Patent Application
20250213085
The present invention generally relates to a dustpan. More specifically, the present invention relates to a dustpan apparatus integrated with vacuum assembly.
In numerous work settings, including hair salons, wood shops, assembly areas, and households, the regular cleaning tasks often involve sweeping with a broom or a vacuum cleaner. These locations, characterized by hard floor surfaces, tend to accumulate materials like hair, sawdust, and various debris that necessitate periodic collection by sweeping them into a dustpan. The manual sweeping procedure involves gathering debris into piles and using a dustpan to transfer it to a waste container, often involving repetitive bending and occasionally leaving residual debris due to the challenge of thorough collection. Subsequently, the dustpan contents are emptied into a waste container. However, this process demands significant time and physical exertion.
To enhance the efficiency of collecting dust and debris from hard surfaces, various vacuum devices are available, including automatic vacuum apparatus or wheeled house vacuum cleaners, which typically demand more maintenance and support. Consequently, there's a growing demand for continuous enhancements and alternative designs aimed at improving hand vacuums and dustpans.
Further, a few patent references related to dustpan are discussed as follows. U.S. Pat. No. 7,412,749 of Joyce Thomas et al. entitled “vacuum cleaner and floor dustpan system” discloses a vacuum cleaner with a self-cleaning filter and a sweeper stand that also functions as an electric dustpan when the vacuum is seated within the sweeper stand. The vacuum includes a housing having an air inlet at one end of the housing and a handle at the other end of the housing. An air passageway includes a deflector to direct dirt into a dirt collection tray which is pivotably mounted to the housing. A filter mounted on the motor divider wall and a filter cleaning arch mounted on the dirt collection tray so that the filter cleaning arch strikes the filter to dislodge dirt collected on the filter as the dirt collection tray pivots open. The sweeper stand includes a housing for receiving the hand vacuum, an opening for directing dirt laden air into an air inlet of the hand vacuum. Power switches to actuate the hand vacuum when the hand vacuum is seated in the sweeper stand are provided.
US20060026790 of Alexander Consilvio entitled “dustpan with miniature on-board vacuum” discloses a dustpan commonly used for removal of loose dirt, sand, sawdust, etc. with a small vacuum built into the handle or dustpan housing and a hose or conduit running from the vacuum to the lip of the dustpan.
Despite the extensive range of hand vacuums and dustpans in the market, there exists a need to provide continued improvements and alternative designs to improve hand vacuums and dustpans that are economical to use, simple in design and easy to operate.
The present invention discloses a dustpan apparatus integrated with a vacuum assembly. The apparatus comprises a dust collector assembly and a handle.
The dust collector assembly comprises a top wall, a bottom wall and a rear wall. At least a portion of a periphery of the top wall, the bottom wall and the rear wall adjoins to define a vacuum housing having a front suction inlet. Further, the top wall has a dust pan configuration. The top wall extends beyond an end portion of the bottom wall and terminates at an angle downwards with respect to the bottom wall to form a beveled edge. The beveled edge, facilitate to sweep dust over the dust pan configuration with ease. The handle extends from the rear wall of the dust collector assembly in substantially a C-shaped configuration.
The apparatus further comprises a motor assembly in fluid communication with the suction inlet of the vacuum housing, and a filter assembly disposed between the vacuum housing and the motor assembly. The apparatus further comprises a motherboard connected to the motor assembly. The motor assembly is disposed within the handle. The motor assembly is configured to generate an air stream from the suction inlet to the vacuum housing, thereby enabling suction of debris via the suction inlet.
The apparatus further comprises a rechargeable power source assembly configured to supply power to the apparatus. The power source assembly is disposed as a portion of the handle and configured to detach from the handle. The power source assembly is connected to the motherboard and the motor assembly. The power source assembly comprises a housing, a power source disposed within the housing, at least one AC to DC transformer and one or more electrical connectors extending from an exterior side of the housing. The electrical connector is movable between an extended position and a storage position. The electrical connector is configured to rest in a groove defined on the housing in the storage position, and the electrical connector is configured to pivotally move away from the groove to the extended position. The power source assembly comprises a tap extending from the housing. The tab enables to detach the power source assembly from the handle.
