BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The present invention will be further described in the following in combination with the exemplary embodiments and with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a front view of a prior art device;
FIG. 2 is a top view of the cylindrical barrel in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the vacuum cleaner of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a front view of the vacuum cleaner in FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is a right view of the vacuum cleaner in FIG. 3;
FIG. 6 is a front view of the separator device of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a top view of the cylindrical barrel of the separator in FIG. 6;
FIG. 8 is an assembly view of the dust-removal device provided with the separator device according to the present invention;
FIG. 9 is an overall view of the dust-removal device provided with the separator device according to the present invention.
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
A preferred embodiment of the present invention is described herein as being used with a vacuum cleaner and in particular with an upright vacuum cleaner. It will be appreciated that the improvements in multi-stage separation described herein may be used with canister vacuum cleaners, back pack vacuum cleaners, central vacuum cleaner systems as well as single and multi-stage separators of any sort, including industrial dust or particle collection systems wherein particles are to be removed from a fluid (i.e. a liquid and/or a gas).
As shown in FIG. 3-5, the upright vacuum cleaner 100 comprises a nozzle 102 for introducing a dust containing air stream, a motor 104 for providing a suction source, a dust separating apparatus 106 for separating coarse and fine contaminants from the dust containing air stream, and a hose 103 connected with the nozzle 102 through the dust separating apparatus 106 for transferring the dust containing air stream. The dust separating apparatus 106 comprises a first cyclone or a first-stage separator 6, a second cyclone or a second-stage separator device 50 and an air flow path (not labeled) extending downstream from the dirty air inlet 60 to the clean air outlet 12 and in flow communication with the motor 104.
As shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, a second-stage separator device 50 for the vacuum cleaner 100, comprises a cylindrical barrel 1 and a conical barrel 2 that are vertically joined together, an exhaust tube 3 coaxially disposed inside the cylindrical barrel 1, and two air inlets 4 that are connected to the side wall of the cylindrical barrel 1. Each of the two air inlets 4 has an involuted central line and a rectangular longitudinal section. The air inlets 4 are disposed on the cylindrical barrel 1 at the same height and staggered 180° in the circumferential direction, with air inlet openings 5 being coaxially disposed in the common plane through the axis line of the cylindrical barrel 1 and orientated opposed from one another.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in the prior art device, the width of the air inlet 4′ is a1 and the height thereof is b, so that the area m1 is equal to a1×b. The area m1 becomes a bottleneck for the device and restricts the air volume, because the area m1 is less than the area π r2 of the exhaust tube 3′, which depends on the structure of the dust cleaner.
As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, in order to increase the air inlet area, the present invention adopts a structure with two air inlets, and the air inlet area m2 is then equal to 2a2×b, which is increased relative to that of the prior art device. At the same time, the outlet of the exhaust tube becomes the bottleneck for the device, if the area m2 is greater than the area π r2 of the exhaust tube. In order to address this situation and ensure the dust-removal efficiency, the air volume of the device can be increased by increasing the diameter of the exhaust tube 3.
In addition, with the same air inlet area and the same height of the air inlets, the width a2 can be reduced, e.g. a2 can be only half of a1. Thus when the dust airflow is sucked into the body of the dust-removal device, it can keep far away from the center and accordingly contribute to improving the dust-removal efficiency.
FIGS. 8 and 9 depict dust-removal devices that are provided with the separator device according to the present invention. These devices include a dust separating apparatus mounted with a second-stage separator device 50 with a pair of air inlets 4 according to the present invention. The devices further include a cylinder tank 6 with a cover lid 10, a cylindrical barrel 1 and a conical barrel 2 both of which are mounted within the cylinder tank 6. A dust collector 7 located below the conical barrel 2 is also provided within the cylinder tank 6. A cylinder filter cover 9, also referred to as a prefilter that has a plurality of pores 90 formed on the outer periphery thereof is coaxially arranged outside of the cylindrical barrel 1. The cylindrical barrel 1 and the cylinder filter cover or prefilter 9 are covered by a top cover 8 on which the exhaust tube 3 is provided. Additionally, a third filter 11, such as a piece of sponge, for further filtering the air is disposed on the top cover 8 for covering the exhaust tube 3 and for filtering the air flow before flowing out through the outlet 12 on one side of the cover lid 10.
In operation, a dust containing air stream may be introduced into the cylinder tank 6 by any means known in the art from a tangential inlet 60 thereon, and is filtered initially by the prefilter 9. Because the coarse contaminants can not enter into the pores 90 of prefilter 9, coarse contaminants drop downwardly while the air stream with the fine contaminants enters into the pores 90. The air stream with fine contaminants entrained therein enters into the cylindrical barrel 1 through the tangential air inlet 4 and is subjected to secondary filtration in the conical barrel 2 which has an upper end and a lower end wider than the upper end to separate fine contaminants not separated by the prefilter 9 as the air stream moves upwardly through exhaust tube 3. The filter 11 disposed on exhaust tube 3 will provide a third filtering stage for the air stream being about to be guided into the motor 104 of the vacuum cleaner 100 and lastly discharged into the atmosphere.
In this embodiment in which pair of air inlets 4 are provided in the dust separating apparatus 106, more air inlets can also be provided for further increasing the flow amount to meet variable requirements.
The present invention can be applied to various types of the vacuum cleaners, and particularly, to cyclonic vacuum cleaners so that convenience of use can be further improved.
It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
Patent Application
20070234687
