Brushing – scrubbing – and general cleaning – Machines – With air blast or suction
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-12
2002-07-23
Moore, Chris K. (Department: 1744)
Brushing, scrubbing, and general cleaning
Machines
With air blast or suction
C015S415100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06421875
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to vacuum devices, and more particularly to vacuum attachments for cleaning floors.
2. Background Information
When vacuum cleaners are used to clean floors, they use either a powered cleaning head which contacts the floor, or a non-powered cleaning head. The powered cleaning heads typically have a separate electrical motor which powers brushes or rollers which mechanically assist the vacuum process in loosening particulates from carpet fibers. These powered heads are by necessity heavier than non-powered heads. They also have the disadvantage of causing a certain degree of physical damage to carpet fibers when they are utilized. In high volume commercial areas such as in hotels, motels, convention centers, and other carpeted commercial areas, daily vacuuming with a powered vacuum head can shorten the life of carpet by the continual breaking of carpet fibers.
What is needed is a non-powered vacuum head which can be used on carpets or non-carpeted flooring, and which is very effective at picking up particulate matter, especially in carpets.
The problem with most non-powered vacuum heads is that they are much less successful at picking up particulates than powered heads. If suction is increased in non-powered heads, they also have the possibility of being sucked down into the carpet fibers, making movement of the vacuum head over a carpet more difficult. Since there is no agitation of the carpet fibers by rollers or beater bars, a non-powered head has to use some other mechanism in order to pick up particulates as effectively as a powered carpet head.
Prior art carpet heads typically lose a significant amount of efficiency due to the design of the vacuum head. Any time that the air flow is required to take a sharp 90° turn, a significant amount of efficiency is lost. If the cross sectional surface area of the air bypass openings into the vacuum head is too large, then the air speed through each of these openings is decreased. With decreased air speed, there is less capacity of the air to lift and carry particulates, and less ability for the air to disrupt calm layers of air adjacent to the floor surface. If the number of air bypass channels is reduced, and the cross sectional area of each hole is also reduced, air velocities through the air bypass channels can be increased, but it is possible to have areas of carpet which are uncleaned due to the fewer number and smaller size of air bypass channels.
These disadvantages result in prior art floor cleaning tools which are marginally effective in cleaning carpets or non-carpeted floors. One strategy to solve these problems is to design a tool which encourages laminar flow of air through the tool. The belief is that laminar flow is higher in speed, and thus the air has a greater capacity to carry a load of particulates. Some vacuum tools are designed with goal, and promote laminar air flow. However, in practice pure laminar flow is not effective in picking up particulates. The air flow may be faster, but its directness through the tool may keep it from actually picking up any dirt.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved floor cleaning tool which is aerodynamically designed for increased efficiency. It is a further object of the invention to provide a design which utilizes the configuration and alignment of the air bypass slots to create vortices inside the vacuum head for improved particulate pickup.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a vacuum cleaning tool which has a region in the vacuum head which produces high-speed laminar flow for particulate pickup, another area which provides for vortex formation, and another area which pulls air and particulates from the vortex region and forms them into a laminar flow air pattern.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an aerodynamically configured top cover, which eliminates 90° bends in the air flow. It is a further object of the invention to provide a vacuum tool which has a footprint which provides complete coverage for a section of floor in the path of the vacuum tool.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These and other objects are attained by the floor tool of the invention, which is designed to generate vortices in the cleaning head. The vortex floor tool is a floor tool for use with a vacuum cleaner. It includes a vacuum chamber in which the vortices are formed, and which includes a front side, a rear side, a right side, and a left side. Each of these sides has a bottom portion having a generally flattened floor contacting bottom edge. The bottom portion is designed to have a rounded leading and trailing edge, and a wide contact zone, for making the tool easy to maneuver on carpet under suction. In the bottom edge, a number of air bypass channels are defined. These air bypass channels are generally perpendicular to the side they reside in. These air bypass channels allow air to enter the vacuum chamber from outside the vacuum chamber, in response to the vacuum created by the vacuum means inside the vacuum chamber. The rear side is parallel to the front side, and is held in a spaced apart relationship with the front side by the right and left side. The front and rear side are attached to the right side as well as to the left side. The right side is held in a spaced relationship with the left side. A top cover portion attaches to the top edges of these four sides. In the top cover portion is defined an orifice for connection to a vacuum means, which is typically a vacuum cleaner. With the four sides, the top cover portion forms the vacuum chamber, which is open on the bottom side. The air bypass channels formed in the front side are offset in alignment from the air bypass channels in the rear side, and are thus configured to form multiple vortices in the vacuum chamber. The four sides make up a generally rectangular vacuum chamber, which could also be somewhat oval, elliptical, or rounded in shape and be equivalent to a rectangular shape.
The left side and the right side can also be configured to define one or more bypass channels in each of the left side and the right side. If present, the air bypass channel in the left side and the right side are configured to induce horizontally oriented vortices inside the vacuum chamber. The vacuum cleaner floor tool has a longitudinal axis which extends normal to the front side and the rear side. The lateral axis is normal to the longitudinal axis and also normal to the left side and the right side. The vertical axis is normal with the longitudinal axis and normal to the lateral axis.
In one configuration of the vacuum cleaner floor tool, the top cover includes a curving front cover face which is connected to the front side and extends vertically from the front wall, and curves towards a horizontal plain in the direction of the rear wall. The curving front cover face connects with an orifice in the top cover for receiving a tube from the vacuum means. This configuration of the device also includes a curve in the rear cover face which is connected to the rear wall and extends generally parallel to the curving front cover face. It begins vertically from the rear wall and curves toward the horizontal plain away from the front side and rear side. The curving rear cover face also connects with the tube receiving orifice, which connects to the vacuum means. The device of this configuration also includes a curving right cover face which is connected to the right side of the top cover, and at its edges, connects to the curving front cover face and the curving rear cover face. The curving right cover face curves towards the longitudinal axis of the floor tool, and towards the horizontal plain. It also forms a connection with a tube receiving orifice for the vacuum means. Also included is a curving left cover face which is connected to the left side of the top cover, and at its edges to the curving front cover face and the curving rear cover face. The curving left cover face curves towards the longitudinal axis of th
Coombs Richard L.
Shideler Michael J.
Dykas Frank J.
Moore Chris K.
Nipper Stephen M.
Pro-Team, Inc.
Shaver Robert L.
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