Abstract: A rubbing pad-dispensing tool comprising a tubular body for holding by hand, the tubular body having an interior arranged for containing a stack of rubbing pads and a pad-dispensing orifice positioned on a first end thereof; the pad-dispensing orifice having an end cap closure therefor, and in which the exterior of the end cap closure is provided with a planar pad-carrying area arranged such that in use, the rubbing pads may be brought one at a time into carried contact therewith.

Abstract: There is provided a friction tool for use in a cosmetic method for the treatment of mammalian skin. The tool comprises a body (60) defining a support having a planar support face; a friction pad (65) provided to said support face, said friction pad defining a friction face. The friction pad comprises a lofty non-woven fibre material or both a compressible foam layer and a layer of friction-enhancing material defining said friction face. A cosmetic method, which can be performed using the tool is also described.

Abstract: A surface treatment tool formed from a thin sheet of flexible material, typically a polymer, shaped to store and dispense fluid, scrub, abrade, scrape off and retain debris, including particulates from treated surfaces, and including an array of closely spaced hollow mushroom-shaped protrusions that store (after a bottom sheet which is not shown is added), and then release fluids during rubbing via perforated faces, and upstanding mushroom shapes carrying soft rubbing faces which have harder scraper edges constituting operable faces with gaps between faces leading into a sunken labyrinth into which loosened debris is scraped up and retained.

Abstract: A friction tool for use in a cosmetic method for the treatment of mammalian skin, the tool comprising a body defining a support having a planar support face; a resiliently deformable friction pad provided to the support face, the friction pad defining a friction face, the friction pad further comprising a net-like layer provided at said friction face such as integrally thereto, and a cosmetic method which can be performed using the friction tool.

Abstract: It is already common in many devices like spanners or pipe wrenches for the pressure between the gripping faces and gripped faces to be related to the torsional load that is applied to turn the gripped object. In these apparatus the grip can be made to relax automatically as the load is removed. The invention relates to improvements in such devices, and to novel designs of mechanical coupling devices that utilise this basic idea. More specifically, the invention firstly proposes a method of improving the performance of an object-gripping tool of the cam-operated gripper-element type, in which method there is applied to the gripper surface a friction-enhancing chemical.

Abstract: There is provided a method of forming a high friction joint between a first tubular metal body and a second tubular metal body, the method comprising: selecting a first tubular metal body having a first outer face at a first end portion thereof and selecting a second tubular body having a second inner face at a second end portion thereof, the first and second faces being capable of overlap to enable the first and second tmbs to fit together; treating the first outer face of the first tubular metal body and/or the second inner face of the second tubular metal body by introducing a friction enhancing agent to at least part of one or both thereof; inserting the first end portion of the first tubular metal body inside the second end portion of the second tubular metal body such as to form a low friction joint therebetween; and moving the first end portion of the first tubular body relative to the second end portion of the second tubular body to create rubbing at the first and second faces to activate the friction

Abstract: There is provided a rubbing tool that stores and dispenses impregnated pads (103) from a sealed cavity therein. Each pad with new rubbing surface (106) thereon is transferred onto an outside surface (102) of the tubular storage holder for use after which the pad is discarded. Uses for the tools include industrial surface preparation, surface cleaning in home care and car care and the application of cosmetics and personal care treatments.

Abstract: There is provided a friction tool for use in a cosmetic method for the treatment of mammalian skin. The tool comprises a body (60) defining a support having a planar support face; a friction pad (65) provided to said support face, said friction pad defining a friction face. The friction pad comprises a lofty non-woven fibre material or both a compressible foam layer and a layer of friction-enhancing material defining said friction face. A cosmetic method, which can be performed using the tool is also described.

Abstract: It is already common in many devices like spanners or pipe wrenches for the pressure between the gripping faces and gripped faces to be related to the torsional load that is applied to turn the gripped object. In these apparatus the grip can be made to relax automatically as the load is removed. The invention relates to improvements in such devices, and to novel designs of mechanical coupling devices that utilise this basic idea. More specifically, the invention firstly proposes a method of improving the performance of an object-gripping tool of the cam-operated gripper-element type, in which method there is applied to the gripper surface a friction-enhancing chemical.

Abstract: A common way of shaping a metal workpiece by the removal of material therefrom involves rubbing contact, as experienced in a conventional wedge-shaped metal or ceramic cutting tool or in abrasive rubbing using grinding wheels. In conventional cutting and abrading it is commonplace to introduce at the cutter/workpiece interface a material that principally acts as a coolant and as a chip remover but which normally has lubricating properties to minimized rubbing friction. The method of the present invention, in contrast, depends for its function on deliberately causing very high levels of friction between the tool and workpiece; it proposes a method of shaping metal in which the surface of the work piece is "rubbed" by a tool in a friction-inducing manner and in the presence of an anti-lubrication (friction enhancing) agent in a quantity and in a form such that actual friction enhancement occurs.