Patent Application
20220125267
The present invention relates to a portable cleaner using a battery, in particular to a portable cleaner in which arrangement of air exhaust paths and air exhaust ports is improved.
In a conventional portable cleaner, a motor and a dust collection fan which is rotated by the motor are built in a housing, and in front of the housing, a dust case is disposed which stores powder dust and the like that have been sucked in by the rotation of the dust collection fan. In the dust case, a suction port for sucking the powder dust and the like is arranged, and inside the dust case, a filter device is arranged for capturing only the dust from dust-laden air that has been sucked in. In a part of the housing which accommodates the motor, a handle for a worker to grip with one hand is formed, and on the handle, a switch for starting and stopping the motor is arranged. In the housing, a battery mounting portion for a battery pack to be mounted in is further formed. As this portable cleaner, for example, technology in Patent literature 1 is known.
In the above-described cleaner, if the switch is turned on and the motor is started, the dust collection fan is rotated and a sucking force is generated in the suction port. If the worker starts dust collection work, from the powder-dust-laden air sucked in from the suction port, only the dust is separated by a filter medium of the filter device and stays inside the dust case. The air passing through the filter device is sucked from the dust case into the motor housing in which the dust collection fan is accommodated, flows surrounding the motor, and is discharged to the outside from air exhaust ports which are formed in the motor housing.
In the cleaner, reduction in operation sound, particularly reduction in sound generated from the fan is desirable. In a cleaner in Patent literature 1, the motor is arranged in the neighborhood of the center of a great-diameter portion of the motor housing, and the air exhaust ports, which is used for discharging air exhaust wind passing through the dust collection fan to the outside of the housing, is arranged in the vicinity of the motor in front of the handle. As a method for making the sound caused by the rotation of the fan difficult to transmit to the outside, it is considered that the air exhaust ports are set to be smaller. However, if the air exhaust ports are set to be smaller, the flow rate of air exhaust will be reduced, and dust collection capacity of a cleaner will decrease.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a cleaner which can sufficiently ensure the flow rate of the exhaust air stream, maintain the dust collection capacity, and reduce the noise caused by the exhaust air stream. Another object of the present invention is to provide a cleaner which uses a detachable battery pack and has air exhaust ports formed behind a battery mounting portion. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a cleaner which uses internal spaces of both the battery mounting portion and a handle as wind paths to the air exhaust ports.
Typical characteristics in the invention disclosed in the application are described as follows. According to one characteristic of the present invention, a cleaner has: a cylinder-shaped housing; a motor which is held inside the housing in a way that an output shaft faces the longitudinal direction; a fan which is fixed to the output shaft and is used for generating sucking force; and a battery pack which is fixed to the housing in a freely detachable way and supplies electric power to the motor. The following components are formed in the housing: an air intake port from which an airflow generated by rotation of the fan enters the inside of the housing; air exhaust ports from which the airflow is discharged to the outside of the housing; and a handle which is gripped by a worker. Here, the air intake port is located in front of the motor in the axis direction of the output shaft, the battery pack is located behind the motor in the axis direction, the handle is located behind the motor in the axis direction, and the air exhaust ports are located between the handle and the battery pack. A dust case having a suction port that sucks powder dust is arranged in front of the fan of the housing, and a connection portion to which the battery pack is connected is arranged at the back of the housing. Besides, the air exhaust ports are arranged behind a center position of the battery pack in the axis direction.
According to another characteristic of the present invention, behind the motor in the housing, a substantially D-shaped is formed in a side view. With the D-shaped cavity therebetween, one side (for example, an upper-side) is the handle to be gripped by the worker, and the other side (for example, a lower-side) forms the connection portion for the battery pack. The handle and a back-end of the connection portion are connected. In addition, a space behind the motor of the housing is a first flow path of the airflow for guiding air, which is sucked into the housing from the dust case, to the air exhaust ports by the fan, and an internal space of the handle is a second flow path of the airflow for guiding the air to the air exhaust port by the fan. Furthermore, the handle has a grip portion which extends along the axis direction, and a bent portion which extends intersecting the axis direction and connects the grip portion and the connection portion. The bent portion is arranged in a way that the position of the bent portion in the axis direction overlaps with the air exhaust ports.
