Patent Grant
8627532
This invention relates to the field of pool cleaning devices and more particularly to domestic or industrial swimming pool cleaners.
The swimming pool cleaners currently used for cleaning swimming pools can be divided into the following groups: the wheel type, the roller type, the track type or the hydraulic propulsion type. In general, the cleaning device includes the following parts as illustrated in
A partial vacuum is formed inside the body shell, dirt and debris stirred up by the vehicle enters the cleaner through the water intake port (130), into the filter bag (120), which is typically mounted at the perimeter of the water intake port (130). Dirt and debris is filtered and clean water is returned to the pool through outlet port (140), the known cleaner has a drive assembly including a wheel assembly and/or a roller (170) driven by a motor inside or outside the body shell (100). Alternatively the cleaner is jet propelled by a water pump inside or outside the body shell (100). The pump drives the swimming pool cleaner along the swimming pool floor.
Location of water intake port is a crucial to the cleaner's ability to clean. Typically, the intake port is located at the bottom of the body shell. The clearance between the water intake port and swimming pool floor affects the capability to pick up dirt and debris during cleaning cycle. The water intake port cannot be too high above swimming pool floor or the dirt and debris settled on swimming pool floor will not be picked up by the limited partial vacuum and limited water flow by the water pump.
The swimming pool cleaner can become hung up and not running normally as it moves along the pool surface. Obstacles such as swimming pool main drain present an uneven swimming pool floor surface. If the intake is too low, then it will clearly get hung up on such obstacles.
When such incidences occur, the motor powering the cleaner needs to work hard. The motor is subject to excessive wear and even failure or burn because it runs hard at idle attempting to overcome the obstacle and preventing normal swimming of the cleaner during its cleaning operation. Additionally, the cleaner risks crashing causing premature wear and even failure and promoting a causing higher than necessary defective rate and increased maintenance costs.
As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,930,856 water intake ports are located between the swimming pool cleaner's front and back wheels. A roller embodiment includes a roller located at the middle of a generally flat bottom cleaner with the water intake port in close proximity thereto. However, this design does not ensure that the distance between water intake port and the swimming pool floor will remain unchanged as the swimming pool cleaner runs along the surface of a pool having different pool floor topology. In this cleaner, the distance between water intake port and the swimming pool floor could be too high or too low, when the swimming pool cleaner passes steps or valleys in the pool surface. The ability of the cleaner will be reduced and may prevent dirt and debris from being picked up.
China patent CN03107459.6 discloses a swimming pool cleaner which can overcome the above mentioned problem, as shown in
It is possible for the skirt to become stuck by uneven swimming pool floor. Additionally, the skirt cannot be sealed otherwise dirt and debris or segregates in the water would not be sucked into the cleaner. If the skirt is not sealed, water does not coverage and therefore it does not generate enough partial vacuum and water flow to bring up the dirt and debris and/or segregates through the intakes.
Improvements are needed as existing swimming pool cleaners have short comings and limitations as explained above.
It is an object of the pool cleaning device in accordance with this invention to provide a cleaning vehicle having an intake member and the intake member maintaining, generally an unchanged distance between the intake port and the pool floor.
To achieve the objects of the invention described above and those that will be understood hereinafter, the swimming pool cleaning device in accordance with this invention, comprises:
a vehicle having a body shell with a hollow interior;
the vehicle having at least one inlet port located on the body;
the vehicle having at least one outlet port located on the body;
the vehicle including a drive mechanism; and the intake port being in close proximity to the drive mechanism.
According to swimming pool cleaner of this invention, the intake port has an opening and the opening opens toward the drive mechanism.
According to swimming pool cleaner of this invention, the vehicle includes a plurality of intake ports, each of the intake ports is connected to a filter bag. In one embodiment, there is a single filter bag and multiple intake ports. All intake ports are connected to that single filter bag so that the inlet ports all share the same filter bag.
According to the swimming pool cleaner of this invention, the intake port is located in close proximity to the pool floor.
According to the swimming pool cleaner of this invention, the intake port is located on the shell bottom.
According to the swimming pool cleaner of this invention, the drive mechanism includes two pairs of wheel; one located toward the front of the vehicle, the other pair located toward the rear. The vehicle having water intake ports located in close proximity to the front and rear ends.
According to swimming pool cleaner described in this invention, the body shell bottom is concave inwards.
According to the swimming pool cleaner of this invention, the vehicle includes a guard rail and the water intake port is located on the guard rail proximate to the drive mechanism.
In another embodiment, in accordance with the pool cleaner of this invention, the water intake port forms part of the guard wall.
In another embodiment of the pool cleaner in accordance with this invention, the water intake ports are located on the outside of the vehicle, and away from the bottom of the vehicle.
This invention provides a swimming pool cleaner including intake ports located on the body shell in close proximity to the drive mechanism. In each of the embodiments in accordance with the invention, the drive mechanism defines the contact points between the pool cleaner and the pool floor. Since the intakes are located near the drive mechanism, the floor clearance remains basically unchanged during movement of the vehicle.
The vehicle easily climbs over pool floor obstacles regardless of whether the drive mechanism comprises wheels or rollers or a combination thereof. In an exemplary embodiment, the vehicle has a suspension similar to that of a car. Consequently, the vehicle of this embodiment has lower floor clearance without affecting a vehicle movement and as long as the intakes are is placed close to the wheels a generally constant distant between the intake and the floor is maintained. Since the intakes maintain a constant clearance with the pool surface, less clearance is needed as the vehicle travels around the pool surface. The closer to the pool contact points, the less the necessary clearance.
