This application claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 10-2016-0037629, filed on Mar. 29, 2016, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to a suction nozzle apparatus and a cleaner having the same, and more particularly, to a suction nozzle apparatus capable of removing foreign substances caught in a drum brush and a cleaner having the same.
Vacuum cleaners used for convenience of living have become inevitable daily necessity. An area of which foreign substances are attached to a deep inside, for example, such as carpet may be cleaned through such vacuum cleaners. It is difficult to suck the foreign substances attached to the deep inside between piles of the carpet only by simply moving the suction port of the vacuum cleaner to a carpet surface.
Accordingly, drum brushes have been employed in the vacuum cleaners. While the drum brushes rotate, the drum brushes may strike objects of which the foreign substances are attached to the deep inside, for example, carpet and separate the foreign substances from the carpet. The vacuum cleaner may remove the separated foreign substances by sucking the separated foreign substances through suction force.
However, in the drum brushes which have a blade configured of a plurality of piles in outer circumferences of the drum brushes or a blade in which a certain groove is formed, foreign substances may be caught between the piles of the blade or in the groove of the blade and thus may hinder smooth operations of the drum brushes. In response to long foreign substances such as hairs being wound around the blade of the drum brush, the foreign substances may be cumulatively wound and thus the load on the rotation of the drum brush may be increased. Accordingly, it is impossible for the drum brush to operate and it may be difficult for the cleaner to clean a surface to be cleaned such as carpet.
Therefore, there is a dramatic need for developing a new drum brush which foreign substances are not well caught therein and ensures a smooth operation of the drum brush by appropriately removing the caught foreign substances from the drum brush.
Exemplary embodiments may overcome the above disadvantages and other disadvantages not described above. Also, an exemplary embodiment is not required to overcome the disadvantages described above, and an exemplary embodiment may not overcome any of the problems described above.
One or more exemplary embodiments relate to a suction nozzle apparatus which includes a drum brush having a structure that foreign substances are not well caught and a cleaner having the same.
One or more exemplary embodiments relate to a suction nozzle apparatus which ensures a smooth operation of a drum brush by appropriately detaching foreign substances caught in the drum brush from the drum brush and a cleaner having the same.
According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided a suction nozzle apparatus including a casing of which a mounting groove is formed in a bottom surface; a drum brush rotatably coupled to the mounting groove of the casing; and a cutting member configured to remove a foreign substance wound around the drum brush. The drum brush may include a drum core in which at least one foreign substance collecting groove that the foreign substance is wound is formed in an outer circumference and a blade formed in a spiral form in the outer circumference of the drum core.
According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided a cleaner including a main body including a suction source configured to provide suction force and a dust collector configured to collect a foreign substance; and a suction nozzle apparatus having a suction passage coupled to the main body in an inside. The suction nozzle apparatus may include a drum brush including at least one foreign substance collecting groove configured to collect the foreign substance and a plurality of rubber blades coupled in a spiral form to move the foreign substance to the foreign substance collecting groove; and a cutting member configured to remove the foreign substance wound around the foreign substance collecting groove through friction force or heat.
Additional aspects and advantages of the exemplary embodiments are set forth in the detailed description, and will be obvious from the detailed description, or may be learned by practicing the exemplary embodiments.
The above and/or other aspects of the present invention will be more apparent by describing certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Hereinafter, the exemplary embodiments are described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The matters defined in the description, such as detailed construction and elements, are provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of the exemplary embodiments. Thus, it is understood that the exemplary embodiments can be carried out without those specifically defined matters.
Various embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings in which some embodiments are shown. The techniques described herein are exemplary, and should not be construed as implying any particular limitation on the present disclosure. It should be understood that various alternatives, combinations and modifications could be devised by those skilled in the art. In the following description, unless otherwise described, the same reference numerals are used for the same elements when they are depicted in different drawings.
Hereinafter, the exemplary embodiments of a suction nozzle apparatus for a cleaner which overcomes catching of a foreign substance will be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Here, it has been described in the exemplary embodiments that the suction nozzle apparatus is applied to a robot cleaner to assist in a comprehensive understanding of the exemplary embodiments, but this is merely exemplary. Thus, it is understood that the exemplary embodiments can be variously modified as a canister vacuum cleaner, an upright vacuum cleaner, a stick vacuum cleaner, and the like and carried out differently from the exemplary embodiments described herein. However, in the following description, detailed description for the related functions or elements will be omitted when the gist of the inventive concept is unnecessarily obscure due to the detailed description for the related functions or elements.