According to still another characteristic of the present invention, the grip portion has an operation portion which is operated by the worker to switch the drive of the motor by being operated by the worker, and the operation portion has an operation panel which extends along the axis direction. In addition, a terminal portion which is electrically connected to the battery pack is arranged on the connection portion, and a position of the terminal portion in the axis direction is between the fan and the air exhaust ports. Furthermore, a control circuit substrate that controls the drive of the motor is arranged, and the control circuit substrate is arranged inside the handle in a way that a surface direction is along an axis A1 direction. Moreover, an elastic body may be used which is interposed between the housing and the motor to support a back-end side of the motor. In that case, a size of the elastic body in a radial direction is preferably smaller than a diameter of the motor.
According to still another characteristic of the present invention, auxiliary air exhaust ports are arranged in front of the air exhaust ports of the housing, and a part of the airflow discharged from the fan is discharged to the outside of the housing via the auxiliary air exhaust ports. The auxiliary air exhaust ports are preferably formed in a position in the axis direction that overlaps with the motor.
According to the present invention, in the portable cleaner having the handle, the flow rate of the exhaust air stream can be ensured, sufficient dust collection capacity can be maintained, and the noise caused by the exhaust air stream can be reduced. In addition, the inside of the handle is also utilized as the pathway for air exhaust, and thus even if the diameter of the connection portion on which the battery pack is mounted is not set to be great, sufficient volume of the wind paths can be ensured. Furthermore, because the air exhaust ports exist in the neighborhood of a confluence of the wind paths of the handle and the connection portion, air exhaust efficiency can be improved. In addition, because the terminal portion which is connected to the battery pack is arranged between the fan and the air exhaust ports, the exhaust air stream can flow in the surrounding of the terminal portion which easily generates heat, and temperature rise of the terminal portion can be suppressed.
Hereinafter, examples of the present invention are described based on the drawings. In the following drawings, the same portions are marked with the same signs, and repeated descriptions are omitted. In addition, in the specification, a front-back direction, a left-right direction, and an up-down direction are described as directions shown in the drawings.
The housing 2 is a synthetic-resin molded product and is configured in a two-part format having a division surface in a vertical direction. Left and right components of the housing 2 have a plurality of screw bosses 12a to 12e with screw holes and screw bosses 13a to 13e with female screws (described later in
A penetration portion 7 for the worker to insert four fingers from the index finger to the little finger is formed on a back-side of the housing 2, and has a substantially D-shape which is rotated by 90 degrees in a side view. With the D-shaped cavity (the penetration portion 7) therebetween, one side is the handle 4 to be gripped by the worker, and the other side is a connection portion 5. The handle 4 has a grip portion which extends along an axis A1 direction, and a bent portion which extends intersecting the axis A1 and connects the grip portion and a back-end of the connection portion 5. The bent portion is arranged in a way that the position of the bent portion viewed in the axis A1 direction overlaps with air exhaust ports 30. On an upper surface of the handle 4, an operation panel portion 20 is arranged which has a switch for turning on or turning off of the motor.
On a side-surface of the housing 2, the air exhaust ports 30 are arranged which are used for discharging air that is filtered by a filter device (described later) in powder-dust-laden air that is sucked in via the nozzle 92. The air exhaust ports 30 are a plurality of slits of which the longitudinal direction is obliquely arranged with respect to the axis B1 (or the axis A1 described later in
A battery mounting portion 6 is arranged on a lower surface of the connection portion 5 of the housing 2, and the battery pack 100 is detachably attached to the battery mounting portion 6. The battery pack 100 accommodates a plurality of battery cells inside a case to supply electric power to a motor 40. The battery pack 100 can be mounted by sliding the battery pack 100 toward the front of the housing 2 in the axis A1 direction, and can be detached by pressing a latch button 101 and sliding the battery pack 100 toward the back in the axis A1 direction.
