The disclosure relates to an air pump, and more particularly to an electric-driven air pump.
A conventional electric-driven air pump, such as the one disclosed in US Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0115073 A1, includes a head having a cylinder chamber, a body connected axially to the head, a motor installed within the head, a set of bevel gears driven by a shaft of the motor, and a piston assembly having linkage with the set of bevel gears. The set of bevel gears includes a small bevel gear connected to the shaft, a large bevel gear that is meshed with the small bevel gear, and a driving crank eccentrically connected to the large bevel gear. The driving crank, powered by the motor, drives reciprocal motion of the piston assembly to draw in and push air in and out of the cylinder chamber.
In order to ensure that there is enough transmission power in the air pump, the radius of the bevel gears cannot be too small. Likewise, the radius of the head and the body cannot be too small either in order to accommodate the bevel gears inside a chamber of the head. In addition, utilizing beveling gears for power transmission tends to produce grinding noise as well.
Therefore, an object of the disclosure is to provide an electric-driven air pump that can alleviate at least one of the drawbacks associated with the abovementioned prior art.
The electric-driven air pump is adapted to inflate an inflatable object and includes an outer housing unit, an electric-driven mechanism, and a piston mechanism. The outer housing unit includes a connecting seat, which includes a gas outlet section adapted to be connected to the inflatable object, and a cylinder having a cylinder chamber. The gas outlet section includes a valve-controlled air passage that is spatially communicated with the cylinder chamber. The electric-driven mechanism is mounted to the outer housing unit and includes a motor. The piston mechanism includes a driven piston, a threaded driving rod, and a guide pin. The driven piston is disposed in the cylinder chamber. The threaded driving rod is rotated by the motor, is connected to the driven piston in such a manner that rotation of the threaded driving rod drives reciprocal movement of the driven piston in the cylinder chamber, and is formed with a helical guide slot. The guide pin is fixed in the driven piston and extends into the helical guide slot. The motor is operable to rotate the threaded driving rod to drive reciprocal motion of the driven piston in the cylinder chamber, such that the guide pin moves along the helical guide slot.
Other features and advantages of the disclosure will become apparent in the following detailed description of the embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:
Before the disclosure is described in greater detail, it should be noted that where considered appropriate, reference numerals or terminal portions of reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements, which may optionally have similar characteristics.
Referring to
The outer housing unit 2 includes a connecting seat 20, an extending tube member 21 and an end cover 22. The extending tube 21 includes a first tube end 211 and a second tube end 212 opposite to the first tube end 211 in a longitudinal direction 26. The connecting seat 20 is mounted to the first tube end 211, while the end cover 22 is removably and threadably engaged to the second tube end 212 opposite to the connecting seat 20. Collectively, the extending tube member 21, the end cover 22 and the connecting seat 20 define a receiving space 23 therebetween. The end cover 22 includes a first switch hole 221 and a first charge hole 222.
The connecting seat 20 is registered with and connected to the extending member 21 in the longitudinal direction 26. In this embodiment, the connecting seat 20 is threadably engaged to the extending member 21. The connecting seat 20 includes a gas outlet section 24 that is threadably engaged to the first tube end 211 of the extending member 21 and a cylinder 25 that extends from the gas outlet section 24 toward the end cover 22 in the longitudinal direction 26.
Referring to
Referring to
The piston mechanism 4 is received in the receiving space 23, and includes a driven piston 41, a threaded driving rod 42, and a guiding component 43. The driven piston 41 includes a surrounding wall 411 that extends in the longitudinal direction 26, an end wall 412 that is connected to an end of the surrounding wall 411 and extends into the cylinder chamber 252, a receiving room 413 that is defined by the surrounding wall 411 and the end wall 412 and receives the threaded driving rod 42, a positioning protrusion 415 protruding from the surrounding wall 411 into the longitudinal slot 253 of the connecting seat 20, and an assembling hole 416 extending through the positioning protrusion 415 and the surrounding wall 411 in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction 26. The end wall 412 includes a flange 417 and two gaps 418 that extend through the flange 417. The piston mechanism 4 further includes a leakproof ring 44 that is mounted inside a groove of the flange 417.