It is an advantage of the cleaning device in accordance with this invention to provide a vehicle for cleaning pools which allows intakes to be place closer to the pool surface than previously possible.
It is also an advantage to provide such a cleaning device which provides improved ability to pick up dirt and debris as well as segregrates despite pool floor topology. a
To better illustrate the objects and advantages of the roller brush assembly in accordance this invention, a detailed description of the drawing is provided below. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the exemplary embodiments are provided for explanation only and are not to be for purposes of limiting the scope of the invention.
The vehicle also includes a drive mechanism. The drive mechanism includes pairs of wheels or rollers or a combination of wheels and rollers (250) depending on the embodiment herein. In this disclosure the numeral 250 is assigned to both wheels and/or rollers. The vehicle has a horizontal bottom (260) of the body shell (200). The drive mechanism is located generally at the bottom 260.
In this embodiment there are multiple intake ports (230). In this embodiment, the intake ports (230) are located on the bottom (260) and in close proximity to one of the wheels and/or rollers (250). The intake port (230) has an opening facing toward the swimming pool floor when the vehicle is upright. However, in another embodiment, it would be within the spirit and scope of the invention for the intake ports (230) having an opening facing toward the wheels and/or rollers (250).
It will of course be appreciated that an embodiment contemplated having only a single intake port. In this embodiment, there are multiple intake ports. Each of the intake ports (230) feeds into a single filter bag (220). As illustrated, the filter bag (220) is located in the interior of the body shell (200). In other embodiments within the spirit and scope of the invention, the filter bag (220) is located outside the body shell (200) and it is also possible for the vehicle to include a filter bag for each intake port (230) as illustrated in
The water pump (210) is used to discharge water outside the body shell (200). This creates a partial vacuum inside the body shell (200) as well as stirring up water. When the water is stirred up dirt and debris settled on the pool floor rises up. This enables the stirred up dirt and debris to be easily picked up by the water intake ports (230). The picked up dirt and debris is then filtered through the filter bag (220) and trapped therein. The filter bag is mounted on the perimeter of intake ports (230) as shown.
The closer the water intake ports (230) are to the pool floor, the higher will be the water flow rate. Clearly the higher the water flow rate the more effective the cleaner is in sucking up dirt and debris. Since the body shell (200) bottom (260) is close to swimming pool floor, placing the water intake port (230) at body shell (200) bottom (260) helps to improve cleaning power.
Typically the drive mechanism has wheels (250). In one embodiment, the wheels (250) are similar to a tricycle. However, in another embodiment there are two pairs of wheels placed on both ends of vehicle bottom. It is obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art that the vehicle in accordance with this invention includes 3 or more pairs of wheels (250) in another embodiment.
In the embodiment where the cleaner includes only rollers, there are two such rollers (250). In this embodiment, a roller is located at either end of the vehicle. In another embodiment, there are three rollers (250).
In another embodiment, a combination of wheels and rollers (250) are used, In one combination embodiment, there are a pair of wheels and one roller. The wheel pair and roller are located at both ends of the vehicle bottom. Clearly, the vehicle may have additional wheels and/or rollers within the spirit and scope of the invention.
The wheels and/or rollers (250) are driven by motor placed inside or outside the vehicle interior. In another embodiment, the wheels and/or rollers (250) are driven by a water jet. The water pump generates pressurized water and forms a jet stream of water for propulsion. The water pump is located either inside or outside the vehicle. (Not shown in the illustration).
The roller (250) is not limited to cylindrical object across the vehicle. A wheel having circumference in the shape of brush or any device, which stirs up water, for the purposes of this description is also considered a roller (250). It will also be appreciated that the wheels have unlimited width. The wheels can be as wide as the vehicle itself width.
In the cleaner in accordance with this invention, the intake ports (230) are located at or near each wheel or roller (250). In another embodiment, the intake ports (230) are located at or near a certain number of wheels or rollers (250). In another embodiment, there is at least one water intake port (230) on the vehicle bottom (260) and it is located at or near a wheel or roller (250).
Since the wheels and/or rollers (250) of vehicle are the contact points between the cleaner and the pool floor, no matter whether the wheels and/or rollers are power driven, or free rotating, the vehicle will easy climb over obstacles on swimming pool floor. When the vehicle is moving around on different types of pool floor topology, for example steps or valleys, the location of the intake ports close to the swimming pool floor makes it easier for the vehicle in accordance with the invention to pick up dirt and debris and therefore increase the capability of the vehicle clean the pool water.
The intake ports (230) of this embodiment is neither horizontal nor vertical. Since the wheels and/or rollers (250) are normally located near either end of the vehicle bottom (260), the intake ports are consequently located near both ends. The intake ports (260) have more room and therefore bigger water passageway when the water intake ports are neither horizontal nor vertical, for example, when the intake opening faces the front at an angle. This allows bigger particles of debris such as tree nuts to be sucked in through the intake ports. The intake ports are not limited by the narrow space at the lower part of vehicle bottom (260). Each water intake port (230) includes its own filter bag (220) and the filter bag (220) is placed inside the Vehicle. As described above the filter bag (220) can also be placed outside the body shell (200).
While the foregoing detailed description has described several embodiments of the cleaning vehicle in accordance with this invention, it is to be understood that the above description is illustrative only and not limiting of the disclosed invention. It will be appreciated there are also various modifications of the intake ports and their location on the cleaning vehicle are suitable for use in the exemplary embodiments discussed above and that there are numerous embodiments that are not mentioned but within the scope and spirit of this invention. Thus, the invention is to be limited only by the claims as set forth below.
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