The motor 40 is a direct-current motor having a rotor accommodated inside a motor case made of metal and is referred to as a so-called “casing motor”. Here, the internal structure of the motor 40 is not shown, but the whole motor 40 is covered by a magnetic material approximately forming a circular cylinder shape, for example, 2 to 3 mm wide iron-material, and the case of the motor 40 also serves as a part of stator. A circular-arc-shaped permanent magnet (not shown) is fixed to an inner peripheral sidewall surface of the case, and a stator yoke (described later in
An outer peripheral portion in the neighborhood of a front-end of the motor 40 is held by a motor holder 50 having a circular-cylinder-shaped holding surface (an internal cylinder portion 51 described later in
In the neighborhood of a back-end of the motor 40, a back-side shaft bearing holding portion 46, which has a shape that protrudes in a circular cylinder shape from a back-end surface of the case, is held by a motor back-end holding portion 15 that is formed inside the housing 2. At this time, because a rubber cap 80 which is taken as a second elastic body is mounted on the back-side shaft bearing holding portion 46, the motor 40 is elastically supported by the motor back-end holding portion 15 via the rubber cap 80. The motor back-end holding portion 15 is formed over both the right-side parts and the left-side parts of the housing 2, and has a positional relation of clamping the back-side shaft bearing holding portion 46 of the motor 40. The rubber cap 80 is manufactured by integral molding of a synthetic rubber, and an internal diameter of the rubber cap 80 has a size at which the rubber cap 80 can be mounted on an outer peripheral surface of the back-side shaft bearing holding portion 46.
The fan 65 is fixed to the output shaft (not shown) of the motor 40 and is rotated around the axis A1 in synchronization with the rotation of the motor 40. The fan 65 is a centrifugal fan, sucks a wind from the front-side along the axis A1, and discharges the wind radially outward from the fan 65. As shown by an arrow C1, the air, which is sucked into the dust case 90 from the nozzle 92, flows from the outside to the inside of a filter device 95, and thereby the foreign matter such as garbage, dust, or the like is captured. The air which reaches the inside of the filter device 95 flows into the internal space of the housing 2 from an air intake port 10, reaches a fan room 11a which is taken as the accommodation space of the fan 65, and is sucked in by the fan 65. The air is discharged radially outward from the vicinity of the axis A1 by the fan 65 in the fan room 11a, flows through an outer peripheral side of an external cylinder portion 55 (see
In a conventional cleaner, the flow of the cooling wind is discharged to the outside from air exhaust ports (great air exhaust ports equivalent to auxiliary air exhaust ports 31 in
In the cleaner 1, if a “strong mode” button 21 or a “weak mode” button 22 of the operation panel portion 20 is pressed, electric power of the battery pack 100 is supplied to the motor 40, and the motor 40 is rotated. If an “off” button 23 is pressed during the rotation of the motor 40, the electric power of the battery pack 100 is no longer supplied to the motor 40, and the motor 40 stops. An indicator lamp 24 is arranged adjacent to these three buttons 21 to 23. The indicator lamp 24 turns on during the rotation of the motor 40 and turns off if the “off” switch is pressed and the motor 40 stops.
