Cleaning and liquid contact with solids – Processes – Including use of vacuum – suction – or inert atmosphere
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-22
2001-08-28
Till, Terrence R. (Department: 1744)
Cleaning and liquid contact with solids
Processes
Including use of vacuum, suction, or inert atmosphere
C015S405000, C015S328000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06280532
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention herein pertains to a lawn vacuum attachment and particularly to an attachment which is removably affixed to a conventional hand-held lawn vacuum.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION
In recent years homeowners and others have devoted more time and energy than ever before creating and maintaining a “manicured” lawn. Such homeowners frequently trim the grass and thereafter remove all leaves, twigs, grass clippings and other debris from the lawn. Various manufacturers have capitalized on this market by providing, in addition to more versatile lawnmowers, weed trimmers and the like, an abundant supply of hand-held pneumatic devices (both electrical and gasoline powered) to vacuum and/or blow leaves and debris from the lawn. Such vacuum/blowers are relatively light in weight but are tiring when carried by an adult for extended periods of time during operation. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,522,115; 5,638,574 and 4,325,163 show but a few of the vacuum/blowers now available. However, standard hand-held vacuum/blowers do not always provide uniform air movement to a lawn. For example, during a vacuum operation, certain areas of a lawn may be adequately cleaned of leaves and trimmings while other areas are inadvertently skipped, requiring the equipment user to return or double back to remove all leaves visible. This is extremely troublesome and time consuming while vacuuming large lawns and lawns which have uneven surfaces.
Thus, in order to increase the user's convenience and to save time and energy in the lawn vacuuming process, the present invention was conceived and one of its objectives is to allow users to uniformly vacuum a lawn or other surface at a consistent vacuum height regardless of its size, flatness or texture without becoming overly tired in the process.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a lawn vacuum attachment which can be mounted on any of a number of standard leaf blower/vacuum devices and to increase the width of the suction opening.
It is also an objective of the present invention to provide an attachment for a standard lawn vacuum which allows the user to adjust the nozzle height, depending on the particular lawn, driveway, pavement or other surface conditions encountered.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide an attachment and method which can be easily affixed or removed from a conventional hand-held lawn vacuum without special tools or training.
Various other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as a more detailed description is set forth below.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The aforesaid and other objectives are realized providing a preferred embodiment of a lawn vacuum attachment having a nozzle with wheels positioned at opposing sides thereof. In another embodiment a slotted tubular member acts as a nozzle and is in fluid communication with a central conduit. The central conduit can be slidably engaged with the suction pipe of a conventional hand-held lawn vacuum to allow the attachment to be rolled along a lawn or other surface. The wheels include means for height adjustment whereby the nozzle can be raised or lowered at the election of the user to increase or decrease the suction force on the ground below.
The method of removing leaves includes (in one embodiment) forming the attachment such as by utilizing a slotted tubular member formed from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe and mounting wheels at each end thereof. A central conduit is joined to the tubular member for insertion into a suction tube of a conventional hand-held lawn vacuum. With the attachment so connected, the user can then manually roll the attachment over the lawn while holding the lawn vacuum as it operates, to uniformly, thoroughly and consistently remove leaves and other debris.
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Advertisement for Yardvark blower, Greensboro News & Record 10, Nov. 1999.
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