Referring to
The main body 11 may include a pair of traveling wheels 12 and a driving motor (not shown) configured to drive the pair of traveling wheels 12. The robot cleaner 10 may include a first idle wheel 15 and a pair of second idle wheels 17 provided in a lower portion of a lower casing 113 to be described later in addition to the traveling wheels 12. The first idle 15 may be disposed in a rear center of the lower casing 113 and the pair of second idle wheels 17 may be disposed at both front sides of the lower casing 113.
Referring to
For the convenience of manufacture, an upper casing 111 and the lower casing 113 may be separately manufactured and assembled to the casing 110. However, this is not limited thereto and the upper casing 111 and the lower casing 113 may be manufactured in a single member.
A mounting groove (see 112 of
Referring to
Referring back to
The driving unit 120 may be a driving source configured to rotatably drive the drum brush 140 and may be disposed in the inside of the casing 110. The driving unit 120 may be configured of a motor and may provide power for rotating the drum brush 140 by transferring rotation force to the drum brush 140 through a coupler 145 to be described later.
In response to the negative pressure being formed in the suction passage through the suction motor, the robot cleaner 10 may suck a foreign substance (for example, dust, dirt, and the like) on the surface to be cleaned by inducing air flow due to a pressure difference between the mounting groove 112 and an outer periphery of the mounting groove 112. In general, in response to the foreign substance being attached to a material such as carpet (not shown), it is difficult to suck the foreign substance attached to the deep inside of the carpet only through the air suction. Accordingly, the drum brush 140 may brush the foreign substance attached in the deep inside between a plurality of piles of the carpet to be scattered over the carpet and the scattered foreign substance may be sucked into the suction port 112a in the inside of the mounting groove 112.
Referring to
The drum core 141 may form a rotational center shaft of the drum brush 140 and support the rubber blades 143. For example, a plurality of foreign substance collecting grooves 142 may be formed in the outer circumference of the drum core 141 at a fixed interval. In this example, the plurality of foreign substance collecting grooves 142 may be formed along a circumferential direction of the drum brush 140.
Cutting members may be disposed to correspond to the plurality of foreign substance collecting grooves 142 and gaps (see 133 of
A foreign substance (for example, hair and the like), which rotates together with the drum brush 140, may be wound around the plurality of rubber blades 143 and simultaneously may gradually move toward the gaps 133 formed in the drum brush 140 and the foreign substance may be wound around the plurality of foreign substance collecting grooves 142 and piled in the gaps 133.
Referring to
The number of the plurality of foreign substance collecting grooves 142, depths of the plurality of foreign substance collecting grooves 142, the number of gaps 133, and the interval between the gaps 133 may be variously changed on the design.
The rubber blade 143 may function to strike a cleaning object of which a foreign substance is attached to a deep inside, for example, carpet and scatter the foreign substance. The number of rubber blades 143 may be variously modified within a range of the detailed design.
The rubber blade 143 may be formed in a sheet form in which a groove is not formed. In response to the groove being formed in the rubber blade 143, a foreign substance such as hair may be wound around the rubber blade 143 and thus the hair may be caught in the groove. Accordingly, the hair cumulatively wound around the groove may hinder the rotation of the drum brush 140 and thus may disable the operation of the drum brush 140. To overcome the disadvantage of the drum brush 140, the drum brush 140 in the exemplary embodiment may have the structure that a foreign substance is not be caught by forming the rubber blade 143 in the sheet form in which the groove is not formed. The rubber blade 143 may be formed in a sheet form which is thin and has a relatively large area to effectively strike the structure such as carpet.
One end of the rubber blade 143 may be formed on a surface of the drum core 141 in a spiral form. Accordingly, a foreign substance such as hair may be wound around the rotating rubber blade 143 and simultaneously may move to a length direction of the drum core 141 through the rubber blade 143 formed in the spiral form. The moving foreign substance wound around the rubber blade 143 may reach the gap 133 formed between the drum core 141 and a tip of the cutting member to be wound around the plurality of foreign substance collecting grooves 142 and thus the foreign substance may be grinded and finely cut through the cutting member disposed to correspond to each foreign substance collecting groove 142.
The plurality of rubber blades may be configured of at least two groups disposed at both sides of the foreign substance collecting groove and the rubber blade groups may be formed to have opposite spiral directions to each other to move the foreign substance to the foreign substance collecting groove.
A method of coupling the rubber blade 143 to the drum core may be variously implemented. For example, the spiral foreign substance collecting groove may be formed in the outer circumference of the drum core and then the sheet-shaped rubber blade 143 may be inserted into and coupled to the spiral foreign substance collecting groove. In another example, the rubber blade 143 manufactured in the sheet form may be fixed to the outer circumference of the drum core through hot pressing. In another example, in response to the plurality of rubber blades 143 being formed in the drum core, a rubber blade assembly 149 may be manufactured for manufacturing efficiency. In this example, the rubber blade assembly may be manufactured through injection molding and then assembled by covering the rubber blade assembly on the outer circumference of the drum core along the length direction of the drum core. The coupler 145 may be coupled to one side of the drum core 141. The coupler 145 may transfer the rotation force of the driving unit 120 to the drum core 141.