Because the fan 65 is rotated when the motor 40 is rotated, the air inside the dust case 90 is sucked out, and thereby pressure inside the dust case 90 becomes negative and a sucking force is generated in an air exhaust path 92a. Therefore, air and foreign matters outside the housing 2 are sucked from the suck-in nozzle 92 into the dust case 90. In the example, the fan 65 is rotated, and thereby the airflows C1 and C2 flow. Arrangement of the wind paths of the example has the following characteristics. (1) The main airflow C1 is discharged to the outside via the air exhaust ports 30 which are arranged in the vicinity of the back-end of the housing 2. Therefore, a control circuit substrate 25, which is conventionally accommodated inside the connection room 11c that is the wind path of the airflow C1, is moved directly below the operation panel portion 20. In addition, a size of a terminal holder 8 inside the connection room 11c is reduced to make the air inside the connection room 11c flow smoothly. (2) As the wind path from the motor accommodation room 11b to the air exhaust ports 30, the inner-side space of the handle 4 (the handle space 11d) is used to allow the air to flow as C2. In order to effectively utilize the handle space 11d as the wind path, the thickness of the operation panel portion 20 is reduced by using, as the turn-on/turn-off switches of the motor 40, soft-touch switches (21 to 23) instead of mechanical switches having trigger levers. Furthermore, the control circuit substrate 25 is accommodated in the operation panel portion 20, and the size of the operation panel portion 20 is compactly configured. As can be understood from
As described above, in the example, because not only a shortest pathway (the inner-side of the connection portion 5) from the back of the motor 40 to the air exhaust ports 30 is used as the wind path of a flow as the airflow C1, but also the internal space of the handle 4 is used as the wind path of the airflow C2 which has been sucked in, the wind paths of the cooling wind can be sufficiently ensured even in the cleaner 1 in which the battery pack 100 is mounted below the connection portion 5. Thus, the size of the connection portion 5 is not required to be enlarged. In addition, because outlet ports of the air exhaust are approximately on the back-end of the housing 2, the noise caused by the rotation of the fan 65 can be greatly reduced.
On an inner-side of an opening portion 2a on the front-side of the housing 2, a circular cylinder portion 16 which constitutes an attachment mechanism that attaches the dust case 90 is formed. The circular cylinder portion 16 is formed on the housing 2 side, and the groove portion 16a is formed which extends in the axis direction and a circumferential direction and has an L-shape viewed from the outside in the radial direction. Meanwhile, a convex portion 93 is formed on an inner-side of an opening portion 91 of the dust case 90, and after the convex portion 93 is moved in the axis direction, the inside of the groove portion 16a is rotated by about 120 degrees in the circumferential direction and is held in an engagement position. In addition, the convex portion 93 can be extracted from the groove portion 16a by rotating the dust case 90 centered on the axis B1 with respect to the housing 2. If the convex portion 93 is extracted from the groove portion 16a, the dust case 90 can be detached from the housing 2.
The filter device 95 is arranged on an inner-side of the circular cylinder portion 16. The filter device 95 includes a prefilter and a filter medium (not shown), has a cup-like shape which is configured so as to have air permeability, and is configured in a way that an opening portion of the cup faces the opening portion 2a side of the housing 2. Moreover, the shape of the dust case 90 including the filter device 95 is arbitrary and is not limited to the shape described in the example. In addition, a cyclone dust collection type may be used.
The dust case 90 is a member which is obtained by integrally molding the synthetic resin to a cylinder shape. The dust case 90 has a circular cylinder shape along the axis B1 which is the rotational center for the attachment to the housing 2. The dust case 90 includes the suck-in nozzle 92 on the front-side, and the opening portion 91 that is connected to the opening portion 2a of the housing 2 is formed on the back-side. The dust case 90 is attached to the housing 2 in a way of covering an outer-side of the circular cylinder portion 16 of the housing 2. The suck-in nozzle 92 of the dust case 90 is arranged on a side opposite to the opening portion 91 in the direction along the axis B1. Here, the axis A1 of the motor 40 and the axis B1 of the dust case 90 are configured to be consistent, but the axes A1 and B1 are not required to be consistent, and the axes A1 and B1 may be arranged offset or obliquely facing each other. The suck-in nozzle 92 is a cylinder body which is arranged concentrically with the axis B1, and the suck-in nozzle 92 forms the air exhaust path 92a. The air exhaust path 92a is a pipeline which connects the inside and the outside of the dust case 90 and is a connection portion for connecting an extension pipe (not shown).