In one embodiment, a portion of the bottom wall defined as a detachable base. Further, the rear wall comprises an opening. The filter assembly is removably disposed at the opening. The filter assembly is configured to slide and detach from the rear wall after removal of the base.
The handle comprises a front portion attached to the rear wall of the dust collector assembly. The front portion of the handle comprises a plurality of apertures configured to fluidly connect the motor assembly to the vacuum housing.
The apparatus further comprises one or more indicators configured to indicate a capacity of the power source and charging status of the power source. The apparatus further comprises a floor grip disposed at a base of the handle configured to provide grip while the apparatus is placed on a surface. The apparatus further comprises a switch connected to the motherboard to enable to control an operation of the apparatus. The switch is disposed at a top portion of the handle.
The above summary contains simplifications, generalizations and omissions of detail and is not intended as a comprehensive description of the claimed subject matter but, rather, is intended to provide a brief overview of some of the functionality associated therewith. Other systems, methods, functionality, features and advantages of the claimed subject matter will be or will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed written description.
The description of the illustrative embodiments can be read in conjunction with the accompanying figures. It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements are exaggerated relative to other elements. Embodiments incorporating teachings of the present disclosure are shown and described with respect to the figures presented herein, in which:
A description of embodiments of the present invention will now be given with reference to the Figures. It is expected that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive.
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The power source assembly 118 comprises a housing 136 and a power source 138 disposed within the housing 136. In one embodiment, the power source 138 is a lithium-ion battery. In another embodiment, the power source 138 is a 12V lithium-ion battery.
The apparatus 100 further comprises AC to DC transformer 140. In another embodiment, the apparatus 100 comprises any electrical system to convert AC power to DC power, for example, a rectifier, inverter and other suitable equipment. Alternatively, the motor assembly 126 may be selected so that it is directly compatible with AC and DC power sources, such that the transformer 140 to feed DC power to the motor assembly 126 is not needed. The power source assembly 118, the motor assembly 126, the vacuum housing 112, motherboard 128 and the filter assembly 142 together defines the vacuum assembly.
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Further, one or more electrical connectors 148 are disposed at an exterior side of the housing 136. The electrical connector 148 enables to plug in the power source assembly 118 to an electrical socket and recharge the power source 138. The electrical connector 148 is pivotably movable between an extended position and a storage position. The electrical connector 148 is configured to rest in a groove 150 defined on the exterior side of housing 136 in the storage mode, and the electrical connector 148 is configured to pivotally move away from the groove 150 to the extended position.
During use, the apparatus 100 placed near the garbage to sweep the easily collectable garbage over the dust pan configuration. The placement of the motor assembly 126 at the handle 104 increases the pressure underneath the floor grip 152 or the apparatus 100, which allows to sweep without holding the apparatus 100. Thereafter, the last line of dust from the garbage could be collected using the vacuum assembly. The user could hold the apparatus 100 proximal to the last line of the dust. Further, the user could push the switch 120 at the handle 104 to create suction current. On placing the beveled edge or the suction inlet 114 over the dust, the suction current pushes the dust into the vacuum housing 112. Then, the dust and the garbage could be emptied from the apparatus 100.
Advantageously, the apparatus 100 allows the user to collect the last line of dust using the vacuum assembly without having to sweep countless times. The apparatus 100 transforms the traditional dustpan and broom routine into an effortless, simple task. Further, the design of the apparatus 100 enables the user to place the apparatus 100 on the surface to sweep and collect the debris without requiring to hold the handle 104 of the apparatus 100. The detachable feature of the power source assembly 118 enables the user to easily recharge the power source 138, without the need to carry and position the whole apparatus 100 at the charging socket.
While the disclosure has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the disclosure. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular system, device or component thereof to the teachings of the disclosure without departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the disclosure not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed for carrying out this disclosure, but that the disclosure will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims. Moreover, the use of the terms first, second, etc. do not denote any order or importance, but rather the terms first, second, etc. are used to distinguish one element from another.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
The description of the present disclosure has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the disclosure in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the disclosure. The described embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the disclosure and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the disclosure for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