The threaded driving rod 42 includes a shaft hole 421 that allows the shaft 311 of the motor 31 to be inserted therethrough, a rod surface 422 surrounding the shaft hole 421, and a helical guide slot 423 formed on the rod surface 422. The helical guide slot 423 includes a starting slot section 424, an ending slot section 425 that is opposite to the starting slot section 424 in the longitudinal direction 26, a first guiding slot section 426 that extends helically from the starting slot section 424 to the ending slot section 425, and a second guiding slot section 427 that extends helically from the ending slot section 425 to the starting slot section 424. In this embodiment, each of the first and second guiding slot sections 426, 427 has at least two helical turns around the threaded driving rod 42, and the first and second guiding slot sections 426, 427 partially intersect with each other.
The guiding component 43 is utilized to transfer the rotational force of the threaded driving rod 42 into the reciprocal movement of the driven piston 41 in the cylinder chamber 252, and includes a guide pin 431 that is fixed in the assembling hole 416 of the driven piston 41 and that extends into the helical guide slot 423, and a fixing block 432 that fixes the guide pin 431 onto the assembling hole 416. In this embodiment, the fixing block 432 is threadably fixed to the positioning protrusion 415, but is not limited to such.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
During the position switching, air stored within the cylinder chamber 252 would be pushed by the driven piston 41 to build up an air pressure large enough to overcome the biasing force of the resilient member 53 on the moving valve seat 52, such that the resilient member 53 is compressed to open the shrunk section 244 to allow for spatial communication between the outlet passage 511 of the fixed valve seat 51 and the cylinder chamber 252 of the cylinder 25, further allowing the inflatable object to be inflated.
Likewise, when the threaded driving rod 42 continuously rotates, the guide pin 431 moves along the second guiding slot section 427 from the ending slot section 425 to the starting slot section 424, simultaneously pulling the driven piston 41 toward the motor 31. At this time, outside air would be drawn into the cylinder chamber through the gap 418. When the guide pin 431 returns to the starting slot section 424, the electric-driven air pump returns to the default position. The reciprocal motion of the driven piston 41 would slowly drive the air into the inflatable object. In this embodiment, the threaded driving rod 42 rotated twice to switch between the positions.
Referring to
Referring to
The electric driving mechanism 3, in addition to having the motor 31, the power supply module 32 and the controlling module 33, further includes a pressure sensor 34. The motor 31 and the power supply module 32 have same configuration as that in the first embodiment, while the controlling module 33 is covered by the head cover 27 and includes the circuit board 331, the control button 332 and the control switch 333. The circuit board 331 corresponds in position to the second switch hole 271 and includes a charge socket 334 that corresponds in position to the second charge hole 272. The pressure sensor 34 includes a pressure sensing member 341 that is disposed in the sensor-receiving air passage 248 and that is electrically connected to the circuit board 331.
In addition to having the same functionality as the first embodiment, the third embodiment bears an advantage in automatic sensing, in which the electric-driven air pump is able to cease the pumping function automatically through the circuit board 331. Whenever the pressure sensing member 341 detects specified amount of pressure within the valve-controlled air passage 243, the circuit board 331 would power off the motor 31 promptly, preventing unintentional buildup of the pressure that may cause harm to a user.
Overall, the embodiment utilized the guide pin 431 to transfer the rotational force from the threaded driving rod 42 into the reciprocal motion of the driven piston 41, removing the disadvantage associated with and the need for bevel gears.
In the description above, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details have been set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that one or more other embodiments may be practiced without some of these specific details. It should also be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” an embodiment with an indication of an ordinal number and so forth means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic may be included in the practice of the disclosure. It should be further appreciated that in the description, various features are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of various inventive aspects.
While the disclosure has been described in connection with what are considered the exemplary embodiments, it is understood that his disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiments but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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5518375 | Vandromme et al. | May 1996 | A |
20040115073 | Lin | Jun 2004 | A1 |
20150322935 | Wang | Nov 2015 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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101063445 | Oct 2007 | CN |
2205361 | Dec 1988 | GB |
5893972 | Jun 1983 | JP |
2004232609 | Aug 2004 | JP |
2007291910 | Nov 2007 | JP |
Entry |
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Search Report appended to a Taiwan Office Action issued in corresponding application TW106127111 dated Feb. 27, 2018, 2 pages. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20190120216 A1 | Apr 2019 | US |