The handle 4 is a circular-cylinder-shaped space of which the inside is hollow, and a front-end portion 4a is linked with the motor accommodation portion 3, and thereby the internal space (the handle space 11d) which is continuous from the motor accommodation portion 3 is formed. The back-end portion 4b of the handle 4 is linked with the connection portion 5. The internal space of the handle 4 (the handle space 11d) and the internal space of the connection portion 5 (the connection room 11c) are spatially connected. Viewed in an axis direction of the housing 2, the air intake port 10 is arranged in front of the fan 65, and the air exhaust ports 30 are arranged behind the motor 40. The connection portion 5 is formed to connect the battery pack 100, but in the example, the air exhaust ports 30 are formed in the neighborhood of the back of the connection portion 5. On an outer-side of the battery mounting portion 6, the connection terminal 112 for connection is arranged. If the battery pack 100 is attached to the battery mounting portion 6, the connection terminal 112 comes into contact with the main-body-side terminals 9 which are arranged on the housing 2 side, and thereby electric power is supplied to the motor 40. The motor 40 is formed with an external diameter smaller than the external diameter of the fan 65, and the motor holder 50 is formed with a greatest external diameter greater than the external diameter of the fan 65.
The air exhaust ports 30 are arranged behind the center position of the battery pack 100 in the front-back direction as shown by an arrow 29. According to the configuration, the air exhaust ports 30 are located behind the terminal holder 8, and thus slits which form the air exhaust ports 30 can be obliquely formed in the up-down direction. In addition, viewed in the relation between the air exhaust ports 30 and the grip portion, as shown by an arrow 28, the air exhaust ports 30 are located behind the center position of the grip portion in the front-back direction and are located in a position which overlap with the bent portion in the axis A1.
With regard to the rubber bushes 70, a shape of a cross-section along the circumferential directional which passes through a central point is a shape close to an E-shape, and the rubber bushes 70 are arranged in a way that open parts face the axis A1. In this way, the motor holder 50 is not in contact with the inner-wall surface of the housing 2, and thus no matter which direction the motor holder 50 moves to in the radial direction, the motor holder 50 is elastically held by one to three of the four rubber bushes 70. In addition, due to the characteristic shapes of the rubber bushes 70, a vibration caused by the rotation of the motor 40 in the circumferential direction is formed in a way that an elastic force in the radial direction is weak compared with that in the circumferential direction.
On an outer peripheral portion of the motor holder 50, a plurality of ribs 56 are formed. A central line E1 in a thickness direction of the rib 56 is set to have a positional relation of being inclined with respect to the axis A1 and a perpendicular surface D1. Therefore, the direction of the flow in the circumferential direction which is formed by the rotation of the fan 65 can be guided to a specific direction by the inclination of the plurality of ribs 56, and the flow of the air can be smoothly formed. In the radial direction centering on the axis A1, the protrusion portions 54 are arranged on an inner-side of outer ends of the plurality of ribs 56. Thus, because the protrusion portions 54 does not have to be arranged on an outer-side of the plurality of ribs 56 in the radial direction centering on the axis A1, the size in the radial direction of the housing 2 can be suppressed from being greater. The central line E1 in the thickness direction of the rib 56 of the motor holder 50 extends in a way of being inclined with respect to the axis A1 and being inclined with respect to the perpendicular surface D1 that is perpendicular to the axis A1. The plurality of ribs 56 are parallel to each other.
Behind the ribs 56 (on the motor 40 side), the protrusion portions 54 are arranged on a radially outer side of the support plates 53. The protrusion portions 54 are convex portions which are formed protruding radially outward from the motor holder 50, have plate-like shapes which are long in the axis direction and are thin in the circumferential direction, and are manufactured by integral molding of the synthetic resin along with other parts of the motor holder 50. As seen in the diagram, the external diameter of a circumscribed circle of the plurality of ribs 56 is set to be greater than the external diameter of a circumscribed circle of the plurality of protrusion portions 54. In addition, the plurality of protrusion portions 54 are arranged on the inner-side of the outer ends of the ribs 56 in the radial direction centering on the axis A1. Here, the motor 40 and the motor holder 50 constitute the drive portion, and the drive portion is held on the inner-side of the housing 2. In the present invention, the inserted holes 19a and 19b in which first elastic portions (the rubber bushes 70) are fitted may be formed on one side of the housing 2 or the drive portion, and convex portions may be configured on the other side, but in the example, convex portions (the protrusion portions 54) are formed on the drive portion side and the inserted holes are formed on the housing 2 side.
