case of a catch pan, or thrown away, if it is an absorbent mat. This solution is fine for a private home where either the pan or mat can be monitored daily or weekly without any problems. However, with the growing concerns for the environment and rain water run off, such limited capabilities to monitor oil drippings and collection in public and private parking garages are being noticed by the Environmental Protection Agency. There appears to be a possible new set of regulations on the horizon to guard against oil drippings in parking lots and garages where the oil can be washed into sewers and eventually rivers, bays and oceans. One form of the regulation could require adequate collection means to hold a week's or month's collections. It is forecast that the fines for not complying will be prohibitive. There will be many new proposals on how to meet and deal with the present problems and possible regulations. The starting point for any proposal is the prior U.S. patents, therefore to show the current status of the mat type collectors, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,356,598 and 3,228,491 are of interest. U.S. Pat. No. 3,228,491 discloses a corrugated cardboard mat coated on one side with a moisture-proof coating for collecting grease and oil. U.S. Pat. No. 1,356,598 is directed to a garage of corrugated cardboard and coated with a water proofing agent, where the mat is used while working beneath an automobile. Another drip catcher is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,349,314 where a shallow basin-like receiver of plaster of Paris or some other suitable porous material collects water dripping from a refrigerator. One other patent of general interest is U.S. Pat. No. 1,251,964 which discloses a corrugated cardboard cushion pad.
The singular problem with the described patents is they are not structured to collect and hold a volume of oil. The absorbent nature of corrugated cardboard is well known, however, when laid flat the top sheet is less absorbent than the corrugated end, which has open corrugated pockets. In addition, the single corrugated sheet in U.S. Pat. No. 3,228.491 is limited in use to private homes, or a single automobile use.
It is the purpose of the invention to provide an oil drippings collecting mat for commercial use. The mat is structured to hold a week or more collection of oil drippings without overflowing; while being inexpensive and constructed of recycled corrugated cardboard.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds