SWEEPABLE ELECTRIC VACUUM CLEANER
An electric vacuum cleaner with improved broom-like feel in sweeping includes a head and a handle. Batteries are provided in the handle and a suction motor/fan assembly, as well as a dirt cup, are provided in the head of the broom. There is a side entry of the dirt cup into the head of the unit. Pivotally mounted to the dirt cup is a filter assembly. The head of the dirt cup includes a flexible nozzle.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/014,617 entitled SWEEPABLE ELECTRIC VACUUM CLEANER filed Dec. 18, 2007 the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUNDThe present disclosure relates an electric vacuum cleaner with a sweepable feel for a more broom-like use in households. Electric brooms are known in the art. One such broom is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,572, and another is described at U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,158. The broomish looking devices of '572 and '158 include a handle in the form of an elongated stick and a broom body or head fixed to the handle. Cleaning means are provided on the broom body. The cleaning means in the '572 device include a pad of elastic material provided with at least one rectilinear cleaning lip. A vacuum cleaner unit is housed in the broom body and a suction opening is located in a position adjacent the cleaning pad. As disclosed in the '158 patent the batteries can be housed in the elongated handle of the direct current vacuum cleaner which has a head with a nozzle having two lines of bristles outside of the elongated pads that partly close off the dust passage in the nozzle. This unit also has a centrally longitudinally located motor above a centrally located dirt or dust cup. A similar device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,850,669. This device, however, uses cleaning bristles in addition to a foam material adjacent the nozzle opening.
There have been difficulties, however, with the known electric broom-like vacuum cleaners in that although having an approximate shape of a broom, they do not provide a smoothly gliding sweepable feel over the floor which is meant to be cleaned. In addition, the known electric brooms have an undesirable weight distribution with the vast majority of the weight being located in the cleaning head. Also existing electric brooms with dirt cups are not facile emptying dirt cups. These matters can make the known electric brooms somewhat cumbersome to use.
BRIEF DESCRIPTIONThe present disclosure in one embodiment pertains to an improved floor care cleaner with a suction source having a more sweepable broom-like feel or action in use to provide clear advantages to the use of a broom or brush with a dust pan.
In one aspect of the present disclosure, the sweepable electric floor care cleaner provides a less cumbersome cleaning experience over the use of a broom or brush and dust pan and over harder to handle prior electric broom vacuum cleaners as the above-mentioned devices. In one aspect the disclosed floor care cleaner can operate in the direct current (“dc”) mode providing increased mobility of use. Also the disclosed floor care cleaner can provide an enhanced cleaning performance even without the use of brushes in or near the intake nozzle that is close to the surface to be cleaned. Also the cleaner can have a dust or dirt collection container or cup that is more facilely removed, emptied and reinstalled into the cleaner. One or more of these afford the user a better overall cleaning experience. Also, the weight distribution of the unit has been improved and the controls are easy to reach and use.
With reference now to the drawings, which illustrate specific embodiments of the present disclosure but are not to be deemed limiting in regards to the scope of the disclosure:
In the description unless otherwise indicated, all numbers expressing quantities of dimensions, physical characteristics, and so forth used in the specification and claims are to be understood as being modified in all instances by the term “about”. Accordingly, unless indicated to the contrary, the numerical values set forth in the following specification and claims may vary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained in the present disclosure. At the very least, and not as an attempt to limit the application of the doctrine of equivalents to the scope of the claims, each numerical value should at least be construed in light of the number of reported significant digits and by applying ordinary rounding techniques. Moreover, all ranges disclosed herein are to be understood to encompass the beginning and ending range values and any and all sub-ranges subsumed therein. For example, a stated range of “1 to 10” should be considered to include any and all sub-ranges-between (and inclusive of) the minimum value of 1 and the maximum value of 10; that is, all sub-ranges beginning with a minimum value of 1 or more and ending with a maximum value of 10 or less, e.g., 5.5 to 10. Also as used herein, spatial or directional terms in regards to the position such as “left”, “right”, “inner”, “outer”, “above”, “below”, “top”, “bottom” “over”, “on”, “side”, “front”, “back” and the like have their standard dictionary meanings.
With reference now to the drawings which are for illustrative purposes only,
With reference now to
As shown in
With reference now to
As noted, the nozzle 50 is flexible, thereby allowing the electric broom-like cleaner to retain the favorable flexible bristle quality of an ordinary broom. The nozzle design enables an improved air flow to allow for more effective pick up of dirt and debris. It is also noted that the air flow is biased to one side of the nozzle to allow for improved edge cleaning with use on that designated side. That is why the exit opening 57 is located toward one side edge of the nozzle 50. This can be best seen in
As with the bristles, the nozzle 50 can be cut at an angle ranging from 15-40°. One preferred embodiment has the angle at 30°. This is possible since the nozzle can be made from a resilient plastic material, such as PVC. With the arrangement of the bristle rows and the resilient material of the nozzle, flexibility is provided for the nozzle and cleaning area so that the broom-like cleaner of the disclosure is improved to have the sweeping feel or action more like a normal broom.
In order to ensure that the nozzle does not deform too much upon use of the disclosed cleaner, there are provided nozzle supports or mounting elements 58 and 60 located on the nozzle rear wall 56. These also serve to mount the nozzle to the head 12. Fluidly connected to the nozzle is an air conduit or tube 62. More particularly, and with reference again to
More particularly, the tube outlet end communicates with a dirt cup inlet 72, as best shown in
With reference now to
Improvement to the user interaction of the dirt cup and filter is achieved by providing the dirt cup with a side entry to the main housing of the unit. Also, the release button 106 is conveniently located and is readily accessible, as shown in
Positioning the on/off switch 32 at the top of a handle allows for an easier more intuitive operation of the electric broom-like cleaner 10. It should be apparent from
The combination of the bristles 52 with the nozzle 50, can act somewhat like a squeegee that give the electric broom-like cleaner of the instant disclosure a broom-like sweeping feel. Thus, the consumer has a better, more realistic broom-like action when using the electric broom-like cleaner of the instant disclosure than with prior art designs. It should be appreciated, however, that the bristles 52 could be replaced with foam or the like, as has been used in prior designs.
With reference now to
Claims
1. An electric cleaning apparatus, comprising:
- (a) an elongated handle;
- (b) a housing associated at one end of the handle, comprising: (i) at least one compartment with a suction source; (ii) at least one dust collecting compartment in air flow association with the suction source; and (iii) flexible nozzle including an aperture in air flow association with the dust collecting compartment and suction source where the nozzle is configured for broom-like sweeping action.
2. The electric cleaner of claim 1, where the dust collecting compartment is a dirt cup.
3. The electric cleaner of claim 2 including a dirt cup which is removable via a side opening in a housing of the cleaner.
4. The electric cleaner of claim 2 including a dirt cup and a filter assembly pivotally mounted to the dirt cup.
5. The electric cleaner of claim 1 including a hollow handle and at least one battery mounted in the hollow handle with at least one fuse element.
6. The electric cleaner of claim 1 including a battery compartment in the housing for at least one battery with at least one fuse element.
7. The electric cleaner of claim 1 including at least one row of bristles associated around the flexible nozzle.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 18, 2008
Publication Date: Jun 3, 2010
Inventors: DAVID KHALIL (Highland Heights, OH), David Matthew Collins (Lyndhurst, OH), Suzanne Ponikvar (South Euclid, OH), Greg Pajak (Lakewood, OH), Louis Yip Yuen Cheong (Sha Tin Nt), Zhang Jian Hua (Changsha City), Mark Butts (Akron, OH)
Application Number: 12/338,639
International Classification: A47L 5/24 (20060101);