With regard to the motor holder 50, viewed in the direction along the axis A1, a position which is occupied by the fan 65 in the axis direction does not overlap with a position which is occupied by the protrusion portions 54 in the axis direction. Therefore, because the protrusion portions 54 does not have to be arranged on an outer-side of the fan 65 in the radial direction on the basis of the axis A1, the internal diameter of the housing 2 can be suppressed from being greater, and additionally, a space in which the rubber bushes 70 are arranged can be easily ensured. In addition, the flow of the air from the space on the fan 65 side (the fan room 11a) to the motor accommodation room 11b (see
The housing 2 is configured in a way of being divided to two parts of the right-side part and the left-side part, and the motor holder 50 is clamped and fixed between the right-side part and the left-side part. In addition, an arrangement range of the protrusion portions 54 and an arrangement range of the motor 40 are set to have a positional relation of overlapping with each other in the direction along the axis A1. Thus, the gravity center of the motor 40 and the protrusion portions 54 can be brought as close as possible in the direction along the axis A1, the motor 40 can be stably held, and vibration suppression also has an effective action. In addition, the rubber bushes 70 which are formed by rubber-like elastic bodies are interposed between the protrusion portions 54 and the inserted holes 19a and 19b, and shapes of the rubber bushes 70 are set to be characteristic (described later). Furthermore, the rubber cap (a second elastic member) 80 which is formed by a rubber-like elastic body is interposed between the motor back-end holding portion 15 and the back-side shaft bearing holding portion 46. Thus, the vibration of the motor 40 can be suppressed from being transmitted to the housing 2.
The back-side of the motor 40 is fixed to the motor back-end holding portion 15 via the rubber cap (the second elastic portion) 80 which covers the surrounding of the back-side shaft bearing holding portion 46 (see
In the circumferential direction of the rubber bush 70, elastic regions are formed by arranging the hollow portions 79 which are adjacent to the inserted hole and arranging cavities in the circumferential direction of the elastic body. The hollow portion 79 may be set to have the same shape as the inserted hole 75 viewed in the radial direction. However, if the hollow portion 79 is set to have the same shape, erroneous mounting, in which the protrusion portion 54 is erroneously inserted to the hollow portion 79 instead of the inserted hole 75, may occur in manufacture and assembly process. Therefore, a hindering wall (the link rib 78) is formed so as to divide the hollow portion 79. Long-side sidewall portions 71 are arranged on outer-sides of the rubber bush 70 in the axis direction, and the short-side sidewall portions 72 are arranged on outer-sides in the circumferential direction. By changing thicknesses and angles of the link ribs 78, the elastic deformation amount of the rubber bush 70 to the circumferential direction becomes easy to adjust.
The rubber bush 70 is integrally manufactured by die molding using the synthetic rubber, and in a part having outer edges which are substantially cuboid, four hollow portions 79, which are formed adjacent to the inserted hole 75 and are used for reducing buffer force of the rubber in a specific direction, are molded integrally with the inserted hole 75 of the protrusion portion 54. The rubber bush 70 has a characteristic of reducing the transmission of the vibration which is generated from the motor 40 to the housing 2 via the motor holder 50, and conversely suppressing transmission of a vibration from the housing 2 side to the motor 40. For this object, the natural frequency of a vibration system to be supported by vibration absorption is considered, and the material and the shape are set to be the most suitable. In the example, in order to relieve a sudden change of inertial force to the rotation direction of the motor 40, particularly along with rotation force of the motor 40, a buffer force of the movement to the circumferential direction of the protrusion portions 54 of the motor holder 50 is increased. That is, by forming the hollow portions 79, deformation of the rubber bush 70 to the circumferential direction can be made easy, and great impact energy can be absorbed. In addition, an effect of early attenuating a vibration after the impact of the rubber bush 70 to circumferential direction is enhanced.
