Ceiling fan air freshener

Abstract

A ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener including a wedge-shaped housing with a clip attached to the housing for removably mounting the air freshener to a ceiling fan blade. The interior of the wedge-shaped housing defines an air-flow duct. Air enters air intake apertures provided in a low forward wall of the housing and passes through a porous fragrance emitting unit and exits through vent apertures provide in the top of the housing. The housing is mounted on a fan blade such that the low forward wall faces the leading edge of the fan blade.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is related to and claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/818,405 filed on Jul. 3, 2006.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Many ceiling fan blade-mounted air fresheners deliver a small amount of fragrance in one area. Without the distribution of fragrance to other room locations those portions of a room remain stale smelling while one area becomes overwhelmingly fragrant. Plug-in devices or those requiring candles for scent activation and distribution are quite costly and can be dangerous to use. Purchasing multiple cans of air freshener for use is particular rooms can become costly and inefficient. Ceiling fan blade-mounted air fresheners disclosed in the past may offer problems such as, being generally unsightly, somewhat inefficient, cumbersome to mount on the fan blade, quite difficult to replace the scented element, and/or, in the case of using a mounting adhesive, may not provide a reliable bond to the fan blade surface which may result in a dangerous condition for room occupants.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener is disclosed including a wedge-shaped housing. A clip is preferably affixed to said housing and is adapted for removably mounting the air freshener to the ceiling fan blade. Preferably, the wedge-shaped housing as a low forward wall, a high rearward wall, a pair of wedge-shaped side walls, a top wall and a bottom wall. The interior of the housing defines an air-flow duct. The low forward wall has air intake apertures passing through it in predetermined position. The top wall has vent apertures passing through it in predetermined position. The wedge-shaped housing is mounted to the fan blade such that the low forward wall faces the leading edge of the fan blade and is in parallel arrangement with it. A porous fragrance emitting unit is disposed in the housing duct such that air entering the air intake apertures passes through the fragrance emitting unit for discharging scented air through the vent apertures, whereby the wedge-shaped housing offers very low wind resistance for the fan blade, while permitting forced air flow through the duct for efficient emission of the fragrance in a room.

Preferably, the porous fragrance emitting unit of the ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener includes a sponge-like member impregnated with a fragrance carrying substance. Desirably, the fragrance carrying substance is a scented gel.

The low forward wall of the wedge-shaped housing preferably abuts the leading edge of the fan blade. Also, the high rearward wall desirably faces the trailing edge of the fan blade and is in parallel arrangement with it. In addition, the high rearward wall of the wedge-shaped housing desirably abuts the trailing edge of the fan blade.

The clip preferably has a resilient loop-shaped portion for firmly engaging the housing to the fan blade. Preferably, the resilient loop-shaped portion of the clip has a color to match the color of the fan blade, whereby the clip is camouflaged from view. Also, it is advantageous for the resilient loop-shaped portion of the clip to carry a rubber-like coating which has a color to match the fan blade. Desirably, the clip is attached to the wedge-shaped housing at the forward wall. The resilient loop-shaped portion preferably overlaps the leading edge of the forward wall of the housing.

It has been found advantageous that the ratio of the height of the rearward wall of the wedge-shaped housing to the height of the forward wall is about 2:1.13. Also, the bottom wall of the wedge-shaped housing desirably has a width equal to the width of outer portion of the fan blade.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For better understanding of the invention reference may be had to the accompanying drawings exemplary of the invention, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective plan view of the air freshener of the present invention mounted to a ceiling fan;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the air freshener, partially broken away, of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the air freshener as shown in FIG. 2 showing the loop portion of the clip.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the air freshener mounted on top of the fan blade at the outer portion of the fan blade;

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of the air freshener as shown in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a bottom view of the fan blade mounted air freshener as shown in FIG. 4 showing the loop portion of the clip firmly engaging the fan blade.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ADVANTAGEOUS EMBODIMENTS

With reference to FIG. 1, the ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener 10 of the present invention is shown. As shown air freshener 10 is mounted to a four bladed ceiling fan of course the number of blades is of no consequence other than one air freshener 10 is desirably mounted on every fan blade 12, as shown in FIG. 1 to provide an equal weight for each fan blade 12. Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, a air freshener 10 comprises a wedge-shaped housing 14 made of a plastic or some other light-weight material. Clip 16 is attached to the housing 14 and is adapted for removably mounting the air freshener 10 to the fan blade 12, as shown in FIGS. 3-6, for example. The clip 16 may be mounted by firmly embedding ends 18a, 18b of clip 16 in the plastic housing 14, for example.

With reference to FIGS. 2, 4 and 5, there is shown the wedge-shaped housing 14 of the present invention. The wedge-shaped housing of the present invention is provided with a low forward wall 20, a high rearward wall 22, a pair of wedge-shaped side walls 24a, 24b, a top wall 26 and a bottom wall 28. The interior 30 of the housing 14 is hollow and defines an air-flow duct 32. The low forward wall 20 has air intake apertures 34 passing through it, which may be as shown in FIG. 2. The top wall 26 has vent apertures 36 passing through it, which may also be as shown in FIG. 2. Preferably, the housing 14 is mounted to the fan blade 12 such that the low forward wall 20 faces the leading edge 38 of the fan blade 12 and is in parallel arrangement with it. Preferably, the low forward wall 20 of the housing 14 abuts the leading edge 38 of the fan blade s shown in FIG. 5. This results in a more aerodynamic structure and aids in the housing 14 camouflage of the housing 14. Preferably, the high rearward wall 22 faces the trailing edge 42 of the fan blade 12 and is in parallel arrangement with it and abuts it, as shown in FIG. 5, for example.

