Vacuum cleaner

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10376116-B2
Application number	US-201715790372-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 23, 2017
Priority date	Jul 12, 2017
Publication date	Aug 13, 2019
Grant date	Aug 13, 2019

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a vacuum cleaner for separating and collecting dust and other contaminants by using a multi-cyclone and a mesh filter, including a cleaning unit for sweeping dust and foreign materials attached to the mesh filter along an outer circumferential surface of the mesh filter, and a rotation unit coupled to the cleaning unit for rotating the cleaning unit relative to the mesh filter, whereby the cleaning unit can clean a surface of the filter automatically or manually during an operation of the cleaner, so that the filter surface can be kept clean, and a load on a fan unit caused due to foreign materials or dust can be reduced.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A cleaner, comprising:
a cleaner body; and
a dust collector provided in the cleaner body, wherein the dust collector includes:
an outer case having a dust storage chamber therein;
an upper cover mounted in an upper opening of the outer case;
a lower cover mounted in a lower opening of the outer case;
a first cyclone provided inside the outer case the first cyclone and having a mesh filter configured to remove first materials from suctioned air and to introduce filtered air within the first cyclone;
a second cyclone provided in the first cyclone, and configured to separate second materials from the air introduced into the first cyclone;
a cleaning rib positioned adjacent to a horizontal surface of the mesh filter; and
a rotation cylinder coupled to the cleaning rib and configured to rotate such that the cleaning rib is moved along the horizontal surface of the mesh filter to remove first materials from the horizontal surface of the mesh filter,

wherein the first cyclone includes a housing formed in a cylindrical shape to surround the second cyclone,
wherein the mesh filter is provided with a plurality of through holes, and extends in a radial direction from an upper surface of the housing, and
wherein the cleaning rib is included in a plurality of cleaning ribs protruding in the radial direction from an upper portion of the rotation cylinder to be positioned adjacent to the horizontal surface of the mesh filter, and wherein plurality cleaning ribs, when moved by the rotation cylinder, cause first materials attached to the mesh filter to drop in a downward direction to the dust storage chamber.

2. The cleaner of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of through holes are formed to penetrate vertically into the mesh filter, and a moving direction of air introduced through the through holes is parallel to an axial direction of the outer case.

3. The cleaner of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of cleaning ribs is inclined so as to be gradually thinner toward outside in the radial direction away from the rotation cylinder.

4. The cleaner of claim 1 , wherein the rotation cylinder includes:
a rotating cylinder wall extending from an inner end portion of each of the cleaning ribs toward the lower cover; and
a rotating skirt wall having an inclined surface that includes a top edge coupled to the rotating cylinder wall and a diameter that gradually increases in a downward direction from the top edge.

5. The cleaner of claim 4 , wherein the inclined surface of the rotating skirt wall faces and is vertically spaced apart from the mesh filter.

6. The cleaner of claim 4 , further comprising an inner case provided within the outer case so as to cover a bottom surface of the first cyclone, and provided with a tapered wall with a cross-sectional area that is reduced from an upper end to a lower end thereof,
wherein the rotation cylinder includes:
a rotating inclined wall coupled to a lower edge of the rotating cylinder wall and shaped to correspond to the tapered wall; and
a rotating base wall extending downward from a lower edge of the rotating inclined wall, and having coupling grooves formed on an inner circumferential surface thereof that are spaced apart from one another in a circumferential direction, wherein the rotation cylinder is coupled to and is rotatable relative to the inner case.

7. The cleaner of claim 6 , wherein the rotation cylinder further includes:
a pressing wall protruding radially from the rotating base wall toward the rotating skirt wall to press first materials in the dust storage chamber.

8. The cleaner of claim 6 , wherein the rotation cylinder further includes a rolling ribs extending in the radial direction between the rotating base wall and the rotating skirt wall to contact first materials in the dust storage chamber.

9. The cleaner of claim 6 , further comprising:
a driving motor provided in the cleaner body to generate a driving force,
a driving gear connected to the driving motor and transferring the driving force to the rotation cylinder.

10. The cleaner of claim 9 , further comprising:
a driven gear mounted on the lower cover so as to be exposed to a lower portion of the lower cover, and engaged with the driving gear when the dust collector is mounted on the cleaner body; and
a coupling gear coupled to the driven gear so as to be exposed to an upper portion of the lower cover, and engaged with coupling grooves when the lower cover is coupled to the outer case.

11. A cleaner, comprising:
a cleaner body;
a dust collector provided in the cleaner body, wherein the dust collector includes:
an outer case having a dust storage chamber therein;
an upper cover mounted in an upper opening of the outer case;
a lower cover mounted in a lower opening of the outer case;
a first cyclone provided inside the outer case the first cyclone and having a mesh filter configured to remove first materials from suctioned air and to introduce filtered air within the first cyclone;
a cleaning rib positioned adjacent to a horizontal surface of the mesh filter; and
a rotation cylinder coupled to the cleaning rib and configured to rotate such that the cleaning rib is moved along the horizontal surface of the mesh filter to remove first materials from the horizontal surface of the mesh filter;

a driving motor provided in the cleaner body to generate a driving force to rotate the rotation cylinder;
a driving gear connected to the driving motor and transferring the driving force to the rotation cylinder; and
a gear that extends through the lower cover to transfer the driving force from the driving gear to the rotation cylinder, wherein the gear includes
a driven gear mounted on the lower cover so as to be exposed to a lower portion of the lower cover, and engaged with the driving gear when the dust collector is mounted on the cleaner body; and
a coupling gear coupled to the driven gear so as to be exposed to an upper portion of the lower cover, and engaged with an interior surface of the rotation cylinder, and

wherein coupling grooves are formed on the interior surface of the rotation cylinder, and the coupling gear engages the coupling grooves when the lower cover is closed on the lower opening of the outer case.

12. The cleaner of claim 11 , wherein the first cyclone includes a housing formed in a cylindrical shape, and
wherein the mesh filter extends in a radial direction from an upper surface of the housing, and a moving direction of air introduced through the mesh filter is parallel to an axial direction of the outer case.

13. The cleaner of claim 11 , further comprising:
a second cyclone provided in the first cyclone, and configured to separate second materials from the air introduced into the first cyclone through the mesh filter.
an inner case provided within the outer case so as to cover a bottom surface of the first cyclone to define a fine dust storage chamber to receive the second materials.

14. The cleaner of claim 13 , wherein the lower cover is hingedly connected to the outer case such that rotating the lower cover to expose the lower opening concurrently opens both the dust storage chamber and the fine dust storage chamber.

15. The cleaner of claim 13 , wherein the second cyclone includes:
a plurality of casings each having a conical shape,
wherein one or more of the casings contact an inner surface of the first cyclone, and the plurality of casings define a first space forming a flow path for guiding air introduced in the first cyclone to the second cyclone.

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Hyun Kietak
• Ko Jungmin
• Eo Soohan

Classifications

• A47L9/1675

  movable, revolving or rotary · CPC title

• B01D46/106

  Ring-shaped filtering elements · CPC title

• B01D2279/55

  for cleaning appliances, e.g. suction cleaners · CPC title

• B01D46/10

  Particle separators, e.g. dust precipitators, using filter plates, sheets or pads having plane surfaces · CPC title

• A47L5/362

  of the horizontal type, e.g. canister or sledge type · CPC title