Next, a cleaner 1A according to a second example of the present invention is described using
Next, a cleaner 1B according to a third example of the present invention is described using
Inside the housing 2, a wide space which has a great diameter and accommodates the motor 40 and the fan 65, a narrow internal space having a small diameter of the handle 4, and an internal space of the connection portion 5 which is narrow in the up-down direction are arranged, and in the example, the sound absorption material 33 is arranged inside the wide space. The sound absorption material 33 is arranged below the motor 40, and a front-end surface 33b of the sound absorption material 33 is in contact with a back surface of the rib 17c. Viewed in the axis A1 direction, a back-end 33c of the sound absorption material 33 extends backward from a back-end side of the motor 40 and reaches an inner back-end wall of the battery guard 26. The sound absorption material 33 is three-dimensionally molded in a way of corresponding to the internal shape of the housing 2, and is configured in a way of not generating a gap as much as possible between the wall surface and the sound absorption material 33 on a surface which is in contact with the wall surface of the housing 2. However, the shape of the sound absorption material is not limited to a three-dimensional shape. For example, a flat and plate-like sound absorption material may be used, and the sound absorption material may be deformed and crammed inside the housing 2, and thereby no gap may be generated between the housing 2 and the wall surface. The fixing method of the sound absorption material 33 is arbitrary, and the sound absorption material 33 is fixed by being clamped by the right-side part and the left-side part of the housing 2 which is formed in a way of being divided in the left-right direction. Moreover, the sound absorption material 33 may be fixed to the housing 2 not only by clamping the sound absorption material 33, but also by using a bonding agent or a double-sided tape to fix a part of the sound absorption material 33 to an inner-wall portion of the housing 2. Furthermore, one or more ribs may be arranged which extend from a right-side inner-wall surface and a left-side inner-wall surface of the housing 2 to a division surface side, and the rib may be located on an upper-side edge portion of the sound absorption material 33 to limit the movement of the sound absorption material 33 to an upper-side.
After flowing into the housing 2 from the internal space of the dust case 90, the airflow generated by the fan 65 passes through the fan 65 and flows through the outer peripheral portion of the motor holder 50 to a back-side in the axis A1 direction, and the majority of the airflow flows through the connection portion 5 as shown by an arrow 36 to be discharged to the outside from the air exhaust ports 30 (the first flow path). The remaining airflow flows through the inside of the handle 4 as shown by an arrow 38, flows to the connection portion 5 from the back-end portion 4b of the handle 4, and is discharged to the outside from the air exhaust ports 30. Here, viewed in the axis A1 direction, a projection space 35, which is obtained by projecting a cross-sectional surface of the first flow path in the center position of the battery pack 100 in the front-back direction (a location shown by a height H1) upwind long the axis A1, is a range shown by dotted lines. Similarly, a projection space 37, which is obtained by projecting a narrowest portion (a part shown by a height H2 below the operation panel portion 20) of the handle 4 upwind along a central line of the wind path, is a range shown by dotted lines. In the example, the sound absorption material 33 is arranged in a position which does not overlap with the projection space 35, that is, outside (below) the projection space 35. The arrangement relation of the sound absorption material 33 has a positional relation of not overlapping with the projection space 37 either.