A porous fragrance emitting unit 40 is disposed in the housing air-flow duct 32 as shown in FIG. 2. The fragrance emitting unit 40 may be a sponge or other similar material such as cotton or a webbed plastic member, for example. The fragrance emitting unit 40 may carry a scented gel or other similar scented fluid that are readily available in the marketplace.

Preferably, the clip 16 includes a resilient loop-shaped portion 44 for firmly engaging the housing 14 to the fan blade 12, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, for example. The loop-shaped portion 44 together with the clip 16 as a whole may be made of a metal or plastic, or other such material as long as the loop-shaped portion 44 can engage the fan blade 12 with sufficient force to firmly engage the housing to the fan blade 12. Preferably, the resilient loop-shaped portion 44 of the clip 16 is given a color to match the color of the fan blade 12 to camouflage it from view. Preferably, especially in the case of clip made of metal the loop-shaped portion 44 desirably carries a rubber-like coating (not shown), which may be rubber or plastic, for example, to provide a texture more pleasing to the touch when the air freshener 10 is being installed or replaced. Preferably, the clip 16 is attached to the wedge-shaped housing at the forward wall 20 of the housing 14, as shown in FIGS. 1, 3, 4-6, this permits the air freshener 10 to be mounted on the leading edge 38 of the fan blade 12 that is rotating in either a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. In the event the user wants to switch the direction of rotation of the fan blade all that is necessary is to remove the air fresheners 10 that were mounted with the previous leading edge 38 and re-mount them on the new leading edge 38. The present invention is designed so that by mounting the air freshener 10 with the loop-portion of the clip 16 engaging leading edge 38 of the fan blade force of the air created by the movement of the fan in the leading edge direction aids in maintaining the clip 16 on the fan blade 12.

Preferably, the ratio of the height of the high rearward wall to the low forward wall is about 2:1. Preferably the bottom wall 28 of the wedge-shaped housing has width equal to the width of the outer portion of the fan blade 46, as shown in FIGS. 1, 4, and 6. This configuration offers an efficient aerodynamic design and at the same time is largely camouflaged to the room occupants.

The air freshener 10 including the wedge-shaped housing 14 of the present invention is depicted as a one piece unit and containing the fragrance emitting unit 40. The user simply throws the used air freshener 10 when its fragrance has been diminished and replaces it with a new air freshener 10. In an alternative, but possibly less advantageous design from the commercial standpoint, the housing may have an access door (not shown) for replacement of the fragrance emitting unit only.

Claims

1. A ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener comprising: a wedge-shaped housing, a clip affixed to said housing being adapted for removably mounting the air freshener to the ceiling fan blade, said wedge-shaped housing having a low forward wall, a high rearward wall, a pair of wedge-shaped side walls, a top wall and a bottom wall, the interior of the housing defining an air-flow duct, the low forward wall having air intake aperture means therethrough, the top wall having vent aperture means therethrough, the housing mounted to the fan blade such that the low forward wall faces the leading edge of the fan blade in parallel arrangement therewith, a porous fragrance emitting unit disposed in the housing duct such that air entering the air intake aperture means passes through the fragrance emitting unit for discharging scented air through the vent aperture means, whereby the wedge-shaped housing offers very low wind resistance for the fan blade, while permitting forced air flow through the duct for efficient emission of the fragrance in a room.

2. The ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener of claim 1, the porous fragrance emitting unit comprises a sponge-like member impregnated with a fragrance carrying substance.

3. The ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener of claim 2, wherein the fragrance carrying substance is a scented gel.

4. The ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener of claim 1, wherein the low forward wall of the wedge-shaped housing abuts the leading edge of the fan blade.

5. The ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener of claim 1, wherein the high rearward wall faces the trailing edge of the fan blade and is in parallel arrangement therewith.

6. The ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener of claim 5, wherein the high rearward wall of the wedge-shaped housing abuts the trailing edge of the fan blade.

7. The ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener of claim 1, wherein the clip has a resilient loop-shaped portion for firmly engaging the housing to the fan blade.

8. The ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener of claim 7, wherein the resilient loop-shaped portion of the clip has a color to match the color of the fan blade, whereby the clip is camouflaged from view.

9. The ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener of claim 8, the resilient loop-shaped portion of the clip carries a rubber-like coating.

10. The ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener of claim 7, wherein the clip is affixed to wedge-shaped housing proximate the forward wall of the housing.

11. The ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener of claim 10, wherein the resilient loop-shaped portion overlaps the leading edge of the forward wall of the housing.

12. The ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener of claim 1, wherein the ratio of the height of the rearward wall of the wedge-shaped housing to the height of the forward wall is about 2:1.

13. The ceiling fan blade-mounted air freshener of claim 1, wherein the bottom wall of the wedge-shaped housing has a width equal to the width outer portion of the fan blade.