Cleaning and liquid contact with solids – Apparatus – With treating fluid purifying or separating means
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-21
2001-10-23
Stinson, Frankie L. (Department: 1746)
Cleaning and liquid contact with solids
Apparatus
With treating fluid purifying or separating means
C134S186000, C134S201000, C134S190000, C134S16600C
Reexamination Certificate
active
06305391
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
This invention relates to a cleaning device for cleaning a shaving head of a dry shaving apparatus, having a housing, a holding device, a cleaning liquid container, a filter, a feed device adapted to be driven by a motor and including a supply pipe leading to a cleaning basin and a liquid drain from the cleaning basin to the cleaning liquid container.
A cleaning device of the type initially referred to is known from DE 44 02 238 C2. In one embodiment of a cleaning device according to this printed specification—FIG.
1
—, a cleaning basin is provided with a connector having fitted thereto a porous hose member permeable to cleaning liquid to ensure that dirt particles do not enter the cleaning liquid container. Due to the substantial amounts of dirt particles needing to be removed from the shaving head of a dry shaving apparatus, the hose member is fouled in no time, which prevents cleaning liquid drained from the cleaning basin during the cleaning process from entering the cleaning liquid container. This results in spillage of cleaning liquid from the cleaning device. Approaches aimed at remedying the fouled condition, including in particular the removal of dirt particles, cannot be inferred from this printed specification.
In another embodiment of a cleaning device according to DE 44 02 238 C2—FIG.
6
—provision is made for a cleaning liquid container with integrated filter provided in the cleaning liquid circuit between the feed device and the cleaning basin, wherein the cleaning liquid, together with the dirt particles occurring in the respective cleaning operation, is fed by the feed device from the collecting reservoir associated with the cleaning basin directly to the inner chamber of a filter, being retained by this filter. At the beginning of the cleaning operation the feed pump of the cleaning device initially aspirates air, forcing the air through the cleaning liquid container with integrated filter until the cleaning liquid present in the cleaning liquid container reaches the cleaning basin through a conduit and subsequently, through the collecting reservoir, the intake pipe of the feed pump. The continuous accumulation of dirt particles in the inner chamber of the filter presents an increasing resistance in the fluid circuit from the feed device to the cleaning basin, with the result that a feed device having a higher load-carrying capacity and hence incurring greater expense needs to be provided.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
From DE 14 36 302 a backwash precoat filter for gases or liquids is known, in which the supply line for the non purified liquid aspirated by a pump, which line leads to the filter pressure vessel containing the filter elements, as well as the delivery line for the filtrate are each provided with a shutoff valve. The filtrate outlet is disposed at the lower end of the filter elements. Backwash is effected by means of air compressed in an air vessel, steam or gas, with the filtrate outlet of the filter elements being connected with an air vessel, with a shutoff valve being inserted therebetween. The filter pressure vessel further includes a drain connector with a quickacting gate.
It is an object of the present invention to improve a cleaning device of the type initially referred to.
According to the present invention, this object is accomplished in a cleaning device of the type initially referred to with the following features. The cleaning device for cleaning a shaving head of a dry shaving apparatus, includes a housing having a cleaning basin and a holding device, an exchangeable cleaning liquid container containing a cleaning liquid and having a filter integrated therein, and a feed device adapted to be driven by a motor and including a supply pipe leading to the cleaning basin. The cleaning device is characterized in that the exchangeable cleaning liquid container with the filter is arranged underneath the cleaning basin, that the cleaning liquid is adapted to be aspirated by the feed device from the cleaning liquid container through the inner chamber of the filter and to be passed by the feed device to the cleaning basin through a supply pipe, that a backflow of cleaning liquid can be effected from the supply pipe through the feed device and the filter to the cleaning liquid container, and that in a wall of the cleaning liquid container an inlet port is provided admitting the cleaning liquid drained from an outlet port of the cleaning basin.-L
The cleaning device of the present invention affords a plurality of advantages. One significant advantage resides in that a fluid circuit optimal in its effect is accomplished by reason of the arrangement of the exchangeable cleaning liquid container with integrated filter underneath the cleaning basin and the subsequent connection of the feed device with the inner chamber of the filter on the one hand and, on the other hand, the further supply of the purified liquid through a supply pipe to the cleaning basin, as well as due to the draining of the cleaning liquid from the cleaning basin into the cleaning liquid container. This fluid circuit ensures that the aggregate of the cleaning liquid is drained from the cleaning basin to the cleaning liquid container and, moreover, that the cleaning liquid present in the supply pipe returns to the cleaning liquid container through the feed device and the filter upon termination of the cleaning operation, that is, upon deactivation of the feed device. An essential advantage afforded by this backflow is that dirt particles collecting on the outer wall of the filter during the cleaning operation when cleaning liquid is drawn from the cleaning basin are dislodged from the filter wall by the pressure of the cleaning liquid flowing back, and are forced into the cleaning liquid container. A further advantage is that the arrangement of the cleaning liquid container underneath the cleaning basin ensures that the filter's surface invariably lies beneath the surface level of the cleaning liquid. Any aspiration of air through the filter during operation of the cleaning device is thus positively precluded. The entire dirt resulting from a cleaning operation of a shaving head of a dry shaving apparatus is fed to, and remains in, the cleaning liquid container. Any accumulation of dirt particles at other locations in the cleaning device is entirely precluded. In consequence it is ensured that the feed device circulates exclusively purified cleaning liquid. The cleaning device as such affords low-cost manufacture because the entire cleaning operation is controlled by a single component only, meaning the feed device.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention the supply pipe leading from the feed device to the cleaning basin is configured as a riser for the cleaning liquid. By means of the riser an incline is produced for the backflow of cleaning liquid from the supply pipe through the filter into the cleaning liquid container, whose volume and pressure are dimensioned sufficiently large to reduce the filter cake which has accumulated on the outer wall of the filter during the preceding cleaning operation.
In a further embodiment of the present invention the supply pipe is formed by a riser and a downpipe. In a simple and low-cost embodiment of the present invention, the backflow of the cleaning liquid is ensured only by lifting the cleaning liquid to a level in the riser that exceeds the liquid level in the cleaning liquid container.
In an alternative embodiment the backflow of the cleaning liquid is ensured by means of a pressure accumulator. According to this embodiment the pressure accumulator is adapted to be pressurized by the cleaning liquid in operation of the feed device. Still further, deactivation of the feed device ensures the backflow of cleaning liquid through the feed device and the filter to the cleaning liquid container including the removal of dirt particles from the outer wall and the filter by means of the hydrostatic pressure stored in the pressure accumulator. In a further aspect of this embodiment provision is made for the pressure acc
Braun GmbH
Fish & Richardson P.C.
Stinson Frankie L.
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