An upper-surface 33a viewed in the up-down direction of the sound absorption material 33 is formed in a flat surface, and is set to a position which is approximately the same as the position of an upper-surface of the rib 17c that is formed adjacently. The front-end surface 33b of the sound absorption material 33 is set to be in contact with a back-wall of the rib 17c. Similarly, a back-end surface 33c of the sound absorption material 33 is set to be in contact with a back-side inner-wall surface of the battery guard 26. In this way, the front-side part of the sound absorption material 33 is brought into contact with the rib 17c, and the back-side part is brought into contact with the wall surface of the battery guard 26, and thereby the backward movement of the sound absorption material 33 can be limited. In the example, because the long sound absorption material 33 is arranged in the front-back direction in the neighborhood of a bottom surface of the great-diameter wide space the housing 2, an effective sound absorption effect can be achieved. In addition, because the sound absorption material 33 can be stably held on the inner-wall part of the existing housing 2, assemblability during the manufacture is also excellent. Furthermore, because the upper-surface 33a of the sound absorption material 33 does not protrude to a side closer to the axis A1 than the rib 17c, the airflow flowing backward as shown by the arrow 36 from the motor holder 50 side is not disturbed in the wind path inside the projection space 35 (the first flow path). Furthermore, during the assembly of the housing 2 which is formed in the left-right manner division, the sound absorption material 33 can be stably fixed to the housing 2 only by being attached in an assembly process the same as conventional in which the sound absorption material 33 is mounted from the division surface to one side of the housing and joined and fixed to the housing.
As described above, in the third example, the sound absorption material 33 is arranged in a position which does not overlap with either of the first projection space shown by dotted lines 35 and the second projection space shown by dotted lines 37 (outside the projection spaces 35 and 37), and thus a satisfactory sound absorption effect can be achieved without disturbing the flow of the air inside the housing 2.
In the example, the sound absorption material may be arranged in still another location. The location is a space 34 which is located outside (above) the projection space 37 that is the second flow path. Because the space 34 is a dead space as a flow path, a sound absorption material the same as the sound absorption material 33 may be arranged. Below the space 34, ribs 32 horizontally extend from a left sidewall surface of the housing 2 and from a right sidewall surface, but do not reach the division surface because the protrusion widths of the ribs 32 in the left-right direction are respectively small (see
The internal space of the handle 4 is a space great in a longitudinal direction, but is sufficiently small compared with the first projection space 35 in a transverse direction. That is because the handle 4 is a part for the worker to grip with one hand, and operability will be damaged if the handle 4 is set to be wide. However, the inside of the handle 4 also can be used as the pathway of the air, which has an effect on the widening of the area of the wind path that only uses the first projection space 35, and thus the area of the wind path becomes sufficiently great compared with that in the cleaner in which the inner-side space of the handle 4 is not used as the pathway of the air.
The sound absorption material 33 has a rectangular cross-sectional surface which is orthogonal to the axis A1. Both left and right sides of the bottom surface of the battery guard 26 are formed in circular-arc-shapes, but the sound absorption material 33 is a member such as a sponge having stretchability, and thus corner portions can be easily deformed, and a bottom surface 33d of the sound absorption material 33 can satisfactorily come into close contact with the inner-wall surface of the battery guard 26. Here, on both left and right sides of the battery guard 26, recessed portions 27a and 27b are formed which are recessed inward in curved-surface-like shapes from outer edge portions. By arranging these recessed portions 27a and 27b, inner-wall surfaces, which are in contact with a right-side side-surface 33e and a left-side side-surface 33f of the sound absorption material 33, become approximately vertical, and thus the sound absorption material 33 is satisfactorily in contact with and is clamped by the right-side inner-wall and the left-side inner-wall of the housing 2.
According to the third example, because the sound absorption material 33 is clamped by the housing 2 which is formed in the left-right division type, the sound absorption material 33 can be arranged without changing the conventional assembly process. Moreover, because the sound absorption materials 33 are arranged outside the projection surface of the first flow path (the first projection space 35) and outside the second projection surface 37, the flow of the air inside the housing is not hindered, and thus there is no need for concern about the reduction of work efficiency of the cleaner. In addition, because the sound absorption material 33 is also inexpensive, the increase in the manufacture cost for the implement of the third example can be sufficiently suppressed.
As described above, the present invention is described based on the examples, but the present invention is not limited to the above-described examples, and various changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, the cleaner using the battery pack is taken as an example for description in the above-described examples, but the air exhaust structure of the cleaner according to the present invention can be similarly applied to a cleaner which has a power cord and is driven by a commercial power supply.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-233749 | Dec 2018 | JP | national |
| 2019-048175 | Mar 2019 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2019/046790 | 11/29/2019 | WO | 00 |
