Brushing – scrubbing – and general cleaning – Machines – With air blast or suction
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-16
2004-08-10
Till, Terrence R. (Department: 1744)
Brushing, scrubbing, and general cleaning
Machines
With air blast or suction
C015S327100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06772473
ABSTRACT:
The present invention concerns a waste collecting device intended to equip a vacuum cleaner having a system for separation of the waste of the inertial type or by a cyclone.
Such devices and the advantages that flow therefrom are known: on the one hand an absence of filter bags collecting the waste, bags that it is necessary to change regularly requiring a repetitive purchase of said bags, and on the other hand aspiration conditions that are more constant over time and thus are more favorable to the useful life of the motor and to the effectiveness of the dust removal.
These devices thus generally comprise a shell having an interior tube. The air introduced often tangentially at the interior of the shell follows a helical descending path around the tube while projecting solid particles against the internal face of the wall, these particles then being collected by gravity along the wall in a lower receptacle. At the end of the spiral, air that is liberated from the solid particles rises in the central tube.
The document WO 96/21389 describes a vacuum cleaner of this type that is more elaborate in comprising two cyclones provoked in two concentric casings.
The finest and thus the lightest particles are mainly carried by the flux in the central tube, the centrifugal forces evoked at a higher level playing, with respect to said particles, only a secondary role with respect to the entrainment forces. The majority of these particles do not separate from the air flux and are recovered downstream of the device by means for example of a filter composed of a pleated media.
A residual part of the fine particles is received in the waste receptacle while this fine dust should not be separated by the cyclonic device. This observation can be explained by the fact that one part of the fine dust remains coupled to the more voluminous waste, by mechanical attachment or by surface forces of the electrostatic type. Moreover, when the fine dust is already localized at the periphery of the air flux during its entry into the separation device, the probability of collecting it in the waste container is greater than the probability of a particle of the same size located more axially in the entering flux.
The lower waste receptacle must be emptied regularly. One part of the flow of air having a tendency to penetrate to the interior of the receptacle, this receptacle is often given large dimensions, for the purpose of arriving at storing particles sufficiently far from the flow of air penetrating into the receptacle, in order that the waste is not re-entrained to the exterior of said receptacle. These large dimensions also permit the receptacle to be emptied less often.
According to a simple form of construction, as presented in the document WO 96/27446, the separation device is a vertical cyclonic device, the waste collecting container being then situated under the separation device. Thus, separated waste is accumulated in the lower part of the cyclone, at the level of the inversion of the air flow, and is entrained into the container by inertial projection, the accumulation of waste in the container being aided by gravity, a consequence of the vertical disposition of the cyclonic device.
In other cases, where the separation device is not disposed according to a preferred orientation, such as that described in the document FR 2 778 546, said container is situated on the path of air placed in rotation by the waste separation device. Preferably, the container is situated at the periphery of the separation device, in this case by centrifuging with the aid of a screw, in such a manner that a minimum of air and a maximum of waste are introduced into the container, the waste possibly being halted by a retaining grid. This waste is thus accumulated in the collecting container.
In these two cases, the container has the general form of a box, with or without the presence of a lid.
If, certainly, this separation offers the advantage of freedom from the vacuum cleaner bags of the more conventional appliances, it necessitates however a regular emptying of the waste container.
This operation of emptying and above all of cleaning the waster collecting container is found to be burdensome and incomplete when elements making up the filter device are housed at the interior of the colleting container. Thus, in the document U.S. Pat. No. 5,935,279, the waste collecting container is removable and is provided with a gripping handle. It has, moreover, two separation devices, one with a perforated wall, the other with a cyclonic device, elements that can however be removed from the container for emptying and/or cleaning of said container. These emptying and cleaning operations are thus not very easy to carry out, since they require a disassembly of constituent parts of the receptacle and parts associated principally with separation of the waste.
One of the objects of the present invention is to reduce the problems of handling and complexity of waste collecting containers of the devices of the prior art and thus to improve the comfort of utilization of vacuum cleaners with waste separation of the cyclonic or centrifuging type.
Another object of the invention is to provide the user with a receptacle that can be emptied in a careful and controlled manner while minimizing the quantity of fine dust that escapes and flies around the receptacle and the waste bin.
The present invention is achieved with the aid of a removable waste collecting container separated by a device of the cyclonic or inertial type for a waste collecting appliance of the vacuum cleaner type, said container having several walls delimiting a storage volume, among said walls are noteworthy a wall forming the base of the container, called the base wall, as well as at least one wall provided with an opening, called the link wall, characterized in that:
the base wall and the link wall are contiguous while presenting either a curve of one and/or the other wall, or an inclination between said walls,
the opening of the link wall is located in immediate proximity to the zone of contiguity between said wall and the base wall.
By this inclination or curve between the base and link walls, the container is given the form of a pouring spout, so that it is easy to empty waste through the opening provided in the link wall, an operation facilitated by the location of the emptying opening closest to the base wall.
The user can thus control the exit of the waste by giving an inclination which is just sufficient to allow the dust to begin to slide without reaching a significant speed which would lead to the fine dust, which is necessarily found in the container, becoming airborne.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the removable waste collecting container is in communication over an air path with the waste separating device through the opening of the link wall when it is disposed within the aspiration system.
This arrangement permits the provision of two openings within the container to be avoided: a first to cause the waste to penetrate to the interior of the container, as well as a second opening for emptying the container.
Advantageously, the internal volume of the waste collecting container for storing waste is not provided with any piece, conduit, or device for waste separation.
It is an effect important to note that most of the waste collecting containers have one part of the device for separation of waste, so that the emptying of the container requires either a partial removal of said part, a removal which is distasteful, or the near impossibility of correct cleaning of the container. By making the container removable and with a continuous interior volume, the cleaning of said container is facilitated, as is the convenience of use of the vacuum cleaner.
In a preferred manner, the waste collecting container has a handle situated on one of the walls other than the link wall and the base wall, said handle being located at the outside of the volume defined by said container in order to facilitate gripping of the container.
According to one of the preferred e
Diascorn Gilles
Dubos Roland
Browdy and Neimark , P.L.L.C.
SEB S.A.
Till Terrence R.
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