The bearing 147 may be coupled to the other side of the drum core 141 and the drum core 141 may be rotatably supported through a supporting projection (not shown) protruding in the mounting groove 112.
The drum brush 140 may receive the rotation force through the driving unit 120. In response to a motor 121 being used as the driving unit 120, the motor 121 may accurately control speed and may be environmentally friendly.
In response to a vacuum cleaner being used in an industrial field, the driving unit may receive high-pressure compressed air from an air compressor (not shown) and transfer the rotation force to the drum brush 140.
The motor 121 illustrated in
The suction nozzle apparatus 100 for a vacuum cleaner according to the exemplary embodiment may provide a cutting member which cuts a foreign substance piled in the gap 133 of the drum brush 140. The foreign substance cut through the cutting member may sucked through the suction port 112a formed in one side of the casing 110. Accordingly, even in response to a foreign substance which hinders the rotation of the drum brush 140 such as long wool or hair being piled, the foreign substance may be cut through the cutting member and sucked into the suction port 112a and thus the drum brush 140 may smoothly operate. Accordingly, a foreign substance which is attached to a deep inside of a material such as carpet may also be cleaned.
One end of the rubber blade 143 according to the exemplary embodiment may be formed on the surface of the drum core in a spiral form. While the robber blade 143 formed on the surface of the drum core in the spiral form rotates, a foreign substance such as hair may be wound around the drum core and simultaneously may be moved to a length direction of the drum core. Accordingly, the foreign substance wound around the drum core may reach the gap 133 formed in the drum core and may be cut through the cutting member formed near the gap 133.
To effectively move the foreign substance wound around the rubber blade 143 to the gap 133 formed in the drum core, a projection 115 may be formed in a spiral direction in a surface of the lower casing 113 surrounding the drum brush 140. The formed projection 115 may function to support the rubber blade 143 and guide the rubber blade 143 to the gap 133 formed in the drum core.
Various members as the cutting member configured to cut a foreign substance piled in the gap 133 may be implemented, but a cutting method through grinding and heating may be employed in the exemplary embodiment.
A grinder 150 may be formed to cut a foreign substance through grinding. The grinder 150 may be formed in the surface of the lower casing 113 surrounding the drum brush 140, for example, in a position of the surface which faces the gap 133.
The grinder 150 may be formed of a grind stone, may be formed by performing coating treatment only on a surface, or may be formed by forming a grinding joint on a surface through a rolling process.
Referring to
Referring to
In response to the space being formed to be significantly narrowed, the interference may be caused due to vibration of the grinder 150 and the drum core 141. Accordingly, the space may be formed in a range of 1.5 mm or more.
Appropriate control may be necessary to use the heater 150a as the cutting member. For example, the time that current flows in the heater 150a to cut a foreign substance may be controlled. In another example, an overheating detecting sensor configured to prevent fire due to overheating may be mounted on the heater and power may be controlled to be shut off in response to the overheating being detected.
As described above, the grinder 150 may be formed, for example, on the surface of the lower casing 113. In another example, the grinder 150 may also be formed in an edge portion of the base brush to effectively cut a foreign substance near the edge portion of the base brush 160. In this example, the grinder inserting unit 163 into which the grinder 150 is inserted may be formed in the edge portion of the base brush and the grinder 150 may be installed in the grinder inserting unit 163.
Referring to
The foregoing exemplary embodiments and advantages are merely exemplary and are not to be construed as limiting the present invention. The present teaching can be readily applied to other types of apparatuses. Also, the description of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention is intended to be illustrative, and not to limit the scope of the claims, and many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
10-2016-0037629 | Mar 2016 | KR | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
4802254 | Lahndorff | Feb 1989 | A |
8087117 | Kapoor et al. | Jan 2012 | B2 |
8601643 | Eriksson | Dec 2013 | B2 |
9314140 | Eriksson | Apr 2016 | B2 |
9775477 | Eriksson | Oct 2017 | B2 |
9820626 | Eriksson | Nov 2017 | B2 |
20090229075 | Eriksson | Sep 2009 | A1 |
20140143978 | Li et al. | May 2014 | A1 |
20180070785 | Udy | Mar 2018 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
5-95868 | Apr 1993 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20170280957 A1 | Oct 2017 | US |